What if Jesus Really Meant All That Stuff

The following is an article from Shane Claiborne (from esquire.com)
If you have not read this...you need to.

To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.

Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.
The other night I headed into downtown Philly for a stroll with some friends from out of town. We walked down to Penn's Landing along the river, where there are street performers, artists, musicians. We passed a great magician who did some pretty sweet tricks like pour change out of his iPhone, and then there was a preacher. He wasn't quite as captivating as the magician. He stood on a box, yelling into a microphone, and beside him was a coffin with a fake dead body inside. He talked about how we are all going to die and go to hell if we don't know Jesus.

Some folks snickered. Some told him to shut the hell up. A couple of teenagers tried to steal the dead body in the coffin. All I could do was think to myself, I want to jump up on a box beside him and yell at the top of my lungs, "God is not a monster." Maybe next time I will.

The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination. But over the past few decades our Christianity, at least here in the United States, has become less and less fascinating. We have given the atheists less and less to disbelieve. And the sort of Christianity many of us have seen on TV and heard on the radio looks less and less like Jesus.

At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, "I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ." A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here is a bit of an image crisis, and much of that reputation is well deserved. That's the ugly stuff. And that's why I begin by saying that I'm sorry.

Now for the good news.

I want to invite you to consider that maybe the televangelists and street preachers are wrong — and that God really is love. Maybe the fruits of the Spirit really are beautiful things like peace, patience, kindness, joy, love, goodness, and not the ugly things that have come to characterize religion, or politics, for that matter. (If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice.)

The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it... it was because "God so loved the world." That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. I did not choose to devote my life to Jesus because I was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven... but because he is good. For those of you who are on a sincere spiritual journey, I hope that you do not reject Christ because of Christians. We have always been a messed-up bunch, and somehow God has survived the embarrassing things we do in His name. At the core of our "Gospel" is the message that Jesus came "not [for] the healthy... but the sick." And if you choose Jesus, may it not be simply because of a fear of hell or hope for mansions in heaven.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe in the afterlife, but too often all the church has done is promise the world that there is life after death and use it as a ticket to ignore the hells around us. I am convinced that the Christian Gospel has as much to do with this life as the next, and that the message of that Gospel is not just about going up when we die but about bringing God's Kingdom down. It was Jesus who taught us to pray that God's will be done "on earth as it is in heaven." On earth.

One of Jesus' most scandalous stories is the story of the Good Samaritan. As sentimental as we may have made it, the original story was about a man who gets beat up and left on the side of the road. A priest passes by. A Levite, the quintessential religious guy, also passes by on the other side (perhaps late for a meeting at church). And then comes the Samaritan... you can almost imagine a snicker in the Jewish crowd. Jews did not talk to Samaritans, or even walk through Samaria. But the Samaritan stops and takes care of the guy in the ditch and is lifted up as the hero of the story. I'm sure some of the listeners were ticked. According to the religious elite, Samaritans did not keep the right rules, and they did not have sound doctrine... but Jesus shows that true faith has to work itself out in a way that is Good News to the most bruised and broken person lying in the ditch.

It is so simple, but the pious forget this lesson constantly. God may indeed be evident in a priest, but God is just as likely to be at work through a Samaritan or a prostitute. In fact the Scripture is brimful of God using folks like a lying prostitute named Rahab, an adulterous king named David... at one point God even speaks to a guy named Balaam through his donkey. Some say God spoke to Balaam through his ass and has been speaking through asses ever since. So if God should choose to use us, then we should be grateful but not think too highly of ourselves. And if upon meeting someone we think God could never use, we should think again.

After all, Jesus says to the religious elite who looked down on everybody else: "The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom ahead of you." And we wonder what got him killed?

I have a friend in the UK who talks about "dirty theology" — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits in it, and wipes it on a blind man's eyes to heal him. (The priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day.)

In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay "out there" but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, "Nothing good could come." It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society's rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.

It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors... a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.

In closing, to those who have closed the door on religion — I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, "I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you." If those of us who believe in God do not believe God's grace is big enough to save the whole world... well, we should at least pray that it is.

Your brother,
Shane

THOUGHTS?

Review Coming: Donald Miller

I love books. I just received this one in the mail to review! Give me a week and you will have it!

Another Viewpoint

After a tragic event in our city, the following is a letter from someone from the Soul community:
Warning: the following is explict and may not be for younger folk.

Today, the headlines read “Bathhouse Blaze”, early Sunday morning a fire broke out in one of Winnipeg’s two bathhouses. Aquarius, a two floor bathhouse, was a low light place to connect with other men for the sole purpose of having sex. The facility also hosted co-ed nights for women to also come and “hook up” or go there for a date night, as one female patron said, a safe place to go.

Having graced the rooms of Aquarius, I know full well what went on behind the entry way. Bathhouses were at one point my friend. A place to have as many encounters with other men as possible, to explore different avenues of sexual pleasure and it played into the excitement of voyeurism. Aquarius was no exception to this fact. The basement of the facility was the dungeon so to speak, with a round bed in a large dark room where I saw men in bondage. Opposite that room was a maze of chain link and a blackened maze of corners, small rooms where one could go and have sex and not see the other person.

Realizing the destructive behavior of the facility, especially in the degrading acts being played out on men as well as women, it became evident that Aquarius was a glorified whore house, only money was not exchanged apart from the entry fee, and the availability of poppers (a drug which induces a person to put aside all inhibition, placing that person in a position of potentially dangerous activity).

I write as a writer who has been to some pretty rough places to get the high of a sexual encounter. What is sad today is that two men died in this fire. One of these men a 23 year old aspiring drag queen, wanted to go into the entertainment biz. When I saw his face, I saw the face of a clean cut male, young and pretty, yet deeply masculine. A face with hope in his eyes. Yet his hope won’t amount to anything, as his life was taken far too early. But the deeper issue with his death is the correlation between his life as a drag queen and his issue with the bathhouse. A drag queen often is one to do fundraising, is looked upon as someone who lives in the public realm. Is often the voice of those in need. Today that voice is no longer speaking, singing or entertaining.

This brings me to the issue of pride. Pride is the big quintessential word of gay, lesbian, bi, transgendered people. The Pride Parade is all about being proud of who you are, and yet, there is a deep seeded, dark issue of sexual addiction in our midst, that is being normalized in our culture today.

“We are proud of who we are, we want rights…we demand them, and we will take down every voice that is against us. Because being against us means you are full of hate.”Are words that at one time, I used, and heard other gay people speak out loud, and full of force.

Yet having been to bathhouses and having to look at the destructive behavior of my own sexual addiction, I wonder, what kind of pride that was? I wasn’t loving myself, I was actually feeding my addiction and couldn’t see past not getting a sexual fix, the next guy who would turn me on. It was all about sex. Not pride. Pride would be taking care of myself, honoring and respecting myself and others, not using them, for the sake of my own pleasure. Pride is not taking away my inhibitions with poppers and putting myself at risk of disease, or injury. Pride is learning what the roots of sexual addiction are, that are causing us to go to all lengths to get off. Pride is looking at our behavior and or allowing someone in to speak life to us, rather than encourage us in behavior that is hurtful to both ourselves and to others. When did we first come to understand that multiple sex partners are okay, good or healthy? Why isn’t the gay, lesbian, bi, transgendered community standing up in Pride and shouting enough is enough? Treating each other as objects, as sexual toys, as a way to get our needs met, is exactly what Pride isn’t. When will the community that demands respect and pride and the “same” rights as everyone else realize they have a long way to go to “get there”, if they continue to applaud sexual addictions, drug use, and criminal activity.

It is a quiet secret regarding the realm of sexual exploits and the areas of town these exploits happen in our city, where gay men hang out, late at night or during the day, all in the hopes of having sex. Men congregate in bathrooms across the city, to meet someone to have an orgasm. Putting at risk, young children, teens and others who would rather not see what is going on. Sure, you can be as safe as you think you are, but you never know who will walk in, who will see. Why do we sugar coat the issue of sexual addiction?

It is easier to turn a blind eye, to stay silent rather than speak the truth. Maybe it has to be someone who has been there, done it, who has received help regarding his sexual addiction, who needs to stand and speak. So today I speak. I say, “when is enough, going to be enough.” How many lives are we risking when we stay silent? To disease, to injury, to death? How many souls are we actually killing when we don’t say anything? Lives of men and women, struggling with sexual addiction, not knowing their worth apart from the buzz of the moment, only to wake up, empty and alone or empty in the arms of a stranger they just met a couple of hours before.

I know that I have pride in who I am as a man, who I am as a husband, who I am as a father. Would I want my child to grow up desperately hungry for love and affirmation and a sense of worth, so much so they have sex in a bathhouse, in a dark, dingy, smelly cage, inhibitions gone, not knowing how many people are having sex with them? Hardly, the thought of that actually makes me feel sad. So why would we want our friends, our co-workers, our family members, our loved ones to go to those lengths? When will we say enough is enough and stand for human rights, respected and honored?

Bobby Rogers, President and Acting Manager of Gio’s stated…“Thank you to everyone who came out tonight to help start our community's grieving process. As part of this process, CJOB 680 AM Richard Cloutier respectfully invited members of our community to discuss some aspects of our culture. After consulting with some community members, Chris Vogel was asked to help us out. Chris Vogel , one of the founders of Gio's (The Oscar Wilde Memorial Society Inc.) and leader in Manitoba and Canada with LGBT rights will discuss some of the unique aspects of our community with Richard, Tuesday at 9am. This is such a sensitive topic and troublesome time for us all - please trust that Richard and Chris will help sort through the stereotypes and homophobia that have been drifting in and out of media comments as a result of this tragedy.”

Key words used here are:
Unique aspect of our community
Sensitive
Troublesome
Stereotypes
Homophobia

This is a sensitive matter. Two men died, in a senseless fire. But what are the bigger issues here? Is there one? What about the reasoning of Pride, and the oversexualized…unique aspect of the gay community? What about sexual addiction? What about respecting oneself and others? This is rather troublesome.

I listened to the interview with Chris Vogel who stated a few misinterpreted facts. 1. He stated that Aquarius was renovated and was a great establishment. Unless it was renovated in the last 5 years, it was a pretty dark and dingy place.2. He stated that drugs and alcohol were not used on the facility, and it is a known fact that Poppers are sold and drugs and alcohol are ingested on site (brought in by patrons).3. He did however say that they needed to have installed fire detectors.

I found that an odd statement, “no fire detectors?”, is that not mandatory at all licensed established businesses. Yet, in the radio broadcast, it was stated that bathhouses do not need a license to operate? So a tragic event took place, 2 men died in an establishment that was not regulated by regular fire and health inspections. So regarding the establishment being a great place to meet and greet, it really was an accident ready to happen. It was irresponsible for the owner as well as the city to allow the establishment to open and operate.

In our city, our motto is “Take Pride Winnipeg.” How is this taking pride? How is this being committed in raising citizen responsibility?

In the end it comes down to citizens making a stand to what is allowed in their neighborhoods, parks, businesses. We live in a free country in which we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion and the right to say “enough is enough.”

Today, I have had enough.

A concerned citizen of Winnipeg.

Paying Tribute

REVEREND WILLIAM (BILL) PETER MICHALSKI
January 13, 1930 – October 5, 2009

Dad, was born January 13, 1930 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. On Monday October 5, 2009 he passed away peacefully with me at his side. Dad was predeceased by parents Fred and Mary, infant daughter Pearl Hope, brother Fritz, sister Ann, and nephew Kevin. Dad is survived and remembered by his wife of 58 years Elizabeth. After a lifetime of dedication to his wife and family, and service to his Lord and Savior, dad leaves an indelible legacy to us and our families; Ron and Jill (Elise and Fred, and Todd and Rayael with their children Brendan, Andrew and Chloe), Bruce (Jessica and Joel) and myself and Sharon (Joshua, Jordan, James and Jesse). Dad is also survived by his brother Ed, sisters Olga, Eleanor, Jennifer and Lydia as well as many nephews and nieces.

Dad was a North End Winnipeg boy who graduated from St. John’s High School, with great stories. He quickly went to work to help support and care for his family as times were tough. As a young man he excelled at swimming, diving and gymnastics. He was a lifeguard and swimming instructor at numerous camps in Manitoba and City pools. Dad came to faith as a teen and never waivered from the call of God on his life. In his early twenties he got the courage and asked a particular woman out for a coffee at the end of a church service and the rest is history. He married Elizabeth Sedun and together they devoted themselves to their family and building a home based upon a foundation of faith, love and support. Newly married, they moved to Swan River to attend Bible College. Later Dad would begin his ministry at Living Word Temple in the North End of Winnipeg where he served for 27 years as pastor. In order to provide sufficiently for his family, he held a full time position with the City of Winnipeg, ending his career as a Supervisor for the Waterworks Department after 35 years of employment. Dad’s initial retirement was but a brief intermission. He resumed his calling upon invitation, by Rev. H.H. Barber to serve as Visitation Minister for Calvary Temple. At the same time Dad acted as the Supervisor of Phone Counseling Services for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He thrived in ministry! Throughout his lifetime, many people were influence by his ministry. His gentle spirit, genuine compassion, and earnest concern is still remembered today.

When we were about to start Soul Sanctuary, Sharon and I approached both my in laws and Dad and Mom. After explaining the vision that GOD had given us to start this new church we asked for their blessing on us. This was not your traditional type of church and one that was going to be out of their paradigm of what church ministry was all about. One statement that rings through our head after that meeting was that it was dad who said “We will know by the fruit.” Well, Dad would often share with me his concerns with the way we “did church,” but he was always supportive. One Sunday dad saw an older man sitting in a wheelchair crying after the service. As dad told me the story he said “I approached him and introduced myself and said, “I cannot help but noticed you are in distress, is there anything I can do for you?” The person responded by saying his name and then added “it’s the music.” To which dad said to himself, “the music makes me cry, as well.” But then the older man responded to dad, “I absolutely love it.” Dad walked away from that encounter with trying to figure out how can an older man like this type of music, especially in church! Eventually, the gentleman would commit his life to Christ. I would say from that point on dad worked really hard with trying to understand the way we did ministry to people in a form that he was not used to. There were times that Dad, and mom, have been more than stretched but Dad would occasionally comment on the “fruit” that he has seen. People committing to Christ, “young people” (I guess when you are 79, most everyone is a young person) in attendance and numerical growth.

A week prior to Dad’s passing I received an email from someone at Soul that I was able to share with him. It reads:

It really resonated with me when… Gerry said on Sunday that Soul would not have been possible without the blessing and prayers of his parents. I firmly believe, without any exaggeration and all the honesty that I can muster, that Soul saved my life. So, in that way, I guess your dad and everyone involved with the making of Soul are greatly responsible for getting me back on track in my walk and with my ministry. The Bible says you can tell a great deal about someone by the fruit of their labor and by that reasoning, your dad was an incredible man. I know it wouldn't mean much coming from me, someone he barely knows...but tell him, "thank you".

A loving husband, a proud father and doting grandfather and great grandfather, dad delighted in the joy of family. This past December, I moderated a special interactive service at our church on “A Father’s Legacy” featuring Dad and the three of us boys. Dad has always referred to that day as “That service was the crowning moment of my life.”

If you still would like to help leave a legacy I would encourage you on your way out to make a donation of any amount, in his memory to the orphanage work that we sponsor in Indonesia, called Wisma Kaseh. It was important to dad that these kids were cared for and this was his request. You can make a donation off our website using paypal! www.soulsanctuary.ca

Lovin the Church!

I am very familiar with a number of people who feel that they need to De-tox from church. The current craze in our “christian culture” is to embrace a Churchless Christianity and for quite awhile I have been bugged by that thought and I finally understood why I was bugged. I can understand people tired of religion and rules but the church is the body of Christ…so in my head when I hear someone saying we need to detox from church, are we in reality detoxing from Jesus himself?

Some people seem to never tire of attacking the church. If it is not from those who are outright hostile because of their own lack of belief or ex-members who complain about the Church’s organization and its institutional quality with its rules an regulations. There are bad churches out there…we have a record of that from Revelation, but because a few are bad doesn’t mean all are.

I have personally struggled against the mainstream organization of our church community and what I am realizing is that an organism needs organization in order to survive, not to mention all the legal responsibilities that our government has placed on faith communities. Those who leave the church because of its organization often fail to recognize that all the other causes they rally behind also demand a certain level of organization. For instance, someone will leave the church mad at its buildings and programs and paid staff and go they go serve at the local homeless shelter instead. Personally, I say fantastic, but some of these people never stop to think that someone pays the bills for that building, someone turns on the heat in the morning, and someone maintains a calendar of events every month, not to mention that someone is on payroll to raise funds!

I am of the mind that people need to truly love their local church no matter how imperfect it may be and serve in it faithfully for the long haul. There is a tension that clearly exists for a church from being an organism and functioning as an organization, a community and an institution, a living entity with relationships and even some rules. There is no need to pit organism against organization, community against institution, or relationship against rules. These things are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, both exist in a healthy church. The problem is not organization, but bad, life-crushing organization.

Christ clearly taught that his mission was to build his church (Matthew 16). Christ is the head of the church, his body. Christ loves his church and gave himself for it (Ephesians 5:25). In almost all cases, those who choose to leave the church out of their faith experience can point back to a negative encounter with another believer. Communicating is not easy, talking is not easy, especially in this culture…and yet to be a part of community we all need to take a risk and attempt to communicate, care and allow people into our lives. If you think about it, it is even more difficult if things are tense in your life…

In our humanness there are times when we hurt each other and the tendency is to pull away and go it alone. I believe that we must resist that tendency. Psalm 17:6 GOD understood that humans are imperfect and make mistakes so scripture challenges us to go to GOD. All of us struggle in life at once time or another and all of our struggles are different for us. To be human is to be want to be listened to, to be cared for, to also be able to care for others…

God didn’t leave us on this planet to improve our understanding of Himself, huddle people into groups, create more effective worship services. Those are merely means God uses towards a much greater end. God left His church in this world so that followers of Christ might be made through the vehicle and power of the gospel for the purpose of drawing near to and worshipping the one who matters most: God. Out of this nearness to and love for God will come a group of people who have developed a heart for what He loves most. God’s heart is set on pursuing His glory, empowering His people, and reaching out to the broken and lost in this world. The church must reflect God’s love in reaching out to the hurting world around us, calling them to become followers of Jesus (1 Pet. 2:4ff).

Someone once said, and I believe it, that “we need to be reminded that the church that Christ loves is not a supermodel, but rather, a flawed and broken bride.” It may be messed up but it is still the Bride of Christ. So in a true cliché fashion. "Drop the ideal…live the real." Bonhoeffer said it best "Anyone who loves the dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter even though the devotion to the former is faultless and the intentions may be ever so honest, earnest and sacrificial."

September Thoughts

So, I posted this on Facebook. “Is thinking that in of all the stupid things that keep churches from growing, the common denominator is leadership! Ouch.”
So, is there anything wrong with that statement? Some would say “NOPE, you are bang on” while others would say…”what are you talking about…everyone has a part to play when a church is not growing.”

So here I am reflecting and planning for the fall and this is what I am coming up with. As a church I believe that we should be in a growth mode. The church of Christ should be growing but there are a number of hurdles to growth. One is when a Pastor or paid staff member tries to do it all. Many pastors, myself included, have been known to have a Martyr/Messiah complex . We feel that “no one else will do a job or could do a job as well as I could!” This is made more hilarious when I try to picture myself in charge of women’s ministries!!! Many pastors feel that the success of any church rests on them and thus they want or need to be in a place of control. Many times pastors have a hard time releasing control because of the fact that many feel that they are the hired guns to do the work and they have a hard time asking people to volunteer. Or it is simply an ego thing. Regardless of the issue it is safe to say that leadership is the “common denominator” when it comes to different areas that keep churches from growing. Even in Exodus 18 Moses was dealing with people and people were getting frustrated and Moses was getting burnt out until Jethro stepped in. It is a timeless principle when we deal with people on any level life gets messy real quick. Things that appear black and white at times turn out to be very grey and then add emotions and person preferences to the mix and it is a no win situation.

I believe that I am at the point where we must ask some hard questions and find out what the reasons are in which the church keeps people away rather that growing and discipling it. The first question we must ask is what is the purpose of a Sunday gathering? What are we trying to accomplish? Are we focusing on just the saints? Are we there to carry on tradition? Are we trying to entertain visitors who may never come back? Are we driven to make GOD famous and bring honor to His name in whatever way it takes? I guess the question lies in who are we trying to reach? Who has GOD placed in our path that we need to reach with the Good News? Do we really see Sunday morning through the eyes of a first time attender?

I have numerous thoughts rambling through the brain that will begin to pour out on this blog, but I will leave you with an interesting concept from a book called “Made to Stick.” This is for all the CHURCH people out there. It is called the Curse of Knowledge and the basic idea is “you cannot know, what you already know; and once you know it, it is very difficult to remember what it is like not to know.“

I say all that to add that many of us have been in church so long that we have completely lost touch of what it is like not to know.

Thoughts?

Mid Summer Thought - Twitter Will Kill You

So, I have been off the blog for a while. Just taking some time to clear my head and process the future. I stumbled across this add...thought it was fantastic...