Jesus Christ Superman?

To demand from strength that it does not express itself as strength, that it does not consist of a will to overpower, a will to throw down, a will to rule, a thirst for enemies and opposition and triumph, is just as unreasonable as to demand from weakness that it express itself as strength.
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, First Essay

According to Nietzsche, Christianity is an attempt by the weak and powerless to control the strong and powerful.

The original morality was the morality of the noble. These are the elite people, the people who naturally rose to the top in society. They were powerful, courageous, happy, energetic, optimistic and confident. They considered everyone like them to be "good." The others, they viewed as "bad."

These people were "bad" because they were weak, timid, fearful, pessimistic, and resentful. They saw themselves as victims.

Because there were more of the weak people than the strong, the weak banded together to promote a new "slave morality."

This was their attempt to make life better for those who suffer. And it also served as leverage against the powerful.

The weak defined themselves as the "good." The powerful now became "evil."

The virtues of this new morality became

• Patience
  
• Humility
  
• Love
  
• Forgiveness
  
• Compassion
  
• Equality
  
• Submissiveness
  

This morality is used to keep the powerful in check:

The practice of judging and condemning morally, is the favorite revenge of the intellectually shallow on those who are less so, it is also a kind of indemnity for their being badly endowed by nature, and finally, it is an opportunity for acquiring spirit and becoming subtle—malice spiritualizes. They are glad in their inmost heart that there is a standard according to which those who are over-endowed with intellectual goods and privileges, are equal to them, they contend for the "equality of all before God," and almost need the belief in God for this purpose.

But this morality is against nature. It becomes the enemy of life. It focuses on an "afterworld" and resigns itself to suffering, to trying to make the best of a bad situation.

According to Nietzsche, egoism is the very essence of a noble soul.

The hope for mankind is to be found in the Übermensch, the Overman or Superman.

The Overman lives for the earth, not some future life that may or may not arrive. He makes himself, not depending upon anyone or anything. He is confident, optimistic and strong-willed. He is not afraid to take risks. He creates his own values, not submitting to the mores of society.

Nietzsche sees Jesus as someone who came close to becoming an Overman. He was his own person. He did not bow to the current cultural norms. He was confident and self-directed.

But he had a serious flaw.

He depended upon God—and called for others to do the same. He talked about love, forgiveness and humility. He sacrificed himself for the "kingdom of God."

According to Nietzsche, the weak deserve what they get. The strong have an obligation to take over. The future of the earth depends upon the success of the elite. (Think Hitler.)

The morality of Nietzsche has more influence in modern culture than people generally recognize.

• Donald Trump embodies the attitude of the Overman and has encouraged a "take no prisoners" approach to business.
  
• We applaud sports figures who use subterfuge and deception in the name of "doing what it takes" to secure victory.
  
• We admire celebrities who Did It [Their] Way.
  

Even in the Church, we covet power, wealth and influence. In fact, Nietzsche considered the church of his day to be a parody of itself. It preached the "slave morality" but lived by the "master morality."

Nietzsche was right in his assessment of the Church. Far too often the institutional church has failed to live by the very principles it expects its members to practice. And he is partially correct in his distinction between slave morality and master morality.

But he is wrong in at least two particulars.

• The morality of God (not necessarily that of religion) is life affirming and optimistic. It is the selfish morality that in the end is deadening and pessimistic.
  
• The way of Jesus (the way of the cross) is the way only of apparent weakness and apparent defeat. It is through his "weakness" and "defeat" that Jesus Christ overcame the powers of evil and oppression.
  

So here's the question: Are we going to follow the teachings of Jesus or the teachings of Nietzsche?

Jesus said, "Bless those who curse you."

Nietzsche said, "It is inhumane to bless when one is being cursed."

Nietzsche writes:

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome (The Antichrist).

Jesus said:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:25–28).

What do you think?

Here are some questions you might wish to answer:

• What are some examples of a "morality" of resentment?
  
• In what ways do the presidential campaigns appeal to "slave morality"? To "master morality"?
  
• How has the institutional church denied the teachings of its founder?
  
• What positive insight can the followers of Jesus Christ take from the criticisms of Nietzsche?
  
• In what ways are the teachings of Jesus life affirming?
  

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Measuring Success Missionally

Conventional wisdom says that it is impossible to manage what is not measured. And in the church, we've been told "God cares about numbers because numbers represent people and God cares about people."

So under the banner of accountability and stewardship, church leaders collect statistics to measure the effectiveness of ministry.

Eventually, we end up with thinking like this:

Many [churches] are unable to improve because they are unfocused or are pulled in many directions; focusing on critical activities is the key. Furthermore, no [church] wants to think of itself as average or below average. When a [church] knows measurably how it stands vis-à-vis its peers (especially those performing at levels of excellence), a natural sense of friendly competition where everyone can win is invoked.

A [church] that is falling far short of excellence will be motivated to improve by learning from consultants and other [churches] at the top of its peer group; the [church] will also be able to mark and show donors its quantitative progress toward measurable excellence. Meanwhile, top performing [churches] not only help other [churches] emulate their success, but they are also motivated to keep setting the standards of excellence even higher. Most importantly from the fundraising perspective, a [church] has an instant report card that it can show its donors (noting both areas of excellence and areas for improvement). Finally, if a networked [church] is to invest in a consulting team for help, it must be equipped with tools allowing it to challenge and motivate each [church] affiliate.

(Each occurrence of [church] replaces either "organization" or "non-profit.")

But the church is not a business. It is the body of Christ, a living temple of God's presence. And our evaluations need to reflect that reality. Yet not everything that counts can be counted.

It seems to me that there are several issues here:

• God's kingdom is not identical with the church, even though there is considerable overlap.
  
• Jesus Christ is the head of the church and builds his church in his own time and in his own way.
  
• While we have responsibilities regarding the advancement of God's kingdom, many of those responsibilities are difficult or impossible to define in quantifiable terms.
  
• 
  
  Measurement has several pitfalls
  
  • If the wrong things are measured, the focus gets diverted from what is truly important.
    
  • Over emphasis on the numbers can lead to the assumption we are totally responsible for increases and declines.
    
  • The most important factors cannot be reduced to a number in a spreadsheet.
    
  • While "numbers represent people," most statistical systems reduce people to just numbers.
    
• "Growth" easily becomes an idol with pressure to improve the numbers from the previous reporting period.
  

I suspect that collecting stories is more important than collecting statistics.

But if we were going to collect numbers, what numbers would be useful?

Doug Resler published a list of Missional Metrics written by Hugh Halter

• Number of new relationships formed where I know their names and they know mine.
  
• Number of people who have been uniquely blessed by me and my community.
  
• Number of people who invite me to be with their friends who don't follow Christ.
  
• Number of ways, my street, neighborhood, or community are more livable because of my influence.
  
• Number of Christians that are actively confronting their consumerism and making adjustments at the life level.
  
• Number of Christians that I ask or persuade NOT to go on mission with us.
  
• Number of incarnational communities that commit to form around benevolent action instead of just a bible study.
  
• How long people remain at our weekly gathering after the formalities are over.
  
• Number of community-based initiatives our people are supporting with their time or money.
  
• Number of young leaders we're intentionally developing.
  
• Number of people baptized for the first time.
  
• Number of Bibles purchased because someone asked for one.
  

These are helpful as pointers toward missional-incarnational living. But I wonder how well they avoid some of the problems I identified above.

We certainly want to evaluate certain aspects of missional-incarnational living:

Genuine relationships with people, not prospects

Missional-incarnational influence in the neighborhood

Discipleship that bites into real life

Healthy community (communitas)

Perhaps more helpful than numbers would be a rubric to help us evaluate each of these areas.

Here's a suggestion for Genuine Relationships from a personal perspective.

-1	I have neighbors, relatives or co-workers that I am "not talking to."
0	I get along with my neighbors, relatives and co-workers.
1	I know the names of my neighbors.
2	I know personal information about my co-workers such as birthday, anniversary, names of family members, hobbies.
3	I have bought a gift for a friend just because I saw something I thought they'd like (not for a specific occasion).
4	I have done a favor for someone anonymously.
5	I have a relationship with a non-relative with whom I spend time at least weakly.
6	I have a relationship with a person who does not attend my church, and we talk about spiritual things
7	I have a relationship with a person who is not a follower of Christ, and we talk about spiritual things.
8	I have a relationship with a person who is an atheist or agnostic and we talk about spiritual things.
9	People frequently ask me to pray for them.
10	I frequently offer to pray for people.
11	I frequently pray for people when we are together and they mention a need.
12	I have non-relatives in my home at least once a month (besides church groups).

This would be more helpful than a raw number. Similar rubrics could be developed for each of the values of missional-incarnational living. Rubrics could also be created for congregational evaluation.

I would be interested in any comments you might have to improve the suggested rubric and any suggestions you might have for other rubrics.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Stubborn Passion

Once again "missional theologian" Tom Peters provides us with an important insight:

[There is] a Very Sensible Saying that I think is pure, unmitigated crap, in fact the World's Worst Advice: "Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em."

As I said ... pure crap.

Forget "fold 'em."

Drop it from your vocabulary.

Excise it.

Bury it.

Stomp on its grave.

If you care, really care, really really care about what you are pursuing, well, then, pursue-the-hell-out-of-it-until-hell-freezes-over-and-then-some-and-then-some-more. And may the naysayers roast in hell or freeze in the Antarctic or bore themselves to death with the sound of their "statistically accurate" advice.

The smart people know when to give up. Most failures have the sense to sulk off and leave the stage to the super stars. But some are too stupid to give up.

Tom shares this paragraph from The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, by David Price:

One of the curious aspects of Pixar's story is that each of the leaders was, by conventional standards, a failure at the time he came onto the scene. Lasseter landed his dream job at Disney out of college—and had just been fired from it. Catmull had done well-respected work as a graduate student in computer graphics, but had been turned down for a teaching position and ended up in what he felt was a dead-end software development job. Alvy Ray Smith, the company's co-founder, had checked out of academia, got work at Xerox's famous Palo Alto Research Center, and then abruptly found himself on the street. [Steve] Jobs had endured humiliation and pain as he was rejected by Apple Computer; overnight he had transformed from boy wonder of Silicon Valley to a roundly ridiculed has been.

Success is not guaranteed, at least not in the conventional understanding of success. But if we believe in the God of Abraham who "gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were," how can we ever give up?

Triumphalism has distorted our view of the biblical narrative.

We forget that

• Jacob was a scheming cheater.
  
• Gideon was a frightened nobody.
  
• David was an obscure shepherd boy.
  
• Peter was a sniveling coward.
  
• Jesus was a total failure by any human standard.
  

We speed-read through the book of Job until we get to the "pay off":

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10).

We see Jesus as a deus ex machina figure who confidently acts out his role wearing his "costume" of "human flesh." Consequently, the crucifixion becomes little more than a theatrical special effect.

The scene in the Garden of Gethsemane fades into a shadowy prequel to the didactic moral: "Nevertheless, not my will but your will be done."

However, if Jesus was "tempted in every way just as we are," he must have experienced uncertainty and even self-doubt.

He endured opposition in ministry, despising the shame of being misunderstood and refused to allow the false expectations of his friends or the false allegations of his enemies to define who he was.

Philip Greenslade, A Passion for God's Story, p. 248

A servant is not greater than his or her master. We must follow the same path, if we are to be genuine disciples.

The way of the cross sometimes leads us into those places where all we can do is hold on. We can't see our way forward, we are confused that God isn't doing what we expect, and we can't see any meaning for all the pain and frustration.

Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi, Kingdom Come, p. 170

As Tom reminds us:

If you really really really really really care ... then there ain't no time to fold 'em until your last breath is drawn—and even that's too soon if you've bothered along the way to inflame others about your presumed Quixotic cause.

In the (doubtless not) immortal words of Tom Peters: "There's a time to hold 'em and a time to keep on holdin' 'em—if you really really really care."

From a kingdom perspective, it's about more than just passion:

We must always do what we know is right and true before God even if it doesn't seem as if it produces results.

Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi, Kingdom Come, p. 172

So it's not time to fold 'em, but it's time to go all in.

God's kingdom strategy sometimes feels like a long shot, or even an impossible dream. But he is the God of the unlikely and the impossible.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

One-Buttock Leadership

Watch this engaging video of Benjamin Zander at TED. (HT: Rex Miller).

What are the implications for leadership?

• Leaders must stay focused on the vision.
  
• If everything is important, nothing is important.
  
• The leader must stop thinking about every note and concentrate on "the line from B to E."
  
• While the details are necessary, they should not be given too much focus.
  
• A mechanical approach to anything is rarely engaging.
  
• A leader has power only as he or she helps others powerful.
  
• A leader can tell if he or she is awaking possibility in other people if their eyes are shiny.
  
• A leader's success is measured by the number of shiny eyes.
  

A missional leader will stay focused on God's grand story and be surrounded by shiny eyes.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Forgetting to Breathe

It goes without saying that our efforts to promote our individual congregations "are nothing if God isn't working through them."

Kevin Hendricks tells us:

It's like breathing. Life doesn't work so well if we forget to breathe. That's how I see the role of God in church growth--or any of the marketing and communications we talk about.

He reassures us that methods are just methods, as long as we rely on God:

Trying to bring people to Jesus should never be about mindlessly following a set formula. We certainly have to do our part, and that may mean following a standard formula, but we also need to rely on God to work through that formula. Notice that the reliance is on God, not the formula, and as long as we rely on God there's nothing wrong with the formula.

I used to think like this and talk like this.

But I've since repented of my stupidity and my self-delusion.

There are several problems with this kind of thinking.

First, breathing is automatic. Under normal circumstances, people don't need to think about breathing. Relying on God is far from automatic. It requires focus, concentration and a degree of self-discipline. The default attitude is to trust in ourselves and in our "formulas."

Second, methods are not just methods. Every strategy is based upon several assumptions. We often use methods and strategies that are not consistent with the essence of the gospel. For example, motivating people through guilt or pride is an affront to the good news of grace.

Third, this kind of thinking is at its heart based upon the deadly misappropriation of God's mission as our mission. It is not our job to convert people. It is not our job to save the world. It is not our job to build the kingdom. It is God's mission in which he has invited us to participate.

Fourth, we have narrowly defined making disciples as getting people signed up for heaven. We assume that fulfilling the Great Commission is equal to increasing the weekly attendance at our church.

Fifth, this approach easily becomes a cover for ego-driven "ministry." I make all these great plans and ask God to bless them. I use my God-given skills and God-given resources to produce results. I give God credit for what happens. But this ends up being the same as an actor in his Oscar-acceptance speech thanking his parents because "this wouldn't have been possible without you."

Depending upon God and living missionally do not happen automatically.

• All our natural instincts work against us, especially our egos.
• Our materialistic, consumer culture distracts us from focusing on God's kingdom.
• The busyness and stress of "ministry" squeeze out the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.

Relying on God requires

• Intentionality (The first step must be to intend to trust in God.)
• Commitment (We must practice the spiritual disciplines that will allow the Holy Spirit to produce his fruit in our lives.)
• Focus (We must cut through all the distractions.)
• Trust (We must let go of the feeling that it all depends upon us.)

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Break the Habit

Len Hjalmarson suggests that churches are fixated on the wrong things. (HT: Brad Brisco). Actually, his point is much stronger than that. He's saying the things we spend all our time and energy on are of no importance.

Here are the things we must let go of:

1. The number of people who come to our church.
   
2. How "relevant" our style of worship is.
   
3. How many new people walk through the doors of our church.
   
4. The size of our building, staff or budget.
   
5. What any other church in the world is doing.

Instead, here are some suggestions for things that really do matter:

1. Actively looking for evidence of God's kingdom wherever that might show up.
   
2. Simple, honest worship.
   
3. Making friends with people who have no interest in our church.
   
4. Giving away money to people who need it.
   
5. "Go[ing] on a unique, unreproducible journey with a group of people and rejoice with other groups of people who do the same."
   

Of course, this would require enormous courage, and a fair amount of faith. We would actually have to start trusting God and seeking his kingdom above all else. We would have to live as if we really believed Matthew 6:33.

That'll never work. Let's just stick to business as usual.

Pastor Rod
"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Just Enough Time

The official song of our culture is "I Need More Time."

We live under the delusion that our problems would all be solved if we just had more hours in each day. There's just not enough time to get everything done. If only we had just a little more time.

But as Parkinson's Law tell us, "Work expands so as to full the time available for its completion."

However, work is not the only thing that expands. If we had more time, we would tend to fill it in the same way that we do the 24 hours we get every day.

We see this dynamic in computer storage capacity. In the past 30 years hard drive capacity has increased by about a factor of 1,000,000:1. But instead of having abundant free space, we've filled up our drives with music, videos and mega-pixel photos. John Dvorak may be an early adopter, but he voices a complaint that we can all indentify with: "I filled a terabyte drive with crap; now I need another terabyte drive."

Besides being metaphysically impossible, manufacturing more time is not the solution.

Enter the GTD cult.

Since we can't have more time, we must get more out of the time we have.

What was once known as time management has now become an entire industry. We have planning notebooks, software, blogs, newsletters and clothing to help us make the most efficient use of the 86,400 seconds that slip through our fingers every day.

Now we are not just overwhelmed with stuff to do, but we also feel guilty because we are not productive enough. We feel the angst of opportunity cost for all the things we should do that we never get to.

This problem is especially bad for pastors and other church leaders. Our "opportunity cost" has eternal consequences.

It's no wonder then that 1500 pastors leave the ministry each month and 50% of all pastors say that they would leave but have no other way of making a living.

So what's the solution?

Clergy renewal centers call us to pay more attention to our own spiritual development:

More than anything, God has called pastors to have an intimate relationship with Him. That must come before the ministry, that must come before the congregation, and that must even come before the family. As you can plainly see from the statistics above, we literally cannot survive in the ministry without taking the time to be with the Lord.

If we, as ministers, don't have an intimate relationship with the Lord, how can we expect to have anything to minister to others? Our congregations don't need yesterday's warmed over breadcrumbs. They need the fresh meat and manna for today. But, you know what? We need that too.

Unfortunately, we pastors tend to hear this as just another thing we should do, another thing that we can't get to. So we try to do more devotional activities and schedule time for retreats. But these good intentions go the way of our diet and exercise plans. Before we know it, we're just as busy as ever—and even more guilt ridden.

There are several things that contribute to this culture of perpetual busyness and constant stress.

Most Protestant congregations have unrealistic expectations for their pastors.

Pastors can NEVER do everything right. If we visit the hospital then we either stay too long or not long enough. When we preach we either are too shallow or too hard to understand. When we are at the office we either need to be in deep study AND also be available for every phone call, e-mail and every random person that happens to drop by. When we walk through the crowd we spend too much time with some people and not enough time with others.

And denominational officials try to "get the most out of" those under their direction.

Abused pastors tend to perceive the denominational office as having a "fire the coach" strategy.

Many of these beaten up pastors (and their abused families) just play the game of "churchical chairs," moving on to a new field every two to three years, only to find the same battles, just with new faces. Tragically, many just give up and walk away from the call that God once placed so vividly upon their lives.

But the main source of stress and pressure is the mindset of the pastors themselves.

Many pastors have a Messiah complex. They have the notion that everything depends upon them. They talk about grace, but they have no experience of grace.

Our culture canonizes workaholics. And ministry workaholics are raised to an even higher level. Overwork is seen as dedication, commitment and sacrifice.

But at the heart of this obsession is ego.

Buried deep in the psyche of many leaders is a Superman mentality—the idea that somehow there are a few of us that can function beyond normal human limitations and save the world. Or at least our little corner of the world. This is a grandiosity that we indulge to our own peril.

Dallas Willard suggests that church leaders need to let go of the illusion that everything depends upon them and to "release the world and [their] fate" to God's care and keeping. But this may be the most difficult challenge these leaders face.

For leaders, a decision to release the world and our fate to God runs contrary to everything within and around us.

Consequently, one of the greatest blessings a pastor can experience is failure.

If we are not very successful in ministry, in whatever way we measure success, then God does not have a hard time getting us out of the way. . . . The burdens of office may have become so heavy that we welcome being bumped aside by Jesus.
Andrew Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, p. 25

Once we resign as Messiah, the true Messiah can take over.

Ministry is no longer about us and our skills. It is now about the real presence of Jesus Christ.
Andrew Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry, p. 16

If we feel that we have too much to do, it is a sign that we are not trusting God.

• It is not our job to save people.
  
• It is not our job to change the world.
  
• It is not our job to build the Church.
  

So how do we break the grip of this ego-centered, compulsive, workaholic approach to ministry?

Here's a hint: Exodus 20:10.

The Sabbath for the Israelites had one overriding purpose, to continually remind the people that their future was in the hands of God. They were not allowed to be productive for one entire day every week. They were forced to do nothing.

I'm not advocating the keeping of a literal Sabbath. For many people (e.g. the Pharisees) the keeping of a Sabbath quickly turns into a legalistic obligation.

One of the great dangers in the process of spiritual formation is that self-denial and death to self will be taken as but one more technique or "job" for those who wish to save their life (soul).
Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 67

Sabbath-keeping is just one example of the kind of spiritual discipline that reminds us that God is in control and we are not.

Another spiritual discipline that addresses the problem of "grandiosity" is solitude.

Solitude well practiced will break the power of busyness, haste, isolation, and loneliness. You will see that the world is not on your shoulders after all. You will find yourself, and God will find you in new ways. Joy and peace will begin to bubble up within you and arrive from things and events around you.
Dallas Willard, The Great Omission, p. 36

Ironically, the cure for the feeling of not having enough time is to set aside time to do nothing.

Once we assume our proper place in ministry, we begin to realize that we have just as much time as we need. Eventually, we learn to live with the relaxed urgency of Jesus.

Jesus was willing to adjust his personal schedule to give time to anyone who began to follow him. He was accessible, adaptable, and capable of showing love and attention.
Arthur Glasser, Announcing the Kingdom, p. 210

If we give up the job of trying fix everything, then we can take the time to be present to the people around us. And we have all the time we need to be loving and caring to those that God sends across our path. We don't have to solve their problems. We just need to be with them and do what we can with the resources that God makes available to us.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Sour Grapes

In the classic Aesop tale, the fox, unable to obtain a juicy bunch of grapes, convinces himself that he really didn't want them in the first place.

To many, my incessant nattering about the false idol of success will appear to be little more than the whining of a jealous pastor who secretly wants to trade places with a mega-church pastor with a book contract. There is probably nothing that I could do to dispel that perception (except to turn down the offer of a book contract, which I probably wouldn't do).

Let me suggest the possibility that there is really something else going on here.

Pastors are increasingly seen as administrators who must manage by objective, and church growth is thought to be the result of human engineering. We even measure our spirituality by the work we do. This "spirit of human management" is one of the "powers" that we must challenge if we are to recapture a biblical vision of the church and of society.

Paul Hiebert, "The Gospel in Our Culture," in George Hunsberger, The Church Between Gospel and Culture: The Emerging Mission in North America, p. 145

The church is being held captive by "the powers" against which we fight (Ephesians 6:2). Contrary to folk interpretation, the armor of God does need protection in the back--to defend against "friendly fire."

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Stating the Obvious[ly Wrong]

In the command known as the Great Commission, Jesus said, "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Of course, we all know exactly what Jesus meant:

• "Making disciples" means to seek the conversion of individuals.
  
• The goal is to increase the number of Christians.
  
• In order to be baptized, these individuals must repent, which means they must turn away from their sins.
  
• The responsibility of the Church (and individual believers) is to bring unbelievers to a point of decision after presenting them with basic information about the content of the gospel.
  
• After an individual is converted, then he or she learns the commands of Jesus and is encouraged to model his morality.
  
• While both of these steps are important, the most important is conversion because it allows people to get into heaven.
  
• A significant part of this Commission requires us to go (or send others) to other countries.
  
• "All nations" refers to the countries of the world.
  

The problem is that each of these "obvious" facts is wrong.

But our understanding of this Commission has become ingrained in our church culture, and no one asks anymore what it means. Furthermore, many of these assumptions actually get in the way of the Church fulfilling its true mission.

If one regards it as the primary purpose of mission to increase the number of Christians and treats such increase as the criterion of success, without posing all the time the more radical questions which the gospel puts to the common assumptions of our culture, if the dominical call to "repent" is translated as "turn away from your sins" and there is no understanding of that radical overturning of the world's ideas of sin and righteousness and judgment, then there can be rapid church growth; but the very success of the burgeoning congregations may actually incapacitate them for a radical encounter with the culture into which they fit so comfortably. If religion is an affair for the private life, it can flourish in a society governed by other assumptions, taking the characteristic form which we know so well—a series of voluntary societies made up of people who share the same religious tastes. In that form Christianity can flourish, but it cannot challenge the beliefs that control public life. It has been co-opted into the culture.

Lesslie Newbigin, Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History, p. 91.

Besides, the advancement of the kingdom is not the Church's mission. It is God's mission:

Mission, then, is not essentially a human activity undertaken by the church and its leaders out of obligation to the Great Commission, gratitude for what God has done for us, and the desperate plight of the world. It is God's own mission in which we are invited to participate.

Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 161

So what is the mission of the Church?

The Christian mission is thus to act out in the whole life of the whole world the confession that Jesus is Lord of all.

Leslie Newbigin, The Open Secret, p. 17

This requires deep knowledge of God and more than a passing familiarity with the culture in which a particular congregation finds itself. It is God's embassy in a particular community.

The business of the church is to tell and to embody a story, the story of God's mighty acts in creation and redemption and of God's promises concerning what will be in the end. The church affirms the truth of this story by celebrating it, interpreting it, and enacting it in the life of the contemporary world. It has no other way of affirming its truth. If it supposes that its truth can be authenticated by reference to some allegedly more reliable truth claim, such as those offered by the philosophy of religion, then it has implicitly denied the truth by which it lives.

Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence, p. 76

So what do you think? Do you still agree with some of the "obvious facts"? Are there other "obvious facts" that you'd like to debunk?

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Christian Political Action

As followers of Jesus Christ, what should be our role in politics?

Jesus called us to be in the world but to avoid becoming part of it. The way of Christ is the way of the cross—victory through weakness. The accumulation of earthly power seems contradictory to Christian discipleship.

Yet we are called to participate in the advancement of God's kingdom, seeing his will done on earth as it already is in heaven.

In a series of lectures in Bangalore, India, given in 1941, Lesslie Newbigin asserted

I do not see how the Christian can avoid concerning himself with politics. Love to men, and the fundamental obligation to seek everywhere to create true fellowship, cannot be made effective except over a very small range of life, without invoking political means. Lesslie Newbigin, Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History, p. 53

He reminded the audience that the kingdom cannot be produced by human effort. It can only come by God acting in history. But we have been given the privilege of participating in that kingdom.

While political participation is necessary, it is not without its difficulties.

Politics never allows us to choose exactly our own way, but compels us to decide between a very small number of politically possible alternatives. This means, therefore, that Christians taking part in politics always find themselves working with people who are not Christians and [who] do not share their motives or their ultimate aims. It is this that creates the extreme tension which is always involved in Christian political action. That tension cannot be avoided. Lesslie Newbigin, Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History, pp. 53–54

This means that we can never align ourselves with a political party, or even a political candidate.

We must never lose sight of our true goal. We are not seeking to establish a human-centered utopia. All those efforts seem to end in tragedy and exploitation. Our true goal is the perfect community of the New Jerusalem.

Our goal is the holy city, the New Jerusalem, a perfect fellowship in which God reigns in every heart, and His children rejoice together in His love and joy. To that we look forward with sure hope, and for its sake we offer up to God all that we do in response to His invitation to love our neighbor as we ourselves have been loved. Lesslie Newbigin, Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History, p. 55

At the same time, we realize that the goal will never be accomplished by us. This true community always remains just out of our grasp. In fact, the forces of evil seem to grow in strength at the same time that God's kingdom spreads.

And though we know that we must grow old and die, that our labors, even if they succeed for a time, will in the end be buried in the dust of time, and that along with the painfully won achievements of goodness, there are mounting seemingly irresistible forces of evil, yet we are not dismayed. We do not need to take refuge in any comfortable illusions. We know that these things must be. But we know that as surely as Christ was raised from the dead, so surely shall there be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Lesslie Newbigin, Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History, p. 55

But this does not lead us to despair and passivity. On the contrary, we act with hope and purpose.

A Christian is one who, through Christ, has been reconciled with God who is the King. God's rule is operative in his heart, through gratitude to Christ. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. His gratitude impels him to acts of love towards men, but he also acts in hope—hope of the final completion of God's Kingdom in a perfected fellowship. Even though his actions may all seem to be failures as far as visible effectiveness is concerned, he commits them to God as his thank offering. In the sure hope that they will not be lost. And by faith, the substance of things hoped for, he now possesses in his heart a foretaste of the joy of that perfected Kingdom in which God's purposes shall be complete. Lesslie Newbigin, Signs Amid the Rubble: The Purposes of God in Human History, pp. 52–53

Christianity is not a private, personal thing. It is public and universal. It is good news for all people everywhere. At is very core, Christianity is political. The claim, "Jesus is Lord," has distinct political implications. As followers of Christ, we participate in his war against the "powers."

But we must never forget that it is God's kingdom and his mission.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

The Prince goes to church

A Machiavellian Primer on Church Growth

• The greatest moral good is the preservation of the church (denomination).
  
• Any actions to preserve the church (denomination), no matter how cruel, are always justified.
  
• The only real concern of the pastor (denominational leader) is the acquisition and maintenance of power.
  
• The pastor (denominational leader) must do whatever is necessary to keep his power.
  
• The pastor (denominational leader) should seek to be feared and loved, but it is more important to be feared than to be loved.
  
• During a siege a pastor (denominational leader) will "keep the morale of his subjects high while removing all dissenters."
  
• The authority of the organization must be supported by a show of power that makes obedience inevitable.
  
• While the pastor (denominational leader) comes to power by his own initiative, skill and talent, it is useful to convince others that he is under divine appointment.
  
• Most followers do not want freedom. They want security. The few who want freedom can be bought off with honors or eliminated.
  
• A pastor (denominational leader) must contrive to earn for himself the reputation of a great leader.
  

It may seem to some that these principles are extreme. But let me reassure you that they are practiced in many places within the western church. While they are never stated so explicitly, these principles are currently being taught in leadership books and seminars.

Just as sports fans are ultimately responsible for the absurdly high salaries of star athletes, consumer Christians are complicit in maintaining this situation. They flock to the church or denomination that has the most visible trappings of success. They ignore the machinations of the leaders because "they are doing so much good."

God have mercy on us.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

He Gets It, He Really Gets It

I hear people using the word "missional" as if it is a style of ministry or a new technique of church growth.

Very few have any idea what the concept is. But here's a guy who gets it. And he's not even a pastor.

It's real easy to love The People. It's much more difficult, much more challenging, much more exhausting, much more a test of the heart to love actual people: The people who work for you. The people in your home. The people who slip you a heart-rending note when you're getting ready to impress The People.

Ministry is loving people you didn't handpick.

So here's to those with pastoral hearts, who love each inconvenient human around them -- each person who offers nothing but a mess. Blessed are those pastors, for theirs is not an ego trip.

May his tribe increase!

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Gratuitous Love

Think about this:

My relationship with God is useless. It cannot be boiled down to functions of healing or well-being. God's purpose is not even to forgive me and be done with me—God looks beyond that to true love, to completely useless relationship.

Kester Brewin, Signs of Emergence, p. 160

In the evangelical church we talk about "having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ." But I don't think most of us have the least idea what that means. I think it means more than having Jesus in our "fave five," as one of our MySpace friends, or as a trusted contact on LinkedIn.

A "relationship" that is purely transactional isn't much of a relationship.

In our fuss to succeed, to get a good grade on the series of tests we think he has proposed, we miss the main point of the affair: that we already are the beloved.

Robert Capon, The Romance of the Word, p. 276

We have more in common with the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son than we do with the younger brother. We are out slaving away in the fields trying to earn our Father's love, when what he wants is for us to come in and join the party.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Straight Talk on Evangelism

Michael Spencer has some interesting comments about evangelism from a missional perspective. Here are a few that resonate with me.

When a large church pastor starts lecturing small churches about their lack of evangelism, you should change the channel, because the guy is mainly being a jerk toward a lot of faithful ministers and Christians in more difficult situations.

How many faithful, talented, sacrificial church planters and pastors find they can't go on? And some places are just hard. Where did we get the idea that every community can have a great church if church planter Bob will just do the right things?

Small churches have a tough time seeing converts. So does any church these days. We aren't in a time when people are joining Christianity. We're in a time when tens of millions are walking away from it. We're in a time when thousands of Christians are going from this church to that. The faithful pastor may be seeing converts or not. You're going to have to look deeper.

God builds the church and God counts the fruit.

Then K.W. Leslie makes the following comment:

This all goes back to the fact that pastors and evangelists are seeking a worldly model of success rather than a Kingdom model: They're looking at numbers, size, and influence. They're not looking at Jesus.

If they asked Him what He wanted in their ministry, they'd be a success in His eyes, but they don't want that—they want numbers, size, and influence. Supposedly once you have that, you can further the Kingdom, even though Jesus told us to seek the Kingdom first, and then you get the other things.

Amen.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

Outta My Way!

Imagine a city of 30,000 people without a single traffic light.

Termini Imerese, Italy, is such a place. (I'm here teaching English as a second language.)

You might think that this is because everyone walks everywhere and uses public transportation. But this hilly Sicilian town has as many cars per capita as any American town. And when you add in all the scooters, there is just about one vehicle for every person over the age of 14.

So how do they manage with thousands of vehicles and no trafic lights?

Life on the streets of Termini is a constant game of "chicken."

They do have stop signs. And they look exactly like the ones in the USA. But I think "STOP" translates into Italian something like "Slow down slightly and just keep going."

Every intersection becomes a contest of wills.

The strategy seems to be to startle the driver of an approaching car so that he taps the brake which gives you just enough room to nose out into the street. And then you take your time crossing or turning into the oncoming traffic.

The goal does not seem to be to keep the vehicles flowing smoothly, nor does it seem to be to arrive at your destination as quickly as possible. The goal seems to be to impose your will on the others.

For example, say you want to make a left turn and two cars are coming toward you with a large gap behind the second car. Efficiency would dictate that you wait for the second car to pass and then turn. But the Italian driver invariably cuts off the second car and waits for it to come to a complete stop. Only then does the driver make a deliberate left turn.

Liberal use is made of the horn, but not in the way it is used in New York City.

Only occasionally is the horn used to say, "What were you thinking?" Usually it means, "Attenzione! I'm coming through."

This game is not only for cars. Scooters and pedestrians can play as well.

Scooters weave in and out of traffic and obey the rules of the road even less than cars. Pedestrians step out into traffic and leisurely stroll to the other side of the street.

The fun continues on the sidewalk. People walk straight at each other expecting the other person to give way. A favorite maneuver is "two against one." Two people walk side-by-side on the narrow walk, preferably arm-in-arm. The single person is then forced to step aside into the street.

The point of all this seems to be to establish who is more important.

In America we play this game in less obvious ways.

Pastor Rod

Breasts Are Growing

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Americans spent $12.4 billion on plastic surgery in 2007, up 9% from 2006.

The number of procedures increased as well. Nearly 12 million were performed in 2007. That's up 7% from 2006 and up 59% from 2000.

The most popular surgical procedure was breast augmentation with 348,000 performed in 2007, up 6% from 2006. This is a 97% increase from 2000.

"The report tells me Americans are devoted to looking and feeling their best," said Richard A. D'Amico, MD, ASPS president.

It tells me something considerably different.

And the popularity of breast implants is growing among teens. According to ABoardCertifiedPlasticSurgeonResource.com:

The number of women under the age of 18 who underwent teen breast implants surgery more than tripled between 1992 and 2002. In 2002 alone 3,095 girls underwent a teen breast implants procedure, compared to 3,841 girls in 2003 who received teen breast implants. This is 24 percent increase in the number of girls who seek teen breast implants.

There are several perspectives from which to respond to this trend. One of them is cultural.

We live in a society that is obsessed with sex and with appearance.

But this is not unique to North America.

According to a report by Reuters, girls in Venezuela are receiving breast implants for their 15th birthdays.

In Europe, ABC News reports that girls can now play an online game where they try to turn their avatar into "the most famous, beautiful, sought-after bimbo across the globe." They send their "bimbo" to tanning salons and give them "boob jobs." The UK version has more than 200,000 players after only two months. The French version, started last year, already has 1.2 million users.

Evans said that before now, he'd never considered the possible negative impact that game could have on young teens, and told ABCNews.com that he and his business partner are "looking into" the critics' claims.

Players use "Bimbo Money" to buy diet pills, a gym membership or an apartment. They can acquire the currency by playing games such as Sudoku or by sending a $3 text message.

And this pressure is not only experienced by women. Men are bombarded with spam telling them that their worth is determined by the size of their genitals.

But the real issue here is spiritual.

We are desperately searching for meaning and significance.

We tell ourselves that we would be happy if only…

• We earned more money
  
• We looked better
  
• We had the latest fashions
  
• We could "hook up" with some hot person
  
• We lived in a bigger house
  
• We were more popular
  
• We reduced our golf handicap
  
• We could improve our Technorati ranking
  
• We could win the lottery
  
• We could look younger
  
• We could lose weight
  

But, of course, none of these can supply what's lacking.

This is not a new thing. The prophet Isaiah addressed this a few thousand years ago:

Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live (Is 55:1-3).

Most Christians read passages like this and think it is talking about getting signed up for heaven.

The sad truth is that most of us Christians do not experience significantly more joy, peace or contentment in our lives than those who do not claim to trust in God. This is because we are chasing after the same things as everyone else.

We really don't believe that God can be trusted to provide for our happiness.

We know that we have to depend upon God's grace. And we know that we have to trust him for the big stuff. But we aren't "foolish" enough to eliminate our other options.

Of course, we would never deny God or turn our backs on him. He's an "ever present help in time of trouble." He makes an excellent safety net.

But we still spend our "money on what is not bread." And we invest our "labor on what does not satisfy." We just try not to let it get out of control.

All things in moderation—and that includes our trust in God.

We've dismissed Jesus' words as impractical:

Do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Mt 6:31-33).

We live by the principle that God helps those who help themselves—and toss him a prayer every once in a while.

• What would happen if we took Jesus seriously?
  
• What would happen if we really trusted God and not just talked about it and sang about it?
  
• What would happen if we ever finally understood what grace is?
  

Let's set our sights a little higher. What if we started operating our churches as if we could really trust God?

Nah. That'll never work.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

No Time for Losers

I doubt that Queen's "We Are the Champions" has been included in any church hymnals, but this philosophy has found its way into much of Christianity.

I consider it a challenge before the whole human race—
And I ain't gonna lose—

We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting, till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the world

Brant Hansen has put his finger on this sore spot within the church with his insightful sarcasm.

There's no getting around it: God is a winner. Therefore, to be a Godly man, you have to win...at everything.

Winners win on the field, and in the pulpit. They can't stop winning. Everytime they turn around, they win.

God wins, and I didn't get into ministry to lose. Did you get into ministry to lose? Did you go to seminary and announce in chapel, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here to lose at ministry, because I'm a big loser"?

Jesus wasn't some namby-pamby guy like in those movies...as if Jesus [w]as some guy who walked around, hung out with a bunch of losers, and just stood there while people beat him up.

Scholars, including Dr. Josh McDowell and Dr. Joe Weider, believe Jesus could probably bench 300 more than 20 times, and squat 700 plus. Some "pansy", huh? Yeah, right! Jesus was pumped. Scholars agree, he was like Mr. T, except white.

But the truth is that Jesus had plenty of time for losers.

This is one of the things that got him into trouble with the establishment. Jesus would hang out with the losers. And from most every perspective, Jesus was a loser himself.

By definition, anyone crucified on a Roman cross is a loser.

Of course, that is not the end of the matter. On Sunday morning the tomb was empty. Jesus overcame death, Satan and sin. But this victory was not accomplished by some comic-book-hero scenario. It was won through defeat. Jesus won by losing.

The church he established was not for winners. It was composed of losers and made to rescue the losers of the world.

Jesus has plenty of time for losers, like you and me.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

It’s Not My Job

When we hear the statement, "It's not my job," we assume that someone is shirking responsibility. Someone like the road stripper who left this evidence (HT: TonyRogers.com).

But I've found that "It's not my job," can be a helpful response for a pastor.

I'm not talking about taking out the trash, shoveling the walk or sweeping the floor. Jesus showed by his example that no one should consider himself "above" menial tasks.

There are many things that pastors wrongly take responsibility for. Sometimes this happens because they have a messiah complex. Sometimes this happens because they want to please people. Sometimes this happens because they are strangers to grace.

Here's a list of things that I've finally realized are not my responsibility.

• It's not my job to make my church grow. All I can do is to be faithful in the charge that God has given me. When I start trying to make my church grow, I forget that only God can produce lasting growth. Just using the phrase "my church" can be dangerous.


• It's not my job to rescue people. I can care for people. I can give them assistance. I can listen to their stories. But I do not have the power to fix what is wrong with them. (I don't have the power to fix what is wrong with me.) When I try to rescue others, we are both likely to drown.
  
• It's not my job to convert people. Jesus commissioned his disciples to make disciples. We generally reduce that to getting people signed up for heaven. With this mindset, we start setting goals, quotas and sales projections. Before we know it, we are giving people the hard sell, for their own good of course. But I cannot save anyone. I cannot even convince them that they need to be saved. All I can do is proclaim the good news and show them what a life lived by grace looks like.
  
• It's not my job to collect power and wealth. We have so westernized Jesus Christ that we've completely forgotten that he was poor and apparently powerless. It's hard to make the connection between this meek itinerate teacher and the modern business ventures that use his name.
  
• It's not my job to plan out the future. We're all familiar with the business mantra: To fail to plan is to plan to fail. We've been taught to create the future with our goals and plans. We certainly need to be prepared for the future. But we cannot make it conform to our plans any more than we can program a child to turn out exactly the way we think is ideal. We can't even predict the future with any degree of certainty. Why do we think we can shape it to our specifications?
  
• It's not my job to secure my own significance. I am not significant because of what I've done or what I'm doing. I'm not significant because of who I know. I'm not significant because of who knows me. I am not significant because of how many people hear me preach or read my blog. I'm not significant because of what I've done for God. I'm significant because God loves me just the way I am. Who I am in Jesus Christ is enough. I have nothing to prove. It's because of the gift of God's grace that I am free to serve him, free to indulge the skills, time and opportunity he has given me.
  
• It's not my job to motivate people. I've wasted too much of my life trying to convince people to serve God in the way I've decided they should serve. All the while, God was working in and through people all around me. I'm done trying to change people's values. I'm done trying to get them to march to my agenda. Instead, I seek to help those who are already serving God and who want to serve him more effectively. I invite those who want to serve God but don't know how to start. I encourage those through whom God is already accomplishing his will.
  
• It's not my job to bring God's kingdom to fulfillment. Unfortunately, I've too often acted as if it was.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"