church and recession

NPR posted an interesting article about recession support groups in churches yesterday. I wanted to blog pithily about this, given the deep connections of church and money, but Halden at Inhabitatio Dei beat me to it! He writes:

Not sure what to think about this exactly. Apparently churches across the U.S. are starting up support groups for people who are out of work due to the economic situation. These groups are practical on the one hand–people swap resume and interviewing tips and the like. On the other hand they are also there for the members to support one another “spiritually” in their quest for a job.
Of course, I’m not enough of a contrarian to just slam this notion. Certainly this is a good thing and people have a felt and real need for it, the difficulty of job loss is hard, etc. But I do find it interesting how the church is intervening to put people back to work across America. I wonder also why we aren’t hearing of churches across America sharing their financial resources to care for those that are out of work, in addition to providing emotional support groups…

A great sentiment, and an encouraging one given Sunday's sermon. I hope that our attempt to be a church is an atempt to share with one another in all the blessings, social, physical, etc.

freedom from choice

An interesting feature of the church in the US is that there are so many varieties. There are more modern churches than traditional ones, more Vineyards than and Lutherans, more Calvary Chapels than Episcopalians. Presumably if you open the phone book and see the 1000's of churches you might attend, you have a lot of choice about which church to attend and be a part of. You have more choice over worship style, theology, and communal practice. Though people seem to like this, there is a funny paradox in it.

With so many churches to choose from, there is a kind of homogenization that occurs. We have many churches, all roughly the same with minor variations on a theme: from content to structure, the same. In the name of choice, we’ve bickered our way out of having churches with any different flavor because our surrounding culture is louder than tradition in the sanctuary. The interminable secessions and “plants” have cut us off from deep historical roots, and it limits our choice because we end up the same churches regardless of the name on the door. Without an historical place to stand, there is not much for churches today to say about our culture as they are its children. This is clearest in our mega churches which are largely non-denominational. You could extract any given piece of a mega church service and graft it into another’s and it would be seamless. …such high production values, after all. Is there much difference in practice between Saddleback or Willow Creek or Faithful Central?* It is an odd truth that freedom of choice is often not freedom at all.

Church business/marketing/outreach can’t help but reinforce this: ads must always appeal to the least common denominator in the market. Even TBN, -which should get more credit for being a viable anti-Christ option, can exist ignoring any mention of tradition or denomination. I mean, they talk 24/7/365 without addressing any of the last 2000 years of theological reflection. It looks like church, sounds like church, feels like church, but where did it come from.....?

(Paging Dr. Foucault…)

This isn’t an argument for 2000 years of unbroken apostolic succession, nor is it a call to avoid being incarnational or practical, but it is an argument that all this choice might actually limit our true, theological choices. It has made everybody an Evangelical. We’re not even protestants anymore, we’re evangelicals.

You can choose from 100 different churches in your city as long as it's evangelical.

In our pursuit of choice we’ve actually made it harder to see outside of one particular worldview. And let’s be very clear on this one point: the Gospel is bigger than Evangelicalism. And it turns out that what causes us to “choose” things isn’t always a holy, considered motivation. I think this must hold true at some level for our personal relationships, too. That's one of the powerful aspects of family: you don't get to choose them, you only get to choose how to love them. Every time Barna or his accomplices bemoan the steadily dwindling mainline attendance, I wonder if people realize that as much as mainline churches are maligned as “out of touch,” it might be the case that they are simply not as captive to evangelical culture. And this might be the very thing God uses to save us!
------------


*This isn't fair to Faithful Central. Ethnic churches, to the degree they remain distinct but in relation to the evangelical world, present interesting hope. On the one hand, Faithful Central has a more distinct theological and practical flavor than many churches in SoCal because African Americans have a distinct adversarial relationship with the country’s history in the marketplace. And yet they, too must struggle to enflesh something distinct from the culture surrounding them, lifting one another up, without just capitulating to the “American Dream.”

in defense of twitter

We now Twitter, or tweet, or whatever you want to call it.
(It's foggy today)

We are going to try and be responsible with this :) If you notice, there are no tweets about the coffee I'm drinking right now or the details of life. They bore me, and I'm living them! I think we may need to bring the mundane back into faith. A little Brother Lawrence to save us from American Idle.
(Ran out of shampoo, had to use spouse's: hair feels funny)

And of course, the first tweet I receive from someone sent from their iPhone in their car, especially if it is a hybrid, will be met with the most stringent of Church discipline. If sent while on streets I regularly travel, even excommunication.
(mmmm, what I really want right now is some bulgogi tacos...)

I don't know how to make Twitter something more dynamic, as in "you can post on it too," so if you want to shout something, email me or the office and we'll push it through the ole twitmachine.
(what if the disciples thought that they were actually going to beGods?)

Poking around some social commentary sites, I've seen lots of reflections about the fragmentation of this generation's communication and worldview Twitter seemingly represents but c'mon - that's the low lying fruit. We get it. real relationship is hard. As opposed to the Medieval peasants in Europe who where largely connected, loving people. Ah, the good old days.
(omgz, People who talk loudly on the cell phone in public places are sooo rude!)

Let's talk about the ethics of technology, instead. Or how it is that Jesus heals in the midst of pouring ourselves out. I feel like there is a great practical schism between a lot of wonderful theology and where people are at, leaving a gaping hole for televangelists and megachurches to shape our souls with a theology sculpted by the technology they are utterly dependent on. (Radio, TV, satellites, Cars, Cameras, Computers, even the printing press...oh wait. Kindle, Audio video equipment,...)

But I'm not joining facebook or linkdin: it all looks like spam to me :)

terrorism: a matter of perspective?

I have been reading Vinoth Ramachandra's terrific new book, Subverting Global Myths. I am not far into it, but it is creeping up my "must read recommendations " list. He does a profound job poking holes in the myths that underwrite our western world, largely by recounting history and suggesting an alternative, Christian response. Here's a little taste to mess with you:

"The Soviet Union made its fatal move into Afghanistan on Christmas Eve, 1979, not long after the Shah had fled Iran, two events that redefined global politics for generations to come. The afghan communist party (the Peoples' Democratic Party of Afghanistan) had participated , along with the Afghan army, in a bloodless revolution in 1973 against feudal rule. It took power directly in April 1978 and pushed through progressive reforms. It introduced free medical care in the poorest areas, educated women, recognized the rights of ethnic minorities and freedom of religion. (By the late 1980s half the university students in the country were women, and women made up 40 percent of Afghanistan's doctors and 30 percent of its civil servants.) The reforms were opposed by Islamic parties and tribal warlords collectively known as the mujahedin. The Soviet Union sent its army to help the PDP government fight off the warlords, but before they did so the CIA had already begun a covert action program in support of the mujahedin. Ironically, the Soviets justified their incursion into Afghanistan in the same terms the American government used to justify their invasion in November 2001: they were combating 'religious fundamentalism' and 'terrorism'. "

The chapter heading is "Reaping the Whirlwind."

..just saying...

funny stuff

There is a fascinating article, "Are You a Christian Hipster?" posted at Still Searching. It's not meant to be funny, but it is observant. I guess I'm plain enough that it doesn't hit me square on, but you should read it and see (it's short). The related links, however, yielded a gold mine. Humor is a good way to help us see something about ourselves we might otherwise be blind to.

First mention is of course The Lark, a christian satire page. It is like The Onion for the church. Particularly relevant for us was the current article of mini churches acting mega. I lol'd. (I think it's a time-based link so if it disappears, its vol.5, issue 10.) The Wittenburg Door , an old humor standby, with headlines such as "Anglican Steel Cage Death Match Might Be Postponed" is essentially the same thing. Perhaps the slickest of the Christian Onions is The Holy Observer. My favorite quote: 'I wish that baby would grow up one of these years so I'd have less competition" -Santa'

Stuff Christians Like, the obvious knockoff on Stuff White People like. The author really does a fine job as the posts are on average insightful and pretty funny, too. Honestly, I wish I had beat him to the blog. I wouldn't have been as funny, but I would appreciate the ad-sense income much more than he would. Some that grabbed my attention:

#14 Dating God instead of Me: "One of the things that Christians at my college liked to say if they didn't want to date you was, "I'm not dating anyone right now, I'm dating God." So the guy, who really just wanted to play mini golf or have a bowl of pasta at the Olive Garden, has to find a way to get you to break up with God. "

# 91 Seeing Sin as a Catapult: This one is a great sermon on sin. Have you ever had a friend that says something like this: "I don't know how it happened. Things were going really well and then suddenly my life was out of control. It really snuck up on me."

#189 The (God) DTR:
They say: "I think God is calling me into missions."
They mean: "The first place God wants me to visit is a land called 'somwhere you are not.' I'm leaving tonight. I'm breaking up with you."

#191 Committees on Committees about Committees: "A church I know has a banner committee. I think they get together and talk about banners. How flat they are, how long they are, how to roll them up. This is what I imagine anyway, because no one has ever asked me to be on a committee." This may be my favorite story so far. The author is a real life meatspace author, I believe.

Finally, truth is stranger than fiction. I present to you the Butter Cow Lady and her sculpture of the last supper. In Butter.

I'm a twit

Well, we've gone and done it: Epic now has a twitter account. Not necessarily because we need to know what beverage I spilled while driving, or what traffic on I-5 is up to. I hope we get to use it as a spontaneous gathering tool so more people can serendipitously meet up for lunch across the Southland. In my defense, I refuse to even consider a Facebook account. I prefer friends I can touch. ooh. that sounds creepy. I mean, I prefer friends that I can feel their breath in a conversation. -that's gross too.

Well, there's no getting around it: the body creates a whole host of problems for modern humanity. Technology helps us ignore its inconveniences and indulge its proclivities. We are Gnostics of convenience, -which aside from being my next band's name, shows how much we need the incarnation as a central feature of our theology.

The beast is below in the right column