Holiness Reeducation

But many of us who have seen significant growth in our churches know a dirty little secret: Significant growth has its own ill effect on helping communities develop deep faith. Numeric growth of Christianity doesn’t indicate a more harmonious was of life with God. The metaphor of the body is a good one for churches. A body that’s too big puts a strain on the systems of the body. At the same time, communities who never embrace new people or new perspectives find themselves starving. Both obesity and starvation are pathways to death.

Doug Pagitt in Preaching in the Inventive Age

I have been wrestling with this quote for a couple of days now. Both obesity and starvation are pathways to death. It struck me because we are the most obese culture that has ever lived. Obesity is an epidemic that is radically altering the future of our country. It is going to bankrupt the health care system of this country. It is going to forever alter the generation that is growing up obese right now. It has changed our view of ourselves and the view the world has of us.

But until I read this quote I never associated obesity with the megachurch culture that dominates the landscape of American Evangelicalism. Can we equate, to a degree, over-sized churches with obesity? I am beginning to think that we can. Obesity goes beyond poor eating habits. It truly becomes a disease. Once the body has too much fat and has increased beyond a healthy mass it begins to effect the bodies ability to function properly. It takes a lot more energy for the body to simple keep running. It puts a strain on the heart. It puts strain on joints. It can lead to diabetes by effecting the kidneys. It effects movement, activity, flexibility, rest, and long term life expectancy.

Unfortunately, how we are being the church in our country can lead to a lot of the same symptoms. The amount of work and resources necessary to maintain a megachurch is immense. This always increases stress levels and the health of those responsible for making that church work. It certainly effects flexibility and the ability to hear from God and adapt quickly. It can certainly effect life expectancy, sometimes for the church itself, and certainly for the staff members involved. Obesity disrupts the natural healthy ways the body is supposed to function. In the church this can certainly be the case as well.

The major concern with obesity in our country right now is its effect on children. Growing up obese simply ramps up the medical issues that can accompany it and effect life longer and more severely. Young children who struggle with obesity very seldom grow up to be healthy adults. Might this be true in the church as well? If a church grows too big too fast at too young an age might it also have the same effects? If a church doesn’t have the depth and maturity to handle large crowds and large resources in a healthy way is it creating a ticking time bomb of destruction for itself and its staff? Interesting question to consider.

I am not throwing megachurches under the bus here, I am simply pointing out some of the inherent dangers at being over-sized. You can be over-sized and healthy, just look at some of the monstrous specimens in the NFL and NBA. However, studies show that the long term prognosis for these athletes isn’t good unless they take big steps to get healthy as they age and reduce their mass over time. The life span of an average NFL lineman is a depressing statistic.

At the core of this whole thing is the simple reality that God has designed the church like he has designed our bodies. There are healthy ways of living that maximize our ability to live productively and healthfully. Without careful attention to what we need to be healthy we can end up in a place where bad habits and poor consuming habits have rendered us unhealthy and unable to do the work God has created us to do.

What do you think? Is there more to this than I have stated? Am I overreaching? What do you think of Doug’s quote?

As often happens in my life, I have a collection of books I am currently reading or preparing to read. Looking at Kindle I realized that I now have ten in the hopper that need to be consumed and digested before adding anything else to the menu. Here are the books I am reading and some thoughts about them. What are you reading right now?

The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller – This one comes highly recommended by numerous people. I am just beginning it, but I can already tell it is going to be a worth while read.

Real Marriage – Mark and Grace Driscoll – This book has already generated quite a bit of publicity and controversy. I am reading it because of my desire to engage in conversations about sexuality and marriage. I don’t want to comment on it just by what others say about it. I am pretty sure I will have issues with the approach of this one, but I am working to have a very open mind going in. I am especially interested to contrast it with Keller’s book.

Preaching in the Inventive Age – Doug Pagitt – This one I picked up for $.99 on sale a couple of weeks ago. I meant to read it when it came out and never did. So I am glad to do so now almost for free.

The Church is Flat – Tony Jones – This is the work Tony created for his PHD program at Princeton. It is one of the most thorough accounts of the emergent church, its origins, and practices. Knowing that Tony invested a tremendous amount of his life into this, I want to give it a shake.

A Public Faith – Miroslav Volf - I am actively engaged in this book and there is a tremendous amount of excellence here. I need to really carve out some intentional time to finish reading it and really wrestling with it. A big recommendation.

The King Jesus Gospel – Scot McKnight – I am most of the way through this book and it is not only really good but really important. Scot hits this one out of the ballpark with his presentation of the gospel and what it means to gospel in our world.

Untitled – Blaine Hogan - This book is focused on the creative process. I am excited about its potential for writing, sermonizing and ministry ideas.

Quitter – Jon Acuff – Jon is the writer of Stuff Christians Like, which is the most consistently humorous and creative blog in Christendom. This book should be very entertaining and challenging. It is focused on the idea of why we never complete the dreams we set out to accomplish.

Veneer: Living Deeply in Surface Society by Tim Willard and Jason Locy - This one came highly recommended and seems like a good companion to the discipleship work I am doing right now.

Those are the ten for right now, what are you working on?

Mama, don’t let your children grow up to be kickers.

Whenever a field goal kicker misses my mother in-law feels bad, not for him, but for his mom. Watching your kid carry that kind of burden is tough. Well after yesterday’s games, Lawrence Tyne’s mom is relieved and Billy Cundiff’s mom is thankful her son used his college scholarship and NFL dollars to get a college degree and an MBA.

The tale of two kickers. One made it his kick. One missed his. In a moment their actions would decide whether they would be the hero or the goat. That really is the magic of sports isn’t it? Seldom in life does your legacy come down to a clearly defined moment. The limited time frames of an athletes career and the games they play make for artificially created and yet beautiful drama.

Tom Brady is Tom Brady not because of his good looks, model wife, or incredible fortune and fame. (OK those things kind of define him ) He is Tom Brady because he has been clutch in moments that really mattered. If he wins his fourth Super Bowl in two weeks he will establish himself as the greatest QB of his generation.

Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan because his unmatched competitive drive refused to lose in the biggest moments. Michael willed his team to victory, time and time again. Kobe is the only basketball player we have seen since that has remotely the same kind of drive.

John Elway was the guy who couldn’t get it done until he helicoptered through the air on a crucial play late in the Super Bowl and became a legend.

Dan Marino, Bernie Kosar, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley, they are all fantastic legendary players who never got there. Sometimes it was a moment missed, other times it was simply having the breaks go the other way. But how people view them changed because of moments like the two we watched yesterday.

When I first became a pastor, I felt like my life was a series of game winning field goal kicks. The sermon I was preaching, the worship I was planning, the youth event I was leading, those were my moments. They would either make or break who I was. If I succeeded in those moments I would change people’s perceptions of me and if I succeeded in those moments lives would be changed. It all hung on my shoulders.

Thank God I recognize how wrong I was. Life in the kingdom of God isn’t like life as a field goal kicker. Our pursuit of God and our work for his glory is all about a life well lived in continual, sacrificial, redemptive service of the world. It is never one moment, as a success or failure that defines us. We are defined by the love of God that redeems us. And the measures of our success are measured over the long term. We will fail. We will have moments of success. But our goal in the kingdom is to spend our life continually experiencing moments of obedience that change us and impact the world.

The artificial drama of sports is intoxicating. It changes the outlook of fans, for the good and bad. But it is not the way life works in the kingdom of God. And for that I am deeply thankful. (Especially since as a fan of the Wizards, Redskins, Capitals, Orioles and Terps my outlook is mostly jaded, pained, and frustrated. There has to be a beattitude that applies to me. Blessed are you when you root for perennial losers whose owners make torturing their dedicated fan base a way of life for in the kingdom of heaven your team owner is Jesus!)

I wanted to give you something to read today with all of your internet time freed up since you aren’t scanning Wikipedia for articles about Def Leppard or waste your day looking at funny cats and creative fails over at I can has Cheezburger. Those and other popular sites have gone on strike today to protest two government internet bills called SOPA and PIPA. These bills which are looking to regulate internet activity involving piracy have drawn massive protests from virtually all of the internet world. Huge sites have gone black today to protest these bills and to draw attention to them.

From a theological perspective I really love this protest. I agree with these companies that these bills are a bit limiting, even if the idea behind them isn’t bad. The urge to try and protect American jobs and intellectual property is a great thing. The way this bill goes about doing it may not be the best way in doing so. I understand the objections. I am not up in arms about the bills, but I get why people are so upset by them.

But what intrigues me much more is the way these companies have gone about their protests. Oh, I am sure they have spent a lot of money (because they have it) on lobbying Congress about this bill. But using the internet itself and their withdrawal from the system, even if for a day, is a great way of trying to promote change. Sometimes the only way to make the system stop and take notice is to withdraw from it’s support. Not every circumstance calls for that type of response, but more circumstances call for it than certainly we as American Christians want to acknowledge.

Sometimes not voting is the best vote. Sometimes not buying a product, or any product has a greater impact. Sometimes we have to use the system to do our work and sometimes we have to abandon the system to make change. A lot more people will be aware of these bills and their impact after today. Regardless of what the bills mean and whether or not we should protest them, I am very intrigued by the actions of these companies.

What do you think? Are there any lessons for us in the church that we can apply from this?

John 17

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.  I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

This week I have been reading through all the prayers of Jesus recorded in the gospel. The culmination of the recorded prayers of Jesus is John 17 and Jesus’ extraordinary prayer for his disciples before his death. There is so much beautiful theology in this prayer that it has taken me a few days to unpack all the language around covenant, identity, incarnation, mission and holiness. One piece of this prayer I never truly noticed before is the section where Jesus talks about sanctifying himself.

Wait a second, Jesus needed to be sanctified? Being sanctified is being made holy and Jesus was born holy. Being sanctified is having our sinful nature replaced with the presence and direction of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had no sinful nature and was already fully in communion with the Holy Spirit. So how and why was Jesus sanctified?

In the context of the prayer it is clear that Jesus is talking about being sanctified as part of the process of being sent by God and being obedient to the will of God. Being sent to do the will of God and carrying through that will through obedience sets us apart and sanctifies us in a powerful way. So in this way, even Jesus who was without sin, as he obediently prepared to die on a cross was being sanctified. He was being blessed, shaped, and drawn into the presence of the Father through his obedience. He was also glorifying his Father in the most powerful way possible, through his own sacrificial obedience. Our glorification of God also works to sanctify us in powerful ways.

I have honestly never thought about Jesus being sanctified before. My understanding of sanctification wasn’t broad enough. It was too focused on sin management and personal change rather than obedience and the glorification of God. Through the example of Christ then we find another important part of our pursuit of God. We are made more like Christ when we learn to be obediently sacrificial according to the will of God. This glorifies our Father and changes us from the inside out. This prayer of Jesus is one we should really reflect on. Jesus has shown us the path to sanctification and made it possible for us to experience it through his own work. Thanks be to God.