Update November 2011

Just want everyone (anyone?) on here to know that I am not abandoning this blog, but it's no lie that I'm trying to devote most of my writing time to my www.robkristoffwriting.blogspot.com blog. 

Of interest to you might be that I recently wrote a little 2 part series on there called "Why I love Jesus but don't attend church".

Also, I was watching something with the kids in class today, talking about how the Pilgrims came to the new world so they could practice their Christianity/religion however they wanted.  Interesting, since I sometimes feel I'd go to a new world to experience the same thing!

Bye for now.  Come visit at the other blog!

Links and Connections

This one time, a guy came to our churchplant.  The one that met in the movie theater.  And he introduced himself as a reporter of some kind, and asked a few of us questions, and went away.  Later, he published a story in The Christian Science Monitor that was not very flattering- I would say for good reasons, and it wasn't mean-spirited.  I was quoted in that article.  And then it got picked up by USA Today, and maybe the Associated Press.  Have some fun, google my name and "The Church of Higher Tech".  There's a crazy sermon from a pastor in Ontario about how our little church was pretty much the devil.

Anyway, I'm working on putting together my portfolio of writing and thought I'd look up this article.  As part of that, I found this article by the same reporter, though much newer and in the New York Times, and I must say, it reflects a lot of what drove me from or keeps me from pastoring.  Well worth a read.

Being Christian & Being Mediocre

"When I first started writing songs ...  I started off thinking I wanted to change the world, and most kids experiment with sex and drugs when they’re teenagers and I was really interested in religion... What I found is that, instead of maybe me changing the world, it really changed me. I found out through that whole process that I wanted to learn how to write songs and make music better than I had before, and I realized that a lot of the fundamentalist people didn’t care about that, or were judgmental about that. It seemed that they had a very utilitarian view of art. That art was only to serve one purpose, which was to get across their point of view, and I didn’t agree."-Sam Phillips

*******

Due to some weird problems at blogger last month, the post I originally wrote to accompany these photos (actually, the writing came first) never came back.  But fear not, I have not forgotten what they represent.   Now let me attempt this again.

Why, I ask you, do Christians seem to have some sort of genetic compulsion to imitate?  Let me start with the two images above.  I used to love a band called the Altar Boys (this was before the catholic abuse scandals, so don't even think it), a Christian rock band, and they had a song called Life Begins At The Cross- I assume that's where the above clip-art image originated.

That was all fine and good- until much later, when I heard the XTC song called "Life Begins At the Hop".  Awfully close title, yes- but also, the chorus sounds almost identical.  What had sounded to my naive mind like great creativity had in fact nearly been outright artistic theft.  Now, all artists borrow from one another, faith aside.  But that feels a little too close, to me.  We're not talking about a riff of music- we're talking a whole hook, lyrics and all, practically.

But it's not just the Altar Boys.  It's T-shirts that say "God's Gym" and copy the graphic design of Gold's Gym down to the font.  It's a culture that's artistically always one step behind and derivative.  For that matter, why is there a Christian pop-culture, anyway?  Bible study guides and faith-specific merchandise, sure.  But why are there Christan diet plans?  Christian record labels?  Christian book publishers?  I'm talking about the Christian boy-band that comes out the year after NSync has a hit.  I'm talking about "Turkey Soup for the Teenage Soul"- I made that one up, but you know what title I didn't make up?  A series of books called The Yada Yada Prayer Group, by Neta Jackson.  If you're not conversant with the book world, that would be a direct ripoff of "Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood".  That lack of thinking for ourselves is what makes the secular world condescend to us and think of us as idiots.  Honestly, can you blame them?

There are exceptions.  Hammock.  Don Miller.  Artists that are simply going in their own direction and are Christian as a matter of personal choice rather than professional stance.  Sam Phillips is a great example.  Julie and Buddy Miller had some connections to Xian music once, but now are simply known for the high-quality music they make.  Period.  (PS- you know who else was a Christian musician?  Katy Perry.  Too bad we couldn't have kept her in the fold, eh?).  And of course, if you ask me, the prime example of all:  U2.  Biggest band on earth, perhaps.  Christians.  But instead of the Yada Yada prayer group, you instead see the rest of the world copying THEM.  That somehow sounds a lot more Christlike to me.....

THAT is how it should be, whether we're authors, plumbers, painters, guitarists, or whatever.  It's not that Christians need to be these super-great wonder-artists.  It would be nice, but that's not what I'm saying.  But I do not believe that it does any kind of service to Jesus if we're given some sort of cultural "pass" because we're creating for a religious subculture.

And it doesn't just apply to artists.

*******

"I think that love is always the most important thing, and what I felt a lot about the fundamentalist doctrine and their behavior was that they became exclusive, that they were excluding people who didn’t believe in the same thing, or they were excluding gay and lesbian people, basically excluding a lot of people, and that didn’t feel like love to me. Love is always my gauge in anything, or any kind of philosophy or group, whether it’s religious or political, if love isn’t apart of it I have a dubious view of it... I feel like I am closer to having a spiritual life rather than a religious life."
-Sam Phillips

The Way Forward?

"We are left where I always am, thinking that Christian communities should be small gatherings of families who never get large enough to create these false social structures...  I was asking how we keep those traditions that really indoctrinate kids at a young age without some resources..."


The above came  from a recent conversation with a good friend and seminary classmate that I like to talk about these things with.  Why, we were asking, does all church look like a ridiculous distortion of what Jesus seems to have been about and/or what he came and did?  So many churches seem to do absolutely thoughtless (meaning un-thought-about) things in God's name.

Where he lives in the midwest for example, one church advertised its Easter egg hunt.  It was going to hide 250 thousand eggs, some containing tickets for large prizes, like TVs.  This was in the name of drawing in families, in the hopes that they would somehow 'get to know' the church while attending this event, and make the hard-to-imagine psychic leap to then attending weekly services at the church.  'You know where I want to learn about God?  From those people that were so nice to give us that TV!'

It is things like this that make me literally ashamed to call myself a Christian sometimes.  Is there even a Pastor of ANY kind in charge at these places?  Do you mean to tell me that he or she has honestly spent time sitting in the office, thinking, 'What would Jesus be doing if he were here right now?  Yep, an egg hunt'.  Don't even get me started on the distortion between Easter Bunny Easter and What A Church Should Offer.


But enough negativity.  We reached the same point in our conversation that I'm at right now in this entry:  so what, then?  Where does that leave us?  Why do we stick around?  What's the alternative?


The alternative, if you listen to my friend, and something deep inside speaks to me in what he said, is love, rather than incorporation.   It is community, not an organization.  It is choosing the real relationships that you have with your friends, however flawed they may be in some ways, over the 'networking' relationships you have with people in church.  It is a place where you can be yourself- your true, freaky, opinionated, swearing, day-to-day self, without feeling like you're going to be judged by your parents or your kindergarten teacher.


Am I saying that true Christianity is found in swearing in church?  Of course not.  Am I saying that we should just listen to whatever rock songs we're into in a car, and call that worship?  No.  But am I asking for transparency?  In the people, and in the group?  Yes.  Am I saying a true church shouldn't get bigger than everyone knowing each other?  Really honestly knowing each other like 'their name is on my contact list' for real friends?  Yep.  That's what I'm saying.


At some point there's a difference.  Your worship community is not JUST your circle of friends.  There has to be some difference.  And that's something we can further explore.  What is that difference?  What happens when new people join, or want to join?  Do we need to pursue those people?  (churches of all kinds have felt for years that this growth is absolutely ESSENTIAL.  I'm not so sure).


If this sounds like your kind of religious community, I urge you to keep following this blog, keep in touch with those of us whose names you can find here.  Join the facebook group of the same name.  If you build it, He will come..... and if you want it, you can have it.  But you have to reach out for it.

busy day but...

How better to celebrate the resurrection of Christ but by a madcap day of uncontrollable busyness, right? 

Happy Easter, all.

The Turning

So, It was around now on Easter week when all the people who had been cheering and throwing down palms on the triumphant entry began to realize that Jesus wasn't coming to take over Jerusalem and kick some Roman butt like they had hoped.  Or maybe more than hoped.... thought they were seeing happen.  Maybe that's why they were so happy.  Perhaps a little like a mob yelling "Fight!  Fight!  Fight!".


But here it is three days later, and he's not doing anything.  He turned over some tables at the temple, but that's about it.  Tempers may be starting to turn.  What the hell?  I thought this guy was going to free us from our oppressors!?  What a fake... they may be thinking.  The psychology of crowds is a tricky thing, you know.

And we'll see that again, as Good Friday looms.  Sorry to be throwing down with the Xian terminology.  As Jesus is turned over to the Romans and questioned, we will see the mob mentality turn towards evil rather than happy palm throwing.

This week is a good time to think about what it is BB is about.  Jesus stands in direct contrast to the "official" religious leaders and teachers.  He's the unendorsed one, the one without the Rabbi training.  How dare he teach people what God is like?

But today, who stands in this position?  Is it Jewish Rabbis?  Yes, but even more so, I would say it is people like the Pope, and for many, the priest.  Or failing that, the preacher.  More than ever, folks are interested in Buddhism and Islam, and to a smaller degree Hinduism.  People who weren't raised in these faiths, I mean.  But I would say that few except their hardcore adherents know much about the religious leaders of these religions.

But Jesus (and Buddha, as far as I'm aware) was not a part of this huge organization.  So I ask once again, if we are meant by God to follow the Bible's depiction of Jesus as being what God would look like, act like and be like as a human being, why then should we try to look like the pope, the priest, or the pastor, as we know them right now?  As we would today call traditional?

Food for thought this week.

You Miss Too Much These Days If You Stop To Think...

"...In the garden, I was playing the tart-
I kissed your lips and broke your heart.
You- you were talking like it was the end of the world..."
-U2

{If you don't know, Bono has said that the song is written from the point of view of Judas}

Poetry Nonsense

You were supposed to be the one
The one to save us
From ourselves...
From the Romans...
From whatever.
You did those miracles,
You came to Jerusalem
We threw you a party-
So what's your problem?
You better start thinking straight-
Or there's gonna be problems.........

Master and Apprentice

What would Jesus Do?  It's a hack phrase, one that we all are bone-tired of hearing.  But I think it's important to consider a related, but different, question.

What DID Jesus Do?

And why would we depart from that?  Think about who this Jesus really was.  He was a carpenter, that much we know.  Not the most white-collar of trades.

But more important to our investigation in this group, what did he do about people?  Once he was starting his real work.

Because if Jesus was God's example to humanity about what God is like- and if you believe in Him, isn't that what He is?  If Jesus is that, then aren't we told about Him in the Bible, so that we can study how He did things?  Isn't that the point?

So, how did Jesus interact with people?  In another post, I want to consider how He talked to and lived with those who weren't part of His group, but for right now, consider the disciples.  He didn't meet once a week with these 12 guys.  He lived with them.  (And it doesn't sound like He preached on a regular schedule either.  But again, that has to wait until a future post.)  He walked around with them, lived life, and didn't tell them what to do, but showed it to them.

Disciples are one way to say this.  Another is apprenticeship.  You can think of that the medieval way, where you shadow a blacksmith for years to become one yourself, or you can think of a college internship kind of apprenticeship.  Either way, we see Jesus taking one or two disciples off and teaching them, just by sitting down and talking.

And then comes a long long bunch of church history.  And all of a sudden, people sit in hard benches in ornate cathedrals and listen to a speaker talking (often in a language they didn't even understand).  Maybe it's inspiring or feels sacred or looks pretty (all that stained glass), but if it's what God ever intended for us, why does Jesus do the opposite?  He didn't even have a home!

So often, we simply either a) shrug this off- it just doesn't make sense, but it is what it is or b) are turned off by it and dismiss Jesus and think of other things. 

Instead, think about this.  Really give it some honest thought, like you would some other day-to-day question.  Why should it be like this?  If the Bible is this great sacred book, why do we ignore what it says?  Of course there will ALWAYS be differences in interpretation- in the meaning of what we read.  But look for any evidence of today's church in there, and good luck- you won't find it.

Trust

As I mentioned in the first post of this blog, "my own" has lots of baggage.  But here's the thing.  I am the one starting this group.  As far as I know, I'm also the only one in it with pastoral training.  I don't say that as some sort of ego boost, but only to set up the fact that you choose the spiritual director that you follow.  Any church would be like this as well- I don't have to tell you that.

But I want to be up front about it.  Am I interested in starting a little cult where I make all the decisions?  No.  But would this group be flavored and affected by who I am?  Of course.  And that's to be expected.  In fact, continuing with the local market metaphor, one could say it's to be celebrated.  You like local places BECAUSE there's a real person at the center of it.

But it does involve a bit of trust.  Spirituality is a personal thing, something hard to talk about.  Certainly something hard to take advice about.  This group is never going to be about penance:  the idea of the priest as some sort of go-between giving you a message about God's punishment for you (apologies to former RC's who object to my wording- I've never been).  But rather, about each of us pursuing our own way to God.

That sounds pluralistic to me, so let me say right now, that I believe in Jesus.  That's my angle.  I'm not doing this to secretly make anyone "born again", but I do follow Jesus and if asked, it's what I would advise others to do.  I am not proposing a pan-theistic group composed of various religions.  I would make a pretty poor advisor for that.  And in fact, I wouldn't want to start that- it sounds watered down.

However, do I know the basic tenants of other faiths?  Have I studied other faiths than Christianity?  Have I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (that's kind of a joke- but yes, twice)?  Yes.  Could I find you a place to connect with other kinds of churches?  Sure.  Would I hate you for pursuing them?  No.  THAT is what I mean by "our own way to God".

Starting "my own" "church"?.... Let's Define some terms....

Recently when I was questioning in my personal blog some questions about life, about what I'm supposed to do with it, about what I have to do with a higher power and some sort of purpose, A friend who we will call "Laura" suggested I should 'start my own church'.

While that's nice to hear, it is a phrase (at least for me) fraught with words that are "hyperlinked", for lack of a better metaphor.

My Own?  There's one tiny grain of truth there, but no, I am not interested in starting a little cult of me.

Church?  What does that mean?  To me it means that this entity would be part of a larger recognized group.  Presbyterian...  Congregational... Catholic...  And you know what?  With each passing year, I feel a bigger "no thanks" growing within me about associating with these entities.  We'll talk more about this later.  But for now, understand that I'm proposing something that could MAYBE be termed 'micro-church'.  Would you rather support a multi-national corporation, or a very small local market with only ONE location? 

If we go further with this, I  want to try to determine what sort of a group we could have that would lose the guilt (I don't go enough!) and avoidance (I don't want to go, but I really should....) and dressed-up-showiness of "church" as so many of us have come to know it and/or reject it, but would still be a way to provide guidance and community to those who so often seem to refer to themselves as "unreachable", or those who would want to stand with them.  When this is said, I believe it is of course part self-hate, and part false modesty (that yearns to be corrected).

But so many consider themselves to "seek God in nature" or something like that, who then consider it no further.  What if you set aside organized religion, but could design a group of people to help in making spiritual thinking a practical life occurrence?

What about that?

Well, here's an inside line for you:  You can.  If that is something you want.  You don't have to start a league just to play some ball...