Educational Unions

I got a kick out of a recent offering on Radical Congruency. Here’s a preview:

Thank you, WEA! I knew I could count on you to use my $1200 I?ve paid you in dues for a good cause! And thank you for keeping my dues separate from your Political Action Committee funds, as you promised. I also appreciate it that your special voting issue didn?t waste any valuable paper or ink in explaining why we should vote the way you recommended. That would be pointless, since we teachers know to trust you instead of bothering to think for ourselves. We?re too busy teaching our students critical-thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills to actually practice them!

Christianity Today on Voting

Check out the latest article from CT about voting. Here’s a quote:

We only have a few examples today, but Weblog can’t think of any recent articles where a popular pastor or parachurch ministry leader has advocated sitting out the election. Nor have we seen any article by a highly respected Christian academic strongly advocating a Christian obligation to go to the polls. Is there some kind of division here? Is it academically hip not to vote?

The article quotes Rick Warren on the moral duty of Christians to vote. They argue that this is the consensus of most well-known pastors. They quote Mark Noll and Alasdair MacIntyre as two thinkers that advocate NOT voting. MacIntyre says: “When offered a choice between two politically intolerable alternatives, it is important to choose neither.” He also writes:

The only vote worth casting in November is a vote that no one will be able to cast, a vote against a system that presents one with a choice between Bush’s conservatism and Kerry’s liberalism, those two partners in ideological debate, both of whom need the other as a target. … Try to promote the pro-life case that we have described within the Democratic Party and you will at best go unheard and at worst be shouted down. Try to advance the case for economic justice as we have described it within the Republican Party and you will be laughed out of court. … In this situation a vote cast is not only a vote for a particular candidate, it is also a vote case for a system that presents us only with unacceptable alternatives. The way to vote against the system is not to vote.

MacIntyre’s view is presented in greater detail here. Now, the reason MacIntyre gives is compelling. It isn’t exactly my reason for not voting, since my reasons for not voting isn’t just disappointment in the system, but is instead based upon a distrust of any real partnership between church and state as working for Kingdom causes. Nevertheless, he illustrates something quite beautifully: Christians should realize the dangerous power of their vote. No matter who you vote for, you are voting for the lesser of two evils (if indeed you picked the lesser). Such a vote is still a vote for a candidate who will invariable cause some evil. Every Christian should ponder before voting. You can reject my non-voting as an exercise in stupidity. That is fine. My only goal is to make you think long and hard about the consequences of your vote, so that you don’t fall for the lie that a vote for Candidate X is without peril.

Frogtown Pastor

A pastor I know in Saint Paul (in a highly diverse area known as “frogtown”) has a blog that you should check out. He is a very eloquent writer. Read his latest post, In Need of Grace. It gives a glimpse into the life of a bi-vocational pastor. Here’s a sample:

One of the benefits of this job for me is that it gets me back out into the “real world,” where real people live, but this is a little too real for me this morning. I was shaking as I called in and admitted I had over-slept, and as they told me not to bother coming in since it was so late. It?s the first time in a long time that I?ve experienced fear over a job situation.

I love this time of year

I feel sorry for people who don’t get to experience the changing of the seasons. Sure, it get’s cooler than the coldest freezer setting in your refrigerator here in Minnesota. But the scenery changes.

It if funny to me that while Minnesota is a metaphor for change, Minnesotans themselves don’t like change. And they hate conflict. This is the Scandanavian way.

It’s not a Both/And, often it is an Either/Or

I think one of the most damaging things many churches believe is that they can do it all. They think they can be A) faithful AND B) successful (according to conventional measure). They can not only help the needy and foster intensive community, but also have a super-band, kick-ass messages, cool ambience, etc. It is interesting that when they attempt to do both, they almost invariably start with the latter. They think that once they get their act together, then they can start doing those really nice things. And sometimes a special few are able to do that. But it is incredibly hard to move from the comfortable-and-shiny to the uncomfortable-and-challenging.

Which would you rather have? I honestly believe that most churches and church leaders want both. But I also honestly believe that most churches and church leaders, deep-down-inside, would rather have success with marginal faithfulness than faithfulness with marginal success. This is human nature. I suspect most leaders start out wanting both, but as they strive after success, their definition of “faithfulness” changes.

Apologetics in the Church

Hans Urs von Balthasar argues that the best apology for Christianity is the life of the Christian: “…the ?perfect? Christian is also the perfect proof of Christianity: in the Christian?s existential transparency, Christianity becomes comprehensible both in itself and to the world and itself exhibits a spiritual transparency. The saint is the apology for the Christian religion.” And to flesh this idea out a bit more, Balthasar writes: “Instead of possessing a ?proof,? they ?are? a reflection of it in their lives. As they respond to the glory of God and reflect it, it shines forth not only for them but for others. For, according to the Spirit of revelation, the really holy person-in the sense of Leviticus 11:44f.: ?For I am the Lord you God; consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy?-is the best ?proof? of the truth of revelation.” So, Balthasar argues that the unbeliever aesthetically perceives the “glory of God” in the life of a holy person. This serves as the best “proof” for the unbeliever.

Much of the talk among younger evangelicals centers around the need for the church to more attractive or relevant or artful. I’ve noticed that talk of holiness has fallen out of the vernacular of many evangelicals. We reject the stodgy “holiness” offered by our predecessors to such an extent that we neglect holiness all together. Balthasar reminds us that no matter how cool our church is, and how engaging and relevant it is, unless the people at the core of your church are expressing the glory of God through holy living (this isn’t the same thing as “clean” living), then you are missing the point.

Commodificating Christianity

I subscribe to the Mars Hill Audio Series (not to be confused with the emergent churches of that name). On Volume 69 is an interview with Vincent Miller on “how the commodification of everything affects our sense of religious faith and practice (and on how we can resist).” He is a Georgetown professor of theology and I found his thoughts highly insightful. The problem, he posits, isn’t just one of materialism–people wanting more and more–but a problem of people redefining themselves and their society in a consumerist way–making everything, including religion, a commodity. We profane God when we make him into a commodity. Commodities can be chosen. We do not “choose” God. We respond to God’s calling. We need to move from an organization of choosers to a community of the called.

I haven’t read it yet, but based upon the interview, I’d imagine his book Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture is well worth the read. If you are interested in how we can be the church in a consumer culture, I’d recommend his book, as well as Unfettered Hope: A Call to Faithful Living in an Affluent Society.

Deployment

I found this brief article from Christianity Today to be interesting. It very briefly shows Brian McLaren’s take on sharing the Gospel in a postmodern age.

I very much enjoyed the following:

“Rather than measuring the church by its attendance, we will measure it by its deployment,” McLaren said. “One of the greatest enemies of evangelism is the church as fortress or social club; it sucks Christians out of their neighborhoods, clubs, workplaces, schools, and other social networks and isolates them in a religious ghetto. There it must entertain them (through various means, many of them masquerading as education) and hold them (through various means, many of them epitomized by the words guilt and fear). Thus Christians are warehoused as merchandise for heaven, kept safe in a protected space to prevent spillage, leakage, damage, or loss until their delivery.”

That is not only truthfully spoken, but artfully so. I have been wondering about how to “deploy” Missio Dei. It seems that people are not naturally oriented towards deployment. We are so used to being attenders and choosers that transitioning into being ministers and called-ones is difficult. I’ve noticed that parachurch organizations who are founded on the idea of mission, who later become a full-fledged church, are much more adept at avoiding the problems articulated above. They start by defining themselves as missional, and then form community around that. That is a much healthier stance than starting as an ingrown community that decides to start “doing” mission. The church has outsourced its mission for long enough. We need to deploy.

Beautiful Wisconsin and Martin Sheen

Amy and I went out of town this weekend to stay at two different B&Bs in Wisconsin. One was in Eau Claire, the other in Sparta. The time was exceptionally relaxing. I enjoyed spending some time with Amy outside of the church planter setting. Twas great.

The B&B we stayed at in Sparta (called Justin Trails), was incredible. The leaves were past peak color, which is just how I like them. I like the way the leaves begin to darken and instead of bright reds, yellows, and oranges, you get burnt sienna, amber, and auburn. When we entered the main lodge, we noticed a photograph of Martin Sheen on the wall…it was autographed. Later, when we went to borrow a video to watch, we picked “the American President”–a movie in which Martin Sheen plays a supporting role. He had autographed that too. At breakfast, we asked the obvious: “Did Martin Sheen stay here?” Indeed he did. In our room. Small world, huh?

Full Moon

Missio Dei has Moonie infiltrators. A couple started coming to one of our house gatherings and they have been spouting some odd stuff. One of the leaders of that group did some research and found out that the couple has been in the Unification Church for almost 30 years–and that they are part of a ministry team in South Minneapolis that is trying to recruit folk to the Moonie cult. We’ve been “public” for a few weeks, and already we have to start scaring off the wolves.

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