Category Archives: Church

Church: It isn’t working

Posted on February 4, 2008 | 12 Comments

Did you know that nearly half of all church attenders are not born again Christians? And the majority of those who aren’t are long time loyal attenders of church. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that it’s not doing us any good to get people into church. Just getting someone inside the door seems to be the goal of most evangelists, but getting people through the doors of a church isn’t changing anyone’s life.

I had the great privilege of attending two sessions by George Barna last week. I wasn’t sure whether his sessions would be incredible or incredibly boring. He’s a pollster who researches trends concerning faith and culture in America. Definitely a numbers guy. I had visions of a monotone recitation of pure statistics. But Barna is a dynamic speaker who is passionate about his work and his faith. He believes his calling is to wake the Church in America up.

And we need waking up.

We’ve come to the place in this world where we mistake activity for significance. As long as we’re doing something, we think we’re accomplishing something. But we’ve lost ourselves in the doing. We never think about what we’re doing. We just do it. And in the process, we have become blind. The Church doesn’t see what people are taking away about Christianity. So we never change what we do in order to change that perception.

People see Christianity as oppressive, when it should be freeing. It’s seen as critical, rather than understanding. Disengaged instead of relevant. Indistinct, when it is unique. Staged, when it is authentic. Suffocating, instead of tolerant.

There are 224 million adults in this country. 186 million would say they are “Christian.” 154 million go to church. 90 million are born again. And 13 million have a Biblical world view.

13 million. That may not be the majority of the adults in this country, but Jesus never waited until he had a majority. 13 million people can change the world!

Our world needs changing. There are 27 million people enslaved in this world today. Around 8% of the US population is homeless – and we’re one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

We need a revolution.

A revolution of faith. A revolution of compassion. A revolution of mercy.

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Posted in Christianity, Church

Tagged ,

The Battle Against Aids

Posted on January 11, 2008 | 1 Comment

Why your church should get involved.

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Posted in Christianity, Church

Tagged ,

Willow Creek: “We made a mistake.”

Posted on October 26, 2007 | Leave a comment

Willow Creek is a mega-church. No one can argue that they have influenced nearly every evangelical church in America with their business approach to ministry. To some, it’s probably a shock to hear Bill Hybels declare that their programs-based style of ministry was a mistake. To others, the declaration is no surprise – we’ve known that it’s been a long time coming.

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

This is true! Instead of bringing up parrots, churches ought to be teaching their members how to think for themselves and choose God themselves – not because there’s a really cool function happening down at the corner church.

What a relief that this mega-church is finally beginning to see that.

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Posted in Church

So Very True

Posted on October 10, 2007 | 60 Comments

I love nakedpastor. After recounting a story of a woman who was told by her pastor that she was fat because she didn’t submit to her husband, he says this:

The amount of subtle manipulation, judgement, criticism, condemnation and abuse that goes on in the name of religion is remarkable! And I’ll tell you why…

Anytime you have an idea the way people should behave or turn out, it results in violence against that person. If I relate to my wife the way I think she ought to be, according to my own desires and expectations, it violates who she is already. If I relate to my children according to my wishes for them, it destroys who they actually are. The church is one of the most concentrated cultures for having and imposing expectations upon people. The pastor and elder had an idea of what a woman should look like. She didn’t look like that, so they challenged her to become what she should be. She also didn’t relate to her husband the way they thought she must, so they admonished her to submit to her husband the way they think she should. That’s their biblical mandate!

They couldn’t see past their own agenda for her to behold the incredible and unconventional beauty that she possessed already. Neither could they fit her rather feisty and confident way of relating to men into their grid for wives. Instead of letting her be to blossom in her own unique way, they crushed her. But only for a while. She got out from beneath their oppressive weight of judgement and is doing fine. But I know many other people who continue to get crushed and crushed and crushed. And I’ve heard some say that there’s something virtuous in being crushed… like a rose that releases its perfume only when crushed, or a grape its wine only after being crushed. Some can tell when they are free to leave the press. Others don’t, but continue to voluntarily submit to the unjust oppression that they don’t deserve nor need to endure. Get out if you can!

That’s just one reason why I think many are leaving the church, and why many others have already left.

All I can say is… amen.

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Posted in Christianity, Church

He’s got it right; I need to learn

Posted on October 4, 2007 | 9 Comments

I’m a fool. Truly, I am. I still have the “habit of religion” stuck in my soul. Proof positive of that was my reaction to the Driscoll video. I still think it’s funny, but I do see everyone’s point about a Rabbi teaching the OT.

I read this today, and it was like someone slapped me or knocked me upside the head:

After this post from the other day, I got some responses that seemed to say, “We’re glad you’re back!” But I’m not back. I haven’t returned the same man. Even though I sensed a strong recall of what I’m to be doing: inviting people to freedom, and once they’re there or on the way, to work to provide a community where this freedom is not jeopardized. And this, I’ve come to experience and know, is rare as hen’s teeth!

You see, once I’d seen the dark side of organized religion and managed spirituality, I would be a fool to go back into it the same way. I have seen the dark side… many times. I could solve it personally by retreating into the solitary life of a hermit. And believe me, I’ve been seriously tempted. But that’s not my task. My task is to do what I said above, and that requires community. How can people be free and also love others? Is it possible for a liberated person to commit themselves to others? Is it possible to be a free person as well as a part of a group or even society? Is it possible to be free as well as responsible? Is it possible to be free and married? Is it possible to be free and have children? Is it possible to be a child and be free? Is it possible to be free at all in community? These are serious questions that must be asked by communities and their so-called “leaders” everywhere, never mind religious ones. But nobody seems to be asking them.

It seems I have returned as the same woman. Dammit! I want to be different. But the old way comes out so easily.

The questions nakedpastor has asked resonate in my head.

But the biggest question I have to ask… Is it truly possible to change?

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Posted in Christianity, Church, Freedom, Religion

Some churches stifle

Posted on October 3, 2007 | 2 Comments

For those of you who have ever felt oppressed or stifled in church, you’ll enjoy nakedpastor’s Church Visit.

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Posted in Church

Another Church Gives Christianity a Bad Name

Posted on August 13, 2007 | 15 Comments

Who in their right mind would actually cancel a funeral because the deceased was gay? That’s exactly what happened at High Point Church in Arlington, Texas.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.

Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.

“It’s a slap in the face. It’s like, ‘Oh, we’re sorry he died, but he’s gay so we can’t help you,’” she said Friday.

Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant.

The church’s pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men “engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing.”

Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

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Posted in Christianity, Church, Homosexuality

Stupid Message

Posted on August 5, 2007 | 6 Comments

There’s a church down the street from my apartment. My church doesn’t have a baptismal, so we use this other church’s facilities for our baptisms. I drove by it today, and the message on the sign stunned me. I was furious! What kind of Christ following people would have this message on their sign:

Members only.
Trespassers will be baptized.

Argh! There’s nothing right about that.

Church is for everyone. Church is not forced on anyone! Ever! At least, it’s not supposed to be.

Why does the church have to be like that?

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Posted in Church

Men and Women in the Church

Posted on July 17, 2007 | 20 Comments

(Video HT: Brody)

I can’t decide if I want to strangle Mark Driscoll or cheer him on. He has a good point about men in the church – they aren’t really men (generally speaking). I’ve touched on this topic here (briefly). In a nutshell, it seems like this country doesn’t produce honest to goodness men anymore. And that’s very evident in the church. The church is very feminized, and that could stand to change. (One of the reasons, I believe, that I’m still single is that I can’t find a “man” who loves God and is single.)

What I don’t agree with Driscoll on is his extremist, all or nothing, without men we are nothing stance. It sounds like he’s trying to go the opposite of a feminized church to an entirely masculine church. Both are wrong. The church is made up of both men and women and should be reflective of that. I also don’t agree with the condescending manner he speaks…

“60% of Christians are chicks. And the 40% that are dudes are still sort of…chicks.”

How respectful. It’s not that I don’t think he has a point, because I know he does. It’s just that he goes about it in such an offensive way. I would never attend this man’s church even if over half of his church is made up of single men, because I know that I would have no value there.

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Posted in Church

Some “Friends”

Posted on July 2, 2007 | 9 Comments

A few days ago I decided to email my post A Simpler Way to most of my friends and family (most of them either don’t know about this site or choose not visit it).

Apparantly, that was a mistake.

I got a phone call Saturday night from an old friend (we were best friends in high school and mostly through college). Turns out she had read my email and was concerned about me because it seemed as if I was following a man who doesn’t preach the gospel (her words, not mine). She said that she’d really like for her husband to have a talk with me and handed him the phone. At this point I’m so shocked that I really don’t know what to say. Then he gets on the phone and starts questioning my beliefs and whether or not I truly believe the gospel. Then he tells me that he agrees with me about hypocrisy in the church, but if I want to do something radical, go out and buy boxes of Chick tracts and pass those out.

It was all I could do not to laugh and hang up on him.

Finally I was able to tell him that if we continued the conversation I would have a hard time answering his questions on the spot because I was on the defensive, but if he and his wife wanted to write up some specific questions in an email I would be glad to spend some time thinking them through and answering them clearly and biblically. He said that would be fine – and then continued with his questions.

It turns out that they fall into the category of those who make the bizarre logic that if you don’t believe in a literal 6 day creation then you don’t really believe in the cross either.

Finally I just had to get off the phone with them because the conversation was doing more harm than good, but I did direct them here to ID to read about my recent crisis of faith and to see where I really am spiritually. Then I emailed them more information about Shane Claiborne, including a 50 minute video of Shane speaking.

So last night they tag-teamed me in a chat room. It was excruciating. I’m not sure how long “we” were talking (mainly him telling me I was wrong), but I’m really glad that the week before I figured out that my goal in life is to please God and not the people around me.

Apparantly, Shane isn’t saved. And the reason Shane isn’t saved is because he went to Calcutta to “learn love” from Mother Teresa. And since Roman Catholicism is a perverted form of Christianity based on Roman paganism, there’s no way anything Shane did or learned while there was of the Spirit of God. Don’t you know that light can’t have any fellowship with the darkness?

I tried my very level hardest not to let my attitude appear in the conversation. I understood that the reason we were having the conversation was because they perceived I was doing something foolish and not of God and they called me on it because they love me. So I wanted to be Christlike in my response. I did warn them that they had me on the defensive, so not everything I responded would be exactly coherent.

But then, these “great Christian” people started using sarcasm. After that (and constantly being told that what I was saying was “incorrect”), I couldn’t take it anymore and I left. I told them that they had done nothing to convince me of their way, but had pushed me farther towards the path I’m taking. And that debating people and telling them they’re wrong isn’t a way to get people to listen to you. I don’t think they cared.

They are exactly the type of people who have caused me to lose faith in the institution of the church. I don’t want to be like that.

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Posted in Christianity, Church, Personal