Liberating you from bad ideas about God
Didn’t Jesus say something along these lines?
Well, even if He didn’t, this is how most of us Christians live, so it must be true. The best way to show others you are a Christian is by wearing a t-shirt. Even if you treat other people like crap, it doesn’t matter as long as you have your Christian t-shirt on.
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I was just listening to a message given by Michael Frost, and in it he read the following poem by Adrian Plass.
This poem is exactly what I am thinking and feeling. For me, following Jesus has become a life full of deep faith and great fear. The poem portrays both wonderfully.
By Adrian Plass
When I became a Christian I said, Lord, now fill me in,
Tell me what I’ll suffer in this world of shame and sin.
He said, Your body may be killed, and left to rot and stink,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen – I think.
I think Amen, Amen I think, I think I say Amen,
I’m not completely sure, can you just run through that again?
You say my body may be killed and left to rot and stink,
Well, yes, that sounds terrific, Lord, I say Amen – I think.But, Lord, there must be other ways to follow you, I said,
I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.
Well, yes, he said, you could put up with the sneers and scorn and spit,
Do you still want to follow me? I said Amen – a bit.
A bit Amen, Amen a bit, a bit I say Amen,
I’m not entirely sure, can we just run through that again?
You say I could put up with sneers and also scorn and spit,
Well, yes, I’ve made my mind up, and I say, Amen – a bit.Well I sat back and thought a while, then tried a different ploy,
Now, Lord, I said, the Good book says that Christians live in joy.
That’s true he said, you need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
So do you want to follow me, I said, Amen – tomorrow.
Tomorrow, Lord, I’ll say it then, that’s when I’ll say Amen,
I need to get it clear, can I just run through that again?
You say that I will need the joy, to bear the pain and sorrow,
Well, yes, I think I’ve got it straight, I’ll say Amen – tomorrow.He said, Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with me
A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sanctity,
The cost is you, not half of you, but every single bit,
Now tell me, will you follow me? I said Amen – I quit.
I’m very sorry Lord I said, I’d like to follow you,
But I don’t think religion is a manly thing to do.
He said forget religion then, and think about my Son,
And tell me if you’re man enough to do what he has done.Are you man enough to see the need, and man enough to go,
Man enough to care for those whom no one wants to know,
Man enough to say the thing that people hate to hear,
To battle through Gethsemane in loneliness and fear.
And listen! Are you man enough to stand it at the end,
The moment of betrayal by the kisses of a friend,
Are you man enough to hold your tongue, and man enough to cry?
When nails break your body-are you man enough to die?
Man enough to take the pain, and wear it like a crown,
Man enough to love the world and turn it upside down,
Are you man enough to follow me, I ask you once again?
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said Amen.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen; Amen, Amen, Amen,
I said, Oh Lord, I’m frightened, but I also said, Amen.
Does this express your feelings in following Jesus?
Recently I told you of my encounter with Lance, the juggling-stick expert, and Merril, his Mayan-guru babysitter. I met both at the Scarborough Renaissance Faire and we talked some about Jesus and hope for the future. To understand where he was coming from, he told me to watch Zeitgeist the Movie. (Zeitgeist is German for “Time Spirit” or “Spirit of the Age.”)
Having watched it, I am a bit perplexed. Zeitgeist the Movie is actually two movies (or documentaries).
As part of the introduction to Zeitgeist the movie, there was a quote which reveals the way a lot of people view Christianity. This quotes is both funny and so very sad. This quote comes from George Carlin (at around 11:30 of Part 1 of Zeitgeist the movie):
I gotta tell you the truth folks. I gotta tell you the truth. When it comes to bullsh*t, big time, major league bullsh*t, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims — religion.
Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire, and smoke, and burning, and torture, and anguish, where he will send you to live, and suffer, and burn, and choke, and scream, and cry forever and ever until the end of time.
But he loves you!
He loves you, and he needs money! He always needs money. He’s all powerful, all perfect, all knowing, and all wise, but somehow, just can’t handle money. Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more.
Now, you talk about a good bullsh*t story, holy sh*t!
This is, of course, a caricature, which is why it’s funny. However, it’s sad, because when you boil “religion” down, George Carlin isn’t too far from the truth. Frequently, religion uses God to scare people into giving away their money. Much of Christendom operates in the same way.
What I hope to impress upon Lance is that Jesus is not this way at all. Jesus is just as upset and angry about this kind of religion as George Carlin is. Maybe angrier. When Jesus saw this sort of thing going on in the temple, He made a whip and nearly started a riot (Matt 21:12).
However, that was all just part of the introduction to Zeitgeist the movie. The real movie was divided into two parts, and I frankly am not sure how they fit together, so I will deal with them separately.
The first forty minutes is designed to make you think that religion in general, and specifically the stories about Jesus, are all a myth based on Egyptian astrology. I found parts of this section very disturbing, especially since, in all my “religious training” I have never heard any mention of what this movie states. Here is a website which summarizes some of the things the movie reveals.
Has anyone done any research in these things? What solution/answer can you provide? All the parallels between Jesus and Horus are incredible, especially when you consider that the stories of Horus predate Jesus by thousands of years.
Note: After doing a lot of reading, research, and thinking on the topics in this post, I wrote a follow-up post about the pagan roots of Christianity here and some of my concluding thoughts about Zeitgeist the movie. Go check it out and let me know what you think.
Part 2 was a conspiracy-theory smorgasbord. It attributed both World Wars, plus Vietnam, 9/11 and the war we are in now, as well as the Great Depression upon dirty public officials and rich bankers. The ultimate goal, the narrator says, is a one world government with a one world bank.
He may be right about this…I don’t know. But I guess if it turns out to be true, I wouldn’t be too surprised. The funny thing is that some of the sections of this part of the movie fit very well into prophecy about the End Times, the Mark of the Beast, and the coming Antichrist, especially the parts at the end about the RFID chip and the National Identification Card (which he said will be required of all US citizens in May 2008). Various Christian “Prophecy Buffs” love this sort of thing.
So watch Zeitgeist the movie at your own risk. I watched it so that I can continue to the conversation with Lance. He seems to be a very intelligent person, with a love for life and people. I think Jesus would hang out with Lance and learn how to use those juggling sticks. So maybe I will to.
I recently read John Burke’s book No Perfect People Allowed. This is another book that every Christian should read.
In the book, he makes the statement that we no longer live in a postmodern era, we now live in a post-Christian era (p. 15).
Apparently, Christianity has already lost the war against postmodernism.
(I personally don’t think it was a war that ever should have been waged in the first place. Christians are to engage, embrace, and redeem culture, not fight against it.)
In his book, John Burke explains how the church can operate and function in a culture that is “post-Christian.”
Ironically, as I was reading this book about how to live as Christians in a post-Christian era, I ran across an exchange between atheist Christopher Hitchens (author of the best-selling book God is Not Great) and Suchin Pak (correspondent for MTV news). She announced to him that our culture was becoming increasingly Christian. She said, “Our audience is more religious and conservative than we assume.”
When he heard this, Hitchens replied, “I really hate to hear that the young are becoming more Christian. If that’s true, that’s the worst news of the night!”
So here we have two leaders both coming to different conclusions about our culture. The Christian says we are becoming post-Christian, while the atheist is alarmed that we are becoming increasingly Christian.
I guess it’s like the debate over global warming. Some say the polar ice caps are melting while others, who note that this it the coldest year in a century, are predicting a new ice age.
So what do you think? What have you observed in your community and with your friends? Is our society and culture “Post-Christian”?
If you want to know what I think, the following picture sums it up nicely.
While institutional Christianity is quickly dying, there is rapid expansion in the number of people who are seeking to follow Jesus in organic, missional, relational ways. While the number of people who “go to church” might be decreasing, the number of people who seek to “be the church” is increasing.
In my opinion, this is a good and healthy thing, and provides a great opportunity for a post-Christian church to truly live and love others like Jesus in the world.
In his book, The Multiplying Church, Bob Roberts writes this:
Let’s start a thousand churches over the next ten years, each one running a minimum of two thousand members, and in just ten years we will turn America upside down with the gospel! That would work, right?
Wrong – that scenario just happened over the past ten years, and there are fewer people in church today than ever before.
How can that be?
How could we have spent billions to start two thousand megachurches and yet have fewer people in church and a society that largely feels the church is antagonistic?
The answer (in my opinion) is that most of the people who start to go to those new churches are not new Christians, but people who were already Christians and who transferred to the new and exciting church. Most of the church plants grew by transfer growth, not church growth. Others have pointed out the supporting statistic that every year about 4,000 churches close their doors … forever.
Then today, I was reading an article called “Change-Seekers” in World Magazine, which summarized the major study of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (available here). The study revealed that currently only 51% of Americans are “Protestant,” down from 60-65% in the 1970s. The only “religious group” actually increasing in numbers are those who identify themselves as “non-religious.” They comprise 16% of America, and have nearly doubled in number since the 1980s. Then the author of the article says this:
Despite the church growth movement and the proliferation of megachurches, evangelical Christianity is losing ground. Growing churches often have high turnover. [Are they going to other new churches with a better show?] The issue is not how to gain new members but how to keep the ones churches already have.
In The Multiplying Church Bob Roberts says that problem our churches face is that we are not seeing true life transformation in those who attend our churches.
I found this insightful, especially since on Friday, I read a book by Neil Cole called Cultivating a Life for God in which he reveals a way of discipling people which has resulted in amazing life transformation in the people that have done it worldwide. But the beauty of what he proposes is that this life transformation does not depend on the systems and structures that have come to be known as “church.” Instead, his proposal is simple, free, and easily reproducible. I just started reading his newest book, Search & Rescue, which appears to be an updated remix of Cultivating a Life for God.
It is my opinion that the way we do “church” today is more often than not a hindrance to the spread of the gospel and the making of disciples.
The death of churchianity is coming, and while it saddens me when churches close, I am also excited because I believe that a new movement of God is coming upon His people whereby we throw off the things that hinder what He is doing in our lives, communities, and countries, and embrace a new (actually old) way of being the church.
This new/old way will not need millions of dollars to sustain itself the way churchianity does.
It will live out the gospel among the people of this world by serving, living, and loving them, rather than just teaching facts.
Unlike churchianity, this new way of following Jesus will transform lives and communities. It will not require advanced degrees of education, high-powered leadership structures, costly buildings, expensive advertising, salesmanship routines, light shows and Hollywood gimmicks.
Those who leave churchianity won’t need experts to interpret Scripture for us, or to organize our discipleship programs and outreach events. Following Jesus outside churchianity won’t be limited to a single day, or a particular event.
When churchianity dies, we will stop going to church and simply be the church, the body of Christ. The death of churchianity precedes the resurrection of the church.
Therefore, since churchianity is dying, and we shouldn’t fight it. Churchianity is on life support and is begging us to pull the plug (which is why I wrote my book, Close Your Church for Good.
And as Churchianity fades away, I am beginning to see glimmers of light as the grime from centuries of tradition is scrubbed away, and the glory of God begins to manifest itself among groups of Christians who just want to live life like Jesus in their communities.
(Note: After writing this post, I learned that before he died, Michael Spencer wrote a book called Mere Churchianity. I haven’t read it, but it looks good.)
