Are You Not Entertained?

One of my favorite film scenes in the movie Gladiator was when Maximus, having slaughtered the whole lot of opposing gladiators, notices the lack of applause at his quick delivery. Once he chucks his sword at the uppity-ups in the crowd, he screams, “Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained?” Then, of course, people start to applaud.

Such a Roman gladiatorial match crowd is a fine example of what pastors (particularly youth pastors) are struggling with today. Who could compete with a gladiatorial match? Carnage. Suspense. They even attempted to make history come to life by reenacting ancient battles where the actors really fight and really die–at the expense of no one important, mind you. Imagine an ancient church hosting gladiatorial matches to attract Romans–where the gladiators were only maimed, not killed.

When I read authors like Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death) or Allan Bloom (The Closing of the American Mind), I’m tempted to lose heart because, it’s not just the church that is being ruined by this addiction to entertainment. And then, I come face to face with it when a parent tells me her child is bored with our student ministry programs. I wasn’t at all offended, since I’ve seen kids get bored with the coverage of the Iraq War, the Gulf Oil Spill, and even with the never-ending SAW saga. They get bored with anything that doesn’t take things a step further. And what I’ve realized with my own children is that, the more you try and whet their appetite for entertainment–even if only temporarily to capture their attention for a good reason–they want more. More games. More jokes. More fun activities. Then many parents treat it like a trade-off. For every four Wednesday nights my kids give you, you should give them at least one fun activity a month. Hopefully, we see the problem here. For even the parent, both fellowship with the Body of Christ and study of God’s Word are a drudgery.

So, I ask you, what is the answer?

Some argue for compromise. We should understand this ADD generation and just deal with it. Or some may argue that children today are visual learners, which means they learn only through eye candy. We start them out on the electric babysitter (TV, ex. Sesame Street) and it’s all downhill from there. I mean, what do you expect us to do? Deprogram them and start over? Some would say this compromise is similar to translating the Bible into an indigenous language. Those poor people who no longer spoke Latin were forced to listen to Latin masses up until Vatican II! And until people like John Wycliffe or Martin Luther, no one dared translate the Vulgate so that common people could understand. Is that what we’re doing? Withholding entertainment to maintain power? Quite the contrary. It seems as though, if we mastered entertaining our students, we could have them eating out of our hands. But is this the way? Many student pastors wouldn’t admit it, but this is what they’re trying to do. By baiting kids with sensual candy every week, they’re perpetuating a serious problem.

Instead, do we withdraw? Do we strip the walls of rock band posters, refuse to play video games with our students, go back to hymnals, and save my jokes for the annual youth party? Again, no. We are where we are. There’s no denying it. Our kids are pumped full of so much information but they have neither knowledge nor wisdom. Adults treat students like miniature versions of their failed, miserable selves, and they cannot train them to be true men and women. Kids can make straight A’s and hit home runs but they’ve never considered if there’s anything in the world worth losing their lives over. They don’t think about this because no one’s making them. I don’t think the answer is to cold turkey strip them of any cultural details they find familiar: TV’s, computers, rock instruments, lights, etc. But I do think it would be beneficial to teach every student what it means to renounce these things. Someday, we may not have a choice. Thirty years from now, we may lose all these basic technological “necessities.”

Is this not the problem Christ pointed out to the rich young man: Go, sell your possessions, and come, follow me. Then you will have treasures in heaven. Later, Christ commented that it was hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The same is true of a culture that thinks it cannot survive without the technological trappings, without entertaining speakers, without the best music in town. Students who have “lost interest” in either Christ or the gospel have done so simply because the Holy Spirit never truly brought them to life. Or at least, they’ve been so inundated that they’re deaf to the truth. Many “bored” students out there are this way because they’d rather save their lives than lose them for Christ.

I have been “complimented” by a lady telling me she heard a student say he thought I was cool. I don’t say that to boast; it offends me. The reason it offends me is because that kid never comes to our services or shows any signs that he’s walking with the Lord. So what if he thinks I, or anyone else, is cool! The question I must ask at the end of the day is not, “Did I entertain them?” Rather, the question is, “Are they learning to give up their lives for Christ’s sake?” At the end of a retreat, my main concern cannot be, “Did you like the music, the speakers?” Rather, “Have you heard anything from the Lord?” At the end of my life, the question isn’t, “Did they like me? Did they get my jokes?” The question is, “Have I been faithful to my Lord and to the gospel?” The question is not, “Did I attract spectators?” The question is, “Did I make disciples?”

Reaching beyond Ourselves

I think there comes a time for any youth ministry to look around and ask, “What are we doing?” This past Wednesday we had a night just like that. Only a few of us were present during Spring Break week, and these few made up the majority of the tried and true “core.” I was teaching from Romans 8:29-39, crazily enough, and we’d had an excellent discussion on that oft (sometimes too oft) visited topic of predestination, election, and perseverance. Good stuff.

But I’d made a comment that the doctrine of election gives no believer the right not to evangelize. The doctrine encourages just the opposite, as Paul carries it out. Romans 8 and 9, the most “calvinistic” of all Scriptures, are followed up with Romans 10, in which Paul stresses that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.” He’s not indicating some voice from the sky, as it happened with him, but the message of Christ is spread from Person to person to person. How will they hear unless someone tells them? So I looked at the students and told them it’s time we began reaching beyond ourselves. It is one thing to strengthen your core of students with sound doctrine and, I hope, meaningful relationships. But the fact  is, people on the fringes who happen by once in a while do not stick around long enough to form meaningful relationships. Perhaps the strength of the “core” has made it hard, impervious.

So the challenge to the students was to begin thinking not of ways to attract students with gimmicks, but to first adopt an attitude of welcoming others into the body of Christ. I’ll go to Chuck-E-Cheese’s for the gimmicks, but I won’t stay because Chuck-E-Cheese’s is not the place where friendships mature. (Rather, it’s where diseases grow.) In the same way, I don’t want church to turn into Chuck-E-Cheese’s. I simply hope and pray it would be a place where people encounter the true, living Christ, are bonded to Him, and from there bond to other Christians. But this will not happen unless all of us begin to reach beyond ourselves in every compartment of our lives. I am not my own, I have been bought with a price; therefore, I am at the disposal of the One who has purchased me with His own precious blood. Likewise, no youth ministry belongs to itself; it exists solely for the glory of God. Therefore, God gets to do with a ministry what He wants. And He wants to make Himself known, to manifest His glory throughout the whole earth.

But the first step of seeing ourselves this way is crucial.

The Wonderful World of Youth Ministry

When I entered my final semester of seminary, the last post to which I thought I’d be appointed was in the bizarre world of youth ministry. Rather, I’d pictured myself in a suit and tie, preaching passionately, visiting the sick, counseling the justifiably crazy, etc. This was the picture of “Pastor” that seminary painted for me. Youth ministry was nowhere on my mental radar. But then, in October, I was five months out of seminary with no job and not a single interview to speak of. The more churches I applied to, the more ridiculous I seemed as a senior pastor.

Then, out of the great unknown, my pastor was urged by our elder board (AMT) to speak with me about accepting a position as associate pastor of youth and discipleship. A long, long title, yes. During the first phone call, I responded, almost automatically, “No thanks.” But once I hung up the phone, and looked at my wife, I thought, “Why did I say no?” It wasn’t making sense any more. Had I so much gotten it into my head that I was going to be one thing (a senior pastor) that I couldn’t imagine being anything else? Was I blinded by my own desire? After speaking with Sarah for a moment, I called back my pastor and asked if I could meet with the AMT.

Yada, yada, yada…By the second week of October I’m acting whatever-my-long-title-implies pastor. It felt strange for the first few months, as though I were in a dream. Not a euphoric dream, but a symbolic dream, where you’re not sure what’s going on, who’s who, or where you are. It was confusing, both for Sarah and me.

Now I find myself still in this foreign country called Youth Ministry. I’ve been a full-time minister, and even a part-time youth minister, for over ten years. I’ve worked in student ministry loads of times, but I find myself now both intrigued and daunted by all the things I don’t know, all the things seminary didn’t prepare me for, and how our journey with God, as Howard Macy pointed out, is wilderness through and through. I am unfamiliar with the language, with the culture, and with the terrain of this new place. The path, in other words, is narrow and hard. So, slowly but surely, I am learning.

During this time, I’ve learned that my “calling” is not necessarily what I feel most confident or equipped to do. I’ve also learned not to say I’ll never do something. I said I wouldn’t lead worship again. Of course, in His infinitely wise way, od changed my desires. Anyone who says God cannot change our desires or make us willing to do something is wrong. I also said I’d never go back to student ministry. Again, I was wrong and I find a strong passion for students that I never knew was possible. I’ll be happy to be wrong most of my life as long as I’m reminded that my life is in the Lord’s hands and that He always knows and does what is best.

Most merciful God, be patient with me as I learn to do Your will…

Songs and Sermons

I started trying to write songs when I was twelve years old. My parents argue that I started writing poetry when I was eight, when I owned a small detective agency. Anyway, even as a teenage songwriter I understood that a song needs a basic unity. Well, at least, I understood this musically. I understood that you wanted the song to stay in the same key, unless you modulated to another key. And I understood that songs I liked to sing all had a few words that were repeated, called a refrain, a chorus, or a hook. What I failed to understand as a budding songwriter is what I’ve failed to understand as a preacher: sermons, as well as songs, need unity in their content and in their intended purpose.

The more I’ve been evaluating my own preaching, the more I sense that my sermons lack unity. I spoke about this with my professor, Robert Smith, and he made a strong point. Sermons must always look at the preaching text from eternity. Read the Bible backwards. As a Christian, we must do this. How do things look in light of Christ? Thus, Christ becomes the one who holds Scripture together. Christ is the Chorus.

There’ve been three areas that homileticians typically see as indispensable to the sermon: Fallen Condition Focus (Chapell), Redemptive Center, and Sermonic Eschatonic (Smith). Dr. Smith sees the sermon as a recipe for spaghetti. Don’t be enslaved to the order of inclusion, but always get ALL the ingredients in. Lost people need to be made aware that they are lost (Fallen Condition), and they need to see how Christ meets the fallen condition with His own perfect, atoning sacrifice. But all Christians need hope. Hence, pointing to the eschaton, or the last things, heaven, etc, which is also fundamental to the book of Revelation, is fundamental to the sermon. And Christ is all over the sermon. He is the song we sing. As Paul noted, “We preach Christ crucified.”

Unfortunately, too many sermons end with the preacher trying to get people to give money. They take a good sermon on the resurrection of Christ and make a beeline to the parishioner’s wallet. We live in a hopeless time, which is ironic, since we’ve lived a very prosperous few decades. We are seeing that the things for which we incurred so much debt, our many investments, our many purchases, our toys, our fancy, well-decorated houses, our hardwood or marble floors, our summer homes, have not satisfied us. We are as desperate and hopeless as we ever were. So, when I speak of hope, I don’t simply mean “comfort.” Rather, I mean that the object of our hopes needs constant adjustment, and the only thing that sobers our hope is remembering that Christ is coming. Read Acts 17 and see how Paul does this as quickly as a Judo throw. Creation, rebellion, depravity, condemnation, CHRIST, reconciliation, Day of Judgment, these are there in one brief “talk” at the Areopagus. The whole scope of redemptive history is there, and it must show up in our preaching. An even more astounding example of this is Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7, a sermon which, I might mention, Saul of Tarsus heard.

I’m hoping that this rationale for preaching will help both my songwriting and my sermons. But more than anything, I’m praying for changing trends in Christian preaching. Congregations, let your preachers study and preach the Word! Pastors, study and preach the whole counsel of God! Drop the CEO mantle and don that of the theologian. Make Christ the chorus of what you do, and may Christ receive glory, as He eternally glorifies the Father in the Spirit.

Scared of Election?

No, this entry is not about Senators Clinton, Obama, or McCain. This is about the doctrine of election; that is, God’s choosing people before the foundation of the world to come to faith in Christ.

This is a disturbing doctrine for lots of people. I am not trying to make a defense of it right now, even though I hold to the Reformed view of election and have done so since I was sixteen years old. It’s not that this view is perfect, and I don’t wave a Reformed flag because what is most important is that we all embrace the tensions that Scripture throws at us. I have fought with this doctrine, tried to ignore it, but Scripture—not some obnoxious hyper-Calvinist preacher—beats me down every time. My question is not about election itself. My question concerns why this doctrine troubles so many people.

The first problem: “I just can’t accept that God will send people who want to be saved to hell.” Sure, we love our family. We don’t want to think about the possibility of some not being predestined to inherit eternal life. But that’s not for us to think about. Paul says, “¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ¹⁴ ¶ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” This doctrine never seemed to bother Paul, even in Romans 9, one of the most crucial passages in support of this doctrine. The logic is simple: If you do not tell people about the gospel, they won’t accept Christ, and therefore they will die and go to hell. Who are we to tell God what He can and can’t do with His own mercy? Preach the gospel, if you’re so concerned about who is predestined. Election should give us confidence when we proclaim Christ. It is not an excuse for laziness in evangelism. Lazy evangelists who rely on Reformed convictions to excuse laziness are both bad Calvinists and bad Christians.

The second problem: “I don’t like the idea of not being able to choose for myself.” This conviction has developed more out of Enlightenment thinking than biblical convictions. We, particularly Americans under the illusion that we have “inalienable rights,” hate the thought of having things outside of our control. God “works all things after the counsel of His will.” Perhaps this attitude is more helpful for us: “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?” How can we tell God how to distribute His mercy when we ourselves don’t deserve or understand it? You might as well face this truth: You did not choose God. You were dead. Dead people don’t ask to be made alive. Your response to God was your decision, but it was not solely your decision, and it was not a decision in our modern sense of the word. You placed your faith in Christ, sure, but God gave you the faith in the first place.

My point is this: Before jumping on the bandwagon against those in the Reformed tradition, we should question why we so dislike the Reformed teaching of election. And, mind you, neither the Reformed view nor the Arminian view, resolves the tension running through Scripture. Be biblical! Don’t worry about putting the Reformed flag first. But don’t pretend than any hermeneutical “key” solves all the tensions in God’s Word. Paul writes, “In love He predestined us…” He didn’t have to. So, preach the grace of God in Christ and leave the results with God. Conversion doesn’t depend on us. But God, in His mercy, uses us, and to reject this is to disobey God. I’ll admit, the doctrine of election troubled me, until I realized: Had God not chosen me, I would’ve never chosen Him. I don’t know why God would choose any of us other than the fact that He is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” If you’re struggling in sharing Christ with someone, persevere. God has burdened you for that person. Don’t give up. You’re the vehicle for the message that saves people. Preach it faithfully. Let the doctrine of election encourage you! Let it humble you! Only then, I think, can we be more effective in sharing Christ with others.

Israel As an Example of God’s Faithfulness

The title of this entry may not sound like a big change from what you already think. However, I read an article by theologian David Bosch last semester, and it revolutionized the way I see the church and God’s mission in the earth.

First, Bosch notes that Israel was set apart to testify to the world. Normally, when we think of this concept we say, “Yes, God set apart a people for Himself, so that they would walk in holiness and proclaim His goodness to the rest of the world by setting a good example.” After all, God did promise Abram, “Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” So, the descendents of Abraham will be set apart to be instrumental in blessing the entire world. We can see the church’s mission in this, can’t we? God called us in Christ to be set apart, different, not conformed to this world. But what we find, particularly in our own culture, is that the church is broken down, like an old building that should be condemned rather than renovated.

Someone very dear to me has recently undergone a tragic experience in their congregation concerning the senior pastor. The people feel betrayed, frustrated, even forsaken by God. This dear person doubts they will ever be part of a local congregation again. “The church doesn’t work,” they said. It sounds like what we say when trying to get an old car to run, “It doesn’t work. Throw it away!” But the rub is, we can’t live without the fellowship of the church, for better or for worse.

Back to Israel. David Bosch asks the question, “Did God set Israel apart as an example of what it looks like to be set apart to God?” Who would read 1-2 Kings and argue this point? Who would even look to King David and argue this point? Rather, Bosch argues, God called the feeblest people, who were nothing (they were not a people, remember?), and brought them into a land as a “light to the gentiles.” But what does God really show us in the whole history of His people? Do they succeed in becoming a holy, spotless vessel for His glory? NO! But here is what we do see. God never leaves them. Though they play the harlot, God does not give up in His love for them. Remember the emphatic language of Scripture first cited in Exodus 34:6, “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast (loyal) love.” All of the most promising people in the Old Testament fail in the tasks to which they are called. Moses never reaches the promised land. Abraham’s descendants are forced out of the land into Egypt because of famine. Joshua fails to secure the land against its native inhabitants. David fails in his own morality and leadership. Solomon, who held such promise as a leader, and should have secured the unity of the kingdom, actually splits it in two! But God remains steadfast in His love. Maybe that’s what matters more. Maybe we should remember this when we think of whether or not the church “works.”

If there were no problems in New Testament times, we wouldn’t have a New Testament! Don’t make the mistake of thinking that New Testament times, because they were biblically primitive and simple, were a symbol of Christian perfection. Think of Corinth! Think of Euodia and Syntyche! Think of Demas, or even that wonderful gospel writer Mark who chickened out and abandoned Paul and Barnabus in Pampylia! In one sense, the church doesn’t work! But Christ always works. Salvation works. And we only see the firstfruits of salvation. We see through a glass darkly. But can we say that the church doesn’t “work” because we see the mess that sin makes of the church? Did Paul ever say this of the Corinthians, whose morality was worse than the pagans? No, he said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” This is the reality, so live in it.

Despite how dissatisfied we might be with all the problems facing the people of God. God is working. God is exposing the sin and dealing with it. God is painfully restoring His work in His people. He is breaking us down so He can build us up anew. You may be disillusioned with God’s people. You may like Christ, but not like Christians. But don’t give up. Our salvation is complete, but it still has a lot of working out to do. Hang on. God is faithful. God is good.

Worship’s Redemptive Center

Something that is often lost in today’s mainstream, nondenominational worship services is the redemptive center. Usually services cater to a particular emotion, or they work toward a single intended effect. For example, some pastors push to get people excited, so they organize a service that sticks mainly to upbeat, “happy-sounding” songs; also, the message tends to deal lightly with some (hopefully) Scripture-based subject matter. Or, in, say, a communion service for Baptists, we focus so much on the death of Christ; therefore, the music is typically somber rather than celebrative. Or, revivalist preachers manipulate the service, extend the “invitation” ad nauseum, and beat people into repentance. In any of these cases, the service was organized around the intended emotional response.

 

Modern worship songs also tend in this vein. They appeal to a single emotion. The song “Friend of God” deals with an intimate connection with God without allusion to what God had to do to accomplish this, nor does it take into account the too frequent times when God does not feel so friendly. This is not just Christian culture; it finds its way into our movies as well. American movies are strongly genre-driven. Movies fall all too easily into rigid categories, whereas the greatest films of all time appeal to a broad spectrum of genres within the same story. Good novels do the same.

 

What do I mean by recovering the “redemptive center” in our worship services? Well, a couple of songs can illustrate this for me.

 

“How Great Thou Art”

O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder…

This song begins with two verses of human observation, an unfulfilled wonder, the natural observation of the world. However, the third verse moves us to something more astonishing than any wonder of the world: the Lord Jesus gladly bearing our burden, bleeding and dying to take away our sin! The song ends with a forward look to finished redemption in the risen, victorious Christ when He returns. I’ll outline the progression this way:

1. Human observation/perspective
2. Refers to the Gospel and how Christ meets the basic human dilemma
3. Refers to the eschaton, or “last things,” the summing up of all things under Christ

Another example:

“It Is Well with My Soul”

When peace like a river…when sorrows like sea rivers roll…It is well…

The song begins with a merely human situation, including the sorrow of grief, yet the assurance we have in knowing God is faithful. The second verse deals with how Satan exploits such situations, he “buffets” us, and tries to convince us that our sin deserves such cruelty, or that God has abandoned us. But what is the Christian’s response? “Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed His own blood for my soul.” The third verse expounds this, but makes the image, in my opinion, so much clearer: My sin…is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more…Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, o my soul!” Finally, the fourth verse looks forward to the return of our Lord.

1. Human need/experience
2. Gospel
3. Eschaton

 

Seeing this pattern of wide-ranging material in the greatest of our Christian hymns convinces me that worship services need not appeal to a certain kind of emotion. We must preach the entire Gospel, which neither begins nor ends with the crucifixion, although we certainly can’t have a Gospel without a crucified Savior.

 

Surely we are all for better content in our worship music, more substance to our songs, more range in our preaching, and more glory to our God!

All Scripture Is God-Breathed…

First of all, this is not political, I just become intrigued when politicians become theologians, same as I am when preachers become politicians. I find Barack Obama’s citation of the Sermon on the Mount in defense of same-sex unions a curious, but not a surprising, maneuver. Most gay defenders cite John 8 about the woman caught in adultery, but the principle is the same (sinners shouldn’t judge sinners). This particular quote caught my eye: “I don’t think it [a same-sex union] should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state,” said Obama. “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.” An “obscure passage in Romans”? Is not all Scripture God-breathed? To me, this is laughable, but remember, Mr. Obama is not a theologian. He is grasping at straws, theologically, trying to get votes. Honestly, I am not worried about him or Hilary. They are only symptoms of our national spiritual epidemic. They represent what the people want, just as King Saul represented the people of Israel. Obama is not a prophetic voice, but he’s the best we’ve got since the voice of Christ in His Church has gotten laryngitis.

Short Salvation?

When you read Luke 19:3 in a literal translation, it reads, And he [Zacchaeus] was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature.” Well, to whom does the “he” refer? Is it deliberately ambiguous? Was Jesus a midget? If Zaccaeus had a to climb a tree to see Jesus, maybe Zaccaeus was not the short one. Maybe Jesus was so short that, being surrounded by taller people, he could not be seen except from a tree. Yes, this is why I’m paying $3000 a semester, so Will Willimon can speculate about Jesus’ height. Just kidding, it was a remarkable sermon. You can download and listen/watch at the following address: http://www.beesondivinity.com/templates/System/details.asp?id=25215&PID=515498