P4E.221 An Open Letter to the Church at Large - Part 5

From previous parts:
"First of all, I am nobody. I have no credentials. I have no theology degree. I don't claim to be a prophet of God. I do not claim this to be a "prophetic utterance." I don't claim that God "told me" to say these things. I'm just a guy who is (hopefully humbly) pursuing Christ in his own way. I do recognize that people distinguish between the "church" and the "Church," but for my purposes, they are one and the same and what I have to say goes for both. This is certainly meant to be more than a friendly nudge, more than a good natured poke. It's meant to be a hard jab in the ribs or a kick in head of the Church. Church, I know that I am you and you are me. Any accusations I have against you, are against me as well. I don't separate myself from you. Your faults are my faults. The criticisms I am making of you are meant to be an encouragement to be better, and in that sense constructive. Don't get all offended."

Dear Church,

You have railed against the idea that there is a separation of church and state in America. But, seen in a certain light, you should be thanking God and taking advantage of the possibilities. You cry foul and bitch and moan but, in fact you have allowed the government to take some of your responsibilities onto itself with disastrous effect. In fact, church and state are not separated enough! The government is doing the work of the church.

Let's do as they say and follow the money. I'm not claiming to have done any massive research, but I can't be too far off and just want to make a point. A New York Times Article states that in 2009, half of the $229 billion that Americans donated went to religious institutions. That's roughly $115 billion. Another website, called ourdime.us states that U.S. federal welfare spending for the poor in 2009 amounted to $191 billion.

What if...What if you, the Church, took back your rightful responsibilities of tending to the poor from the federal government?  You could, because of your spread-out grass roots nature, probably do a more efficient, effective, better job of handling the money than the federal government does. You could relieve the government of the burden that is rightfully yours and put a dent in the national debt.

Well, it's just a thought and I know it would be like turning the Titanic around. You're kind of lazy and distracted and unmotivated and unorganized, so I have little hope that something like that would happen, but it does make your imagination tingle, doesn't it?

Anyway, failing that, let's continue to follow the money. Church, if you were to open your financial books what would be the budgets listed in the line items:
Helping the poor
Feeding the hungry
Clothing the naked
Caring for widows and orphans
Visiting prisoners
And how would those budgets compare to the line items:
Church staff payroll
Mortgage (or lease or rent) on church facilities
Remodeling of church facilities
Stage lighting
Sound system
Flat screen tvs
Radio and tv time
Printing
Advertising
Utilities
If it looks like what I think it looks like, what does that say about your priorities and motivations?

I'm just saying....

P4E.220 An Open Letter to the Church at Large - Part 4

From previous parts:
"First of all, I am nobody. I have no credentials. I have no theology degree. I don't claim to be a prophet of God. I do not claim this to be a "prophetic utterance." I don't claim that God "told me" to say these things. I'm just a guy who is (hopefully humbly) pursuing Christ in his own way. I do recognize that people distinguish between the "church" and the "Church," but for my purposes, they are one and the same and what I have to say goes for both. This is certainly meant to be more than a friendly nudge, more than a good natured poke. It's meant to be a hard jab in the ribs or a kick in head of the Church. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Church, I know that I am you and you are me. Any accusations I have against you, are against me as well. I don't separate myself from you. Your faults are my faults."

Dear Church,

The criticisms I am making of you are meant to be an encouragement to be better, and in that sense constructive. Don't get all offended.

Let's return to the Occupy Movement for a moment. You need to get out of the material mindset and into a spiritual one. Sure, seen in one light, the Occupiers have their faults. But, there is a reason why their protest resonates with so many people. There's a spiritual connection that many have with them. There's feelings that they represent that you and I should be sensitive to and responsive to. Feelings like frustration, abandonment, exclusion, powerlessness, of being treated unfairly. Feelings of being overlooked, of aloneness, of fed-upness, of anger and resentment and envy. I think people who are experiencing these feelings could rightly be described as "poor in spirit," and you know what Jesus said about them...

Let's paint a scenario together. What if...What if Bill Gates was your good and true friend? What if one of the wealthiest (and therefore most powerful) men in the world had your back? What if he daily communicated with you and lifted your spirits by telling you how important you are to him and that he would take care of you no matter what? What if he backed up that promise on a regular basis? Yes, I mean with money, but also with encouragement and communication and support. What if Bill Gates had people who defended you against wrong and lifted your spirits and asked about your needs and took care of them? Now, let me pose a question. Would you care if others were prospering? Would you care how other, lesser people, corporations, governments treated you?  I dare say you would not. I believe that having the wealthiest and most powerful of men on your side would make you feel confident, cared for, included, grateful for what you have. You might feel empowered and you might feel like sharing your good fortune, because any friend of yours would be a friend of Bill's.

So, let's make the leap, Church. If, in our little scenario, you played the part of Jesus' people and the Occupiers were the rest of the world? Do you think that if you represented Christ well by caring heartily for those who feel disenfranchised and un-loved that the world would care how they were treated by others? If you had their back, if you had them covered, if you cared for them in their time of need, would they be likely to feel un-cared for and resentful? And even if they did, would it be a reason to stop?

See Part 5 for a BIG idea...

P4E.219 An Open Letter to the Church at Large - Part 3

From Part 1:
"First of all, I am nobody. I have no credentials. I have no theology degree. I don't claim to be a prophet of God. I do not claim this to be a "prophetic utterance." I don't claim that God "told me" to say these things. I'm just a guy who is (hopefully humbly) pursuing Christ in his own way. I do recognize that people distinguish between the "church" and the "Church," but for my purposes, they are one and the same and what I have to say goes for both. This is certainly meant to be more than a friendly nudge, more than a good natured poke. It's meant to be a hard jab in the ribs or a kick in head of the Church. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

Church, I know that I am you and you are me. Any accusations I have against you, are against me as well. I don't separate myself from you. Your faults are my faults.

I used a word in Part 2: "clique." You, Church, have fractured yourself into a clique away from the world and into cliques within yourself. The clique you have made against the world is like a club. You are in, and the rest of the world is out. You have turned inward and insulated yourself away from it. You are no good to it. You are deluded into thinking that you are doing some good by ministering inwardly to yourself, when it is the outside world that really needs you.

You have fractured yourself into so many denominations and splinter groups that you are no longer recognizable as a unified whole. Why should you not be combining congregations instead of dividing into new ones? Your pastors must have huge egos to believe that they have something so new to bring to the people that they must start a new church. Every time a new church opens its doors, you divide yourself further and the Enemy rejoices. Are there really that many facets to our Belief that we need to continuously divide and separate ourselves away from each other?

You go over and over the same theological ground. To what purpose? I actually heard a well known pastor in his sermon giving a litany of different approaches to proving that there is a God! We cannot have it both ways, Church! Either we have faith, which is a belief in things that cannot be proved, or we can engage in trying to prove that there is a God. I choose faith. So within our own insulated group, we console ourselves with "proofs" that there is a God, that creationism is right and evolution is wrong, that abortion is murder, that the ten commandments and the cross should be in public places, that homosexuality is the bane of our culture, that marriage is between one man and one woman, and that the country is going to hell in a handbasket. You may even acknowledge to yourself that the world needs God, but you make no real effort to represent Him well to the world.

In an ironic twist, you are of the world, but not in it. You have adopted the materialism of the world, but have had little to no spiritual effect upon it. Your worship services aspire to be like the introductions at an NBA game. Your ad campaigns rival anything on Wall Street. You've taken advantage of the media of the world, but have no substantive message for it. You are worldly in your insatiable need for money, instead of giving it away. You are worldly in your focus on self-improvement, instead of self-sacrifice. You are worldly in your desire to be entertained, instead of putting your hand to the plow and getting work done. You have exerted a patriotism and adopted a conservative politics instead of championing the Spirit of Christ to a needy world. Where is your Jesus?

There will be more...

P4E.218 An Open Letter to the Church at Large - Part 2

From Part 1:
"First of all, I am nobody. I have no credentials. I have no theology degree. I don't claim to be a prophet of God. I do not claim this to be a "prophetic utterance." I don't claim that God "told me" to say these things. I'm just a guy who is (hopefully humbly) pursuing Christ in his own way. I do recognize that people distinguish between the "church" and the "Church," but for my purposes, they are one and the same and what I have to say goes for both. This is certainly meant to be more than a friendly nudge, more than a good-natured poke. It's meant to be a hard jab in the ribs or a kick in head of the Church. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

You, the Church, have been sidetracked. Let me give you an example. I heard a well known pastor of a church on the radio today. He was talking about children. How Jesus told his disciples that they should let the children come to him and not keep them from Him. How, in those times, children were considered insignificant, but that Jesus said that we must become like children to enter the kingdom of God. So far, so good. Then, the sermon took a 90 degree turn and became sidetracked. The pastor turned it into a rant about abortion.

Now, I am not making a case to justify abortion. I have been an admirer of, and even personally met, Francis Schaeffer before he passed. I understand and  can even agree with points of the stand he took against abortion in his book "How Shall We Then Live?" What I am saying is that the abortion issue is sidetracking the Church. More accurately, the Church is skewed in its response to the abortion issue. What right or reason does the Church have to judge the world? Even Christ Himself said that He did not come to judge the world, but to save it. Christ had every right and opportunity to judge the Samaritan woman at the well a liar, the woman dragged before Him by the Pharisees an adulteress, Matthew a turn-coat tax-gatherer, and the men who hung next to Him on the cross thieves and murderers. But, He didn't.  He didn't minimize their sins, but He didn't berate them or accuse them or condemn them. Instead, He showed them sympathy, compassion and forgiveness. He took them in and made them His own.

Why is the Church not following Christ's lead? Every reasonable reading of the Scriptures would tell us that we  should not judge. That we should show compassion to those in need. That we should feel sympathy and empathy for those who find themselves in difficult circumstances. That we should forgive. Instead, the Church cries, "Murder!" and hurls insults and accusations and judges the world.

The Church is sideways to the very world that it should be intent on saving.  It has lost its way.  Only in this way could a pastor take a lesson that could and should be about becoming innocent, vulnerable, harmless, naive, small and insignificant and turn it into an angry, hostile, confrontational, belligerent rant about how bad the world is. Wake up, Church, before it's too late! Because you must remember, Christ reserved His ire for those who claimed to represent God, but did so poorly. To those who made rules and purposefully misrepresented Him; To those who used God's Word to bludgeon each other and the world; To those who sought to create a clique to separate and lord themselves over the rest; It is they that Christ condemned most harshly.  So, wake up do not repeat the past!

More to follow...

P4E.217 An Open Letter to The Church at Large - Part 1

Image via NPR.org - "Occupy Wall Street Timeline: From Blog Post to a Movement"

First of all, I am nobody. I have no credentials. I have no theology degree. I don't claim to be a prophet of God. I do not claim this to be a "prophetic utterance." I don't claim that God "told me" to say these things. I'm just a guy who is (hopefully humbly) pursuing Christ in his own way. I do recognize that people distinguish between the "church" and the "Church," but for my purposes, they are one and the same and what I have to say goes for both. This is certainly meant to be more than a friendly nudge, more than a good natured poke. It's meant to be a hard jab in the ribs or a kick in head of the Church. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

My heart has been aching as I see the Church floundering along. I see a Church misled and misguided. I see a Church missing opportunities left and right. I see a Church that has lost its focus and has no idea which way to turn. So, the Church is collectively running down a rabbit hole, on a wild goose chase, head in the sand, thrown to the wind, chasing its tail, running in circles and spunout.

The thing that's got me going is the Occupy Movement (OM). The OM has struck a chord with many and been the object of scorn for others. They have no one champion nor do they have any particular goals. But, they are tapping into a growing sense of unease in the country and the world. No one can quite put their finger on what it is. These people have identified that they feel cheated, misused, bullied, forgotten, abandoned, maltreated, trodden upon, and beat down. They want justice. They want peace. They have identified Big Corporations as an enemy, but they might just as well have picked Big Government or Big Media or Big Entertainment or Big Religion or anyone else that force feeds them ideas, unduly influences their lives and takes money out of their pockets.  Many of the OM's Big Enemies have seized the opportunity to identify themselves with some salient aspect of the OM. The people of the OM have unwittingly made the case that they want and need to be saved. But, where is the Church? Nowhere to be seen. Nothing. Nothing at all.

The very entity that has the answers to the yearning, craving, crying need of the OM is standing on the sidelines. Worse yet, many in the Church are critical, judgmental and cynical, saying "What these people need to do is clean up, quit whining and complaining and go get a job."

Church, where is your COMPASSION? Where is your EMPATHY? Where is your FORGIVENESS? Where is your LOVE? Where is your CHRISTLIKENESS?

There will be more...