P4E.223 An Open Letter to the Church at Large - Part 7

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,

This will be the last part of my open letter, so you can stop worrying about me after this. The bottom line is that you've lost your way and you need to get back on track.

An important place where you've gone astray is the idea of "once saved, always saved." A corollary of this is you telling your people that they aren't and never will be "perfect," so you might as well forget about it. You can take the idea of works being "filthy rags" too far, you know?

That reminds me of another place where we depart from each other. You (or a good many of you) insist that the "born again" experience is a moment in time when you are "saved." I say that it's an on-going process:

I was saved. I am being saved. I will be saved.

Contrary to what many of you believe, we can disagree about this and still be brothers and sisters. It is said that John Newton, the man who wrote "Amazing Grace" and an ardent Calvinist, was cordial, friendly and respectful towards his many Wesleyan brothers. Actually, I agree with Rob Bell's postion that we are overly concerned with a "salvation" to a future heaven. You need to focus more on "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

I get what you're trying to say, but you've overdone it so that Joe Blow Christian feels he doesn't have to change anything about his life once he's been "saved," and is "born again." I'm not advocating asceticism or anything, but we are supposed to be "little Christs" aren't we? Doesn't that mean that we should be in pursuit of being like Him? You've completely given up on insisting on a change in character (for the better) that should accompany the "born again" experience.

This is, in fact, what you should be focusing on with your people: character development. The Boy Scouts have this all over you. Every one of them can recite the Boy Scout Law, "A Scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent." Just think if every Church advocated and taught its men HOW to exhibit these character qualities. Forget that "you'll never be perfect, so don't even think about it" crap. As the saying goes "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time."

If you, Church, did focus on character development you would have an incredible impact on marriages between people who profess themselves to be "Christians." You would have an impact on the relationships between parents and children. You would be working at your people from the inside out and changing them from within. Then you might change the world's perception of Christians as hypocrites.

As Believers, we have our own little spiritual law to live up to. It's Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law." If you all could just concentrate on instilling these character qualities into your men, they might give up the pornography just long enough to pay attention to their wives and families. And I'm not joking here. You are ignoring probably the biggest problem facing your church-going men. Yeah, Internet pornography is taking down many of your men. And you aren't discussing or dealing with it! You are leaving us open to the criticism of hypocrisy and worse, the loss of many otherwise good men. You are not giving them any tools or motivation or incentive to leave the pornography alone. No, you want to talk about end-times theology instead.

So, come on Church. Abandon that which is not yours and reclaim that which is rightfully yours. Take back the moral high-ground by endeavoring to deserve it. Call your men to Christlikeness. Encourage them to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, to develop their character qualities, to get into the pursuit. Give your men some real tools that will help them in these pursuits. It's NOT about being perfect. It's about how we handle when we're not. It's about the pursuit of Christlikeness.

Finally, I agree with Neale Donald Walsch, author of "Conversations with God." When asked if God had only one message, his most important message to all of us, and you could put it into one paragraph, what would that be? He paused and said

"I can fit it all into five words. You've got me all wrong."

I bid you fare well. Go with God. But, GET THERE!

P4E.222 An Open Letter to the Church at Large - Part 6

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,

Your trend towards materialism and away from your rightful spiritual place is evident in so many ways. Come away from there!

Don't you get it? You ARE the rich, young, ruler! Divest yourself of your material possessions, give to the poor and follow the One who had no place to lay His head. The One who was born in a manger with nothing and died on a cross with less than nothing.

De-organize yourself and get back to your roots. Jesus didn't set up hierarchical institutions that perpetuated themselves as money-making machines and neither should you.

Quit judging and defending yourself (and God and His Word) against the World. Trust that He who created all has the whole World in His hands. There's this thing called "FAITH," you know?

Leave sex and politics alone. Any fundamental change in our culture will have to begin from the inside out anyway, so why don't you stick to what you should know best; spiritual matters.

Re-combine yourself. You're dividing yourself into too many little niches. You're being arrogant and pig-headed-stubborn about your little distinctions from the rest of The Body. Band together. Agree on the important (spiritual) stuff and let the rest go. For Christ's sake!

Get rid of your darn "worship team." Your worship teams have turned your "worship" into a passive, spectator friendly, participation optional, entertaining event. You DON'T need a "worship team" to worship. There was a certain charm and genuineness when you had a couple of guys up front strumming on acoustic guitars, but you have long ago gone completely crazy with your emphasis on MUSIC!

Get back to what you should know best: Spirituality. This means relationships. Focus on our relationships with our family members, especially marriage. Focus on our relationships with other Believers. Focus on our relationships with people who are not Believers. This means focusing on FEELINGS. How do we make other people FEEL? What do we do with the FEELINGS that come over us under different circumstances and through the actions of others? The FEELINGS are an indication of the condition of our spirit at any given moment. Quit ignoring the most obvious indicator of the condition of our spirit! This is MUCH more important than proving that God exists, defending the accuracy of the Bible, end times theology, creationism vs. evolution, abortion, homosexuality, post, pre or mid-tribulation rapture, sprinkling or dunking, Virgin Mary worship, once saved always saved, posting the Ten Commandments, or ANY other issue you are stupidly wasting your time on.

Sorry to be so harsh, but there it is.

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...