Inside the ferry building.
Mystery
13 years ago
A Strangely Insightful Circus
In a lot of ways the whole circus surrounding the release of the new Rob Bell book on Hell has acted as a strange and compelling fun house mirror, held up to the current American Evangelical landscape. It has revealed some of the worrying tendencies in certain camps while confusing many an evangelical…like myself. The crazy thing is I don’t think it’s a bad thing. In a weird way I’m thankful for the internet exploding into insanity in the past couple weeks; between the whole Hell vs. Universalism debate and Charlie Sheen basically embracing the fact he is an F-18 bro (aka, he’s a lunatic) it’s given me a lot to think about.
On the one hand, there is the Rob Bell camp which I suppose could best be described as progressive evangelicalism (my words). Living now in San Francisco Bell
Setting aside for a moment the desire to sell books and the probability Rob Bell didn’t write that himself, how in the world can a pastor allow themselves to be described in such a ridiculous and worshipful way and NOT do anything to change it? If a pastor is supposed to lead their congregation by the way they live life, how could he not simply laugh at such an absurd description and tell the publishers, ‘look guys, I’m flattered, but how’s about toning down the praise, cause right now it makes me look like an arrogant jerk who thinks WAY to highly of himself’. This to me is the FAR more worrying trend in Evangelicalism at the moment: how prideful Christian leaders come across. Their way of thinking is the best way, they are so insightful, other people who disagree with them just don’t get it, look at how popular they are and how many books they’ve sold, ect. And coupled with this sense of pride is a lack of awareness (best case scenario) or a lack of caring about it (worst case scenario).
The sad thing is our culture longs for the Christian ‘rock-star’. We’ve been conditioned by our society to turn a person into an idol because it’s easier to cope with an idol than with Jesus. It’s easier to latch onto your favorite writer/theologian/pastor/teacher and follow everything they do than it is to latch fully onto Jesus. But no matter how many times Mark Driscoll challenges you to not be a stupid idiot, or N.T. Wright challenges you to think of heaven as a renewed physical earth and not a place of disembodies souls, those challenges PALE in comparison to the challenges of Jesus, starting simply with love God and love others. That is too hard! And yet the Bible teaches it is the commands and life of Jesus we are supposed to follow, not our favorite speaker. So no matter what Rob Bell says about heaven or hell, no matter how ‘electrifying’ he is, his insight and opinion isn’t the final word…then again neither is the other side’s.
Which bring us to the other tent in this circus, the tent which in many ways started this whole fiasco to begin with. The New Reformed tent. It’s a pretty big and influential tent (not to mention pretty male and white) with a lot going for it. It is just as media savvy as Rob Bell, just as in touch with the culture and unfortunately, just as aware of its popularity and power.
First things first: what troubles me most about the way many leaders and pastors in this camp rushed to judgment on a book they have never read isn’t the fact they are attempting to toss him outside the Christian community, or the fact they assume they have the power to kick someone out of the Christian community, or the fact they are labeling Rob Bell a heretic without having read his book, it’s the obvious lack of LOVE they have shown in this whole situation.
Alex, my lovely wife, said it best, “Why is their first reaction to kick Rob Bell out of the Christian community via the internet and NOT to go to him and try to love him, or at least talk to him?” The dismissiveness of many very influential leaders of Rob Bell is troubling to say the least. It’s almost as if they were LOOKING for a reason to dismiss him, which honestly, maybe they were. Maybe they were tired of answering questions about Velvet Elvis or of hearing about Rob Bell doing speaking engagements with the Dali Llama (I know I was) and this was the final straw. Maybe they were just sick of such a widely read pastor asking questions they deemed to be dangerous or giving answers they deemed to be questionable. Whatever the case, their first actions, articles and tweets were reactionary, angry, dismissive and unreasonable given the fact they hadn’t read more than the chapter or two of the book the publisher sent out early. More over there was an underlying theme of fear. Fear of Christians wrestling with big issues like what the Bible says about hell and how to best understand it, fear of people not being content just to believe in hell because its always been taught, fear of (and this is just my opinion) losing their own power and influence. As someone who has thought about hell a lot recently I can honestly say I believe there is a hell and that its separation from Jesus and the worst possible place humanity can be…but does that mean I angrily dismiss anyone I know for merely asking a question about how hell is portrayed in the Bible and label them a heretic? It seems intellectually dishonest and thoroughly UN-Biblical and unloving to attack someone for asking a question, no matter how scary you think the implications of the question is.
The bigger issue which this whole circus has raised and not many people seem to be acknowledging, is pride. An astonishing lack of humility has been show by both sides in this argument! On the one hand there is Rob Bell and the ‘progressives’ who are quick to label more ‘conservative’ Christians as close minded and bigoted, not to mention the already touched on absurdity of Rob Bell being okay with being described as a “rock star”. On the other hand you have the New Reformers who are so convinced their system is the right system and their theology is the right theology they rush to excommunicate a fellow brother in Christ instead of reaching out to him in love when they feel threatened…not to mention the fact they are excoriating the said brother in Jesus based on a book description, not the actual book itself! If you ask me, it is pretty presumptuous to call someone a heretic based on a book description, no matter how egomaniacal the book description is. As I mentioned earlier, I am weirdly thankful for this whole circus because its made very clear the problems which explode when pride is left unchecked…on both sides.
My reason for writing this post is to challenge myself to take a good hard look at the areas in my life where pride reigns (not to mention the ways in which I can overvalue the opinions of pastors/teachers I respect instead of thinking for myself). I should go into meetings with students and City Cru events with fear and trembling, not self-assured confidence, knowing the dangers and delusions of pride are often impossible to detect until something draws them out publicly…like a book description from an author I don’t particularly agree with on an issue I think I have the end-all answer to. My hope and wish is for all the Christian leaders involved to take a deep breath and apologize for believing their own hype, rushing to judgment or at the very least for acting out in a way soaked in self-trust and anger instead of Jesus. I know I am as guilty as anyone of being seduced by the allure of pride, vanity and esteem so I hope I don’t sound holier than thou. Its is often easy to see the pride of others and point it out while being blinded to my own vanity. We are all sinners who are very imperfect but are loved infinitely by a God who is very perfect indeed. And that, at least, is an eternally comforting thought.
Ministry, Individualism and the Image of God: What Fleet Foxes Made Me Think
“I was raised up believer I was somehow unique. Like a snowflake, distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see. And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d rather be, a functioning cog in some great machinery, serving something beyond me.”~ Helplessness Blues– Fleet Foxes
I love the opening verse of this song by Fleet Foxes (hipster alert!). I think it perfectly captures the place many of today’s college students are at. Look, I love America
What I have seen both when I was in college and here in SF among students is a cultural shift away from the completely “me” centered existence to the idea, however fuzzy or vague, that actually we are meant to be in community with others and to live for something bigger than ourselves. This is what college students are searching for, a greater purpose existing outside of themselves.
The next line in the song quoted above is “But I don’t, I don’t know what that will be. I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see.” This longing to be a part of something bigger than one’s self is, I think, a reflection of the image of God in each one of us. The idea of being made in the image of God goes far beyond some quasi-spiritual soul but means something far deeper and more relational. In Genesis we see Adam and Eve made ‘in the image of God’ and they reflect it in 4 distinct relationships (full disclosure: I am stealing these 4 relationships from a Scot Mcknight talk on being made in God’s image): 1) their relationship with God 2) their relationship with each other 3) their relationship with themselves 4) their relationship with Creation. When they sinned, it wasn’t just their relationship with God which was broken, it was all four.
Part of what it means to surrender yourself to Jesus is, of course, our relationship to God is reconciled by the Cross of Christ but so should our relationships with others, ourselves and the world/creation. Jesus being the center, changes the way we relate to all 4. Of course it takes time and the Holy Spirit working within us for those relationships to heal but the fact remains we are ‘new creations’ and as new creations those relationships should now revolve around Jesus.
For many of today’s college students, constant doses of “me” centered thinking from parents, culture and authority has stirred up something inside them, a mysterious sense that perhaps this self-centered individualism is not the way we were made to live. After all, what has that sort of worldview gotten our parents generation? Sure, money, knowledge and power but also an obvious selfishness and consumerist mentality which sees the world and everything in it, from sex to marriage to friendship to material things, even love as a commodity that it their right. This mentality has even lodged itself into the Western church and our view of God himself. ‘What can God give me?’ ‘What can Jesus do for you’?
Today’s college students (and of course I’m speaking in generalities) are beginning to realize what Jesus said 2000 years ago, if “they lose their life, they will find it’. We are made and designed to live for something outside ourselves. Part of our job as staff and as followers of Jesus in general is to come alongside students and affirm their sneaking suspicions they are not the center of the universe and were created to be ‘a functioning cog’ in something much larger, the Kingdom of God. That is the challenge of college ministry, to present the truth that it is in Jesus and His story we find our true selves. Of course there are a multitude of competing worldviews fighting for student’s minds and hearts, worldviews which would even affirm that living self-centeredly is not how we were made to live. But ultimately without Jesus, most of those worldviews are all about you in the end: how good you are; how loving and generous you are; how just you are; and they eventually lead a person to worship themselves and their own goodness/morality.
It is our job as Spirit-led, holistic disciples of Christ to model a Jesus centered life, to model reconciliation in all of our relationships, to reflect what it means to truly be made in the image of God. It is a tall order indeed, one which would be impossible without Jesus giving us the Holy Spirit to guide and sustain us. So the question is, am I reflecting Jesus and showing the world what it means to be made in the image of God? Are we actually living for something much grander than ourselves or using Jesus to serve our own purposes? Chances are all of us reflect God’s image well in some areas of our lives and poorly in other areas. The reality remains, without more of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and way less of us it will always be an uphill battle. But thankfully we serve and love a God who never forsakes us, who is infinitely patient with us, and uses even our mistakes for His glory.
Visions of San Francisco
Today is the first post of many that will fall under our new blog feature... Visions of San Francisco. Basically, I will posting pics of things we see and experience every day. The idea is to give you a glimpse into the city we love and those who live in it as we go about ministry and life. Enjoy!
First up, our house! Isn't it stylin'? We live on the bottom floor in a spacious (for SF anyways) studio that feels like home already.
Our First Weeks In San Francisco
Finally, a moment to sit down and write! The past two weeks have been insanely busy (in a good way J). Alex and I, as you may remember from our last prayer letter, moved up to San Francisco two weeks ago and have been running around like crazy since then, adjusting to life, making our apartment feel like home, planning the semester with the rest of the City Cru staff team, meeting the students of SFSU and City Cru and just being in San Francisco. To say it has been hectic is an understatement. So here is a quick rundown of some highlights:
1) Moving in – I hate moving…it ruins your back, you get cuts and bruises all over your hands, you are dusty and sweaty all day and by the time bed rolls around you are almost too tired to move. This was us for 5 straight days the first week we were up here. We spend those days painting, unpacking, cleaning, putting Ikea furniture together, painting some more, eating and finally sleeping. Of course the good thing with moving is once you finish and your place feels like home there is a sense of accomplishment and joy that comes at the completion of project you have poured yourself into. Our place truly is OUR place now…and its all thanks to Alex’s interior design skills and my blind obedience to do whatever she told me to do ;)
2) SFSU – Monday morning was spent tabling on the San Francisco State campus, passing out free donuts and fair-trade coffee and connecting with students who came up to our table. Alex and I got to meet a good amount of students who are involved with our ministry and have some great spiritual conversations with those who came up to the table grab a donut and find out more about City Cru.
3) Staff Life – Meeting from 9-5 Tuesday thru Friday. So many meetings! Luckily our team (there are 8 of us) are awesome and our directors Chris and Christine were able to guide us as we planned a lot of the semester for our ministry. That includes outreaches, what we want students to learn about Jesus through our small group bible studies, how to incorporate and model a life and ministry centered on prayer to students, figuring out how to live out our faith through partnering with organizations who care for the poor and marginalized in the city, and a whole host of other things. They were exhausting days but necessary and good.
Alex and I are so excited to be here doing the work Jesus has called us into and are continually humbled and blessed by all of your prayers, support and friendship. We can’t wait to see what God does on the college campuses in San Francisco and we will be sure to keep you updated via this blog as often as we can. In the meantime, sorry for such a long post, thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray that Jesus captures the hearts of every student in San Francisco!!!
