Archives for the month of: May, 2007

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!

May 16, 2007 //

Our neighbors to the north (who still owe me five dollars in real quarters!) might be relieved if this scene from last week’s Taiwanese legislature leads to a new set of corny jokes to distract us from hockey’s violent tendencies: I was at a boxing match and a session of legislation broke out! Speaking of hockey, here’s to the Hockeytown heroes who have defied the low expectations of the Golden Mullet himself and are actually winning their series against the Ducks. I hope I haven’t jinxed them, as I might have done to my beloved Bad Boys. I was just on the verge of hassling my favorite librarian friend (a true Chi-town fan) about the Pistons going up 3-0 when the baby Bulls seem to have made it a series. But I digress…

All too often, the above image describes the life of the church. We find something about which we can wholeheartedly disagree and we turn into Itchy and Scratchy: We fight! And bite! We fight and bite and fight! I might be a bit sensitive to these issues, having attended a seminary that, in conservative Asian American circles, causes some people to go apoplectic. I know people who were told not to attend this school because it was not only “liberal” but it was “satanic.” Makes some of today’s shock jocks sound positively tame. While I was studying there, another student from a nearby, proudly conservative, seminary came to take Hebrew at our seminary. He told his friends he was a “missionary” to the campus. Sheesh.

Sometimes we barely begin discussing a topic before someone takes their ball and goes home — Oh, you think women shouldn’t stay in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant? Well, you must not believe in the Bible. I can’t fellowship with sinners like you. I’m sure it works the other way as well (a progressive voice dismissing a conservative person out of hand) but I’m just relaying what my experiences have been like.

I’m not advocating a naive kind of hand-holding “unity” that ignores theological and/or denominational distinctives. I am, however, all for people dialing it down a couple (several) notches when it comes to engaging those with whom they might disagree. I think John Ortberg might be onto something with his “Sin Prediction Index.” As he writes in Everybody’s Normal ‘Til You Get to Know Them:

When we practice the proverb (basically: less talk, more listen), we begin to learn amazing things. We can live without getting the last word. We can live without trying to make sure we control how other people are thinking about us. We can live without winning every argument, without powering up over every decision, without always drawing attention to ourselves.

Or, as our man James puts it, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

Categories church, ministry

Caring for Creation

May 12, 2007 //

Over the past couple of years, I have written a handful of articles for the online edition of Relevant magazine (you can find them archived on the sidebar under “My Writing). As their tagline suggests, the articles are categorized under the headings of God, Life and Progressive Culture. One might find articles from established authors such as Scot McKnight and Doug Paggitt alongside many other, lesser-known voices. Some articles come and go quickly and quietly, while others (which, for example, might be based on misquoting a famous rock star) generate some boisterous discussion.

One recent article about the environment caused a bit of a stir among some readers. While some might not have understood the format (“You can’t write a letter to the environment, you idol-worshiper!”), the most off-putting objections created a false dichotomy between being a good steward of God’s creation and sharing the Gospel with non-Christians. In a stunning display of logic, one commenter argues that caring for the environment is a slippery slope, inevitably leading to acceptance of homosexuality and abortion. Interestingly enough, this commenter also claims that creation care is a political, not kingdom, agenda — though this person’s politics are readily evident.

I recently completed Serve God, Save the Planet by J. Matthew Sleeth — it’s featured on my “Currently Enjoying” page. Sleeth does much to dispel the myth that people who care for creation must be mother earth-worshiping pagans. Just the opposite — for those of us who love Jesus and take seriously His command to love God and others whole-heartedly, we are compelled to care for His creation. As the title implies, the greatest command is to love and serve God — but we must recognize that responsible living and creation care are expressions of deep, genuine love for God.

Sleeth argues that living an environmentally responsible lifestyle is a biblical mandate. He warns us not to equate “dominion” over the earth’s resources as a license for wastefulness or greed. Far too many Christians have justified their harmful lifestyles with faulty theology. Picture the Bible-belt businessman who was caught dumping toxins into the water from which local residents drew their drinking water. His response? Well, Jesus is coming back anyways, so what does it matter if we trash the place?

For those who worry about elevating the care of creation over care for human beings, Sleeth writes, “Being pro-stewardship is not a case of valuing forests more than people; rather, it means valuing human possessions less, and God’s world more.” Indeed, if we genuinely want to love our neighbors as ourselves, then we must be conscious of how our lifestyles affect them — especially the poorest among the world’s poor. Sleeth writes from his personal experience:

This honest inventory (a personal assessment of the environmental impact made by his family) is what the Christian faith required of me. How could I say that I was being a good steward when I was causing so much damage to God’s creation? How could I say that I cared about my neighbor when the poorest people are most affected by the climate change that I was causing?

In essence, caring for creation and being a goods steward is part of our response to the central command to love God with everything we have and to love others in the same way. We love God by caring for what He has created and partnering with Him in its stewardship. We love others by recognizing that our lifestyles have a direct impact on them. Even for those who argue that a Christian’s only responsibility is to share the words of the Gospel with others, we cannot witness to people if they have already been killed because of the climate change, drought or famine that was dropped on them.

This has been a slow process of small changes in my life. For example, my wife pointed out to me early in our marriage that I would let the water run the entire time while I brushed my teeth and washed the dishes. I shudder to think of how much water I have wasted in my lifetime, especially given how limited access to clean water is in many parts of the world. So now, I shut off the water while brushing or washing dishes. Recently, we have begun trying to drive our cars less. In Southern California, it would not be uncommon for a person to drive down the block to see a friend instead of walking. So these days, if I need to pick up a coffee while I’m at church, I will take the ten-minute walk instead of the thirty-second drive.

One of the things I am very excited about is the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) we just signed up for. Through the Tierra Miguel Foundation, we will be picking up about fifteen pounds of fresh produce every two weeks for less than $17.00 a week. In this age of mass production of food, we are glad to be able to support a local farm. The food is organically grown using environmentally-sound principles, so it is good for the earth. And it is locally grown, so it reduces the negative impact of shipping food across long distances (exhaust from the long-haul trucks, wasteful packaging, etc.).

We might take our daughter to visit the farm during one of their volunteer days. Although learning about creation care can be a bit stressful for her at times, we want her to develop a God-centered perspective early (which is not easy in our princess-obsessed culture for little ones). After all, it makes more sense to start with simple living rather than trying to combat years of having a materialistic perspective.

I have been encouraged and challenged by the many communities who have seen that creation care is an integral part of God’s message of redemption for the entire world. I hope this thread also runs through my life and the communities of which God calls me to be a part.

Categories books, emerging church, environment, family, health, hope, reviews, stewardship

Pong!

May 9, 2007 //

No, not this one…

I was reading today over at Notcot (a great site for checking out aesthetically pleasing miscellany) about a store in Manhattan’s ever-hip Lower East Side called GrandOpening. The owners, brothers Ben and Hall Smyth, reinvent and re-open this 400-square foot space every three months — thus, the name “GrandOpening.”

In its current iteration, New Yorkers can test their table tennis skills against one another in pickup games or even in a season-ending tournament — the LES Cup. It’s not just for ping-pong players, either. Fans can watch from a small set of bleachers on the inside, or from a live feed on the web.

Call it a manifesto or a vision statement, but here is something interesting from their website:

GrandOpening is a store.
GrandOpening will have many “Grand Openings”.
GrandOpening isn’t afraid to change its face.
GrandOpening will engage and entertain the community.
GrandOpening could be yours for a month, or two, or three.
GrandOpening might be different the next time you come by

If I were still living out there, I think I would want to stop by and play a game. Although it might border on being a bit precious, there is something whimsical and playful about this idea. A lot of church communities could benefit from some whimsy from time to time. I mean, would it work to substitute a church’s name in the purpose statement above?

Categories community, just grinning

Happy My Best Friend Times, Blue Sky Together

May 8, 2007 //

Though it remains a bit of a mystery to me, I really enjoy kitschy things. Not so much the little state spoons one might find at an interstate rest stop or corny snow globes… my tastes tend to run toward silly things a person might find in a Morning Glory stationery store. Just point me toward a Mitsuwa and I’m good to go.

After all, where else can you find awesome, and delicious, candy products like these?

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something very pleasing to me about busted English translations on these kinds of products. It’s not about irony or condescension. I think it has more to do with subverting our understanding of language and the difficulty of communication (perhaps a bit like David Sedaris’ experience trying to speak French in Me Talk Pretty One Day). And, anyways, how can you not smile at this cheerful lion?

Check out this translation from Babelfish (which is actually quite useful for translating individual words or short phrases) of an article featuring Kye Chung and kamr.org:

How many the click frequency which the many people should have used it will lead and the site of the tolerable formation emigration church far even from the company ‘ the statistical ‘ egg which charges the Internet use ranking leyk it will surpass as between the English volume Korean interest boat song it is high.

[h/t to Kye]

I can just picture someone reading this out loud and making bunny ear quotes to let the audience know that it’s just a symbolic statistical egg, not a real one.

Categories just grinning

The Difficult Task of Building Community

May 4, 2007 //

Have you seen this ad? It is one of the popular series of Apple commercials touting the advantages of Macs over PCs. You can even find some church-related parodies of this ad, which are sure to spark some kind of discussion (I’ll save my thoughts on this for another time). In any case, when we purchased the laptops we use for church a couple of months ago, they came preloaded with tons of nonsensical trial software. If the goal of these companies was to harass customers and obstruct productivity, then job well done!

Fortunately, a church member recently offered to give our computers a nice little tune-up last week. In addition to receiving a much smoother-running computer, I experienced another corollary benefit: being without a computer left me with time to catch up on some reading.

I was able to finish Serve God, Save the Planet by J. Matthew Sleeth and most of This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley. For now, I wanted to share my thoughts about The Search to Belong, by Joseph Myers.

This book came to me recommended by Marko and, after finishing it, I can see why. As the subtitle of this book suggests, Myers wants us to reconsider some of our preconceived notions about intimacy, community and small groups. I have struggled with the way we often approach small group ministry — both as a member of such groups and, later, as a pastor trying to build community. As a member, I have often felt guilty for not sharing enough with the group; that, somehow, I let down the other group members by not spilling my guts every time. As a leader, I have felt disappointed in the failure of our small group ministries to yield success (deep connection! church growth! powerful community!).

Myers offers a welcome alternative to understanding what it means to belong. He expands our understanding of belonging by connecting Edward Hall’s idea of proxemics — “the study of how physical space influences culture and communications” — to building community in our churches. Hall identifies four different spaces in which people interact: public, social, personal and intimate. Myers argues that instead of trying to push people along the intimacy spectrum, churches must recognize that all four spaces are valid, important and necessary for building genuine community. As he writes:

We tend to think of intimacy as the “Mecca” of relationship. But would all relationships be better if they were intimate? Think of all the relationships in your life, from bank teller to sister to coworker to spouse. Could we adequately sustain all these relationships if they were intimate?

All belonging is significant. Healthy community — the goal humankind has sought since the beginning — is achieved when we hold harmonious connections within all four spaces.

It might sound like heresy in the contemporary church to argue that small groups are not the only way to build community, but Myers builds a compelling case for this idea. He writes about one pastor who led a church with a respected and successful small group ministry who confessed, “My small groups don’t really work. They never have. To be honest, I don’t think they’re for everyone. In fact, I have never attended a small group nor wanted to attend one.” It’s hard for me to describe the relief I felt after reading that quote — I’m not alone!

But this work is not an attack on small group ministry. Rather, it is a calling for churches to create environments where people can connect in many different ways. Myers posits, “If we would concentrate upon facilitating the environment instead of the result (people experiencing community), we might see healthy, spontaneous community emerge.”

Towards the end of the book, in the chapter called “Searching for a Front Porch,” Myers argues that churches should create “median spaces” that act as a symbolic front porch for people. He quotes Scott Cook, who says the front porch is “the zone between the public and private, an area that could be shared between the sanctity of the home and the community outside.” Now, I must admit that I am leery of writers who wax nostalgic about The Andy Griffith Show, as that has never been a meaningful cultural touchstone for me and often signifies a desire for a homogeneous white society. However, this is an important discussion — the disappearance of front porches from the architecture of most newly constructed neighborhoods mirrors the increasing privatization and individualization of American culture. In the current climate, churches can act as a “third place” (a location that is neither work nor home that provides community).

Myers devotes his final chapter to a dialogue (ah, postmodernism) between himself and a church leader who wants to put these principles into practice. I often find myself wanting to skip ahead to the take-away or transferable but, for me, the more useful part of this book dealt with the conceptual framework of understanding community. One potential concern: People often have a tendency to self-select into groups where everyone looks the same — without thoughtful and skillful leadership, emphasizing spontaneous relationships could end up feeding our highly individualized preferences rather than building loving, sacrificial communities.

This is a worthwhile book, perhaps even for the first chapter (“The Myths of Belonging”) alone. The Search to Belong provides eye-opening and thought-provoking insights into the difficult task of building community.

Categories books, church, community, reviews