The great evangelical weakness, pt. 2
I thought I’d get back to this topic sooner. Part 1 was more than two weeks ago.
Whether the issue is racism, poverty, missions or even salvation, we in the evangelical churches in America have a weakness that keeps us from seeing the whole picture. The weakness is our ingrained belief in the centrality and power of SELF. Call it rugged individualism or self-sufficiency if you like. Just know that it is a belief about our place in the universe that is part of the genetic code of Western civilization, and especially American civilization. Some of the loftiness expressions of this perspective can be found in our formative documents. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unailenable Rights…” These are wonderful truths, and the more we apply them, the better America is (and the better the world is).
The problem for evangelicals is that we fail to see BEYOND self when we think about poverty, racism, discipleship, etc. Here are some examples from discipleship:
- Communion: In our church we instruct people to take it as it is passed OR (for the extra-spiritual) to hold it and pray on your own to God before taking it at your own pace. But read through the Gospel accounts of the Lord’s Supper or look at Paul’s description in 1 Corinthians 11, and you’ll find communion primarily as a shared experience.
- Bible Study: It’s a given that Christians are people who have a regular quiet time for Bible-reading (or at least pretend to). Hey, I believe in this and we’d be foolish not to read Scripture at home since we have the opportunity. But from the days of the early church until well after Gutenberg, Bible-reading was first and foremost a communal activity. It isn’t so today.
- Gathering with the church: The congregation with the best music, preaching and youth activity gets the most business, so we at MHCC try to offer the best. Even so, in the consumer lifestyle (the ultimate expression of radical individualism) church is just one of many desirable weekend activities, and it’s only a small percentage who put the need of the Body to gather ahead of the right to choose among a hundred other things.
So how does this inform our thinking about race and poverty? Look for part three…
Legacy: David Eubanks and Johnson Bible College
Cindy and I attended Homecoming at Johnson Bible College last night to hear David Eubanks preach his final Homecoming sermon as JBC’s president. Dr. Eubanks took office in 1969, and he was 14 years into his 38-year tenure when I came to JBC as a freshman in 1983. He will retire later this year. Many wonderful things were said about Dr. Eubanks last night, all of them true. One of the most interesting has to do with buildings.
It would be an understatement to say that the JBC campus has been improved during the Eubanks years. Practically every major building on campus was built since the mid-70s, and two dorms (the ones Cindy and I lived in) were built, torn down, and replaced in that time. Since Dr. Eubanks became president, the college transformed itself from a small huddle of old buildings on “the hill” to a widespread campus of first-rate facilities.
But the buildings aren’t the legacy.
One speaker (I think it was Ken Overdorf) pointed out that only one building remains from the days of Ashley Johnson, who founded the college in 1893, and that is the house the president lives in. But the legacy of Ashley Johnson extends to all the churches, missions agencies, schools, etc. that have been served by JBC graduates.
Dr. Eubanks has been an amazing builder who led JBC to become a modern, technologically advanced, academically excellent, competitive college. He leaves a campus that will bear his imprint for many years to come (including a building named after him). But his real legacy is described by the words that were repeatedly mentioned about him last night: Integrity, faithfulness, humility and service. Dr. Eubanks has left on all of us alumni an indelible picture of what a Christian leader ought to be.
Philip Yancey on Prayer
I’m six chapters into Philip Yancey’s new book, Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? I’ve been Yancey’s biggest fan for many years, and this book delivers all the good stuff I expected.
Today I ran across an interesting insight that Yancey borrows from Haddon Robinson. Picture the Garden of Gethsemane. Three men are resting peacefully. One is off by himself, agonizing in prayer, with the sweat dripping off of him like blood. You might reasonably look at the one, Jesus, and wonder if he really has the strength for the ordeal that lies ahead. If he is in such turmoil now, how can he possibly hold up when the real action starts? How will he possibly face his impending arrest and trial, to say nothing of the beatings and the crucifixion? Why can’t he relax and trust God, like his three companions seem to be doing?
But that, of course, isn’t the real story. After his heart-wrenching struggle in prayer, Jesus is ready - fully ready - for everything else that comes. He faces the final hours of his life with quiet strength. But the three disciples, Peter, James and John, are completely unprepared. When trouble arrives, they begin immediately to unravel. Soon they will flee into the night to leave Jesus with his accusers.
Robinson’s picture succinctly describes Yancey’s view of the meaning of prayer (at least through chapter six). In spite of all the difficulties we have with prayer (and Yancey deals with all of them), prayer is the ultimate act of faith in which our minds take on the strength of God.
Economic missionaries: The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
I’m currently skimming and fumbling my way through The End of Poverty, a book by economist Jeffrey Sachs that I found at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit in August. I was enticed to buy it mainly because the cover advertises a forward by (St.) Bono.
I’m skimming and fumbling because even though The End of Poverty is written on a popular level, it’s still a little over my head and I find the details impractical for any involvement I might have in world relief. But there are interesting moments. Sachs has enjoyed a front-row seat to some of the major economic dramas of our times. He was one of the chief designers of Poland’s entry into the European marketplace after the Soviet collapse.
What strikes me most as I read The End of Poverty is just how much good a Christian young person could do who decided to devote her life to serving God by becoming an economist.
Yes, that seems like a strange thought to me too. Economics is so dry and academic, right? Besides, I’ve always thought that the noblest callings in life were to missions work, hunger relief, etc. And these ARE noble, for those who are so called. But Sachs (who BTW does NOT bring faith into the discussion) shows how there are moments in history when economists can step into a country in transition (like Poland after socialism) and make the difference between a future of crushing poverty and a healthy productivity that gives people a chance to provide for themselves. That’s a pretty noble calling, wouldn’t you say?
That’s why, more and more, I encourage young people to think broadly about how they can serve God with their unique set of gifts and passions. Who knows who God will use next to change the world?
The great evangelical weakness, pt. 1
I wrote in an earlier post about how difficult it is to work constructively against race problems since we live in racially segregated worlds. Here are a few more thoughts…
In Divided by Faith, a book on how evangelical religion interacts with the race problems in America, 
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith did extensive interviews with evangelical Christians to get their opinions on issues of race. Emerson and Smith came away concluding that the vast majority of evangelicals want racism to be solved. Much to the chagrin of the popular press I’m sure, we’re not bigots.
But we are too simplistic in our thinking.
In interview after interview, the only thing white evangelical Christians can think to do about race problems is to make friends across racial lines and treat everyone well. These are undeniably positive actions, but they reveal shallow thinking. Indeed, Divided by Faith points out that this same approach - just treat others well - was taught as the Christian response to slavery and Jim Crow. In hindsight, we can see the enormous structural changes that needed to take place in those times. Kindness is better than hatred and violence, but you can see that to advocate nothing more than kindness in the Jim Crow era would have been entirely inadequate and even insulting.
Today, the obvious structures (slavery, Jim Crow laws) have changed. But (as I tried to show in the earlier post) all is not well. Yet we keep pulling the same tool out of our tool kit - “Let’s all just get along” or “If people will repent, society will change, and race problems will go away”. Is there something at the heart of our evangelical type of faith that keeps us from seeing problems beyond the individual level?
I have come to believe that there is. My hope and plan is to write about it here as a recurring theme for the next several weeks, interspersed with other stuff. I’d be glad to hear what you think.
More on slowing down: Philip Yancey
Move over, Shane Claiborne. Philip Yancey is back with a new book (Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?) which is ever so quoteable, even though I’m less than thirty pages in. It was just two weeks ago that I declared Claiborne’s book The Irresistable Revolution the most quotable of all books. But Yancey has such a way, not just with words, but with ideas…like this one which compliments perfectly my post from yesterday on slowing down as spiritual warfare.
“Ten years ago I responded to letters in a couple of weeks and kept my correspondents happy. Five years ago I faxed a response in a couple of days and they seemed content. Now they want email responses the same day and berate me for not using instant messages or a mobile phone.”
Yancey then quotes Thomas Merton, who diagnosed the leading spiritual disease of our time as efficiency. Merton said: “From the monastery to the Pentagon, the plant has to run…and there is little time or energy left over after that to do anything else.”
Slowing down as spiritual warfare
I went to the National Missionary Convention in Knoxville a few years ago, and while I was wandering around the displays, I heard someone whisper “That’s Dennis Mullen”. I briefly entertained delusions of my own celebrity, but quickly realized I must know this woman who recognized me. It turns out that she was Tami Lowe Carter, a missionary to Tanzania, Africa. We went to high school together and played in the band, and I hadn’t seen her since graduation.
My hometown newspaper is currently in the middle of a three-part feature on Tami, her husband Todd and their children, and their work in Africa. I found Tami and Todd’s perspective on lifestyle pace most enlightening:
“We are blessed with the African lifestyle which is much slower, so family time isn’t something that you fight for, it’s just something that is,” Tami said. “Here in America, with the busyness of the schedules, you have to sacrifice to make family time.”
“You don’t have to fight for it (in Africa),” Todd agreed. “In late afternoon, early evening, you just find yourselves together.”
“There is such a busyness here that is overwhelming, and it’s disturbing,” she said. “God has given us the weapons that we need to tear down every demonic stronghold and that weapon is truth, but it’s amazing how busy, so busy, we’ve become that we don’t have time to sharpen that weapon. I do believe that’s Satan’s line, it’s one of his tools. He knows the truth, he knows the truth sets us free. I think if Satan keeps people busy and out of the truth, the easier it is to hold them in bondage.”
Sounds right to me.
Thanks to my Dad for sending this my way.
The next book I’ll quote too often: The Irresistible Revolution
Move over, Philip Yancey and Donald Miller. I’ve found a new book to mention ad nauseam, and it’s The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. As I mentioned a few days ago, Claiborne is a 31-year-old Christian who founded The Simple Way, a faith community in Philadelphia that practices a truly different (and intriguing) way for people to live together.
The Irresistible Revolution is 358 pages of easy reading covering Claiborne’s ideas on community, poverty, war, social justice, wealth, the consumer culture, nationalism and the Christian faith. What’s new here? Nothing. And everything.
Nothing, in the sense that Claiborne’s thoughts and habits come from a long stream flowing back through Rich Mullins, Tony Campolo, Martin Luther King, the Catholic Worker Movement, Anabaptist traditions, monasticism, all the way back to Jesus of Nazareth. Everything, in that Claiborne lives in today’s world and confronts the problems we should be facing (though in general, we’re not) - including the Iraq war. Claiborne went to Baghdad early in 2003 to minister to and with the local Christians, and was there during “shock and awe”.
In a book loaded with great content, two things about Claiborne make him impressive to me:
First, he doesn’t just protest, he gives positive alternatives (and lives them). He writes: “Whether in church or in circles of social dissent, there are plenty of people who define themselves by what they are not, whose identity revolves around what they are against rather than what they are for…Most people are aware that something is wrong. The real question is, What are the alternatives?” (p. 309) The Irresistible Revolution is filled with alternatives - some are nutty, many are quite compelling.
Second, although Claiborne offers a strong critique of the megachurch movement, he also shows deep and love and respect for the ultimate megachurch, Willow Creek Community Church, and its pastor Bill Hybels. When Willow kicked off a multi-million dollar building campaign several years ago, Claiborne expressed grief that so much money would be spent on buildings when millions live in terrible poverty. Claiborne and Hybels wrote back and forth over this, but (according to Claiborne) without defensiveness and with “deep respect and gentleness”. Willow went ahead with the project, for which Claiborne expresses sadness “that we had settled for another building when God might have had so much else in mind”. But then he adds a paragraph praising Willow for its “remarkable strides toward justice and reconciliation”, its substantial financial gifts toward relief for people around the world, and its continuing emphasis that “90 percent discipleship is 10 percent short”. Claiborne completely won me over with that single paragraph. (All quotes from p. 328)
The biggest takeaway from The Irresistible Revolution and from Claiborne’s life is that it is the layers of separation - between rich and poor, white and black, Christians and non-Christians, and Americans and the rest of the world - that perpetuate injustice and poverty. Claiborne shows with his life that he has the guts to tear down those walls. As did Jesus.
As shall we.
Escape the Debt Trap
On Sunday, May 14 (which is Mother’s Day) we will begin a two-week series at church called “Escape the Debt Trap” based on a book of that name by Dr. Kregg Hood.
Since MHCC just signed for a large loan on our new building, you might wonder about the consistency of talking about debt as a trap from which we need to escape. Well, consider:
1. Borrowing money isn’t a sin. In the Old Testament, God allowed his people to loan money to one another as long as they charged no interest, and He allowed them to loan to foreigners with interest (see Deuteronomy 23:19-20). I would guess that 90% of us borrowed money to buy our homes. You can bet that our church wouldn’t stand still for this if lending and borrowing were sins. Still, even reasonable borrowing limits us, for: “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Now that MHCC has creditors, paying them is a moral and legal obligation, and they have a right to review our books.This is more than a little relevant to our personal finances too, because we participate in a market that encourages debt. We’re told: “If it’s OK to borrow for your house, why not for a car, and a computer, and for carpet and clothes? Why not use your credit card for groceries, utility bills and gas? And if you can’t pay it off at the end of the month, just extend it out as long as you need to (and pay the interest).” That leads to my second point:
2. MHCC is a reflection of her people, and so our church’s financial situation reflects the finances of the people who attend here. What I mean is that MHCC’s need to borrow may reveal that many of her people are trapped in personal debt.I think you will enjoy reading Dr. Hood’s short book (which we began handing out on Sunday, April 30 ). If you are completely out of debt, or you have your debt under control, you’ll find this study to be a rewarding review, and maybe it will inspire you to mentor others. If you have a debt problem (moderate or serious), you will find real help in this practical, Biblical study.
As a follow-up to this study, we will offer in June a four-week class on Biblical Financial Principles, and we will make available some personal financial counseling to those who will commit to it.
Since this is such an important issue, be sure to invite your friends to this special study on May 14 and 21.
All About God
All About GOD is a website devoted to answering lots of questions about God, Jesus Christ, and Christianity. It’s a great place for seekers or for Christians who want to review the basis of their faith.
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