Mt. Hood Christian Center

I had originally watched a small part of the movie because there were some friends and ministries featured in it that I wanted to see. At the behest of my wife I watched it in its entirety. When it was over I immediately posted on Facebook that those associated with our ministry and that had access to the movie should consider it a mandate from their pastor to watch it as part of their spiritual formation.

Whether I was out of touch or was oblivious to some of the messages of the movie (or both) I was not prepared for or even anticipated the very diverse reactions that my posting received by those that had already seen the movie. So what did I do then? I took the time to watch it again the very next day because my opinions from the first viewing didn't line up with some of the negative feedback that my brief post was receiving.

The overarching theme of the movie was how people outside of conservative evangelical faith circles don't receive Christ's message of love because of how that message is typically presented by those inside the faith circle i.e. the church. The church is viewed as judgmental, unloving, angry and despite the label of Christian...not very Christlike. Those interviewed shared how in their experience the message of the church is not a message of love but it is a message of being right. In other words, the church doesn't care what others think and will only engage in a conversation if they are agreed with.

The primary reason for the negative reaction to the movie seemed to be that it felt like an indictment against church leaders like Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson and that it also dismissed the hard work of those those that are considered to be the elders of the church who have spent their lives fighting the good fight.

I went into my second viewing looking for these things and came away with the conclusion that there must be a certain level of defensiveness against the movie by the church because the title implies that the movie is anti-church. I found no personal attack against any church leaders or specific groups in this movie. The only personal attack that I spotted was by the narrator toward liberal pundit Bill Maher as “a loud mouthed, pot smoking, know-it-all” though in the same sentence he recanted his statement about the pot smoking as a jest. I couldn't find a statement that made any church leader look foolish or put into a bad light.

My intention is not to review the movie here though. My intention is for us to look at why something like this movie bothers us so much. Why does a movie like this bring such intense emotion to the surface? Understand that I'll speak mostly in generalities when I talk about the church or liberals or Christians. There are always exceptions but don't miss the points that I'm trying to make because you figure that you are one of the exceptions.

The first reason why we get so agitated by something like Lord, Save Us From Your Followers is that it may feel like or truly does embody what we consider to be evil. Anything that attacks our character, our faith, our agenda, our way of thinking and way of life is something not easily dismissed and something we convulse against. But because it confronts us, does that make it evil? Because it makes us ask questions or even causes us to go so far as to doubt the way we’ve done things is that the standard by which we toss something out? I hope not because if we aren’t constantly confronted by opposing viewpoints then how to we shape our own views?

It is true that confrontation produces feelings of anxiety, angst and a general feeling of uncertainty. It affects the peace that we feel. Those feelings are not a good indicator of whether or not God is in it somewhere. How do we get sharpened without adversity? Can we be comfortable with our belief of anything before it has stood the test of an opposing view? This isn’t true just for matters of faith but for any kind of belief. Theology is easy. The practical application of that theology is another matter all together. It is that wrestling match that sometimes produces the greatest advancements in our faith and worldview.

I am not interested in arguing with anybody about theology or politics and I bet that some of you aren't interested either. This might sound noble but it isn't for my part. I'm just not a very good debater. I do think we automatically raise our shields and hunker down when we think our views are being called into question and when our heads are down under cover then we fail to see the bigger picture or at the very least the opinions and views of others. I saw a bumper sticker today that summed up our defensiveness. It said “I respect your opinion...I just don't want to hear it.”

Another reason a movie like this might bother us is that we view the comments and statements as inflammatory. Let's pretend for a moment that they are. Is this always bad? The late Jerry Falwell had said a lot of inflammatory things over the course of his life. I think some were spirit-led and I think some were straight from his flesh. Pat Robertson, founder of CBN and host of their flagship program 700 Club continues to say things that are inflammatory and even absurd (Google “Pat Robertson Alzheimer's” for the firestorm he created by his bad theology last week). Both are/were considered great leaders but that doesn't mean we just take everything they say as truth and on the flip side just because they say something that seriously smacks of senility, it doesn't mean you throw the baby out with the bath water. Either approach is just lazy.

Interestingly though, I observe that we generally can be very forgiving toward some of these well-known Evangelicals who have made some outrageous statements. A liberal on the other hand, we will automatically disregard any and all statements NOT based on their merit or lack of it but based upon whether or not we have already categorized them as a liberal (a synonym for ungodly in our Christian thesaurus). One thing is certain though-we don't get as riled up about a ridiculous Pat Robertson statement as we do about a less ridiculous statement or honest critique made by a liberal.

As a pastor I try to be inflammatory on a regular basis. I don't say inflammatory things (like “you must watch this movie”) for the sake of being inflammatory. I say inflammatory things in order to get the listener's attention and force them to constantly re-examine if they are part of a fat and lazy American church. Jesus was the epitome of inflammatory but carried with him the purpose of shaking up the spiritual climate in his day. This is how he rolled.

A third rationale for our inclination to resist this conversation is because the inherent feeling that by engaging in an examination of how we've done things is tantamount to a dismissal and invalidation of the work of our evangelical forefathers.

I honor the work of my forefathers. I honor the lives spent and poured out in the efforts to see Christ’s Kingdom expand. I hope that my life’s work will be looked at and appreciated someday and I can only dream of having a fraction of the impact and influence that those mentioned here have had. I can tell you right now though that the church would be destined to fail in its role if it doesn't change after I am gone.

Reform and change will always happen and it happens through Spirit-led confrontation. Is it our pride and fear that keeps us from looking at our need to change? Does simply having the conversation automatically come at the expense of those that have walked before us? What would have happened if the conversation was resisted from when Luther nailed his confrontation to the door of the Wittenberg Church? Certainly the reforms of Zwingli, Calvin and Knox were an indictment against the then current church culture but the church has proven to be resilient enough to survive a few stepped on toes. It goes with the territory of leadership.

One of the last reasons that I can think of for the anxiety that such confrontations produce is because it demands the hard work of reflection and introspection. It is ironic to me that I had more cause to be offended by the reasons for not liking the movie than those giving the reasons. I am a product of the church, given my life to the church and as a pastor have been responsible for the very things that have come out of it.

I am over qualified to be vexed by statements that call my work, philosophy and calling into question. But I'm not. I'm not put off because I want to be better than I am. Having my methods, actions and words examined makes me sharper, it keeps me honest. It forces me to constantly look inward.

I think what concerns me the most about our difficulty in having the conversations that we need to have is that the technology of our lives often derails the conversation. The ability to send a mass message has made it too easy to avoid the face to face conversations that we need to have. It is too easy to rant without having to see the damage of our words. I am disturbed that we flock to and follow so many voices of authority who are not under any authority themselves.

What if we stopped and took a breath the next time we have an opportunity to engage the views of somebody we don't agree with? Could it be that the very act of listening might create a bridge that didn't exist previously? Could we consider it an act of service to God to do what doesn't come easy. To not allow our pride or fear to circumvent the opportunity that God has so graciously given to us. An opportunity that is about cross-pollinating the church that he loves with the world that he loves.

How about you?  Do you have any thoughts on why you might not be receptive to a conversation with someone who doesn't see things like you do?  Tell me about it.

I’ve been talking and thinking a lot about the law of the scoreboard lately.  This is the principle that explains how we look at certain things in church to measure our success.  Typically, the scoreboard for church is what is referred to as the 3 B’s: budgets, buildings and butts.  In other words, success is measured by how much money is coming in, the size and utilitarian aspect of the facilities owned and operated and how many people are sitting in the seats.

The church has this scoreboard because those things can be easily quantified, classified and frankly, though few will admit it, we are in competition with other churches.  If that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t have been asked dozens if not hundreds of times, “how big is your service(s) running?” or something akin to that question.

I rejected this scoreboard many years ago; at the same time, I didn’t really have a good indicator that we were being successful as a ministry.  How could I trust my own feelings as to whether or not we were hitting the mark as a church?  This past week, God caused an obscure verse to jump out at me in Judges 5:2.  I share this verse with you now because I have adopted this principle as the scoreboard of success for Mt. Hood Christian Center.

“When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves--praise the LORD!”

When the people of God lead—when they do what God has asked them to do—thank God!  In short, when God’s people obey—GET EXCITED!  I am seeing God’s people obey, I see that we are scoring and winning, and I can’t help but get excited.  When the church is consistent in obediently stepping out in faith, expect big wins and big momentum of the spirit of God to sweep through.

How about you?  Are you scoring a win by being obedient in even the little things that God has asked you to do?

I can typically shake off when a service didn’t go the way I planned.  Not so from yesterday.  I felt that God had control over our time of worship and prayer but I still have this burden that He didn’t get to accomplish what He desired to accomplish and I can’t move on until He does.

About nine months ago, I scheduled a special emphasis week of prayer & worship beginning this coming Sunday.  At the time I just thought it would be good to do but I have had numerous confirmations that the timing isn’t coincidental or random.  I firmly believe that God’s purposes are being played out before our very eyes.  This week will have significant relevance and impact on the months and years ahead of this church and her individual parts.

The Spirit of God has prompted me to enter into a week of fasting and prayer in preparation for this upcoming focus beginning on Sunday.  I ask you to join me in this to whatever degree you feel led.  I am fasting for breakthrough in marriages and families.  I am fasting for breakthrough in our obedience to His calling.

Church, we need to step into a new level of brokenness that we’ve never experienced before.  While I would be the first to admit this doesn’t sound very fun, I will be the first to acknowledge that without it we can’t be the church we are meant to be.  What will this week hold for you specifically?  I don’t know.  What will this week hold for me?  I don’t know, but I’m not willing to risk missing the opportunity to participate in our next level of spiritual adventure.

Anticipate!

I decided pretty early on that I would never want to write for a newspaper or periodical.  I figured that always living under a deadline would give me an ulcer.  So what do I do?  I go into an occupation that requires multiple deadlines every week.  I didn’t get an ulcer in my stomach but I sometimes think I would rather have the physical pain of a stomach ulcer than the pain of a mental ulcer.  For a guy who appears to others as never having a shortage of words…I have to confess that I feel like I’m exhausted.  Not physically—that would require labor, which my hands can attest to the lack of since they don’t have many calluses right now.  What I don’t do in physical exercise, I think I more than make up for in my time on the mental gerbil wheel…always running but never arriving.

When I first started teaching on a weekly basis some 23 years ago, the most overwhelming and difficult thing for me to deal with was that constant deadline week after week.  As soon as I would finish teaching a Sunday school class, I would have about 30 seconds of relief before I began stressing over the “what am I going to do next” question that grips every new teacher.  Yeah right…new teacher…I’ve been doing this for almost a quarter of a century and I’m still prone to that weekly panic attack.  This is especially true when I happen to hit a “home run” message because I always ask the very same day, “How am I going to top that?”

You’ve just received an insight into what I believe to be part of most every speaker’s, teacher’s or writer’s psyche.  1 Corinthians 2:1-5 speaks directly to this but I’m honestly frustrated by its simplicity.  Simplicity implies ease yet I’ve never experienced anything easy about this weekly rollercoaster of thrill and terror.

It isn’t easy to do what Paul said of himself.  He says that when he came to the church in Corinth, he had one message…Jesus and the cross.  It is interesting to note that this one message caused God to show up in power to the hearers.  It wasn’t good illustrations, clever analogies, well-delivered points of doctrine or even a hip and happening worship band.  It was a very simple message about something we’ve grown mostly tired of hearing.  As someone who has tried really hard to get better at speaking over the years, it is hard to admit that all of that hard work really doesn’t matter in the bigger picture.  The truth is this…if God doesn’t show up when I open my mouth, it is better that I just keep it shut.  Simple?  Yes.  Easy?  No.  If we want to avoid running on the wheel to nowhere, our only course of action is to rely on a demonstration of God’s power and not our own.

As I look back on the last 15 years that I’ve been pastoring…I quickly recognize the seasons and shiftings of my approach to faith and ministry.  I started out with the destination of holiness…and a “don’t spare the horses” mentality.  I had a single track mind that was convinced that there was only one way to engage the culture and that was head-on.  Gee…that worked well.  It didn’t work because holiness is wrong, but because I wasn’t holy.  I was judgmental, prideful, ignorant and an island unto myself…even if my intentions were good.

Ten years ago, I entered into my first recognizable shift when I came to Gresham.  I began to soften and see the bride of Christ for what she is…lost, confused and without clear direction as to what would restore her.  I was still judgmental and prideful but I wasn’t as ignorant to the plight of the church any longer.  I saw the need but didn’t know who I was or how to engage a generation of young people.

Five years ago, I found myself shifting again.  I felt like a fish out of water because I found myself embracing a postmodern mind set that I couldn’t really explain if I had to.  I just knew that everything that I had been trying, who I thought I was…wasn’t engaging the world of church ministry that I was immersed in.  Amazing, relational things were happening all around me in my regular life, but church ministry felt dead.  I was ready to throw in the towel and follow Jesus back into Frito-Lay and my community…except that isn’t where God would have me just yet.

Today’s passage in 1 Corinthians 1:I8-25 really resonates with the journey I’ve been on.  I spent about 10 years of ministry trying to convince the world that I wasn’t a nerdy Christian.  A lot of what I was about was trying to convince myself and the world around me that I could be a cool Christian.  Now my shift seems to have come full circle…the only difference is me.  I’m still trying to work out my holiness but the last 15 years have emblazoned one thing upon my heart and spirit and I embrace it completely…and it will really bother some in the church.  The greatest thing I can strive for is to be the King of Fools.

There, I said it…and it was very freeing.  God uses foolishness to confound the wise.  God uses weakness to supplant the strong.  I will happily be considered a weak fool in God’s eyes if that is where He can best use me.

Perhaps one should get out more if they have yet to hear the simile cliché of “Opinions are like armpits (butts, feet, garlic breath)…everybody has them and they all stink.”  This is only true if the opinion happens to differ from your own opinion.  Woe to the one who shares a different opinion and is vocal about it.

Today’s passage of 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 reveals that hard and fast opinion has gotten in the way of the harmony that God intended for His church.  Things appeared to have escalated from simple preference to abrasive and personal offense between factions.  That would sound absurd if it wasn’t so evident in the church of the 21^st Century…of which we are all a part.

Case in point, if you were to search the internet for a very brief time, you could discover quickly that there are a lot of websites dedicated to diatribes about spiritual leaders.  These writings and videos range from everyday contrariness to outright venom…and it seems that the majority would fall closer to the latter category.  I find it strange that some would dedicate such an inordinate amount of time loudly trying to prove the heresy of a fellow Christian teacher (who coincidentally always seems to be more “successful”).  If only they would use their influence to preach the message of the cross so boldly.  Yes, I believe that false teaching should be called false teaching.  Let’s leave it at that though.

There are some teachers, preachers, pastors, evangelists that drive me crazy.  I can’t listen to them for more than a minute or two before I really want to move on to something else.  I’m sure they are wonderful men (or women) who love the Lord with all of their heart…but their style is outside of my ability to engage and receive.  Their style doesn’t line up with my personal preference.  Case in point, I recently went to a conference that all of the speakers were really good but the one that most resonated with me wasn’t the one that resonated with the others.  The one that I like was extremely conversational in style…most like me…go figure that he was the one I liked the best.

Some really like the extremely passionate, shouting, old-school, fire and brimstone, slow sing-songing while enunciating that last consonant before adding “uh”…i.e. “Gah-duh see-suh wha-tuh is i-nuh your har-tuh!” (Most readers spent the time to work that last sentence out in their heads but now know what I’m talking about.)  That is categorically NOT my preference, my opinion of good preaching.  On the other hand, there are many in our church (if they stuck around) that would give their left arm for me to have that style.

God made us so different and I think we often get caught up in our differentness to the point that we think the way that we are as individuals must be the right way.  No…just different.  Have we become like those believers in the Corinthian church who began to identify with different camps to the point of not being able to receive God’s truth because of the medium through which He is speaking?  Ouch, I just nailed myself.

I don't care much for talking on the phone.  I don't mind quick informational calls similar to a text or an email but I don't like to be on the phone for long periods of time.  Yesterday I was on the phone with tech support because my cell phone was once again not working.

I had been on the phone for forty minutes with 'Luis' while he tried to determine if my phone really didn't work.  I was asked to be put me on hold for a moment to talk to another technician and I made the mistake of saying okay.  I then heard a click followed the klaxon that sounds like the submarine is diving.  Forty minutes of frustration only to have them push a wrong button causing me to go back to the beginning.  The eventual answer was that my phone is broken and it can't be fixed.  Was it really necessary to go through all that just to be told "sorry, we can't help you?" ArrrrrRRRG...what a waste of time!

Caller ID is a mixed blessing.  There are times when I know who is calling (like a sales call or someone who just wants my money) and I can avoid the call.  Of course, people know when I'm calling too.  I have to leave more messages than pre-ID....go figure.

This morning I read in 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 that you and I received a pretty important call ourselves.  We received a call to be holy.  That call isn't your everyday, run-of-the-mill call.  It's a call from God.  God Himself requested that we be set apart to live a life of His choosing and He gives us that wake-up call each morning.  I know when He's calling but how often do I just let the voicemail pick up?