Being saved from our sins

I've started reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book, and I really like it. I'll blog more completely about it once I'm done, but there was something I read just as my train was pulling into the station this morning that really struck me.

He said, "Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin." (Chan, Francis. Crazy Love. (Colorado Springs, Colo.: David C. Cook), p. 68.)

This got me thinking about the difference between being saved from our sins and being saved from the penalty of our sins. The American Evangelical church often puts the emphasis on Jesus' work in taking on himself the penalty for the sins of everyone. It is clear from the Bible that Jesus did this, and that if we have faith in Jesus we no longer have to pay the penalty for our sins.

I think that the problem comes when we begin to think that the penalty is the only thing the Bible means when it says that Jesus will "save his people from their sins." There is so much more to it than that. Being saved from the penalty of sin is certainly a part, but only a part. It also implies that we will be saved from committing the sins in the first place. It means that we will be saved from the consequences in the next world, but it also means that we will be saved from the consequences of our sins in this world.

Too often, followers of Christ focus almost exclusively on getting to heaven and how wonderful it will be once we get there. When we do that, it becomes easy to forget that we should be having an impact on the world we are living in, here and now. If we are truly following Jesus, we should try to do everything we can to erase the affects of sin in the world we are currently living in, not just in the next one.

What I've been reading: They Like Jesus But Not The Church

I just finished Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not The Church. As the title indicates, the book primarily discusses people who have a positive opinion of Jesus, but who have a negative opinion of Christians and the church.

Kimball is the pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Calif., a church made up predominantly of twenty-somethings. In an effort to avoid becoming trapped in the bubble of Christian subculture, Kimball spends a significant portion of his time outside of his office meeting and building relationships with people who aren’t part of a church.

What he found, in the course of building those relationships, was that many people, particularly in the college and post-college age group, have very positive impressions of Jesus. They are often very open to discussing Jesus and what he taught and thought. However, they don’t share the same opinions about Christians or the church. When conversations turned to these topics, it became clear that, while they liked what Jesus stood for, they don’t think very highly of the church and don’t really want to be associated with it. Kimball backs up these thoughts using the words of the people he knows and has talked to about these topics.

Kimball spends a significant part of his book discussing a number of recurring complaints or criticisms about the church that he has heard. He recognizes that not all of these perceptions are accurate, and even if they are accurate to some extent, they certainly don’t apply to all followers of Jesus. At the same time, he recognizes that the perceptions are real. If we are going to successfully reach and minister to people who have that mindset, we need to be able to overcome these perceptions.

I particularly like the way that Kimball handles these criticisms. He gives some practical ideas for how we, as Christ followers, can talk to people who raise these issues and address their concerns. Kimball doesn’t level wholesale criticisms at the church, but rather suggests that we ask ourselves questions about how we are perceived and how we go about having an impact on people who have this mindset, particularly those who are in their twenties. If you are of this mindset, or know anyone who is, this book can be a huge asset to you.

I thought that They Like Jesus But Not The Church was excellent. I highly recommend it.

Book Review - The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

I just finished reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. I had the opportunity to hear Shane speak at last November's National Youth Workers' Convention. It was very, very interesting. You can read my thoughts it in the second half of this blog entry.

It's hard to sum up Shane Claiborne in just a sentence or two. He spent the several years of his college career at Eastern University, where his mentor was Tony Campolo. After his junior year in college, he spend the summer working with Mother Teresa in India. After returning from India, he interned for a year at Willow Creek Community Church, while he finished up school at Wheaton College. After graduation, he started an intentional community in one of the roughest neighborhoods of Philadelphia, where he and a number of others try to live out what it means to be a follower of Christ.

The book has some elements of autobiography, some elements discussion about how people who claim to follow Christ should live out that claim, and some elements of a call to action to followers of Christ to take up the cause of the poor and disenfranchised around the world.

Shane talks about how Jesus was a radical. Jesus preached a message that was at odds with what both society and the religious leaders of the day said was important. Jesus called people to live a kind of life that was radically different than what everyone else was trying to live. It was a call to live a life of radical grace and radical love -- a life where you loved your enemies, you turned the other cheek when you were struck, you forgave people who did nothing to seek forgiveness, and you sacrificially helped those in need. It was a message and a way of living that was opposed to the powers that existed, and led to persecution of Jesus and those who followed him.

Shane also speaks against the merger of God, Country and Capitalism that he believes has occurred in American Christianity. He points out how the actions of a Superpower are often inconsistent with the values that Jesus taught. Similarly, global capitalism (as it is operated) can exploit the poor and disenfranchised, and it doesn't match up with the economic system that can be seen in the early church. Shane uses this discussion to ask us to take a look at how we live our day-to-day lives and to see if it matches up with the way that Jesus lived his life.

The Irresistible Revolution raises some very good issues. It asks us to look at whether or not we are really living as a follower of Jesus and are doing the things that Jesus did. It is appropriate to point out that the church hasn't always done a very good job of taking care of the poor and disenfranchised, whether they were already a part of the church or not.

While I believe that Shane raises a number of good issues, I don't agree with everything that he has to say. My biggest disagreement with him is probably this: I think he overemphasizes serving with and among the poor. There were times when reading the book that I felt like he was arguing that the focus of Christ followers should be entirely on the poor and the disenfranchised. I can't agree with him to that extent. When Jesus commanded me to love my neighbor as myself, he didn't put any socio-economic qualifier on that. Certainly the person living in poverty in the inner city of Chicago qualifies as my neighbor under Jesus' definition. But so does the professional making several hundred thousand dollars a year who lives in my neighborhood. I need to demonstrate the love of Jesus to both of them.

While I don't agree with everything that Shane Claiborne has to say, The Irresistible Revolution is worth reading. It certainly make you think about what it means to really live out a faith in Jesus Christ.

A difference of opinion

CNN.com has an interesting article about Donald Miller and his book Blue Like Jazz. It's very interested. You can read the full text of the article here.

To me, the most interesting part of the article is the discussion of the different kind of reactions that people have to Blue Like Jazz. These reactions allow you to really see a division in mindset that exists among followers of Jesus in our society today.

On one hand, the article relates experience like this:

Brad Jones, a 30-year-old youth pastor at a conservative Southern Baptist Church in South Florida, said he felt alone in his desire for more authentic dialogue about God.

"My thoughts on faith aren't really going along with everyone else and then I read this and said, 'That's what I've been thinking the whole time,"' he said.

Miller's book embraces cultural relevance, not cultural dominance, he said.

"The typical judgmental, hate-filled, bigoted, more people knew what we were against than what we were for," mentality has little to do with the real God, Jones said.

It also generalizes this further by saying:

Some experts say Miller and authors like him are in sync with a generation of young adults who very much believes in God, Jesus and the basics of Christianity, but are struggling to balance their conservative Christian upbringings with a culture that embraces a go-along-to get-along philosophy.

"People like Donald Miller are speaking almost like a prophet of a new age and describing the landscape in a way people who feel comfortable in that landscape really couldn't articulate before," said David Kinnaman, a researcher for The Barna Group and author of "Unchristian."

On the other hand, Miller and Blue Like Jazz have critics. For example, the article says:

Critics call Miller's works casual and glib and that he strays from biblical truths when he downplays homosexuality and other sins.

One such critic, Shane Walker, says Miller presents Jesus as a "nice fellow who meets one at the campfire and swaps stories." He forgets to remind readers that Jesus is also a judge and avenger who "wants to save you from his just wrath," according to his review for "Blue Like Jazz" , an organization designed to help local churches re-establish their biblical bearings.

These two types of responses are relatively typically. I don't think that I have encountered anyone who takes just a middle-of-the-road, I-could-take-it-or-leave-it response to Miller and Blue Like Jazz. Either you think that he hits the nail on the head and points out many of the flaws and problems in present-day Christianity, or else you think he is part of the problem with present-day Christianity. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

Personally, I fall in the first group. But that's a thought for another day.

The mission field at home

I was reading on the train on my way to work this morning, and came across some interesting information from the book Lost in America by Tom Clegg and Warren Bird. While Christians, particularly evangelicals, like to think of the United States as a "Christian nation," this is becoming less true, and probably is no longer a true statement. According to Clegg and Bird, the unchurched population of the United States is now the largest mission field in the English-speaking world, and is the fifth largest mission field in the entire world. Let that sink in for a minute. Only four countries in the world have more unchurched people than the United States.

This seems to go along with the conclusions of the new book unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. unChristian looks at the opinions of Americans between 16-29 years old regarding Christians and the Church. While I haven't had the chance to read the book, I've seen some of the conclusions, and they don't look pretty. I can't wait until I have the chance to read the whole thing.

I'm not sure that this really is bad news. I think that many Christians and churches have allowed themselves to think that a missionary is someone else who does things far away in the name of Christ. When we allow ourselves to think that way, we don't have to think so much about how we live our lives and whether we are living in a way that draws people to Jesus. On the other hand, if we really come to grips with the fact that our neighbors aren't Christ followers, it changes everything. It means that we are missionaries to our neighborhood and our school or workplace and our hangouts. It means that we should be concerned with whether, when people look at the way we live our lives, if they are seeing Jesus in action. And I think that's a good think.

Advertisements vs. Salespeople

I was reading Frequently Avoided Questions by Chuck Smith Jr. and Matt Whitlock on the train this morning, and came across this thought: "Every Christian is at all times and in every place an advertisement for Jesus, not a salesperson or a telemarketer but a reflection of Christ, the lover of humans." (p. 197).

That thought literally stopped me in my tracks. I had never thought of it that way before. The difference between those two things is incredible. An advertisement invites the audience in and makes the product attractive. In fact, a good advertisement can be enjoyable and make you think positively about a company even if you have no interest in their products. For example, Cheryl and I just recently consolidated our cell phone service and signed a new contract with U.S. Cellular, so we have no interest in new cell phones or cell phone service. In spite of that, I love the AT&T Wireless Philaware Pragueicago commercial and T-Mobile's "Maybe you should get uglier friends" ad. I have no interest in the products those commercials are selling, but they have a positive effect on me. If an advertisement is well done, it can create interest in what is being advertised, and will help convince people that they need it.

People are more skeptical of salespeople, however. While a salesperson may very well be trying to help me find something I need or want, there is always an undercurrent that they are really in it for themselves. I always find myself wondering what they are not telling me. I'm enough of a cynic to think that they are telling me what they think I want to hear so that I will make the purchase. An advertisement may show me the best features of a product, but it leaves me free to make up my own mind. A salesperson is trying to force me into making a decision.

Often, I think Christians are too much like salespeople and not enough like advertisements. We often treat people who are not Christ followers like they are targets, and that we need to sell them Jesus. And when we do that, far too often we turn to high-pressure sales tactics ("if you don't accept Christ, you're going to go to hell"). Sometimes it works (just like sometimes I buy a car after talking with a car salesman), but even when it does work it makes many people uncomfortable with the process.

On the other hand, if we could live our lives more like an advertisement, we wouldn't have to tell people about the attractive features of Jesus. They would see those things in us every day. It would serve as an invitation to talk about the things we are advertising.

Often, a salesperson only gets one crack at making the sale. If the person doesn't buy right then, the likelihood is that they won't come back to deal with that person again. That's not true with an advertisement. If we truly are an advertisement for Jesus, and a person doesn't want what we are advertising today, that's okay. Because we'll be on again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that...

Vote for Zach Hunter

Thanks to Mark Oestreicher, the president of Youth Specialties for the heads up on this one.

Zach Hunter is a young man on a mission to change the world for the sake of Christ. He has made it his personal mission to eliminate slavery in the world. Zach has written about his experiences and how we can get involved to make the world a better place in his book Be the Change. I own a copy, and it's only my reading list, but I haven't made it to it yet.

Anyway, CNN has nominated Zach a CNN Hero in the youth category. If he wins, he would appear in a primetime special with Anderson Cooper where Zach would get to talk about modern-day slavery and how he feels God is calling his generation to bring freedom to people. There is also a cash prize that Zach has already said he would donate to the aftercare and education of freed child slaves.

The winner is selected simply by a web vote. As of Wednesday morning, Zach was in second place, about 600 votes behind the leader. You can vote here as many times as you would like. The voting ends Monday at noon. I strongly encourage you to cast some votes for Zach and get your friends involved, too.

There is one mistake on the CNN website. It says that Zach has raised over $20,000 to fight slavery. Actually, that is what he has personally given out of his book sales and speaker's fees. He has actually raised far more than that.

What I'm Reading Now

I decided that I really need to get to work on my reading list. I have a bunch of books that I want to read, and in a couple of weeks, I'm headed to the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention. It's a great conference, and I always come home with more great books to read. So I need to try to clear out some space on my reading list, otherwise I won't be done for years...

So right now I'm reading The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet. It's an interesting look at Starbucks and the church, and what the church can learn from Starbucks.

Starbucks has become a cultural destination. People want to go there. In fact, people will stand in line (although not necessarily long lines) in order to participate in the Starbucks experience. When was the last time that you saw people standing in line to get into church?

Starbucks has tapped into what our emerging culture in looking for in the experience of coffee, without changing the nature of coffee. Sweet looks at ways that the church can learn from Starbucks, and create experiences and methods for drawing people from our emerging culture to Christ without compromising the message of who Christ.

I haven't finished the book yet, but based on the first half, I strongly encourage you to take a look at it.