Understanding of a Viewpoint

Coming to Antioch about 10 months ago, I began hearing the phrase “Spirit of Religion” a lot. While I had heard such things in the past, I hadn’t run into nearly the volume of it until joining this community. It is used to describe (or label… ; ) a way of “doing” church which is all about the rules and traditions. People that live under a ‘Spirit of Religion” feel compelled to live and act a certain way because they believe that following a certain set of rules and rituals are what God wants. To sum it up, go to church, read your bible because God told you to, and maybe throw a couple bucks in the offering plate to appease the wrath of the Almighty.

Many people associate a “spirit of religion” with traditional churches. At least those people I’m around. This frustrated me for the longest time. I felt like it was “bash the church” time. Seminary and tradition were words that were almost venomously spewed from the mouths of my brothers and sisters. I was frustrated. For me, tradition held a richness and depth that I found comforting and powerful. I grew up thinking of seminary as a place to go learn more about God and the bible all for the sake of drawing closer to the Lord and being better equipped for ministry. I had few of the strong negative connotations attached to such things. Thus my frustration with those around me who just couldn’t see that Jesus could be found, worshiped, and exalted in those settings.

While I understood the direction much of this negativity came from, I could never get my head wrapped around why the depth of such negativity existed. Even though I was raised in a traditional church, having a father with a Masters of Divinity (a degree you go to seminary for), everything was about Jesus. When I asked questions of our beliefs, my parents always told me what they believed and why. It was the same with the traditions in the church. They always explained the background of many of the things, and told of what the traditions meant to them personally. I grew up seeing how seminary had drawn my father and mother closer to the Lord, and how traditions were things with rich history that drew us into the presence of God.

Recently God has been opening my eyes to the point of view that many of my spiritual family are coming from. After having interacted with a couple of different ministries in Norman, I have been amazed at the legalism and “Spirit of Religion” if you will, that is present in some members of these groups. I get the feeling from some of these ministries that they want to read a book and learn and memorize rules instead of deepening a relationship with the all powerful God of the universe. This is called Bible Deism, when we end up worshiping the Bible and its words, instead of worshiping the God that is spoken of in the Bible.

I cannot imagine growing up in such an environment. I have realized the viewpoint of my peers. The viewpoint that seminary is all intellect and no heart, and that tradition is all about rules and rituals instead of about Jesus. If I had been raised in such an environment, and then encountered the rich, freeing presence of an alive, vivacious, and engaging God, I think my tune would be singing a little differently as well. It makes me even more thankful for the parents I have. Parents that have a sincere and full heart for Jesus. I pray for healing for my friends and others who have been hurt and oppressed by such a “Spirit of Religion”. I pray that they will begin to see what life can and does exist in those settings. That we may all be encouragers to what life is there, and work to fan the flame of Christ centered passion that exists in the hearts around us even if it looks a little different than our own.

A Year In Reflection

I sit here in the laundry mat, reflecting back over the last year. The last YEAR! I still am in disbelief that I’ve been back in Oklahoma for over a year! Thinking back over the events that have happened in those 13 months totally blows me away. Just the sheer volume of things that can happen in a year is astounding in itself. A year doesn’t sound like that much, it’s a single unit of time. But wow!! Getting a job, finding a total God send of an apartment, getting a second job, making friends, losing friends, finding an amazing church, making even more friends, losing even more friends, receiving a job offer in an area of work I NEVER expected to be working in, making it through the winter financially, starting that job I NEVER expected have, not to mention struggling through the everyday ups and downs associated with living and breathing….and being grown by God more and more through it all.

I stand pretty in awe of how God works. I’ve gone from nothing, to well, quite a bit actually. (Ok, not financially, but every other aspect of life) My faith community and friends are AMAZING. I cannot imagine my life without them. They push me and cause me to grow as a person. My character, theology, and the application of that theology have been pushed, stretched, and challenged in crazy ways. Ways I never saw coming.

Jobs? God totally provided my first job at the bike shop. It’s been really good overall. I love the guys I work with, have learned a ton more about cycling than I knew before (I know…some of you are shocked that there were things I didn’t know about bicycles), and have met even more amazing people that I can’t imagine not having in my life. Then God totally provided the second job at Hastings. Met more crazy awesome people, learned more about coffee than I ever expected to know, and have enjoyed the glimpse into the corporate world. Then most recently, I have had my world rocked upside-down by this certain duck company. Haha, so far….it’s been hard. But I think in the long run I’m gonna enjoy it. It too is already pushing, stretching, and growing me in crazy unexpected ways.

Whats the conclusion of my thoughts and reflections? God is good and life is crazy. Oh, and expect the unexpected. It may just happen.

Absence of church and the voice of God?

Recently I've been reading a book called Surprised by the Voice of God by Jack Deere. I am absolutely in love with this book. It outlines how God speaks to His church outside of scripture. He references scripture at every turn and in every issue, then using the experiences of himself and others as illustration. He even goes into the negative issues and problems that common happen, and tells ways of preventing and handling such issues. One thing that I love, is the testimony of Jack himself. He was the old testament prof at Dallas theological seminary at the time, and didn't believe that God spoke to us directly outside of through the bible, and he didn't believe in modern day miracles. Then through circumstances and situations, he came to believe otherwise. I reccommend it to anyone wrestling through issues of how God speaks and works. It has been very enlightening and encouraging for me.

One story in particular stood out to me. Jack was a leader of a church in Texas. The leadership forsaw a possible split in the church due to some "charasmatic tendencies" that were arising. Leadership was wise and decided to take a weekend retreat to pray about the future and direction of the church. His prayer that changed his outlook was "Oh God, don't let this conflict escalate so that our church gets wiped off the face of the map." He said the very second he prayed, a voice went off inside his head, "What would be so bad about that?" He knew the question came from God and he couldn't wait for the other pastors to finish praying so he could talk with them about what it could mean. Heres the rest of the story in Jack's words.

"As soon as prayer time ended, I asked, "what would be so bad about our church being wiped off the face of the map?" They stared at me in disbelief. How could I be so dumb and calloused?
"Well, it would hurt a lot of people, " responded one of the pastors.
"I'm sure it would," I responded. "But eventually they would find another church and get over the hurt. What I'm really asking is, What would the kingdom of God lose in our city if our church didn't exist anymore?"
We all thought for a minute. What was important to the kindgom of God? What things happened in the New Testament when the kingdom of God came?

We all agreed that evangelism was an important aspect....We asked ourselves how many people had been led to Christ through the ministry of our church in the last eighteen months. We could only come up with four names, and the leadership of the church had led none of these people to Christ. We concluded that if our church didn't exist, there would be no great loss of evangelism in our city.

Then we asked how many people had been physically healed through the ministry of our church in the past eighteen months. Although we had begun to pray for the sick in our church, at this point we couldn't count very many people who had been healed through prayers. We concluded that the healing ministry of the Holy Spirit would suffer not great loss in our city.

Then we asked ourselves how many people no longer had to take antidepressants or no longer visit the psychiatrist's office on a regular basis because of the ministry of our church. We couldn't count anyone. We could, however, count a few who had started taking antidepressants.

We couldn't count any failing marraiges we had saved, but we could count some we had lost.

Next came addictions to drugs, alcohol, and sex. From our private counseling sessions we knew there were people in the church struggling with these sins. But none of us could conclusively point to one person that had conclusively been delivered from one of these sins.

We also realized that if our church ceased to exist there would be no missionary who would be forced come home from the mission field, nor would there be any significant loss in the social care programs for the poor in our own city.

We were forced to conclude that without the existence of our church, the kingdom of God in our city would suffer no appreciable loss in evagelism, in the healing of bodies, spirits, emotions, marriages, in the care of the poor, or in the support of the missionaries in other lands.

We looked at each other and said, "Well, what do we do?"


Quite a humbling question that I think we, as the body, we need to ask ourselves and be brutally honest about the answers. Are we truly effective....or are we decieving ourselves? What DO we do?

The Prostitute's Church

The last couple of weeks I’ve been working my way through “The Secret Message of Jesus” by Brian D. McLaren. I encourage any and all to check it out. I’m about half way through and it has shifted and refined some of my worldview and focus. Yesterday I read a particularly powerful true story that struck me at the core.

Brians friend Tony Campolo (a Christian author and speaker), was in another time zone, unable to sleep. So he wandered down to a donut shop, well after midnight, were it turns out local hookers also came at the end of a night of turning tricks. There, He (Tony), overheard a conversation between two of them. One, named Agnes, said, “You know what? Tomorrows my birthday. I’m gonna be thirty-nine.” Her friend snapped back, “So what d’ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake and sing happy birthday to you?” The first woman replied, “Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I’m just sayin its my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?”
When they left, Tony got an idea. He asked the shop owner if Agnes came in every night, and when he replied in the affirmative, Tony invited him into a surprise part conspiracy. The shop owner’s wife even got involved. Together they arranged for a cake, candles, and party decorations for Agnes, who was, to Tony, a complete stranger. The next night when she came in, they shouted, “Surprise!”- and Agnes couldn’t believe her eyes. The shop patrons sang, and she began to cry so hard she could barely blow out the candles. When the time came to cut the cake, she asked if they’d mind if she didn’t cut it, if she could bring it home-just to keep it for awhile and savor the moment. So she left, carrying her cake like a treasure.
Tony led the guests in a prayer for Agnes, after which the shop owner told Tony he didn’t realize he was a preacher. He asked what kind of church Tony came from, and Tony replied, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.” The shop owner couldn’t believe him. “No you don’t. Their ain’t no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. Yep, I’d join a church like that.”

Lord, help us to be such a church. A church that loves even prostitutes in a joyous and radical fashion. Amen.

Demanded Decision

A question has been ravaging my thoughts as of late. “If we truly believe what the Bible says to be true…how come we don’t live like it, how come our lives don’t reflect it?”

Think about it. First off, theres the whole thing about being in intimate relationship with the creator of the FREAKIN UNIVERSE!! The Bible says he created it all, from the largest of the galaxies, suns, and planets, down to the molecules of the smallest blades of grass and grains of sand. Don’t know about you…but even an idea or notion, much less a fact, of a God that huge and powerful being interested in lil o me…pretty much blows my mind into mush.

We claim to follow after and know this God incarnate named Jesus (theres a second one, that same creator God, becoming man so He could fully point the way and pay the price that we couldn’t…WOW!), one who raised people from the dead, healed the blind and crippled, who set the captives of darkness free. We talk about these things in church and think about them in the recesses of our minds with a complacency as if they are commonplace today. As if it’s the norm of life, taking no effort or feat of something that is beyond our own abilities. He raised the DEAD!!! He made the blind to SEE!! If we truly believe these things to be true, real, and tangible, does it not command our full attention?

Jesus himself said that he is the way, the truth, the life. If we believe that to be true, shouldn’t we be taking our relationship to God seriously? Not simply giving the Lord the scraps of our time, but instead, giving Him the priority over all things in our lives. For is it not true that our Christian belief is that our relationship with God is the one thing that we have in this life that will carry over with us after death? Again, I wonder why the wholehearted pursuit of God isn’t our top priority of life.

It seems to me as if we as Christians have become blinded and lulled to sleep about the true and full weight that our beliefs carry. We now come to a point of decision. Either we believe what the Bible says to be true, realizing that it calls us to decision, action, and change in the entirety of our lives. To a change that MUST happen out of response and recognition of who God is . Or we resign ourselves to believe that the Bible is simply a book of fairy tales and myths, something barely worth our passing glance. If that is so, we might as well toss it aside and in the trash, for it holds no more worth than any other book on our shelves. Probably less in fact…if that is true.

I know my decision. I cannot deny the experiences that I've had. I cannot deny the impact and change that the book of so called fairy tales and myths has brought about in my life. I also cannot deny that the God of the Bible is real and tangible. A God that is beyond my full comprehension and understanding. He is the only God that is truly big enough, and powerful enough, and benevolent enough to bring about such incredible miracles that are seen in the Bible. So I say and pray, Lead on dear Abba, your child is seeking after you.

May our lives truly reflect our beliefs and claimed priorities.