have a culture-war christmas!

ponder anew has a post worth reading, called, "a season of wonder, a season of silliness". here's an excerpt:

The whole Advent season leading to Christmas is all gospel, tinged with wonder.

For the past few years, the beginning of the Advent season has also marked the beginning of the battle cry from Christian culture warriors.

You know the drill. Somebody gets all in a lather over store clerks wishing people “happy holidays” or as in Kentucky, calling a Christmas tree a “holiday tree.” Buttons are worn and bumper stickers are placed and “sign this and pass it on if you believe in Christmas” petitions are circulated on the internet.

And now, Focus on the Family has actually developed a web site called Stand for Christmas. The basic idea is that costumers can log on and rank various businesses as “Christmas-friendly”, Christmas-negligent” or “Christmas-offensive”. There’s a constantly updated percentage for each category listed for dozens of businesses, and as soon as someone sends their comments, an e-mail is automatically generated to the business itself.

...OK. But…really? Is this the primary thing that those of us who have received the gospel gift want to broadcast during this season?

count me out. how about you?


today's van gogh
half figure of an angel (after rembrandt), 1889

let them eat cake...

reporter: hello, today i'm with william sola, great, great, great grandson of jack sola, founder of the sola bakery company. thanks for joining us today, mr. sola.

sola: my pleasure.

reporter: you are the latest in a long line of solas to have inherited the sola bakery business. if i understand correctly, your company is now being run in quite a different way than it was in the past. can you tell us about that?

sola: that's right. we operate strictly on a kind of franchise basis now. you tell us you want to run a sola bakery, we verify that you're a true believer in the sola name, and boom! there you go, you can run your own sola bakery.

reporter: how do you go about helping these franchise owners get started in business?

sola: we give them the book.

reporter: the book?

sola: that's right, the sola bakery book.

reporter: i assume that this book contains all the directions one would need to get a bakery going—specific steps for setting up a business, company policies, the unique sola recipes, all of that?

sola: no, not really. the book is more of a history of jack sola. it lays out the background of why he started the bakery, and then tells about his life, his sayings, and the sacrifices he made to start the first sola bakery. it also contains stories about the early growth of the business, and several letters that early company managers wrote to bakeries around the area to help them with their specific problems. oh, you can find bits and pieces of various recipes in there, and fragments of policies and procedures. but mostly, it's the story of jack sola.

reporter: it doesn't contain specific company policies and the actual recipes for baking sola products? how then do you maintain quality control? how do you make sure one sola cake is like another sola cake?

sola: we don't care too much about quality control. we pretty much just give a new guy the book and let him go. he's on his own then. we think the book contains enough principles to keep him straight and faithful to the spirit of our founder, but he's free to develop his own recipes and run the business any way he wants. this has led to a whole new, exciting era in sola bakery history, and we are celebrating it with our new slogan.

reporter: and what is that?

sola: "sola bakeries: a surprise in every box."

reporter: but, doesn't that confuse people? doesn't it bother you that people don't really know what to expect when they buy a product from a sola bakery? and what if they get something really bad, or even harmful?

sola: actually, we like it that people don't know what to expect. it adds an air of spontanaeity and excitement that we think is great! here at headquarters, we just say, "let them eat cake!" and then wait to hear all the thrilling reports from the field. if a customer isn't satisfied with her local sola bakery, we figure that there are enough other franchises in the area that she can try them all until she's satisfied.

reporter: so, the sola name really doesn't indicate what kind of a product you're going to get.

sola: yes, that's right. what we can guarantee is that it will be a "sola" cake, no more, no less. beyond that, it's up for grabs.

reporter: and there you have it—william sola, president of sola bakeries, telling us that, when it comes to sola cakes, it's a surprise in every box. good night, and GOOD LUCK.

today's van gogh

interior of a restaurant, 1887

why you should be very scared...

some folks think i'm too hard on the evangelical church at times, but i was referred to something recently that sent me into a funk of untold depths.

i will not mention the name of the author or where i found what he wrote. suffice it to say that these are the words of a "pastor," who from all appearances is a fairly typical contemporary evangelical church-planting leader. for reasons i don't know, he is no longer on his church staff or involved in vocational ministry. i'm not interested in besmirching his name or criticizing his church or anything like that. but i have to confess that when i read his list, my mouth dropped open in unbelieving amazement.

the title of his article refers to the move from being in church leadership to having to function in the "real world". in his piece he lists some of the lessons he has learned in this transition. i paraphrase some of his reflections...

• he testifies that, until he left the pastorate, he had absolutely no idea about the financial, job, and family pressures most of the people in the church were facing in their lives.

• he realized after leaving the ministry that getting up and preaching what people should do is easy, but living it out is not.

• he realized after no longer being in the pulpit that he will never preach a lot of his sermons because he sees now that it is not possible to actually live any of it out in real life.

• he apparently had no idea that he was asking too much of people to do all the volunteering he was asking for after they had worked long hours at work. by comparison, he realized how little he himself had been working while on a church staff.

• he testifies that, when he was a pastor, he truly had no idea how many hurting people there are in the world.

• as a pastor, he really didn't know that a lot of people actually hate the church.

• now he realizes that as a pastor, he completely shielded himself from criticism, something he cannot do now that he's in the real world.

• he confesses how much he really looked down on women and was sexually inappropriate in his thoughts, words, and perspectives.

• he has now learned the value of the apology. as a pastor, he would never have said, "i'm sorry," because he thought he always had to be right.

• he had a lot of fake friendships when he was a pastor.

• now he's thinking that it will take a different kind of church to reach a community. when he finds out what it is, he will get back into trying to start one.

i'm practically speechless. this guy called himself a "pastor"? for heaven's sake, i think i would have known more than this as a new christian fresh out of paganism 35 years ago!

where did this guy get his training? who affirmed his calling and authorized him to stand in front of people and open the bible? did anyone ever check his theology? his ideas about what it means to minister to people?

it's obvious he never visited a parishioner at home—never even considered people who attended his church parishioners in the first place! probably never darkened the door of a hospital room. surely he never prayed at the bedside of the dying. did he ever pray with anyone? about any real life issue? did he ever stop planning cool church events long enough to listen to any real person? it's obvious to me that this guy was doing his own thing from the start and was as clueless as homer simpson about what it means to be a church leader, especially a pastor.

if this is the state of the "pastorate" today, may god have mercy on us all.


today's van gogh
two thistles, 1888

the lord's day—november 1

22nd sunday after pentecost
all saints

today's lectionary readings
(readings for all saints)
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

today's bach cantatas
bwv 109, "i believe, lord, help my unbelief!"
bwv 38, "out of the depths i cry to thee"
bwv 98, "what god does, that is done well"
bwv 188, "i have put my trust"

today's van gogh
the church at auvers, 1890

today's good news
i wait all year for this sunday, so that i can join in singing one of my favorite hymns:

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Apostles’ glorious company,
Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Words by William W. How, 1864; Music by Ralph Vaughn-Williams, 1906

these words remind me that i walk with christ in living communion, and not only with him, but also with his immense family of "faithful witnesses"—those who have gone before in time (hebrews 12.1), as well as those who dwell in all places around the world (1corinthians 1.2).

the weekly discussion—sept 27

those of you who keep up with religion news know that the ELCA (evangelical lutheran church of america) recently had their 2009 annual churchwide assembly and made some controversial decisions. let me summarize a few of those decisions before opening up a discussion.

• the ELCA adopted full communion with the united methodist church. controversial to many lutherans, but overshadowed in most coverage by the other decisions made at the cwa.

• the ELCA adopted the social statement, “human sexuality—gift and trust.” although this social statement deals with many different aspects of human relationships and sexuality, the most controversial part speaks about homosexuality. here is an excerpt from the executive summary of the resolution:

It is only within the last decades that this church has begun to understand in new ways the need of same-gender oriented individuals to seek relationships of lifelong companionship and commitment as well as public accountability and legal support for those commitments. This has led to differing understandings about the place of such relationships within the Christian community. Disagreements exist in this church and in the larger Christian community about whether marriage is also the appropriate term to use to describe similar benefits, protection, and support for same-gender couples entering into lifelong, monogamous relationships.

Although at this time this church lacks consensus on this matter, it encourages all people to live out their faith in the local and global community of the baptized with profound respect for the conscience-bound belief of the neighbor. This church calls for mutual respect and for guidance that seeks the good of all. As we live together with disagreement, the people in this church will continue to accompany one another in study, prayer, discernment, pastoral care, and mutual respect.

the church recognized four different views of this matter within the denomination, and the practical effect is that local churches may deal with this issue as they see fit.

• the ELCA adopted ministry resolutions allowing the church to recognize homosexual relationships and for the denomination to have homosexuals serve in ministry. Here is an explanation from the ELCA website:
  

The assembly adopted four resolutions that commit the ELCA to bear one another’s burdens and respect bound consciences in these matters; to allow congregations that choose to do so to find ways to recognize and support lifelong, monogamous, same gender relationships and hold them publicly accountable; and to find a way for people in such relationships to serve as rostered leaders in the ELCA. The fourth resolution points toward a specific way to allow rostering while respecting bound consciences.

needless to say, these decisions have raised an uproar. one group of conservative lutherans met in indianapolis last weekend and laid the groundwork for separating from the denomination and realigning lutheranism in america. one of the largest lutheran churches in the u.s. voted this past weekend to leave and join a more conservative lutheran group. even the united methodist church, with whom the ELCA just joined in full communion, has said they will not welcome any homosexual pastors as they share in ministry together.

on the other hand, i spoke with my pastor sunday and he said we most definitely will not be leaving the ELCA. in his view, the decision is a social policy statement and does not go to the heart of the gospel or affect our doctrine of salvation in christ. furthermore, our church did not participate in the entire process of studying the social statement, we have a rather distant relationship with the larger denomination, and the decision has little or no effect on our life and ministry as a local congregation.

in fact, one of the redeeming characteristics of the ELCA decision is that it clearly recognized the differences of opinion that exist in our churches regarding homosexuality and how to deal with it. and it called people on all sides to respect the "bound consciences" of others as we go into the future together.

gail and i have been members of an ELCA congregation for about a year now. we love our local church, its worship and emphasis. it is a very different experience for us, having been in mostly non-denominational evangelical churches for 30+ years. the evangelical churches of which we were part were more compatible with our beliefs in some areas of doctrine, moral convictions, and worldwide mission emphasis. this includes our understanding that the bible does not set forth homosexual behavior as congruent with god's design for creation. however, as i wrote last year on my other blog, we also saw significant weaknesses and failures in the evangelical church in worship, pastoral theology, missional living among our neighbors, culture war emphases, and many other areas.

frankly, i don't consider myself a part of "american evangelicalism" anymore. i am what michael spencer calls a "post-evangelical". i long for the wisdom of good theology and the lessons of history and tradition to inform my faith. i'm no longer into the next christian fad and i have moved out of the christian ghetto. i love luther as well as lutheran theology and worship, consider myself a reformation, confessional christian, and feel connected to the catholic (universal, historical) church in ways that i never have before.

however... in the mainline churches of today (heirs of the social gospel, higher-critical thinking, and liberal theology), one must come to grips with an entirely different perspective on theological, social, political, and moral issues. the bible is sometimes understood and treated differently. it's a "big tent" approach that forces me to consider many challenging concepts and relationships.

so, i guess i don't really have one question today. can we just have a conversation about all this? i'd like to get feedback from people in mainline churches, evangelical churches, folks who don't go to church at all, etc., about how you would view the situation in the ELCA if you were in our shoes.

don't be shy. let it out. keep it civil, but don't be afraid to express strong opinions strongly.

today's van gogh
path in the woods, 1887

the weekly discussion—sept 20

note...
each week I will set forth a topic to promote discussion about some aspect of Christianity, the church, or the spiritual life. please join the conversation!


this week's discussion:
"do we need another 'cool' church?"

two postcards came in the mail the other day, advertising the "grand opening" of a new church in town. on the front of one was the word "religion," and it was crossed out, and on the other was a picture of a guy in jeans and sneakers along with the words, "these are my church clothes." the church has a cool, spiritual name—"the journey church," and here is the list of what they say they offer:

• casual, relaxed atmosphere
• a community of authentic, caring people
• great live music (singing is optional)
• practical, meaningful teaching from the bible
• a safe, FUN environment for kids
• church that lasts an hour or less
• free [local establishment] coffee & doughnuts

along with their contact information, they make this claim about our town: "franklin will never be the same!"

now, i have several questions about this, and i would love to get your feedback. my questions are:

• do we really need another church like this? in our town of franklin alone, there are at least 9-10 similar small church start-ups or groups, most of which have this same vibe—cool, casual, non-religious christianity. why another?

• is this list of offerings really what people are looking for in a church and in their faith? and even if they like some of these characteristics, do these things truly represent what a church should be offering? what kind of christianity is being presented here?
  

• what does this advertisement say about what the leaders of this church think of the established, more "traditional" churches in town? isn't their self-description a pretty explicit condemnation of the traditional church? where's the christian love and belief in the "catholic" faith with an approach like that?
  

• doesn't the very method of marketing imply a "competition" model of church growth that pits them against the other ministries in the area? and isn't their style and aggressive advertising more likely to draw unhappy church people looking for something fresh rather than non-churched people?

• is it really possible that people won't see through the hype here? "franklin will never be the same!"—really? "authentic, caring people"—really? (have you ever been in a church?). faith without religion—really? isn't this all a bit triumphalistic? can they truly deliver?
  

come on, folks, have at it. i'm very interested in what you have to say.

today's van gogh
the sower, 1888