TILL HE COMES Blog

Christians often divide the world into two groups: Christians and non-Christians. But have you ever heard of a noun-Christian? It is the type of Christian who would rather talk about doctrine, theology, and the meanings of various biblical words and passages without ever actually doing anything. It is the type of Christian I used to be, and the type of Christian I hung out with most.

As an example, we have all sat through a missions conference where the emphasis of a sermon was on the meaning of the word “Go” in Matthew 28:19, but the only call to action at the end of the message was to give more money when the plate was passed. I know I have preached semons like this before. If faith without works is useless (James 2), discussion without action is worse.

I recently came across the idea in Erwin McManus’ book An Unstoppable Force where he talks about this concept. He writes:

Biblical interpretation must be missiological, not theological. A theological construct for interpretation finds success in the attainment of knowledge. The more you know, the more mature a Christian you are thought to be. And yet knowledge of the Bible does not guarantee application of the Bible. To know is not necessarily to do. When the construct applied to the Bible is missiological, you engage the Bible to discover the response required of your life. It is significant that the history of the first-century church is called the book of Acts, not the books of Truths (p. 72).

Obedience to Scripture unlocks their mystery. …If the Bible doesn’t bring change, it is not being engaged (p. 85).

For too long we have focused on making sure people believe the right things and have left their concerns alone. I know it may sound like heresy, but it is more important to change what people care about than to change what they believe! You can believe without caring, but you can’t care without believing. We cannot afford to fill our churches with members who have biblical beliefs and worldly concerns (p. 111).

What does your church mean when it uses the word missions? It has always astonished me that so many churches and individuals who are ‘missions minded’ rarely engage in the mission of Christ that requires them to come face to face with an unbeliever and love that person into God’s kingdom (p. 125).

So what did you learn in church this past Sunday, or in your Bible reading today? Let me challenge you: if you were shown something you were supposed to do, and you haven’t yet done it, don’t read another chapter in your Bible or attend another church service until you have obeyed. God desires obedience, not faithful Bible reading and regular attendance at church (cf. 1 Sam 15:22).

If I ever pastor a church again, I would like to put the “service” back into “church service.” We would only gather at the church building every other week for the typical Sunday events. On the “off” weeks, we would go out as a group and put into practice what we learned the previous week. I am not sure exactly how this would work, but it might be interesting to try. Who knows? Maybe we would find that service helped us develop more as followers of Christ than singing and sermons ever did.

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I found the following article last year, and am posting it here. I have no idea who wrote it, or when. It appears to be written by a non-Christian, but for all I know, it could have been written by a disenfranchised Christian. But whoever wrote it, it says a lot of things that I think and feel, and so I am posting it. Whether you like what is written below or not, please recognize that there are millions of people out there (both believers in Jesus and religious people) who empathize with what this person wrote. So here it is:

I went to church this Sunday; it was the first time in over a year and I was reminded once again why I will never be able to call myself a Christian. The people there were quite handsome, I’ll give them that. The building was beautiful, a masterpiece of architecture with a marble foyer and picturesque stained glass. There was greenery in every corner, which was about the only indication of life in the whole place. I sat on a very comfortable bench next to well-dressed people with plastic smiles full of bright white teeth.

The man in charge of music made us sing the same chorus over and over until everyone seemed to have convinced themselves that God was pleased, and then we all were told to greet one another. While an organ played some little diddy, a man extended his hand and asked me how I was, to which I replied, “Fine.” This happened three more times before I decided to tell the truth. “How are you this morning?” asked a perfect specimen of a young lady. “Horrible. Awful.” I replied. Her answer to my answer? “Well, praise God.” She never even heard me.

A few moments later a man approached the podium and talked about the great financial need of the church - apparently God was broke this weekend - and then he told us to give an offering as the Spirit led us. The Spirit didn’t say nothing to me so I didn’t give a dime when they passed the buckets - yes, an actual bucket - my way.

At this point it struck me that I had heard about the church, about money, about pastor so-and-so, but nobody had mentioned anything about Jesus. Seriously, not one word about their Christ. Oh, well, what did I care? I mean, after all, they were the Christians, not me.

Still holding out hope that the day would not be a wash, I listened to their preacher as he asked us to turn to the book called Matthew. He read about Jesus telling the disciples to not worry about anything because God would feed and clothe them. Nothing wrong with that in my book. For the next fifteen minutes he told me and the other 500 plus people that everything was good, and not only good, but getting better. He told me not to judge anyone because they weren’t to judge me.

His big thought of the day was that we ought to take a meal to whoever was our next door neighbor and tell them that Jesus cares for them and so does the church. Hmmmmm. My neighbor’s name is Russ and he is heavily tattooed, curses like a sailor, and beats his wife every other weekend after sucking down a bottle of Jack Daniels. Somehow I didn’t think that fried chicken, apple pie, and a hugs-and-kisses message from Jesus was really going to impact him so I chose not to take the preacher’s advice.

At the end of his little chat, we all bowed our heads and reminded ourselves of how good God is, how good we are, and how good it is to be good. Funny…in spit of being reminded how grand is my state of being, I left feeling rather bad.

Actually, it didn’t even rise to level of bad, it was the saturation of nothingness… irrelevance… and needlessness. I wondered if anyone else had caught this bug during the last hour or waste. What would have made the difference? I’m really not sure. Maybe a tear, maybe a glitch in the flow of the ultra-smooth program, maybe a torn page in the hymn book to let me know that imperfections were allowed in this church. I mean, the babies didn’t even cry, for goodness sake. Maybe a preacher with less of an ego and more of a soul might have helped.

I don’t know; I honestly went there hoping to find this Jesus that my friend tells me I so desperately need. All I found was a group of mannequins who resemble a Hollywood cast party more than a group of people with an in-road to God. I’ll take Jesus any day that I can find him, but you can keep your Christianity. I mean, I can find insignificance in life without God and His polished posse.

I may not be a Christian, but I can tell you one thing, the only time I know of that Jesus went to a place of worship like the one I attended last Sunday, it is my understanding that he turned over their tables, called them thieves, and ran them all out so that they could think about what the house of God was really supposed to be. Maybe if I had seen that from someone this past Sunday, Christianity would be more appealing.

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Now that I have been out of Seminary for about four months, I am beginning to get some perspective on what I learned and how useful it is for life and ministry. I am sure this perspective will continue to mature and develop, but below is something my wife and I were talking about the other day…

Most seminary programs place a high emphasis on learning the Biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew. The theory is that knowing Greek and Hebrew will aid the student in understanding the text better, and therefore, being able to teach it better. It is for this reason I studied them, even though learning languages has always been a struggle for me. In seminary, I easily spent just as much time on my Hebrew and Greek classes as I did on all my other classes combined. On an average night, I would spend 4-6 hours on homework, and usually, 3-4 of these were on learning Greek or Hebrew.

The question for me now is whether knowing such languages will actually prove helpful for understanding the Biblical text? I think to some degree it has. But given the wide variety of good English translations, the vast availability of Greek and Hebrew study tools (both in book and digital format), and the large number of good commentaries that have been written, I expect that knowing Greek and Hebrew is not going to be super beneficial to me personally. I will most likely use it in my studies, but one thing learning Greek and Hebrew taught me is that unless you are an expert, using Greek and Hebrew is rather dangerous. Since I will never be a Greek and Hebrew expert, I must tread lightly when using the languages in my study.

One other thing I have become convinced of in using Greek and Hebrew is that a pastor must almost never use Greek and Hebrew in his public teaching. This gives the impression to those listening that unless they know Greek and Hebrew, they cannot truly understand Scripture. Today, Greek and Hebrew is like Latin was in the Middle Ages. They are the languages of the Bible scholars and have effectively taken the Bible out of the hands of the “laity,” requiring them to go to the trained “clergy” for proper interpretation. The teacher or pastor who frequently says “…now in the Greek (or Hebrew)…” is taking the Bible away from the people.

I do, of course, think that language studies should be a part of every seminary education. However, if I am looking to be a better teacher of Scripture, I think that languages like Spanish, Chinese, and Hindi might be better than Greek and Hebrew. If one purpose of seminary is to help prepare students to “go into all the world and preach the gospel” it seems that learning the languages of “all the world” might better prepare us to do that then learning dead languages that nobody speaks any longer.

What do you think?

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Here is the timeline for my music-listening preferences:

Birth-Jr. High: Only Christian music
Jr. High-High School: Mostly “Secular” music
College-Pastoral Ministry: Mostly Christian music, Some country music
2005-2008: No music at all
June 2008-Present: Mostly Secular music

Generally, when I made the switch from Christian to secular music, it was because the Christian music sounded so fake and empty. Most Christian music seemed to be about happy feelings and happy lives and how great God is and how awesome is His name. Also, there were those breathless love songs to Jesus, which always made me squirm. Oh, and the songs about fountains and tides of blood, creeped me out a bit. So I would switch to “secular” music where people sang about the issues and feelings I was actually dealing with in my mind, heart, and life.

But then some Christian would come along and tell me that “secular” music was evil, and I needed to repent and only listen to Godly music which didn’t tempt me to sleep around, take drugs, and kill cops. So I would trash all my secular albums, and go back to the Christian stuff.

Finally, about three years ago, I just gave it all up. I couldn’t, as a “good Christian,” listen to the secular stuff, and for the most part, I didn’t like listening to the Christian stuff. So I just didn’t listen to anything.

Then I read some books and talked with some people (like my pastor, Stephen Hammond) and realized that there should be no real division between “sacred” and “secular.” This is an artificial, man-made division to help some Christians feel self-righteous and holier-than-thou. Anything that is well done, whether music, art, cooking, or working, is a testimony to the goodness and creativity of God.

So I started listening to secular music again, and realized why I enjoyed it so much. Christian artists (with the exception of groups like Casting Crowns) seem to suffer from the illusion that since God is so great, when we come to Jesus, life becomes grand and all our problems disappear. Everybody knows this is hogwash, but nobody wants to admit it. ”Secular” artists do not try to hide the fact that this world and all our relationships are messed up. Instead, they lay things out the way they are, and often, they dream about something better, about the way things could be…if only things were different.

As an example, check out the lyrics to one my current favorite songs. It’s from the song by Nickleback called “Savin’ Me”

Prison gates won’t open up for me
On these hands and knees I’m crawlin’
Oh, I reach for you
Well I’m terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can’t hold my soul in
All I need is you
Come please I’m callin’
And oh I scream for you
Hurry I’m fallin’, I’m fallin’

Chorus: Show me what it’s like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I’ll show you what I can be
Say it for me
Say it to me
And I’ll leave this life behind me
Say it if it’s worth saving me

Heaven’s gates won’t open up for me
With these broken wings I’m fallin’
And all I see is you
These city walls ain’t got no love for me
I’m on the ledge of the eighteenth story
And oh I scream for you
Come please I’m callin’
And all I need from you
Hurry I’m fallin’, I’m fallin’

Also from Nickleback, here are the lyrics from their song entitled “If Everyone Cared”:

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could be.

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we’d see the day when nobody died
When nobody died…

These lyrics are not exactly perfect in their theology, but who says they should be? What they reveal is a heart longing for forgiveness, redemption, and a world set straight. Such songs create amazing bridges with other people to talk about what Jesus offers the world.

So the next time you are in your car driving to work or the grocery store, try flipping to a “secular” station. As you listen to what they are singing about, you will begin to learn and understand what people are feeling and longing for. See if your heart doesn’t begin to break.

P.S. I have also recently enjoyed songs by Coldplay (”Viva la Vida”) and The Fray (”How to Save a Life”). If you know other songs I might like, mention them in the comments below.

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