I just thought of this title, thought it was catchy and has potential to develop into a good entry, so I am going to write based on that. We'll see where it goes... could be a fun ride.
Yesterday I attended an alliance meeting for mission professionals in the Twin Cities. There was a speaker there who was a good communicator with some life experience, and he presented a few thoughts that were healthy reminders, if nothing else.
Darrow Miller
I had never heard of a person having this first name... Let's look it up.
done.
The boy's name Darrow \d(ar)-row\ is of Old English origin, and its meaning is "spear".
(the name meaning is not really relevant to this entry.. consider it an added bonus)
So... as the story unfolds, Darrow had three main points that have stayed with me.
1- The Great Commission is about making disciples of the nations. The main stress being of the nations. Encouraging discipleship to happen at every level of society, not just "in the hearts" of individuals.
2- The entire Bible needs to be explained for the significance of "Christ as Savior" to be understood within the appropriate culture and setting.
3- The church has not done a good job of telling the whole story. We often times take only the good news and try to insert it in the story of another culture... and it produces an odd bi-product.
Let's talk a bit more on 1 and 2.
try to follow along with this...
Let's say we have two books...
Book A
The Bible is telling the story of a specific culture, time, people etc. It is a historical and factual piece of literature. In this great work exists the great masterpiece of God sending his only son, Jesus Christ as an everlasting atonement for the sins of mankind, in order to create a new and lasting covenant between God and Man. The story begins before the events of the cross and ends after the events of the cross.
Book B
The historical and factual story of a different culture or sub-culture, whether they be Maasai, Argentinian, Rainbow Family, Canadian, etc.. etc... This culture has a history as well. The actions of the people are created from their past. They have specific ways of doing things and understanding things. Within these cultures exist subcultures that are just as unique. This book tells the deep and complex story of who these people are and what they believe.
So, what happens is the "Jesus part" of Book A gets inserted right in the middle of Book B. Ignoring the fact that it does not really have an appropriate context, the story of "sin and Jesus saving us from it" gets thrown into this culture. Someone at some point decided that was all that was needed. boom: disciple made.
Darrow went on to describe how this has happened in the United States...
What is the bi-product of placing the Jesus Story in the midst of a individualistic, materialistic, atheistic, convenience and performance based society?
Well, let's make a list of just a few things...
we have...
- the prosperity gospel
- apathetic "followers" who are christian by association
- mega churches that focus on numbers and anonymity
- performance based sensationalism in worship
- disproportional focus inside of the church, compared to focus on surrounding community
- lack of authentic community and intimacy inside of the church
- alarming statistics from The Barna Group
This is my focus.
Because the United States of America has been a dominant and influential world power, the version of christianity that has grown in it has been widely spread to other parts of the world. Unfortunately, it is an often times tainted expression of the faith and we end up teaching the bad with the good... or just forcing the bad with the good, or just forcing the bad...
Throughout Matthew 23, Jesus had some strong words to say...
read through it
He is basically calling out the religious leaders for the way they have become tainted, and one illustration Jesus uses is that of a cup.
The outside of the cup is clean. The inside is dirty... tainted... filthy.
He stresses that you must clean the inside of the cup and not just the outside, otherwise the cup will still be dirty. What a shocker.
If I was washing dishes and someone felt they had to remind me to also wash the inside of the cups, it would be absolutely insulting...
unless...
I was only washing the outside of the cup. Moronic as that would be of me... a reminder would be absolutely appropriate.
We have become very good at cleaning the outside of the cup. A performance based culture is good at looking good and justifying our shortcomings.
The inside of the cup must be cleaned.
This begins by re-examining all of Book A. Seriously considering the significance of Jesus, considering the cost of following Christ, and taking the appropriate steps of obedience to that call and applying it to all of our Book B.
When we do this, we will be drinking from and able to present the water of life from a clean cup.. and no longer needing to tell others to...
"drink our filth"
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