Wednesday
11Jul2007
50 Questions
July 11, 2007 The following is only 50 of the questions I've been accumulating in my head about Christian culture. Other people have dust bunnies behind the couch - I have Killer Zombie Dust Bunnies from the Black Lagoon in my head. Go figure.
Pleae - don't think of these as criticisms. Think of them as conversation starters.
- Why don't we give church members keys to the kitchen?
- Can we throw more parties?
- Is this Fair Trade Coffee?
- Do you know how many people say, "how are you?" and don't listen to the answer?
- Are you one of them?
- I'm coming back to the heart of worship. I'm sorry Lord, for the thing that I've made it. Did I miss something or is that song still all about me?
- How many people in the congregation on a Sunday morning have the gift of preaching?
- How many of those people - gifted for the edification of the church - get to preach?
- If God has given each believer a spirtual gift, and all those many and varied gifts are intended for the edification of the church, why does our church practice bear no relevance to this fact whatsoever?
- What would happen if there was no big building for us all to go to on Sunday morning?
- Can a coffee shop breakfast with the guys still be church?
- It's Sunday morning and the worship band is struggling. Am I going to be okay with that?
- Why does every event have a guest speaker?
- If I only had 12 people in my congregation, and one of them ends up turning on me, one of them flat out denies he even knows me, and the rest bail out just when I need them most... would my ministry be a success or a failure?
- Are you as tired as I am of being called a 'sheep'? Actually, I don't mind that so much, it's the 'stupid, dumb sheep' part that kind of bugs me.
- How is it that nobody likes a gossip, but they hardly ever gett called on it? Tell a dirty joke at the church social and get told right then and there. Gossip all day long and... nothing. And no, I don't want to tell them, either.
- Why is bigger better?
- Green Prosperity Hankerchief. Need I say more?
- Millions of immigrants coming to our country every year, and every single one of them needs Jesus. Has a more glorious opportunity ever been so inelegantly squandered by the church?
- If our entire bible consisted only of the four gospels, how would our religion look today?
- Why don't we stop explaining our faith to atheists? Yes - my faith is completely, totally and absolutely irrational. That would be the 'faith' part. Duh.
- Of all the sermons about forgiveness you've heard, how many times have you seen a preacher stop and say, "Okay, this is how you forgive someone...?"
- Why Thomas Kinkade?
- Is playing cards still a sin?
- Have you ever heard someone pray and they say something like, "...and Satan we bind you from blah, blah, blah..."? Everytime I hear someone do that I want to stop them and ask when they started praying to Satan.
- Sometimes I also have to ask... Are you praying to the congregation?
- And then sometimes I also want to ask... Is this a prayer or a sermon?
- "We thank you father, that you, father, have blessed us father, that you loved us father, and that, father, you are here with us now father." Why do people pray like that?
- I have yet to be at a congregational meeting, church business meeting, elders, deacons or committee meeting of any kind that does not open with a devotional message from the bible. Does anyone else find this odd?
- And is anyone else no longer surprised at the number of times that devotional message is about unity?
- If a church event is meant to be an 'outreach' to our friends and family, shouldn't we be going to where they are? If not, perhaps we should change the name to 'inreach'.
- We went from old hymn books to new hymn books to song books to overheads to Power Point. What's next?
- Wooden pews. What were they thinking?
- Remember bus ministry?
- Everybody at church knows what the rules are, everybody knows how to behave, what's expected of them. No-one ever sat you down and said, 'these are the rules...' but you know them anyway. How did you learn the rules? Of course, you can't really understand this question until you get a bunch of folks together in a street church, where no-one knows how to behave in church...
- Here's a little game to play. Sit in church. Pick a man or woman - someone you sort of know, but don't know real well. A Christian person. A nice Christian person. Ask yourself, "If they fell off the wagon and ended up downtown, living on the street, sleeping in their own urine and vomit... would I go get them?
- Would any of us go get them?
- Or would that be the pastor's job?
- Why are we afraid of art?
- There's crackers in the communion plate. Is it just me or...?
- Why do missionaries always live somewhere else?
- There's a guy outside of town with the words, "Jesus is alive" painted on his roof. His neighbour has painted the words, "So is Elvis" on his roof. Which guy would you rather have a beer with?
- Rich Christians are blessed by God. Absolutely destitute Christians must live on faith for their every need. Which is better?
- Which is better when you haven't eaten in three days?
- Why do all our pictures of Jesus look like us?
- You have a Christian Fish on your car. What are you attempting to communicate, and to whom is that communication directed? Why? Okay, that's three questions. So sue me.
- Why is it that none of us can walk to church?
- Why is there a copyright on bibles?
- When will we stop praying for revival and start living like the revived?
- Where do we go from here?
Thanks for reading everyone. Now, let's close in prayer...
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Reader Comments (42)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=50&chapter=15&version=31
by the way...what is on the mend?
I'm not deeply wounded, but I appreciate the concern on my behalf. It sounded like I offended Mike and David, and I was hoping for some feedback on how I could have presented things better (if possible).
RWK, if you want to discuss anything about any of my answers, I'd be happy to, either here or by email if you want.
But, I don't want to be narrow in my own way. I'll go back and read the answers.
I think forgiveness begins when we start to look at the situation from the other person's point of view. We try to appreciate where they are coming from, what sort of damaging circumstances they've had in their lives that have led to them to do the hurtful things they do. If we don't know any of their circumstances, perhaps we imagine some that might have caused their behavior, and give them the benefit of the doubt. If there is any possibility that they did what they did out of misguided love, then we appreciate that.
In doing this, we should not expect to excuse the offender, or at least not completely. They still had free will, and they still chose to hurt you. (The degree to which you, after examining them from their viewpoint, think someone's actions actually are excusable will vary widely). Your purpose is not to pass judgement on their heart, either. Rather, the point is to step outside yourself and your own pain, and simply consider the other person. Consideration for someone else - viewing them as a person with their own feelings and life history, instead of an object that caused pain - is (or can be) the beginning of love and forgiveness.
Another step in the process is to fully acknowledge to ourselves the pain that we feel. Sometimes we feel like we have to excuse someone's sin in order to forgive them; that forgiveness means saying it was ok for them to do what they did. But that's not forgiveness. If someone's actions are excusable, then they don't need to be forgiven. We usually can't forgive someone until we admit that what they did was wrong, that they caused us pain, and that that pain was not our fault. (If, in fact, it wasn't).
Sometimes we might have contributed to the problem - and we should acknowledge that too. Recognizing our own need for forgiveness can help us to forgive others. If reflection leads us to conclude that their sin against us would not have happened if we had not sinned against them first, that can go a long ways towards reconciling us. (But we should avoid dishonestly trying to think that it's all our fault if thoughtful reflection leads us to conclude otherwise).
One way of thinking that people sometimes find helpful is to realize that, by allowing the pain and hurt to play a dominant role in your life and your thinking, you are ceding control to the offender. You are letting his (or her) actions make you miserable and ruin your life. A major part of forgiveness is moving on with your life; the fact of the offense may still affect what you choose to do, but you don't let it affect how you feel about yourself or about your life or about the other person. This may be especially helpful when the other person refuses to acknowledge their own guilt or to apologize.
Ultimately, forgiveness means loving someone. It means ceasing to consider primarily your own hurt and letting it go as much as possible. It means starting to consider the other person as a child of God, with a glory that is wanting to be revealed. If you can see them this way, then you can direct your actions (in as much as you interact with them, if you still do) towards helping them live out that hidden glory.
Comparisons to the Divine help, too. If the Incarnate Word, Son of the Most High, can forgive those who tortured him and put him to death even while they were doing it, how can we refuse to forgive those who have committed lesser crimes against lesser beings (us)? If we actively imagine and remember the unfathomable love that God holds for the person who harmed us, we can perhaps begin to share in that love for them. If we remember that Jesus died so that his blood might cleanse them of the sin they committed against us, then perhaps we can rejoice for their sake and seek ourselves to be as willing to sacrifice or die for them as Jesus was.
In my own experience, forgiveness usually means an active choice to try to forget the offense. I'm prone to dwelling on things in my mind, and this leads to internal resentment. I may or may not ever forget it completely - that doesn't matter so much - but once I've decided to forgive someone, then I actively try to suppress any thoughts about their offense, to turn my thoughts away from the topic as soon as it pops into my head. I might even try to replace it with a reminder of my love for them, or a reminder that they are a beloved son or daughter of the Most High, or something of that sort.
http://ladyliminality.blogspot.com/2007/07/50-questions.html
I have to admit, I was tempted to start responding to each one as I read them, but the better idea will be to spread 'em around, and let them sit and marinate in my mind. I'll say this, though - you've provided a better critique of the current church in this post than I've read in more than half of the "emerging church" literature to date.
As for #46 - I found the first verse of this song on the internet somewhere. The second verse is an attempt to respond to it...
The Fish On Our Car
(sung to "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love")
Voice 1:
There's a fish on my Honda
There's a fish on your Ford
With my fish, I can tell the world
I'm driving for the Lord
Let them see how God has blessed me
By the car I can afford
And they'll know we are Christians
By the fish on our cars...
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
By our cars
Voice 2:
Now if you think that's the way it is
I'm awfully sad for you
For God's given us a different way
And we know that way is true
And if the world will see the truth, my friends,
It's up to me and you
For they'll never see our Savior
By the size of our SUV -
No, they'll only see Him by the love
They get from you and me...
(and, if you agree, join in on the original song...)
beth - Oh. My. Goodness. I'm killing myself here - that was the funniest thing I've read in a long, long time!!!!
joanee - You and ~m2~ really should meet. I'll drive.
Steve F. - That's pricesless! Too Funny (and too true!)
I like your legal analogy. It captures forgiveness very neatly.
Beth,
Your answers would have been even funnier than they were if they were a joke instead of being true. (Incidentally, you didn't hurt my feelings... I never expected everyone to be interested in reading all my answers).
If I can add something, it is that Forgiveness can be a process of choice that sometimes may take years to see come to pass in reality.
And one other thing I have realized in my life is that my sin and the"worst" sin are the same in God's eyes. That understanding really helped me come to grips with forgiveness over some big issues.In our humanness we categorize sin but I believe God doesn't.
Thought I'd throw in my 2 cents since I havent been on here for so long. I have been up since 4am and this is always a good spot to visit at times like these.
Blessings
So why leave? Let's just pray for the people in our churches that they might see the true light in Jesus, not from the churches themselves.
Have a nice day!
(This is my very first comment,ever)
or, was that from the laughter borne of recognition ?
Many of those illegals come from Mexico and are predominately Catholic. The Catholic church is supposed to be directly desended from Jesus' apostles. Or perhaps they already have their own version of Jesus.
I think the zillions of Christian faiths would do well to simply read scripture at services and let the people go out and live Jesus' words, rather than preaching and putting their own spin on things.
I think the problem is that you made an assumption. You made an assumption that I was talking about America, that I was launching an attack on the Catholic faith. None of that is true, so you might want to climb down off your high horse for a while.
Look, it's like this. The internet connects us to the world, and the world is a very big place - a place absolutely full of people whose ideas, attitudes and, yes, beliefs, are different than yours. That is, in fact, what makes the internet so exciting, but you might want to consider putting the big girl shoes on before you come out to play. Otherwise, you just look, well.... silly.