the man in the mirror

Many of you may have received an email that goes something like this:

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At the Emmy awards, Kathy Griffin's acceptance speech said, "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus." She went on to say, “Suck it, Jesus. This is my God now!” referring to the Emmy.

As a Christian, I am offended by her hate speech. What do you think might have happened if she had made the hate speech against Muhammad???? Kathy Griffin has the right as an American to say what she thinks. As a Christian-American, so do I.

Today I will refuse to watch any show that she may be on or purchase tickets to any event at which she would perform. What will you do? If you delete this, nothing bad will happen to you, but if you pass this on, you will truly have stood up for Jesus Christ. Let’s see what Christians can do.

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This really happened, but it was censored from the E! Network broadcast of the awards show. Have you ever heard Kathy Griffin? She’s pretty funny, pretty smart, and probably right; I seriously doubt Jesus had anything to do with her award or her life in general. Jesus is knocking, but Griffin must be in the shower or something (she says she’s an ex-Catholic atheist).

Rather than talk boycott (the Christian's first reaction to everything these days), I think this should be a wake-up call; we need to take a serious look at how people are looking at us.

Why did Griffin think this was a good idea? What cultural environment have we created that would find this funny? I don’t see hatred here, only ignorance and probably a gut reaction to what she sees as holier-than-thou “Christian” hypocrites putting on airs. What could be more hypocritical than an angry, foul-mouthed, sex-obsessed, rap singer giving “props” to Jesus? But should we expect anything else from the world? (“The things of God are foolishness to the unbeliever, for they are spiritually discerned” - Paul, paraphrased)

Perhaps Christians need to do something, but perhaps we should start by looking in the mirror. Individual Christians (especially Christian leaders) need to start asking themselves the hard questions: When was the last time I helped the poor? Who is the last widow or orphan I fed? How long has it been since I visited someone in prison? Am I following Christ or running from the world? What is my fruit? Is it just doctrine and dogma, or is it faith, hope, and love?

There's a reason Ms. Griffin sees us as another target, similar to Joan Rivers or Paris Hilton. We need to figure out what that reason is, or there will be no one to blame for the slander of our Savior but ourselves.

We cannot proclaim our Lord to the world if we cannot even relate to it. In order to reach this culture, we cannot rely on the reasoned arguments of the recent past, but instead, like the first-century Christians, we must be humble, transparent, and compassionate; anything less and today's youth will see right though it. Remember, Jesus was a friend of sinners and came to save the lost not embolden the saved. We must do likewise.

I say take a moment today to pray for Kathy Griffin and others who feel the same. Pray that God will open doors for you to show them God's grace and love. Pray that we never become so comfortable in our Christian fortress that we forget the hordes starving for hope outside our walls.

being happy with third place

Ah, java.

The biggest thing I miss about Iowa City is its abundance of trendy coffee shops. I used to joke that you couldn’t fall down in Iowa City without hitting your head on one. I miss them.

A couple of months back, I was walking home and, as I was leaving the square, I noticed a couple peering in the window of a new shop. I leaned forward and cupped my hands around my eyes to cut the glare and see inside. I turned to the couple and observed, “Just what we need on the square – one more antique shop,” which drew a pretty good laugh.

The woman then said exactly what I was thinking. “What we need is a coffee shop. I can’t believe Washington doesn’t have even one coffee shop.” We parted company shaking our heads.

Now that there are two new coffee shops in Washington, I am reminded of why I was so fond of them. It is because they are a perfect example of a “third place.”

Sociologist Ray Oldenburg, coined the term “third place” in his book The Great Good Place. He argues that public gathering places like bars, coffee shops, general stores, and other "third places" (in contrast to the first and second places of home and work), are central to local democracy and community vitality, and I tend to agree.

Many ministries are beginning to embrace the idea of the third place as a means to reach deep into their context and meet people where they are. Oldenburg explains, “What suburbia cries for are the means for people to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably – a ‘place on the corner,’ a real life alternative to television.” One need merely observe the amazing popularity of chains like Starbucks and Seattle’s Best to see that Oldenburg is right on the money.

Ideally, the church would be the perfect third place, and perhaps it once was, but many of the things that make a third place so appealing – its playful attitude, open spirit, and accessibility – have been pushed to the margins in the institutional church. Overcoming this marginalization is at the center of our efforts in LIFEGROUPS, but, because one normally enters a LIFEGROUP through the church and not the converse, if the church is not functioning as a third place, it is unlikely a LIFEGROUP will either.

You have heard me speak of the need for the church to discard our attractional and evangelistic model for a missional and incarnational model. To do this is to stop focusing on attracting people to the church and talking them into the baptistery* (the Holy Spirit will take care of that – John 12:32), but rather placing God’s mission for the church – the Missio Dei – that of reaching the lost with the good news, at the center of our efforts and facilitating it by physically inserting ourselves into our culture to change it from the inside out. I appreciate missiologist Alan Hirsch’s explanation of these terms. He describes being missional as “casting seeds into the world” and describes being incarnational as “embedding those seeds in the earth so they can take root.” Hirsch suggests we must abandon our come-to-us approach and adopt a go-to-them strategy. Exactly what this means in our Washington, Illinois, context remains to be seen, but perhaps third places are a good place to start. Let me share an example:

Last week, when I stepped into The Ugly Mug, the new coffee shop on the square, the first thing I heard was, “Ed!” Remember Cheers? While Cheers may have been a bar, it was the ultimate third place. Didn’t you always wish you could walk into a place and everyone would shout, “Norm?” Anyway, Dee, the barista and owner of the place, immediately began to relate how she had met someone I should talk to. She went on for a bit, and then someone across the room overheard and added an observation. From there, we launched into a lively three-person conversation about the difficulties of experiencing community in our current culture.

In a completely natural and organic way, this space was transformed from a shop on the square to a seedbed for the gospel. I didn’t walk anybody into the baptistery that day, but the Lord was there amidst the decaff latte and espresso.

Ah, Jesus.

*That is not to say we shouldn’t invite people to church or to baptism, only that the approach and the focus could be slightly different

handling divisive people

Check out this excellent Henry Cloud video by clicking on the following link:

http://www.cloudtownsend.com/videoserver/player.php?clip=CCNT2421&link=http://www.ccn12shop.com/video/CCN/topic/wmv_M/CCNT2421_M.wmv&playerType=WM

back in the day...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away ... I was an editorial cartoonist. I worked on and off at several different publications for about ten years. Here are a few of my favorites from my last few years at The Daily Iowan (1996-1998). Enjoy...

after the McVeigh verdict

tough love

after the Clinton verdict (heh, heh)

just a little fear for my kids

truth is stanger than fiction

money for bombs but not for food

flashback

Check out this article I wrote last September, shortly before we began our involvement with Cornerstone Vocational Center and City on the Hill Church of Christ. Isn't it funny how God works?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my comfort zone. Am I getting too comfortable in it? Did things I used to consider revolutionary become cliché when I wasn’t looking? Am I becoming my dad? Actually, I have been telling my son to turn down the music a lot recently. Hmmm.

Despite my apparent aptitude for creating controversy, I am finding more and more things controversial myself. This disturbs me a little. For instance, as hard as I try, I can no longer picture Hip Hop or Heavy Metal music as valid options in the worship service. I used to think they might be interesting, but now I can’t picture it. Conversely, I fear our “choruses” are moving from the cutting edge to the cozy middle (Incidentally, I really dislike the term “choruses”. It was coined to describe those church-camp-style songs with all of the meat removed – the sort of song we rarely play – and it is often used as a derogatory term. “Worship songs” would be more accurate). Or consider our outreach. Is it constrained to the usual, safe, suburban, white-dominated realms of soup kitchens, food pantries, Pro-life rallies, and Habitat for Humanity?

Might life be a wee bit too comfortable for us suburban Washingtonians? Are we so privileged that we are in danger of taking our blessings for granted?

One part of me says, “Hey, isn’t this what you’ve been working for all these years?” while the other, deeper, part says, “Are you ever supposed to feel comfortable here?” If we are feeling comfortable, might we be succumbing to the world?

In 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul explained our state this way:
…as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

We are aliens here. We are meant to feel uncomfortable. We shouldn’t want to be assimilated. We long to be at home with the Lord, and until we are, we should feel a little lost. I believe that a burr under our saddle or a stone in our shoe is much more likely to be the tool God uses than a warm bath. Remember, Jesus did not say, “Since everything was easy for me, it will be easy for you too!” He said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”1

Change is not everything. In fact, change is not even a virtue. But, neither is it the enemy. Rather, stagnation and comfort are the enemy. Recently I heard that the medical definition of death is a body that has stopped changing. This does not mean that we stop “testing the spirits.”2 We must still be discerning, but the test is whether our discomfort is spiritual or worldly. Have we spotted the problem, or are we the problem?

If something in a worship service challenges you or some outreach opportunity thrusts you out of your comfort zone or something just doesn’t set right with you, look first to see what God may be doing in spite of your discomfort. You may be surprised to see what God can use. Maybe even Hip Hop or Heavy Metal.

1 John 15:20; 2 1 John 4:1

Fold Your Socks

Zip has a sock fixation. Seriously, we can’t leave a discarded sock alone for more than, say, twenty seconds before she absconds with it to places unknown. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of meeting her, Zip is our cat.

There is precious little method to her obsession. One time, I might find fifteen socks randomly distributed throughout the living room, another time half a dozen, each displaced from our various clothes hampers to its own individual stair, forming a sort of foot path to the upstairs bedroom, but I have always been under the impression that I had a handle on this. You see, there are preventive measures you can take, for instance, she has yet to figure out how to open my sock drawer, and, for some reason or other, she doesn’t fancy socks that are folded together (you know, like your mom taught you). So, I figured I was one step ahead of her. Silly me.

The other day, Janelle, my daughter, was performing a very rare chore; she was actually cleaning her room. Her mom was helping out and was trying to unearth the bureau in the corner so Janelle could sort some of her mountain of clean clothes into its drawers, when she made a startling discovery. Underneath this bureau, in the corner of Janelle’s room, was Zip’s secret repository of white, poly-cotton treasure. The final inventory yielded nearly fifty socks in all shapes and sizes.

This is a perfect example of what is wrong with thinking you have it all figured out. When you think you know what everyone’s thinking or what’s around the next corner or even how many socks you own, you’re more likely to get outsmarted by a three-legged housecat with a brain the size of a walnut.

Don’t get me wrong. Just like you, I can’t function without a few formulas or recipes or help menus, but some things in life are just too messy to fit into a five-step plan. So what do we do?

Solomon explains, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps,” and Jeremiah quotes the Father in a letter to the exiles in Babylon, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

We are much like those ancient Hebrews Jeremiah addressed. Just like us, they thought they had God all figured out, and just like them, we are once again God’s people in exile. While they were in exile, God promised that, if they sought Him with all of their heart, He would bring them once again out of captivity. As we are no longer the controlling institution of the western world, we are once again in exile, and this promise once again applies to us. God has plans for us – plans to help not harm. But, notice He says, “I know the plans I have,” not “You know the plans I have.”

Quit obsessing over where all the socks are. You’ll find them; they’re around somewhere. In the meantime, keep folding your socks like your mom taught you, but try to enjoy life’s unpredictable nature as God allows it to unfold before you. Get intentional about living in community and watch things play out in each other’s lives. Go ahead; make your plans. But remember, God determines your steps, and they’re good ones.

Slackers and Hijackers

Just yesterday, I was channel surfing and landed briefly on IFC (The Independent Film Channel), during The Henry Rollins Show. For those of you who don’t know, Rollins used to be the lead singer of Black Flag, the predecessor of just about every hard rock band presently in existence. He was a screamer before screaming was cool. Now in his forties, Rollins is the self-proclaimed guardian of our national sanity. In his mind, this means spending all of his time railing against the Bush administration, Fox News, and anything else that smells vaguely like a Republican. Apparently, most episodes feature The Disquisition, a stream-of-consciousness-style rant from uber-liberal actress, Jeanine Garofalo. In this particular installment, Garofalo spent her five minutes of expletive-drenched airtime equating those who don’t oppose the war in Iraq with Eva Braun, the mistress of Adolph Hitler, and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Charles Manson’s main squeeze. Excuse me? Did someone just equate me with Eva Braun? Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m all for freedom of speech, but Garofalo’s rant was tasteless, reckless, offensive, and intellectually dishonest. As I see it, this is just one more indication that our culture is embracing postmodernism. As post-modern “intellectuals” continue to discard all our trusted metanarratives, we are left with an every-man-for-himself attitude that is both unhealthy and unnatural.

“Wait a minute,” you say, “What is a metanarrative?” You may not know the term, but chances are much of your life and most of your decisions are determined by one or more of them. A metanarrative is the big story that shapes your worldview. For the ancient Hebrews, it was the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), during the medieval days it was the Holy Roman Church, the Enlightenment embraced a God of order that informed scientific inquiry as their big story, for the pioneers it was Manifest Destiny, and our modern age has been completely dominated by the metanarrative of Darwinism.

Postmodernism suggests that all of these fail to adequately explain the universe so we must discard them. Left with no big story, the postmodern thinker must fend for himself, writing his own independent mini-narrative as he goes along, with no objective standard by which to measure. Is it any wonder that such a directionless worldview would create such a bitter, angry commentator as Ms. Garofalo? But here’s the rub; I don’t believe it’s her lack of metanarrative that’s the culprit; she subscribes to a worldview, but it is one characterized by what it is not. It is an anti-metanarrative. Its coherence derives from its opposition to tradition and, frankly, common sense. It is a “not you worldview.” Because it opposes our previous metanarratives, it looks like postmodernism, but it’s really just a cop-out for intellectual lightweights.

I believe this need to oppose our past springs primarily from our culture’s distaste for the Christian metanarrative of our forefathers, mischaracterized by rigid formulae and iron-fisted authoritarianism. My question? Who hijacked our metanarrative? Who took Jesus’ story of self-sacrifice and servant leadership and turned it into the list of dos and don’ts that so frustrates today’s culture? Nowhere in scripture is our journey toward salvation, mission, or discipleship characterized as a vending machine – put in a quarter and out comes your selection, salvation or forgiveness or peace or whatever candy bar you choose. Neither is it characterized as a switch you flip -- saved, not saved, saved, not saved, saved…

Life is much messier than that and that is why God had to come down here and get messy with us. Rollins and Garofalo would probably appreciate that if they weren’t so busy disagreeing with us. Perhaps that is why Paul instructs us to do everything “without arguing or grumbling.” Instead we should wrestle with the simple metanarrative at the center of Christianity: God created the world and it was good, but we messed it up, so He had to come down and give us a way to make it right. Now, even though we don’t deserve it, we can have a right relationship with God through His son, not by keeping a bunch of rules but by loving one another.

Wow. What a positive message. That’s a metanarrative I can live with. Unfortunately, angry “not you worldview” subscribers control the conversation and we are stuck defending hijackers.