Why Evangelicals Convert to be Catholic, and Why Evangelicals should Care

Many of my friends are drawn to the Catholic Church.  This may seem strange to many as the Catholic church presently seems to be perpetually rocked and beaten by church scandal worldwide.  Many of my friends and former students converting were raised evangelical low-church protestant, some converted to become evangelical at some point.    This phenomenon of evangelicals converting to Catholicism is not unusual, and has been written about.  One good thinker who has written on it is Scot McKnight, who in 2002 published an article in the Evangelical Theological Journal about it entitled “From Wheaton to Rome”.  (Wheaton College is a prominent evangelical college in the chicago suburbs, and this is a reference to the many Wheaton students who convert from evangelical low-church to anglican, and then in many cases on to Catholic)

Michael Vlach, in a nice summary article on why evangelicals become Catholic summarizes McNight well. (see the link to his and mcknights articles at the end)  McKnight says there is one of four reasons which are usually behind an evangelical’s conversion to Catholicism.  Here I simply am quoting in its entireity about 9 paragraphs of Vlach summarizing McKnight:

(1) Certainty
First, the desire for certainty and a full knowledge of truth spurs many ERC’s (Evangelicals who convert to Roman Catholic) to reject what they consider to be the “doctrinal mayhem” and “choose-your-own-church syndrome” of Protestantism. ERC’s often have a desire for certain knowledge, something they believe is possible within Catholicism but not within Protestantism.

For example, on The Journey Home program, former Episcopalian, David Mills, told of an encounter he had with eleven evangelical scholars concerning the issue of marriage and divorce. According to Mills, these eleven evangelical scholars came up with nine different views on this important topic. Mills contrasted this uncertainty of the evangelical scholars with the alleged certainty that can be found within Roman Catholicism. For Mills and ERC’s, when Rome speaks on an issue, that’s it. There is absolute certainty.

(2) History
Second, McKnight observes that ERC’s often feel a “historical disenfranchisement” with Protestantism. They have a desire to be connected to the entire history of the Christian church and not just the period since the Reformation. In addition, ERC’s often see the early church Fathers as “the aristocrats of the Church, the elite thinkers, and the inner circle who knew best.” This desire to be connected with church history leads many ERC’s to Rome.

(3) Unity
Third, ERC’s emphasize unity and are disturbed by the divisions and countless denominations within Protestantism. McKnight quotes Peter Cram who describes Protestantism as “one long, continuous line of protesters protesting against their fellow protesters, generating thousands of denominations, para-churches, and ‘free churches,’ which are simply one-church denominations.” ERC’s try to transcend this disunity by seeking refuge in the perceived unity of the Roman Catholic Church.

(4) Authority
Fourth, McKnight points out that many ERC’s reject the “interpretive diversity” found within Protestantism, opting for the authority of the Catholic Church. Instead of trying to sort through the numerous interpretations of Protestant pastors and theologians, ERC’s believe they have found their authority in the Catholic Church’s Magisterium. For them, as McKnight puts it, “The [doctrinal] issues are now settled: the Church can tell us what to believe. And it does so infallibly.”

Becoming Catholic
According to McKnight, the road from ‘Wheaton to Rome’ is usually “long” and “tortuous.” It often involves painful separations in relationships and “massive shifts in theology.” He also notes that most ERC’s end up in Catholicism as a result of “massive amounts of reading and research.” Reading pro-Catholic books and coming under the guidance of influential Catholic leaders or mentors are also important factors in the conversion of many ERC’s.

Upon conversion to the Roman Catholic Church, ERC’s often assume the rhetoric of the Church. This takes two directions: (1) they positively argue for Catholic doctrines such as papal infallibility, the Eucharist, and Marian dogmas; and (2) they negatively denounce evangelical Protestantism.

In conclusion, this article has been mostly observational, thus a full discussion and evaluation of the issues raised here are topics for another article. Yet, those who are Evangelicals must take the issues raised by ERC conversions seriously. The topics of certainty, history, unity, and authority are causing some from the evangelical camp to convert to Roman Catholicism. As such, these are issues that Evangelicals must address.”  

(all the italicized was quoted directly from Vlach)

An interesting evangelical-turned-Catholic example is that of Tom Howard, whose book “Evangelical is Not Enough” explains why he went from evangelical to Catholic: http://books.google.com/books?id=ELECURWBxRMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=tom+howard+wheaton&source=bl&ots=1CMKY12UTf&sig=lSL2CQVGB0Ce6RUOaJSzPX51kPs&hl=en&ei=vGxrTK3eAoH58Aati5XAAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

Howard explains that when he went into a Catholic church as a child, he could see the meaning of all the symbols of the Catholic church.  In other words, he had been given the Christian background to rightly understand and see the material expression of spiritual truths and his own Christian spirituality in and through the Catholic church and its practices.  Howard came to find the lack of meaningful symbolism in his own evangelical church to be a result of an unnecessary reaction against all things spiritually symbolic– a result of the protestant reformation against what was then seen to be the excesses of the high-church (Catholic) establishment.  In speaking of his own evangelical church upbringing, he says, “My own church encouraged a nonsymbolistic line of thought.  We distrusted the symbolism of colors and shapes and gestures, at least when they were applied to worship, since this seemed to bring things very near to idolatry.  We invoked the commandment forbidding graven images.” (p23 of “Evangelical is not Enough”)  Ultimately, Howard sees the evangelical pietism he grew up with to be obsessed with an anti-physicalism which denies the bodily, and focuses only on the spritual.  The problem with this, as I understand Howard, is that it tends to lead us to live lives which do not unite our physicalness in the world with our spirituality.  In some sense, our physical activities and doings in the world are seen by definition to be non-spiritual, and that keeps us from living a fully integrated spiritual life, or, to put it another way, this leads us to not allow full sanctification of our lives in all aspects of our living in the world as physical beings. 

Howard knows Christians can worship in storefront churches with no symbols and still encounter Christ– he has no issue with that.  His point though is that a Christianity like what he grew up with in his evangelical church as a child left him devoid of a real healthy way to integrate his life with his spirituality, and he sees the Christianity of his adopted Catholic faith to be able to help him connect his life as a physical being with his Christian spirituality. 

I think this is a point evangelicals must deal with.   As evangelicals we often see the symbolism and ritual of Catholicism or Anglicanism or any high church as devoid of meaning, empty, rote, and mindless.  Of course there have been cases or even tendencies at times for people to lose track of the meanings of their religious practices, and to do them without thinking about why they do them– but protestants do this too– sometimes even with their prayers, devotions, church-going, etc.  To say that all symbolic ritual in the Catholic church is rote and thoughtless ritualism is as uncharitable as someone saying that evangelicalism is legalistic unthoughtful literalism which practices bibliolatry with no concern for making a concrete difference in this world.

Evangelical churches do have a tradition of engaging and changing the world.  Their work to fight slavery and fight for womens rights and civil rights are legendary.  Their work to fight for the unborn child and other justice-causes has been powerful.  Yet today evangelicals are more likely to be categorized as part of the ‘religious right’ (which is strangely lumped in with Glen Beckism) in their opposition to immigrants, their opposition to welfare, and their unwillingness to charitably listen to viewpoints other than their own.  That is not an entirely fair characterization of we evangelicals, but it has caused many young evangelicals to not be willing to speak of ‘we’ evangelicals, but to more and more think of evangelicals as ‘other’.  In other words, more and more young evangelicals feel somewhat disenfranchised and disconnected from the churches of their parents because they simultaneously are coming to feel that their church lacks a historical grounding, a mature understanding of the power and meaning of historical symbols and practices of the church, an over-focus on ‘getting all the details straight’ in ones theology without trying to understand other points of view, a tendency to use scripture in a haphazard manner without paying enough attention to context or background,  and a general lack of concern for doing things to transform culture and society for the sake of Christ.  They feel like any concerns raised about the environment or the earth for the sake of Christ are dismissed with a slash-and-burn-theology which expects that “it will all be burned up anyway, so why waste our time ‘worshipping’ the earth?” 

This is the situation of many young evangelicals who feel homeless.  And when one feels homeless, and sees a lot of satisfying answers in a longstanding tradition of the Catholic Church, it may seem easier to charitably interpret some doctrines which were at one point real sticking points– papal authority, immaculate conception  of Mary, Mary as Queen of heaven,  an apparent lack of focus on the personal work of the spirit as evangelicals are familiar with, priest scandals,or previous egregious acts of the Church in other eras, etc. 

No one can know for sure what God has in store, and to predict is presumptuous, but I do not see a road ‘home to rome’ in my own future.  I don’t see myself ever becoming Catholic.  But I do see myself adopting certain practices and lifestyles from the historical tradition of the church (many of which are misunderstood or not practiced by a lot of Catholics themselves).  I find liturgy meaningful and refreshing, I appreciate the book of hours (full of prayers and responsive readings for devotions), I appreciate the teachings of some Catholic thinkers, and I like the integration of the physical practices into spirituality (I’ve become a fan of fasting, and contemplation, and observing lent).  But all this to my mind doesn’t make me more Catholic, it just makes me more aware of the historical practices of the church.  Many Catholics learn a lot from Chuck Swindol, focus on the family, and like Billy Graham.  They often enjoy participating in Intervarsity Christian fellowship, and they like evangelical worship songs sometimes.  They are often challenged by the enthusiasm they see among evangelicals who really seem to ‘know Jesus’.  In these ways they draw on evangelicalism.  I am finding that this can go both ways, and I can draw fr0m aspects of Catholic practice or thought, as well as other high church forms, which make my walk with Christ and my life for Christ more meaningful, powerful, and rooted.  In this sense I thank God for the Catholic church. 

It is a difficult era for evangelicalism as it asks questions of itself and as young evangelicals try to figure out how to maintain a vibrant faith.  I sympathize with my former-evangelical friends who are now Catholic, although I will not follow them.  I pray that God will continue to direct them towards Himself, and continue to give us who stay low church evangelicals wisdom and insight to know how to better bring about the kingdom of God in this world– in word and deed. 

McKnight’s four ‘reasons’ why evangelicals become Catholic are very important for us to reflect on: Certainty, history, unity and authority.  They present to us a challenge to have a more thoughtful view of our own history, a tendency to take unity seriously, an explanation of where the authority of our own beliefs comes from, and a reason for our certainty.  Hiding our head in the sand is no answer, but it also doesn’t require that we leap into the open arms of Rome as a solution to these questions, although I definitely love and respect my friends who feel convicted to go in that direction.  These are difficult questions for most of us to answer, but good challenges as we go deeper into a more thoughtful and meaningful Christian commitment. 

May God have mercy on us all.   

Andy Gustafson   

PS: I don’t mention this enough in the posts, but anyone is welcome to come join us for our service on Tuesdays at 7 at our place (3126 Chicago), which is about 50 minutes of study of the Bible together, then doing liturgy together, then getting prayer requests.  The guys and women split up after just to talk, and people have accountability partners for the week.  The guys also are doing prayer breakfast on Saturday mornings, and the women are reading through a book together on discipline.  Finally, we are just about to start up a new book for the fall in our book study group, so let us know if you are interested.

Bibliography: Scot McKnight: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3817/is_200209/ai_n9129514/

Michael Vlach: http://www.theologicalstudies.org/page/page/1572353.htm

Living Dangerously — Instead of Anti-Christ

Every time one gets out of the shower on the first floor of my house, there on the bathroom wall is a poster of Nietzsche looking at you.  The quote on the poster says, “Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!”  Of course what Nietzsche meant by this is anyone’s guess, being an atheist German philosopher of the 1800′s who struggled with the fact that it seemed that belief in God was dead and so a new morality needed to be created.  But many people have noticed that quote– family, friends and strangers.  

Of course at one level the quote seems absurd– when I was in high school my friend Brian and I used to go out on the rural gravel roads and he would get on top of the car, sprawled out, with one hand holding on gripping the roof through the open windows, and I would speed up to 60 mph, knowing Brian was still on because I could see his white knuckes and fingers on either side of me gripping the car.  And I think both Brian and I would say that, looking back, that was probably dangerous and fairly stupid.  But we still lived life more vigorously at that point than a lot of our friends were…

Its not so hard to live life dangerously when there is not much to lose.  When you are young and single and have very little, its easier to be risky.  With a wife, job, kids and mortgage, you get more risk-averse.  But even some people who are young don’t like risks.  And of course there are some young souls who always take risks– even when they are not so young in age.   Part of the reason people don’t like risks is that they want to make sure they are in control of the variables– in control of life.  That is understandable– but that doesn’t mean its necessarily the best way to live. 

Oswald Chambers wrote for June 27th,

“The Sermon on the Mount indicates that when we are on a mission for Jesus Christ, there is not time to stand up for ourselves.  Jesus says, in effect, ‘Don’t worry about whether or not you are being treated justly.’  Looking for justice is actually a sign that we have been diverted from our devotion to Him.  Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it.”

This is the opposite of my tendency– and the tendency of most of us.  We just want to make sure that we get what we have coming– let others suffer what problems they may have.  I don’t care if others are stupid enough to get the raw end of the deal– thats none of my concern– but I’m sure not going to be taken for a fool.  Our concern is more often for justice for ourselves, our own family, our own children, our own situation– and not others.  We can justify it to ourselves as ‘common sense’, as a ‘motherly concern’ or ‘paternal obligation’, as being ‘wise as serpents and innocent as doves’– or we can not justify it at all, but simply do it because we can and we are cleverer than most.  But in any case, we are in some sense doing it out of selfish concern– a concern for self over others, and it is an anti-Christ attitude in that  rejects His call that we follow Him in giving ourselves up for the sake of others ‘who know not what they do’.  We see it as just taking care of our own business and being responsible.  He sees it as rejecting His call to a life that is really worth living– a life of sacrifice that risks what he has given us back potentially to lose it completely and utterly– our utmost for His highest.

Oswald continues: “If we look for justice, we will only begin to complain and to say, ‘Why should I be treated like this?’ If we are devoted to Jesus Christ, we have nothing to do with what we encounter, whether it is just or unjust.  In essence, Jesus says, ‘Continue steadily on with what I have told you to do, and I will guard your life.  If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from My deliverance.’ ”

When we live our lives guardedly, we will constantly give up opportunities to live it for Christ.  We will constantly give up those possibilities of really losing ourselves for Christ and His kingdom.  We refuse to follow Christ there because honestly we do not believe that Christ is sufficient to give us what we need.  We don’t really believe in God at those points…

Again, Oswald says, “Even the most devout among us become atheistic in this regard– we do not believe Him.  We put our common sense on the thrown and then attach God’s name to it.  We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts (see Proverbs 3:5-6)

Proverbs 3:5-6 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It says to lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge God, and He will make your way straight.  This is the more dangerous approach– sometimes the less common sensical approach.  But in that we are then able to release to God our responsibility and trust that God will provide as we step out in faith for Him, it is our opportunity to not have to be in charge, to not have to try to control the outcomes, and to leave ourselves in the hands of God– intentionally, hopefully, and with expectation of good things.  I believe that when we live dangerously like that, that we will, as Nietzsche says, reap the greatest fruitfulness from our lives. 

May God have mercy on us all.   –andy

Christian History– Why?

One of the goals of Simple Free is to try to help Christians learn about their faith in ways that aren’t always offered in Omaha. One of the things we’ve done in the last year is we’ve had study groups. Some of those were on Saturday mornings. One was on women’s roles in the church (egalitarianism and complimentarianism), one was on church leadership, one was on the history of evangelicalism and fundamentalism, and our longest book study group to date (which was held at upstream brewery January-April was on a book called “131 Christians Everyone Should Know” which brought us from Eusebius and Augustine to Calvin and Billy Graham. Now we’ve started yet another book on Chuch History by Bruce Shelly. It will bring us from the time of Christ up into this Century.

Sometimes history can seem irrelevant, especially if you don’t see your place in it. Many people don’t seem to care about the history of their own family (like who is your great grandmother on your fathers side, or your nationality) or the history of their country, much less care about the history of their church. ‘

Today I got to spend some time in my hometown with my parents. Tonight there was a get together of senior saints in the church with the potential new pastoral candidate. The seniors shared stories about the history of this country church (which has about 250 people going to it) and I would say that the average age of these 30 people was probably 80. We had around 2500 years of experience in that room. One of them (who is 93) told me about stopping by a friends house (who is 99) with his wife (who is 91) to have coffee last week. I love to talk to these wise sages who have such a wealth of knowledge about the past– things most of us will never know because we don’t ask.

Some of these people in the room (like my 85 year old dad) have spent most of their entire life in this church. Some 78 year olds were talking about pranks they used to pull on people after church. Someone pointed out that my dads great grandpa and great grandkids and all the generations between had been a part of this church…thats 7 generations. That kind of history doesn’t just happen. And it does mean something, and it is remarkable.

After hearing many of these stories it was the candidates time to speak, and he said that this sort of heritage is unusual for most churches. He said many cultures have a strong tradition of passing on stories of the past to the young generations, and he said that this was really important for the church to do– for these older saints to do. He made the distinction between being stuck in the past, and being anchored in the past. Some want to escape to the past, and hide from the present and the future unknown. But the past can really help one know where to go, and where one is going. That is the healthy use of history.

That is how I see our vision for studying church history. As we learn about the history of the church– the questions asked and answers they arrived at, as well as the varieties of perspectives, many which mirror our own today, we can see models of faithfulness, steadfastness, and vision and hope for the future. We do not just copy the past, but we learn from it to remember to be faithful to our faith, its purpose, and the work God has for us in Christ.

I also just like to learn about history. Knowing is one of the ways humans can get pleasure. Squirrels– not so much. Dogs don’t like books. Hampsters do not study history, or write it for that matter. But fortunately we get to do things those cute animals do not. We get to be literate and read and reflect on things– hopefully as an act of worship insofar as we are doing what God made us to do– to live our lives thoughtfully and with real freedom.

So thats part of our motivation at Simple to study Church History. Not to be bookish or to become academic Christians, but to be fully Christian and to be fully human as God intended.

check out the study group at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=116420791711098&ref=ts

May God have mercy on us all.

Christian Hipster– You very well may be one…

Much to my surprise, my 80-something year old parents, and I are Christian hipsters, as are many people I know. So there is a guy writing a book about Christian Hipsters, and he described “christian hipster” characteristics. Its at: http://stillsearching.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/are-you-a-
christian-hipster/

Surprisingly, hipsters are a lot like my 80-something year-old parents.
My 80-something parents fit most of these characteristics as a hipster:
“Christian hipsters don’t like megachurches… door-to-door evangelism… John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart or youth pastors who talk too much about Braveheart…The Passion for being overly bloody and maybe a little sadistic …They don’t like evangelical leaders who get too involved in politics, such as James Dobson or Jerry Falwell,… TBN, PAX, or Joel Osteen…tend not to like contemporary Christian music (CCM), or Christian films (except ironically), or any non-book item sold at Family Christian Stores…they could do without weird and awkward evangelistic methods including (but not limited to): sock puppets, ventriloquism, mimes, sign language, “beach evangelism,” and modern dance. Surprisingly, they don’t really have that big of a problem with old school evangelists like Billy Graham and Billy Sunday”

So, there are a few things in his list I left out.  My parents do like flags, and call themselves Christians, and just don’t worry about phrases like “evangelism or soul winning” and they generally don’t “hate” anything. I’m with them on most of that stuff.  Many of us Christians grew up without the christian consumer culture to rebel against. It just wasn’t an important part of our christianity.   Different people have different Christian experiences and respond to those experiences in different ways (profound, I know) but, while some may describe my upbringing as fundamentalist (no one knowingly smoked or drank, we had sunday night services which focused on end-times eschatology, and we were very much oriented around the fundamentals of scripture) I never felt any disdain or frustration or need to pointedly disagree with that background.  I’m not a teetotaller (not drinking) and I’m probably less concerned about some issues than other ‘fundamentalists’ but usually my reason for maintaining an open position on something is that I don’t see Scripture giving clear direction on that particular issue– in short, I have a high view of Scripture which guides my life and practice and in that sense I resonate with the ‘fundamental’ focus of fundamentalism.  My fundamentalism leads me to not talk where Scripture doesn’t.  If its silent, I want to be silent as well.

Our country church I grew up in was not very affected by much of Christian consumer culture– it was a farmers church.  And for that I am thankful.  And that is also why I don’t have a lot of the Christian consumer culture in my concepts of Christianity– those aspects always seem pretty distant to me and foreign to my faith walk.  I think the same goes for my parents.  Its fortunate to be so out of touch with popular Christian culture that it doesn’t become an important part of your faith walk, and then become baggage for you to work through later…

On the other hand, my parents probably don’t qualify as hipsters due to the lengthy list of things that hipsters DO like:

“Christian hipsters like music, movies, and books that are well-respected by their respective artistic communities—Christian or not. They love books like Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider, God’s Politics by Jim Wallis, and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. They tend to be fans of any number of the following authors: Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton, John Howard Yoder, Walter Brueggemann, N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Eugene Peterson, Anne Lamott, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Henri Nouwen, Soren Kierkegaard, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robison, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris, or anything ancient and/or philosophically important.”

I expect that most traditional Christians who are contrasted with ‘hipster christians’ probably don’t pay attention to most of the above authors, my parents included.  I, on the other hand, appreciate quite a few of them.  So I guess I’m hipster there again. 

He continues: “Christian hipsters love thinking and acting Catholic, even if they are thoroughly Protestant. They love the Pope, liturgy, incense, lectio divina, Lent, and timeless phrases like “Thanks be to God” or “Peace of Christ be with you.” They enjoy Eastern Orthodox churches and mysterious iconography, and they love the elaborate cathedrals of Europe (even if they are too museum-like for hipster tastes). Christian hipsters also love taking communion with real Port, and they don’t mind common cups. They love poetry readings, worshipping with candles, and smoking pipes while talking about God. Some of them like smoking a lot of different things.”

Again, little of this would resonate with traditional evangelicals, my parents included, and much of it does with me (although I don’t love the pope or  poetry or smoke pipes– I do like pictures of the saints, and candles and communion, and we drink from the same glass at simple free)

He goes on: “Christian hipsters love breaking the taboos that used to be taboo for Christians. They love piercings, dressing a little goth, getting lots of tattoos (the Christian Tattoo Association now lists more than 100 member shops), carrying flasks and smoking cloves. A lot of them love skateboarding and surfing, and many of them play in bands. They tend to get jobs working for churches, parachurch organizations, non-profits, or the government.”

I like the concept of skating and surfing, but can’t and haven’t; carrying a flask is not something I do, and tattoos continue to bewilder me (I do not understand the attraction).  But maybe I like to break taboos of hipsterism by not being interested in tatoos (or poetry, or flasks, or pipes, or Chesterton, or loving the pope). 

But despite the fact that I seem to have so much in common with hipsters, I still feel I am not one.  Here are my main three reasons:

1. I like to sing hymns.

2. I don’t think I have enough angst about traditional evangelical culture to be hip.

3. I really like flannelgraph, which is not hip.  I may not be into a lot of Christian culture stuff, but one thing I do have a strong propensity towards is flannelgraph, and I want to revive its use perhaps during our liturgy at simple free!  Long live Flannelgraph!     http://www.thefeltsource.com/Bible-Easter-Felt-Set.html

May God have mercy on us all!

PS Many thanks to Tony ‘action’ Jackson for the article on christian hipsters!

As long as it is day…

“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” — Jesus (John 9:4)

One of my favorite songs by Depeche Mode has the following lyrics:

I’m waiting for the night to fall
I know that it will save us all
When everything’s dark
Keeps us from the stark reality

I’m waiting for the night to fall
When everything is bearable
And there in the still
All that you feel is tranquillity

There is a sound in the calm
Someone is coming to harm
I press my hands to my ears
It’s easier here just to forget fear

And when I squinted
The world seemed rose-tinted
And angels appeared to descend
To my surprise
With half-closed eyes
Things looked even better
Than when they were open
I’m waiting for the night to fall…

This song is beautiful, sad, serene, and powerful. There are times when we want to escape from the reality we see, when we want to hide and squint and hope things may be different than they seem. We hope to forget.

But Christ encourages us in some way to fight against this escapism, to do the work God has called us to, despite frustration, setbacks, and even boredom.  Jesus encourages us to be diligent and committed to be faithful workers as long as it is still day…

I like to keep busy. Work can be therapy, it can also be an escape of course. Workaholics know this. But there is a call to diligence and productivity in the Bible. God wants our lives to count for something. So it is good to consider on a regular basis: of what use is my life? What am I doing that has lasting value to God?

Paul said this in his letter to Titus:

“I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.” (Titus 3:8)

“Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives” (Titus 3:14)

There is a limited economy of time. Time is finite for each of us. Death is coming. Christ is coming. So it is up to us to make the most of what we have. Christ encourages us to keep at it “as long as it is day”– i.e., as long as we still have time.

If we are still breathing, we still have time.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all int he name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through him.” (Col 3:17)

I hope you find joy today in the work that God has given you to do…

May God have mercy on us all…

Simple Free People

Its almost Easter.  Lent is almost come to a close.  We anticipate it and look forward to it because it is our celebration of the risen Christ.

We have so much to be thankful for, and this weekend is a celebration in other ways as well for Simple Free.  One of our people, Elijah, is getting married this weekend to Liz!!  We are so happy for them and for the joy that will come from that marriage.

Monday our brother Ryan Youtz leaves the US to go to Uganda as a long-term missionary, working with young adults in Kampala, as a partner in Ravens Ministries.  We will really miss him, but we are so excited for him and know that is where he is to be.  http://www.ravensministries.org

Finally, we are doing the feeding at neighbors united on Saturday, providing HAM SANDWICHES (Zach’s idea) in honor of Easter.

For those of you who don’t come to our service, we thought it might be interesting to learn a little about those who make up our group.  Not everyone is represented on this page, but a lot are, and it gives you a feel for the mission and mindset of people who come to our Tuesday night study and liturgy: http://simplefreechurch.wordpress.com/mini-biographies/

Thanks to Ryan for putting that page together!

Andy

I’m lucky I know Izzy…

So the last few weeks I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with my good friend Izzy who works for me and helps me out.  What started as an attempt to help out a guy living out of his truck behind a house I bought has become a pretty significant friendship for me.  I spend more time with Izzy some weeks than I do with anyone else.  “You help me, I help you” is his motto for our friendship, but really he is very kind, very loyal, and a stand up guy, although very shy around people he doesn’t know.  

He comes over most days (today) for coffee in the mornings, and he likes to do tilework, brickwork (he was a mason for 20 years), and he is pretty handy with a hammer. He lives in one of my apartment buildings. I take care of his insurance and various paperwork for him. I trust him completely, and he is more like a relative than a worker– kind of like a zaney puerto-rican uncle I never had (all my uncles were swedes). Sometimes he will drive my volvo, and his head just sticks up over the wheel barely– I love seeing him wheel down the road in that thing. I have had many fun and funny experiences with Izzy in the last few years, and we have a fun relationship. He keeps us positive when we are working– always looks for a solution to problems we’ve got, always tries to help out any way he can, and he is really resourceful– and funny. I consider his friendship a gift from God.

This week he’d been mentioning that he had a little bill to pay down at Salinas at 33rd and Cali. Salina has a nice little market, and she will eextend credit to people she knows. Izzy, likeable as always, sometimes hangs out with Salinas family on the weekends, so he has credit with her. Anyway, there was a bill to settle, so after work I said “lets go pay that salina bill” and Izzy said “that sounds good, maybe I can pick me up some cigarettes!” (He has told me many times that he could stop drinking (he did for 10 years once!) but smoking?– “uh-uh” he always says, wagging his finger in the air at the idea.

So we went to Salinas, where you can get fresh meat and vegetables (including cactus leaves) and icon-candles and all kinds of latino kitchen cleaners and canned goods. As we brought our goods to the counter (I got some chips and jallepenos and candles) I told Salina I also wanted to cover what Izzy owed her. As she looked it up, I pulled out my checkbook. She talked to Izzy a little bit, and then said to me, “I don’t accept checks usually, but I will this time since you know Izzy” and then she talked to him some more in spanish and acted a little surprised, and then smiled at me and took my check. We said our thank yous and went out to the volvo.

Izzy said “she asked me how I knew you and if you were a good guy, and I said ‘this guy owns my building! he’s good for the money, don’t worry!’” and we both had a good laugh.

Good thing I know Izzy so I can get my checks cashed at Salinas. Just goes to show, it helps to know the right people…

May God continue to have mercy on us all…

Andy

Mystics, Desert Fathers, and Dishwashers.

Simple Free does a book study group on Wednesday nights at upstream brewery downtown. We’ve been reading through 131 Christians, which gives you brief accounts of the lives of various Christians. This week was “inner travelers” which covered early desert monks up to Oswald Chambers– pretty diverse.

Many of these figures are refered to as mystics– which can mean that they have extatic experiences of God’s presence, such as visions, etc. These Christians try to help nurture that sort of experiential awareness of the presence of God in various ways. I found these figures really remarkable, and personally Brother Laurence, Andrew Murray and Oswald Chambers have had a huge impact on me– I read them constantly along with Watchman Nee when I was 12-18 years old.

The earliest figure we studied was Anthony of Egypt 251-356 We know of him from hagiography by Athanasius, an early Church father. Anthony become a lover of God by resisting the Devil and Yielding to Christ: “the mind of the soul is strong when the pleasures of the body are weak.” He lived for times near the tombs, then in a deserted roman fort for 20 years. Some of his preported sayings are in Apophthegmata, a collection of sayings of desert fathers and mothers

Second was Hildegard of Bingen 1098-1179 who thought her visions and interpretations were from God. Born in Germany during first Crusade, she was given as tithe to God (youngest of 10)Joined a Benedictine convent, she was controversial, but respected because she was always pushing for holiness and reform. Scivias is her best known work.

Catherine of Siena 1347-1380 at age 7 saw vision, and her parents gave her basement room as hermitage (whether this was because she was a brat or because of their respect for he vision, who knows). She was #23 of 25 children. Helped with black plague (1348-1350) with a Dominican “third Order” who helped poor. She was known for her feisty personality, and exemplary sanctity and Spiritual marriage to Christ. Tirelessly cared for poor. Exhorted pope to return to Rome in 1377 and leave the corrupt French situation at Avignon. (Gregory XI) Died at 33, made doctor of church in 1970.

Thomas a Kempis 1380-1471 wrote the Imitation of Christ. Early he joined a Dutch Augustinian monastery: Brethren of the common Life. He had many good quotes, such as, “The only man who can safely appear in public is the one who wishes he were at home. He alone can safely speak who prefers to be silent.”

Teresa of Avila 1515-1582 Was a Carmelite (nun) Mystic. Waffled spiritually at a convent in early years. Convicted by God, she began to establish simple Carmelite convents, and worked to reform. She had three works: Autobiography, Way of Perfection, Interior Castle, in which she spoke of progressive disengagement from things of this world. “Rest, indeed! I need no rest, what I need is crosses.”

John of the Cross 1542-1591 Was aSpanish mystic who heaped suffering on himself. Kidnapped by church authorities, put in a cell too short to stand up in. He wrote the Ascent of Mt Carmel, and believed that messages of the senses distort the reality of union with God.

Brother Lawrence 1611-1691 Was an example of simplicity and humble grace: he understood the holiness available within the common business of life. His famous short little work ins “The Practice of the Presence of God” in which he encourages believers to seek God in the simple day to day tasks, and worship as you live normal life.  Poverty forced him to join army. But his experience looking at a barren tree—realizing the hope of summer abundance despite the current dead appearance– inspired him to seek God in the everyday. Joining a monastery, he was assigned to the monastery kitchen. Speaking of all the various disciplines of monastic life, he said, “Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?” Common business is for Laurence the medium of God’s love. Love of God made every detail of his life of surpassing value.

William Law 1686-1761 said “So far as you add philosophy to religion, just so far you spoil it” Having little patience for theoretical religion, he wanted concrete personal devotion, and stirred up readers to renewed moral vigor and holiness. His most famous work is “A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life”

Andrew Murray 1828-1917 Was Dutch Reformed who said that the basis of Christianity is continually casting oneself on Christ. “May not a single moment of my life be spent outside the light, love and joy of God’s presence” For him, obstacles to a meaningful life were half-hearted surrender to God, lack of confidence, skepticism about prayer. “With Christ in the School of Prayer” and “Humility” are perhaps two of his most powerful books for nurturing spiritual discipline.

Oswald Chambers 1874-1917 Converted under Charles Spurgeon. Realized that “God has no respect fo anything I bring him. All he wants from me is unconditional surrender” Chambers believed that spritiual mediocrity was often the result of mental lethargy. Called his listeners to live aggressively for God. God’s will can be found in any circumstance of life, so long as individuals abandon themselves to Christ. “When he brings us to the venture, we take it…” His MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST is a classic Christian devotional– helping one to take their faith more seriously.  One year at Bethel I bought a copy for each of my students– all 120 of them.  I know that mom and dad started using it when I was about 8 because, according to them, I was bored with ‘our daily bread’ devotional…

I was especially challenged by these thinkers, their lives, and especially their seriousness in putting aside all pursuits but to seek God. Some, like Anthony, did that by leaving the world behind and being in isolated solitude, but most of the others did that as they worked to change the world and the church and bring about reform and spiritual renewal right where thery were– even in the monastic kitchen as they peeled potatoes!!

I hope we can all find ways to focus our attention on what really matters throughout our days. The writings of these Church pillars can help us to do that, if we put forth the effort to pursue it…

May God have mercy on us all…

andy

Why the Salvation Army is So Cool.

I brought my MBA class to the Kroc Center here in Omaha this last week. The Krocs started McDonald’s (hamburgers) and made a fortune, and Mrs. Kroc helped build a Kroc center in San Diego which is focused on helping kids who don’t normally have the same opportunities as other kids. Its a giant family fitness, cultural and education center– kind of like a YMCA on steroids– except that it is run by the Salvation Army. The one in San Diego was so successful that she decided to offer to build them across the country, and so Salvation army offices across the country put in applications for getting one built in their community. Omaha was one of the first to get accepted, and also one of the first to get one built.

The Kroc center in Omaha has four components: physical (pool, gyms, workout facilities, etc) educational (classrooms, computer rooms, programs) and cultural (fine arts auditorium, chapel, banquet hall, the largest kitchen in south Omaha) and spiritual (the salvation army and other groups have church, bible studies and prayer meetings here each week).

The Salvation Army is pretty interesting. It is an organization which has a number of components, like education, helping alcoholics, etc, and one of those components is their church. The church isn’t over all of it, the church is one aspect of it. But Salvation Army officers, who basically run everything, are each ordained ministers (men and women) and officers can only be married to officers (so you and your wife will both be ordained ministers).

What was especially interesting to me is their pay. The officer we spoke with said that when he and his wife moved here, they left their house and car and furniture in Minneapolis for the officers taking their place, and got a car, house etc here in Nebraska– the Salvation army provides that. But he and his wife make 40,000 per year, directing this Kroc center. But the highest paid director within the salvation army worldwide also gets paid that same amount (with his wife). So the salvation army takes care of you, but you aren’t going to get rich. Its definitely a calling.

Salvation Army is, as he told us, very clearly about salvation through Jesus Christ. That is fundamental to who they are and they are very straightforward about that. One student asked if they receive funds from the United Way, and he said that they do participate with the United Way, but that technically the United Way doesn’t just give organizations money, they ‘buy’ programs. So if you want them to help you, they will sponsor a particular program, like your aquatic program, but in doing so it is essentially theirs, and so, for example, you couldn’t have pictures of Jesus or any evangelizing being done in connection with that particular program– there are strings attached. But he of course said wonderful things about the United Way– he just made it clear that they don’t have to rely on the United Way, but it is beneficial for them to be connected to the United Way in large part because then the United Way can say they help the Salvation Army, which helps them raise money which in large part they give to smaller nonprofits. So the Salvation Army plays ball so to speak by lending their name to the effort so that smaller nonprofits can benefit.

The Kroc Center is pretty amazing. IT was packed with kids and families, and was really a wonderful facility. Its available for weddings and parties and meetings and they have a great catering service. Their head chef is an instructor at Metro Cullinary Arts school– which is in the top 10 in the country if you didn’t know

Kroc centers get 60 million– 30 million for construction, and 30 million for an endowment to live off of (that supplies 1/3 of the Kroc center budget in omaha).  But the local community had to raise an additional 15 million for endowment support.  This was to help ensure that the center and its programs would have long term funding.  The Salvation Army took their stewardship of this large sum seriously, and really thought through wether or not they could follow through and achieve was Mrs. Kroc was expecting.  I really respected that.  They are extremely careful with money, and while that does lead to more red tape in some cases, it also means they have one of the highest credibility ratings of any nonprofit in the world.

It was really encouraging to realize the very strong Christian roots of the Salvation Army and to hear about the dedicated service of the officers.  A good Christian witness for sure…that we all could do so much with what we’ve been given!

andy

Lent: Why Not?

I did not know what Lent was until I was in my teens. The tradition of many protestant churches (often called low churches because of their lack of ‘high church’ practices and rituals) was to intentionally not observe the ‘ritualistic’ practices (like Lent) which could be confused as being part of a works-based salvation. The Catholics and Anglicans do that works-based stuff, we were told, while we just celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. The Catholics had Jesus on the cross– we protestants had the empty cross because Jesus is no longer crucified– he is risen!! (You can see this difference even in what the different churches call the ancient church in Jerusalem where Jesus’ tomb was. The Catholic (western) church calls it the church of the “holy seplechure” (grave) while the eastern church calls it the church of the resurrection. One focuses on the sacrifice, the other on the power of Christs resurrection.

The truth is, both are good. To remember Christ’s suffering and painful death as we go towards easter is good. To remember the final victory and the resurrection power of Christ to redeem is also good.  Both are part of the same story.  And observing ancient practices of the Church like Lent is not necessarily a works-based view of religion (that we get God to like us by doing certain things).  Rather, Lent is a time to refocus through disciplining ourselves through particular spiritual practices. 

So what is Lent? Its purpose is to remind ourselves of Christs suffering, and our own humanity.  Also, it is a way to honor God and remember Christ’s sacrifice for us.   Some people choose to forgo a vice, or something they really enjoy, to help them see how weak they really are. That could be giving up TV, movies, beer, facebook, coffee, soda, fast food, meat, shopping, eating out, or even driving a car. Often people give the money they would have spent on that activity to the poor or church. Some people add something instead of taking something away– like an hour of prayer per day, or extra exercise, or giving more money, or reading a number of pages each day of the Bible or something else productive.

Normally Lent lasts from Ash Wednesday, which is this coming Wednesday, until Easter. Also, as some practice it,  Sundays are mini-celebrations where you don’t have to follow your lenten commitment– its a mini reminder of the celebration to come at Easter.

Does Lent make you more holy? Maybe. It will at least help you develop some discipline and possibly help you focus more on the gracious gift of Jesus Christ as Easter approaches.

Last year I gave up fast food, and that made me realize how much I had become sort of habituated to get a quick bite at Burger King or TB. Now I hardly eat at fast food places at all, mostly due to good habits started during Lent last year. Its a good discipline. We are physical beings, not merely spiritual, and Lent is a time when we can bring our spirit and body together in unity as we challenge ourselves to submit to a lenten commitment. It can bring about more humility, discipline, and a realization of our humanity, as we also focus our minds on the gift of Christ. 

If you’ve never done anything for lent before, you might consider trying it this year, as an act of trying to draw closer to God, and also as an act of solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Christians who are also observing lent.   When done with the right heart and intent, it is a great way of worshipping with both your body and spirit together. 

IF you want to commit to Lent along with some others of us, you can join our facebook ‘event’ for Lent at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=307938633987&ref=ts

Here is more on Lent: http://www.churchyear.net/lent.html

On a side note, one of my favorite books is Merold Westphal’s book “Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism” which is written as a Lenton devotional introducing you to the thought of Marx, Nietzsche and Freud– the three great modern critics of Christian religion.  Westphal, who is a Christian, reflects on their critique of the ways we make God in our own image (idolatry) and uses these insights to bring about penetrating self-analysis and critique. In short, he helps us learn from these Atheists how we might be less hypocritical and more aware of our selves.  Its good stuff if you’re up for the challenge! Here it is:  http://www.amazon.com/Suspicion-Faith-Religious-Modern-Atheism/dp/0823218767

If anyone happens to want to read through this book and talk about it off and on during lent, I’d totally be game.  Andy