Live Generously

The blogosphere is a funny place. Not that such a statement needs proving, but allow me to submit to you this little piece of evidence:

About a month and a half ago I spent a few days in Tijuana, Mexico, with my church doing a house build with Amor ministries. Before leaving for the trip, I wrote this post and called it “House Building for Dummies”. In the post I talked about the trip a little, but I mainly, in a very tongue-in-cheek way, talked about how I was a bit skeptical of my own ability to actually positively contribute to the building of an actual house that would be safe for actual humans.

Six weeks after the trip, I can tell you that, on average, about ten people get directed to my blog each week after doing a Google search for “house building for dummies”, or something close to that. To those who have ended up on my blog as a result of such a search (and there will probably be more of you now that I’ve referenced it again), I apologize that I’m not more helpful. I must admit, however, that the fact that there are human beings looking for a “for dummies” guide to BUILDING A FREAKING HOUSE is mildly concerning. But it makes me laugh, so that’s ok.

For those of you that are a part of the New Song family, you’ve heard about our Frontline Ministry and all of the great stuff that they do.  For those of you that aren’t, our Frontline Ministry is essentially a community service, evangelism, social justice, and a million other things ministry all rolled into one.  Rarely does a day go by when folks from New Song aren’t out somewhere in North County serving people under the banner of Frontline.

Recently Edwin and Amy, the leaders of Frontline started a great blog that shares stories from the front lines and provides information about the ministry.  I encourage all of you to check it out, link to it, and visit it frequently!  The blog can be found here, and on my blog roll to the right.

Even though it happened more than seven years ago, it remains tattooed on my brain.

It was my senior year in high school, and I was a member of my high school’s student newspaper staff. At the time, I was still in my they-will-know-we-are-Christians-by-all-of-the-Christian-junk-we-show-off stage, so I took pleasure in advertising my Christian faith through t-shirts, jewelry, as well as stickers and drawings on notebooks, backpacks, and other personal items (even though, lets be honest, adherence to the radical way of Jesus was the furthest thing from my mind). To a lesser degree, I advertised it on my journalism computer’s desktop background as well.

For most of my senior year I was seated in my journalism class next to a gentleman who was somewhat hostile towards Christianity. I certainly don’t mean to say he was a bad guy, I only mean to say that he often spoke pejoratively about Christians, church, etc. He was very intelligent, and was, as I remember, an excellent writer. He and I had actually been good friends when we were kids, but had long since had a falling out, and by this point we had no relationships to speak of, excepting the proximity of our journalism computers.

At the time I was a big fan of the now disbanded (moment of silence) Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy. I had found a cool collage of various Five Iron photos, fliers, cd covers and what not, and had set said collage as my desktop background. One of the concert fliers in the collage advertised Five Iron Frenzy as one of the bands performing at an event (or maybe it was a tour) called “Ska Against Racism”.

This deeply troubled the guy sitting next to me. He refused to believe, and in fact vehemently denied, that Five Iron Frenzy was a part of “Ska Against Racism”, something he was somewhat familiar with given his affinity for punk/ska etc. music (out of shear curiosity I googled “Ska Against Racism”, and the tour happened in 1998 and yes, Five Iron Frenzy was in fact a part of it). Now, the next couple of sentences are speculation, but I’m fairly certain my speculation is correct. This guy refused to believe that a Christian band would be involved with a project seeking to combat racism. That simply did not fit with the picture of Christianity he had been given. Christians are socially conservative, white bigots, who do nothing but sit on their ivory tower of superstition and look down upon others who don’t share their views while saying absurd things like “the reason God allowed 9/11 to happen was because there were homosexuals in the building”. They dress alike, they talk alike, and they have no tolerance for anyone who is different from them.

In other words, Christians don’t fight racism. Christians don’t stand up for the marginalized. Christians are self-righteous. Christians are closed-minded and anti-intellectual. Christians are homophobic. I could go on, but you get the idea.

On one level, this guy’s comments reflect obvious ignorance of Christianity, something that was expressed through a number of comments he made throughout the year (including saying that he wanted to go to the mega-church I attended dressed in all black goth-ish clothing and “see what people would do”….”I’m guessing nothing”, was what I wanted to tell him…not sure why I didn’t). His understanding of Christianity was shaped largely by the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons of the world, and as such his understanding was sorely misguided.

That being said, he clearly had seen nothing, or at least little, in his lived experience to conclude that the oft judgmental, oft hateful, oft intolerant version of Christianity that he had seen presented by folks like those listed above was inaccurate. I remember the Five Iron Frenzy conversation (and many others), and I think about movies like Saved! (which every Christian should see), and always think, “that is what the world thinks we are.” And this is to our shame. In other words, I don’t hold this guy completely responsible for believing what he did about Christians. The indiscretions of Christians had instilled this understanding of Christianity in him, and that is an indictment against all of us who claim the name of Christ. There are many people in the world like the guy from my journalism class…I meet them every once in a while. It is up to us to demonstrate a Christianity that is different than what they have come to understand, and more important a Jesus who is different than what they have come to understand. I often wonder, what if people in the world, Christian or not, had such a radically different experience of what Christians were like that all of the caricatures that find their way into pop culture simply wouldn’t work anymore because they were so obviously inaccurate?

Jim Wallis likes to talk about changing the wind. He says that politicians are licking their fingers and putting their fingers up to determine which direction the ‘wind’ is blowing so that they can act accordingly. He uses this to encourage people, particularly people of faith, to organize to promote truly biblical values like the eradication of poverty, peacemaking, fair wages for working people, environmentalism, a consistent ethic of life, and a more socially conscious national budget. Not exactly your typical fair of issues that are important to conservatives, but then again, Wallis isn’t exactly a conservative (incidentally, neither is Jesus).

I often wonder what it would take for Christians to change the wind. What would need to happen so that future generations of people in journalism classes would expect that Christian bands would be involved in a concert tour promoting racial equality? What would need to happen to come to a place where people in the world may disagree with our spiritual beliefs but they respect and affirm our contributions to society?

Our task is to change the wind. In our work lives, in our families, in the seemingly meaningless interactions we have throughout the day. In our finances, in our time management, in the way that we show love to our friend and our enemy. In the way that we rise above theological squabbling and agree on the reality of Christ’s body broken and blood shed for the healing of the world.

May we be a people who change the wind.

Here are a few thoughts from the weekend…

* I got back yesterday afternoon from a quick weekend in Vegas. I was there for a friend from high school’s bachelor party, and it was the first time I’d been to Vegas since I was 12 years old. It was great getting to hang out with a bunch of old friends that I hadn’t seen in far too long. Las Vegas is a very odd place. On the one hand, it’s pretty spectacular. While there I had the opportunity to stuff my face with crab legs, sing at the top of my lungs in a piano bar surrounded by as many people as the place could hold, take in an amazing Cirque du Soleil show, play War (yes, War) for money at the Monte Carlo, and otherwise enjoy the many sites and sounds of the Las Vegas strip. In that respect, being in Vegas was a lot of fun. On the other hand, the Las Vegas strip was a stark reminder to me of the extreme level of brokenness that exists in our world. As I looked around at all of the glitz, glamor, and excess I was reminded of the banner that Shane Claiborne once displayed in front of the New York Stock Exchange: “There is Enough for Everyone’s Need, but not Enough for Everyone’s Greed”. That’s not the exact quote, but you get the idea. In Vegas there is so much excess, while at the same time half the world is starving to death. On the other hand, there are signs everywhere of a different, but still very real, form of poverty that exists in that city. Whether it was inebriated people stumbling down the street yelling at each other, or middle-aged Hispanic men and women wearing ill-fitting t-shirts that advertised prostitutes, the signs were everyone. From a relational standpoint, it seemed that those few city blocks were deeply, deeply impoverished. Kinda funny to say that about a place that is literally worth billions of dollars. All things considered, it was a great trip and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to be there and celebrate Lou as he prepares to enter married life. On a different level, as you can probably tell, being in Vegas raised all sorts of other thoughts that I am still processing.

One thing I did want to point out, however, is that it is really easy for me to sit here in my apartment at my computer and pass judgment on all of the wealth and excess that exists in Las Vegas. There are people and companies in that city that have more money then I can even comprehend. The danger is doing that, however, is that it can become a means of excusing myself from action. If I can point the finger at someone else (even the very vague entity of “Las Vegas”) I can ignore the fact that I myself am among the richest people in the world, and as such I myself have a deep responsibility to care for the least of these. On that level, being in Vegas got me thinking a lot about Christie and I’s finances and how we allocate our money. The reality is, we all lead lives of excess, rather than pointing the finger at those who are more excessive than we, our call is to use the resources we have to be a blessing to others. That is a reminder that I need frequently.

* On a different note, during my drive to Vegas and back I listened to the book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. I’d heard all sorts of good things about this book at had been meaning to read it for a long time. To put it mildly, I was disappointed. The book was very well researched and well written, and it is clear that the other is a brilliant thinker. With that being said, I just did not find the subject matter to be all that interesting. He certainly made some provocative claims and backed them up with research, but for each claim he made there was (it seemed) a half hour’s worth of dry, superfluous information. The book is still in the top 200 on Amazon, and has received a ton of favorable reviews, so maybe the problem is with me and not with the book.

*We had another good night at church last night. There were a bunch of angles I could have taken on the passage we were studying (Mark 11:27-12:12), but I decided to focus in on fear and how it impacted the actions of the Pharisees and how it can control our lives. I think a basic reality of life is that we all live in fear on some level, and too often that fear can be absolutely paralyzing. We fear failure so we do nothing. To illustrate this point I was able to share the amusing, yet pathetic, story of the night that Christie and I officially started dating (and how I almost blew it because of, of courses, fear). What I tried to do last night was distinguish between unhealthy fear of things in the world and healthy, reverent fear of God and the hope that comes with that. I know that I need to be reminded not to fear on a fairly regular basis, so it is my hope and prayer that last night was helpful to our group.  The reality is that we worship the things that we fear (think about it, it’s true), and that makes it all the more important that we have a healthy fear of our God who loves us rather than an unhealthy fear of worldly things. It was weird being at Seven24 without being at Overdrive earlier in the day (I was driving back from Vegas). I’m fairly certain that was the first time that had happened, and the result was that when Seven24 started I didn’t even feel like it was evening yet. All and all it was a good night though…during the closing worship set I was thinking about how I really love being at New Song and how it is such a blessing getting to be a part of Seven24. Christie and I are really lucky to be here for this season of our lives.

Ok, that’s all for now…gotta get to work, finals are looming

Recently I was given a copy of the book Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and Brett Harris. I read it in a couple of days, and can confidently say it should be read by anyone who works with teenagers, and then given to teenagers to read. I don’t have time for a comprehensive book review, but I did want to talk briefly about the book and its message. I, as a 25 year old, was inspired reading it (so much so that I bought a copy for my 18 year old brother), and I believe this book has the potential to make a tremendous impact on youth culture.

The basic thesis that Alex and Brett Harris, founders of the website www.therebelution.com, is that teenagers today are largely conditioned to accept mediocrity, and because of that they rarely live up to their fullest potential. Teens, particularly gifted teens, are rarely fully challenged, and thus can quite easily skate through their adolescence doing just enough to get by. Rarely are they ever truly asked to “do hard things”. This, according to the authors, is a tragic waste of the gifts that God has given young people.

Throughout the book Alex and Brett, both 19 year olds, share stories of some of the “hard things” they have been able to do in their lives (organize a grassroots political campaign, start up a phenomenally popular blog, write a book, etc.), and they share a bunch of other stories of teens who refused to settle for merely getting good grades, doing their chores, and holding down a part time job. The stories of teenagers who accomplished incredible things were simply mind blowing (and made me question how effectively I’ve used the gifts God has given me!).

They focus on five particular types of “hard things”. 1) Things that are outside your comfort zone. 2) Things that go beyond what is expected or required. 3) Things that are too big to accomplish alone. 4) Things that don’t earn an immediate payoff. 5) Things that challenge the cultural norm. Those are all certainly ‘hard things’, and they are things that are unattractive to many of us, particularly teenagers, in our microwave, myspace, instant download, I-want-it-now culture, but ultimately tasks that challenge us in one of the above ways are the ones that are most fulfilling. The Harrises walk through how it is that teenagers, and really all of us, can go about pursuing those hard things while avoiding the more menial tasks of life that often distract many of us from being effective for the kingdom of God.

It is true that we live in a culture of low expectations, and it is also true that gifted students can easily ‘get by’ without fully engaging themselves in their education, their spiritual life, or their other extra-curricular activities. I’ve found that to be true even in my own life, as I’ve often relied on my own intelligence to save me from having to fully apply myself to various tasks. I found this book to be a much needed wake up call for a generation that is slowly being lulled to sleep by our culture of apathy and low expectations.

I highly recommend this book to virtually anyone under the age of 25, and I particularly recommend it to those of you who are involved in youth ministry as either a staff member of a volunteer. It is a very quick read, and time reading it will be time well spent.

Rob Bell’s newest NOOMA video, Shells, is being streamed on the NOOMA facebook page until Wednesday at 12 p.m. EST. I watched it last night, and it’s great.

In this one, Rob tackles the idea of “busyness”, calling it a drug that many in our culture are hooked on. I think he’s right. Think about it, what’s the first thing we all say when people ask about ‘how things are going’? They’re busy. Things are crazy. Oh man, I’ve got so much going on. I’ve thought about this quite a bit, and have become frustrated with our cultural obsession with the appearance of busyness (one that, despite my disdain for it, I share). Hearing people talk about how busy they are is a lot like hearing people talk about when they had their wisdom teeth pulled. Everyone’s got a story, and everyone’s story is more gruesome than the previous one. And none of us really care about anyone’s story but our own.

What Rob suggests is that we are too ‘busy’ not because we don’t know how to say ‘no’ to things in our lives, but rather we don’t know how to say ‘yes’. He’s right. Really, he is. The problem isn’t that we’ve all got too much on our plate. Our problem is that we all too often lack the singular vision and focus necessary to pursue things of great meaning. For that reason we end up distracting ourselves with things that will ultimately leave us hallow. He tells a great story to illustrate that point. So then the solution to our busyness isn’t disengagement, but is rather a vision and a focus that compels us to focus on things that matter. Good stuff.

Sitting at Pier View on a Monday afternoon (man, if I keep doing this so often I’m going to be like Ron Gollner and his St. Arbucks….only with smaller biceps).

I’m reading Stanley Hauerwas for my political theology class, and at the moment I’m reading a chapter out of his book The Peaceable Kingdom. It’s terrific, which is more than I can say for most of the other reading I’ve done this quarter.

As most of you know, a big part of my job is teaching at the college and young adult service at my church on Sunday nights. Teaching the Bible is a funny thing, because no matter how much study or practice I put in, it always seems like I actually have to give the sermon before I’m ever able to really understand what a particular passage said or what I really wanted to say about it. I’ve joked with some friends that I would be a much better teacher if I taught on Mondays. Teaching is also funny in the way that it tends to, quite literally, consume me. My wife knows that from about Saturday evening on I am rarely fully present in conversations I am having. My mind is constantly drifting to the next night’s message. This was true even this last week, as I was standing in a bar in Oceanside sipping a Red Trolley and waiting for Mike’s band to play. By Saturday night I can practically see the manuscript in my head, I can see the faces who will be there, I can even construct imaginary dialogs that I anticipate taking place when I open things up for discussion. Then Sunday night comes and goes, and I end up reflecting on the things that I said or didn’t say for the next day or so. I am a Monday morning (and afternoon) quarterback. I replay the whole thing in my head, scolding myself for mistakes and taking joy in the times when it really seemed like God spoke. More than that, though, I think through the implications of what I talked about.

Mark 11:12-25…Jesus cleanses the temple. It’s an interesting passage. Last night after I got home from church I was listening to a sermon (don’t worry, I don’t normally listen to sermons on Sunday night after attending two church services that day), and the speaker referred to that passage as Jesus’ “temple tantrum”. Say that out loud. Really, do it. It’s funny.

The passage does what so many other passages in the gospel of Mark do. It confronts us with the radical nature of Jesus’ message. And, to be honest, it does a lot to explain the temptation that a lot of Bible teachers (myself included) often feel to water down the message of Jesus to make it more sensitive to our post-modern, pluralistic, meta-narrative rejecting ears. Jesus categorically denounces the ‘appearance’ of authentic spirituality. That is offensive on a number of levels. Our society, sacred or secular, worships at the altar of appearance. Even those who claim they don’t care what people think all seem to rebel in the same ways. And yet here is Jesus, categorically cursing spirituality that is concerned only with outward appearance. Worse yet, he is suggesting that those who think they have it all together are in fact the ones most guilty of engaging in a sort of spirituality for show. That’s scary.

After leaving the temple Jesus begins speaking of things like faith in God, confidence in prayer, and mutual forgiveness. My goodness. If only we could truly learn those things. If only I myself could learn to exercise faith in God that transcends intellectual belief. If only I could manifest a faith in God that would summon in me radical obedience. Obedience beyond Bible reading, prayer, and the avoidance of the more noticeable personal sins. If only that could manifest in me a bigger heart for justice. If only that could manifest in me radical generosity. If only that could manifest in me real love for my neighbor (I realize even the tax collectors do that, but if I’m honest I realize that I need to work on loving my enemies and my neighbors). That is what real faith is. That is the sort of faith that Jesus desires to awaken in his disciples in that day and this. The faith to say mountains can be moved. The faith to say we don’t need to buy into this system of Wal Mart, American imperialism, and systemic economic injustice. Heck, faith to believe that the church need not simply be a place that provides spiritual entertainment for an hour and a half a week, but instead can be a true community of the risen that lives by radical faith and radical obedience.

As I reflect on this passage, and on the things that God has been doing in my own heart of late, those are the things that come to mind. The last thing I mean to do is blog about it as a sort of cathartic release that excuses me from action (imagine Derek Zoolander talking about volunteering to help under privileged children learn how to read), but I suppose all I’m doing is getting my thoughts on (virtual) paper to clarify my own thinking and perhaps see if anyone else is struggling through these sorts of issues.

First things first…Christie and I are sitting at Pier View Coffee in Oceanside, and it is absolutely beautiful today.

As I was driving here I listened to an interesting NPR Talk of the Nation Opinion Page piece. It was an interview with a career counselor who had just written an op-ed piece for The Chronicle for Higher Education essentially alleging that college degrees are a waste of money.

This story was of particular interest to me, given that I am currently a college pastor at my church, where I interact with a whole lot of students that are trying to figure out their academic future.  There isn’t a major university nearby, so nearly all of the college students involved in our ministry attend community colleges.  I myself never attended a community college, but instead went straight to a four-year school.  It was always assumed, growing up, that I would do just that.  The thought of not going to college was never seriously considered, and I played the standard pre-college game of taking AP classes, taking the SAT (and SAT II), and applying to the best schools that I thought I had a shot of getting in to.  Alternatives were never even discussed between my parents and I.  Honestly, I wasn’t interested in any sort of alternative. I am wondering if perhaps my lack of interest in an alternative was more culturally conditioned than anything else.  That thought is validated that next year my brother, who performed similarly to me academically in high school and has been accepted to a top 50 national university, will not be attending college (though he plans to eventually).  Even within my own family, the culture is changing, at that may be a good thing. In talking with students today, I frequently encourage them to continue on in their educational pursuits (and will continue to do that, for good reason in my opinion, even after hearing this story), but I am realizing more and more that the “answer” isn’t just education, but rather it is engagement with one’s passions.

I remain, now a few years out of college and a few years into graduate school, an advocate for higher education. I believe that a college education is valuable, and I look back on my time in college as one where I matured intellectually, socially, emotionally, spiritually, and in many other ways.  That being said, being removed has allowed me to reflect more critically on my college experience.  In reality, many of the classes that I took were, frankly, useless.  Many of my professors were indifferent.  In fact, I cannot name a single class that I took in college that tangibly helps me in the performance of my job (though, to be fair, I don’t think UCLA prides itself on preparing people for careers in Christian ministry ;-)). This has allowed me to question not the value of higher education, but instead the way that we approach higher education in this country. I bears mentioning, however, that I fully recognize I could have made choices that would have made my undergraduate educational experience more profitable.

Given my own struggles with this topic, I found Marty Nemko’s article America’s Most Overrated Product: The Bachelor’s Degree to be fascinating (especially since Marty is a career coach). Nemko argues that too often students who underachieved in high school end up going to college and dropping out.  In fact, he cites a statistic that says that over 2/3 of students in the bottom 40% of their high school class that go straight to four year colleges are without a college degree (and saddled with massive debt and a bruised ego) a full eight and a half years later.  Yikes.  To go along with that, I recently read a statistic that said 86% of students that enroll in community colleges drop out.  86%! Furthermore, half of those that make it out of community college drop out before they finish their degree.  That means that only 7% of those who enroll in community colleges get bachelor’s degrees.  Those, in my view, are staggering statistics.

Nemko goes on to say that even for those who complete their degrees, success is hardly guaranteed.  The off shoring and automation of jobs is making the job market scarce, often requiring people with college degrees to take jobs they could have taken with high school diplomas.  Colleges, however, are quick to cite a few different things: 1) There are plenty of statistics that indicate that people with college degrees make more money over the course of their lives than non-graduates.  Nemko argues that such a difference is made because people with college degrees are simply more self-motivated.  He says you could lock those people in a closet for four years and they would still, on average, make more money than the individuals they are being compared to. 2) College education isn’t about employment advantage.  It is about enlightenment and learning how to think.  To this, Nemko responds:

Colleges are quick to argue that a college education is more about enlightenment than employment. That may be the biggest deception of all. Often there is a Grand Canyon of difference between the reality and what higher-education institutions, especially research ones, tout in their viewbooks and on their Web sites. Colleges and universities are businesses, and students are a cost item, while research is a profit center. As a result, many institutions tend to educate students in the cheapest way possible: large lecture classes, with necessary small classes staffed by rock-bottom-cost graduate students…That’s not to say that professor-taught classes are so worthwhile. The more prestigious the institution, the more likely that faculty members are hired and promoted much more for their research than for their teaching. Professors who bring in big research dollars are almost always rewarded more highly than a fine teacher who doesn’t bring in the research bucks. Ernest L. Boyer, the late president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, used to say that winning the campus teaching award was the kiss of death when it came to tenure. So, no surprise, in the latest annual national survey of freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, 44.6 percent said they were not satisfied with the quality of instruction they received. Imagine if that many people were dissatisfied with a brand of car: It would quickly go off the market. Colleges should be held to a much higher standard, as a higher education costs so much more, requires years of time, and has so much potential impact on your life.

Nemko raises a number of good points, and they are points that those who market higher education ought to be forced to address.  The reality is that if students aren’t careful (like I, to be honest, wasn’t) they will find that even if they graduate from college they will do so having learned very few actual skills along the way.

I am very open to the idea that perhaps college isn’t the answer for everyone.  That being said, the problem isn’t a lack of interest in education, I believe the problem is a lack of motivation in general. I suppose in many cases college seems like a logical option for young people simply because if they aren’t in school they will probably just take a dead end job and fail to apply themselves to anything substantive.  In other words, college may not be great, but it beats the alternatives.  This is a big problem.  On one level, universities ought to be held to a higher standard that cuts down on the number of ‘defective products’ they produce. That, in my view, is the ultimate answer. On another level, perhaps we as Americans need to broaden our collective imaginations such that we can get more creative about pursuing lives that actually make a difference in the world.  As Nemko cites, there are plenty of people that have quite literally revolutionized the world who lacked a college education.  I suppose my fear is that too many younger people will be inclined to read Nemko’s article, use it as an excuse to stop pursuing an education, and rather than using their new found freedom to pursue excellence, they will settle for mediocrity.  Again, there are big problems with higher education, but the problem is able to persist because of our own lack of creativity as a society that leads us to send smart kids to school, and allow the not so smart ones to wallow in mediocrity. I suppose the biggest piece of advice I give to our students should be more directed at awakening their passions and making their lives something that add value to society.  Maybe that means college, maybe it doesn’t.

The Onion has done it again. Recently they had a great story about a Padres game getting “sunned out”, and now they’ve got this great story about a planned merger of two San Diego institutions.  I can’t wait to go visit. I want to be a writer for The Onion in my next life.

Once again I stumbled across a cool piece on the God’s Politics blog hosted by Sojourners, this time by the always provocative and oft prophetic Derek Webb of Caedmon’s Call. I suppose the article, entitled “Following Jesus vs. Social Activism” , doesn’t say anything that I haven’t heard or thought about before, but in it Webb does speak frankly about the ridiculousness of following Jesus. To quote the first sentence and a half of the article, “Claiming to follow Jesus is a ridiculous thing to try and do. He’s a really hard guy to follow…”

Agreed.

Webb goes on to talk about how we are to understand following Jesus when the things that he asks us to do (love the poor, love our enemies, etc.) scandalize the very core of who we naturally are, particularly given the fact that, in his words, we are violent to the core.

Fortunately, he writes, Jesus has given us the key to understanding who he is and what he wants us to do. It’s not obsessing over the finer points of private morality that Christians so often obsess over (although it bears mentioning that we, too often, see private morality and social activism as a zero sum game (wikipedia it if you don’t know what that means…yes, I did just put a parentheses inside of a parentheses), when in fact, biblically, they most certainly are not), but instead the key is that we learn to love God and love our neighbor. It’s that, um, simple. Thus, in Webb’s words, the work of following Jesus is loving and caring for those whom it is difficult. It is that love that ought to frame and contextualize all of the other commandments we keep.

One aspect of ministry that has grated on me since the beginning is the fact that, when you’re a pastor, you hear about everyone’s junk. Don’t get me wrong, I count it a joy and privilege to be able to counsel people through difficult circumstances and walk with them as they seek healing, but often what I’m referring to doesn’t happen in that context. Sometimes people get convicted about their own behavior and tell me themselves (which I much prefer), but more frequently I get members of our church that come to me out of concern for their friend that has recently started killing kittens or binge drinking or building a nuclear warhead or making not awesome relational decisions (ok, I made up a few of those). When people come to me themselves, that usually indicates some desire to change, and that is a lot easier to deal with. It’s hearing the stuff that people in my church do when they aren’t at church that gets difficult to deal with. Frankly, and this just me being honest, loving in those circumstances is a challenge, and yet I understand that is the love that Jesus is talking about, and that tragically people often don’t think they are going to get from pastors and other church folk. And let me be clear about one thing: it’s not because I think they’re bad people. In fact it’s precisely the opposite. I think they are really good people. I think they are people that God has gifted with tremendous potential, and at times I see that potential beautifully on display. So when I hear about them denying that potential, it breaks my heart. I know they know better , and often the disappointment is crushing. I love being able to care for people people on the soul level…people are never products, or employees, or tokens to fill a role in the church, they are people…but caring for people on the soul level can be extremely painful sometimes.

And it makes me wonder: Have we, as the church, lost the picture of what it means to follow Jesus? Have we lost the picture that Derek Webb (well, and Jesus before him) paints of simply loving God and loving our neighbor? It’s easy to point the finger and blame others, but are there systemic issues that are leading to these sorts of circumstances.

Is that why we, too often, fail to live up to our potential? Is it because we have sought to primarily find our identity is something else other than who God has made us to be? Have we found it in hollow spirituality that centers around a passive hour or two on Sundays? And if so, how do we go about changing the church from simply a community that gets together on Sundays to a community that gets together on Sundays and embraces community throughout the week that is bound by an unconditional love for God and a love for neighbor? The potential for good is that sort of model is mind blowing. Now I’ve deviated quite a ways away from the point of Webb’s article, but I’ll close with a paragraph from it that expresses what we, as Christians, are proclaiming in the world when we enact a love for God and a love for neighbor:

“How do we tell the whole story of the coming reign of God, a new way of being human and relating to God and God’s creation? We put our hands to it. We proclaim a day coming when there will be no more thirst by giving water to the thirsty. We proclaim a day coming where there will be no more disease and death by caring for the lives of those whose bodies are broken. We proclaim a day coming where there will be no more war by preemptively sowing the seeds of peace.”