Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Stupid Christian Stories
As I write this, it is the early a.m. after a day of mindless, incompetent, bureaucratic hell, populated by imbeciles too proud to say "I don't know" - willing to waste enormous amounts of my time for the sake of their ego. From the pharmacy to the bank to my ISP, I spent what seems an entire day (though really only about 5 hours of it) being giving misinformation and being misdirected.
And so, I turn to my blogging this fine morning and find that in my "stack of stuff" to write about I have saved stories like these.
MMI links to video and print on a survey done of ad agencies to figure out how to "sell" Christianity. They want to "re-brand" it.
Meanwhile, that same source links to a story on a man suing the church where he was "slain in the Spirit" because there was no catcher and he hit his head!
Well, the church's only product is people transformed by the gospel which means we MUST listen to and serve them, not run them through our mill. The church should be the one institution in human experience that helps us to find our humanity not strips us of it.
If you are going to run a healing service, you best be into healing and not hurting. That is simple spiritual competency. If you are going to lead people to transformed lives, you best be at least a little transformed yourself.
Which brings me to my final thought
Confession, the simple acknowledgment of a lack of ability, and the humility such subsequently reflects, is the foundation on which genuine transformation, genuine Christianity lies. The response to people not coming to church is not better salesmanship, it is confession, even unspecific confession, "God we clearly are not doing this right, what do we do."
"God my heart aches for my ill brother or sister, please...please...don't let me add to their pain."
You see, that essential humanity that we seek for ourselves and we are called to affirm in others, was created perfect, but is now deeply, deeply flawed - both our own and the other. The path to that affirmation lies in the rebuilding, which requires first knowing of the flaws.
I seek refuge from the vagaries of life in the church of my Lord. My prayer is that we would learn to be truly different, by building the kind of competence that comes only from humility.
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And so, I turn to my blogging this fine morning and find that in my "stack of stuff" to write about I have saved stories like these.
MMI links to video and print on a survey done of ad agencies to figure out how to "sell" Christianity. They want to "re-brand" it.
Meanwhile, that same source links to a story on a man suing the church where he was "slain in the Spirit" because there was no catcher and he hit his head!
You Don't "Sell" Christianity, You Are Christian!
Yesterday's adventures left me mostly feeling stripped of my essential humanity - I was not listened to, I was not served, I was processed. Like a piece of metal working its way from ingot to sheet to stamp to finish, I was folded, stapled, spindled and in the end mutilated by institutions more interesting in selling than delivering product.Well, the church's only product is people transformed by the gospel which means we MUST listen to and serve them, not run them through our mill. The church should be the one institution in human experience that helps us to find our humanity not strips us of it.
Competency Matters
The person I approached at the bank did not know how to do what I wanted - he did not even know how to find out how to do what I wanted. "Tech Support" from my ISP did not understand what was going on as well as I did, so he routed me through many steps I had already taken and then he tried to make me completely rebuild my home network at which point (some 2 hours later) I said simply "STOP AND LISTEN."If you are going to run a healing service, you best be into healing and not hurting. That is simple spiritual competency. If you are going to lead people to transformed lives, you best be at least a little transformed yourself.
Which brings me to my final thought
Humility Matters
Most of what I see in all of this is people with good intentions but minimal ability, a complete lack of understanding of the limits of their ability, and an unwillingness to admit any such limits exist.Confession, the simple acknowledgment of a lack of ability, and the humility such subsequently reflects, is the foundation on which genuine transformation, genuine Christianity lies. The response to people not coming to church is not better salesmanship, it is confession, even unspecific confession, "God we clearly are not doing this right, what do we do."
"God my heart aches for my ill brother or sister, please...please...don't let me add to their pain."
You see, that essential humanity that we seek for ourselves and we are called to affirm in others, was created perfect, but is now deeply, deeply flawed - both our own and the other. The path to that affirmation lies in the rebuilding, which requires first knowing of the flaws.
I seek refuge from the vagaries of life in the church of my Lord. My prayer is that we would learn to be truly different, by building the kind of competence that comes only from humility.
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