Category Archives: Compassion

The Post That May Just Offend Everybody

Posted on by greg@seek1st

or, My Thoughts on the Gay Marriage Issue

If you think you know me, and know where this is going, let me challenge you–you’re probably wrong.  Whether you think you’re going to agree with me, or think you can just stop reading, because you know you’re going to disagree with me, I ask that you read on, as I’m betting you’re going to be surprised.  I’m a little surprised myself.

To all that I offend:  my intent is not to hurt, or alienate, or disparage.  I’m not asking you to agree with me, or debate me, or dismiss me.  I just ask that you consider this; I wouldn’t have taken the time to write it, or 10 times that amount of time to consider it, if I didn’t think it were important–not because it’s my thoughts, but because it’s the results of what I believe God has been cultivating in my head over the past several years, and because he’s been pretty relentless in getting me to writing this down tonight, when I have a hundred excuses why I can’t.  Yes, this post is going to have a decidedly Christian slant (although some might strongly disagree).  Please don’t let that turn you off–just hear me out.

Now for the disclaimers:  I’m probably one of the most conservative, fundamental people I know.  Paul rattles off his qualification to be the ultimate Jew in Philippians 3:5-6.  Well, here’s my parallel list of qualification to be a poster-child for Fox-News watching, Tea-Party-supporting, NRA-member, super-conservative status:  Born in the Midwest, raised by two Christian parents who are still married to each other, for the first time; retired Army officer; big-oil employee; firearm owner (all of which are banned in CA); John Wayne posters and pictures THROUGHOUT my garage; and most recently, a certified Pentecostal pastor!  I can out-conservative the best our country has to offer, and have been able to clearly articulate the superiority of my conservative values my entire life.  But like Paul in the subsequent verses, I now consider all of that not just a loss, but sewage (that’s a nice way of translating what the NIV calls “garbage”).  Not because I’m better than that; because I’m most definitely not.  No, it’s because God’s been dragging me through a knothole in the process of trying to remake me in the image of his Son, and along the way, I’ve been confronted with the cognitive dissonance of my traditional beliefs vs. what the Bible says.

Based on my qualifications, one would expect me to be firmly on the far right, crying out against gay marriage.  I’m not.  In fact, I think the church in America really needs to re-examine itself here.  I’ve seen a lot of traffic on the internet for a long time now, and particularly in the past few days, with professing Christians crying out to God, their neighbors, and anyone who will listen on the internet to oppose this “attack on marriage.”  I’ve even read one church who posted a call for fervent prayer that God would not allow the Supreme Court to “destroy marriage.”  I’ve even seen some pretty hateful stuff said toward those who disagree with their position that marriage should be legally restricted to one man and one woman.  I think all of that is a mistake, and a failing of God’s people.

More on that in a minute.  Now that I’ve alienated all of my conservative Christian readers, let me make clear my position that I firmly believe that homosexual activity is a sin and an abomination to God.  I’m not going to make a vigorous defense of my position here; It is abundantly clear in the Bible.  In fact, those who try to refute the Biblical assertion that homosexual activity is a sin only do so through  interpretive gymnastics that would break Gumby’s back.  To be clear:  this post is in no way condoning a homosexual lifestyle.

Homosexual activity is a sin (now I’ve most assuredly alienated those who support gay marriage), but there are many other sins out there; unfortunately conservatives have chosen to make this one their litmus test and their Waterloo.  Adultery is a sin; so is prostitution, alcohol abuse, lying, cheating on your taxes, and judging others.  All of these are affronts to God, but somehow we’ve made homosexuality the Asherah pole of our society, and committed all of our Christian resources to defeating gay marriage, or dying on the hill in the fight.  So, what would Jesus do?  Well, the Gospels are silent as to Jesus’ position on homosexual activity, but that is because 1st Century Judaism had no questions–it was a sin and an affront to God.  It is almost a sure thing that the issue never came up.  But, we can look at how Jesus dealt with other examples of sin to extrapolate a good idea how he would have approached the issue of homosexuality:

  • Adultery:  Jesus interceded on behalf of the adulterous woman, telling the judgmental crowd to have the sinless among them cast the first stone.  He then tells her that he doesn’t condemn her either, but “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  (John 8:1-11)
  • Prostitution:  Luke 7:36-50 tells of Jesus not only associating with a prostitute (not to be confused with having sexual relations with her), but he forgives her sins.
  • Alcohol abuse:  In John 2, Jesus’ first recorded miracle of turning water into wine.  This was a Jewish wedding feast–a multi-day party, where the host was praised for not bringing out the Mogen David once the guests were too drunk to know the difference.  The norm was that the host banked on the guests getting tanked up early, and took advantage of it by serving the cheap stuff once they were drunk, to save money.  Jesus didn’t condemn them, he gave them world-class wine!
  • Lying:  My personal favorite is how Jesus treated one of his closest friends, who not only lied three times, but in doing so, denied any connection with Jesus.  Jesus didn’t exclude him, he sought him out, forgave him, and restored the relationship. (John 18:25-27; 21:15-19)
  • Cheating on your taxes:  Tax collectors of his day were the ultimate tax cheats, but Jesus befriended one and brought him into his inner circle (Matthew), and famously ate dinner with another (Zaccheus).
  • Judging others:  Ok, this one goes a little differently.  Jesus was famously intolerant of those who judged others, particularly those who saw themselves as somehow superior, or favored by God, because of their observance of religious laws.  Instead, he spoke highly of those who sacrificially loved their fellow man, even when they had all rights to judge them negatively based on how their fellow man had treated them. (Luke 10:30-37)  An in-depth study of the Gospels will reveal that the only group that Jesus judges, speaks harshly to, or condemns, is the religious leaders who judge (and condemn) others.

These examples demonstrate Jesus’ approach to those who commit sins:  He loves them.  That doesn’t mean that he condones their sinful acts!  But he definitely does not chastise them, condemn them (with the noted exception of judgmental religious leaders), and tell them to get away from him, clean up their act, and then he will talk to them.  And we don’t do that in church with almost any other sin:  Can you imagine how much more abysmal church attendance would be if we said “don’t come through those doors until  you’ve given up your (personal sin issues)”?  Sinners were drawn to Jesus, despite their sin, because of his unconditional love–and in the process of encountering him, they rejected their sin and worshipped God!

The Church hasn’t taken this approach.  We’re trying to outlaw sin!  That’s not going to work, as it’s outside of temporal government’s jurisdiction.  Although we are desperately trying to give government jurisdiction in spiritual matters.  “Greg, you’re nuts!  We’re doing the exact opposite! We’re trying to get government OUT of spiritual matters” you say?  Well, to keep this post smaller than a book, let me give one example that’s directly on point:  Marriage.  Many conservative voices are stating that a Supreme Court ruling in support of gay marriage will “destroy traditional marriage.”  Really?  How can that be?  See, somewhere along the line we lost sight of the fact that GOD defines Christian marriage, not the government.  Marriage licenses in America are nothing more than an acknowledgement of a civil union of two people.  If GOD defines Christian marriage, then guess what?  SCOTUS, POTUS, and all the other USes can’t redefine it.  The problem is, the Church has lost sight of the fact that IT is the agency on earth that acknowledges the unity of one man and one woman in HOLY matrimony.  Those who claim a favorable ruling for gay marriage will destroy ”traditional marriage” have just given that power to the State–the State doesn’t have it unless the Church abdicates it.

Here’s the real issue:  whether our litmus test is gay marriage, prayer in schools, or even abortion (a topic for another time–let’s just summarize with “I abhor it; I can’t even imagine how God feels about it”), we’ve failed miserably by trying to legislate Christian values–and it’s kicked our butt.  Instead of trying to make followers of God by creating laws that legislate morality and virtuous behavior (sound a little bit like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day?), let’s take the radical, revolutionary approach modeled by Jesus:  Unconditionally love ALL mankind!  Matthew 5:14-16 tells Christians that we are the “light of the world.”  Jesus uses the analogies of a city on a hill, or a lamp in a dark room.  These are warm, inviting lights.  Too many Christians have interpreted this to be searing lasers that we focus on the cockroaches hiding in the corners.  Jesus says “let your light shine before (not on) men, that they may see your good deeds (not religious works) and praise your father in heaven.”  When Americans look at the church today, they don’t see good deeds and praise God, they see judgmentalism and hatred, and reject what we have to offer.  The Barna Group conducted a landmark study of American perceptions toward Christianity.  A believable, but distressing finding:  “Today, the most common perception is that present-day Christianity is ‘anti-homosexual.’ Overall, 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers say this phrase describes Christianity.”

Now you know where I stand–so what?  First, let me say that this is a difficult place for me to be; I don’t stand here self-righteously judging all you who don’t measure up to my lofty piousness.  To be frank, it’s difficult for me to not have a visceral negative reaction when I see displays of same-sex attraction…  That means it gives me the willies.  That’s my 40+ years of conservative conditioning kicking in, and it’s hard for my spirit to overcome that.  But Jesus doesn’t want me to make everyone into conservatives, he wants me to show the world His love, so they seek His Father.  So I’ve got to deal with it.  Part of the way I deal with the heavy stuff, particularly the things I struggle with myself, is to write them here.  Writing helps me think it through, and more importantly, I now have to live it, or allow others to call me on my hypocrisy.  Further, I’m hoping that my Christian brothers and sisters can see that we’ve done more harm than good by making gay marriage our Waterloo.  It’s not.  We’re majoring in minors.  Satan doesn’t have to try to defeat the Church, he’s just sitting back and laughing while we alternate between killing off ourselves, and alienating the world from us to the point that we no longer have influence.  I know Satan loses in the end; but we’re certainly not contributing to Jesus’ cause right now; furthermore, we’re failing miserably in obeying his command to “go and make disciples”–we’re making enemies.

For my friends who don’t follow Jesus:  I’m sorry for the hateful, judgmental way I have treated you, and treated homosexuals in particular.  God doesn’t hate homosexuals any more than he hates bigoted judgmental asses like me.  He hates the sins we commit–all of them, not just those selected by the Moral Majority for special emphasis.  So when I judge someone else for their sin, he’s hating that action of mine.  It’s not my business to judge, or even point out your sin.  God judged the sins of the WORLD (including mine) 2000 years ago on a cross in Jerusalem.  They’re all forgiven–EVERY one of them–but you have to go to Him to receive that forgiveness.  Even when we don’t recognize something as sinful, God can help us see how he sees things, in his timing–the world today argues that homosexual acts are acceptable; it’s not my place to judge the actions of others; He’ll deal with that person one-on-one.  If I’ve judged you, or made you feel unaccepted by me, or by God, then I’ve sinned, and I ask your forgiveness.  And I’ll apologize for my Christian brothers and sisters too.  We’ve gotten a bad reputation (and for the most part we’ve earned it), as portraying ourselves as somehow better than those who don’t follow Jesus–it’s seen as self-righteousness.  Speaking for my brothers and sisters, we’re all screwed up, and left to our own devices, we’re no better than the rest of the world.  We’re trying to be better,  and God is helping us to grow every day, but some of us have a LOT of growing to do (me being a prime example).  But sometimes we still try to control things, and we end up making a mess and hurting others by trying to be God, or at least help him out.

In the next few days, the Supreme Court is going to rule on two landmark cases which may redefine what secular government defines as marriage.  No matter which way they rule, the Kingdom of God is still at hand, God is still on the throne, and NOTHING that he defines can be harmed in the least bit by any earthly government.  So what the heck are us Christians all tweaked about?  Let’s get about the business of shining our light, and pouring out God’s GRACE through us onto mankind, rather than dispensing our judgment.

A man, overwhelmed by the inexhaustible grace of God manifested in his own life, cannot help but to reject his sin, and sprint into the unconditional love God offers him (while we he was still a sinner).  I know.  It happened to me.

Another perspective on doubt

Posted on by greg@seek1st

I’ve got a half-written draft sitting in the ether, as a follow-up on my last article on doubt.  I’ll get to it, hopefully soon.  In the meantime, check this out. 

The Scandal of the Evangelical Heart

I don’t necessarily ascribe to all of Rachel’s perspective, but if nothing else this article gives great insight into how doubt has been mis-handled, and how we ought to take the time to listen.  I read her precisely because I don’t always agree with her, but because we all need to have fresh perspectives of others.

The Falseness of Dichotomies

Posted on by greg@seek1st

I took a break from this blog for a while.  Seemed like everyone needed a cooling off period after the election.  I had a lot to say, but am trying to practice a very unnatural behavior for me–listening more, and telling less.  So I’ve been working a lot in the past month or so on listening (or more accurately, observing–engaging all of my perceptions to try to better understand).  One of the most significant observations I’ve made involves dichotomies.  I’ve been considering writing about this topic for weeks, but hadn’t fully formed the idea, so I kept observing, with the intent of developing a complete understanding of the idea, and the key learnings from the idea, which I would then inscribe in the electrons so that all could share in this well-packaged lesson.  Unfortunately, the writing style and underlying thought patterns of my 9th grade English teacher (thesis statement, three main points, each with three to four neatly packaged sub-points, all proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the thesis is true and fully described) just can’t seem to encapsulate the many branches, inconsistencies, dependencies, and variation of the idea rolling around in my head.  So, I’m giving up on neat packaging, and instead I’m going to embark on a thought-journey.  This will transpire across multiple posts–don’t know how many, how frequently, or, unfortunately the exact course it’s going to take.

Lest you think you’ve stumbled onto the digital footprints of a meandering fool, wandering aimlessly with no purpose or destination, I do have an objective for this journey.  I intend, when I’m done, to be better at  loving mankind (and thereby loving God).  I am going to continue to follow the compass that God gave me when I started this blog–the two quotes at the top of the page:  “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness” and “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

Before I digress even further off course, let’s get to the topic at hand:  Dichotomy.  Dictionary.com defines the word as:

  1. division into two parts, kinds, etc.; subdivision into halves or pairs, or
  2. division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups: a dichotomy between thought and action.

That same website goes further to cite the entry from Britannica.com (who knew Britannica still existed?):

(from Greek dicha, “apart,” and tomos, ”cutting”), a form of logical division consisting of the separation of a class into two subclasses, one of which has and the other has not a certain quality or attribute…. On the principle of contradiction this division is both exhaustive and exclusive; there can be no overlapping, and no members of the original genus or the lower groups are omitted. This method of classification, though formally accurate, has slight value in the exact sciences, partly because at every step one of the two groups is merely negatively characterized and is usually an artificial, motley class.

So where am I going with all this?  There is a strong tendency in human thought, particularly Western human thought (as opposed to Eastern thought–a dichotomy in and of itself, pointed out here as an example) to classify and characterize everything in an attempt to better understand it. (If you want to dig deeper, do some research into the closely related concept of binary opposition.  If you want to go really deep, I highly recommend the book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman).  If you don’t want to do a lot of research, I’ll summarize (and somewhat overgeneralize) to say that we tend to be very efficient in processing the infinite amount of information we are constantly exposed to.  Our nature is to quickly analyze a thought, event, or person, and quickly classify them into a category, or series of categories.  Generally, these categories are mutually exclusive, which further enables us to place value judgments on the thought, event, or person.  In many situations, this is a useful process–back to the very basic friend/foe survival instincts.

What’s the problem?  While useful at the basic level of information processing, it can become dangerous when it precludes higher levels of thinking.  All of us witnessed examples of this (most likely externally and internally) during the recent US election cycle.  Red/blue, liberal/conservative, right/wrong…  the extreme occurred when red/blue became viewed as black/white; as polar opposites, rather than variations in a spectrum.

To avoid turning this into a political thread, let’s look at another potentially divisive issue in current events.  The news has been filled in recent weeks with brutal, unexplainable death.  Whether it’s the Samantha Koenig abduction/killing here in Alaska, the Jessica Ridgeway abduction and murder in Colorado, the Jovan Belcher murder/suicide in Kansas City, or this week’s brutal killing of innocent children in Connecticut, our universal reaction is to classify the perpetrator as evil, and to look for an easy explanation which will allow us to place the event and the perpetrator in a neat category so we can process the situation and move on.  Guns? Violent video games?  Poor parenting?  See, if we can place the cause in a nice, neat category, we can then either eliminate it, avoid it, or at least judge it.

I’m probably the most judgmental person I know.  I classify people all day long, starting with the commute to work each morning.  When I am not vigilant about my overwhelming tendency to make binary decisions, I can quickly categorize everyone I encounter throughout the day as incompetent, self-serving idiots, who are terrible drivers.  But, when I get to know those people, I find out that they’re not so easily characterized.

I’m going to close today’s post with an example from the headlines.  Jovan Belcher was a football player for my favorite sports team in the entire world, the Kansas City Chiefs.  Most of you had never heard of him until two weeks ago, when he made national news by shooting and killing his girlfriend and mother of his 3 month old daughter, then driving to the Chiefs practice facility, and in front of team leadership, pointing his gun at his own head and taking his life.  Many were quick to categorize Belcher:  murderer.  Evil.  Monster.  Some went so far as to pronounce that his suicide was a good thing.

I didn’t know Jovan, but I knew of him.  He had a great story.  Undrafted, worked his way up to starter.  Set the example on the field and at practice for his dedication and work ethic, his passion.  None of that excuses what he did.  But if you read much more than the headlines following that tragic event two weeks ago, you found that his teammates, many of whom were close not only to Jovan, but also to his girlfriend, were torn.  They couldn’t classify him as an evil monster.  They knew him.  They went so far as to say that they had no indication that he was capable of such brutality.  When it became personal, it wasn’t easy to categorize the man.

I’m going to stop here for today, with a request:  be aware this coming week to the dichotomies you use to make judgments and decisions.  How many of them are legitimate?  How many are oversimplifications?

Sharing a Post: Why I am a Christian Democrat

Posted on by greg@seek1st

First, I am NOT a Christian Democrat (or a Christian Republican, for that matter), and thought quite a bit about changing the title, but thought it might get more people to look if I left it as is.  I read this blog, and found it an interesting, well thought counter-perspective to folks who believe that if you’re a “real” Christian, you must vote Republican.  Part of the theme of this blog is to seek first to understand, meaning we should make a real, concerted, objective effort to understand the positions of others, so I share this for your consideration.

Why I am a Christian Democrat.

Heavy heart

Posted on by greg@seek1st

I started writing a post last night with the intent of resurrecting this blog with some deep thoughts about Christianity and our political climate.  The post is written, but it is going to have to wait, as I need to process something, and this is how I do it.

This morning a suspect was arrested in the Denver area for the abduction and brutal murder of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway.  A few weeks ago Jessica left her house to walk to school like she did every morning, but she never made it there.  A week-long search ensued, gripping the Denver area in fear and anxiety.  8 days after she disappeared, a body was found, mutilated and dismembered.  It took more than 24 hours to identify the body, and early reports were that the body was so horribly disfigured that the investigators could not estimate the age or determine the gender of the victim.  My rage was more than a little surprising, as I have no connection with the victim, and my only connection with Denver is that my son works there as a reporter.  Were it not for him and his coverage of the case, I would very likely not even be aware of Jessica or her death.  But I was angry, and even commented after she was found that there was a special place in Hell for people who perpetrated such evil.  How could anyone do such horrific things to a sweet, innocent little girl?

Police comments didn’t give much hope for a quick resolution to the case, citing a complete lack of leads that indicated a well-planned crime by someone who knew what he was doing.  I was therefore pretty excited to learn this morning that the police had made an arrest.  I was prepared to hate the suspect, convinced that we would soon see the mug shot of some sleazy, deviant older guy, the very sight of whom would make the skin crawl of even hardened observers.   I couldn’t watch the press conference at work, but was shocked to see my wife’s Facebook post.  The suspect, Austin Sigg, was just 17 years old.  How could a heart become so black in 17 short years so as to perpetrate such evil?

So far we know very little about Austin, but in the weeks to come many details will come forward.  In just the first few hours we’ve learned that he was made fun of because he had a high-pitched voice and was “different” according to one kind-hearted high-school classmate who found this reason enough to make fun of him.  He also supposedly enjoyed playing first-person shooter games, and took a forensics class at a local community college.  Our natural response is going to be to hate him, to demonize him to the point that we can somehow rationalize his actions, because he wasn’t human, like we are.

I am in no way making excuses for Austin’s heinous crimes, or advocating for leniency in the execution of justice, but I can’t hate him.  I grieve for him.  Naturally I grieve for Jessica and her family, but I also grieve for Austin and his.  While 17-year-old boys think they’re mature and the smartest individuals in the world, they’re still immature in their physiological and mental development.  I’m not saying Austin isn’t responsible for his actions, and shouldn’t be held accountable for his crime.  But I am saying that we share culpability.  I’m not blaming his parents, or his teachers, or the video game producers, or you for the fact that he conceived of and committed murder.  But our society has allowed evil to grow and fester, largely unchecked, to the point that the environment of Austin’s heart was ripe to conceive such an evil act, and then follow through on it.

I’m not calling for more laws, more anti-bullying classes, or more feel-good programs.  None of those things will stem the growing tide of evil in our world.  We failed, because we’ve largely stopped loving one another.  We are withdrawing into our enclaves of homogeneity, where we only associate with, approve of, and show compassion for those select few who can pass our entrance exams.  All others are locked outside, rejected as something lesser and unworthy of our consideration, let alone our love.  We espouse tolerance, while at the same time demonstrating a judgmental attitude towards all who don’t measure up to our exacting standards.

I don’t know anything about Austin’s life, but I can only imagine that there had to be some serious pain and lack of felt love to allow evil to grow in his heart to the point that he could commit such a revolting, horrific act against a little girl.  I’m not saying any one change in his life experiences could have prevented this crime.  But just seven years ago, Austin was a 10-year-old boy.  I have to wonder if he’d experienced more love and compassion from those around him, would his heart be different today?  Would evil not have had fertile soil to take root?  Would Jessica be at home right now, giving her mom hugs?

When will we have had enough, that we truly care enough about our neighbors that we will engage them with compassion, rather than ostracize them for their failure to measure up to our lofty expectations?

Evil is growing daily in our world.  But love conquers all.

I can’t hate Austin.  My heart aches for him.

The difference between honoring the call and simply volunteering

Posted on by greg@seek1st

The difference between honoring the call and simply volunteering

Instead of shamelessly stealing this, I’m linking to the blog I found it on.

The short version:  It’s a heart thing.  I’ve got work to do on my heart, and that starts with being deliberate about changing the way I look at things.  I’m going to start trying to honor my call, rather than just fulfill my commitments.  How about you?

Ed Stetzer – Rick Warren Interview on Muslims, Evangelism & Missions (Responding to Recent News Reports)

Posted on by greg@seek1st

Ed Stetzer – Rick Warren Interview on Muslims, Evangelism & Missions (Responding to Recent News Reports).

Good read.  Lots of noise again about Rick Warren and his allegedly compromising his Christian beliefs.

I really like some of the statements about people failing to check the facts, but my favorite quote is this one:

Our culture has accepted two huge lies: The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.

I missed the original hoopla, but I believe the negative response falls into the category of a failure to “Seek 1st to understand…”

Why are we all in such a hurry to judge, that we don’t first take the time to gather enough evidence to understand what happened?

Stop being binary!

Posted on by greg@seek1st

The binary number system, made of two digits, o and 1, is the very basis for the computing power sitting in front of you, whether you’re reading this on your desktop or your smartphone.  I’m only smart enough with the binary number system to be able to laugh at the math-geek t-shirts that say “1 + 1 = 10″, and to be thankful that we don’t have to be able to actually use the binary system to make our computers and smartphones work.  But I do understand that binary as it applies to computers has to do with switching, either something is on or it is off.  There’s no in-between.

A lot of my studying lately has led me to a frustrating realization that too many Christians, from pew-sitters to theological heavy hitters, are living in a binary, either-or world.  It seems that no matter what the issue, there appears to be two sides, with a crisp, clean dividing line that separates them, and no room for people like me to either straddle the line, or more preferably to live on the line, exploiting the opportunity to embrace the best of both poles.

I think this polarized, yes/no, left/right, on/off attitude is a byproduct of the world we live in (Aaaughhhh!  He just said the church is influenced by the world–may it never be!).

  • Should we be culturally relevant, or hold to our traditional ways?
  • Should we be “seeker-friendly” or doctrinally sound?
  • Should we preach the gospel, or show compassion to the world?
  • Predestination or free will?
  • Faith or works?

OK, some of these are recognizably  false dichotomies (at least to me), while others might just get me branded as a heretic for even presenting them as anything other than truth/lie.  But the truth in many of these seeming opposites is that there is great opportunity to have a “yes, and” relationship!

I like the editorial in the recent Leadership Journal by Drew Dyck, where he speaks of Clark Blakeman’s desire for “Biblical Symmetry.”  Why can’t we preach the gospel AND do acts of compassion in our community?  I personally know of a great man of God who makes those who are curiously seeking something, maybe not even specifically Jesus, feel right at home, all the while preaching powerful, doctrinally sound, messages that in no way compromise the Gospel.

Are there absolutes in Scripture?  Absolutely!  But not everything is.  Is there a better way?  Is there an opportunity to find a beautiful, complex, multiplying tension between the two poles that in fact creates something more powerful than either extreme?

More on Compassion

Posted on by greg@seek1st

Still ruminating (what an excellent word!  Look it up, especially the etymology, or verse 2 here) on the conference from last week.  While some might write it off as heightened awareness (what our family calls the Red Volkswagen Syndrome-right after we bought a red VW Beetle, we saw red VW Beetles everywhere) I’m going to take the risk of being labeled hyper-spiritual and claim that I see signs of God moving in the area of compassionate Christianity.

It starts with the fact that even before I knew about the conference last week, God was making me painfully aware of both a persistent and growing problem, and an obvious, Biblical solution.  The problem is what I will inadequately describe as the growing irrelevance to our world, at least from society’s perspective.  We don’t have anything to offer to society–that they can see.  If you have no clue that you’re “lost”, why would you be looking for “salvation?”  Studies of postmodern worldviews (we’re there, might as well stop fighting it, and learn to function in it) indicate that people today aren’t near as interested in what you think as they are in what you do.  So a church that expounds flawless theology, but doesn’t show any signs of making a real difference by living out love, doesn’t mean much to them.

Which brings me to my solution–OK, it’s certainly not my solution, it’s Jesus’ solution, but I can now see it–the Church needs to start loving!  How radical is that?!

Which gets me back to the point:  As this thought was starting to form in my own mind and studies, my wife pops up, out of the blue, and asks if I want to go to Baton Rouge, in two weeks.  Pretty random, but sure!  If nothing else, Louisiana in February has to be warmer than Alaska in February.  That’s when she told me about the Greater Things Conference.  “Hmm, kinda ties in with what I’ve been thinking on anyway.  It’ll be cool to get together with a handful of other folks thinking on the same thing.”  Fast forward two weeks, with over a thousand folks all in Baton Rouge in response to a call from God to love people through concrete, life-changing means!

We arrived home Friday night, and I received my first issue of the Leadership Journal.  It’s the Outreach Issue!  Then Sunday morning in worship, a team of college students from Central Bible College in Springfield are visiting to do ministry during their spring break, and they put on a powerful drama about Jesus helping break the bondage of addiction, abuse, and other hurts.  Coincidence?  Only if you don’t believe that God has a plan!

I’m excited–God’s moving, and his people are getting on board!  And, at the same time, we get to help those people who our world is running over, or casting aside.  You know, the ones Jesus kept loving on while the religious leaders were teaching theology?

I’m going to keep ruminating on what this means in my life, how I walk it out.  But our communities need us, and we can’t keep hiding in our Christian enclaves, waiting for Jesus to come.  He just might be waiting to come until we’ve brought more citizens into his Kingdom!

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. -1 John 3:17-18 

Reflections and Visions

Posted on by greg@seek1st

It’s been a great week here in Baton Rouge at the Greater Things Conference.  Time to reflect, and then to look ahead.

First, it’s been nice to be away from Alaska for a week.  I have to say I’m not ready to go back to snow and cold.  It’s been nice to be outside in shirtsleeves.  Driving on dry pavement has been an adjustment… the locals probably don’t get my gentle braking, and they sure don’t understand my extended following distance!

More important than my break from the snow and cold was the conference itself.  I think I heard a number of over 800 registered participants came from all over the country (we even met a pastor from Hillsong Church in Sidney, Australia there!) to talk about what the Church can do to love our communities in the real, practical ways that Jesus loved the people and communities he walked among in his ministry.  There’s a real recognition among a significant group of Church leaders that the lack of relevance the Church has in the world today is because we are focused a lot more on giving the world theology than we are in showing the world compassion.  This conference was a concrete step by those leaders to try to change that focus.  There’s way too much to try to recap, so I won’t.  If you’re interested, the leaders are setting up a website to launch Feb 29, designed to share all the resources and workshops from the conference, as well as to provide a connection point for the interchange of ideas to reach our communities, at www.hopeoutpost.com.

While I won’t recap the conference, I want to share some of the very real indicators of the problem:

Need:

  • 15% of US households struggle to put food on the table-and we’re the richest country in the world
  • 27% of children under 18 live in a home with only one parent
  • Nearly 5 children in the US dieevery day from abuse and neglect
  • 22 million Americans have a substance abuse or dependency problem
  • 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV/AIDS today
  • 1.6 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in 2012
  • 1 in every 200 people in the US need a place to sleep (think about that a different way, if you’re in a group of 200 average Americans, one person in your group is homeless)
  • Up to 30 million people-the equivalent of the population of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas-are estimated to be slaves or victims of human trafficking worldwide, and 80% of them are women and children used for commercial sexual exploitation.  Around 16,000 of those victims are in the United States!

Christine Caine made a painful, but real point in her presentation:  “People suffer daily around the world because our hearts are unchanged.”  She said that what she terms as the “ordinary heart” is primarily concerned with the immediacy of our own lives.  She had another awesome quote that cuts to the quick:  “The Church has confused compassion with emotion.”  We might look at the numbers above and say “oh, that’s tragic” but what are we doing about it?

Now for the “vision” part of this post:  What am I going to do next?  If all I do is go to a conference, and then go back to my life, I need to be slapped in the back of the head for being stupid–I could have been more effective by taking what I spent on the trip and giving it instead to the local food bank.  If I want to invest that money, so that it delivers a bigger value, I need to take what I learned here and make a difference.  Much to my frustration, God didn’t give me a new job and a clear direction during this trip, but he did give me a burden that I’m not going to let go of.  Instead, I’m going to continue to pray when I get back home, that he’ll show me where he wants me to go to work.  But the old way isn’t good enough anymore.  Stay tuned for the changes in our lives…

In the meantime, I’ll ask you:  Do those numbers, or other examples of poverty, homelessness, hunger, abuse, or injustice tug at your heart at all?  Enough to make you compassionate, or just emotional?