different and better

One of the areas that my perspectives are changing is in the area of my understanding of the message and mission of Jesus.  I have had a growing angst within me over the last few years that has been increasing with each passing week.  The angst comes from the disparity I see with what the typical church is doing as compared to what the world is facing.

Yesterday, I took an hour of my day and watched the McLaren teaching, Everything Must Change, that I posted to this blog.  In his intro he gave an illustration which connected some dots for me.  He shared how he asked teens at a summer camp to list the issues that were being dealt with at their church.  The listed all sorts of things: whether women should be allowed to preach or lead in church, calvinism vs. arminianism, traditional vs. contemporary music, etc.  He then asked them to list what they were wrestling with in conversations with their friends outside of church.  The list was completely different: climate change, war, overpopulation, poverty, hunger, etc.  He stood back and looked at the two lists and realized that the two lists had nothing in common and that what was worse his job as a youth leader was to train up young people to stay in church so they could spend the rest of their adult lives arguing about those things that have nothing to do with the big problems of our world.

Ding, ding, ding.  The light bulbs went off in my head.  We spend time worry about how many times my name shows up on the singing schedule or if so and so gets to greet at the front door more than me or if this ministry that I am involved in suits my schedule or tastes, all the while the world is trying to sort out poverty, hunger, pain, war, collapsing economy, widening gap between the rich and poor, slavery, etc.

What the heck are we doing in the church?  When will we wake up and realize that the crap we spend so much time obsessing about in church doesn’t matter at all and it will not change the world?

The problem is that we think church is for me.  And it is no wonder we do that.  For a lot of people who were converted in the last 50 years of American Evangelicalism, the gospel was sold to you as a message centered on YOU.  You are lost.  You are going die.  If you die while you’re lost, you’re going to hell.  Jesus came to die for you.  If you believe in Jesus, you will be forgiven and you will go to heaven.  It’s all about you.  For God so loved YOU, he sent his son.  Small problem…that’s not what the Bible says.

For God so loved the WORLD, of which you are a small part.  Jesus’ message is that he invites all of humanity to enter into relationship with him, learn from him so that the world can be changed and made better.  Jesus instructed us to pray and live so that the Kingdom of God would come and the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven.  On EARTH…right here, right now, where we live.  Not some day, up there, after we die.

The message of Jesus is not about me; it is about his dream, his mission of changing the world.  He has invited me to join with him.  That’s what the church is supposed to do…join with Jesus.  If we do that we will care much less about color of the carpet, style of service, programs offered, and even our doctrinal distinctive; and we will start to care more about the things that are facing our world…the things that are broken and in desperate need of repair.

I am done with petty arguments that consume our time and the silly things  we get caught up on that are a part of what we call church.  I want to focus my attention and the rest of my days on this planet to the mission of transforming the world to be what Jesus envisioned.

Are you with me?