Odd Ideas

Reading through some of the blogs I frequent here tonight, and saw a new post on “nakedpastor”. In his post, David talks about Vision within the church (go read his post to see what he says).

That made me think of a conversation I was having with the pastor of a new, small church when I was a missionary in Ukraine a few years ago. Back then, I was still thinking along the lines of the more “traditional” ways of doing church, and he was trying to figure out what to do with this church that had started almost by accident (but that’s a whole other story).

Anyway, as we were talking, I asked him what his vision was for the church. He replied that he didn’t have one – and that if anything, his only vision was to provide a place that was open and safe for others to pursue their own vision for following Jesus. Whatever that might be.

As I think back now, I think he had a better idea of what church should be than most of what I have heard since then!

I read an interesting, and thought provoking, post on Jeff’s blog “Losing My Religion”. Jeff mentions a recent CNN article that discusses how America is “becoming less Christian”.

Please go read Jeff’s post about how our methods of “doing church” seem to having the “unintended effect of polarizing outsiders away from us instead of drawing them in. What we thought would increase our effectiveness and influence may actually be having the opposite effect.”

As I read Jeff’s blog post, I realized that I had seen this for myself while we were missionaries in Ukraine, and I have also had concerns of similar unintended effects (on a smaller scale) as a result of evangelism efforts here in Canada.

While in Ukraine, I saw many churches that had experienced explosive growth during the 90’s, and still heard stories of great “revivals” happening in parts of the country. As a Christian, who can be critical of that? That’s what I thought before I lived there for a while.

After a few months of living there, we got to know a number of people who were no longer part of the “big church” culture there, but who were living their lives to try to model the way of Jesus to the youth in their community. They were facing an uphill battle because, in their words, “many of these kids have already been to a local church, have repented, have said their prayers, and have been rejected by the churches”. The kids were equating God, and Jesus, with their experiences at the church. Now, they wanted nothing to do with God.

Yet, the churches keep thinking they are having success, as their numbers keep growing. But how many people are turning away because of those same “evangelistic” efforts? In my observation, the numbers of those turning away (either immediately or after negative experiences at church) are much higher than most people realize.

I think Jeff’s comment “Sounds almost as if we’ve been cutting down trees in an attempt to save the forest…” is very accurate.

As I posted a while ago, our local church here in Canada staged a production of “Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames”… Go back and read my thoughts at the time if you want, but my concerns over that event are similar (not to mention my concern over the theology of the whole thing). Yes, there really are people who do change their lives for the better as a result of that production. I can’t deny that. What begins to concern me is the number of people who make “emotional” decisions after the production, but nothing really changes.

An even greater concern is the effect on people who see the production and decide that “if this is what God is really like, I want no part of it”. And they walk away from God, directly as a result of our well meaning but misdirected efforts at evangelism.

“Sounds almost as if we’ve been cutting down trees in an attempt to save the forest.”

Yes Jeff, we sure seem to be doing that…

Originally posted September 27th 2008

First of all… yes I’m still alive. Even though I haven’t posted in ages.

As we get settled in (whatever that means) to life here in Canada, it’s been busy with trying to find work, actually working, doing stuff with the kids, etc…

The whole “church thing” is still a frustration. No matter how we try, and how much we like the people at our church, we feel like we just “don’t fit”.

It seems that as our thinking continues to change after living for three years in Ukraine, working with orphans, and everything we have seen and experienced, the direction of our home church here is changing (or seems to be) in the opposite direction of ours. Maybe they aren’t changing but it just feels like that to us…

What is it that bugs us about church? One thing is the view of Evangelism.

I read a post today on a new blog called “Fallen off the Platform” that talks about the same concerns we have. Read it here.

In his post, the author says this:

“Where I’m from, the church will usually have a ’special’ night where you’re encouraged to bring along ANYONE you’ve ever clamped eyes on. Sometimes this’ll take the form of a ‘worship outreach’, or they’ll have a ’special speaker’ (y’know, the guy who’s life was a mess, who God made a huge success and he’s now a millionaire and tells all the right jokes with the perfect timing) or sometimes they’ll even have a film night or a drama production that depicts people dying and being faced with the reality of meeting the devil in hell or being welcomed into heaven and getting a big hug from the guy in a white robe with a stick on beard. (Who thought up this stuff? Can you hear them now…”That’s right…what a great idea…let’s scare folks into the Kingdom with eternal damnation, bad songs and sub-standard acting”) “

Well, it seems that our church has decided to do the same thing. In a few weeks, they are staging a production of “Heaven’s Gates & Hell’s Flames”. Personally, I’m not sure what to do with this. Seeing the big sign in front of the church makes me cringe! Yes, many people will likely come up and make a “decision”. They will decide to say a prayer so they can avoid hell. Is that the same as making a decision to follow Jesus for all of the good things He taught? Is that the same as making a decision to follow Jesus and sacrifice yourself for others?

Seems to me that these types of things simply help build a church full of Christians who are in it for what they can get (Heaven), and what they can avoid (Hell), instead of actually committing to living in the way Jesus did. That takes work, and sacrifice, and is more about what you can do for others than what you can get for yourself.

I’ve mentioned this before… I think Shane Claiborne was right when he said that following Jesus really messed up his life. Jesus does that to people!

But then again, it’s harder to fill up churches that way…

Originally posted July 30th, 2008

A friend of mine, Steve Hill, has a great post on his site discussing the effectiveness of evangelism campaigns and “revivals” (Todd Bentley et.al.), written from the point of view of somebody who has been on both sides of the story.

As Steve says, we need to “question everything”!

Read his post here.

Originally posted July 27th, 2008

Now this is strange…

We moved to Ukraine in the summer of 2005. The first few months were very difficult, as we were trying to fit in with a church over there that we just didn’t fit. There were too many things we just couldn’t accept, understand, or whatever.

Then, the change that started in us a couple of years before we moved to Ukraine (and was a large part of the reason we moved there), took another “leap forward”. We were trying to follow Jesus, and the more we tried to do that, the more we got frustrated with “the church”. I’m not talking about the “Church” as Jesus talked about, his people, but rather “the church”, the institution, as we have created it to be.

Interestingly, within a few months of being in Ukraine, we met a number of people, local Ukrainians, going through some of the same “thought struggles” as we were. Some had been hurt by the churches, some had been excommunicated, some were simply asking questions. We learned from each other, we challenged each other, and we changed each other – I believe for the better.

Now, we are back in Canada, and it is all different. Again. We are not the same people who left here. For better or for worse, we have changed. The people, “the church” here is the same. It’s a good church, we loved it when we started attending a few years ago, we loved it when we left for Ukraine, and we still love the people there…. but…

I see things differently now. What I used to think was “good evangelism” I see now as “missing the point”. Don’t think that would be too popular with some of the Christians in the church… I don’t simply want to fall back into our “typical Christian life”. That would be a waste.

I really miss the challenges, the discussions, the friendships, the ability to build something new and different, to try to help others together with like minded people like we were doing in Ukraine. How do I start finding these people who aren’t afraid to ask the tough questions, who aren’t afraid to “re-think” what it means to follow Jesus?

How do I do this?

Originally posted May 21st, 2008

Went to church for many years. Did all of the “Christian” stuff. Heard all about how, if we followed Jesus, God would take care of us. I believed it. Still do believe it.

Problem is, our perception of “how” God will take care of us is so… human.

Church says if we follow Jesus, we will be more prosperous, God will help us with financial problems, our families will be stronger, etc…

Jesus simply said “follow me”. He said our way would be difficult.

Anyway, a few years ago, we decided to just follow Jesus, no matter what, no matter where. Some of our friends and family thought we were nuts – and they are Christians.

As Shane Claiborne says in his book, life seems to be a lot better for a lot of people BEFORE they start seriously following Jesus. Once you jump over the edge, and actually live like Jesus told us to (and not just go to church on Sundays), your life gets really messed up.

Living as a “good Christian”, by church rules, might lead to a comfortable life. Actually following Jesus usually leads us away from comfort.

We have spent the last three years in a foreign country, trying to live out what Jesus showed us to orphans and hurting people, and we have ended up in a much more difficult situation financially than we were before. Still, we know God will take care of us – but probably not the way we would like!

Why is it that it seems like we have managed to get so many things backwards about Jesus and his teachings in Christianity?

Our first Sunday back at our church here in Canada, a friend was talking to me about our experiences. I guess my feelings aren’t very well concealed, as he asked me if I had become cynical toward church. I had to admit that yes, I had become cynical. Is that a bad thing?

Seem to me that Jesus was pretty cynical of the religious authorities of his day as well.

When are we going to stop getting Jesus backwards?

Originally posted April 29th, 2008

We’re getting ready to move (we fly back to Canada on Sunday). Most of our belongings are in a big steel box, hopefully on a ship somewhere that left Odessa on Friday. But, for now, life goes on here in Ukraine.

Life, in Ukraine, is a bit different than what I’m used to in Canada. Some days are more different than others. Friday was one of those days…

A friend asked me on Thursday evening if I could help him and his mother out by providing transportation to a village about 160 km away (over 2 hours of driving because of the roads), south east of here. His stepfather had died, and they were having a funeral on Friday. Seems that his mother was still legally married to the guy, even though she hadn’t lived with him in 7 or 8 years (and has been living with another guy for the past few years).

Anyway, my friend said he needed to get things arranged once we were there, and didn’t know anybody with a vehicle there, etc., so I agreed to help out.

We left here at around 6:00 am Friday morning.

Well – once we got there, it got a lot more interesting. First, we went to the morgue (at around 8:30). Seems that they didn’t have the proper papers filled out for the dead guy yet. They said they didn’t know when they would get the autopsy done… the relatives paid them a little money, and the morgue people said they would get the papers done and we could pick up the body at 11:00. Don’t think they actually did any autopsy. This guy was a heavy drinker, and had all kinds of health problems as a result. It was no surprise to anybody that he died.

So – we went off to various stores, picked up bread, food, flowers, etc… Then we went to several Orthodox churches to find a priest that had time to come to the funeral (not an easy thing to do – since it’s Easter weekend here, it was Friday, and Easter is the biggest religious holiday they have…). Anyway, finally some priest said he could come at 2:00 pm.

So – went to the dead guys house, where a collection of village people were already consuming large amounts of home brewed Vodka. Nasty stuff… Dropped off the flowers, bread, and everything else.

Then, along with a few other guys (dressed in whatever they could find laying around) we were off to the morgue. A couple guys went to the building next door and came out with a coffin. They brought it into the morgue… A few minutes later, we flipped down the seats in my van and loaded the now-occupied coffin in the van. I’ve had more hassle and paperwork picking up a video camera from the repair shop! Guess a dead body isn’t worth as much as a video camera… Then we were headed back to the house, me and 5 other guys (one of whom was dead in a coffin). Very strange.

Stopped at a store on the way to buy some more bread – seems that the bread we bought earlier was the wrong kind for an Orthodox ceremony.

At the house, we unloaded the van, they lifted the lid off of the coffin and put the guy on display in the yard. At around 2:30, an old Moskvitch (really bad Russian car) came sputtering up, with the priest in the passengers seat, and a couple of women in the back seat who came out carrying his books and bags of stuff.

He went in the yard, recited some prayers, a few Babushka’s tried to sing something (not sure if they couldn’t sing, or if they were just too drunk), and then the priest got back in the car (along with the two women). The driver got in and tried to start the car. Wouldn’t start. So, a few guys just push started the car, and off it went, backfiring down the street (I use the term street loosely).

Then, they loaded the coffin back in my van – this time with no lid.

Then we started the funeral procession. Fortunately, the cemetery was only about 1 km away. The procession consisted of one guy carrying a cross with a plaque nailed to it with the guys name on the plaque (I never did hear what his name was). Followed by a few people carrying wreaths. Followed by 4 guys carrying the coffin lid with a loaf of bread balanced on it. Followed by me and the dead guy in the van. Followed by the rest of the people. They stopped for about 30 seconds at every road intersection. I thought I was going to fry the clutch in my van, trying to go that slowly (and not run over the guys with the coffin lid). Sorry, but I don’t understand the significance of some of this stuff, since I’m not exactly Orthodox.

Anyway, eventually we arrived at the cemetery. I couldn’t drive right in – the lanes are too narrow. So the people all walked in, and a few guys came out with a rickety (quite rotten) wood frame that they slid the coffin onto… No handles of any kind on the coffin itself.

Then they carried the coffin to the grave site, placed the lid on it, nailed it on, and lowered it in the hole. Then, various people took turns throwing the dirt in the hole.

And then the Vodka drinking began in earnest.

Most of the people in this village have no work, and live off a meager “pension” from the government (if they ever get that). To live, they eat borscht and drink home brewed vodka. Seems that the responsibilities are divided evenly. The women make vodka and cook. The men sit beside the road and drink while complaining about what the government isn’t doing for them.

I am not sure how they actually live – and it is very sad to see. A very dramatic example of the failure of the Communist system and it’s creation of a population of people reliant on a “system” that no longer exists…

Originally posted April 08th, 2008

Let’s see if I can bring this dead blog back to life…

Life has been, to put it mildly, a bit tumultuous for our family the past few months. With trying to get organized to move back to Canada from Ukraine (it’s a LOT more difficult logistically in this direction), trying to ensure some type of continuity for the help to the orphans here, etc… I haven’t much time, or ambition, to read many blogs, let alone write anything.

But… this morning, reading through some blogs for the first time in a long time, I stumbled across a “synchroblog” that happened yesterday, started by Glenn Hager, simply titled “Revolutionaries Synchroblog”.

It caught my eye – for a number of reasons.

First – a couple of months ago as I was having a discussion with a pastor and a few other people from a church here, and talking about some of my thoughts, they called me “a revolutionary”. Never thought of myself that way, and it felt uncomfortable, but if the shoe fits…

Just watched a video a couple of days ago about Martin Luther. What struck me was how revolutionary his ideas were at the time – and how necessary…

Talking with my wife later, thinking about how Jesus interacted with the religious leaders of his day, he was certainly a revolutionary…

So – I guess it’s not necessarily a bad thing to be considered a revolutionary.

I just never thought I could even be hinted as being one. I have always wanted to be a “good Christian”, do what’s right, follow Jesus, and all of those things I learned in Sunday School.

The problem is that in following Jesus, I have ended up in a foreign country as a “missionary” (whatever that means), ended up questioning almost everything I grew up learning in church, while at the same time seeing a completely different way of following Jesus – to the extent that what I “knew” before now seems to make no sense at all.

What do I do with this?

How do I reconcile the fact that I simply want to follow Jesus in helping the orphans and other people here, but in doing so end up in opposition to “Christianity” as practised by the churches?

I find myself being so cynical about the supposed “help” being provided by foreign missions organizations. I see that many of the local churches are more about “empire building” than following Jesus. I see the huge waste of money and effort in so many things that happen. I see the people with not enough food, with no hope, and the churches simply don’t care enough to change things – while at the same time building bigger buildings, with better sound systems, with money contributed by well meaning people in other countries.

How do I help without tearing down?

At what point do we stop accepting the status quo – in hopes that things will improve, and instead confront the authority figures as Jesus did, as Luther did, and become revolutionaries?

How do we deal with the realization that if we talk truthfully about what we have seen and heard, many people will be upset, “ministries” will be affected, the movement of “support money” could be restricted to certain people?

How do we know we are doing what is right?

I don’t want to be a rebel for the sake of being a rebel, but I do want to be true to what Jesus calls me to do.

Originally posted October 29th, 2007

Interesting post/newsletter on the website of another Canadian trying to make a difference here in Ukraine…

Steve Hill talks about the situation as he sees it in the Ukrainian churches, about how there are essentially two “types” of churches in the country…

“The first kind were the Baptist and Pentecostal which survived the Soviet era and still carried symptoms of that era in their totalitarianism They were a system of total control that dictated not only what you could or could not do in the meetings but also who you could marry, how many children you should have and how long to grow your hair. The second kind were the new independent charismatic churches which were much freer in worship and dress but they were authoritarian in that everything was centered around submission to the leader and his vision. It was controlled by a person rather than a system.”

This is a fairly accurate description – exactly what we have discovered as well.

Originally posted October 22nd, 2007

Second installment (for me) of this Synchro thing… What Would Jesus Do – With The Church?

As I mentioned in my first post on this topic, I decided to “preach” (somehow I don’t like that term) at church yesterday.

Here in Ukraine, especially in this city, churches on the whole are very stuck on rules, tradition, and legalism. It just seems to be the way it is. People that question anything get excommunicated. That seems to be the norm. Blindly following authority figures is one of the major continuing residual effects of many years of authoritarian rule under Communism.

I have connected with one pastor (himself a victim of “the system” in the past), who has the courage to continue to challenge the status quo. Life continues to be very difficult for him, but he believes that what Jesus taught is a better way, and is determined to show that way to others.

So, yesterday, I decided to directly confront some of these issues, despite the opinion of some other “missionaries” here who think that everything is OK. That we shouldn’t rock the boat. That our “job” is to support the local church, even if we disagree with what they teach. Sorry, but that’s not the way I see Jesus doing things!

Much of what we hear talked about in all of the emerging/missional conversation on the web, in books, and in some churches, is completely new to the people here. The first that they have heard that there is “another way” of approaching the Bible, or of living our life as a follower of Jesus, is what they hear from my pastor friend or myself. Nobody else is even looking at these issues…

As in most other parts of the world, the churches teach all kinds of rules that people must follow to be a “good Christian”. You must attend church every Sunday – preferably more often. You must read the Bible/Pray “X” times a day or whatever… You must not have “non-believer” friends. You must not question authority or tradition. Etc…

So, yesterday, I decided to bring up some of these issues directly, just to get people thinking about what Jesus himself thought of these issues – or if he even cared!

I tried to illustrate (to the best of my limited abilities) how Jesus lived by a higher principle than “following the rules”. I tried to show them that what Jesus was teaching was a completely different way of thinking, and not just a “new set of rules to live by”.

In this culture, that seems to be more difficult to grasp, because they have lived for so many years under oppressive rules that they can not imagine life without them.

What would Jesus do with the church today? As he did with religious leaders 2000 years ago, he would confront them when he saw that they were missing the point, and would encourage them when he saw they were “getting it”.

As a follower of Jesus, that’s what I want to do with my limited abilities…

So far, nobody has stoned me.

Other contributors to the synchroblog:
Glenn Hager
Erin Word
Gary Means
Alan Knox
The Refuge
Nate Peres
Sally Coleman
Barb
Rick Stillwell
Jeff Greathouse
Dan
Barbara Legere
Jonathan Brink
Jason Ellis
Cynthia Clack