Why I Hate Religion

This message is from Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I’m not always a fan of Mark, but His theology and point is impeccable.

Controversy

If Jesus would have given in to the objections of Pharisees and scribes, I think he would have died of niceness. Forget the cross. I think many American Christians probably think that would have been just fine because they are dying everyday of niceness. Bored silly with the faith.

Christians are expected to be nice apparently because they think Jesus was nice. To imagine Jesus as a hotly controversial, cultural rebel turns Him, in their thinking, into a disobedient child of God. What’s the deal? We can’t bring ourselves to follow a leader who was labeled crazy, a demoniac, a fraud and a danger to society. He was labeled these things not by the secular, atheistic media, but by the honorable theologians of the the day. Yet, we assume that Jesus was just not any of those things. Jesus was not called those things because he brought pies to the church bake sale. He was called those things because he was an intentional and regular law-breaker.

When we turn to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), we discover some packaged episodes titled “controversy” and “Sabbath controversy.” Because we are so used to reading “nice church” into the life of Jesus, we do not connect with the shocking enormity of His lawlessness.  For religious conservative leaders who idolized the Temple in Jerusalem, because that’s where God lived and where forgiveness was granted to hear a scraggy little Galilean Jewish carpenter say publicly, “Son, your sins are forgiven” almost put those leaders into cardiac arrest. Then to their amazement the little Jewish nobody healed the man to prove that he, indeed, had authority to forgive sins on the spot. No Temple, no priest, no sacrifice. Just a word. To the religious ones, Jesus had to be demonic. Too much of what they stood for was riding on Jesus’ being who he said and acted like he actually was.

Jesus hung out with whores. This was not good. Jesus hung out with mafia (my own free paraphrase of tax-collectors). Jesus kicked back and enjoyed a rip-roaring party thrown for him by a rich, mafia man named Matthew. Doing surveillance at the windows were, you guessed it, the religiously nice people. Hardly containing their percolating scorn, they grilled Jesus’ chosen friends about how Jesus could dare associate with such gutter types. The Pharisees were convinced that should the Messiah show up, his first request would be to share a cup of wine with them. God hangs around with godly people, you know.

Many thought Jesus was not serious about the faith. He laughed too much. Everything for Jesus was a party. Where was the fasting? The long, godly face? Everything for Jesus was a wedding banquet. In the midst of the laughter, he even made himself out to be the bridegroom. What?! Anybody who knows their Old Testament knows that God, and only God is the bridegroom. Who does this little, twangy-accented Galilean hillbilly think he is? Bridegroom, my eye.  Can you spell b-l-a-s-p-h-e-m-y?

If I were alive at the time,  I would have sold disciple insurance because it was tremendously risky being associated with Jesus. Insurance and Tums.

Don’t get me going on Jesus’ utter disregard for the most Holy day–the Sabbath. His complete disrespect for Sabbath laws is a pretty good hint at his disregard for the entire Torah. This so-called Rabbi allowed his disciples to pluck and eat grain on the Sabbath, and this with unwashed hands. Yuck. How low will this man and his friends go? At least use a wet-wipe or some hand sanitizer. When it was pointed out to him that he and his disciples were law-breakers, this Jesus had the raw audacity to say, in effect, “Chill. I am boss of the Sabbath. It’s not my boss or boss over human need.” Imagine. But it gets worse. Jesus from nowheresville Nazareth tells the religious conservatives that their hearts were in a different galaxy than God’s heart. That was not a very nice thing to say to those who diligently search the Scriptures (John 5:39).

The irony of all of this is: everything the religious leaders accused Jesus of as wrong, they were guilty of, for real. We know Jesus was always and only saying and doing the will of his Father. The religious conservatives, having reduced the faith to support their place in society, concluded Jesus was a demonized madman. Jesus had to tell those leaders, “You, you are of your father the devil.”

A Christian life without controversy is not the Christian life…if Jesus has anything to do with it. I wonder if we’ve lost a generation of youth because the church and parents thought the aim of discipleship was to make “nice little boys and girls”?

Change and Opportunity

In the face of significant change and opportunity, I think we fall in one of 3 categories:

Uninformed people need information and insight in order to figure out what to do next. They are approaching the problem with optimism and calm, but they need to be taught. Uninformed is not a pejorative term, it’s a temporary state.

Clueless people don’t know what to do and they don’t know that they don’t know what to do. They don’t know the right questions to ask. Giving them instructions is insufficient. First, they need to be sold on what the platform even looks like.

And frightened people will resist any help you can give them, and they will blame you for the stress the change is causing. Scared people like to shoot the messenger. Duck. I think the worst kind of frightened person is one with power. Someone in a mob of other frightened people, someone with a gun, someone who is the CEO. When confronted with a scared leader, time to run. Before someone can change, they have to learn, and before they learn, they have to cease being scared.

One reason so many big ideas come from small organizations is that there is far less fear of change at the top. There is nothing too lose. I wonder if we should reward the risk-taker that fails than the stagnant, scared leader.

Main Idea: Comfort the frightened, coach the clueless and teach the uninformed.

Barney’s High Five

This is a scene from How I Met Your Mother – one of my favs. This got me thinking about Barney’s interpretation of Jesus.  I like that Jesus bursts through the door, invented the high five, and well, in some ways it made a lot of sense.  While I’m not always excited about Barney’s ethics when it comes to dating women, I found it refreshing to hear something about Jesus on a show I watch regularly.

Seems Jesus can enter the context of any conversation.  How long has it been since he’s been a part of yours?

Overflow Leadership

Once a person comes to trust Christ, Satan’s number one goal is to cause people to believe that Christianity doesn’t work. He’s not trying to prove that God doesn’t exist – he knows God exists and he knows that in most cases that strategy won’t work. Instead, our enemy is out to seek, kill, and destroy the life that God purchased and desires for us (John 10:10). The enemy’s two main weapons are fear and lies.

Scripture tells us in John 8:44 that Satan “is a liar and the father of lies.” This is the tactic he used on Adam and Eve in the garden. If we believe a lie, we will act as though it is the truth. And when we do, we openly give Satan control of our lives, which leads to destruction and death. Then we wonder why our lives are ineffective and unproductive. The antidote for this is found in Romans 12:1-2 – “we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” Remember, it is the truth that sets us free; truth about who God is as our Father; truth about who we are as His children.

The second weapon is fear. Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety (Proverbs 29:25). The basic reason we don’t lead well is because we are fearful of something, ultimately, people. We are afraid we will lose their approval, acceptance, etc. 1 John 4:18 states, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” We need to realize that the one who knows us best, is the one who loves us most.

Make sure you are spiritually and emotionally healthy, because everything flows out of your relationship with Jesus Christ. At one of his leadership summits, Bill Hybels quoted acclaimed leadership expert, Dee Hock: “Management of self should occupy 50% of our time and the best of our ability. And when we do that, the ethical, moral, and spiritual elements of management are inescapable.”

How are your relationships? What is your level of fear?

Prepositions

There are a lot of Christian worship songs out there expressing the desire to live for Jesus Christ, and I appreciate their intent and sentiment. The gift of forgiveness and new life is so great that our hearts long to respond and give back to God, to see ourselves as ones whose lives are abandoned to His purposes. 2 Corinthians 5:15 – “those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.” God alters our purposes and our priorities, and when we receive the life of Christ, we also put ourselves under the authority of a new King, a new leader calling the shots.

But I think “for” is the wrong preposition when we talk about living for Jesus. We can begin to believe that this Christian life, this life of loving trust and response, becomes something that we can do on our own and something that God expects us to do for Him. But does He? Can we? I submit that the answer to both questions is, “No.”

I think that we need to replace for with from. My call as a Christ-follower is not to live for Jesus, as though I could come up with ways that were adequate to repay all He has given. Instead, I believe that living from Jesus is not only more in line with what God wants from me, but also gives Him greater honor, the very thing that I hoped to do by living for Him.

To live from Jesus says that on my own, I am incapable of producing the life that God desires from me and that I can only receive it from Him. To live from Jesus affirms His call to for me to live in Him, abiding as a vine in the branch. (A branch doesn’t live for the vine, trying hard to produce fruit, but instead it remains connected to the vine, receiving all its life and needs from the vine, and fruit is the natural result.)

If I live from Christ, it means that my life is no longer my own. I am not deciding that I will do something for Him (which can lead to my patting myself on the back for my good job giving back to God); instead I am submitting myself to live from Him, meaning He has greater authority, freedom, and control of my life because He is my life.

Living from Jesus is ultimately harder than living for Him, because it eliminates my ability to pick and choose when my life is about me and when it is about God.

But it is also ultimately better because my life is no longer up to me and my ability to be good enough or to make it work, but is now founded on the promises and person of the only one who is good. Choosing the correct preposition and living in a posture of from-ness reminds me that my every moment is tied to “the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19).

March 28 sermon

Here is the link to the audio of my message this past weekend. Check out our website at Antioch Christian Church.

Back to Blogging

After a little break, I’m back to blogging this week. Stay tuned.

Hear God’s Voice and Obey

I don’t have this figured out. It is a simple statement. They are the 2 most important things we can embrace in our lives. No matter your job or role or place in life, we all make decisions. Often, we make decisions about things we really no little about. I’m finding as a pastor at a large church where I’m the new guy, I have neither the wisdom or the history to, on my own, handle these decisions. This is true for us all – we get hit with decisions daily. How do we hear God’s voice and obey?

1. Make sure the priority of your day is to clearly hear God’s voice. It does not matter how great or cool your ideas are, if you are not hearing from God, you are missing THE ingredient. Rearrange your day, your week so this happens.

2. Develop the disciplines of journal or writing or blogging. Sit in silence in front of God and document it.

3. Have courage and faith and obedience in the smallest things. Small decisions matter. Small problems matter.

4. Be clear on what God’s promises are, not just what He asks. Religion is following a set of rules, following Christ is a relationship. Obedience comes out of joy when we truly grasp His promises. When we just follow rules, we follow out of guilt and guilt is a terrible motivator (listen to my sermon from a few weeks ago). You have to read the Bible – it is the only way to have clarity on who God truly is and what He promises.

I pray you hear God’s voice and obey this week. Every decision you make has impact.

The New Guy

So I have been at Antioch for over a month now. One of my focuses has been understanding our history. Despite our passion for reaching the unchurched and our DNA of pushing the envelope – we have a century and a half of history.

I think a big part of leadership are the history lessons – a necessary task is to learn the real history of the ministry enterprise you are inheriting. One of the best ways to do this is to sit down with those who work in the ministry and who are served by it and ask a series of insightful questions. The primary goal is to talk about issues and events of past ministry life. Never pass judgment, instruct, or persuade. Simply ask questions and listen. Some of these questions can include:

What drew you to participate in this ministry?

What experiences have been the most memorable?

Has participation in this ministry helped you become a better Christ Follower?

Is there anything that should have received greater

What do you think has been the most important event in the life of the ministry since you have been involved? In many respects, their perception of important events is far more important than the historical value of the events themselves.

Tell me about my predecessor’s strong points. What do you miss most about his leadership? Always honor your predecessor, even if he or she stepped down in absolute disgrace. Most people hold some measure of affection for their former leader and appreciate an opportunity to share their feelings, especially if they see you are not threatened by their care for him. In an open atmosphere, they likely will speak as well about the shortcomings of previous ministries, even though you have been wise enough not to ask.

Have you ever been tempted to stop working with this ministry? What prompted the feeling? Why did you decide to stay? Everyone thinks about leaving at some point. If discretion permits, try to share with them the times you have thought about leaving a leadership role or a ministry and the reasons.

What has been the single biggest change in the history of the ministry? Again, your concern is not the issue itself but their response to it. You want to focus on the key issue: Have you been able to sense God at work in the life of this ministry?

I guess the point of this post is this – we have to embrace and understand the history and experience of what we walk into. Our work is too important not to.