The Noise Behind the Words

My grandpa is old-school.  He hates computers, avoids cell phones, and still uses the US Postal Service.  He values hard work, ambition, and determination.  He complains often about today's youth, how they have been ruined by technology, and will never understand some of the simple joys he experienced by spending time outside.

Another one of his favorite soap boxes centers around entertainment.  I know what you are thinking: "he likely decries the increase of violence, vulgar language, and sexuality in media."  Classic old person complaining, right?  Not quite.  In addition to being a former amateur boxer, I've also heard my grandpa cuss like a sailor.  It's not the content that bothers him, it's the way the content is delivered.

"You can't hear people talk in movies anymore," he'll tell me with convicted frustration.  And believe me, it's not because he doesn't turn his TV up loud enough.  He's accustomed to blaring it so loud, that when my wife and I sleep over and put our little girl down for bed, he just mutes the volume.  "You don't have to turn it all the way down," I told him on one occasion.  "I might as well, he said.  I won't be able to hear anything except the noise behind the words with it turned partially down."

Admittedly, part of the reason for this is because he is too stubborn to use a hearing aid.  But I think he may be on to something.  The movies he really loves date back to the era when sound effects were sparse, and the soundtrack consisted of classically orchestrated music.  Dialogue was crisp, clear, and pointed - mimicking the oratory that was popular during the days that the radio was the primary form of entertainment.  As technology has made leaps and bounds, so has our ability to add lots of "noise behind the words."

This is true in lots of areas, including the Church.  As Christians attempt to attract others, we must be wary of adding a lot of noise to our message.  It's one thing to focus on quality, but quality is not necessarily equal to quantity.  In fact, for many churches, a good question to ask ourselves is: "what do we do that is unnecessary?"  How much "noise" is there behind our words?  And how can we lower the volume?

What kind of "noise" keeps you from connecting with God?  What do you think your church can do without?

But Some Doubted

A week ago the Great Commission was read during our morning worship service.  I can't tell you how many times I've read or heard this passage.  It's one of those that every Christian learns, whether they do it on purpose or not.  It sums up the mission of every person that claims to follow Jesus.  The problem that comes with its familiarity is that its context is often forgotten. 

This context became meaningful to me in a new way last Sunday.  When Scripture is read skillfully, and listened to intently, the Holy Spirit can illuminate masterfully.  Here is what I heard:

One of the things Christians like to fantasize about is what heaven will be like.  In the song that launched Mercy Me to stardom in both the Christian and mainstream music scene, Bart Millard ponders:

Surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus, or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing Halleluiah, will I be able to speak at all?

We assume that when we see Jesus face to face that we will be so overwhelmed by his presence that our only response will be pure worship.  After all, that's what we see the disciples do in Matthew 28 when he appears to them after he has risen from the dead.  But that's not all they did.  Three pesky words that I've often skipped over and given little thought hit me like a ton of bricks as Paul Gately paused dramatically before letting them fall: "But some doubted."

Truth be told, we can imagine that a whole lot easier than unadulterated worship.  Especially as we strive to really do what we think God wants us to do.  While the goal of the Great Commision is the same among all, the way each of us live it out is different.  Parents are faced with the challenge of making disciples out of children, some women pray fervently every day for their husbands to become disciples, and some teenagers strive to make disciples out of friends at school and even within their own families.

No one's situation is identical, but each one brings a world of difficulty and doubt with it.  Thankfully, this commission was not given in the absence of doubt, or even in spite of it.  It was given IN RESPONSE to it.

As we do our best to do what God wants, we remember what Mr. Gately referred to as "the most important part" in his reading: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." 

Discovering Dandelions

I recently took Emily to the park one day after I picked her up from the baby-sitter.  To her surprise, there were patches of white, fuzzy flowers everywhere.  At first, she did not know what to do.  She reached down, and softly grazed the top of one, jumping unexpectedly when some of the soft seeds detached from their head at her touch.  With a furrowed eye-brow, she cocked her head sideways, dusted off her hands, and pointed at it saying: "This?"  What a strange encounter to her.

"It's ok," I told her, "that's what they are supposed to do."  But she wasn't convinced.  Perhaps assuming that the first one she touched was defective, she moved on to another, only to find that the exact same thing happened.  Again, she looked up at me with the same perplexed expression, but said nothing.  I finally walked over to her, picked one up, and blew on it softly.

As the ball of fluff scattered in the current of my breath into hundreds of tiny pieces, her eyes widened with 

wonder. "Uh-oh!" she exclaimed, assuming that we did something wrong.  She is her mother's child, ever concerned with delicacy and order.  I knew this would change when I picked another and placed it in her eager hand.  Now, she could see for herself that blowing the seeds of a dandelion was, in the words of my dad, "something every kid likes to do."

"Blow," I prodded, waiting for her to follow suite.  "No," she retorted, with her voice slightly arching at the end in a way that seems to always demonstrate her casual, but settled disposition.  It must be wonderfully affirming to be that secure in yourself!

Knowing that there was no other option, I bent down and softly exhaled again, watching as the created air whisked about half of this one away.  Something clicked this time.  Her eyes widened, and then she let out a short, quick, and cautious spurt of air.  Her face lit up with excitement at the result, and she spent the rest of the day trying to recreate that moment.

Isn't that what we do on a grander scale?  Whether it's through a hobby, sharing time with a spouse, or playing with our children, we long to experience life.  But the only standard we have to measure our experience, is through what we have previously encountered.  We are little more than children running wild in a field of dandelions.  And perhaps, with the right wisdom and guidance, we can be led to not only recreate experiences, but to share them as well.

What Do You Know About Easter?

If you went to church this Easter Sunday, chances are: you know what this day is all about.  In fact, if your pastor would have gotten up and dismissed everyone from the service that knew what Easter was about, you might have come close to having an empty sanctuary.  There might have been one or two that were still trying to figure out all the details, but how honest would they have been about their ignorance?  How silly would they have looked if they stayed?!  I'm betting your pastor did not do this.  And maybe for you, getting up and coming to church today was a challenge for just that reason.   

A Hispanic pastor once told me that most middle class white folks look at church differently than Hispanics.  This was news to me.  “What do you mean?” I asked.  He said, most white folks don’t believe they’ve heard a sermon unless they LEARN something; while most Hispanics don’t think they’ve heard a sermon unless they FEEL something.  I’m not Hispanic, so I cannot speak to that side of his remark; but I have to admit, when it comes to how I see and approach things as a preacher, he could not be more right!

If you really want to tempt me to sin and stroke my ego, all you would have to do is come up to me after a church service and tell me: “Matt, I never heard what you said about 1 Corinthians today, it was completely new to me.  Thanks so much for sharing your vast knowledge with us. Your preaching has changed the way I look at God and the whole Bible.”  OK, if you go that far, I might think you are laying it on a little thick, but you get the idea.  I relish the thought of being used by God to open up a new world of biblical understanding for people.  However, that is not all there is to preaching, worshiping, or even reading Scripture.  If it was, you might not have had any reason to go to church today.  There is also a spiritual, I’d even say emotional side, to receiving God’s Word.  If you are like me, you might get a little uncomfortable when I start talking about emotions in worship.  Perhaps you’ve heard overly-emotional sermons, or been in services where this was the sole focus.   

When I worked in the Baylor mail room, I had a Hispanic supervisor.  When he found out I was going to seminary, he told me a story about what church was like for him growing up that went something like this:

“For starters, we were at the Hispanic Assembly of God church every time the doors were open.  I saw preachers come and go, attended different classes and camps, and went on mission trips.  But the one thing that was a constant for me was the worship.  When I got older I was asked to play drums in the contemporary service.  The more involved I became with the worship service, the more I recognized a pattern.  Our services would start off slow, build to a climax, and somewhere right at the end of the sermon, would always explode in an emotional outpouring of the Spirit.  This became a routine for me, and like most church kids, there were times when I lost sight of the point of it all.  Sometimes, I made a game out of it.  I’d look at someone who was really getting into the service, and I’d say to myself: 'I bet if I play really hard and fast for the next minute, I can make that lady speak and tongues and roll on the floor.'  

True story.  And I bet the Hispanic pastor walked away after the service feeling like I do when someone compliments me on all the new things they learned from my preaching.

We miss out when we focus too much on either side of the coin.  In Acts10:36-43, Peter spells out what everyone “knows” about Christ’s death, burial, and Resurrection.  This was common knowledge for him, the group he was speaking to, and most people that might be reading this.  Interestingly, he prefaces what he knows with what he now realizes as a result of God’s Spirit in verses 34-35:

"I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right (NIV) [emphasis mine]."

May the Holy Spirit impart powerful realizations to you as you recall what you "know" about this special day.

Why the Church is NOT a Hospital

It was Augustine that said that “the Church is a hospital for sinners.”  This statement came out of the way hospitals operated in his context.  The first hospitals were started by Christians, which is why so many of them bear religious names today.  These early Christian hospitals were not nearly as advanced or efficient as ours are today.  Depending on the time of day and people around, you may not even be guaranteed “professional” medical care.  More than anything else, the first hospitals were exactly what the name implied; a place that provided hospitality to those that needed it.   

This was a heart ministry more than it was a professional one.  It was marked by its radical willingness to accept anyone at any time, and to be with them during their time of suffering.  That IS the sense in which the church is supposed to be a hospital for sinners.  It is to be a place that recognizes that we indeed are all in this together.  One person’s struggle with sin is not theirs to bear alone, but the whole communities'.  Since we all struggle with sin, there is no “professional staff” among us that can fix us and ensure that we never deal it or its effects again.

Today, hospitals have changed.  Our medical system may not be perfect, but I am thankful for it.  Hospitals are no longer places where you MIGHT get medical care if there is a qualified doctor or nurse on duty.  They are places where this care is guaranteed.  Sure, you might have to wait longer than you’d like to receive it, the staff may not be as nice and courteous as you’d like, and you may end up paying a lot of money for it.  But you are guaranteed that the treatment you receive will be administered by individuals who have been trained and equipped to discover and fix the problem that ails you, even if they are not as hospitable as you’d like.   

This is the kind of hospital I want to take my daughter to when she is running a 105 degree fever in the middle of the night!  I could care less about having someone to hold my hand, pat me on the back, and offer sympathy.  I want someone to figure out what is wrong and to fix it - NOW!  This is a far cry from the kind of hospital Augustine envisioned when he compared the church to one.  Problems were often not fixed at the hospitals of his time.  In fact, hospitals were sometimes a last resort for those who were sick, dying, or had no other place of shelter or care. 

“Why would we want the church to be a place like that?” we might ask.  To which Augustine might reply: “because it is not the church’s job to function the way a modern hospital does.”  As much as I love the idea of a place where I can take my daughter to “fix” any kind of emergent health problem she might have, it is not up to the church to fix people spiritually.  Maybe you’ve heard well-intentioned church-goers say something like: “Well, I tell you what’s wrong with that family; they need to get back in church!”  And then what?  They won’t have any marital struggles?  Sorry, the statistics aren’t in our favor on that one.  They won’t have any financial problems?  Wrong again!  Their kids will behave like perfect angels?  I bet a poll of church nursery workers would prove that to be a fairytale.   

As difficult as it is for us to accept, the church is NOT about fixing.  It’s about leading people to repentance and faith in Jesus.  This is a never-ending task, because it addresses a never-ending need.   

Jesus tells the Pharisees that would rather fix sinners than lead them to repentance a famous parable about a prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).  When this prodigal returned, Jesus tells the Pharisees:

"...the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate (Vv. 22-24).

Can you imagine how differently things would have gone if the father would have first tried to "fix" his son?

The Pharisee in Me

I was a Pharisee when I first became a Christian.  Not on purpose, of course, and I would have denied it if asked.  But looking back, I most definitely was.  I accepted Christ later in life (at the age of15, which is late when you consider that most people make this decision before adolescents).  As a result, I got really serious all at once about being a Christian.  I started bringing my Bible to school, wearing Christian T-shirts, listening only to Christian music, and I even helped start a prayer group that met before class on my high school campus.  In many ways, these changes were good for me, and I believe they played a pivotal role in helping me to take my faith seriously.  Unfortunately, there was also a negative side to my all-at-once, new-found excitement about Jesus.  People who didn’t have it began to really stick out to me.  Before making this life-changing decision, church people all seemed alike.  I didn’t really think of them negatively or positively.  I simply saw one’s church affiliation in the way we might see someone’s allegiance to a sports team.   

Some people like the Cowboys, others like the Texans.  Similarly, some people are Baptists, others are Methodist.  And some, just like in the sports world, could simply care less.  Then there are those that identify with a sports team simply because a spouse or parent really cares about it.  You’ve probably heard people like this say something like: “well, I guess I’m rooting for the Rangers because it sure will make so-and-so happy if they win.”  There are church members like that too.  It's a pretty safe assumption that when people immediately want to tell you all about their son’s church, or their parent’s pastor, they may not have a strong church affiliation of their own.  Finally, there are the "fair-weather fans."  We see fair-weather church people appear out of nowhere when building projects are completed, church directories are put together, or anniversary services come around.  None of that bothered me before accepting Christ, because most of the time, it went unnoticed.

Following my conversion, I began to notice it too much.  I grew up in a “church town,” and all the popular kids when to a nearby church across from the high school.  Many of those people, in my estimation, were not “real Christians.”  They would come to prayer rallies like “See You at the Pole,” or to “Fifth Quarters” held at the church following home football games.  But many of them were also the same people that had a reputation for partying on the weekends, and cursing like sailors.  In short, these people were sinners!  When I would see them involved in mission trips, service projects, or attending church camp, instead of rejoicing in the opportunity they had to encounter God and have their lives changed, I would sneer on the inside.   

Isn’t it interesting, that I only began to be prejudiced against sinners after my conversion to Christ!?  I had received the Spirit of Christ, but I had the flesh of a Pharisee. And it is to Pharisees that Jesus says: "...there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent (Luke 15:7)."  

Do you struggle with taking joy in the things that make God rejoice?  Does associating with sinners make you sneer instead of smile?  It's never too late to ask God to change your heart!

Real Relationships

Lately, the importance of relationships in the life of a Christian has been impressed upon my heart.  While preparing to preach through a series in February entitled "Real Relationships," I interviewed church members about the relationships that they have found meaningful in our church.  I did not coach them or suggest answers.  I simply told them to be honest, and that there was no wrong answer.  And guess what? I was blown away!  I can't wait to show these clips throughout the month of February as real testimonies of the power of Christian relationships (they will also be posted to our Facebook page after they are shown).

This impression was further emphasized this past weekend when I got to preach at my home church's 20th anniversary celebration.  It was fun to see former ministers, mentors, and friends.  Before the service started, Michelle asked if I was nervous.  I said "not really, but I do feel a little awkward."  As I looked out over the congregation, I realized that many of these people still knew me as the 16 year-year-old kid that wore baggy jeans and hung out too long in the parking lot on Wednesday nights.  The relationships I had with them dated back to a time when I was a baby in the faith.  At the same time, if it were not for these relationships, I very well may not have come to any kind of faith in Jesus.

It's easy to underestimate the value and impact of these kinds of relationships.  In a world that is becoming more virtually connected, people are becoming less physically connected.  That's a good thing when it comes to paying bills, ordering things through the mail, or booking a vacation.  It's a bad thing when it leaves a relational gap in our spiritual lives.  I remember having to read a book in college called Created for Community by Stanley Grenz.  I can't recall much of what the book actually said (I need to re-read it!), but I do remember thinking that the title made an important point (even to an unmotivated college student!).

I could cite numerous verses in Scripture about how Jesus called 12 disciples, spent time with all kinds of people, and sent followers out to do ministry in groups.  I could point you to the early church in Acts that met together often and shared all their possessions.  Common sense, however, tells us that we need relationships.  We don't like being lonely.  It only makes sense that this truth would be amplified and have even greater significance for a Christian.

In the past, it seems that it was easier to form relationships.  We did it out of necessity.  With the functional necessity of relationships decreasing, the burden falls on us to pick up the slack.  I think this is especially hard for most men and introverts, neither of which form relationships very easily or naturally (I happen to fall in to both of these categories!).  Still, I can't deny the fact that I may not be a Christian if not for some of the special relationships in my home church.  Whether it's through a Sunday School class, a small group, or a shared ministry or interest, Christian relationships are about more than simply having friends.  As ordinary as they might seem, they serve a sacred function.  Just ask the folks I interviewed. 

How have relationships made a difference in your spiritual life?  What are you doing to actively cultivate spiritual relationships today?