The Salty Peanut Gallery

Mark Daniels has a confession to make. He’s coming clean about finding it necessary to “feign some sort of illness” anytime a missionary guest speaker was scheduled to be at his church. Maybe you can relate:

OK, I’ll admit that—once upon a time—I didn’t look forward to “Missions Sundays.” Feeling that I wasn’t “called to the mission field,” I could never relate to the stories from far-off lands, and the subtle “ask” for support that generally followed. “Besides,” I would say, “isn’t there enough of God’s work that’s not being done, right here at home?”

Any of that sound familiar? We just finished a month of missions emphasis at our church, and though I can’t prove it, I have reason to believe that several of our folks have experienced a similar phenomenon. Our habit as been to schedule a different guest missionary each Sunday of the month. Various missionaries are asked to share during Sunday school some of what God is doing in the field through their particular ministry. Then in the worship service they are invited to give a brief testimony. Generally we try to have at least one Sunday during the month in which a missionary brings the morning message. Missions month is then culminated by a banquet where members are encouraged to make their annual pledges for missions giving for the coming year.

While I truly believe that emphasizing missions in this way is a great benefit to the body of Christ in educating us how we can become better involved in fulfilling The Great Commission, still I think it is no accident that attendance levels appear to suffer as a result. Now I’m sure if I were to go around to every church member who was missing this month and ask them where they were, no doubt there would be a perfectly legitimate explanation. Still the number of absences we’ve experienced seems to me to be awfully convenient. The question is why? What is it about missions that makes people all squirmy? Well let me hazard a guess.

First off, I think Mark Daniels may have hinted at one reason. Money. “The subtle ask for support.” People always get edgy when you talk about money in church. And in this case it’s not even the main issue. It’s what’s implied that turns people off. The Apostle Paul addressed this very issue in 2 Corinthians 9:7 when he said, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” Paul says that we are to give relative to what is in our hearts; he doesn’t mention our wallets. Giving is about the heart, not about the wallet. When we give God our hearts it becomes a joy then to make Him master over everything else in our lives, including our wallets. I think one reason people are inclined to take a powder every time the missionary comes around has to do with the condition of the heart.

Another possible reason might be the consumer oriented society in which we live. Let’s face it. Missions is about serving. Missions isn’t about being served. It goes back to the question of what’s your real reason for coming to church. Is it to consume a product or is it to serve others? If we are the body, our motivation ought to be to use our individual giftedness to serve.

But there’s one other thing that I think makes some people uncomfortable, and that’s The Great Commission. In Matthew 28:19-20 we are commanded to go. It’s not a suggestion or a recommendation. It’s pretty straight forward. Jesus said, “Go.” And it’s NOT JUST FOR MISSIONARIES either. The task of sharing the message of eternal life is the responsibility of all believers. And you know good and well that sooner or later this verse is going to come up during a month of missions emphasis, right? So if the thought of sharing the gospel with your friends or co-workers seems like a fearful task, your natural tendency will be to avoid hearing about altogether.

Mark Daniels is pleased to report that he’s “grown up in the Lord a bit since those days” when he didn’t look forward to missions Sundays. And I guess when it’s all said and done, that’s the real issue isn’t?

Well it’s that time of year again. You can hardly turn on the television at night without being bombarded by an array of virtual horror. Many houses in the neighborhood are adorned with an assortment of skeletons, jack-o-lanterns and black cats. Department stores are loaded with children’s costumes depicting the popular super hero of the day along with witches, vampires, werewolves and the like. There’s no escaping it. It’s everywhere. Now I know that Christians are supposed to be “in the world” and not “of the world”. But what exactly are we supposed to do about this thing called Halloween anyway?

Pulling out my trusty “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance” I did a careful word search to determine exactly what the Bible has to say about this subject. Know what I found? Nothin’. No mention of Halloween, trick-or-treat, or things that go bump in the night. “Oh, but wait,” you might say. “What about Halloween’s pagan origins? Doesn’t the Bible speak out against witchcraft and sorcery?”

Okay, fair enough. It’s true that Halloween has its origins in an ancient Celtic festival celebrated at the end of the harvest. It was believed that on October 31st the boundaries between the living and the dead were lifted so that the spirits of the dead would come back to life and walk among the living. Bonfires, jack-o-lanterns, costumes and masks all became part of a custom meant to ward off haunting spirits.

Though the celebration continues today as a part of American culture, the pagan superstitions associated with the celebration have been largely forgotten by most. Nowadays it’s more about kids playing dress up and getting candy then it is about anything else. Still there are plenty of Christians that take a hard-line stance against observing this holiday. Some say that Halloween is a satanic holiday closely connected with worshiping the devil and that children shouldn’t have anything to do with a celebration that glorifies the enemy. The most extreme have even advocated closing down Halloween completely, though I’m not altogether sure how you go about doing that.

But others believe that Christians should use Halloween as an opportunity to engage the culture with the love of Christ. I really like the approach of blogger, Tim Challies:

“The truth is that I have several convictions regarding Halloween. I despise the pagan aspects of it. I am convicted that my children should not dress as little devils or ghosts or monsters or otherwise glory in evil. But I am also convicted that it is a poor witness to have a darkened house, especially in a neighborhood like ours which is small and where every person and every home is highly-visible. We know that, if we choose not to participate, the neighbors will notice and assume that we feel somehow above them for not participating (and that we are judging them for their participation). We have nothing to fear from our neighbors or from their children, no matter how they choose to dress for an evening. So my children will dress up (my son as a soldier and my daughters as a ballerina and a princess) and we will visit each of our neighbors, knocking on their doors and accepting their fistfuls of candy. Either my wife or I (I think it’s my turn this year) will remain at home, greeting people at our door with a smile and a handful of something tasty. If the kids are deemed too old to trick-or-treat, they’ll be forced to sing a song to merit any handouts. Our door will be open and the light will be on. A contributor to an email list I participate in once concluded his defense of participating in Halloween with these words: ‘One night does not a neighbor make (and one night does not a pagan make), but Halloween is the one night of the year where the good neighborliness that flows from being in Christ is communicated and reinforced. We are citizens of another Kingdom where The Light is always on.’ That analogy seems particularly appropriate.

This year we’re doing something else. We’ve invited all of the neighbors over for dinner before the festivities begin. We’ve got at least 40 or 50 people who are planning on coming by for a barbeque. We’re doing this simply because we enjoy our neighbors and love to spend time with them. Halloween evening can be hectic, with parents getting home from work and then rushing to prepare their children, so we thought we’d attempt to relieve one burden by taking care of dinner for everyone. It should be fun and we’re looking forward to it.”

Personally, I don’t have a dog in this race. My kids are teenagers and I live in somewhat of a rural neighborhood that doesn’t get many trick-or-treaters. But I have always tried to respect the convictions of others on this issue even when my kids were younger. It’s never really been a hill for me to die on one way or the other. On the other hand I am convicted about the pious nose-in-the-air attitude that is often perceived by the nonbelieving community of Christians when it comes to cultural issues such as this.

I would never advocate celebrating evil. There are unseen forces at work in the world around us that believers have no business messing round with: “…principalities, …powers, …rulers of the darkness of this world…spiritual wickedness in high places” – Ephesians 6:12. I get that. It just seems to me that there ought to be some area of middle ground here in which believers can engage the culture without compromising their convictions. It’s one thing to curse the darkness. It’s quite another to turn on the Light.

This one first came out about six months ago when ipod first introduced its new mp3 player, the Nano. By now many of you have probably already seen this. YouTube reports over three and a half million hits. I just like it cause its so unique. So here its. One camera, one take, one name, Feist. Enjoy.

There’s an eye-opening article over at Out of Ur that explains why the leadership at Willow Creek church is saying, “We made a mistake.” As we all know Willow has been one of the most influential mega churches in America over the past thirty years. Their original goal was to throw out all the old ideas associated with the historically traditional church in order to “rediscover church”. Over the years they’ve gone to great lengths to emulate a secular business model. Essentially church for them is a product with a wide variety of programs for people to consume.

“Participation is a big deal,” says executive pastor Greg Hawkins. “We believe the more people participating in these sets of activities, with higher levels of frequency, it will produce disciples of Christ.” So essentially the church provides a wide variety of programs. The more that people participate in these programs the more spiritually mature they become.

Not to be a noodge, but wouldn’t you think that after all these years somebody would have tested this theory to see if it actually works long before now? Apparently this thought has only recently occurred to the leadership at Willow. They’ve just released the findings of a ministry wide study to determine which of the programs and activities of the church were actually accomplishing their goal. Know what they found? Increased participation in church activities does NOT make someone more of a disciple of Christ.

“In other words, spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.”

So what does this mean for Willow? Hawkins explains:

“Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.

Okay, so let me get this straight. Willow Creek was founded on the concept of “rediscovering church”, right? Now after thirty years they’ve decided to take out a clean sheet of paper and rethink all of their old assumptions. Does that mean they are now re-rediscovering church? I’m just sayin’.