Slavery, The Politics of Power, and The Risk of Grace

The following is a great quote from a New Testament scholar regarding his reflections on the message of Philemon:

"All societies rest upon inequities--some concealed, others noticed--that make brotherhood impossible. Every age and locale has its particular and familiar slaveries. What heightens injustice is that all believers--exploiters or exploited--are equally nearsighted about the oppressions we have unwittingly learned to live with. No one cries out: the strong because they need not, the weak for they dare not. Or perhaps this unfair: it might seem that slaves would sense injustice that owners ignor. But even slaves must have their eyes and their feelings dulled; you cannot long entertain hope for what is unattainable. So, rather than live in perpetual frustration, the enslaved man generally will not allow his conscience to become too sensitive...Yet there is no social order, no revision of the economy, no advance in politics, no possible world situation that adequaetely conforms to the gospel or even makes room for its full realization, no revolution that does not eventually redistribute injustice."

This is the whole point of Paul not commanding Philemone to emancipate Onesimous; rather, tries to persuade Philemon in love and relationship. He (Paul) is trying to live out the Gospel that restores creation with Shalom or peace and he courageously keeps his "power" as an apostle under control--so he will not become an oppressor or exploiter and operate by the same world system that Christ came to redeem, and calls his church to redeem by operating Christ's way (love and self-sacrifice, power under not power over)--not the world's way.  Further, we have the Hope that God, when he returns, will finally correct all injustices--1 Samuel 2 is an example of this Hope/Faith in the life of Hannah.

I have a lot to learn from Paul and this letter to Philemon. I dare say the church in general has a lot to learn as well.

The quote above is from J. T. Burtchaell as quoted by Ben Worthington the III in his Socio-rhetorical Commentary on The Prison Epistles.

The Way The Unchurched Percieve The Church: A Story About a Friend's Unchurched Friend

So today I went to a my son Ian's soccer game and some friends from our small group came out to cheer him on. [We have a great small group that does life together--very biblical but that's another post.] Anyway, we went to McDonald's for our kids to play in the playland. While we were eating and watching the kids, my friend Chris began to relate to me an experience he he had with one of his unchurched friends.

He began the story by sharing how he was helping this friend, we will call him A. J. pull and winterize some boats from the area lakes. As they were driving from job to job AJ began to tell him a story about church people.

As it goes AJ rented some space for his business from a "Christian". This space was in a shop where this Christian businessman worked and AJ rented a certain # of square feet in this shop. As the story goes AJ never received the full number of square feet. Many times AJ would clean the section he was supposed to have and remove equipment and materials this businessman owned that were not suppose to be in his area. Every time he moved this material--it would end up back in his space the very next day. Eventually AJ decided he would only pay have the rent--since he wasn't receiving the full space. This business man cursed him out and yelled at him at the top of his lungs.

AJ commented that it is a shame that Christians--this business man--can live one way at the shop, but at church be a totally different person. He recounted how he had visited this man's church to see him in a suit and tie acting totally different. He then lamented at the fact that Christians think they can go to church and be one way so they can live the rest of their life another way. He also lamented at the fact that he had made some mistakes in his life (had a child out of wedlock) but that nobody AT CHURCH would accept him or give him a chance--even though for the past few years he had been turning his life around.

He then talked about a small group he had attended that wasn't like that. He said looking back--this was his church and this is they way he wished the church would be.

If the church would only realize that non-Christians perceive the institutional church a certain way and that the perceptions they work hard to keep people from having (having "bad" people in the church--one might say "real" people) actually contribute to the negative perception the unchurched have.

When will we learn that we need to be real and authentic. I don't know how many times I have been told that I need to wear a Jacket and Tie because that is what respectable pastor wear. That isn't me, and for me to do this would contribute to the negative perceptions that many of the unchurched have.

From Market Driven to Mission Oriented

Here is a link to an interesting blog. The posting is called From Market Driven to Mission Oriented. This is definitely a shift the church needs to make. Further, I agree we don't have enough pastors trained in missiology to help us make that shift. Even more many of the "conservative" or "fundamentalist" missionaries the West has sent have no real missiological training--there form of missionary activity was to impose Western values on the churches they were serving.

Shared via AddThis

Steve Addison Quote on Apostolic Leadership

The apostolic role within established churches and denominations requires the reinterpreting of the denomination [or church's] foundational values in light of the demands of its mission today. The ultimate goal of these apostolic leaders is to call the denomination [or church] away from maintenance, back to mission. The apostolic leader needs to be a visionary, who can outlast significant opposition from within the denominational [or church] structures and can build alliances with those who desire change. Further more, the strategy of the apostolic leader could involve casting vision and winning approval for a shift from maintenance to mission. In addition the leader has to encourage signs of life within the existing structures and raise up a new generation of leaders and churches from the old. The apostolic leader needs to ensure the new generation in not "frozen out" by those who resist change. Finally, such a leader must restructure the denomination [or church's] institutions so that they serve mission and purpose.

Steve Addison as Quoted by Alan Hirsh in the book The Forgotten Ways p. 156.

Key thoughts:

1. Reinterpetation of denominational or church's foundational values in light of the demands of mission today. Reinterpretation is hard to do. What is harder--people don't like the founational values of their "institution" messed with--let alone reinterpreted. How many times have I heard. You can't be negative.

2. Vision is key! How many times do churches and denominations squelch God given vision by committee? It is interesting to note that most appointees to a vision committe are not apostolic leaders, many are not leaders at all. In my experience, when committe develops vision, the usually end of restating the same tired cliches and never think out of the box enough to reinterpret the church's foundational values for mission today.

3. The apostolic leader needs to be a visionary that can outlast significant opposition from the church denomination [church] structures and who can build alliances with those who desire change. It is hard to outlast entrenched structures that exist to preserve power and the status quo. Many times there are so few people that desire lasting change that it could take a lifetime to outlast significant opposition.

4. The apostolic leader needs to ensure the new generation is not "frozen out" by those that resist change. The church's structures generally are set up to freeze out the new generation. This is why the house church movement is growing by leaps and bounds and church planting is taking off--many postmoderns (generally those under 40) are so fed up with the institutional church that they are choosing not to be part of existing churches.

5. Such a leader must restructure the denomination's [or church's] instituations so that they serve mission purposes. But this type of questioning is not allowed in existing churches and denominations. Those that question or challenge are told they cannot negative and must be positive. How can you change structures without questioning or being negative?

Just some thoughts. I welcome other thoughts and questions!

The Church's Demise

Alan Hirsch, in his book The Forgotten Ways, attributes the decline of the church in the West to the following three forces at work in society:

1. The rise of capitalism and of the free market as the mediator of value
2. The rise of the nation-state as the mediator of protection and provision
3. The rise of science as the mediator of truth and understanding

What do you think about this explanation?
Hirsch goes on to say:
On could hardly now doubt the almost total hegemonic power fo the economy, the state, and science in our lives. And the upshot is that these are precisely the places where the vast majority of people find their direction and meaning. And as we engage the twenty-first century, the most dominant force of all three --the one that pervades our lives totally--is that of global economy and the market...It has often been noted that in the postmodern condition we can consume new identities like new clothes...In this cultural situation everything, even personal identiy adn religious meaning, becomes a comodity that we can now trade in, depending on the latest fads, and by consuming the latest products--The Forgotten Ways p. 109.
If this is true, how should Christians regard "Capitalism" and "Free Market Economies"? Is there such a thing as "Benevolent Capitalism"? Can we have a "benevolent capitalism" with the belief in total depravity? Can the church begin to influence people for a "benevolent capitalism" or will it always sucomb to the darker-side of free markets and consumerism?
Just a few questions to chew on.

Imagining a Superior, More Compelling Better Church

What do you do when your system fall apart, because the new thing God is
doing is better, beyond, superior, more compelling.--Rob Bell in Jesus Wants
to Save Christians p. 101.

Great question in my book, because our "Church System" is falling apart. The church as we know it today was built during the dawn of the modern era out of the ash heap of the Dark Ages. The church made that transition because it imagined a new tomorrow--where it could be more of what God wanted it to be (more compelling, superior, beyond). This is why we had the Protestant Reformation--and the Catholic Counter-reformation.

Today we stand at the dawn of a new era that is rising out of the ashes of the failed promises of the modern era and the enlightenment project. People are imagining a new tomorrow and are out to transform the institutions of our society because they did not deliver what they promised. The church as an institution is no exception. It will either find itself increasingly irrelevant and continue to operate in a "modern" mode, or it will begin to realize that God has something better, beyond, superior, and more compelling and re-imagine a new way of doing and being the church.

What are your thoughts on church? Are you frustrated with it? Do you wonder why it just doesn't seem to get it? Do you want it to be much more than it is? Do you think it is falling apart? What do you do if you think it is falling apart? Do you think God has something better for the church than what it is today?