Every Tribe, Tongue, and Nation
Dr. Martin Luther King once said ,“the most segregated hour in America is 11:00 on Sunday morning.” While segregation has been long since abolished (thanks be to God), most evangelical churches I’ve attended don’t have a lot of people of color in their pews. That’s NOT to say that the modern evangelical church is racist. I just think that we, as human beings, tend to naturally gravitate what we are familiar with. The result is our communities, churches, and lives end up being homogeneous. Last week, however, my church decided to try a little experiment. We have a Hispanic church worship at our church every Sunday evening. Sometimes we pass each other and say, “Hola,” but for the most part the two congregations never really interacted. That is,...
Authentic Christian Cool
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been reading Brett McCracken’s book Hipster Christianity. It’s a pretty good book overall, although I personally think Brett could have done more research for the chapter on the emerging church. And he does suggest that social justice is just another fad. But Brett does bring up some good points. For example, near the end he explains the differences between authentic Christian cool and being a self-righteous hipster jerk. Hipsters, as Brett explains, are all about individualism. Everything they do is a self-conscious attempt to be better and cooler than the average square (do people still say “square?”). Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to be other-centered instead of self-centered. ...
Christian Cliques
Is it just me, or can Christians be sort of cliquish sometimes? I’ve noticed that if you identify yourself as a particular kind of Christian, you can only surround yourself with people and things associated with that identity. It’s like high school all over again. Take for example the Emergent Christians and the Reformed Christians. If you check the bookshelves of any of my Emergent Christian peers, chances are you will see the same authors: Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Tony Jones, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jim Wallis, N.T. Wright, John Howard Yoder, and Shane Claiborne. Chances are emergent Christians listen to podcasts like The Nick and Josh Podcast, Something Beautiful (at least I hope they do!), Losing My Religion, and Homebrewed Christianity. The...
Leaving Christianity, Following Christ
As you may have heard by now, Anne Rice recently announced on her Facebook that she is finished with Christianity. Here’s what she has to say about it: In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen. She still, however, says she remains “committed to Christ.” Rice is just done with the religion of Christianity. And I can certainly understand where she’s coming from. When I read the words of Christ, my heart overflows with hope. Here’s Jesus, God as man, going to the broken,...
Cheap Grace
I love being cheap. I love it when people give me gift cards for Christmas. I love finding coupons for either Ruby Tuesday or Olive Garden in the Sunday papers. And I love shopping at Goodwill, and browsing through the local library’s used book section. It’s amazing what kind of stuff you can find for only five bucks! I do, however, make an exception on some things. For example, when I buy coffee grounds I get the fair trade stuff, even though it costs more than the regular coffee. People often say to me, “You’re paying way too much! You need to get the cheaper stuff.” That’s usually when I get on my spiel about how major corporations exploit humble farmers, and how the middle man takes all the money. I figure if my money is going to help...