I laugh a lot.  Mostly because most of what I see is so funny.  But let me start off by saying that I realize what I’m writing about is kind of serious…kind of.

If you hadn’t noticed, the gay marriage issue is one that is currently boiling over everywhere you look.  And it would seem that the battle lines are drawn.  Here’s the apparent scene: on one side are gays and those who support gay marriage, and on the other side are the wretched evangelicals.  Is this your personal view?  I’d implore you to rethink it if it is.

The word “evangelical” is becoming synonymous with “hatemonger”, “anti-gay”, and “hopelessly out of touch and therefore worthless”.  What’s amazingly tragic is that none of those things should ever be or should have ever been used to describe an evangelical person.  Quite the contrary, actually.

The word “evangelical” comes from the Greek “euangelion” from which we get our word “gospel”.  It literally means “one who brings a joyous message of victory; one who brings good news”.  It has at its heart the word “angel” which means “messenger”.  The verb tense “euangelizo” commonly referred to a messenger who would precede the king’s arrival into the city, telling of the king’s victory in battle.  “Evangelical” has always been linked with “good news”.

Today? Not so much.

Ask the average person on the street what they think about “evangelicals” and they’re likely to have little to no use for them.  To our society, the evangelical movement has proven itself not just archaic, but acidic.  We’re not just making noise, we’re making enemies.  We’re no longer idyllic, but idiotic.  What to do with us pesky evangelicals?  Shut them up and then shut them down.  And “good riddance to bad rubbish”, as they say.

But why?  Why are evangelicals considered more and more  radioactive when the heart of the Gospel message we carry is that God has heard, that Jesus has come, and that we are reunited with the King?  Why does American society have a growing disdain for this good news and the people who carry it?  In quick succession, I’d like to share a few of my thoughts and then hear yours.

First, too many Christians have not communicated the gospel without spin.  If they had, we’d see even more people coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ (even more than the not-too-shabby estimated 80,000 daily who currently do).  In America, we’ve taught a shallow gospel, pinned to a dead routine, and wrapped in consumeristic “comfort above all” wishy-washiness.  We’ve taught about a Jesus so full of love that He died willingly on a cross in our place in order to be reconciled to us eternally starting right now and in exchange have asked that on Sundays, you should be nice and come to a church building.  Unless there’s a game on.  Or its race weekend.  Or the kids have ball practice.  In that case…well…whatever.

Secondly, there isn’t good news without bad news first, and its with that point most people struggle.  The good news is that Jesus has come, but the bad news is that He came for you because you were lost in your sin.  (Want to end a conversation quickly? Throw in the word “sin”.)  The good news is that forgiveness is totally free, but the bad news is that’s because there’s no way you could have ever gotten it for yourself. You’re way too sinful, and rendered utterly helpless and hopeless.  The good news is that “all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”, but the bad news is that you can only have one Lord, so if He’s it then you’re not.  The good news is that the grace of God sets you free in every way a human being can be set free; from condemnation, from the expectations of others, from the power of sin, from your past, present, and future mistakes, from the power of death, and from an eternity separated from Him (to name a few), but the bad news is that we think our version of freedom (doing whatever we want) is just…well…better than God’s version.  With our version of freedom, we get to dismiss what’s moral and prop up what we think makes us happy at the moment.  We get to live in a seemingly wonderful world where no one is wrong except the people who say something can be wrong.  With our version, we get to call ourselves enlightened while ignoring the idea of darkness.  Yep, our version is appealing all right…but will ultimately bring about the demise of our society; the one we think so highly of right now.

Finally (for now), I’ll throw in a good ‘ol “Catch 22”.  Its the argument that “Christians are all hypocrites.”  However, look closely and you’ll see that indelibly connected to the human experience is hypocrisy.  Its just that its especially nauseating when an evangelical Christian purports to “love God” and yet isn’t perfect all the time.  And voila! Its super easy to use my hypocrisy as an excuse to ignore me and my message.  Unfortunately, it seems that we have somehow linked the expectation of perpetual personal perfection with following Jesus.  I can’t tell you how many people don’t attend church (for example) because they “don’t have their act together.”  Somehow evangelicals have communicated to the world around us “Get yourself together, then Jesus will take a look at you.”  Geez, I wouldn’t want to be a part of a church like that.  I’d feel weird and out of place!  But therein lies the very heart of the gospel message.  You’re NOT perfect.  Neither am I.  That’s why Jesus came in the first place.  But still we as evangelicals are somehow giving off the vibe that we’ve got something figured out.  That we’ve got some corner of the market on God that isn’t accessible to others.  Hogwash.

The God I love and serve is the God who saved me when I didn’t have one shred of hope to save myself (and I still don’t).  The God I love and serve is a God of compassion, grace, and mercy AND a God of righteousness and justice.  The God I love and serve is a God of “whosoever”; the gates are flung wide open to ANYONE (straight, gay, white, black, male, female, republican, democrat, tall, short, fat, thin, you get the idea) who would take Him at His word and receive His forgiveness.  For the love of the God I love and serve, I have crushed any pedestal I might be tempted to put myself on.  I’m painfully aware of my sinfulness and gloriously aware of His willingness to forgive it all and to adopt me into an eternal friendship with Him, one in which as His son I am only who He says I am.   And none of this is because there is anything about me that is appealing.  None of this is because I’ve figured anything out.  None of this because of me, all of this because of Him.

Its your turn.  What are other reasons that many see “evangelical” as a dirty word?

I’ve been on Twitter for a couple years now and I’m sure I’m doing something wrong because even after such a long time, I currently only have 233 followers.  *Shout-out to my Twitter followers!*  I notice (and usually take it a wee-bit personally) when someone stops following on Twitter.  It stings just a bit.  Not enough to ruin my appetite for lunch, but still. (By the way, follow me on Twitter by clicking on that link over there.)

And as a pastor, I’ve got to admit that it also stings when someone leaves the local church I’m on staff at.  I take that personally too, even though it often has nothing at all to do with me.  I wonder, “What did we do?” or “What didn’t we do?”

Now, there are plenty of dumb reasons for leaving a church and I’m sure those of you who’ve ever voluntarily left a church for another church up the road can attest to the fact that your reason wasn’t one of the dumb ones.  Of course not.  Never.  But if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to list a few of them.

Too hot. Too cold. Uncomfortable chairs. Untrimmed mustaches on the ushers. Bad coffee. Bad parking. Low lights. Wrong Bible version. Not enough candles. They shook my hand too hard. I got hugged. Stale donuts. Everybody smiles, so they must be fakers. They took an offering. The worship leader’s soul patch. The pastor says “uh” a lot. The lobby smells like egg salad. Children are too noisy and act like children. The teenagers aren’t Amish. The preacher preaches too long (besides, I felt convicted during his sermons). The bathrooms are cramped. Standing too long for singing. Too many baptisms. Not enough communion…

(There are others, but that’s what the comment section is for.)

By contrast as far as I can see, there are far fewer legitimate reasons to leave a church:

• They don’t believe/preach/teach/obey the Bible. (A lot could fit under this umbrella)
• They don’t follow the leading of God’s Spirit.

So, let’s hear it.  What are some other dumb reasons or legitimate reasons to leave a local church?

Well, it happened again.  Remember last week when I got a text message from a stranger who turned out to be sending the text message to a wrong number which was mine?  Sure you do.  If not, read it here.

Well, I turned my phone on this morning and sure enough there’s another text message.  This one was more….um….shall we say….”to the point”:

“Do you hate me this much that you are trying to ruin me? I thought you were better than that. What did I ever do to deserve this? How could you?”

Before I had a chance to respond (‘cuz you know I wanted to), they sent another text moments later: “Sorry wrong number”.

Do you want to know which word struck me the most?  The word “hate“.  If you’ve got a soul, hearing that word always kind of stings, doesn’t it?  Especially when it goes from one human to another.  But we were never created to have that emotion toward one another.  Ever.  When we do, it eats away at our humanity. We become less.

Where does hatred fit into the human experience? Are we ever sanctioned by God to hold hatred in our hearts?  Toward whom? Or toward what?

Having been a youth pastor for 17 years now, I’ve heard and seen my fair share of blurry-eyed students trying to feel their way through the fog of searching for “God’s will for my life.”

They ask questions like:

Should I go to college? Where?

What should I major in?  What field should I go into?

Where am I going to live? 

What kind of job am I going to have?

How many bosses will I have? How many people will I be the boss of?

Should I get married? To whom?

Will we have kids? How many?

What’s the purpose of my life? What path should I be on? How will I know when I’m on the right path? What if I get off the right path somehow? Will I know if I do? Will God still love me and bless me?

All legitimate questions, but I’d suggest that none of them have anything to do with God’s will.  How do I know? They’re all egocentric questions; they’re all about “me”.  And if you want to hear the best news you’ve ever heard, then read this: God’s will has precious little to do with you.

If you want to know God’s will for your life, then I’d suggest brand new questions.  They’re simple and few.  And these questions aren’t limited to high school students just starting out on life’s road, because God’s will isn’t a destination.  It’s not something you arrive at.  These questions are for anyone anywhere along life’s road, no matter if you’re 18 or 98.

#1: “Who is Jesus to you?”

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been following Him or if you haven’t yet started. Jesus Himself asked this question of His own disciples.  Your answer to this question will have a deep and dramatic impact on every other detail of your life.  You can’t skip it and go to #2. In fact, every person who ever lived will be brought to THE answer (Philippians 2:9-11). So, its critical that you answer it now for yourself.

#2: “Where are your idols?”

We’re an idol-driven society. We latch onto an idol until we suck the life out of them. Before they hit the ground, we’ve latched on to the next one.  Name the idols in your life and then smash them against the side of God’s throne.  Is it a job? A girl? A guy? Money? A TV show? Fame? Food? A house? Yourself? What is it in your life that you can’t get enough of?  That’s your idol.

#3: “What’s in your hand?”

Remember Moses?  Sure you do.  Baby in the basket, brought up in Pharaoh’s house, killed an Egyptian, became a shepherd, talked to a bush, returned to Egypt to face Pharaoh, yada yada yada.  When Moses told God he wasn’t up to the task God was laying before him, God answered with a question: “Moses, what’s that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2-5)  The shepherd’s staff in Moses’ hand was his identity, his representation, himself. What has God placed in your life? How has He shaped you? What are your passions? What are your interests? What keeps you up at night? What makes you mad? What invokes emotion? What do you see in the world around you and you think “Somebody need to do something about that.”?  THAT’S what’s in your hand.  God put it there and He wants it back. Lay it down and see what happens.

No, God’s will isn’t about you.  It’s ultimately about the glory that surrounds Him. It’s about His invitation to you to join in on the glory of God.  The best way to do that is to listen to the final words of Jesus before He left earth: “Go and make disciples.”  Four words, but a host of different complexions. You can make disciples as a suburbanite, as a city-dweller, as a farmer, in retail, in the restaurant industry, in fashion, in high finance, in real estate, at home, in the industrial field, in science, and in any other place you find yourself.

I tell students that if they want answers to all the questions they have about the details of their lives, then just keep breathing. All those answers will come. But its quite easy, even after all those blanks are filled in, to have missed the very thing they were created for.

What’s God will for your life?  Its the same as His will for my life.  Its not a tightrope that you easily fall off of.  Its that we would fully surrender to the glory that surrounds Him by making ourselves available completely to His good pleasure of working through us to love others toward Him as we briefly walk this earth.

“God has been speaking to me, and…”

It’s the card that trumps all other arguments.  It’s the statement that usually precedes big news while simultaneously precluding disagreements against the new big news.  I’ve heard it from friend to friend, from husband to wife, from parent to kid, from kid to parent, from boyfriend to girlfriend, and from pastor to congregation.  We LOVE to use it.  Here’s why:

It makes us sound ultra-spiritual.

Not that spirituality is a bad thing per se, but when “being spiritual” is your pedestal to stand on so you can look down on others, their viewpoints, their opinions, and their values–well, then, you’ve got yourself a problem.  Who’s a jerk.  Who’s you.

It makes us look tight with YAHWEH.

It’s like “Yeah, me and God were hanging out last night at Lifeway and as I stood in the devotional section, I heard Him confirm to me that He wants me to __________.”  It’s as if we’re saying that God talks to me and what He said to me is more weighty than what He might have said to you.

It’s sometimes a disguise for selfishness.

Now, I KNOW nobody who reads this blog has ever struggled with selfishness.  I bet you’re reading these words while also feeding the poorest of the poor bowls of rice and water; rice you bought with your own paycheck and water from a well you dug with your own hands.  You’re such a giver.  But there are actually some people who are both selfish and have ulterior motives behind the “close encounters” with the Almighty.  You know, the encounter where He told them to leave their spouse and kids because they should be happy and they’re not.  The encounter where God told them to dishonor and disrespect their parents through a decision they are making.  The encounter that completely flies in the face of what God has already stated in black and white in His word.  THAT encounter.

So, how are you supposed to know that “God told you so”?  Here’s my 2 cents.

1. What has He already said in Scripture?  He won’t ever contradict Himself.  And I believe the Bible gives more answers than we usually give it credit for.

2. What has He said through the gift of wise counsel?  Seek those who are older, who care about God and you, and are outside your circumstance for a more objective viewpoint.

3. Pray. (You knew that was coming.)  But not the kind of prayer where you’re telling God what you want, tacking an “Amen” on the end, and bolting out the door knowing you’ve heard Him speak.  My first ordination mentor once told a younger version of me that he should not just talk to God in prayer, but to be still and listen to God.  That kid thought that was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard.  That younger pastor figured “when I want God’s opinion, I’ll give it to Him.”  That younger me has since learned better.

4. Will what I “heard” from God lead to my glory or His?  I’ve found that God’s not very interested in making me awesome.  He’s interested in His own fame.  His plans for me will always end up in the exact same place the entire world will one day end up: bringing glory to Him.

In what other ways can you hear and confirm God’s direction in your life?

I woke up to a text message on my phone this morning that was sent late last night, after I had turned my phone off.  It was an image being sent to me from a number I didn’t recognize.  There was no text to accompany it; just this graphic:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I didn’t recognize the number it was sent from, I did the only thing I could do.  I asked the only question I could ask:  “Who is this? And I have assumed, judged, or hurt you in some way?”

The reply came back less than a minute later: “Sorry wrong number”

While I was off the hook with THAT person (and slightly entertained by the faux pas), it got me thinking about people in my life who might actually be holding something against me.  I can say with a clear mind and heart that I have no idea who that would be or what the issue might be, but that doesn’t mean such a situation won’t certainly happen again–and perhaps sooner than I’d like.

When it does, how do I best move toward reconciliation?  HOW indeed.

Humility: Coming to that person in a spirit of humility will grease the gears of reconciliation. Conversely, coming with a point to prove or a battle to win will only heighten tension.

Ownership: As humans we’ve been shifting blame since the Garden of Eden fiasco.  Own your decisions, especially the wrong ones. Say what it was that you did wrong and don’t dismiss the weight of it.

Willingness: Be willing to do whatever is necessary to bring restoration and reconciliation.  But if the other person is not willing, know that the Bible lets you off the hook.  We’re instructed “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18.  You have no control over if someone forgives you or not. If they do not, continue to give grace as freely as you have received it from God (completely).  Don’t make your willingness contingent on theirs.

I was thankful for the relationally intimate wrong number this morning. It brought me back to the fact that we’ve been reconciled to God and have been given the ministry of reconciliation.  (2 Cor. 5:18)

As a pastor/leader/writer/communicator, I’m never far from the potential of ticking somebody off. While it sometimes can’t be avoided, I want to be sensitive to when it happens so that I can have a hand in helping healing happen.

We’ve all been there.  The Walmart check-out line.  In my most recent visit to WallyWorld, I was in line to check out with my few items as the customer in front of me (with about a million-billion items) was finishing up.  The great thing about Walmart is that there’s always interesting things (people really) to look at while you wait.

As I stepped up to the “bag my stuff and let me pay” position, the cashier mumbled something that I’m pretty sure was intentionally loud enough to illicit a response.  She said, “Well that was an awkward conversation.”

She went on to tell me about the conversation she had just had; one in which she felt judged by someone identifying themselves as a Christian.

I know.  Shocking, right?

She then said, “Religion makes people feel awkward.”  I replied, “For most people, I think that’s true.” She then told me about a comment she had received earlier about the earrings she was wearing.  They were small skulls dangling from her ear lobes.  I saw them and thought, “Yep, those are skulls…big deal.”

The cashier went on to tell me that she was agnostic.  An agnostic is someone who doesn’t believe that spiritual truths can be known. They don’t believe that the existence of a higher power can be proven or dis-proven.  It’s a “limbo”, a “jury’s still out”, a “hanging chad” kind of worldview.  It’s euphoric in its inconclusiveness.  And for better or for worse, its right where this young lady had landed.

I believe that respect is the cornerstone of talking with someone of a different worldview.  I think Christians would do well to listen more and talk less.  I believe that this young woman deserved to be heard, not merely spoken to and definitely not spoken at.  So, that’s what I did.  In my brief time standing there as she talked and swiped my items over the “beepy” thingy, I simply listened to her.  And when she was done I told her that I actually teach religion, and I find it fascinating and know a bit about a variety of religions/worldviews.  Throw rocks at me if you want, but I did NOT want to say “I’m a Christian too.”  She had just had an interaction with Little Miss Earring Critic over there and I didn’t want to be painted with the same brush.

What would you have done in my situation?  How would you have responded to her?  What would you have said/not said?  Whatever your thoughts, I’d love to hear them.