WARNING: A Christian, holiness, & biblical worldview.

23 December 2007

Christian School to Secular School...

It would seem to me that many colleges & universities started by churches have, over time, parted from their Christian roots and eventually divorced themselves from the church.

**WARNING: Intense waves of sarcasm to follow...**

I'd like to propose a few ways to change a Christian school into a secular school (and there is a difference between the two)...

1) If you have chapel services five days a weak; change it to three. If you have it three days a week; change it to one. Too much "church" is a turn-off to unbelievers (not to mention the fact that it could hurt enrollment/finances to require chapel). Finally make chapel optional before being a good steward of the school's finances and doing away with chapel all together. (Remember, do it slowly so no zealous Christians will cause a fuss.)

2) Strive for intellectual and academic excellence to the neglect of the spiritual state of the campus. Certainly you could probably focus on some one's spiritual health and academic performance, but their spiritual state is just another thing to be juggling and the 'academy' has a different function than the church. You are, after all, a college/university!

3) When you advertise on TV, billboards, or secular periodicals make sure you do not mention your Christian foundation. It is a turn-off and you will lose many prospective students that way. (They might find out if they come to your school anyway, so why mention it?). Even if they don't ever realize they attended a Christian school, you've just done a great job of helping them be Christians even though they may not realize it!

4) Lower the standards for your sports teams. If it makes you feel better you can convince yourself that having a winning basketball team will make a better name for Jesus than a mediocre basketball team that lives a holy life.

5) Hire faculty, staff, & administrators that are not Christians. As long as they do their jobs well, who really cares?

6) Consistently raise your tuition so that you are one of the most expensive schools to attend in your state or region. This is a good way to get rid of some of the more religious students who are studying to be preachers (preachers won't be able to afford to go to your school). It is definitely positive if you can prevent ordinary people from the denomination you are a part of to come to your school because of financial hurdles, this takes away from the close minded Christian influence. Plus you can increase your salary and be more prestigious in the academic world with higher tuition rates and more upscale students!

7) Do away with any kind of rules you might have on your campus. Those include curfew, dress code, required chapel attendance, and any other rules students often complain about. You certainly do not want to be viewed as legalistic. If you have any rules and, for denominational reasons, are not able to do away with them, just leave them in print but ignore them.

8) Change your school motto from something like: "Christlike in all we do" to something that uses some Latin and is translated to say something more general like: "We are nice and we like everybody."

9) Take down all crosses and religious imagery from your campus. It was all probably graven images any way. Put up peace signs, lots of posters on what we can do to help the environment, and weekly fliers about how much more important it is to not litter than take the life of an unborn infant.

10) Replace some of the religious requirements (either chapel or some Bible course) with community service (playing hop-scotch with homeless kids or some kind of non-committal activity that pushes toward little to no change is best). It will fool the Christians into believing you are still a part of the Christian church and convince the rest of the world you want to make a difference without "pushing your beliefs" on anyone else.

11) In your Bible, Theology, or religion department (whatever you might call it) hire a Jew, an atheist, and some other professors who are so smart they think they've figured out why Mary really wasn't a virgin. Your students probably need a larger worldview (narrative if you want to talk like a post-modern) than the narrow, exclusivistic worldview of Jesus/Christianity/the Church.

12) Finally, measure your success by how much money your graduates make or how many books they publish. If someone becomes a denominational leader you can take credit for it within the denomination but do not talk about it outside of the church. (You may be able to take credit for sports stars who thought about coming to your school.)

Extra note: If part of a denomination, you may want to continue to tap into the enormous amount of financial resources available from the many lay people who have no earthly idea what is really going on at your school. To do so, talk a lot about what God is doing at your school (even if you have to exaggerate or even make things up). All some lay people care about is whether or not the young people are serving the Lord and living for Him (how short-sighted they must be)!

22 December 2007

Stay Focused...

This is a video I was directed to that is kind of interesting. It is about how we can be focused on some stuff and miss the "big picture" sometimes.

I hope I don't miss the most important things in ministry because I am worried about getting the newsletter out on time or the 'order of service' organized well. There are people who are lost (do not know Jesus Christ) in this world.

Have you missed the big picture?

18 December 2007

I am a liberal!

I've been called a liberal.

I've been called a conservative.

I guess they are relative terms. It depends on your context. In other words, whatever stance that the majority holds is the moderate view and any other view is defined in correlation to the majority.

Christians have began to define things that way. We haphazardly define according to the majority's consensus.

On my fifth grade teachers wall there was a poster that said: "What is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular."

So how do we, as Christians, traverse the ever changing landscape? With the Word of an unchanging God! That is our absolute standard. (Yes, you can attack me for using the word absolute.)

So whatever label I might receive, I'm not going to worry about it! I am a Christian and that's all that matters.

But please, whatever you do, just don't call me a post-modern!

11 December 2007

Disturbing Trends in the Holiness Movement...

1) Conversion without confession.

2) Regeneration without repentance.

3) Sanctification without surrender.

4) Heaven without holiness.

10 December 2007

The Holiness Manifesto!

I know, I know... I'm slow on the draw with this one. I'm nearly two years behind on this point and will probably fail to offer up a fresh opinion, but I must charge in.

You can read the Holiness Manifesto on the Christianity Today website. It just seems really pointless to me. (Not to mention the fact that it took them THREE YEARS to come up with all this.) I mean there is nothing distinctly "holiness" about it. Any reasonable Christian would heartily agree with any of the statements in it whether from the holiness tradition or not. (Maybe that's the point: It's more a call to the lowest common denominator.)

And why do we always have to bash those who have gone before us? I don't think they failed in ministry so much as equipping their children with an appreciation for who they are as part of the holiness movement. I think maybe it's easier to sit around and critique and complain about our forefathers than it would be to get out and do something constructive for the Kingdom of God!

In short, I believe the holiness movement has become another part of the very generic category of 'evangelicals.' Don't get me wrong I agree with the 'biblical vision of Christian mission,' but any church would probably tell you they do these things. We have made a move toward the generic as is often the case with virtually any denomination. But why can we not celebrate our differences from evangelicals at large?

Certainly I am not suggesting that we de-Christianize the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc., but I do think we should return to our message of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with new zeal!

Holiness Manifesto's 'biblical vision of Christian mission':
1. Preach the transforming message of holiness;
2. Teach the principles of Christ-like love and forgiveness;
3. Embody lives that reflect Jesus Christ;
4. Lead in engaging with the cultures of the world; and
5. Partner with others to multiply its effect for the reconciliation of all things.

Sounds generic to me!

What would be helpful would be addressing what kind of transforming holiness we are to preach! How/when does it occur? What does a holiness life look like? What are the fruits of this kind of life? Is it instantaneous or progressive? ...etc...

What are the principles of Christ-like love and forgiveness? Social justice? Personal piety? Repentance? Truth?

What kind of life reflects Jesus? ...Mega churches? Sleeping outdoors? BMW's? Ties or collars?

I guess I'm running in circles because the reality is that those working on the Holiness Manifesto probably wanted to leave it wide open for folks. And that would be a lowering of the bar. Problem is majority does not always accompany truth. The more the merrier some "holiness leaders" would say.

But what if we stopped doing the most popular thing and just became old-fashioned, legalistic, anti-tobacco, anti-Roman Catholic (they pray to and worship/venerate humans), anti-alcohol, anti-movies, anti-dancing holiness people that didn't really care what the Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Methodists thought about us. We just cared about lost people being born-again and seeking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit so that they might live a holy life that didn't flirt with the "gray" area!

I think holiness has a bright future especially as it acts rather than reacts to church culture fads!

03 December 2007

Yes, I like Huckabee...

Mike Huckabee. I just like him! I do. I mean, what's not to like? Here are some reasons I like him!

1) He is a Christian.

2) He is a Christian. (Repetition for emphasis.) You might say all the presidential candidates are Christians, but you'd be wrong... they all claim they are Christians. (BIG difference!)

3) He will stand for Christian values even if unpopular!

4) He deals with issues across the board in a consistent way! From the environment (he says we are to be good stewards of the earth) to abortion (he opposes a woman's, or man's, right to kill).

5) He's witty. Of course I really only like this about him, because I already liked him for the previous four reasons. In other words, you won't get my vote just because you're witty.

6) He's an underdog and doesn't care! (See comments on number five, because Dennis Kucinich is an underdog too.)

7) He said: "My faith is my life - it defines me. My faith doesn’t influence my decisions, it drives them. For example, when it comes to the environment, I believe in being a good steward of the earth. I don’t separate my faith from my personal and professional lives."

8) He was (and still is) a Baptist preacher from Arkansas. I like Baptists; they're going to heaven (Mormons aren't).

I think I'm going to vote for him!

Christians, Politics, & Big Headaches...

God isn't a Democrat. God isn't a Republican. And he isn't even an Independent!

Now that I got that out of the way...

It's a relatively new debate within the church: Should Christians be involved in the political process? Unfortunately, I believe, that question should be one labeled as rhetorical.

The emphasis in pop-Christianity (by the way, I use Christianity loosely in certain contexts) seems to be on influencing our world through liberating the oppressed, ending poverty, and comforting the down-trodden. Social concerns.

I'm not going here in this post, but have we forgotten that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost? Spiritual concerns. (No, I'm not arguing against social concerns, on the contrary I will be a proponent.)

It seems like a lot of Christians today would rather critique the problems of our fallen world (there is a place for that) rather than do anything about it. My suggestion: Stop whining about the divorce rate and help to build strong marriages (beginning with our own)! Stop complaining about racism and help live out biblical love. Stop lamenting all the lies going around and be a person of truth!

The push to abandon the "political process" is not only politically irresponsible, but it is socially, morally, intellectually, and spiritually irresponsible! Through the political process we are able to influence our world in a positive way. We can influence it socially, morally, and even spiritually! How can a Christian argue against that!?

Did Jesus run for office? No, but that wasn't his specific task! His mission was to provide for our salvation! His life was all about happened on Easter!

Are you called to run for president? Probably not, but I do believe that Christians are called not only to run for office, but to be a part of the political process. It is in the belief of non-involvement towards politics that we seek to divorce our responsibility with what occurs in our world.

When light refuses to shine, darkness always prevails.