TV talking heads this morning are speculating whether or not Americans will have to accept this economy/unemployment/inertia as the "new normal." They quoted someone who was asking the question as it related to American productivity. Fewer workers can do more with technology...therefore, never again as many jobs. It was mighty early, so I don't remember the guy...but I'm not sure he coined the phrase. When I Googled it, it showed up everywhere in all kinds of contexts.
If 90% of "committed Christian" households (people who attend at least 2 times a month, give something to their churches, and say their faith is important to them) gave 10% of their income through their churches, American Christians would have $85.5 billion dollars a year to spend changing the world. (Passing the Plate)We wouldn't have to grieve the closing of food pantries. Families who lose jobs wouldn't have to lose homes. We could stop childhood deaths from malaria, bad water, and starvation. We could hire all kinds of workers to educate children, to tutor, to mentor, to guide--and stop the cycles of poverty and violence in our communities.
So, is the new normal grousing about 10% unemployment and how pathetic the government response is and how we wish someone would DO something! Or is the new normal the people of God stepping out in faith, taking a risk that in living and sharing the way God asks we can create a new normal that will change our world--God's people doing something. Now that would be something to talk about in the morning.
The argument from the bean-counters...even those who are committed Christians...is that people won't give in bad times. They hold on to their money to take care of themselves. And we should understand that, they say. It's only human. It may be only human, but it's not fully human. If Jesus shows us what it means to be fully human, then we need to give up our fear about saving ourselves. I can tell you this. In 53 years of life I have never heard someone committed to tithing complain that they didn't have enough money. I've heard many say they expected to not have enough. I've heard many say they don't understand why they have what they need. I've heard many speculations...perhaps I'm more careful with the rest...perhaps I don't spend without thinking. But what I have experienced and what I hear from others is that the expected deprivation is not the actual experience.
We may be in a new normal in America. If so, the new normal, just like the old normal, will be banging into our faith practice. In good times, we didn't do very well. When actual incomes were going up exponentially, actual giving dollars were declining. I wonder what the church history books will say about the American Christian church in the 21st century. Will it be that our faith couldn't hold up under the weight of economic strain...that the American church just faded out? Or will it be the remarkable faith journey ignited by a people who gave so generously that they changed the world?
What will be our "new normal?"
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Just Let Me Say This...
We learn language by being surrounded by language, completely and totally. Eugene Peterson reminds us that, in our Christian practice, everything we say is a response to God speaking to us first. Every prayer, every testimony, every Amen is in response to the "previousness of God's speech." Think about it. Even when we are sitting quietly by ourselves, we think with words. Words wash over us every minute of every day.
And yet...
We were sitting together this weekend in a stewardship workshop and the inevitable comment came up. No, we probably shouldn't recognize generous givers because we don't want to "talk" about it. We just want to give what we want to give, but we cannot talk about growing in our giving. People don't want to talk about it...keep it private. (We weren't even discussing sharing actual amounts...just percentages.) Money, how we handle it, how we give it, what God calls us to do with it...no words allowed.
Imagine trying to teach your child to talk with no words. Ride a bike...no words. Do math...no words. Make their bed...hit a baseball...tackle a running back...deal with a bully...no words. Possible? In a word...no.
Faith and practice...including the handling of money...is no different. Use your words. Here's what I choose. Here's why. Here are my problems. Where are yours? How can we solve them? Why do those problems exist? What about your promise? What about mine?
Where did we get this idea that we don't talk about our faith? that is is only between "me and God"? that using words to communicate with either negate our faith, make it "less than," or embarrasses us or another person. I think--as real human beings--we either talk about it, or it ceases to exist.
Speak up...
And yet...
We were sitting together this weekend in a stewardship workshop and the inevitable comment came up. No, we probably shouldn't recognize generous givers because we don't want to "talk" about it. We just want to give what we want to give, but we cannot talk about growing in our giving. People don't want to talk about it...keep it private. (We weren't even discussing sharing actual amounts...just percentages.) Money, how we handle it, how we give it, what God calls us to do with it...no words allowed.
Imagine trying to teach your child to talk with no words. Ride a bike...no words. Do math...no words. Make their bed...hit a baseball...tackle a running back...deal with a bully...no words. Possible? In a word...no.
Faith and practice...including the handling of money...is no different. Use your words. Here's what I choose. Here's why. Here are my problems. Where are yours? How can we solve them? Why do those problems exist? What about your promise? What about mine?
Where did we get this idea that we don't talk about our faith? that is is only between "me and God"? that using words to communicate with either negate our faith, make it "less than," or embarrasses us or another person. I think--as real human beings--we either talk about it, or it ceases to exist.
Speak up...
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Centerpoint...
From Working the Angles:
A passage from C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters teaches the young Wormwood that when you can't fight against a concept because its strength is too great, you can redefine the concept to make it something completely different and through that eliminate its power. What is "worship" for us? An hour to be inspired? excited? strengthened? motivated? educated? And if we are not any of those things, then we don't attend? We find a book to read which accomplishes one or all of the above? take a walk in nature or on the golf course? or just dismiss it all together as a waste of time because it doesn't "meet our needs."
What would worship accomplish if we "gathered to join our prayers in the act of worship" without concern to our own needs? Is worship supposed to "accomplish" something? Why is a community "gathered to join their prayers in an act of worship" both dramatic and basic? Would we agree that on Sunday our corporate prayers were "the most important things we did"?
I think we count first the sermon...does the preacher connect with us and meet some felt need we have--and do we agree with his/her "opinion" about the text? Then, perhaps we would count the music...do we know the songs? like them? connect with them? Does the musician add to our experience of worship with the music or does his/her skill distract? Then, perhaps the visuals in worship... power points, liturgical art, drama, etc. Do we like that? Connect with it? Does it stir us emotionally?
And I bet, not one of us, would evaluate prayer in our list of what we liked/disliked on a given Sunday--either the prayer of the worship leaders or our own prayerful participation. In fact, I wonder if we have even participated in prayer during Sunday worship, or do we simply wait until the "prayer" is over and we get back to the real work of worship?
What would our churches, our worship and our lives be like if we "gathered to join our prayers" with the idea that they were "the most important thing" we would do in our worship time?
I don't know. But I know that reading this passage tugs at a part of me that feels real and true and hungry. I think I would like to try a worship that was seen as a people gathered to join their prayers together and not a people that have come to get their needs met (me included).
Peterson says, comparing Greek stories and Hebrew prayers:
...the role of the community at prayer was formative in everything else that took place. When the people gathered to join their prayers in the act of worship this act was neither haphazard nor peripheral; it was dramatic and basic...The prayers of the people were the most important things that they did.Where in our lives do we live into this? "The people gathered to join their prayers in the act of worship..."
A passage from C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters teaches the young Wormwood that when you can't fight against a concept because its strength is too great, you can redefine the concept to make it something completely different and through that eliminate its power. What is "worship" for us? An hour to be inspired? excited? strengthened? motivated? educated? And if we are not any of those things, then we don't attend? We find a book to read which accomplishes one or all of the above? take a walk in nature or on the golf course? or just dismiss it all together as a waste of time because it doesn't "meet our needs."
What would worship accomplish if we "gathered to join our prayers in the act of worship" without concern to our own needs? Is worship supposed to "accomplish" something? Why is a community "gathered to join their prayers in an act of worship" both dramatic and basic? Would we agree that on Sunday our corporate prayers were "the most important things we did"?
I think we count first the sermon...does the preacher connect with us and meet some felt need we have--and do we agree with his/her "opinion" about the text? Then, perhaps we would count the music...do we know the songs? like them? connect with them? Does the musician add to our experience of worship with the music or does his/her skill distract? Then, perhaps the visuals in worship... power points, liturgical art, drama, etc. Do we like that? Connect with it? Does it stir us emotionally?
And I bet, not one of us, would evaluate prayer in our list of what we liked/disliked on a given Sunday--either the prayer of the worship leaders or our own prayerful participation. In fact, I wonder if we have even participated in prayer during Sunday worship, or do we simply wait until the "prayer" is over and we get back to the real work of worship?
What would our churches, our worship and our lives be like if we "gathered to join our prayers" with the idea that they were "the most important thing" we would do in our worship time?
I don't know. But I know that reading this passage tugs at a part of me that feels real and true and hungry. I think I would like to try a worship that was seen as a people gathered to join their prayers together and not a people that have come to get their needs met (me included).
Peterson says, comparing Greek stories and Hebrew prayers:
The Greeks were experts on understanding existence from a human point of view; the Hebrews were experts in setting human existence in response to God. Whereas the Greeks had a story for every occasions, the Hebrews had a prayer for every occasion. For pastors [or really, all God's people], the Greek stories are useful, but the Hebrew prayers are essential. Prayer means that we deal first with God and then with the world. Or, that we experience the world first not as a problem to be solved but as a reality in which God is acting.Let us pray...
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