Is Jesus the Reason?

Here's a great question from a concerned mother that will be talked about on the Drew Marshall Show this Saturday.

This week on the Counsel Of Many: parents of a teenager want to know if they should let their son attend a completely different church, one they’re not really all that comfortable with.

“My husband and I are having a tough time figuring out if we should let our 15 year old son attend a different church. Our family has been going to a United Church around the corner from our house for years. A couple of months ago, he started going with some friends to a Pentecostal Tabernacle church quite a distance away from where we live. His friend’s parents take a few kids whenever they have a special youth event on. I never really had a problem with our son going to those events once in a while, but now he wants to go to their youth group and ditch the one at our church. He also wants to go to their Sunday services instead of going to the one at our church. Both my husband and I are a little leery about the stuff they teach at this church. We’ve never gone but some of our friends have told us that it’s pretty out there. Lots of emotional manipulation, always talking about money, and apparently they want everyone who goes to this church to “speak in tongues”. It almost seems kind of cultish and as parents, we just don’t want our son getting involved with a bunch of whacky religious fanatics. And yet, I wonder if we’re being too overprotective. I mean, it’s not like he’s out there doing drugs and getting wasted with a bunch of hoodlums off the street. Maybe some other parents, or teens, could give us some advice? Do we forbid him from going to this church or should we just relax?”

This kind of highlights the point that many Christians misunderstand each other and that Jesus is not necessarily the focus of their religious activities.

I talk about this in another blog called "Sheep Stealing 101".

Gathered or Scattered?

Over a million Christians are leaving organized religion every year. In fact, this is the first time in church history that large numbers of people are leaving the institution of church in order to be the church without ties to a local group.

This leaves professional pastors somewhat befuddled since they have been trained to care for a group of people under their leadership. The idea that people can serve Jesus without aligning themselves to a specific person or place seems almost blasphemous to them. And if that is too strong a statement, they certainly feel that it isn’t God’s “best” for these wayward people.

I’m not sure if that many people have actually left the institutional church or if they have simply stopped going on Sundays. Those in the latter camp would have a myriad of reasons for stopping attendance. Hurts, doctrinal disputes, or just plain old bored are just a few of the reasons cited for not attending. That doesn’t mean they have philosophically changed their thinking about the body of Christ being represented by a formal allegiance to a particular group’s brand of Christianity.

However, there are a number of people who literally see the scriptures in a way that endorses the idea of there being only one body of Christ, represented by countless members. For them, allegiance to a particular brand of Christian religion seems to take away from the idea that our belonging comes from the understanding that we are all brothers and sisters through the blood of Jesus.

One of the most common expressions of our humanness is the desire to belong to and identify with a group. The problem is that this desire is often more important than allowing God to reign over us individually. This can be seen as early on as the uniting together to build the Tower of Babel. Even though they knew that God desired for them to go forth and multiply throughout His world, they feared being scattered,

“Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
Genesis 11:4

If Abraham had put belonging to his own country ahead of being willing to be scattered, there would have been no Israel.

Later on, the human propensity for wanting someone to rule over them, (in spite of their heritage from Abraham), was found in the nation of Israel’s rebellious demand for a king.

But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
1 Samuel 8:6,7

Ezekiel 34 is a prophetic call to God’s people to follow only one shepherd.
" 'For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
Ezekiel 34:11-16

Many people have stopped following shepherds who are only interested in gathering people together in order for them to fulfill the pastor's vision. God is longing to be THE shepherd of our lives as much today, as He was in Ezekiel’s time.

Does that mean that we shouldn’t receive guidance from elders? Of course not. But the guidance should always be to point us to God’s desire to care for us no matter where we are and that we should desire to care for one another, no matter who they are. It need not be guidance to be faithful to a group that ultimately simply endorses the name of a leader and/or a particular doctrinal approach.

A father’s greatest joy is to see his children grow up and live independent lives, while staying connected through love. This should be the same for anyone who desires to be an elder within Christ’s body. They should rejoice in helping others hear God’s voice and being free to be scattered (GO) throughout His world, representing Him in every facet of their daily lives.

Elders/pastors who make a name for themselves will always be at risk of catering to the human condition of desiring a king and fearing being scattered.

When it comes to praying with one another, one of the most cited passages of scripture is,
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
Matthew 18:19,20

And yet when it comes to gathering together, religion would seem to imply that 2 or 3 is not sufficient to say that we have gathered together. The problem this poses for the religious mind is that 2 or 3 doesn’t need a designated leader nor does it cater to the false idea that there is safety in numbers. In fact, many of the great stories of the Bible seem to highlight the value of one.

The great commission is filled with the promise that as we GO (be scattered), each one of us can walk in our destiny of discipling one another. Ultimately, the purpose of being gathered together is to free us to be scattered.

Religion or Jesus

Bait and Switch

Trading the Vibrant Life of Jesus for a Ritualistic Religion Called Christianity

By Wayne Jacobsen

I saw the sign a year ago in Georgia: Live Free for Three Months. It was a developer’s marketing strategy for a declining housing market. When I saw it, however, I wasn’t thinking about houses. I thought about Christianity and how we invite people to live free in Christ and then soon after saddle them with all the obligations of being a “good Christian”. We generally don’t even let them have three months.

When the early believers were first called Christians, we don’t know if it was a complement or a mockery. We do know that they didn’t invent the term for themselves. The culture called them “little christs” because they had found so much identity in following Jesus. Whatever spawned the term, those early believers adopted it for themselves and for 2,000 years it has been the dominant identifier for those who claim to follow Christ. But that might be changing.

Recent surveys show even believers are becoming uncomfortable with the term. At least in the United States it is increasingly used not for people who reflect the passion of Jesus in a broken world, but for adherents of a religion that has been built on a distortion of the life and teaching of Jesus, not necessarily it’s reality. The results can be confusing.

“Are you a Christian?” I used to love it when someone on a plane asked me that question. “Absolutely,” I’d answer, proud to be on the side of all that’s good and right in the world. But over the last fifteen years, answering that question has become far more difficult. Much of what has been done in recent years in the name of Christianity embarrasses me and disfigures the God I love. Some of it even horrifies me.

So now when I’m asked the question today, I hedge a bit. “It depends on what you mean by ‘Christian’,” I often respond. If they are asking whether or not I am a faithful adherent of the religion called Christianity, I have to confess that I’m not. I’m not even trying to be. But if they are asking me if I am a passionate follower of Jesus, the answer would be an enthusiastic yes.

In a few short years those realities have diverged significantly. Perhaps there has not been a time since the Middle Ages, where what it means to be a good Christian and what it means to thrive in a relationship with God, couldn’t be more at odds. You can do everything required of a ‘good Christian’ in our day and still miss out on what it means to know him and be involved in a meaningful relationship with him that transforms you to love as he loved.

How many people endure repetitive rituals certain that doing so endears them to God? How many embrace a slate of ethical rules or doctrinal propositions thinking that doing so ensures God’s blessings? Jesus offered us a vibrant life of relationship with his Father, and we ended up creating a religion that often disarms that very Gospel of its glory.

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” (Mark 7:6-7) These words are as true for us today as when Jesus voiced them to the religious captives in his. His warnings in Matthew 23 about the pitfalls of religion, are more applicable in our day than they were in his. When is the last time you heard a sermon from that text? Read it. You’ll know why.

Something Is Broken

For the last few months I’ve done numerous radio interviews for people concerned about what’s being called the collapse of Christianity. Newsweek did a cover article in April about the collapse of Christianity’s influence in America and that fewer people identify themselves as Christian or are a committed part of a local congregation.

There’s a lot of handwringing going on about those statistics, most of them blaming the culture. But the problems in religion itself have never been greater. Conservative Christianity aligned itself with a political agenda and a party that turned out to be as corrupt as it blamed the other party for being. More and more believers I know are embarrassed at the anger and arrogance of many so-called leaders who speak to the press on behalf of Christianity. So it’s no wonder to me that last year 4000 churches closed in America, 1700 pastors left the ministry each month and another 1300 pastors were terminated by their church, many without cause, and over 3500 people per day left their church last year.

Clearly we have a problem that cannot be blamed on the secularization of our culture. The kingdom is no longer a pearl of great price, and knowing Jesus is no longer the fruit of our religious activities. And people who are beginning to see that, are often marginalized as rebellious or unsubmitted for simply wanting what Jesus promised them.

Many people giving up on local institutions are not doing so because they’ve rejected Jesus, but finding that the culture of Christianity is actually diminishing their faith not enhancing it. In an email I got the other day, from a frustrated pastor trying to help people follow Jesus, and is just coming to realize that his own job may be at odds with his greatest passion. “Church has become a hindrance to building relationships and loving others.”

He’s not alone. Many of us came to faith enamored by the life and teachings of Jesus. We were promised a relationship with God but were handed a religion of doctrines we had to believe, rituals we had to observe, obligations we had to meet and a standard of morality to adopt. While most of those were true enough, many found that their attempts to follow them did not produce either the life of Jesus it promised, nor the reality of true, caring communities of faith.

We have traded the simple power of the Gospel for a religion based on human effort. We were invited to relationship and ended up with a host of irrelevant dogma and burdensome obligations. Fortunately people from all over the world are waking up to a fresh hunger to shed the dictates of religion and embrace the wonder and power of a love-filled relationship with the living God.

Was Christianity Ever Meant to Be a Religion?

I guess all of this begs the question, did Jesus intend to start a religion called Christianity, or did we do this to ourselves? I suspect the latter. I am wholeheartedly convinced that he came to end all religions, not by lashing out against them, but by filling up in the human spirit what religion promises to fill but never can. Religion seeks to manipulate human effort to earn God’s approval, when such approval can never be earned.

Abraham, a Jewish man, lead the tour portion of a trip to Israel I was on fifteen years ago. Some of those on the tour had been rude to his faith as they tried to “help” him embrace Jesus as the Messiah. On the last morning, I found him alone by the bus and had the chance to ask him if he’d been offended by some of the remarks.

He smiled. He told me he’d been guiding tours for 30 years and someone is always trying to convert him to their faith—Christians, Reformed Jews, Muslims and Mormons. Then he asked me, “Do you know why it makes no difference to me?”

I shook my head. He led me out to the street and pointed at a building, “Do you see that synagogue with the star of David? That’s our building. The one over there with the cross on it is yours. Further down, do you see the dome? That’s theirs. On the surface they may look different, but underneath they are all basically the same. You would think that if one of us was serving the Living God, it would look differently.”

I still remember how much his words impacted me. Religion is the same all over the world. It is a prescribed set of doctrine, rules, rituals, and ethics. It celebrates sacred space, exalts holy-men as gurus and tries to muscle its way into the culture. For 2000 years many have practiced Christianity as a religion, essentially no different than the others, except in who it claims to follow. But if one of us was serving a Living God, wouldn’t it look very different?

When we cram the life of God into a box, we rob it of its life and power and only distinguish it from other religions by claiming a more truthful doctrine. Could that be why Jesus didn’t teach his disciples how to gain a following or build institutions. He didn’t teach them how to meet on Sunday mornings at 10:00 with a worship band and a leader to lecture the others. He didn’t give them a prescribed set of behaviors that people were suppose to follow as the means to serve God.

No, he invited them into his Father’s house, and a reality of relationship with his Father that would transform them and opened the way for them to share that love with others. That you can’t put into a religion and trying to only chokes out any hope of relationship. Putting creed and doctrine above a growing friendship with him supplants the reality he offered us, no matter how correct our doctrine or moral our ethics.

Don’t get me wrong. Truth is vital, as is righteousness, but without love they are also empty. Learning to live as a beloved child is far more transforming than the greatest principle you can follow. The life of Christian community isn’t found by sharing religion together, but by embracing a journey of growing relationship with him that transforms us by his grace and power.

Losing Your Religion

What does this mean for us? Should we stop calling ourselves Christian or judge those who do? Should we come up with a new term to franchise so we could separate the ones who live it relationally from the ones who are caught up in religion? If we did, we’d only be making the same mistakes that have diminished our life in Jesus over the centuries.

The truth is that Christianity as a religion is a dangerous disfigurement of the God of the Bible. But not all who call themselves Christians live religiously. Given all the excesses and failures of Christianity, I am delightfully grateful that the Gospel of Jesus is still relatively intact inside its doctrine. Unfortunately it only lets new believers live free for so long before burdening them with religious obligations.

And I meet many believers and leaders who have a profound faith and are seeking healthy ways to communicate that journey with others. I rejoice in that, as I do the amount of compassionate aid that such groups share with the world in need. But too many people miss out on the life Jesus offered them by practicing it as a religion instead of growing to know him.

Ultimately the transformation from practicing religion to living inside a relationship with God is not an institutional battle; it is a personal one. We could tear apart all of our religious institutions today and nothing would change. I’ve been in many a house church filled with people who see the institutional church as the problem and are oblivious to the fact that they’ve just moved their religion into a home, where close fellowship only makes it more oppressive.

So how do we know if you’ve been tricked into religion?

• When God is a distant concept to you instead of a real presence.

• When you find yourself following another man, woman, or a set of principles instead of following Jesus.

• When fear of eternity, not measuring up, or falling into error drives your actions.

• When you find yourself in empty rituals that do not connect you in a real way to him.

• When you are burdened by the expectations of others and feel guilty when you can’t do enough.

• When you look at others who struggle with contempt instead of compassion.

• When the approval of others means more to you than remaining in the reality of his love.

• When you hesitate to be honest about your doubts or struggles because others will judge you.

• When you think of holiness as an unachievable duty, rather than aglorious invitation.

• When you think righteousness depends on your efforts instead of his grace working in you.

• When following him is more about obligation than affection.

• When correcting someone’s doctrine is more important than loving them.

• When God seems more present on Sunday morning, than he does on Monday.
  

If you have only known Christianity to be a set of doctrines, rules and rituals, I have great news. Jesus came and died to open up access between you and his Father. Religion supplants that, distracting us with discipline, commitment and hard work that never yields the fruit it promises. If you’ve been worn out by religion, don’t think you’re alone. Others are just pretending, afraid they are the only ones, too. Life is only found in him.

Switching Back

There’s something about our flesh that craves the illusion of safety that religion affords. Anyone of us can find our heart easily turned toward following rules instead of engaging him. When we recognize that happening, we can simply turn our hearts back to him and choose to move away from the religious traps and connect once again with God as our Father.

Living the Gospel means we live in his love. We come to know the Father’s love for us and then sharing that love with him, and with others he puts in our path. (John 13:34-35). No other motive will suffice; no other is necessary. This is where the journey begins and this is the only place it can continue.

Returning to our first love isn’t as difficult as we like to make it. For me it just means finding a quiet place and talking to God. When you find yourself caught in religion, tell him you’re tired of chasing a religion that isn’t working and you want to know him as he really is. Then, wake up each day with a similar prayer on your heart. Watch how he makes himself known to you in the simple reality of living each day. Follow the nudges he puts on your heart instead of the obligations and rituals. Find others who are on this journey and find ways to share the reality of a growing relationship and help guard our hearts about following into empty religious practices.

If you’ve been steeped in religion for a long time, you’ll find yourself going through a very disorienting time. One woman I met called it a Pharisectomy, which is simply having your inner Pharisee removed. You might feel guilty, lonely, lost, or fearful in the process. Your former religious friends may feel threatened that you’re no longer doing the things they do. But in time you’ll find yourself sliding into the reality of relationship with him that is as increasingly real, transformative and engaging.

Among It, Not of It

So let’s not go to war with religion, railing against its failures fighting against its dictates. Instead let’s do what Jesus did—let’s live beyond it. Let’s find a reality of freedom and authenticity in him that can walk alongside anyone with patience and gentleness. Religion is what people crave when they haven’t found life in him. Taking their religion away won’t fix that. The only thing that will is helping them see a reality of relationship with God that makes all our religious activity unnecessary and unattractive. Jesus could be in religious settings and not be captured by them. He could care about a Pharisee as much as a prostitute.

Live among religion if he asks you to, loving toward those mired in it but you never have to be of it. The Gospel opens the door for us to re-engage the transcendent God, to know him as our Abba and to walk with him through the twists and turns of life, sharing his affection with others.

Live in the reality of that relationship and you’ll find it quite naturally finding expression through you as you love and treat others the same way God treats you. People who refuse to live to fear, conform to ritual or put doctrine above love will find themselves having ample opportunity to help others on this journey as well. A dear friend wrote me recently who was feeling a bit swamped by all the people seeking out his help these days, “You didn’t say anything about being safe is like hanging up a “counseling available” shingle.”

We live in a great day. The emptiness of tradition is being seen for what it is and people are hungering for the reality of relationship. Live there each day and there’s no telling where that will take you or who you’ll end up walking alongside as Jesus becomes your life.

Then you can live free, not just for a few days or even three months. He came to set you free eternally!

What Kind of Winner are You?

For most of us, the word “winning”, is a very simple concept. You create a goal, and when you achieve it, you’ve won.

Well, there’s actually much more to it then that, because your subconscious mind has it’s own definition for “winning”, and whether you like it or not, you and your entire life are run by this little bugger.

If your subconscious doesn’t want you to “win” when it comes to wealth and money, you’re not going to. Period.

By definition, your subconscious thoughts and its agenda for your life are hidden from you, unless you’ve trained yourself to communicate with it.

If you don’t know what its definition of “winning” is for you right now, how can you ever move forward? And that’s the point on this article… We’re going to find out what “winning” means to your subconscious right now…

There are 5 ways for you to win...

1: You win when you’re comfortable.

This person’s primary goal is to just go through life as comfortably as possible. They don’t want stress. They don’t want to be pushed or challenged. They don’t like conflict. The just want to go through life on cruise control, hanging out with their friends, and having a good time.

Everything they do is designed to support their pursuit of comfort.

This is your average, life-long employee who’s more than happy to have a safe, stable, comfortable job.

If you push this person away from that goal, and challenge them or their routine lifestyle, watch out.

2: You win by being liked.

This person’s primary goal in life is to be liked by others. They want acceptance from everyone, and will do just about anything to reach that goal. They’d rather be liked, than be right or wrong.

When you put someone like this in a leadership role, the business will usually fail because they won’t be willing to make hard decisions that would anger someone. They would try to please everyone all the time because their ultimate motivation is to be liked by others.

3: You win by being right.

This person is usually an expert in a specific field like a professor, lawyer, or a wife. (Just kidding ladies! ?). People who win by being right, don’t accept criticism and aren’t open to new ideas.

They tend to reach a glass ceiling when it comes to money, their career, and relationships, because they can’t accept their short-comings in order to move past them and achieve personal growth. Arguing with this person never works because they’ll always find a way to prove you wrong, even if it means sabotaging their relationship with you in the process.

In order to win, this person must be right.

4: You win by winning.

This person is an achiever. Their primary motivation is to win. They are very competitive, and will do whatever it takes to win. They won’t quit, and they’ll constantly push themselves to gain the edge they need.

This category describes all successful entrepreneurs and athletes. Winning is their reward, and on the dark side, some of them will go too far and compromise their integrity in order to do so. Key Lay of Enron is a great example.

This type of person doesn’t care if others don’t like them, and they welcome discomfort because it provides them with new opportunities to win.

5: You win by losing.

This person wins by being a victim. They want sympathy from others or their spouse. Just when things start to get better, they will sabotage themselves, and say, “I knew it wouldn’t work”, giving them their victory once again.

There lives are always filled with problems because they don’t win unless they lose, so they create circumstances and excuses that help them fulfill that destiny like, “Your book won’t teach me anything new. I don’t have the money. This is just another scam. I’ll give it a try…”

So, where do you see yourself?

Now if you’re like me when I was exposed to this, you’re taking a long hard look at your life right now.

There are people who are not wealthy because they want to be comfortable. There are people who are not healthy because they want to be comfortable. There are people who are stuck in the same job without a promotion for 10 years because they want to be liked. There are people who are addicted to struggle because they win by losing.

And most likely, you see a little of yourself in each of these categories.
I know I do, but what’s important to remember, is that winning is a continuous process that is brought to an end once you’ve won, which is an event.

As soon as you’ve “won”, the process starts all over again. This is why you tend to feel lost or unfulfilled after you achieve a goal.

So what kind of goals are you putting in front of you? What kind of winner are you?

(adapted from an article by Mike Dillard)