Pulse: Church & Christ (A Guest Post by Nathan Jeffers)

I grew up in the church. I can't tell you how many times I've said that phrase. Usually it's in response to a question. Like, "how long have you been a Christian?" or "tell me a bit about yourself..." or "why do you have so many psychological problems?" (you'd be surprised how much I get that last one). Church is where I made friends, hung out, played dumb youth group games, oh and learned a bit about someone called Jesus. The church has always been a part of my life. For better or worse. I've seen people's lives be miraculously transformed, I've seen people become bitter, I've seen enormous good and heart-breaking bad. I'm always reminded that as long as the church is filled with people, it will be flawed. But thank God we don't get to have the last word. The church (and the people in it) have had a part in shaping me into the person I am today. And I've realized the responsibility that our generation has in shaping what the church will be in the years to come. The church is not just our parents' church. It's ours. Our generation is really great at pointing out things that are broken or being misused, but we're not great at fixing things. To quote the prophet Kanye West, "I'm so gifted at finding what I don't like the most." Maybe that's an over-generalization, but I do know that I am really great at complaining, but not so good at finding a solution. So here are a few rambling thoughts on some issues that I've began to notice with the church, which our generation is going to be tasked with challenging: 

(Just a side-note: I'm not pointing out these things to simply bash the church. I actually see great things within the church as it stands and I just want us to be aware of how we get in the way of God working and doing good in the world. Also, I know there are many more problems ailing the church/world and these might not seem applicable to your situation, these are just what I've began to notice in my own context.) 

* Our buildings and programs are all designed to get people to fall into place. You are supposed to come as a new person, feel welcomed, sing some songs, listen to the sermon, maybe even get involved with a bible study, and then find an area where you can "serve" at the church. In the midst of this process you're supposed to become a Christian. Usually by that we mean saying a prayer and agreeing to an established set of doctrines. In this system, the mark of a "healthy Christian" is a person who has signed off on the church's statement of faith, attends a weekly bible study, raises their hands during worship, and serves as a usher on Sunday mornings. Churches are set up to accommodate this conversion process on a large scale. Our services are set up to welcome as many people as possible. But what if this modern, industrialized version of church was actually making it harder to actually follow Christ's teachings? 

* The church has become more like an event we attend, rather than a place to encourage one another towards doing good. Church should never be the main event. It should be the epicenter of transformation that sends out grace-filled people to make the broken things of the world become new again. The church is often just a series of routines to learn and patterns to follow, but it could be so much more than than. Maybe sometimes I don't want it to be more than that, but I've seen some beautiful things come out of taking God's call to be ministers of reconciliation. And I can't help but wonder if there's more to life than Sunday mornings and weekly routines. 

* When does church and it's popular structure get in the way of us doing what God has called us to? What if God was asking us to feed the hungry and we said, "sorry God, I have to go to church"? What if God was asking us to give water to the thirsty and we said, "sorry God, I have worship team practice"? What if God was asking us to care for the widows and the orphans and we said, "sorry God, I have bible study tonight"? Our church structures have the possibility to transform us or to stifle our growth. We must be acutely aware of the tension that presides in our churches and if a tradition is causing us to act less like Christ, then we need to reevaluate and possibly change it. * Going to church doesn't make you a great person. Being a Christian doesn't make you a great person. In fact, some of the nicest, kindest, Jesus-like people I've ever met have been people that considered themselves "searching agnostics". And I've met some Christians that consider themselves as the arbiter of truth who think they are so righteous, holy, and yet are complete jerks. It's better to be a humble searching agnostic, than a prideful Christian. When we believe (as the church has sometimes taught us) that we have all the answers, then we have sorely missed out on what it means to follow Jesus. Was Jesus sometimes about giving the "right answer"? Yes. But his life was dedicated to something much greater. He summed it up when he said, "‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’" His life was dedicated to love. Love enough to heal, love enough to listen, love enough to die for his friends and his enemies. 

* I've been learning a lot about what it means to be a great leader. The best leaders I've ever met try to get their ego out of the way as much as possible, lead by serving, and are vulnerable with the people they are leading. I've learned that a pastor's job is not to be a great preacher, it's to instruct and encourage everyone in the church to be their own pastor. Their job is to give over power by training the members of the congregation to develop their own ability and authority as a follower of Christ. Our churches often have the mindset that the pastor is the holder of all knowledge and we are supposed to attend church to absorb that knowledge like a sponge. Never daring to question. You can even see it in the way that our churches are physically set up. The preacher is up front, often on a literal pedestal, and the congregation is sitting in rows to be guided by their leader. This has caused us to place undue responsibility on our pastors to be holy people while we get on with normal everyday life. We have to recognize that all of us has a mixture of the ordinary and the divine within us. 

* We all have the responsibility to constantly die to our self and be transformed to look more like Christ.

Nathan Jeffers is a fellow graduate of Biola University. He tweets about 1,800 times and hosts Listen, a marvelous organization of searching souls in search of searching. You can enjoy their delightful podcast there as well.

Pulse: Hell (A Regular Post by Nick Ahern)

1. What important topic do you think our Christian generation (20s) has to deal with the most? 'Why' must we deal with this issue?

I'm inclined to agree with many of my fellow contributors on their selected topics. These are marvelously difficult topics to resolve, but for me its now become interesting to step back and think of another issue. One that covers Scripture, tradition, systematics and the character of God.

Simply put, we need to talk about hell. Mainly because this effects how we evangelize, how we talk about God and even how we consider where we all fall within the contours of Orthodox Christian faith.

Rob Bell seemed to expose a rift within evangelicalism, mainly that we tend to avoid the topic. So, like many topics, talking about it is a plus in of itself. However, it does beg the question what falls within Orthodoxy.

Why do we need to talk about hell? Because it exists and if what Bell went through is any indication of evangelicalism, things won't get any easier for ideas to be exegetes and systematized. Best to talk now before the hammer comes down.

2. In what (positive or negative) ways has our generation already engaged with this issue?

Rob Bell.

Okay, you probably want a little more. Positively, we've begun a major shift in discussion. Universalism is now begin given a fairer treatment due to various works (1) and evangelicals are now needing to rethink hell. On another front, you have annihilationism being reconsidered. The names behind the theology are impressive (2) and they have experiences a resurgence, especially in conservative circles. This is a positive development as their case is made through exegesis, thus offering biblical concepts to a curious audience.

Negatively, you have entire denominations reaffirming the traditional view of hell (Southern Baptist Convention), therefore shutting off dialogue. From a personal point of view, I've experienced some pretty absurd private messages on the topic, as have close friends of mine. Tradition is sometimes blindly enforced without taking into account exegesis.

However, as a side note, I think a negative example would be that some would jump ship at the slightest new idea without consideration for the evidence. Our generation needs to further weigh the evidence before jumping ship.

3. What can we do to improve our relationship with addressing this issue? Or can things be improved?

Things have already improved. The fact that some are talking and engaging with their brothers and sisters is indicative that goods things may come from this. The debate has also become mainstream(3). No matter what some people think or say, the dialogue is happening. It is general irenic but that has never stopped exceptions from occurring.

This offers the world a new image of evangelicalism. We are willing to rethink and provide evidence for our belief systems. We are willing to be wrong and to simply pursue truth, where ever this truth leads us.

The debate within evangelicalism is a bit more difficult to measure, especially since it is new. But, I have high hopes that the discussion will rage onwards and upwards. In a good way.

Nick Ahern is probably the reason you are reading this. He is a Biola grad, a future Fuller Seminary MA Student and engaged to marry the lovely Allison Quient. You can find him on Twitter.

Footnotes:

1. Hellbound directed by Kevin Miller. For literature, Gregory Macdonald (Robin Parry) released the 2nd Edition of the Evangelical Universalist and David Congdon is releasing his systematic take on the idea in the next few years, The God That Saves: A Dogmatic Sketch.

2. Richard Bauckham, E. Earle Ellis, I. Howard Marshall, Glenn Peoples, Gregory Boyd. See also ReThinking Hell.

3. Time Magazine, circa 2011.

Pulse: Myths in Pre-Mature Resolution (A Guest Post by Jordan Nakamura)

Before all else, I’d like to respond to the prompt at face value: hands down, the “topic our generation will deal with the most” is homosexuality and LGBTQ rights. It is what has been elected as the cultural question of the age, in the United States at least. I have a lot of thoughts on the issue myself, I think it’s important to talk about it, and i’m glad that we are. I especially hope that people who identify as Christians will continue to begin a healthy discourse. We have handled it horribly for a long time, one response among many inexcusable ones being the whole “if you just don’t talk about it, it’ll go away” charade. It’s often painfully obvious that there is still a long way for Christian communities to go. But for the most part, I’d much rather see people making some mistakes in the same room trying to reconcile than to see them staying comfortably worlds apart, safe in their festering assumptions.

But as for what I think is the most important, other issues come to mind as better candidates. To clarify, I mean better candidates than legalizing gay marriage, not evasive action and advocacy against homophobic violence, which is about as important as anything else I can think of. Basically I’m going to attest that any “third world issue” is more important than “first world issues.” A large number of these third world issues stem from racism, and while racism to some might sound like a simple pitfall to avoid, even black toddlers in the States will pick a white doll over a black one. In light of this, it becomes important to investigate who our white leaders are picking to assist and understand before aiding or bombing, because the results get to be as serious as life and death. At the end of the day, it’s still important in this age to investigate exactly why it was Japan and Asians that were bombed, and not Germany and white people. It is our generation that needs to look at these things to grapple with present issues: why black unarmed teens are still being shot and why nobody covers the story, and why I have seen white co-workers walk in completely blazed on pot and not get a second look for it. In this way, these third world issues of racism and even sexism become the issues of our generation in the first world, but go unacknowledged as relevant or even existent, let alone our onus. This is why I’d argue that issues of racism and sexism in any “world” is a priority. It is more important that people not die because of preventable causes than it is that gay marriage is legalized. That might piss people off, but I stand by it, as do I stand by my belief that gay marriage should be allowed. But people who compare movements of LGBTQ rights to the Black Civil Rights movement simply have not looked at history with clarity or respect. I’m not trying to pit one issue against the other. Disproportionate death by AIDS in the LGBTQ community is a tragedy, and like anyone, I hope a cure is found. but I also hope that we work towards remedying the effects and occurrence of disproportionate murder and captivity of black skinned human beings, which has been going on a lot longer than AIDS existed. Again though, the problem is when people start pretending like this ancient issue is covered, and in the current “Age of Obama,” the post-racial narrative is rampant and sets the stage for the marginalization of these issues.

Let’s examine some of our culture for a minute, the culture that predicates this very post as almost certainly being read from a glowing computer screen: Due to highly accelerated networking, information has completely changed in nature and shape. Capitalism and consumerism have been altered. Young people like myself are not good at imagining a world before this new order, let alone how something like commerce used to run. What most people in our generation will acknowledge is that images are everywhere, at a constant inundating rate. Given this, we might conclude that issues of race and gender are perhaps more relevant today than ever before, because never have our ideas of them been so easily malleable, the icons of these ideas so easily created and spread, nor their effects so easily covered up. By nature, race and gender are sort of airy. For example, even at the genetic level, I have no more chance of being more genetically similar to another Japanese person than I do to a Norwegian person. Despite this, race is a phenomenon that has been called into being. It is real because the effects are real, but there is no locus in object. Sex and ethnicity, of course, are very real in the sense that they’re biologically measurable, and are objective. The mechanics of how images and narratives work in the modern world have mutated, and these changes need to be addressed in addition to inherited systemic problems. 

The idea that we are living in a “post-racial age” is also a major factor. This idea is widely accepted as common sense: the notion that we no longer need to deal with issues of race because it is a solved or moot issue. Race being removed from public consciousness contributes to the emphasis on gender. Therefore, any sociological energy that the public has is given to LGBTQ concerns. Race, once again is marginalized, due to the myth that racial marginalization is a checked off item on the humanitarian To-Do list of history. Some of this has to do with an institutionalized historical slant towards a version of history that sterilizes the Black Civil Rights movement, making it out to be a safe topic that never reaches the present. Some of it has to do with the fact that a man named Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States. Again, I want to stress that I don’t want to eclipse one cause with another. It’s precisely that motivation that I re-emphasize race which I think has certainly been eclipsed by other issues. My definition of more important reads as “more important to reassess the importance of.” The effects of racism in America are rampant, widespread, and too often fatal, and few people realize that it is even an issue anymore, whereas legalizing gay marriage is important in the public eye to the point of it being hip. It’s a lot harder to make a mass-profile picture icon about generations of unintentional but destructive microaggressions, and so it doesn’t happen. The quote about white privilege isn’t going to get several thousand shares on tumblr, like the one on gay marriage will. Understandable I suppose, but what isn’t okay is how the issue then drops off the map because it isn’t recognized in pop culture, politics, and daily interactions.

Hopefully, the church will realize that followers of Christ should be running with the vanguard in any true societal brokenness, yearning and fighting for justice and entering into the pain. I do not have the time here to elaborate on why I have become convinced that race and marginalized issues are at the forefront of cultural battles to be stationed within, but I trust readers can continue to investigate for themselves. But I must address the prompt which asks what issue is the most important for our “Christian generation.” Obviously, anyone can fight for racial justice or women’s rights or anything else, believing in God is not a requirement. Sadly, the bulk of the Western Christian population has more or less been content to leave most of these fights to people who do not identify as Christians. But I want to talk a bit about something that is a big question for many in “the church” which probably isn’t for others outside of it. I’m going to refer to this as the “weird supernatural” spiritual gifts, or “miracle work” in the Holy Spirit. 

Jordan Nakamura can be found via the Twittersphere, and on the rest of the Interwebs.

Pulse: Sin & Faith (Guest Post by Kyle A. Kiekintveld)

1. What important topic do you think our Christian generation (20s) has to deal with the most? Why must we deal with this issue? 

The Church always considers itself in crisis, in need to address the differences between secular society and the Scripture, in the need make sense of war, poverty and the sorrow of the world, but one of the biggest issues facing the Church is not exclusive to the Church, it is best addressed by the parishioners. It is an idea as old as civilization, but greatly exacerbated by our culture of constant consumption of media, celebrity and social networking.

It is the concept that we are simple beings. It is the idea that we can see a little of someone, through reality television (which of course is as real as the WWE), we know someone through what they say on Facebook, through the gossip, through the their attendance (or lack of) at Church. We think people have the perfect marriage, the perfect children, just because of a few quick Facebook or Instagram pictures. We have arrogantly oversimplified life and experience that we feel with little information we can understand what another person has gone through, we can pass judgement on their worth.
Of course this has no Biblical basis and we are warned heavily against judging one another, but it is part of the human condition. It is heavily ingrained not only in our culture but our psychology as well. The benefits of making decisions and judgements on people are numerous, even when we know we must fight it.

2. In what (positive or negative) ways has our generation already engaged with this issue?

The Bible addresses this issue directly, most powerfully with the story of the Woman at the Well. In the midday heat while Jesus takes a break at Jacob’s Well, a Samaritan woman went to fetch water, and in typical Jesus fashion, Jesus broke a number of taboos, he spoke to her (who was to be despised because she was not just a woman but a Samaritan woman) and he asked her to fetch him a drink, which would have rendered the drink unclean. The woman was known to have multiple husbands and be living with a man she was not wed to (thus she fetched water at the hottest part of the day to avoid the judgment of others) still Jesus broke taboos to speak to her. He did not think twice to speak to the woman despite her immorality. 

At the best of times Church can be an emotional and spiritually difficult place to attend but for those who are introverted, those who struggle with their own sins, to feel judged when they attend Church just created a barrier that can seem insurmountable. Yet despite of stagnant or even dwindling Church attendance Christian media is a successful and even growing industry. People still have faith but feel a disconnect with Church itself.

3. What can we do to improve our relationship with addressing this issue? Or can things be improved?

Fortunately all is not lost on this issue. Churches have numerous ways to combat this disconnect, from Podcasts of Sermons to Outreach Groups to House Churches. The latter two are perhaps the best responses the Church has. Both allow much more intimate worship than trying to blend into a crowd of dozens, hundreds or even thousands. These are not complete solutions to the problem, in the end we must remember even if we know the sin, the sinner is made in God’s beautiful and infinitely complex image.

Kyle A. Kiekintveld is a writer based out of Western Michigan, he is an avid beer, music, literature and video game aficionado. Despite his love for profanity, violent, violent video games and Harry Potter, Kyle is fairly certain Jesus would like him. He can be found on Twitter and Tumblr.

Pulse Intrology

It doesn't take much to realize that lines are being drawn and rhetoric has been microwaved to the point of bubbling the plastic. In my experience, such things lead to more unwarranted heat than illumination. So, in my hubris, I asked several friends to contribute to a moving dialogue, shaped by our culture.

The goal is -- frankly -- to illuminate. My original title of this series was "Illuminate" but I didn't want to put off any rappers. Therefore, since this is my generation's attempt at opening Pandora's theological box, I decided Pulse was a more appropriate title. Putting our fingers on what culture says, where the church is going and what is left to us to do.

I will post an essay roughly each week, depending on when they are submitted. The topics will range from homosexuality to how we view the Bible. I've hopefully grabbed enough diverse individuals to more than compensate for varying voices and movements.

For the sake of exonerating myself from any criticism, the opinions expressed on these blog posts may or may not by supported by myself. There. Hands clean.

Look forward to our dialogue.

--Nick