I fly to speak in Cincinnati today and I’m worried.  It’s been a rough spiritual year since last October.  I find myself asking a lot of questions about a lot of issues and wonder if I have anything of any value ready to say.  Since I’ve been to Cincy more than once, in fact some of you reading here may be there when I speak tonight (weird, huh—writing now at 7 AM in Orlando, but will be speaking then at 7 PM in Cincinnati), I have a slight worry that perhaps my inability to have the pizzazz and pop you expect will leave listeners with nothing of spiritual value.

However, that might be best for myself.  One of the biggest issues a normal human faces is the challenge of the pursuit and desire of fame.  That gets to our pride.  A friend emailed last night with a rant against a “Christian celebrity” and their new book and how, in my friend’s view, the entire thrust of this person’s ministry is antithetical to Jesus’ theology.  Now, I’m not sure the person in question actually has set out to be a celebrity, but clearly they have achieved a high degree of fame.

This is a huge problem for most leaders I know.  I constantly face it in my little world.  My way of dealing with it is to be as honest as I can with those that look to me for advice, leadership, guidance.  Honest, I mean, about my own weaknesses and failings.  In other words, I have to work diligently to scramble back down off of any pedestal that others put me on.  It is a tough task, constantly.  It’s tough because, at the root of life (for me and most I know), we want to be famous.  We equate success with fame.  It’s also tough because I like to hide my flaws, probably mostly because of the previous sentence.

This idea of fame or notoriety cuts completely against the grain of what the Bible teaches as the path to real success.  One famous partner of Jesus, his cousin John the Baptist, said “I must decrease so he [Jesus] can increase.”  Wow—impressive to say, tough to really do.  I try to keep that sentence constantly in my mind.  But the pursuit of fame, or perhaps I might say the quest to AVOID the ordinary, hits every person I know.

So many students that I work with look at fame as being a key marker for success.  I think the opposite is really true.  Listen to these words from Oswald Chambers, one of my spiritual heroes:

We do not need the grace of God to withstand crisis—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently.  But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus.  It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not.  We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.

Wow.  This is the idea, that, to succeed, we must die to self.  We must sacrifice our own wants for the good of others.

Our nature wants fame.  For our real growth, to become a truly deep and wise person, we need to embrace our ordinary, and then live in that—something truly extraordinary.

What exactly is the gospel anyway?

I asked the following question to my wise spiritual friends recently–Tell me what are your top answers/reasons you give a non-Christian as to WHY they should be a Christian.  Let’s go ahead, by the way, and assume you’ll already tell me/them about the heaven/hell thing, so leave that off.

I’m asking for real answers related to real experience down here.  I mean, when you tell someone to be a Christian, I can see more and more people looking at you with a quizzical expression wondering “why in the world would I do that?”

Leave off the answers that point to the truth of the Bible–I already know that and they won’t care (usually).  These are real people going through real issues, just like the people around you.  Where do you point them to give them any hope that your faith could actually deal with their issues, especially since you know of plenty of real Christians who STILL have those same issues.”

In case you, my readers of the blog, are curious, yes I am still a Christian. Yes, I still am the apostolic voice, the leader, for Numinous Inc.  Yes, I still love Jesus.  The issue is that finding the truth of the gospel around me seems a struggle.  Or, walking the Christian life is still a struggle.

Not sure why I think it should be any different.  I mean, Jesus was pretty darn clear about this, but over the past months, I guess I’ve just lost a bit of my perspective.  Maybe you need to pray for me rather than just reading the blog assuming I’ll have all the right answers.

Anyway, this issue is going to be a focus of mine in the coming days.  All around me good people, Christians I know well, end up hurting and struggling.  It does come across as unfair.  Isn’t the Christian life supposed to be “life abundant?” 

God is graciously taking me by the hand and leading me again to the Good News.  I’m going to try and unpack it more as we go along, so I hope you join me for the ride.  In the meantime, besides praying for me, feel free to drop me a line with your answers to the above question.

As far as voting goes, the issue is really about being a Christian in a non-Christian world. If we take the notion that as a Christian, I can’t vote because there are no clear “Christian” guidelines or clear “Christian” politicians—that those politicians will make decisions (like war) that may cut against my sense of being a real Christian—if we take that as true—then we find ourselves stuck in a world in which we cannot operate. In other words, we find ourselves retreating back to the notion of the “Christian ghetto.” We end up in the same place where, to quote Steve Taylor again, “I’ll only drink milk from a Christian cow.”

Every day, ultimately, we all make compromises between the strictness of our faith and the reality of where we live. I think this is part of the “in the world, but not of it” statement that has confounded Christians (including me) for centuries. For instance, I have to leave my children and family every day to work in order to eat. It takes up about 7-10 hours of my day—time I could be praying or serving the poor or ministering to the lost. I don’t really want to choose to do it, but I do anyway because I have to compromise in order to eat. Or, to get to work, I have to drive something. I could choose to ride my bicycle, but I do not. Thus, regardless of how much I believe or don’t believe about Global warming, “the crisis of our times” (and I don’t believe that propaganda phrase), clearly the act of driving does add some pollution to the air, something a Christian would not wish to do if they could avoid it. Or, I often go shopping at places like Publix or Target (and some of you go to Wal-Mart); we buy things from big businesses like Microsoft, Coke, Nike and The Gap—we know instinctively that all of these places and things are part of making certain people rich, keeping others poor and some of these places have even been clearly guilty of bad labor practices around the world and here at home. Yet, knowing this, we shop there still. We could, if we chose, make our own clothes and grow our own food, maybe even make our own electronic equipment, but we don’t.

These simple illustrations are merely to point out how we consistently make compromises between our faith and our need to be “in the world.” I think voting falls into this same category. Or maybe better to just say politics. But even if I don’t vote (and for now, I am not certain who I will vote for though I have voted in every election I could since Reagan), a “non-vote” IS A VOTE, so I really can’t say “I didn’t vote.” Moreover, if I really look, I know that there will be plenty of candidates to vote for come November. Come November, I am certain there will be over 10 different candidates that I can vote for. I think the Florida ballot now has 12 different parties as a part of my choices.

In other words, if I know that I already make compromises between the strictness of my faith and the everyday-ness of life, then I don’t see how I can take the moral high road and declare that I won’t vote due to my faith.

So, if that is true, “how do I decide about voting?” That’s a good question that I will address in the next pos

Included in the conversation was the sense that many issues facing the country involve complicated situations for Christians, like war.  Should we even participate in a situation that promotes something that can be seen as a thing God might not want us to be involved with.

One thing seems clear, that on many issues, there simply may not be a “right” answer, but an answer that only feels best when all the issues seem to be measured.  And of course no one BUT God can really ever measure all the issues.  We can, and do, use history to guide us some and hope, then, for the best.

The issue of a Christian putting him/herself into the political mix and then looking for a Godly direction is as old as the Roman Empire.  Probably something to do with Paul’s words in Romans 13–“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”     But to be “under authority” does not necessarily mean that I have to agree with decisions made by the rulers.  The war and killing thing is clearly a tough place.  I don’t know the answer there either and I don’t think any other Christian can claim any answer OTHER than “here’s how I feel about it.”  God clearly commands total destruction of enemies in the Old Testament.  The issue is, as I can determine, mute in the NT till Revelation, where again God brings total destruction upon his enemies (and at one point, seems as if the Christians who are alive at the time go to war alongside God).  Yet, one point worth bringing out is that at no point does Jesus command (nor does Paul or Peter or James) any converted Roman soldiers (or Jewish soldiers) to leave the army.  In other words, though this is only implied, one can determine that Jesus doesn’t take any pacifism to the length that soldiers should thrown down their weapons and leave the army.

Where does that leave us?  Well, I don’t propose that I solve anyone’s issue with war or pacificsm, but clearly the command to be under the authority of our leaders would seem to at least be a start.  In the next posting, I will go a bit deeper into the issue of voting and how that deals with the compromises we all make in life.

I usually like to think that I “get it.”  I’m “mature.”  Well, perhaps, but as I consider just the previous 6 months, I was staring in the mirror as a very tall first-grader.  The truth hurts, but honesty is one strong step on the path to wisdom.  I’m not as smart as I like to think I am.  I don’t have it together as good as I think I do.

The Bible speaks plenty on wisdom, much about the need to pursue it, and, once finding it, to use it wisely and keep walking in it. . Psalm 90:12 says

“Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom.”  Proverbs 28:26 teaches me “Trusting oneself is foolish, but those who walk in wisdom are safe.”

Ah, see in there lies a lot of my problem—I too often trust myself, yet the Word also tells me that I don’t even know my own heart.  So I look around for something to cling to, for something to rest on, and I only trust to myself and in the end, like the preacher in Ecclesiastes, I despair.  Yes, he stuck with wisdom; he also decried seeking wisdom at times [times when he probably was weak or weary and had made the same mistake I made—trusting too much in myself]

The answer?  I think I see it many places as long as I faith.  For instance, in Habakkuk 2:3, God says, “”For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.”  I must wait with patience for all of God’s will to come to pass, both in my life and in the world.  And while waiting, I can remember to trust Him like my daughter trusts me.  In that trusting state, then I can hear best what God said to Jeremiah, “Let not the wise man gloat in his wisdom, or the mighty man in his might, or the rich man in his riches. Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing, and that I delight in these things.” (Jer 9:23-24)

There are many great and challenging things that he said. This book is a daily devotional and I have read it through many times, but as I re-read over the years, I still come up with thoughts that powerfully catch my attention or relate to something I am dealing with in my life. Today was an example of that and I thought I’d share.

“Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict. What is challenging your faith right now? The test will either prove your faith rights, or it will kill it. Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Matthew 11:6). The ultimate thing is confidence in Jesus. “We have becomes partakers of Christ is we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. . . . ” (Hebrews 3:14). Believes steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God–trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us (See Hebrews 13:5-6).”

            I heard a pastor say that he believed that 9/11 was a “historical shift.”  While I am not sure, as a historian, that I completely agreed with him, his point was well placed.  We are in a new time.  It’s a time that demands excellence in leadership and a willingness to replace past poor decisions.

            Jim Collins powerful book, Good to Great, postulates that for an organization to be great, a few things will be true.  For instance, great companies were “focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.”  So often in ministry and in life, we maintain “sacred cows” that have neither Biblical mandate nor effectiveness.  Collins found that great companies did not worry quite that much about what to start doing, but rather to eliminate the things that were of no use, time stealers, resource drains and the like.

            Another issue that this new time demands and that Collins discovered is that little effort is really needed for motivation or discovering new settings or dealing with change. “Under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment, motivation and change largely melt away.”  So, if you are finding yourself constantly verbally attempting to motivate your “leadership” or attempting to create change, your organization needs a serious overhaul.  Rather than heading toward great, it is moving into mediocrity.

            A final point that Collins brings forward provides us with a great impetus for the future of the Body of Christ.  Our bookstores are filled with motivational works trying to demonstrate for ourselves how we have to be like the latest and greatest thing to come along.  Yet, we hear church leaders lamenting how they are not in a vibrant setting, thus it is impossible for them to succeed.  Collins attacks this notion with a wonderful quote:  “Greatness is not a function of circumstance.  Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.”

            More recently than Collins’ book, George Barna’s company has once again put forth some powerful evidence about where the faith is and where we must move.  His latest efforts, UnChristian and Pagan Christianity, Point further at the points Collins made.  We are representing the greatest thing, person, activity, reason anyone could ever need to “be in business.”  Yet, often when you consider “churches” or “Christian ministries” there is a sense of defeat or a sense of merely trying to copy the world.

           Sure, our “business” is not sexy, not hip, not riding a wave of popularity.  Most of the good to great companies that Collins found were not in hip, exciting fields either.  That had nothing to do with them moving to greatness. 

            It is a matter of choice.  A choice to move beyond 200-500 years of traditions that provide little relevance in today’s world.  A choice to maintain 2000 year old traditions that are our marching orders.  We are certainly in a new age or maybe only transitioning into a new age, but our great need is clear.  We must be willing to make changes to move from a good organization towards a great one.  If we are unwilling, the downward spiral that has been well documented by Barna, McDowell and others will remain unchecked.

            At Numinous, we are determined to not merely follow the world’s description of greatness or success.  We are not about building a great organization, but rather growing great people, people who pursue a life of passion for Jesus.  It is time for a new revolution to emerge taking the faith back to the vision of the Founder.  We can do this by being true to His words and His vision.