Tuesdays with Morris

Around election day, I grow quite irritated with all of the negative campaigning. It’s my wish that the candidates and their political parties would just tell us what they stand for and not spend so much time talking about how much their opponent stinks. I mean, have you seen any of the advertising in the Indianapolis prosecutor’s race? It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Well, yesterday I found myself listening to the Focus on the Family broadcast. I will never really be sure why. But, I’m glad I did because it solidified my dis-taste for the organization. Dobson brought on some right-wing, conservative nut to basically tell the listening audience to only vote for conservative Republicans. And, of course, the whole platform centered around two issues: gay marriage and abortion.

The speaker said that if we can get the liberals that are pro-gay marriage and pro-abortion out of their seats the United States will be able to reclaim their status as the shining city on a hill. He also said that if we can end abortion and “choose life” then all children will have a seat at the table in the great American family.

When I go to the polls, gay marriage and abortion aren’t really tops on my list. While I don’t necessarily agree with either, they don’t carry a lot of weight on how I vote. You see, I’d rather know that our children will be fed, receive a great education, and get the proper assistance when needed and appropriate. I’d rather know that we are working to create more jobs that will help families pay their bills. I’d rather know that we are working towards peace with our enemies…rather than strong arming anyone that stands in opposition to the American form of democracy.

You see, when I read the Bible, it talks about how Jesus will call those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and imprisoned, and so on. I think many of us forget to do those things because we’re so focused on the two big issues. We spend so much time campaigning and lobbying against certain things that we totally forget what we’re called to stand for.

Every year, my old college friends and I get together to attend a Ball State football game. As disappointing as that sounds, we have an awesome time joining together around the grill to eat some food, spend time together, and watch Ball State get pounded by their opponents (this year we attended the Northern Illinois game). As much fun as we have when we get together, there is always at least one or two topics of discussion that we find ourselves in disagreement.

Thinking about some of the silly things we disagree over (where to park, what foods to grill, what music to listen to) reminds me of the Church. You see, anytime we gather a group of people together, there are bound to be disagreements. Even though we may all agree on a common goal (growing closer to Christ and bringing others along on the journey), there will be some areas that stir up the pot and can even cause divisions within the Body. We all bring our own personal opinions, traditions, and preferences to the table. I can almost guarantee that most people in the church have an idea of what things we should be doing and how we should do them. And, many times, this can cause disagreements.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul reminds us that we are to have the mind and actions of a servant. “You were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” (Galatians 5:13-15)

Whenever disagreements appear, whether in the church, the home, or the office, we need to remember our call to “love one another”. Paul teaches us that our disagreements, if not handled properly, can lead to destruction. But, if we are focused on serving one another in an attitude of love, our disagreements and personal agendas will take a back seat to what God is trying to accomplish. We just might be able to see the bigger picture.

So, how do we focus on serving one another and putting our own “stuff” aside? Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians to, “…live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).

In order to build up the unity of the Church, we are called to be “humble”, “gentle” “patient”, and to “bear with one another.” And, all of this is to be motivated by love. This love is produced in our faith and knowledge that we are all on the same journey. This love is strengthened by the common glue that binds us together…The Holy Spirit.

Our goal at Center Chapel is to “help people take their next step towards Christ…together.” We’re called to be on this journey together. What can you do to love, encourage and serve those in our church family? And, maybe more importantly, what can you do to love, encourage, and serve those in our community that do not have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior?

Let me start by saying that I love Jesus. I am a Christian…and I’m proud to be a Christian (sort of like I’m proud to be an American…which means I’m glad to be what I am, but I’m often disappointed with the group I’m associated with).

Having said that, there is no group of people that pisses me off more than Christians. You see, with non-Christians I’m more loving and forgiving. I figure, “well, they just don’t know any better than to be an asshole.” But, when it comes to Christians, I feel like we should just know better.

Jesus calls us to love one another, encourage each other, build one another up…to be humble, gentle, patient, kind, and compassionate. And, I know many Christians who are doing their best to live that life out.

But, there are some Christians in my life that are the least loving, encouraging, gentle, patient, kind, compassionate, and humble people I’ve ever met. I sometimes feel like saying to them, “Hey, don’t tell anyone that you’re a Christian because you’re a jerk and I don’t want you to turn them off from this wonderful journey.” And, it’s these people that challenge my ability to be loving, kind, encouraging, gentle, patient, compassionate, humble, etc.

So, how do we go about making significant enough changes in the lives of those that desire to “be like Jesus” to actually have an impact on how they live their lives? We’ve got so many Christians with a lot of head knowlede that seem completely unable or unwilling to put that knowledge into action. I really believe that this world would be a much different place if we Christians took seriously the call to “love God” and “love others.”

Recently, a group within our church made a proposal concerning our worship services. The proposal was issued through a letter that did not contain names of the actual people that drafted this proposal, but only indicated two small groups within the church. The proposal has really infuriated some other members of committee’s that received this proposal.

Some things struck me about the proposal:

1. Not once in the proposal was prayer mentioned. Personal preferences were stated…they indicated that they had been “talking.” But not once was it stated that they had been praying about this and felt that God had led them to share this with the appropriate leaders.

2. Not once in the letters were “others” considered. The proposal is simply about making “us” happy. There are no statements regarding the thought that these changes might help us reach people outside the church walls. And, it appears that there is an inability to see any validity to why we do things as is and why we just can’t change and make them happy. After all, isn’t church about making people happy?

3. To my knowledge, no one from this group has approached any of the pastors or appropriate committee leaders regarding their concerns prior to the issuing of their proposal.

4. While reading their proposal, I came to the realization that we need to spend some time communicating and educating our congregation on the differences and purposes of our worship services (what, why, how we do things, etc).

5. In this proposal, it appears as though this group has not taken into consideration that the pastoral and worship leadership may have prayerfully come to the way things are today…instead it’s a “we want this and we see no reason as to why we can’t have it” sort of thing. It’s entirely a “my football, my rules” situation.

6. It appears that this groups ability to praise and to worship through song is conditional. It is basically indicated that they can only sing their hearts out if we sing the songs they want to sing.

7. The church worship survey, which each member of this group was invited to participate in, indicates that the majority of the church prefers contemporary music.

8. We have given people choices. If you prefer to sing hymns and not have a praise team, the 8am service will meet those desires. If you prefer to have more contemporary worship with a praise team, the 10am service is for you. If the time of worship is most important to you it must be understood that this is how we do things. We have given options.

9. Their proposal basically reverts back to the way things were being done when I first arrived at Center Chapel. Both services were exactly the same (minus the children’s moment at 8am). We had two hymns (opening & closing) and a time of praise and worship. Many people complained that our services were too long. Others complained that they only wanted hymns or they only wanted the praise team. So, in order to give people options, we stopped using the praise team at 8am and only sing hymns. And at 10am, we cut out the hymns and work hymns into the praise and worship set on a regular basis (in a contemporary style).

10. What is worship anyway? Jesus teaches us that worship is all about our hearts…that it doesn’t matter the location, the style, the songs…all that matters is our hearts. If we claim that our worship is hindered by the style of music, than we have totally missed the point of what worship is about.

11. It’s interesting how easy it is to point out that the “church is the congregation (the people)” when we want something and how easy it is to brush that off when it comes to serving, praying, giving, etc. And, I think there’s a failure to realize that the church includes that pastors and leaders too…we are also “the people.” And the pastors and leaders are called on to make decisions…look at the 1st church council in the book of Acts…the leaders had to make decisions about Gentiles and whether or not they had to become Jewish in order to follow Christ. In the UMC, we are not a congregational system…we do not take congregational votes to decide. Instead we have committee’s made up of leaders that represent the whole and are responsible for making decisions.

This whole issue has simply pointed out to me how inwardly-focused we are. It has helped me understand why our church is not growing. We aren’t growing because people are only focused on what they want…and could care less about what might bring others into our fellowship. Based on the letter that was sent out before any conversation took place, it appears that many in our congregation have missed the point. The agenda is selfish and about meeting personal felt needs. The church leadership has talked over and over about having an outward-focus. Yet, it appears that some are missing the point and still just looking inward

The above is actually the title of a new book by David Kuo. He’s making allegations that Bush insiders have mocked the Evangelical right…made up of pro-Republican, pro-Bush Christians.

Now, the statements are that some of Bush’s team have referred to Pat Robertson as “insane”, Jerry Falwell as “ridiculous”, and that James Dobson’s comments need to “be controlled.”

To me, this might just be the best judgment calls anyone in the Bush administration have made.

So, I suppose this was supposed to infuriate me with the Bush administration…but in fact, since I’m already infuriated with them…it sort of made me respect the administration about 1% more than I did yesterday…which would mean I have a 1% respect for our current administration. So, that’s a pretty big improvement.