In the News

On Pondering…

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I had planned last night to write the second part of my look at how the Church can return to being attractive, a trait that the early Church had in spades. {See part 1 of “The Rules of Attraction (Spiritual Edition).”} What stopped me was a very simple truth that seems lacking in today’s society: I needed to think a bit more about what I wanted to say before I said it.

I have some good ideas for the post’s second part, but they are not as developed as I would like. Plus, I think the topic of winsome attractiveness of the Church is an important one that has only been addressed on a surface level (think “seeker sensitivity” here).

And that’s an issue in itself. The very act of pondering something, anything is passé. Life is Twittered and blogged so that every act is right there in your face within seconds. “Ponder? Who has time to think?”

I want time to think. I believe thinking matters. Rushing headlong into anything and everything seems to be the American condition circa 2009, and it’s largely responsible for the mess we’re in. Let me think about that...“Just Do It” makes a fine mantra for the slothful, for that indolent fellow who can’t seem to rouse himself from sleep, but it’s a lousy way to approach the most important issues of life. “Just Do It” simply can’t abide “Let me think about that….”

The American car manufacturers put on their sad sack faces, hands out to Washington. Decades of “just get us through this quarter” contrasts with the Japanese model of the 50-year plan. Detroit stopped thinking—didn’t have time for it. The Japanese, however, saw that NOT thinking would be the end of their success before it even started. Better for them to consider how to be the best and continue that thinking through subsequent refinements over decades than to always be reacting, tossed around by the whims of the market, with no foundation. As a result, in time, the Japanese successfully cleaned Detroit’s automotive clock.

During a job interview years ago, a hiring manager scolded me when he asked a thoughtful question and I responded with “Let me think about that for a moment.” His instant reply: “Hmph. We don’t have the luxury of time here. This job requires fast answers. You obviously aren’t the right kind of person.” (Seriously. I waited for him to append “…for us” onto the end of his final sentence, but he never did.)

That company is out of business. Fast answers obviously didn’t equate to good, thoughtful ones.

Reactionary thinking drives the Church in America. Sadly, that mentality has made us frivolous and irrelevant in the eyes of many Americans. We come off as just as clueless as everyone else even though we have the answers to life’s most important questions. The problem is we checked our watches and stopped thinking about those important questions. Worse, we joined the dangerous pack mentality of “just get us through this quarter” thanks, in part, to all those spurious “run your church like a business” books that cluttered the Christian bestseller lists.

I noted for years that the Church was woefully unprepared for an economic meltdown because no leaders in the Church here were pondering how to lead through tough times. I kept hoping that someone with a louder voice than mine would sound the same alarm, while providing some common sense responses. Obviously, I hoped in vain. Now we have millions pounding on our doors looking for answers and handouts and our own pantry is bare.

Why? Because we failed to take time to ponder the important questions of our times.

So there’s no followup today for Monday’s post because I want good answers to the issue. On select topics, most extroverts can cough up in an instant what passes for depth in a shallow society. I don’t want to be one of those people because I want what I say to have lasting, even eternal, value.

Still Looking for a Gospel That Speaks to Failure

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Another friend lost his job last week. He spent the last nine years in the housing biz, and we all know where that has gone. These are tough times, aren’t they?

When I think of the difficult lessons I have learned in life, whether through my own experiences or those of people I know, many of them revolve around our work lives:

The business world never forgives mistakes—ever.

It’s always about the bottom line, and almost never about the employees. (The sign of a soulless company? Its leaders refer to employees as “human capital.”)

If a man makes a bad career decision at age 18, it will more than likely haunt him for the rest of his life.

In the same way, if a man feels a call to ministry in his young adulthood, he will be hard pressed later in life if he fails in that ministry and must find his way in the regular work world.

If a man is trying to transition out of one field into another, more than ever he will find it impossible because employers can’t seem to break out of the niche mindset. In other words, once a bricklayer, always a bricklayer, and never a computer technician.

Men who lose their jobs at the most vulnerable point in their peak earning years are more likely than ever before to find themselves unable to return to the same level of pay.

Reaching for the brass ring may instead find one falling off the carousel.

This is not to say that God can’t do miracles. But the simple fact is that you don’t go to bed a video store clerk and wake up the next day as the lead on the Large Hadron Collider. And the even simpler fact is sometimes all the hard work in the world will not get you there, either.

And that’s why, especially at this time, we need a Gospel that speaks to failure.

A couple years ago at this time, I wrote a post called “We Need a Gospel That Speaks to Failure.” Take a couple minutes to read it, if you can.

You would think that we would have such a Gospel, but somehow we’ve missed it. To me, one of the oddest thing about living in a world that has seen its Savior come is that the one thing the Savior came to deliver is in such radically short supply: grace.

Recently, I said that I thought the largest unreached people group in the United States right now are those who have lost their homes to foreclosure. Here in America, what greater failure can exist than to kiss the American Dream home goodbye? Yet where is the Church on this?

Worse, where are the former homeowners? Are they in our pews or not? My guess is on the “not” side. The new breed of failure?I’m thinking that nothing hurts worse than to go down in flames in your church while everyone around looks the other way or quotes you Romans 8:28 off the motivational plaque they bought from the local Christian bookstore. Why stick around listening to sermons on Christian leadership when you were desperate for a servant in your time of need and one never showed up.

It really galled me that one of the largest sources of the pile-on afflicting those first homeowners who lost their homes at the beginning of all this was Christians. In our self-righteous ire, we blamed people for being stupid. And perhaps they were. But when is grace only for the smart people of the world?

One of the things about this financial implosion are the bystanders. Now, even people who did everything right are being wiped out. That may even be some of us. Does that make us stupid? Is the same measure of gracelessness that we doled out coming back to haunt us?

God, we need a Gospel that speaks to failure preached in our churches more than ever. Please, someone, anyone, preach it!

More Monday Morning Musings

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Been working so much I haven’t had two seconds to put together a coherent thought. So here are a few disjointed ones.

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I’ve got to believe the biggest unreached people group in the United States right now are those folks who are losing (or have lost) their homes to foreclosure.

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Definition of a Christian oxymoron? This. Seriously, watch the first part—and pray your head doesn’t explode. All I can say is, “Maybe there’s hope yet!” (HT: Bud, who also has the transcript.)

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I noted last week that many economics experts claim that China needs to create 24 million NEW jobs each year or else their economy will implode. Guess what? Riots over increasing unemployment swirl there now. No way that 24 million is happening.

And what is the standard tactic for communist regimes that hope to get the unwashed masses focusing on something else rather than regime change? Can you say, “International incident?” I knew you could. Now, what spicy, international incident can Red China cook up? (Hint: think the letter “T” and a name that rhymes with “hang my neck.”)

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Because we could not find a taker for our dog, Rosebud, we had to take her to a no-kill shelter run by the League for Animal Welfare. It’s a beautiful facility, spotlessly clean, and is run by people who really care for animals. They’re choosy about he animals they take, so we were blessed to get her in there.

I was so broken up, I think I cried the entire time I was there. Me, 46-year-old male, 6 feet, 4 inches, and 200 pounds. A big sobbing mess. And I’m the one who said no to a dog in the first place.

The rep there said that she should go fast considering how nice she is, her age, the fact she’s spayed, and that she has all her shots. Still, it’s sad. I loathe making commitments then having my hand forced due to circumstances beyond my control. Yet that happens so many times anymore that it’s practically a rule.

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Been to the toy section of the store? That big hole in every store in America is supposed to be filled with Bakugan. Guess the only toy my son asked for this Christmas? (Santa Claus wouldn’t have this stock problem.)

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To which Julie puts all such thinking into perspective.

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Was reading through Genesis with some brothers, and I read this in 16:11-12:

The angel of the Lord also said to [Hagar]:

“You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.

You want to understand the Arabic people? There it is in a nutshell, folks.

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Bar none, this is the best financial blog on the Web.

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The Christian community needs to rethink its interactions with the homosexual community. The rhetoric between both groups resembles the snarling of two rival packs of wolves. But can we Christians see Jesus, who ate with tax collectors and prostitutes and who took a thief with Him into paradise, acting that way?

It seems to me that if Christians want to really impact the homosexual community, that impact will come when we leave the pack and reach out to one homosexual man or woman at a time and show them the real love of Jesus. One-to-one. Not pack to pack.

All the snarling in the world won’t change a single life for Jesus Christ. But genuine love and concern will when demonstrated one person to another.

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Watch what happens in Russia. Just watch.

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In the last year, I’ve had to explain racism, abortion, and homosexuality to my 8-year-old. I didn’t hear about racism until I was a teen, abortion until I was in college, and homosexuality until I was in my mid-20s.

A few would insists my son’s early exposure to those issues is a good thing. My response to them? No freakin’ way.

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Why is it that everyone seems to bring out their best baked goods this time of year and no other? I mean, what’s wrong with Christmas cookies in July?

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When I was 14, my Dad was hospitalized in a half-body cast after back surgery. He was in the hospital for six weeks. Somehow, my mom singlehandedly did all the shopping for Christmas that year. My big gift? A Fairchild Semiconductor LED watch, something I hadn’t even asked for. No other kid in school had one of those. It was beyond cool. Even though we had to have Christmas in a hospital room, I think that was one of my favorite Christmases.

Which one is yours?