Humility

Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, We’re Not Listening!

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Fingers in earsAll over the Christian Blogosphere the talk seems to gather sooner or later around one topic: the “Emerging Church” or “Emergent” (although there have been some comments that they are not strictly the same thing, for my purposes here I will consider them one and just call it the “EC” from here on.) While the EC considers itself Evangelical, hardcore orthodox Evangelicals have criticized the EC and buried it under a list of grievances, primarily dealing with aberrant theology and doctrine. Not a day goes by that my Bloglines list of Christian blogs does not feature some blogger shellacking the EC.

I’ve talked about the EC in several posts on Cerulean Sanctum, but I want to come out and take a firm stand publicly. I do not support the EC as it exists. I agree that it is making concessions with the world in order to make immutable doctrines more appealing to itching ears. Too many of the leaders in the EC are not-so-closeted Universalists and I personally think that guts the Gospel and cheapens the deaths of martyrs. The cross also takes on a bizarre appearance within EC doctrine. Open Theism runs rampant in the movement. I also find it arrogant that the EC has put the Bible on the table in order to analyze the veracity of this truth or that; there are things of God we should never deconstruct. We too easily forget that sin entered the world after these words were spoken: “Did God really say…?”

But I want to proclaim this to all the orthodox believers out there, particularly those who label themselves Evangelicals, and especially if you enjoy throwing stones at the EC. The EC exists for one reason and one reason only: because Evangelicals blew it. The EC exists as a reaction to the fact that Evangelicals have largely failed to address several key aspects of Christian life and practice. The EC exists because some people got sick of the concessions to materialism and worldliness that have defined many Evangelicals in America. The EC exists because far too many Evangelicals in the United States and Canada have lost their first love.

The issue as I see it is that Evangelicals are only compounding the very problems they are accused of by the EC by their constant tirade against it. It is possible to reject the doctrinal aberrations in the EC and still thoughtfully listen to its criticism of today’s strain of Evangelicalism. I find that criticism to be highly astute in several areas:

1. Many Evangelicals have lost the mystery and awesomeness of God. They have reduced God to a buddy they carry around in a shirt pocket and pull out whenever they need him.

2. Too many Evangelicals have little or no concern for people who do not possess what they have. I’ve even sat in on small groups of Evangelicals who spent part of their time griping about the poor around them, but without any sign that they would lift a finger to do anything to help them.

3. Evangelicals look too much like the world and have lost the aroma of God that pervades the saints.

4. Evangelicals are too often enshrouded in a cocoon of doctrine and never come out to put any of it to practical use.

5. Evangelicalism has lost the focus on Jesus and has become self-centered.

Personally, I believe that every one of those skewerings of Evangelicalism by the EC is sadly accurate. The problem is that Evangelicalism is simply unwilling to listen to criticism. Whenever the EC answers criticism from Evangelicals and offers their own criticism of Evangelicalism, the Evangelicals turn into five-year olds with their fingers in their ears chanting, “Nyah, nyah, nyah, we’re not listening!”

Now before I get lumped into the EC crowd just because I’m pointing out this truth, I want to appeal to someone well-respected within Evangelical circles who has made every single point I listed above—points that the dreaded EC is making, too. That would be Francis Schaeffer. Schaeffer prophesied (and I believe his voice is prophetic) each of the five points I mentioned above, points that are considered EC today. Despite the near sainthood status that many Evangelicals give to Schaeffer, it appears that too few are willing to listen to the criticisms he leveled at Evangelicalism in North America in books like The Great Evangelical Disaster.

And so I end with this: Take the fingers out of your ears, Evangelicals. Be more willing to admit that you’ve made mistakes and fumbled the Gospel in several places. No one will hate you for it; in truth, some might be more willing to listen to what you have to say. Keep the Lord’s doctrine pure, certainly, but be more human with it at the same time.

The Christian & the Business World #13: Radical Christian Workers Unite!

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Radical Christian Workers Unite!The baker’s dozen: You buy 12 and he throws in one for free.

I hope in this final installment of this “epic” series on The Christian & the Business World I can wrap up this baker’s dozen postings with thoughts that will stay with people (like the smell of fresh-out-of-the-oven onion bagels. Yum!) At least I want this final post to jar something in everyone who reads it, for everything I post here is about as heartfelt as heartfelt can be. You may disagree with what I say—and feel free to—but I think that we Christians have to come to grips with the truth that something is wrong with the way we are living and our work lives are at the heart of the problem.

As we have seen, much of modern business operates from a worldview that is antithetical to Christianity. It cannot be reformed from without, but only from within, and only then if replaced with a Christian worldview. As much As I would like to see that occur, I am not confident it will. This requires us to have a Plan B.

Christians don’t think too often about Plan B, and this is one of the mysteries of the Church in America that I have never fathomed. We don’t handle failure very well when Plan A does not play out like we imagine. But we need a Plan B, folks—badly.

I’ve been thinking about Plan B for Christians in their work lives for a long time. In only nine years of marriage, my wife and I have been through five corporate downsizings between the two of us. The cumulative time spent searching for work after those downsizings has been over two years total.

I’ve received plenty of comments and private e-mails from folks who can identify. This is one reason why we have to find alternatives. The common knowledge for trained professionals today is that we will forever be going back to school to enhance our educations in order to keep up. I am not convinced, though, that a Christian can perpetually be in college trying to stay ahead of their career track and actually have a sustainable walk with the Lord if he or she has a family. Something in the equation has to give; something must be lost in that process. It’s either a marriage, vital intimacy with God, real relationship with one’s children, or connection to authentic community, but something is lost. In far too many cases, everything is sacrificed just to stay ahead. Trying to keep up with the ideal nuclear family so many of us Christians have held out before us is taking an inhuman toll.

We must consider alternatives and reinforce traditional ideas we’ve abandoned. Many of the long-time readers of this blog will have encountered some of these proposed solutions before, but I feel it is important to revisit these ideas. Here are seven of those ideas:

1. We need to consider living in alternative communities – We duplicate too many of our goods. People are forced to work harder for higher paying jobs in order to duplicate the possessions of our neighbors. Yet there is no reason for all of us to have a $350 lawn mower that is only used once a week. In that same reasoning, there is no reason for us to duplicate many of our common activities, like each family driving to the grocery store to shop for food, or each homeschooling family homeschooling just their own kids.I believe that mature Christians should reconsider the idea of small, planned communities in which a half dozen families could buy a plot of land, put a house up for each family, and have one communal building for meeting and worshipping together. Some families could work in town, while some could work at home, and at least one work the land. This community could be sustainable from food grown off the land purchased.Such a community would allow for less duplication of both effort and items for living. Less need for money that would have gone for duplicated items for living would free up folks to take lesser paying jobs that could allow them more time at home and before God.If we are serious about our faith, we have to do something to allow for more time serving the Lord. So far, I have seen no Christian leader proposing any practical way to do this.

2. We need to think green – I know this is a contentious subject, but we Christians really have forgotten that the call to work in the Garden was also a call to proper stewardship of the Earth. Again, if Christians can learn to get off the grid, rely less on expensive, entertaining gadgets that do nothing to promote community or are so costly we just have to work harder to buy them, I believe we will be substantially better off. We need to be the ones pushing for alternative energy sources and should be early adopters of those sources. Again, the point here is that we should consider if it is possible to find home-based methods for working while also reducing our need for jobs that are too expensive to maintain (in time or money.) Utility prices are only going to get higher. As Christians, we should be the ones pushing for unconventional thinking with regard to everything we consume.

3. We need to start saying NO to the world’s systems – The first step here is to understand what those systems are and whether they ultimately glorify God or not. Most don’t. Not only do we need to re-evaluate how we work in the light of Christ, we need to rethink just about everything else. I’ve mentioned Darwinism, but it goes beyond rooting out Darwinian business practices.

As I mentioned earlier in this series, the United States was once a home-based economy that had both parents at home, working together and raising the children. And those children were needed for the survival of the family, too. (Today’s kids have no purpose.) If that system worked, is it possible to restore it? What would it look like?

Let’s be frank here: the resulting outcome of the Industrial Revolution has been a plethora of shattered families and a society that has numbed itself to this through endless entertainment and escape. Some futurists contend that the only path for America as a post-industrial, post-technological society is as the entertainment center of the world. Is this the best we can hope for?

We in the Church have to start asking if there is a better way, and if so, what will it take to get us there.

4. We need to stand behind the brethren – In every way, we must start thinking about others in our churches and not just look out for number one.

First, whenever a person in a church is unemployed, we need to do everything possible to help that person find work ASAP. There is no sense for me to be buying $4000 plasma TVs when another family in my congregation is burning through their life’s savings while trying to find work. The average job search (even now in what some consider and “up” market) is ten months. That’s more than four months past when unemployment compensation runs out. No one should have to look that long while the Church stands idly by.

In the same way, we need to stand behind Christians who take tough stands in their businesses and jobs, especially if they pay the penalty for doing so. Taking on the Darwinian heart of business will spawn casualties. If our best and brightest business people go down for the cause, we better not let them twist in the wind as a result.

This goes for American Church leaders who try to step into the business world void in order to speak truth to the corporate world. We must support those folks 110%, particularly if we have gone to great lengths to raise them up to speak! And we so desperately need people to stand in the gap between the Church world and the business world that we can’t afford to let them suffer for the cause without our support, no matter what the outcome is.

5. We need to lay down our lives – One of the trends that just baffles me when I think about it is that supposed Christians are objecting on privacy grounds to having their personal information printed in church directories.

Listen, when we become Christians, all pretenses toward privacy that we might have had before is gone. We are part of a new Body now and that means we have to lay our privacy down and suffer the inconveniences that come from being a body part.

There is no reason why our church directory doesn’t list where we work, what our skills are, and how we can help other folks within the congregation in their specific needs, especially if they are work-related. That’s basic, folks. It is essential to our community that we be able to bear each other’s burdens, but the only way we can do that is if we give everything we are to the Lord and His Church.

6. We need to start planning to compensate for lost support systems, particularly government and business-related ones – I mentioned before that the church needs to consider sustainability in our living arrangements. That’s a start. But medical insurance, Social Security, and other support systems we have been repeatedly told will be there probably won’t be. Too many of our “American benefits” are linked to standard corporate operating expectations. If Christians consider alternatives to the business world and explore a traditional home-based economy, we must find ways to pick up the slack for families that have grown reliant on these government and business perks. With the ridiculous cost of medical care in this country, if the Church is serious about exploring other work arrangements, then we need to also consider how to provide medical support to families who drop out of today’s corporate environment. We also need to step up our help for the elderly and those who will probably face the specter of having all their Social Security savings consumed by the time they are old enough to ask for the share they put in.

7. We need to stay committed to each other in community, especially to our extended families – There is a Christian witness in every country on the planet. The Gospel has gone out. I know this is controversial, but I believe we are in a time when all of us who are Christians need to consider our harvest field to be the very neighborhood we live in right now. Our focus needs to become more local. This does not exclude a call to overseas work when God does call, but I think that He is moving to keep more and more of us right where we are now.

I believe that one of the problems we have gained from the Industrial Revolution is that extended families are fractured by our perpetual moving to be where the jobs are. If my wife and I are any indication, we could have considered moving six times in the course of our nine years of marriage in order to follow jobs to the next city with a hot job market. Is that feasible? With so many of our social constructs unable to handle such a move (even though Americans on average are now moving once every seven years—and pushing toward six), the toll this takes on relationships within families and church congregations is devastating. Community, the human connection factor we all need, simply cannot function.

How can we stay put for any length of time to grow with a church body or to see our extended families connect for more than a generation? Unless we find alternatives to current work realities, this is an impossible dream.

This has been a lot to digest. For those who are new to Cerulean Sanctum, I have several past posts that delve into some of these ideas further:

To Tim Challies, I say, Thanks for putting me up to this series. And oddly enough, I never did fully address the Pyromarketing post you put up, but I think this series has run its course. I know that I have put several projects on hold in writing it—projects that actually pay!

I’m trying to find a way to make what I have written about here work in my own family. I don’t know how successful it will be, but I feel it has to start here with us. I can only hope that more of us Christians will rally together to make a difference in attacking work issues head on. Many of these issues are entrenched and resemble nothing less than Pandora’s Box. But something must be done, and with Christ’s strength and Spirit, I know we will triumph if we let Him work through us.

Blessings, and thanks for making through all 13 posts of The Christian & the Business World!

Previous post in this series: The Christian & the Business World #12: The Redemption of Corporate America, Part 5

Series beginning:  The Christian & the Business World #1: My Qualifications for the Series

The Christian & the Business World #11: The Redemption of Corporate America, part 4

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I really want to blame it all on Zig Ziglar.

Actually, it’s just the name that gets me right here in the epiglottis. Mr. Ziglar was not the one who first perpetrated the idea of “The Business Church,” though. So let’s zag instead of Zig and take a look at the reasons that Church and business converged.

In the #6 installment in this series, I pointed out that an ad man, Bruce Barton, published a little book in the mid-1920s that went on to bestselling status: The Man Nobody Knows. This book took the Christian triumphalism and postmillennial viewpoint that grew in the Industrial Revolution and brought the growth of business in the first quarter of the new century in line with the Faith of Our Fathers. It was a perfect melding in a day when Christianity was beginning to fall prey to higher criticism of the Bible and to Darwinian thought. Those heady days after WW I and before the stock market crash made business almost as big as the Church of Jesus. Syncretism was inevitable.

The problem for the Church, though, was that it simply did not understand the cultural changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution enough to quarrel with them. The result was tolerance and accommodation. In fact, many of the entrenched ministries we see today are a result of the Church attempting to minister around the fringes of the changes brought about by the new business landscape. Unable to establish a Christian center in this new world, Christianity became susceptible to being incorporated by it, just as one business swallowed another.

The World Wars played their parts in keeping us preoccupied while the world changed around the Church, so it is hard to blame it all on sleeping sentries. The Church was fighting on more fronts than it knew how to control. Still, no one raised a cry when barbarians appeared at the gates. Eventually, the question of “Can we run the Church like a business?” became moot.

At this point, we must diverge for moment to go down another track. A missionary named Donald McGavran, having seen sporadic success on the mission fields of India in the 1930s, began to hammer out theories as to how to better make disciples by asking why some evangelistic crusades worked and some didn’t. His conclusions eventually took him to Fuller Theological Seminary where The Church Growth Movement began.

The Church Growth Movement basically says—and this is a truly simplistic explanation—that the most important thing you can do to have an effective ministry is to grow the number of people in your church. This theory rebuffed Jurgen Moltmann’s idea that the best church is one that is heterogeneous and instead sought to appeal to a homogeneous “tribe.” In the United States, this tribe took on the form of middle to upper middle class white suburbanites gathered around a common set of needs. In order to best determine how to reach that tribe en masse, the Church Growth Movement searched for catalysts to growth. They found those catalysts in business models.

The hope for the Church Growth Movement was to incorporate the same kind of customer modeling that companies like Procter & Gamble had perfected. P&G became the number one consumer home goods company that it is today by extensive studies performed on customers. Why does the housewife prefer that brand over ours? P&G labored to know. Their example became the rule at companies all over the world.

With the taboo of mixing Jesus with big business long ago removed during the era of Barton’s book, the Church Growth Movement saw that business practices like P&G’s could work in Church circles, too. By identifying the unchurched as a consumer of a specific product, it was possible to craft a Church from nothing that met the needs of the tribe targeted for evangelization.

With Church Growth, the ends of growing a church numerically justified the means. As the movement grew in power in the late 1970s, the language it chose was that of business marketing. A phrase like “target audience” or “demographic niche” could come either from a marketing manager at IBM or a pastor of a church following Church Growth principles. Churches also began to see that business leaders could do more than be deacons or the private bank of a church—they could even be pastors.

Who better to be a pastor of a church than someone who already understands business practices and what makes business tick? To this end pastors talked like CEOs. In fact, church leaders started to quote from bestselling business books as if they were deuterocanonical. In more than one church, Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was drummed into the congregation in multiple messages. Human Potential Movement speakers who traveled the business circuit showed up in pulpits and preached a nebulous convergence of business and watered-down gospel that was little more than “me-isms.” And countless churches were told by their pastors that success and leadership were all that Jesus was about. (I wonder if anyone ever questioned why the most successful Christians in history were routinely martyred for the Faith. But then, I was always a troublemaker.)

New Christian leaders rose up that resembled nothing like them in history. Bill Hybels filled the role of America’s pastor. George Barna became the thinker of the hour (Note: I think Barna’s studies on the state of Christianity are vital and I highly support his polling, but I do not support at all his business model solutions to addressing the issues his surveys raise.) In the quest to reach a church perfectly modeled on business practices, churches leapt into Total Quality Management principles—ironically, as Francis Schaeffer had noted before, even as the secular business world was abandoning those practices as flawed. Churches excitedly pointed out that their staffs were now loaded with retired business leaders or, better yet, those who had heard the call of Church Growth and left the The view inside Willow Creek Community Churchbusiness world to “heed the voice of God.”

Church Growth principles and the business models that drove them have created for us the landscape we see today in modern Christianity: megachurches, church planting demographics studies, the addition of retail stores within churches, and that “cloned” atmosphere found in churches across North America.

The problems with Church Growth and its reliance on business models are legion. The cross does not exalt one’s business acumen, but calls people to die to self. Feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and such are explicitly off message and Church Growth leaders are told that this social outreach aspect of the Gospel is a waste of time because it doesn’t translate into growth. Progressive growth in discipleship is scorned since numbers are all that matter, not the depth of the disciples being made. Spirit-filled Christians gifted by God are rejected for leadership if they call Church Growth principles into question or do not have the prerequisite business world curriculum vitae as proof of potential ministry success. (Certainly, anyone reading this could add dozens more abuses.) In the end, it’s a bitter twist that the very problems that show up in Barna’s surveys of American Christendom are largely the result of the failures of the Church Growth Movement that idolized his findings.

Today’s vast wasteland of churches that have driven themselves into the ground is proof of the stark failure of the Church Growth Movement and its dalliance with business. It will take years to root out all the unbiblical business practices from the Church in North America and fix the damage they left in their wake. In the end, the syncretism of Church and business broke pastors, churches, and families. One must even question if the people who came to the “Christ” preached in churches adhering to Church Growth principles actually met the Lord Jesus at all. Only Judgment Day will tell.

Giving people what they want works for diapers and deodorant, but it doesn’t make disciples of any depth.

Where does it all lead then? In the next installment in this series, The Christian & the Business World #12: The Redemption of Corporate America, part 5, we’ll examine what steps Christians and businesses can take to realize both of their potentials in Christ through a fully holistic Christian worldview.

Previous post in this series: The Christian & the Business World #10: The Redemption of Corporate America, Part 3

Next post in this series: The Christian & the Business World #12: The Redemption of Corporate America, Part 5