It's Time To Get Messy

 There is a basic foundation problem in the Church : honesty. Most of us have been conditioned not to be honest. Think about it. What happens when someone is honest about their failures, their sins or their temptations in the Body of Christ? Exactly. The place that is meant to be the safest place on earth is actually one of the scariest places. 

We have gotten it wrong and we can see that by what Jesus taught Nicodemus when Nicodemus came looking for answers to questions he didn't even understand. Take a minute and walk through this with me:

"God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Savior and rescue it!" John 1:17

That is perhaps our first wrong turn right there. We spend more time condemning the world than we do in participating in Jesus' mission to rescue it. How do we miss this? How do we forget that while we were the enemy of God Jesus died for us? How do we forget that we have all fallen short of the glory of God? We came from this world. We were products of it. And those who we spend so much time condemning and tearing down have the same potential as we had to be rescued. If they are without Jesus, the source of life itself, how can we expect them to act like they do have him? Crazy.

If we get this part wrong then we probably miss the next point:

"So now there is no longer any condemnation for those who believe in him, but the unbeliever already lives under condemnation because they do not believe in the name of God's beloved Son." v. 18

So there is a condemnation, but not from us and not for what most Christians think. We spend so much energy in tearing down people for their sin that we miss this point. The real danger is not the sin but their failure to accept the solution. We keep demanding that they change their behaviour but behaviour cannot change until the heart does and the heart is only transformed by Jesus. So the solution is not conformity but transformation by knowing Jesus. Knowing Jesus is an invitation not an accusation. No one can be forced, tricked or manipulated to kneel before Jesus. It only works when it is a surrender of the heart provoked by love, in response to Jesus' love. It's not the words we speak unless those words have been empowered by an overflowing heart.

Now we get to the heart of the problem that effects all of us and the atmosphere of the Church:

"And here is the basis for their judgment: The Light of God has now come into the world, but the hearts of people love their darkness more than the Light, because they want the darkness to conceal their evil." v. 19

The purpose here is not to have the things hidden in the darkness exposed for condemnation but for healing. Disease must be revealed before it can be dealt with. If it remains undetected it will continue to grow and destroy until the result is death. When a person is willing to have their rebellious ways exposed to the Light then they are expressing a desire for healing. This is more than a one time act, it is also part of our daily growth, our "daily work out your salvation". It is not good enough to kick out the demon. If we fail to daily allow the Light to occupy that space then the demon is coming back with friends. There is constant exposure to the Light.

The problem is, how can we promote such a culture of honesty in the face of the age old culture of condemnation? This is especially true for our leaders. How can they lead by example if their example is going to get them fired? I know of no perfect person and yet we force our leaders to hide their "demons" and have the facade of perfection so that we can apply the same false expectation to the rest of the Church. Only the wicked are suppose to be hiding from the light, not the believers:

"So the wicked hate the Light and try to hide from it, for their lives are fully exposed in the Light." v. 20

Jesus never intended that the Church would be a toxic place, being a killer of grace and forgiveness. The Body is suppose to be a place of healing, reconciliation and growth. This can only exist in an atmosphere of trust and love where people are not afraid to allow the Light to expose the things that would try to separate us from God. Read this:

"But those who love the truth will come out into the Light and welcome its exposure, for the Light will reveal that their fruitful works were produced by God." v. 21

Underline "who love the truth". Love is a thing of trust. It empowers us to do things we would not do in ourselves. It is the reason Jesus said "Love will empower you to obey my commands". Love is not just the enabler of our confession but is also the atmosphere of a healthy church that can handle the truth. Love does not guarantee it wouldn't be messy but it does make sense of the mess. Love trusts that it is indeed the work God produces and not reliant on mere appearances.

I do not know where we got this desire to present perfection to the world. It fails just on the basis that it doesn't exist. What is attractive to everyone is authentic love that is powerful enough to stand up under truth and desires to see people healed instead of appear perfect.

Does that make sense to you? 

I hope so because there are a lot of hurting people sitting in our churches too afraid to seek healing for those broken places. They are too afraid because we have not developed a culture that celebrates and supports honesty. Our desire for the person must be bigger than our desire for neatness. We have that very interesting motto, "Love the sinner and hate the sin" but much of the Church has no idea what that looks like. It starts by understanding that the person is more important than the situation, the argument, the hurt and the sin. The sooner we can start celebrating people the sooner we will be celebrating their healing.

Go ahead, get messy.

Changing The Culture Of The Church

Today I am responding to my blog from yesterday. I wrote about the need to be honest with our God about the secret sins we tuck away. We need to develop a healthy attitude toward confession and repentance. It is the only manner in which to rob sin of it's hold over us; to bring it out of the darkness and expose it to the light of God. Sin no longer has authority over us, unless we give it authority. But for this attitude of confession and forgiveness to happen things have to change in the North American Church.

What would happen in your church if a leader confessed they had fallen? Would they be removed from their responsibility? Perhaps told to leave the church? Would everyone look at them differently? Would they be thought less of? Probably some if not all of the above, right?

Perhaps in your church it depends on the sin. For some reason we have categories of sin, as if some are worse than others. Jesus said all but one sin is forgiven, even blasphemy against him. The only sin that is not forgiven is the sin against the Spirit which is the rejection of the Spirit's conviction of salvation. Does this not mean that our churches should be centers of forgiveness? Should we not have a natural culture of forgiveness? Should our churches not be centers of restoration and recovery?

Why would anyone want to risk dragging their sin out into the light of God's love when the Church is ready to crucify anyone with any signs of imperfection? We have seen it time and again when pastors have been forced to keep their sins hidden, giving authority to that sin over their life, dragging them even deeper into it's ugliness. Imagine how quick the recovery would have been if they were able to confess that fall at the beginning so that healing and restoration could happen quickly.

The only sin that should be dealt with harshly is the sin held by an unrepentant heart. When sin is discovered and the one responsible refuses to acknowledge it, refuses to repent of it, refuses to humble himself before God, it must be dealt with harshly for the sake of the one who smells of death. The elders have the responsibility of trying to restore this lost soul, but if that person refuses then they have no choice but to remove that person, as hard as it may be. But this is the exception and not the rule.

Sin is devastating and if we give it authority then it can be powerful. It's greatest power is found in our fear of being exposed. But God knows our weakness. He already knows us. It is not like we are exposing ourself to God but instead we are exposing the sin so we can see it compared to God's glory. As we expose it we discover it for what it is. It is not as sweet as it seemed in the dark. In fact we realize how wretched, ugly and pathetic it is when exposed to the light. We want churches that make it easy for people to do this, in a culture of love and forgiveness.

Bullies pick on those whose weaknesses are exposed in order to keep attention off of their own weaknesses. The Church is full of bullies who would rather live a pretend life, looking down their noses at the honest sinner who only wants to have a real relationship with Jesus. These people were known as Pharisees in Jesus' day and the Church is full of them today. Repent you Pharisees and you too can find freedom in your confession. Bring it into the light. Let it be exposed.

For the sake of us all, the current culture of the North American Church must be changed so that forgiveness and love flow for everyone, regardless of their position. We have to stop acting so pious.  We are all just one decision away from sinning. Without Jesus we are all weak and pathetic. We all face the same dangers. Understand then that God will judge what secret things remain hidden in the dark places of our heart so let us make sure that everyone feels welcomed and encouraged to expose every inch of it to the light of God. Forgive as you have been forgiven.

What It Means To Shine In An Exposed World

We live in an age where privacy is prized as it is slowly eroded away. Never before have we had such an opportunity to share with so many people who we are, what we believe and what we are doing. At the same time, there is a growing desire among some in our culture to turn it all off and remain hidden, unnoticed. Their thought is that they do not want to share their life with strangers and it is nobody's business what they are doing. There is also another group that thinks it is a useless act of self-display. They ask questions like, "Who's going to be interested in the fact I am grocery shopping." I would like to address this last group first.

There was a time when biographies were important for inspiring people to greatness or at least to things of greatness in the mundane. Children would read and learn about great men and women of the faith. Adults would read about great figures from history. We would read about their victories and defeats, both public and private, and we would be changed. Now we have the opportunity to see a lot more heroes daily and not great people of history. The ordinary guy has become a source of inspiration and hope. I know that I am daily inspired by many of the people in my social network, doing ordinary things in an ordinary way. We know life is not about the extraordinary events but about the faithful daily prodding. I like how people find inspirational moments in their day, in the grocery store, the parking lot, taking the dog for a walk, even in an ordinary conversation with a son over a bowl of cereal. When we share what we are doing and some of our thoughts on our experience in the day, we have no idea who we are inspiring and who we are offering hope to in their day.

There are people who consider it a waste of time and I agree if you fill your day with it and forget to live your life. However it is not a waste if you treat it like a great interactive book that you are writing with some friends. You don't spend all day with your nose in a book, but you do cherish those moments when you can curl up with it. It is also a waste of time if people are not being honest and are trying to project an image. This is where Christians have an opportunity to shed that veneer and allow the real light to shine. We are not perfect and people are turned off when we try to project that we are. Where Jesus is really seen in us is in our weaknesses, our failures, our warts and wrinkles but that is hard for us to share. Jesus taught:

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

A city on a hill is expose at night. In the dark everyone can see the light reaching out. If we hide our life, staying hidden away, no one can see the light of Jesus in us. Jesus told us our life must be on display if that light is going to be seen. We want them to see Jesus, not us but often the real Jesus only shines out as we work through the challenges of life. People want to see how our faith helps us overcome the same things they are trying to overcome. If we do not admit to our addictions, our mistakes, our heartaches, how will they know that Jesus can heal these things?

Jesus' life was definitely on display. The only time he removed himself was when he needed to have some private time with his disciples. In fact, his life was so greatly observed that he was able to say to his accusers:

"I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said." (John 18:20-21)

I recently met with a pastor who had some questions for me. As we spoke he told me that he had been looking through my Twitter and blog to get to understand me better. At first I was taken aback; it was the first time I had met a lurker and it kind of threw me off. I suddenly felt naked, exposed because he knew many of my thoughts, feelings and the actions I had taken yet I knew very little about him. Even coming home I started thinking about the number of people who could be lurking in the shadows watching my life. My natural reaction was to stop exposing myself so much but after some more thought I reminded myself that this had been my goal, to be accountable and transparent as much as I could. My life is not a shining example but a series of failures. However, Jesus has exposed himself in these failures, demonstrating his forgiveness, love and grace. The general thinking is, "if he has done this for me, imagine what he can do for you".

I have a good friend who lives this every day. The best way to describe him is as a bull in a china shop. He gladly exposes his life for the sake of others. He wears his weaknesses and failures but always for the purpose of preaching Jesus. Not everyone can take him. To be honest there are times he is too much for me but I can tell you this, he is genuine. His love is real, his compassion is amazing, he is generous to a fault, he is big, he is loud and he is a great person to have as a friend. He does in person what some of us try to do through technology. He is old school and there is nothing wrong with that because his motivation is the love of Jesus for the lost. Those of us who try to do it with technology need to check our motivation because sometimes we can forget and we start thinking it is all about us. It isn't. It's all about Jesus and the Father's desire for everyone to be saved from the coming judgment. We cannot hide away our lives because the light is shining through us. We need to be willing to be exposed, to be involved, to admit our mistakes, to admit our fears and doubts and then let the world see how Jesus deals with all of it in us.

Some people are going to appreciate it, even if we do not hear from them. Other people are going to misunderstand and think we are self-important. Others are going to hate us because we are exposing things they fear in themselves. All we want is for people to see the active love and grace of Jesus in our daily living because there are people who want to know there are others out there struggling to keep the house in order, who is facing a rotten boss, who loves hockey even though their team constantly fails, who is dealing with a sick child, who understands what it is to feel alone in a crowded house. You working out your salvation daily as your plod along in life can be the greatest inspiration some people need. You are a daily hero, don't hide away the light.