Abortion, Gay Marriage, and Worldliness in the Church

Worldliness was a serious concern of the authors of Scripture. Paul, in his letter to Titus, proclaims that grace "teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." John, in his first letter, bluntly instructs, "do not love the world or anything in the world."

It is a serious concern of the church both past and present. Thomas a Kempis writes that "grace is precious, and may not be mingled with worldly concerns and pleasures." A popular radio preacher states, "worldliness is the sin of allowing one's appetites, ambitions, or conduct to be fashioned according to earthly values."

It is, dare I join such company, a concern of mine. I join with the Apostle Peter, as one "having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." I share the biblical concern that I, along with the church at large, would remain free from such worldly corruption.

Here, then, is the problem. The moment we start talking about 'worldliness creeping into the church,' it seems we all want to talk about two things:

Gay Marriage…

     …and…

…Abortion

I won't deny that the church should be thinking, praying, and responding to these two issues, nor that they might very well be places where the attitudes of some christians are indeed being swayed by worldly opinions, but lets be honest, these two things ain't the problem. Not even close!

The place where worldliness is creeping into our church is the place where our culture has entered in without our knowledge, the places where we are so controlled by what our culture dictates that we just assume it is part and parcel with christianity. If we want to talk about worldliness creeping into the church we have got to talk about the unholy trinity of materialism, individualism, and consumerism.

We live in a culture saturated with the message that YOU are the most important thing on earth, and that you should celebrate this by exercising your right to have whatever you want. Indeed, in our culture, we have come to the place where the greatest sin would be to leave personal desire un-pursued! The mantra of Americana is to look deep within your heart, find your truest yearnings, and then do everything in your power to realize them. From billboards and junk mail, to banner ads and commercials, our culture screams, "Have it Your Way," and, "Make the Most of Now." We are told to buy it "Because You're Worth It," and that "Pleasure is the Path to Joy." It is, after all, one of the inalienable rights bestowed upon us by our founding documents as a nation, that of the 'pursuit of happiness.'

The sad reality is that a short search could produce church slogans that could fit right in with the slogans above! (I will refrain from posting some, because I don't want to offend anyone who might come across this.)  Our christian culture is, in most places, built upon the same assumptions about the role of the individual, and individual desire, and individual fulfillment, as the culture around us. Our messages, explicit and implicit, our programming, our evangelistic strategies, our discipleship methods, and our definition of christian maturity, all are deeply tilted toward providing individualistic consumers of religious goods and services the fulfillment of their expectations in return for their giving and their attendance.

That, my friends, is the world creeping into the church.

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18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Philippians 3:18-20 15

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 2:15-17

Consumerism and Mission

The Seeds of Destruction

I was recently involved in an interesting conversation.  It took place between a christian woman in her 60's and christian man in his 30's.


Cheryl was lamenting the destruction of the family unit, and the family bond.  She was expressing her frustration that her own children (who were now John's age) had left home, moved to a different city, and now she had less time to see her children and grand-children.  She was pointing out that this pattern of life is not 'christian.'  John was trying (tactfully) to point out that Cheryl's generation had begun the cultural trend toward individualism and the fracturing of relational ties, but she seemed to fail to grasp the point he was making.


The irony of this conversation, is that it took place in a suburban living room, very far (in geographical distance) from Cheryl's ancestral home, not to mention very far (in social distance) from everyone in the neighborhood.  The irony is that Cheryl is a member of a (not quite) mega-church, that she came to attend after abandoning the church family she grew up in, and raised her children in.  The irony is that Cheryl's way of life is the seed which bears fruit in her children.

The boomer generation created suburban isolationism, and fragmented society with its individualism.  Today's youth culture is much more aware of its need for relationship, in fact, it may very well be the pursuit of authentic community that has driven Jane's children to move away from her suburban lifestyle.

The Upside of Consumer Habits?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/january/29.50.html?start=1

I couldn't disagree more...

Medium and Message

Consumerism and Mission

The Church in the West has built a model of church growth that attracts people to attend congregational events, and ultimately join a local congregation, by providing services to the individual.  A local church will provide excellent child-care, professionally played music, state of the art facilities, and ministries specially tailored to individual desire.

This has resulted in a Church where individual Christians choose their congregational affiliation based on the fulfillment of personal desire.  Christians might live on the West Side of Buffalo, but attend worship services in Williamsville, or even further away.  This is not entirely problematic in and of itself; one person leaving their neighborhood to worship and witness elsewhere has little effect, but when the entire church pursues this same pattern of relationship, there is a deep disfunction that settles on the Church.

The Mission of God consists in getting the salt out of the salt shaker and into every corner of society, but when the salt continues to seek out larger and larger salt shakers within which to seclude themselves from the world, that mission suffers.  The Mission of God requires each and every Christian to take personal responsibility for seeing God's Kingdom Come to the little corner of the earth that they inhabit, this is impossible if we refuse to labor towards the blessing of the place we are at, and instead seek our own blessing by going elsewhere...

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This doesn't mean it is a sin to drive past one worship service to attend another, but rather this is a check on our motives.  God called Paul to leave Jerusalem, and then to leave Antioch; it would have been sinful for him to stay when God said, "Go."  This is not about which congregation we choose to belong to, but about how we make that decision.

People want the Church to provide child care, excellent music, air conditioning, clean carpets, good teaching, hot coffee, and a single's ministry with lots of attractive and wealthy members.  God wants the Church to provide people who will live for His Kingdom, love each other sacrificially, work tirelessly for justice, and live their lives as a shining light in a dark world.  We must chose which list we will use to determine the course of our lives, and the course of our Church.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us that, "discipleship is not an offer that man makes to Christ."  What this means, simply put, is that God is offering us an opportunity to get involved in His project, He has no real desire to get on board with our agenda.  He is not merely a planet in our sky, important and beautiful, but ultimately in orbit around us; rather He is the sun around whom we must find our orbit.

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What this all boils down to is this: Consumerism is the enemy of Mission.  Consumerism, simply put, is making decisions based upon the fulfillment of personal desires; I will do what satisfies my needs.  Mission, simply put, is making decisions based upon the fulfillment of God's desire to bless other people.  When the Church embraces consumer values we eschew missional ones, and vice versa.

Bringing the A-Game

Zion & Babylon

Oh great mammon of form and function
Careless consumerist consumption
Dangerous dysfunction
Described as expensive taste
I’m a people disgraced
By what I claim I need
And what I want to waste
I take no account for nothing
If it’s not mine
It’s a misappropriation of funds
Protect my ninety percent with my guns
Whose side am I on?
Well who’s winning?
My kingdom’s built with the blood of slaves
Orphans, widows, and homeless graves
I sold their souls just to build my private mansion
Some people say that my time is coming
Kingdom come is the justice running
Down, down, down on me
I’m a poor child, I’m a lost son
I refuse to give my love to anyone,
Fight for the truth,
Or help the weaker ones
Because I love my Babylon
I am a slave, I was never free
I betrayed you for blood money
Oh I bought the world, all is vanity
Oh my Lord I’m your enemy
Come to me, and find your life
Children sing, Zion’s in sight
I said don’t trade your name for a serial number
Priceless lives were born from under graves
Where I found you
Say, my name ain’t yours and yours is not mine
Mine is the Lord, and yours is my child
That’s how it’s always been
Time to make a change
Leave your home
Give to the poor all that you own
Lose your life, so that you could find it
First will be last when the true world comes
Livin’ like a humble fool to overcome
The upside-down wisdom
Of a dying world
Zion’s not built with hands
And in this place God will dwell with man
Sick be healed and cripples stand
Sing Allelu
My kingdom’s built with the blood of my son
Selfless sacrifice for everyone
Faith, hope, love, and harmony
I said let this world know me by your love
By your love
Oh my child, daughters and sons
I made you in love to overcome
Free as a bird, my flowers in the sun
On your way to Mount Zion
All you slaves, be set free
Come on out child and come on home to me
We will dance, we will rejoice
If you can hear me then follow my voice

Satan Pacifying the Church

A few years back I heard a pastor comment “The Church is sleeping, and when she stirs from her slumber, Satan pulls the covers back over her, tucks her in, and eases her back to sleep.”

The image stuck with me...

Another pastor at that same event proclaimed 'the church (God's people pursuing God's purposes) is the hope of the world!' But he went on to show how the average Christian is unaware of the real meaning of life, the real source of joy and purpose. We confuse things; we think God wants to be a part of our lives. We think God wants to be a part of our family, bless our career, show us how to live a good and moral life.

God wants to invite us to be a part of His life.

The Church has become a place to receive goods and services, a place to learn how to live a blessed life, a place to leave when it ceases to meet our desires. The Church has been pacified by the American Dream. We are asleep on with our head on a pillow called 'comfort,' tucked into a blanket called 'success,' dreaming fantastic consumer dreams.

Disciples or Customers

"The reason several thousand volunteers do what they do ... is because those volunteers understand that we're not simply parking cars, we're not simply taking care of kids ... we're creating irresistible environments. When people come into those environments, there's kind of an ‘aha’ moment as they begin to connect with not a church, and not a message, and certainly not a person, but they begin to connect with the relevance of the gospel and the relevance of Scripture as it relates to their everyday experience."

A Famous American Megachurch Pastor

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While I admit, I want to play the same game. I want to gather crowds who affirm my calling and ministry by nodding and smiling at appropriate moments, and giving their energy and money to my vision for their lives. But, I have to question a system that defines 'spiritual success' as people being provided with 'irresistable environments' by virtue of scratching their consumer itch.

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"Whoever wants to be my student must be nailed to a piece of wood and left for dead."

A Famous Palestinian Revolutionary