So Many Choices, Only One Truth

My associate pastor and I both have an affinity for buffets. In order to brainstorm, we need brainfood. So when we have strategy sessions, we like to go to the local Chinese restaurant. The one near our church has more than enough brainfood to satisfy this pastor. As we all know well, the good thing about a buffet is the ability to pick and choose exactly what you like. I usually go for anything deep fried with a lot of sauce. Of course, for the sake of my health I’ll dab a spoonful of fried rice onto my plate and hope that the stray pea somehow makes it into the bunch.

The analogy of the buffet to religion has been used numerous times. Many people are searching to fill the void in their lives, and they pick and choose elements from different belief systems to create their own personal plate of religion. What many don’t realize is the sheer size of the religious buffet. The World Christian Encyclopedia reports that there could be as many as 10,000 distinct and different religions across the globe. And 270 of these religions have over 500,000 adherents each.

The flattening of the world has increased the speed with which people can pick and choose among these religions. The fiber optic boom of the late 1990s has laid the groundwork for the lightening-quick access to information around the globe. With this increasing access to information due to technological advances, the religious buffet has grown morbidly large.

The problem is that people are gorging themselves on fluff. Americans, in particular, are satisfied. In fact, The Gallup Poll recently reported that 84% of Americans are satisfied with their personal lives. While this is encouraging from a political science perspective, it does not bode well for the church. Satisfaction does not equate to salvation. You could spend your entire life at the religious buffet line, weighing all the choices and getting fat on nothing more than deception. There is only one Truth. There is only one way to remedy the void caused by sin. Sin is satisfying; it prevents us from knowing the Truth of Jesus Christ. And in order to follow Christ we must leave our personal sphere of satisfaction pick up our crosses and follow him.

My associate pastor and I discussed this problem of satisfaction and apathy within our community. In fact, it is estimated that 57,000 people may not know Christ within our immediate community. We each came to the realization that there is much work to be done; we can never become satisfied. We must proclaim the one and only Truth until God decides that our work is done. After our meal, the waitress brought us our checks, as well as a fortune cookie. I laughed at the prospect of two ministers of the gospel opening fortune cookies, but we proceeded to anyway.

His said Work hard and you will be rewarded. Not so bad, I guess.
Mine stated When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out, because that is what is in it.

So much for truth…

Don’t Fear the Golden Sombrero

I didn’t quite know how we would be received. Would people slam the door in our face? Would they even answer the door? The church I was attending was asking the members to go door-to-door around the community inviting others to join us for a new contemporary worship service. I had never been a part of such an outreach program, and I had reservations as to the success we would see. I reluctantly volunteered.

The demographic and social dynamics of communities can differ greatly and require different means of evangelism and outreach. What works well in one area of the country may fail terribly in another. As my friend and I began our walk around the new subdivision we had been assigned I was nervous about people’s reactions. I wondered if knocking on people’s doors on a Saturday afternoon and handing them information about our church would lead into a gospel presentation. Or would I be looking at the front side of doors all afternoon?

In baseball, a player receives a golden sombrero after striking out four times in a nine inning game. I certainly didn’t want to receive the evangelistic equivalent of this unwelcome award.

What I didn’t realize at the time is that people are quite receptive to an invitation to church. In fact our research shows that 82% of people are at least “somewhat likely” to attend church if invited. Sadly, only 21% of churchgoers actually made the effort to invite someone to church last year. While every door I knocked on did not lead to the opportunity to share Christ, almost everyone was willing to hear me out on the new contemporary service our church was offering. Most all took one of the packets I was carrying. I was pleasantly surprised by the response of the neighborhood. My fear of striking out consistently did not materialize.

Paul certainly didn’t fear striking out in Philippians 1. He rejoiced in the advancement of the gospel, even when in chains. He used his predicament to share the saving grace of Jesus Christ with the Roman soldiers that were chained to him in four hour rotations (talk about a captive audience). But like Paul, we will encounter envy and strife. We will strikeout at times. In the end, though, it is God that changes hearts. It is simply up to us to be obedient.

The obedience of the church paid dividends. More than 200 people showed up for the first service, many of them first time visitors. Now a pastor myself I look back on that experience with joy. And one of the first outreach programs I plan to initiate at my church is the “You’re Invited!” campaign. The premise is simple: let’s blanket the community with an invitation to know Jesus and worship at our church. I have a feeling that nobody will be wearing a golden sombrero on the following Sunday.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

A couple of weeks before we got married, my wife began to move in some of her items into my townhouse. As we were pulling out of the driveway that day she interrupted our idle chatter, “Oh and I can’t wait to meet your neighbors!”

I sat silent. She gave me her frustrated face. I tried not to look back at her.

“You don’t know your neighbors yet?!”

“No,” I said with a twinge of guilt.

“You’ve lived here almost four years, and you haven’t even said hello to your neighbors?”

“I’m busy. Besides, they don’t want to be disturbed either,” I attempted with lame rationalization.

“Honey,” she said with a bit more graciousness, “You should know your neighbors.”

Erin and I have totally different backgrounds. She grew up in the same small town her entire life. She lived in two different houses, yet both were on the same street. I moved about every 2 to 4 years to different states. She has deep roots. I never planted them. She knows everyone in her town, and we cannot go anywhere without someone coming up to us and saying hello. She once had a 10 minute conversation with the teller at the bank through the drive-through microphone. I never even gave a passing thought to knowing the person who lives across the street, much less did I know the teller at my bank.

In Luke 10, a lawyer questions Christ, asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. The answer: he must love God with his entire being. Christ then adds that he must love his neighbor as himself.

The lawyer retorts to save face after his trick question backfired, “And who is my neighbor?”

Christ then tells one of the most popular parables in the Bible, the Good Samaritan. A priest and a Levite, religious figures in the community, pass by a man in need. It was the Samaritan, an outcast in their society, who decided to come to the man’s rescue. The Good Samaritan was the good neighbor.

Our society has become much more mobile. And people are moving to different towns with greater frequency over further distances. The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2006 that people drive 79% more miles than they did in 1982, while roadways have only increased 3%, creating a frustrated commuter society living in permanent gridlock. People get home late in the evening, open their garage, and go right inside. It has become almost a hassle to know your neighbors.

Despite my own frustration in this area, I believe my wife is correct (Four weeks into marriage and I’m learning this line well). We should know our neighbors. We may have to schedule time with them, take the initiative, or simply make an effort to say hello. Christ calls us to be good neighbors. And this call extends beyond our own subdivisions, condos, and apartments. It is a call to the world. Because how will people ever see Christ exemplified in our lives if we don’t show them?

Chasing Fried Chicken

I didn’t quite understand what Herbie was saying. What I thought I heard him say was, “Do ya chase fried chicken?”

With a befuddled look I responded, “No…”

His pause and stern gaze made me feel uneasy. Obviously my answer was not what he was anticipating. It seemed as if he wanted me to say something else. I was becoming more nervous because I was standing in front of the entire congregation of the church. I had been preaching in the rural Nelson County, KY church for a few weeks, and now was the time for them to call me as pastor. Herbie had asked that I stand in front of the congregation and answer a few questions before they announced me as the pastor. It certainly was not the typical way of doing things, but I didn’t know any better. I was only beginning as a pastor.

Herbie is a grizzly man in his early seventies. The skull and cross bones tattoo between his index finger and thumb hints at a much darker past. But Herbie gave his heart to the Lord several years ago. His life is now full of light. And his entire life focus makes a beeline straight to the cross. His one desire is to do everything he can to facilitate people coming to Christ.

“I’m a follower of Christ, pastor, so I now work hard for the Lord,” he would always tell me.

He was a bricklayer by trade, but now he is retired. He is a hard-working man who still dabbles in farming. One of his first projects for his church was to build a fellowship hall. He was in his sixties when he built the entire thing with his own hands and almost no help. He paid for the building materials with his own money. To this day he is still bush-hogging around the church, painting ceilings, installing a bathroom, and laying tile.

Pareto’s Principle states that 80% of consequences stem from 20% of causes; it is also known as the 80/20 rule. In the church’s case, many times we see 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. Or as many church leaders may tell you, it is more like 90/10 or worse.

Standing before the congregation that day, I didn’t realize yet that Herbie alone was doing about 90% of the work for the church. I was merely trying to decipher what he was asking me.

I began to feel terribly nervous; his gaze had turned into a cold stare.

He mumbled again (with what seemed a few less marbles in his mouth), “Do you eat fried chicken?”

“Oh! Yes, I do,” I said quickly.

There was more – and now I knew why he wanted more of an answer the first time he asked. He had asked two questions, not one.

“Do ya chase women, Brother Rainer?” was the second question.

My face turned tomato. I looked at my girlfriend (now my wife). I thought, “Did he really just ask me that in front of the church?”

Then I realized that I looked like I was actually thinking about the question while gazing at her.

“NO! Absolutely not,” I spurted confidently.

Herbie smiled. He had obviously played this joke on a few fresh, young pastors prior to me.

Herbie and I would get along just fine from there on out. He had his own way of communicating, but his actions were what rang so true for me. He simply did what needed to be done around the church. No one asked him; he just assumed responsibility. There are a myriad of churches out there with their own ‘Herbies’ quietly assuming responsibility. These folks are not looking to grow their own kingdom; they are just following Christ’s lead for their life. They want no recognition, just a healthy church. I know that many churches would be closing their doors if it were not for these faithful servants. My first church is one of them.

I will never forget the lessons learned from that church. Herbie taught me how to be an ant. Proverbs 6:6 reveals that we are to be wise and diligent workers like the ant. God has granted Christians spiritual gifts. We are to use these gifts for his glory.

The day I told the church that I felt God was calling me to serve elsewhere, Herbie looked at me, smiled, shook my hand firmly and said, “It’s been good working with you, brother.”

As a bi-vocational minister at the time, I wish I could have done more. I wish that I could have been more efficient with my time. I wish that I could have worked a little harder, like the ant. And clearly, there will always be more to do in the church. But Herbie’s parting words still bring me joy. I will hang on to the meaning behind those words for eternity.

The Goldilocks Dilemma

Lachlan is a hip kinda guy. His name sounds cool. He has tattoos. And his wife digs the tattoos. Lachlan has his ear to the ground when it comes to what’s going on in the world and with his neighbors. He loves people and can relate with most anyone.

Lachlan also loves Jesus, and he has a big heart for international missions. His primary joy, whether at his place of employment, in his neighborhood, or on the mission field, is to see others come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. One of his main recommendations to churches is to relate to and serve their communities so that people will come to know Christ. Nobody related to people better than Christ; He is the model. The conundrum, however, is to engage the culture without compromising our call as Christians to be set apart. And that is the crux of it all - how do you get it just right? Like in the story of Goldilocks, where hot or cold porridge doesn’t pass muster, the church must be neither too hot nor too cold to culture. Too hot and you become the culture from which Christians are set apart. Too cold and you become an island reaching no one.

Lachlan’s church would not be considered a traditional or typical church. He serves at one of the “churches for cool people” (My friend Jim coined the phrase referring to the wave of churches that are engaging the culture in order to lead people to Christ). Since Lachlan had been telling me about the successes of his church, I wanted to see for myself how they were achieving in reaching a niche of people that many other churches in the area had not been able to reach. So last Sunday evening my wife and I joined Lachlan and his wife for worship and then dinner afterwards. My question for this church (or any church for that matter) is how do you relate to the culture without compromising the Truth? One survey states that only half of churches feel that they do a good job of engaging the community and making others feel welcome. Additionally, only 40% of these churches feel that they have any real impact on the community or the world. I’m sure that if you were to ask the people outside of these churches, the statistics would be much lower. So I was curious what this ‘church for cool people’ could actually be doing to buck the negative trend.

Lachlan’s church is located near downtown Louisville, KY. In order to have a place to worship, the congregation recently renovated an old three-story elementary school. Since the church is located on a one-way street, parking was a snap. When we walked into the main area, we were greeted and handed cups of coffee (from a local shop). The first thing to notice is the beautiful hardwood floors and art exhibits in the main congregating area. I was surprised by the number of people there early, as well as the diversity of everyone. I’m sure I was in the minority in that I haven’t yet obtained my first tattoo. No one seemed to care, though, and the atmosphere in the room was quite welcoming. The church has two main services on Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening. Combined, they have about 500-600 attending in a given week. The service was more liturgical than what I was used to, but the message from the pastor (who wore an untucked shirt and jeans) was expository in nature. He was one year into a two-year sermon series through Matthew. And he certainly didn’t compromise the gospel in any way. I could see this church wasn’t concerned with being cool. They were just reaching others for Christ.

While I had certain dislikes about a few elements of the service, I was encouraged to see that this church had managed to balance reaching and serving their community while still proclaiming the timeless gospel message. Clearly, a church in urban Louisville will have a different community than a church in one of the rural surrounding counties. And each of these churches will have to engage their respective communities in differing fashions.

Our culture today could use a few more Goldilocks churches like Lachlan’s church. We are called to be ’salt’ and ‘light.’ Salt adds flavor, and light illuminates the darkness. So we are to be the spice of culture, yet also shine to the truth of Jesus Christ. And how is all this done? There certainly is no one all-encompassing answer.

At dinner, Lachlan and I discussed these points over a hot bowl of gumbo in a local joint down the road from the church. The creole was just right, spicy enough for a kick but not enough to give you indigestion.