Some Thoughts on a Barna Study

The following is my article for the church and community newspaper. I reflect a bit about a recent study by Barna on obstacles American Christians struggle to overcome in their spiritual journeys.

Spiritual Obstacles

            Today’s article is a reflection on a recent study released by the Barna Group. You can find the study online at www.barna.org titled “Self Described Christians Dominate America but Wrestle with Four Aspects of Spiritual Depth”

            George Barna (that guru of contemporary surveys and cultural observations) has recently released the findings of another study that does not reflect well on the American Church. The study sought to find obstacles in the American Church that people struggle to get past. They came up with four.

            Firstly, according to the study, American Christians struggle with Commitment. They found that 81% of self-identified Christians have made a commitment to Jesus Christ. (I could probably write a book about the remaining 19% who self-identify as Christian but have made no commitment to Jesus). 81% sounds pretty good, but the findings show that only 18% of them are actually committed to growing in their spiritual lives. Growth, it seems, is an obstacle to contemporary American Christians because they simply do not see the need.

            A second obstacle was not surprising to me. They call it simply Repentance. 64% of self-identified Christians, says Barna, have confessed their sins. It doesn’t say how long ago that was, only that at some point in their lives they have confessed their sins. Only 3% reported that through confession they have come to submit their lives fully to God. Only 3%! My preaching lately has taken to speaking a lot about submission to God. I have recognized this as a great obstacle in the church today. Christians do not think God desires much more of them than what they are currently giving, and that giving is very minimal. Transformation of a life into the image of the Creator cannot happen without submission, of which true confession will be a mark.

            Barna calls the third obstacle “Activity” by which he means the religious practices we commonly engage in to find spiritual depth. They found that 39% of Christians engage regularly in Church worship, prayer, and reading the Bible. Barna sees this number as pretty good. As a pastor I see 39% as abysmal. It gets worse. Less than 10% engage in deeper practices of self-sacrifice, service, fasting, meditation on Scripture – in other words, practices that will lead you forward in your relationship with God. American Christians tend to keep a simple check list in their minds: read the Bible? Check! Took 30 seconds to pray? Check! Read a verse or two from the Psalms? Check! We tend to think that as long as we cover the checklist, then we’ve done our religious obligation, and God will reward us with riches and good health. American Christians don’t so much want to grow in their faith as much as just appease the gods so they’ll leave us alone.

            The fourth and final obstacle is about Spiritual Community. A majority of self-identified Christians claim to feel comfortable in their faith communities. However, only 1 in 5 believes that growing into spiritual maturity requires a deep connection to a community of faith. They further do not believe that they need to be held accountable for their daily practices by their churches. The reality for the spiritual life is quite simple: you cannot grow in your faith if you are not willing to submit to God and the guidance of his Church. There is no Christianity without community. There are no Lone Rangers to this faith. God makes us responsible for one another, but Americans don’t want to be vulnerable to each other. We build up walls instead to keep others out.

            In their conclusions, the Barna Group noted something very telling. Most churches do encourage their people to engage in spiritual activities as a means of growing. The problem is that most church members confuse the purpose for growing. Instead of growing into the image of God, exemplifying the attributes of our Lord (let’s look at Galatians 5:22 for what some of that might be), Americans are seeking to grow into greater wealth, health, security, and fame. In other words, Americans actually think that if they just do a few little spiritual exercises once in a while, then they will be rewarded with material gain. They don’t want to go deeper because that would challenge them to let go of their material idols.

            My friends, this does not have to be the case. We were created in the image of God, and because of our sin we have fallen very far from God, far from the true place of blessedness, peace, and joy. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, came and invited us to follow him, to deny ourselves, to take up the cross and go with him into the world. This requires submission. It requires confession. It requires seeking out deeper spiritual practices that will challenge our everyday idols. It requires giving yourself to a community of sisters and brothers who are on the very same journey. This journey is what we call “Salvation” in its fullest sense. Never be satisfied in your spiritual life. God is endless – without beginning and end. For the sake of our souls, we must dive deep into the soundless depths of God’s being. Only there will we will find a new life, a transformed life, a holy life.

Thoughts on the Call to Action

The United Methodist Council of Bishops is leading forward on the "Call to Action" which is an attempt to move United Methodism out of the statistical doldrums. Since 1968 we have lost around 3 million members. There is a lot of conversation surrounding the Call to Action. Below is a link to a conversation on this topic that took place at Duke Divinity School recently. There are also links on that page to the Call to Action document itself.

 http://divinity.duke.edu/news-media/news/20110906calltoaction

The Crumbs Beneath Thy Table:

Reflections on Exodus 16 and Matthew 20

This is an abridgment of a sermon I preached a few weeks ago on Exodus 16:2-4, 10-16 and Matthew 20:1-16. A further abridgment of this will be in the newspaper this week. They are actually the lectionary texts for the upcoming Sunday, September 18th.  The original title of the sermon was "When Grace Falls". 

         

          The people of Israel were wondering around in the wilderness with Moses at the lead. Imagine this wilderness – this desert place. This was not a comfortable place for the people of Israel to be. Recall that prior to this time of travel they had been slaves in Egypt. They had been a settled people, not nomadic people. They had been city dwellers and construction workers. They were not a traveling kind of folk. They were not like the pioneers, venturing out and fending for themselves, making a life in the harshest of conditions. These Israelites had never had to do this before. So even though the wilderness is a difficult place no matter who you are, for these Israelites it was the hardest of times. It was so difficult that they began to think about the good old days when they were just slaves in Egypt. Oh those were fine times, weren’t they? Everyone had food to eat; it was simply grand to be a slave. We all at times look back at the “good old days”. The grass was always greener back then, wasn’t it? We fool ourselves into believing that we have it so bad, when in fact the blessings abound (we just don’t see them clearly).

          But complain they did, and God was quite unsettled by it. As the story goes, God did not dismiss the complaints, but in fact heard them. God caused bread to fall from the sky and quail to appear each day. By God’s own provision, the people had their fill of food (and they didn’t even have to work for it).  I would like to say that this was the only time they complained. It was not. Complaining is something that seems to go alone with human living.  

           And, yes, we will all find something to complain about. It’s all a bit trite; a bit cliché. Don’t complain. Count your blessings. Be content with all you have. Those are wonderful platitudes, but perhaps the scripture today has something deeper to say to us than just the typical old sayings.
          Almighty God – the one who created the universe out of nothing; the same God who stretched the heavens, who crafted you and me in his very own image; the Sovereign Lord over all at whose very name the mountains tremble – this God called Israel together to follow him out into the world: to serve Him, to worship Him, to keep His commandants and live as a holy people. God then made a covenant with Israel that He would forever and always be with them.

Try to put yourself in the story. Imagine yourself there and the wonders you beheld. You saw with your own eyes the plagues that fell upon Egypt. You walked on the dry land across the Red Sea. You heard the voice of the Lord God speak! From Exodus 16:10, “And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said, ‘I have heard you.’” The voice of God is not a small thing, but even more, God rained down bread for the life of the people (Exodus 16:14).

            Grace is so abundant you can almost pick it up off the ground. Everywhere that God is, there is grace to be had. Grace is, very simply, the undeserved presence of God among us. God’s very presence is grace, and it brings with it forgiveness and the strength to live day to day in the face of hardship. God’s presence is active; it’s not just God residing out away somewhere; God is doing stuff in your life! God is speaking to you, guiding you, preparing you for the future. God’s grace brings out of us repentance and a desire for reconciliation. All of us are unworthy so much as to gather the crumbs beneath God’s Table. But, remember, grace is the undeserved presence of God among us. Wherever God is, there is grace to be had. It falls upon us, and you can almost just pick it up off the ground.

In my experience we tend to have at least two problems when it comes to grace. On the one hand we don’t trust that God’s grace is available. On the other we act like we’re entitled to it when we’re not. On the matter of not trusting in the availability of grace, simply look at the Israelites. They took one look at this bread from heaven said “What is it?” (the Hebrew word for “What is it” is Manna). We so often do not comprehend that God is active in our lives even though God promised to be. I’ve heard it so many times: “I just don’t feel like God is in my life. I don’t feel God near me. I used to feel the presence of God, and now I feel nothing.” When did being Christian become all about feelings? There are days I don’t feel like following in the ways of God. And yet, there are other days when I know with certainty that God is speaking from the cloud. Still, on those other days when the mountains do not tremble and the cloud does not portray to my liking the glory of God I must still trust that God promised to be present always – that God’s grace will still fall abundantly.

We also struggle on the other end of the spectrum, I’m afraid, with thinking that we deserve God’s grace, even perhaps more than others. There’s this story from Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus tells a parable of a landowner who goes out early in the morning looking for workers. He finds some day laborers who agree to work all day for a typical day’s wage. As it turns out, there was a lot of work to do that day, so the landowner went back out at 9 o’clock and again at noon and still again at 3 in the afternoon. Each time he gathered and hired more workers. He went out the last time at 5 o’clock and hired the last bunch. When the day was finally over (at about sun down), all the workers from the day lined up to receive their wage. The landowner paid them one by one, beginning with the ones who started working at 5 and went on down to those who worked all day. In a twist, the landowner paid everyone the same wage. He paid them all for a full day’s work. Didn’t the workers who had been there all day deserve more than the ones who arrived late? The landowner simply tells them that he can do what he wants with his money. It’s his after all! So it is with God’s grace: you don’t get to decide who gets it; you don’t get to decide how much; and you don’t get to horde it all for yourself. It’s God’s to give, and he just lets it fall from the sky so that everyone has the opportunity to live. 

My sisters and brothers, hear the Good News. Our ancestors ate manna in the desert. God graced them with the promise of himself. God’s grace is abundant and free, and it is here to be received for the sake of your very life. It is for you, for your neighbor, and for all who are in need of God. Will you receive God’s grace today? Will you share it? In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thoughts on 9/11

I write a weekly article for the church that also gets printed in the Guymon Daily Herald. This is my article from last week reflecting on 9/11.

When the World Changed

            I was in college when the twin towers fell. I remember so many people filled with fear. I also remember being confused about what it was supposed to mean. So many times since then I have listened to people talk about how the world changed on September 11, 2001. I suppose that’s true. Every time I go through an airport, I find some of those changes. But I wander if it is good for us to see 9/11 as the great defining moment of our lives.

April 11, 1995, means a lot to me. That was the day the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building blew up in Oklahoma City. My mother grew up in Oklahoma City, and she insisted on going to witness it for herself. I remember her tears as we went downtown. In a way, life changed after that. It certainly left an indelible mark on me.

I sat at a table with a group of older women a while back. One of them started speaking about her late husband. She got to talking about when they were young and courting. They were happy and careless in those days. Then her voice got quiet and her face drew long. “That’s when they bombed Pearl Harbor,” she said. I remember my grandmother telling me once how everything changed when “the big one” hit (meaning World War II). My grandfather never spoke much about that war and his experience fighting in the Pacific and in Germany (he served in both theaters), and I don’t blame him. I think it changed him in ways that no one else in the family could ever really understand.

            Tragedies force us to change. A loved one dies, a house burns, a tower falls; change is simply in the nature of human experience. We get awful romantic about “the way things used to be.” Even I like to think about more innocent days before mandatory seatbelt laws, a Wal-mart on every corner, and genetically enhanced meat. I am only 30 years old, but I have come to appreciate how we mark the passage of time with celebrations and remembrances which help us stay connected to the important aspects of these previous ways of life. We develop customs and ceremonies to help keep cadence with change. And, yes, we cling to the tragedies as the most important and life-shaping. September the 11^th is often seen as the worst tragedy ever to happen in our national life. It is a grave and solemn remembrance.

Abraham Lincoln once remarked, “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” Lincoln knew about tragedy. He lost a son and led the country through its bloodiest war ever. Having lived in the American South, I can say with some authority that the Civil War is still seen as the great American tragedy, and it still draws on people’s emotions and fears. I wonder, though, if it is appropriate for Christians to look upon national tragedies as the most life-forming events. Did the world really change that much after 9/11 or April 15, 1995, or December 7, 1941, or even 1861?

We Christians have a slightly different narrative. We believe that the world changed forever during those confusing three days when our God – who we murdered on a cross – was being gloriously resurrected . Ultimately, every event in human history from then on has been viewed through the lens of Christ’s death and resurrection. I often say that if we were to put together every despicable act humanity has inflicted upon itself – the concentration camps, the wars, the violence, and the death – still it would not compare to what we did to Jesus. Even the horror of 9/11 does not compare to the bleeding, suffering God dying on Calvary.  We did that. We tried to extinguish the light of the world because we loved the darkness so much. The Good News, however, is that there is no tragedy that cannot be redeemed through the Christ who rose from the dead.

Remember, Jesus died and rose so that tragedies like 9/11 would not be the end of the story. Jesus went through this great ordeal so that our suffering could be redeemed into resurrection. Jesus came out of the tomb so that no one would be left without the hope of a new day. We rightly remember the tragedies and the horrors of our time. Yet, we must be ever committed in our proclamation that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

I wonder what kind of world it is when Christians look upon every tragedy in light of the triumph of Christ over death. As I often say to myself when I am facing a difficult situation, “Just remember, Jesus is still risen. Christ has overcome the world.”  I will never forget where I was or what I was doing when the towers fell. Those images are burned into my memory. But, I pray that God will never allow me to subvert the most important act in human history as the true agent of change in a world of lost sinners. May we continue to pray for our enemies, honor our dead, and live the lives of love and peace to which Christ calls us.

Grace and peace

Ellen Davis is one of my heroes. She has a way with words that I envy, I'll admit.

http://www.faithandleadership.com/sermons/ellen-f-davis-radical-trust?page=0,0

I've decided to go back to blogging. Internally, I suppose I feel I have something to say. I'm a preacher by trade, and so, understandably, I always seem to have something to say. Externally, I am never really sure if what I have to say is of any value to anyone else. As I read that previous sentence, I can't help but hear the voice of Stanley Hauerwas screeching in my ear: "People don't have values! Used cars have values!" Notwithstanding, people don't have to suffer to listen to anything I communicate. That's the reality of this late modern world, namely, that we have reduced everything to a choice. I can choose this or that. I can choose to suffer the preacher on Sunday or else make a very serious point to drown out all voices but my own.

All that being said, I have decided to go back to blogging. Maybe it is because I am so thoroughly a product of my generation that I desire to join in the cacophony of voices abounding over, under, and around us. Is that arrogance? Or perhaps it is simple wishful thinking that I could join in such a cloud of voices. Richard Lischer wrote a few years ago about coming to the "end of words," (in a book by the same name). He writes,

"Preachers continue to follow Jesus' example but in a culture that is suffering a certain exhaustion with words. Mass violence overrides the significance of language. The centralization of the means of communication only ensures that everyone thinks and talks roughly the same. The first causualty of the information age is truth. Passion and beauty have become expendable virtues." (Richard Lischer, The End of Words, William B. Eerdmen's Publishing: Grand Rapids, 2005).

I hope that I speak the truth. I hope that in this theologically watered-down age of narcissistic self-worship I do not waver from passion and beauty in my quest to be a truth teller. Indeed, is that not the sum of Christian ethics - to be truth tellers?

In summary, I am back to blogging. I cannot promise I will always be diligent in the work, but I suspect I will be truthful and full of charm and wit. I'll close this post, then, with a little bit of Charles Wesley.

Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go
My daily labor to pursue
Thee, only thee, resolved to know
In all I think or speak or do.

The task thy wisdom hath assigned
O let me cheerfully fulfill
In all my works thy presence find
And prove thy good and perfect will

Thee may I set at my right hand
Whose eyes mine inmost substance see
And labor on at thy command
And offer all my works to thee

For thee delightfully employ
Whate'er thy bounteous grace hath given
And run my course with even joy
And closely walk with thee to heaven