Out the Door

Let Us Never Forget

Celebrating whatever you find

The season of Lent prepares us for the annual remembrance of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a time for self-examination.  However, few Christian regularly practice the spiritual discipline of examination of conscience.  They are afraid that if they look too deeply, they won’t like what they see. 

 

I would say to you, look within and celebrate whatever you find there.  During any serious self-examination, you will find evidence of the grace of God.  You will also find evidence of sin.  Both are reasons to celebrate.  That’s right.  Celebrate God’s grace and celebrate your sin, or more accurately, the awareness of your sin.  The former because it will remind you of God’s goodness and the latter because only those who are new creations in Christ can have an awareness of sin.  The unredeemed have no sense of sin.  Indeed, that you are conscious of your sin is proof that the Holy Spirit is alive in you. Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth” John 16:13.  Only those to whom the Holy Spirit has come are able to see the truth of their sin.

 

When the Spirit awakens you to the sin in your life, He does not expect you to deal with it yourself.  As the Apostle Paul acknowledges in Romans 7, humans can’t rightly deal with the sin nature.  What the Spirit expects you to do when you uncover some sin is to immediately bring it to the light, for sin cannot exist in the light of God.  The worst thing you can do is to make excuses for your sin, “I know I shouldn’t have done that God, but let me explain.”  Confess your wrongdoing and God can deal with it.  If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you remained trapped by your sin.

 

So the next time you have an aware of some sin in your life don’t get caught up with feelings of guilt.  Rather, thank God that His Spirit has revealed the truth to you, ask Him for forgiveness and if need be make restitution to the person you wronged.  If you’ll do that, you will soon discover a wondrous thing happens.  You’ll find yourself in a situation that used to lead you to respond in an ungodly way and you’ll realize that you’re handling it in a whole new way.   That’s your cue to again thank God for His amazing grace.

Denomination in the Dock

Andrew Thompson is one of the leading Gen-Xer's in the Methoblogosphere.  He writes, "We live in a pro-confessional, anti-denominational age. For large mainline denominations like the United Methodist Church, that could mean disaster."

His "Denomination" in the Dock is a post which is well worth reading.  He says there are three things which must change for the UMC to survive.

First, we need to accept the fact that nobody gives a damn what we think.

I've been saying this for years.  Still each spring & summer Annual Conferences spend countless hours and money debating resolutions.  To what end?  So that we can leave Conference feeling good about ourselves, and so that we can stick out our chests and say, "see we really care about the homeless and the environment."  All the while spending tens of thousands of dollars in order to pass resolutions that the government should build homeless shelters, while walking passed the homeless on the way to our meetings.  And all the while using paper from hundreds of trees in order to print resolutions that state we oppose the destruction of the rain forest.  Most ironic is the fact that like Andrew says, "nobody gives a damn what we think."

Tuesday Addeum: I just had someone from Cokesbury call me to sell me a 2008 Book of Discipline & Book of Resolutions.  I purchased the Discipline, but passed on the Book of Resolutions.  In fact in my 20+ years as a UM pastor I have not once purchased or read anything from a single Book of Resolutions.  If I as a UM pastor don't care what's in it, how can anyone think that those who aren't United Methodists would care?

Second, we need to reduce the bureaucratic complexity of the church as a whole.

Sadly, just the opposite is happening.  See my post: The Collapse of Evangelicalism & American Methodism

Third, we need to accept that the purpose of our mission is not to make middle and upper-middle class consumers feel better about their shallow lives.

As Andrew points out, we know what our mission is, and it's a great mission, "To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."  That's a mission worth giving one's life to.  However, too often we've been more concerned with not offending anyone and making sure everybody likes us than we have been about living out our mission.

While Andrew lays out some of the problems we face as a denomination, I am heartened when I read it.  Because it is coming from a young, respected voice.  If there were a few more people of every generation who would stand up and say, "We can't keep going the direction we're headed," then maybe, just maybe God would step in and turn our denomination around and bring renewal and revitalization.

 

What the GBCS court case teaches

I was reading an update over at methodistthinker.com of the court case involving the General Board of Church & Society's use of trust funds established to promote temperance.  In summary, the GBCS is asking the court to allow them to ignore the Trust which was put into place as part of the agreement which resulted in the MethodistChurch and the Evangelicall United Brethren Church becoming the United Methodist Church.  For the past 40 years the GBCS has pretty much ignored the stipulations of the Trust.  When they were called into account for their actions, they violated the scriptural mandate not to take a sister or brother to court and proceeded with filing the suit.  That's a very condensed version of what's happening, but it's the gist of the matter.

As I was reading the forementioned update, I found myself thinking about the mess in the financial sector and the use of the bailout money.  Congress upset by the contract they agreed upon with AIG is attempting to reinterpret that contract after the fact because things didn't worked out to their liking.  In the same manner, the GBCS is trying to get around clearly written contractual language because it doesn't fit with their idea of how things should work.

If the Church as represented by the GBCS does not act with integrity and does whatever it pleases regardless of agreed upon contracts, how can we expect business and government to live by a higher standard?

AIG and Misplaced Anger

Iowa's own Senator Grassley has suggested that AIG executives resign or commit suicide.  While he has admitted that he didn't expect nor wanted the execs to actually kill themselves, he did say, "From my standpoint, it's irresponsible for corporations to give bonuses at this time when they're sucking the tit of the taxpayer."  I suspect for most of the country those are vulgar words.  But here in rural Iowa, we know that it is a barnyard reference.

Senator Grassley certainly isn't alone in his disgust about the actions of AIG.  How can executives who have nearly bankrupt a company deserve bonuses?  And how can executives of a company who accepted billions of dollars of taxpayer money rationalize paying themselves using taxpayer money?

I don't have answers to those questions, but I'm convinced that all angst towards AIG is misplaced.  Sure I'm not happy with the fact that these bonuses were paid, but don't blame the execs.  They had a legal contract. 

If anyone wants to be upset about this, they should be upset with Congress who bailed AIG out in the first place.  Had Congress allowed the free market enterprise system to work, AIG would have gone under and the executives who ran it into the ground laid off and thereby would not have received the bonuses.  Instead, they had to come to the rescue and spend billions of our children and grandchildren's money.  And what has enslaving our children done for us?  Nothing!

Before Congress starts pointing fingers at AIG, they better remember that when you point a finger three point back.  But then, that would mean that they would have to admit that the bailout plan which none of them read was a mistake.  Thy aren't likely to do that.

The Collapse of Evangelicalism & American Methodism

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

So begins a commentary by Michael Spencer in The Christian Science Monitor.  He lists seven reason he believes this to be true.

1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught.

3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.

4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. 

5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done.

6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

7. The money will dry up.

Spencer is certainly not alone in predicting the demise of the church in America.  Reports flourish which point to the decline of the church as we know it.  A quick survey of any mainline denomination's statistics reveals shrinking numbers.  The United Methodist Church fits into this category.

While Spencer remains pessimistic about the future of evangelical churches in America, he also sees some possibilities to be hopeful.  One in particular caught my eye for I find it incredibly timely for the United Methodist Church in America.

The ascendency of Charismatic-Pentecostal-influenced worship around the world can be a major positive for the evangelical movement if reformation can reach those churches and if it is joined with the calling, training, and mentoring of leaders. If American churches come under more of the influence of the movement of the Holy Spirit in Africa and Asia, this will be a good thing.  (emphasis mine)

Right now there is a movement within United Methodism which rather than bringing the American church under the influence of African & Asian United Methodists seeks to minimize it.  Indeed, if the amendments which were passed at last spring's General Conference are ratified by the Annual Conferences, any influence by our African & Asian sisters and brothers on American United Methodism would be eliminated. 

Now is the time when American United Methodists should be looking to places like Cote d'Iviore, Nigeria, the Philippines and other African and Asian countries where United Methodism is growing for input and influence.  Sadly, there are some within the American UMC who have an agenda which does not include being an evangelical (communicating the good news of Jesus Christ in word & deed) body.

I am convinced that if we are to prove Michael Spencer wrong and that the American evangelical church as a whole and our own United Methodist Church in particular is not on the verge of collapse, then we much look to those through whom God is working in miraculous ways.  We have much to learn, if we will only listen.

If the Freedom of Choice Act becomes law

I have been letting my imagination run as I have contemplated the consequences of the Freedom of Choice Act.  The FOCA will define abortion as a fundamental right which may not be denied any woman for any reason.

Roman Catholic bishops have said that if the FOCA passes that they would be forced to shut down their hospitals.  Speaking in Baltimore in November at the bishops' fall meeting, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, a Chicago auxiliary bishop, took up the issue of what to do with Catholic hospitals if FOCA became law. "It would not be sufficient to withdraw our sponsorship or to sell them to someone who would perform abortions," he said. "That would be a morally unacceptable cooperation in evil." *

The other option which is being discussed is for Catholic hospitals to remain opened and simply ignore the law and refuse to comply with it.  Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., a member of CHA's board of trustees, wrote on his blog last month that "even in the worst-case scenario, Catholic hospitals will not close. We will not comply, but we will not close." Instead, he advocated a strategy of "civil disobedience."*

Here's what I see happening if the FOCA passes and if either of these events take place.

1.  Catholic hospitals which according to the CHA make up 13 percent of the country's nearly 5,000 hospitals, and employ more than 600,000 people will close and the one of every six Americans hospitalized in the United States who receives care in a Catholic hospitalal will be left without a place to go.  This will lead to an immediate and overwhelming crisis in health-care.  Because of the public outcry which results, but unwilling to give up their belief that every woman has the right to kill her own child as long as it is in the womb, the Democratic Congress and Administration will move to nationalize hospitals.  We've seen this happening in the banking industry, so to say it could happen to hospitals is not all the far-fetched.  This will result in massive protests as Catholics and like-minded people seek to block the government from assuming control of the hospitals.  Because of these protesters, the government claiming that this is an issue of national security will call up the National Guard in order to open the way for the workers and patients (think racial integration of the 1960's).  Eventually marshall law is ordered and Congress quickly passes a law which defines pro-life speech as a hate crime and all opposition to unrestricted abortion is squelched.

2.  A more likely scenario is this.  Catholic hospitals remain open but refuse to perform abortions.  Some women backed by the ACLU, the People for the American Way, the National Origination of Women and other pro-abortion groups file law suits against Catholic hospitals claiming that their fundamental rights are being violated.  Some liberal judges hear the cases and award these plaintiffs huge punitive damages.  These lawsuits eventually bankrupt the hospitals and they are forced to sell their facilities.  Since not enough investors can be found to purchase all 5,000 hospitals, the government will have no choice but to step in and nationalize these hospitals.

You may think of these as wild fantasies and I hope they are.  But the point I'm trying to make is that the Freedom of Choice Act isn't about freedom of choice.  It's about taking away people's right to choice to follow their conscience and just how far others may go to make it impossible for them to do so.

*St. Louis Post-Dispatch (entire article)