The Force of a Program

"We must be on guard against a kind of blind and immature zeal - the zeal of the enthusiast or the zealot - which represents precisely a frantic compensation for the deeply personal qualities which are lacking to us. The zealot is man who "loses himself" in his cause in such a way that he can no longer "find himself" at all. Yet paradoxically this "loss" of himself is not the salutary self-forgetfulness commanded by Christ. It is rather an immersion in his own willfulness conceived of as the will of an abstract, non-personal force: the force of a project or program." - Thomas Merton, "Seasons of Celebration"

I found this little gem in the Peterson book I've been reading, and just finished, "The Jesus Way". In advance of posting some thoughts on it, I thought I'd send it to a friend of mine who is versed in all things Merton, just to ensure I wasn't missing the context. He posted our email exchange here.

Anyway, what struck me about this quote was that Merton nails an attitude about "ministry" that is epidemic in the church, both in Protestant and Catholic churches, liberal and conservative, charismatic and not. We are offended by the word "zealot", particularly when the culture brands our beliefs or ministry efforts as zealotry. After all, we say, a zealot is someone who is violent for their faith, and our intentions are to help others, to feed the poor, to spread the gospel, to heal the sick. Yet, in Merton's words, a zealot is simply one "who "loses himself" in his cause in such a way that he can no longer "find himself" at all." The violence being done there is not with guns or Molotov cocktails that destroys something physical, but a subtle violence that destroys the way of Jesus.

The church does a ton of ministry every day. A large percentage of that ministy occurs through programs that were envisioned by a person or persons. This person(s) more than likely gave all their energy to this idea, at least for a while, until the idea became organized. What I have observed, is that something devious happens during this gestation period. A ministry to poor, inner-city kids starts with a CEO driving around handing out groceries and playing basketball with the kids on their turf. He is filled with energy for what God is doing, the simple connections being made between himself and these who are so unlike him. They fall in love with his simple generosity and attention. Soon, the kids rally around this man as a father-figure and representative of God's kingdom. He says, "How wonderful! Look what God is doing! But there are so many, and I am only one man..." A shift occurs. He begins to look for others to help his ministry. An organization is formed, a staff hired, programs put on the calendar. Pretty soon, the man is a CEO again, the kids are eating lunch and playing basketball on his turf that he built...with his picture neatly hanging on the wall.

This is a caricature of course, but not out of the realm of possibility. The question is not whether the man should develop an organization to help more kids, but is it consistent with the Way of Jesus for that man? Please do not hear that I am advocating an end to all organized ministry or something ridiculous like that. Merton was certainly not condemning projects or programs, but misplaced zeal. It is that zeal that will kill the soul of a person with an idea, if he or she is not careful to keep both feet firmly planted in the ways of Jesus and his kingdom.

Well, That About Sums it Up!

On Baptism...and Stuff

I sent this out to folks in our faith community tonight as we are about to baptize a few of our youngins. Been wanting to write something about baptizin' for a while...this just gave me a good excuse...

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Since a few of our young folks have expressed a desire to be baptized this weekend, I thought I would toss out a few quotes and some commentary on the subject that have been helpful to me over the past few years. I was baptized when I was very young, in our pool at home by my Dad surrounded by my family. I am thankful for my upbringing and early education in what it means to follow Jesus. There is no doubt that I made the decision to trust Jesus and be baptized on my own without excessive coaching from my parents. However, if there is one regret I have about the actual event of my baptism, it is that other members of God’s family were not present. It is this communal and familial reality to baptism – becoming part of God’s people – which I have been most attracted to in recent years.

Before I get ahead of myself, it might be helpful to level the playing field a bit in light of the controversies the wider church has regarding baptism. First of all, if we can agree that becoming a Christian means a whole bunch more than getting into heaven when we die, then many of the arguments about whether you get “saved” at baptism or before or after just are not that important. Rather, baptism becomes more indicative of what following Jesus is about from start to finish – death and resurrection. Just as Jesus died and rose again, we are told, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” and given the promise “…in the twinkling of an eye…the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed”. We live in the tension between those two realities, between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Thankfully, we are baptized into good company – Jesus and the saints who have gone before us. Inagrace Dietterich in the book “Missional Church, A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America” describes baptism in this way:

“The cross and resurrection break the universal reign of sin and death and begin a new reign of forgiveness and freedom. In Jesus Christ the depth of divine love, the seriousness of human sin, the power of evil and the faithfulness of God are revealed. As incorporation into the crucified and risen Lord, baptism is not simply turning over a new leaf, or adopting a few new beliefs, but a matter of life and death: “Baptism is a training in dying – specifically to sin, to the old self – so that people may be brought to newness of life.” – pg. 160

Newness of life implies that we are introduced into a new way of looking at the world, a kingdom-of-God way. After all, we aren’t simply carried off into heaven or given our resurrection bodies the minute we come out of the water. We are still living in the world, same as before. Baptism introduces us to a new context for living that is dominated by Jesus and his way of life rather than the world and its way of life. Dietterich says:

“Baptism plunges believers into a situation where the old (the power of all that is hostile to the reign of God) has passed away (2 Cor. 5:17), although the old can still afflict, perplex, persecute, or strike down (2 Cor. 4:7-18). The present reality of alienation, brokenness, and injustice demonstrates the gap and tension between our contemporary world and the fullness of the reign of God. Because baptism links believers with the death as well as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, missional communities participate in his suffering and self-giving ministry. They are called to live into their baptism, to learn daily how to die and thus how to live. They are summoned to offer their lives and their service in the fulfillment of God’s ministry of reconciliation. As such, baptism goes far beyond the private salvation of the individual soul or the isolated moment of baptism. It forms a new humanity by incorporating believers into the body of Jesus Christ and beginning their formation as a missionary people.”

I love the phrase “live into their baptism”. It is so simple, but could be a wonderful training tool for any follower of Jesus. In the midst of the church’s endless debates about the mechanics of baptism, the reality of what the act teaches us about life in Christ gets lost. Eugene Peterson eloquently writes, “Baptism is at one and the same time death and resurrection, a renunciation and an embrace.” They left their nets…and followed him. Repent…and believe. Put off your old self…and put on the new self. This is the life of the baptized.

But as I alluded to above, the life of the baptized is not lived in isolation. The wonder of baptism that was perhaps lost on me in my pool at home was that I was being invited into a family much larger than my own (or even my church for that matter). Paul routinely impressed upon the early church that – in spite of their differences – they were one family, an adopted family. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” – Gal. 3:26-29. Rodney Clapp, in his book “A Peculiar People, The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society” continues with this idea:

“[Paul] reminds believers that they have a new identity because they have been baptized into Christ and adopted as his sisters and brothers. When children are adopted they take on new parents, new siblings, new names, new inheritances – in short, a new culture. And those who have been baptized into Christ, according to Paul, have been adopted by God. This baptism means that Christians’ new parent is God the Father. Their new siblings are other Christians. Their new name or most functional identity is simply “Christians” – those who know Jesus as Lord and determiner of their existence. Their new inheritance is freedom and the bountiful resources of community. Their new culture, or comprehensive way of life, is the church. It is in this profound sense that Paul can speak of conversion and baptism creating a new person – even a new world (2 Cor. 5:17).” – pg. 100

Baptism invites us to become part of God’s family, his adopted sons and daughters. There is a profound equality and unity that results from this adoption (or at least, that’s what Jesus prayed for – John 17:20,21). In a strange way, our own sons and daughters become our brothers and sisters, who like us have been adopted, forgiven, healed, set free. We lay down the human need to control one another, as we each have one Father, one King, one Lord. We can no longer live only for ourselves, for we have acknowledged publicly that we’ve pretty much made a mess of things trying to get our own way up until now. And, we continue to remind ourselves in stubborn worship and through messy relationships that Jesus is real and he is zealously intent on making the world right again.

All of this, of course, has some significant implications for how we Christians make our way in the world. Baptism, viewed in this light, is profoundly counter-cultural…if not downright subversive. This reality will surely not be lost on our children as they continue to go through school and live among the consequences of 21st century American pop culture. Adoption into a self-denying, God-worshipping, love-thy-neighbor community of imperfect people like Mom and Dad and Uncle Mike and his long-winded emails is certainly not on the cool-thing-to-do-of-the-month list. But I think in the short life of our little community we have seen how much our children enjoy just being with us. The fact that we do not farm them out to a dank gymnasium to be entertained by a 20-something graduate of Bible School USA is certainly a relief I’m sure. There is always a place for hanging out with your buds, but the experience of worshipping together, eating together, and playing together – all of us, young and old – is irreplaceable in the life of a child.

The possibility of baptizing a few of our children is an exciting thought for me. It is a milestone of sorts for our community, joining us to the wider body of Christ as a baptizing people, a Great-Commission people. I hope that these few thoughts have been helpful to someone, as writing them has rekindled my excitement for the beauty of baptism and the joy of what it means to be a part of God’s adopted family.

Discomfortable

"Religion in the 'burbs tends to be more a program to join than it is an experience that changes your life. The more I participate in the programs, the further I remove myself from the deep suffering of the world. That's too bad. The entrance to the thicker, deeper life in Christ goes directly through the suffering of others. As soon as I discover my spiritual gifts, I am hustled into serving in one of the legion of church programs. Eventually I get to be a church leader, and I can sit for four of five hours at a setting and discuss "leveraging resources for the kingdom of God." - Dave Goetz, Death by Suburb, How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul

This little book by Dave Goetz is hitting me in all the right places. Before you think, "Oh boy, here goes Mike on another rant about programs and church structure," let me say that the book is hitting me more than anything else. For all the questions I've asked, the issues considered, the challenges faced, I am still in essence just another suburban white Christian male, who works a few extra hours to help pay my big mortgage, who plays in a golf league on Wednesday nights, who lingers a little too long in front of the wine selection at the grocery store looking for the perfect match for the slab of sirloin in my cart.

Everything about my life, as prescribed by Dr. Suburbia, is fashioned to eliminate discomfort from my experience and even my vocabulary. I use the word "discomfort" rather than "suffering", because our imaginations have been captured by the idea that only Christians in other parts of the world who are getting beheaded for their faith actually "suffer". Discomfort can be fairly comprehensive in its scope. It can certainly include anything that makes me feel too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too cramped, too alone, or any other environmental variations. But it can also include that which does not fulfill my expectations for what I think is the "good life". Maybe it is the quality of my neighborhood - the age of the houses or the age of the people. Maybe it is the number of good local restaurants or proximity (either too close or too far) to Wal-Mart. Getting more personal, maybe I have a good job but the commute is too long. Or there are a few co-workers I don't like. Maybe my kids don't quite get the grades I'd like them to. Or my wife can't cook a brisket like my buddy's wife can down the street.

Or maybe, my church isn't quite as influential as the God-Plex in the next town. Maybe, after running the gambit of church volunteerism - from nursery worker, to small group leader, to running the sound board - I am unfulfilled. I am unsure of my calling. I am reduced to sitting on the committee discussing how to "leverage our resources for the kingdom of God."

That's frightening, but real. Goetz describes how this reduction of life as protection-from-discomfort results in covetousness:

"So much of coveting seems to originate from a deep dissatisfaction with the life I've been given. I want my neighbor's life. It's strange, really, to hate the life I have, since I've made sure that every step along the way has been chosen by me. I choose that college, I choose this spouse, I choose my wedding gifts, I choose to go back and get an MBA, I choose when to have kids, I choose to buy in this neighborhood. And yet, in many ways, I still fight the life I think I've chosen."

Security, comfort, satisfaction...the Jesus Way does not appear kind to those words, particularly for those of us who have money and are trying to make a comfortable life for ourselves and our families. Experience has proven that the "pursuit of happiness" generally leads to less happiness and more looking over the fence to see what brand of car my neighbor drives.

Amber had a post the other day on her blog which I think is a great response to a life which pursues comfort but ends in covetousness: "I am at a point in my life that where I am embracing the hardness of things instead of complaining or praying them away....I want to learn. Learn from past mistakes. Enjoying my own individual training. I am embracing the hand print of God in my life." That's gold.

The Obligatory Rhino Shot

Took the kids here this weekend. Yes, that was a rhinoceros 3 feet from my minivan.

Blakley '08

There really is only one candidate for president. McCain, who? Romney, wha? Obama, huh? Hillary, please!

William Hobert Blakley
Candidate for President
2008

Who really can argue with this kind of record:

Candidate, United States President, 2004
Candidate, Mayor of Ranlo, North Carolina, 2001, 1993
Candidate, City Council of Stanley, North Carolina, 1985

And this kind of professional experience:

Dishwasher, Jackson's Cafeteria, 1989-1996
Mail Room Worker, Gastonia Gazette, 1989
Dishwasher, Pepper MIll Restaurant, 1989
Cook, Captain D's, 1987

I mean, working "The D's" back in the late '80s was a bear...had to be tougher than wasting days away in the State Senate or sitting on some cushy cabinet position. Plus, leadership experience like this - Assistant Chief, Gaston Company React Team 2885, 1976-1981 - cannot go ignored.