Uncovering an Ethos

Lately I have been reflecting on the changes our faith community has gone through over the past year. As recently as last summer, I was seriously questioning whether or not the experiment had failed, or at least that we were destined to sign up for five more years of very few tangible evidences of God working among us. Now there are blossoming relationships with a wide range of people, all hungry for a richer experience of Christian community and deeper connection to Jesus. However, one of the challenges we face is talking about how we got here, the questions we've asked along the way, and why we do the things we do (and consequently, don't do other things).

Traditionally, this has boiled down to what churches like to call "values". Values are generally something that a pastor writes and then posts on the wall in the church lobby for the ushers to read between services. In other words, no one knows what they are, and no one cares. Instead of values, I would like to talk about the "ethos" of our community, which dictionary.com defines as:

"The fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society."

Values are imposed from without, ethos is cultivated within. So in other words, I can neither take the credit or the blame for the ethos that our group has developed. It is simply the way things are, for good or ill, based on a long process that started many moons ago but has only recently accelerated.

Dallas Willard once asked a great (and terrifying) question:

"When do you suppose was the last time any group of believers or church of any kind or level had a meeting of its officials in which the topic for discussion and action was how they were going to teach their people actually to do the specific things Jesus said?"

When the gravity of that question sinks in, you realize that church as we've known it cannot possibly stay the same if disciples of Jesus are to survive. So the first aspect of this ethos is that we can no longer just sit around and learn about what Jesus said, or debate his words, or just put them into nice worship songs. The Way of Jesus must be attempted or it is not a Way at all. Conversations, such as we had on Sunday, on what Jesus really meant when he said, "Do not judge...", and how to go about living that out, are indicative of people that are trying to live in the Way.

Related to this, of course, is how "teaching" happens in our group. A three-point message on "not judging" with a handy fill-in-the-blanks bulletin insert is a wonderful Bible stuffer. But in the internet age, acquisition of knowledge is the easy part. You can probably download that insert somewhere without having to sit through a two hour service.

Six years ago, my brother was part of our original community. After decompressing from hearing two sermons a week for his entire Christian experience, he made this statement: "I am now aware that my knowledge of the Bible far outweighs my obedience to the Bible." This has become the stark truth for many of us with deep Christian roots. For those with less knowledge, experience has shown that much can be learned by simply being around people who are trying to live this stuff. As we sit on the couch together and you tell me of your struggles, the book you are reading, the Scripture you are meditating on, I learn. The best sermons are sometimes the ones when we don't even know anyone is preaching.

That flows into another fairly obvious aspect of this ethos: everybody gets to play. Whether it be in a gathering or going to help someone fix up a rental property, there is no professional ministry class. I have a five-year college degree, a two-year ministry degree, 15 years of experience leading small groups, leading worship teams, overseeing all sorts of ministries, counselling, preaching, organizing, doing ministry stuff. Yet it is my unmitigated joy when an eleven-year-old girl raises her hand during a meeting, asks a question theologians have been debating for centuries, and stops all of us so-called "ministers" in our tracks. Everyone gets to play, everyone has a voice, participation over performance.

Of course, there is much more to this ethos, but I will stop here for now. In the meantime, for a little of the back story to this post, go read this and this.

Subversive Community - The Other

Before you think I am going to start having bible studies on my blog, let me just say that when it comes to living alternatively as communities of the Kingdom, you would be foolish not to let the New Testament speak for itself. What Shane Claibourne's group is doing in Philadelphia, or older communities like the Church of Savior have done are certainly interesting to study and learn from. However, when you begin reading the New Testament - particularly Acts and the letters - through the eyes of a community of disciples working out their faith in a hostile culture, windows begin to open up that might remain cloudy or closed if you just read as an individual looking for spiritual guidance.

So...back to James...

"My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?" - James 2:1-7

I am going to take a different avenue for allowing this passage to speak to a context such as ours, because the obvious implications are so obvious - yet often ignored - that the more subtle implications might be missed. It would be easy to point the finger at churches where the elders sit on thrones on stage or wealthy donors get plaques on the back of their comfortable seats, but that is plain silliness and not likely to happen at the Bourque's house next Sunday afternoon during our gathering. In our context, I don't imagine any favoritism would be shown to someone wearing gold rings and fine clothes. We are of either Southern, Mid-western, Cajun, or New Jerseyian stock...none of us that given to admiring a Rolex or an Armani suit. I can just imagine Mike Bourque in his Chivas t-shirt coming up a finely-dressed visitor and saying, "Dude, you're a little over-dressed for this church."

No, the kind of favoritism we need to guard against involves a person who might not "get us" verses someone who does. For example, someone invites a friend at work to a community meal. The person enjoys meeting everyone, and decides to begin coming to our gatherings and hang out. But what if this person has never really thought of church or discipleship to Jesus differently? In fact, what if this person has expectations about the way the church should be structured that will be rapidly disappointed by our rag-tag group of friends? You might say, "Well, that person needs to be offended. It will happen sooner or later...better it happen sooner." That might be true, but is it a task as God's people to go around purposely offending everyone who thinks differently than us? It would sure seem that way sometimes.

There are other scenarios, but I think you get the picture. This passage is really about how we treat "the other". Are we more concerned about organizational purity or relational unity or, well, that we just like everybody that we hang out with? James says no, because as soon as we become too concerned with those sorts of things we lose the ability to love (or even tolerate) someone who thinks different or is different than us. A hard truth, but one James says we should watch out for. After all, if what is at stake is relating to those who are "rich in faith and...heirs of the kingdom," then it is not a truth to ignore.

Subversive Community - Challenging Economics

A few years ago I wrote an article for our website called The Church as Subversive Community. It is probably one of my best read articles and was one of the clearest visions at the time of where I saw our local community headed. However, like anything else seen from a distance, the boundaries of what a "subversive community" looked like in suburban south Florida were in fact pretty blurry.

Now that we have a few more years under our belt and are surrounded by a mix of thoughtful, engaged people, some of the "deeper" questions I eluded to in my last post are beginning to rise to the surface. We still tell stories, throw parties, and (in the words of Eugene Peterson) hold a constant "wrestling match in holiness" with God and each other. But there are bleeding edges to which time and energy often seem to only allow a cursory thought or brief conversation to flesh out mammoth implications.

One of these bleeding edges deals with money, specifically how a subversive community of the Spirit challenges the status quo by its practices as individuals and corporately. This is an enormous conversation, and I certainly can only hope but to scratch the surface on this blog. But I recently ran across a series of passages from the book of James which might help to provide some initial conversation points. I'll begin with the first one today and hopefully be able to post on the others soon:

"Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away." - James 1:2-8

There is very little about life in South Florida that has anything to do with "the South". This is not a sleepy, lazy, Mayberry-esqe existence. The culture in South Florida is primarily influenced by our northeastern friends who move to escape winters and long commutes for sun and overpriced housing. I grew up in Florida, but have only spent the past 6 years as a South Florida resident. Believe me, this is not the Florida I grew up with.

That being said, this culture is not unrepresentative of the typical American lifestyle. We shop at the same stores, eat at the same restaurants, and play the same sports as most Americans. We just do it, well, bigger in most cases. South Florida is a loud place, in color and in spirit. But there is dark side to the aggressiveness of our pursuit of the American dream - almost no one knows how to rest.

Our company provides consulting engineering services to some of the most exclusive golf clubs and resorts in the area. We are the primary mechanical engineering firm for the Breakers Hotel. We are also in the midst of directing a massive air conditioning renovation at the Palm Beach Country Club. In the course of our work, we interface with quite a few extremely wealthy people, most of whom you've never heard of. It has been said that the wealthy can be some of the most bored people alive. That may be true for the Paris Hiltons of the world, the sons and daughters of privilege. But the people who amassed this wealth in the first place - the fathers and mothers of privilege - are typically so busy they would make a mother of five seem lazy.

Our obsession with getting and growing leaves little room for the cultivation of life in the Spirit. Churchgoers can be the worst offenders of this frenetic pace - I know, because I was one of them, and still am to some degree. A subversive community will heed the words of James and recognize that the pursuit of more, bigger, and better will leave you with a shrivelled soul. In our community, a social norm is developing that is not impressed by state-of-the-art or the latest model. Sure, we own ipods and joke about setting up a friend's apartment with a huge flat screen to play video games, but it's much more interesting to hear how someone set aside a few more bucks a month to sponsor another Compassion child. There are few things more boring to me than, for example, the hype around the iphone's release. No wonder people who slapped down $600 for their overpriced phone are mad Steve Jobs just lowered the price by $200. Silliness.

Rest - Sabbath rest, Jubilee rest - is the antidote for busyness that leads to death. However, by writing about Sabbath and Jubilee here, I would simply be attempting to restate what others have said much better than I ever could. Rather, I'd like to focus on the first part of the passage above - "Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low." Small communities like ours have a tremendous opportunity to subvert the default economic culture through our willingness to pursue social norms that encourage rest, share burdens, ignore the cult of what's happening now, and dare to ask if our lifestyles are sustainable. This must be a communal pursuit and must find its anchor in our common identification as apprentices of Jesus.

A final thought: developing social norms that create an alternative economic culture does not have to be all that complicated or, well, intellectual-sounding. Here's a novel idea...how about just having a lot of fun? Goofing around has a tendency to keep us distracted from ourselves, to not take ourselves so seriously. Instead of playing football with a bunch of adults who get over-competitive and angry, invite a bunch of kids to play along who drop passes, run the wrong way, etc. Or do something that doesn't involve competition at all, like fishing or watching a game with some buddies. In the midst of play, when productivity or efficiency doesn't matter, we begin to see the world as God intended.

Mega? Missional? Next Question.

Can Mega Be Missional?

I read this article today and thought it was a good segue into a new post. Here's a reality I am coming to terms with - there will be those with a voice in Christendom who will continue to provide an apologetic for church as a vendor of religious goods and services. Call it "mega", "missional", "emerging", "fundamentalist", or whatever label you like, it really doesn't matter. As long as the underlying ethos is "______ churches with conviction will lead the uncommitted consumer to become a committed disciple." Nice idea...except it will never happen.

If there was a time I believed that the megachurch would die, or that people would choose authentic community over consumerism, that time has certainly passed. Religious goods and services will always be a bull market, and there will always be religious entrepreneurs willing to meet those "felt needs". However, attempting to reconcile methodologies that cater to those needs with the Way of Jesus is a slippery slope. At some point, violence will occur to either the methodology or to the Way of Jesus. In most cases, it is much easier to bend the Way of Jesus to justify the methodology than to allow the Way of Jesus to challenge something that is numerically successful.

Railing against megachurches, fundamentalism, the emerging church, house churches, or any other ecclesial evil d'jour just makes me tired. There are deeper questions to be asked, but they are not easily discerned. Stetzer's question, "What will churches do with consumers (the unchurched) when the Bible calls us to a life of sacrifice and service?", is almost a good one. Almost, because for some reason he chose to designate only the "unchurched" as consumers. I'm left to assume that once the objective of getting someone "plugged into" church - no matter the model - they magically transform from a "uncommitted consumer to...a committed disciple". What if a church's definition of "a life of sacrifice and service" means volunteering to run the sound board once a month or filling in at Kids Church? Is that truly converting consumers into disciples?

The fact is, the important questions are almost impossible to answer (much less ask) in a climate of numerical success, financial abundance, theological pride or over-criticism of the establishment. Dallas Willard once said, "When do you suppose was the last time any group of believers or church of any kind or level had a meeting of its officials in which the topic of discussion and action was how they were going to teach their people actually to do the specific things Jesus said?" Not a favorite topic for Monday morning staff meetings, or even Friday night house church meetings I'm afraid.

Lately, the questions I have been thinking about and working through in my mind and in our community would not make a whole lot of sense if you were an average reader of "Outreach and Evangelism Today". These questions assume a community like ours - not a certain model per se, but rather a group of people living in both cultural and ecclesial exile. In plain english, we don't "go to church" and we aren't buying into our culture's definitions of the "good life". That creates some very interesting challenges that will keep us busy for a long time. I would like to begin writing more about these challenges, as more than likely the people still reading this blog are in the same boat, or at least in some sort of craft somewhere on the horizon. I can't promise a huge increase in post frequency, but hopefully this new direction will free up my mind to post more than I have been. As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.