Pastor Scott's Thoughts

Litany of Resistance

A friend sent me this "Litany of Resistance" today from Shane Claiborne's book, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals (great title). It's a little long and there are probably a couple of lines that are radical enough to get me voted out at PazNaz, but generally I think we'd be a better people if we could learn to pray it, or something like it, together on a regular basis.

Litany of Resistance - by Shane Claiborne, Chris Haw, Jim Loney and Brian Walsh


One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.

All: Have mercy on us.

One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.

All: Free us from the bondage of sin and death.

One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.

All: Hear our prayer. Grant us peace.

One: For the victims of war.

All: Have mercy.

One: Women, men and children.

All: Have mercy.

One: The maimed and the crippled.

All: Have mercy.

One: The abandoned and the homeless.

All: Have mercy.

One: The widowed and the orphaned.

All: Have mercy.

One: The bleeding and the dying.

All: Have mercy.

One: The weary and the desparate.

All: Have mercy.

One: The lost and the forsaken.

All: Have mercy.

One: O God, have mercy on us sinners.

All: Forgive us for we know not what we do.

One: For our scorched and blackened earth.

All: Forgive us.

One: For the scandal of billions wasted in war.

All: Forgive us.

One: For our arms makers and arms dealers.

All: Forgive us.

One: For our Caesars and our Herods.

All: Forgive us.

One: For the violence that is rooted in our hearts.

All: Forgive us.

One: For the times we turn others into enemies.

All: Forgive us.

One: Deliver us, O God.

All: Guide our feet into the way of peace.

One: Hear our prayer.

All: Grant us peace.

One: From the arrogance of power.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the myth of redemptive violence.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the tyranny of greed.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the ugliness of racism.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the cancer of hatred.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the seduction of wealth.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the addiction of control.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the idolatry of nationalism.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the paralysis of cynicism.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the violence of apathy.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the ghettos of poverty.

All: Deliver us.

One: From the ghettos of wealth.

All: Deliver us.

One: From a lack of imagination.

All: Deliver us.

One: Deliver us, O God.

All: Guide our feet into the way of peace.

One: We will not conform to the patterns of this world.

All: Let us be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

One: With the help of God’s grace.

All: Let us resist evil wherever we find it.

One: With the waging of war.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the legalization of murder.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the slaughter of innocents.

All: We will not comply.

One: With laws that betray human life.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the destruction of community.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the pointing finger and malicious talk.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the idea that happiness must be purchased.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the ravaging of the earth.

All: We will not comply.

One: With principalities and powers that oppress.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the destruction of peoples.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the raping of women.

All: We will not comply.

One: With governments that kill.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the theology of empire.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the business of militarism.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the hoarding of riches.

All: We will not comply.

One: With the dissemination of fear.

All: We will not comply.

One: Today we pledge our ultimate allegiance to the kingdom of God.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To a peace that is not like Rome’s.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the gospel of enemy-love.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the kingdom of the poor and broken.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To a king who loves his enemies so much he died for them.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the least of these, with whom Christ dwells.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the transnational church that transcends the artificial borders of nations.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the refugee of Nazareth.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay his head.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the cross rather than the sword.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the banner of love above any flag.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the one who rules with a towel rather than an iron fist.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the one who rides a donkey rather than a war horse.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the way that leads to life.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: To the slaughtered lamb.

All: We pledge allegiance.

One: And together we proclaim his praises, from the margins of the empire to the centers of wealth and power.

All: Long live the slaughtered lamb.

One: Long live the slaughtered lamb.

All: Long live the slaughtered lamb.

(That is powerful - God help us and God have mercy on us).

Facebook

A friend got me roped into Facebook this week. For those unfamiliar with it, it is a cyber-community site where you can find friends from all over the place and keep in contact.

On the one hand it has been really exciting and fun to find all sorts of friends from days gone by. One nice thing about being a pk and being in ministry myself is that you end up with friends everywhere.

The funny thing to me was that I was facebook-ing the other night and my neighbor from half-a-block away and I starting corresponding and are now cyber-friends on facebook. Its was just funny to have a cyber-conversation with someone I could see and should see more often face-to-face as my neighbor.

It reminded me of the catch-22 of technology. While it brings us together it also keeps us apart.

American Church in Crisis (Ch 2): Population Growth

I got through chapter two of The American Church in Crisis. This chapter dealt with the disparity between US church growth and population growth.

In just 40 years, the US population expanded by 100 million people - from 200 million in 1967 to 300 million in 2006. It is believed that the US will add another 100 million over the next forty years.

In 1990 52 million people attended church on any given weekend, in 2006 the number was exactly the same. (Ironically, 52 million is approximately the net gain in overall US population growth between 1990 and 2006). Which means that although the number of people attending church stayed the same the percentage of Americans who attended a Christian church on any given weekend declined from 20.4% in 1990 to 17.5% in 2006. In no single state did church attendance keep up with the population growth.

If the church were to merely maintain again during this next 40 year period, by 2046 the church would make up approximately 13% of the population. Obviously part of the increase in population is due to the increase in life-expectancy but if one combines from 1990-2006 the birth rate (68.5 million) and the immigrant population (22.8 million) and then do not subtract out the death total (39.6 million), rather than an increase of just 52 million you get 91 million "new" Americans. Of those 91 million new Americans over 70 million are under the age of 17.

If all of these stats are kosher we church leaders ought to be up all night praying and trying to figure out how we are going to reach this generation.

Small "c" catholic

I am currently in a sermon series on what Christians believe and am using the Apostle's Creed each week as a basis for our common beliefs. Along that line, I've been asked by a few folk about the inclusion of the word "catholic" in the line that says, "I believe in the holy catholic church."

I was planning on giving an explanation for that in a couple of weeks when I preach on what Christians believe about the church, but I've had enough questions about it that I will likely say something this Sunday, but I thought I'd blog about it also.

First let me say that although there are certainly significant historical, theological, liturgical, and structural differences between Roman Catholicism and my own Protestant difference, I do believe that we are brothers and sisters in Christ and that we ought to work together as much as possible for the furthering of God's Kingdom. Whatever our differences, we share the common core belief that Jesus Christ is Lord.

That being said, the word "catholic" in the Apostle's Creed is not a reference to the Roman Catholic Church it is a reference to all people who are followers of Jesus Christ. The word catholic (with a small case "c") simlply means universal. Thus when we recite the creed we are saying that we believe in the universal church of Jesus Christ that crosses all denominational lines and embraces all who proclaim Jesus as Lord.

Thank you for those who called or emailed me to ask this question, I hope this explanation was helpful. Not so much thanks for those who used your confusion to spend time being critical on the patio or in the hallway, but I hope this explanation helped you too. :) Blessings.

American Church in Crisis: Church Attendance

I have started reading The American Church in Crisis by David T. Olson. It is a new book that was recommended to me by a Fuller professor friend and is based upon research done on over 200,000 churches.

I thought I would blog a bit as I go chapter by chapter since there is probably too much to reflect upon as a whole.

Chapter 1 deals with church attendance. Olson acknowledges what most pastors have been suspicious of - namely that many polls regarding church attendance greatly over estimate the reality of American church attendance. Olson blames the high number of people that say "yes" to church attendance on what is called the "halo effect." According to the halo effect people generally over estimate in poll questions the number of "good" things they do and under estimate the number of "bad" or unhealthy things they do. Thus, most polls results greatly over-estimate church attendance.

Studying actual church attendance numbers rather than poll results, Olson estimates that any given weekend in America 9.1% attend an evangelical church, 3% attend a mainline church, and 5.3% attend a Catholic church (an additional 2% attend what he calls "non-orthodox" churches). That is a total regular Christian church attendance of 17.5%.

He estimates that another 5.5% of the population attends church semi-regularly (3 out of 8 weeks) and gives money on occasion. An additional 14% have some connection to a church and another 15% claim church membership but rarely if ever attend. (Around the church we would tend to call this last 29% C and E's - people who say they have a church but attend only on Christmas and/or Easter).

So the main result is that although about 50% of the American population would claim some affiliation with a church - 77% of the population is just simply not there on any given week.

For those of us on either coast the numbers are usually two-thirds to half of what they are in the midwest, so it's probably not inaccurate to estimate that 88 to 84% of the population is not worshiping anywhere on any given Sunday (weekend). What an overwhelming challenge - but what a mission field!

The Wrath of the Lamb

I've received a couple of questions coming out of yesterday's sermon on What Christians Believe about Jesus concering the nature of God's judgment. I made the point in the sermon yesterday that I think evangelical theology at times pushes the idea of Jesus as a substitute for our sins so strongly that we often risk creating two Gods in our theology. On the one side stands God the Father whose justice and wrath must be appeased and on the other side stands God the Son who full of grace and mercy becomes the appeasement for the Father's justice and wrath. (BTW - I've written fairly extensively about some of these issues in a book edited by John Sanders entitled Violence and Atonement: A Theological Conversation, published by Abingdon).

The kind of questions I've received are wonderful questions that go something like this: I understand that it is important not to have two Gods - the OT God of justice and the NT God of mercy - but what do we then do about the idea of judgment?

I do plan on preaching on what Christians believe about judgment in this series but let me just say a few things here. The Apostle's Creed does affirm about Jesus that "We believe... He will come again to judge the living and the dead." The two NT texts that inform this conviction are:

Romans 2:16 - "...on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all."

2 Tim. 2:16 - "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message..."

It seems apparent that Paul understands the judgment of God to be a judgment that is either done by Jesus Christ or through Jesus Christ. So, whatever we say about judgment it has to be consistent with what we believe about Jesus. Perhaps we have to ask questions like: "What would Jesus judge? And How would Jesus judge?" Certainly in the life of Jesus we see moments of judgment - tax collectors experience conviction, prostitutes leave their trade, Pharisees are exposed as hypocrites, etc. Even the Revelator gives us the phrase "the wrath of the Lamb" in 6:16, but I would still want to wrestle with what the wrath of the Lamb looks like as opposed to say the wrath of Zeus.

I believe deeply in the holiness (as otherness) of God and that the fear (or respect) of God is truly the beginning of wisdom, but I do struggle with and want to guard against a theology that divides the Trinity into rival characters with the Father becoming the angry judge whose wrath is averted and appeased by the merciful Son. I wish I had a nickel for everytime God the Father is described in the OT as "full of steadfast love and mercy."

In about 20 years of ministry now I have seen far too many people who love to talk about Jesus but then cannot talk about the Father. I've even seen people who get physically sick or become psychologically unstable when "the Father" is even mentioned because they have been so shaped by the fear of his judgment. Here is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith: Jesus is God - but in a profound way God is also Jesus. So whatever we say about God, including his holiness, judgment, and wrath needs to be consistent with the fullness of the divine image that we see in Jesus.

What will the Church in North America look like in 25 Years?

I am back from a little post-Easter blog hiatus.

There are many prognosticators today who say things like, "The church looked very different after the Reformation than it did before the Reformation, and we are in a new period of Reformation. And like those who experienced the Reformation some will see the coming changes as a horrible loss and some will see them as a great blessing." Along those lines, I was at a strategic planning meeting at Fuller today where the topic was the future of theological education which involved all kinds of very interesting reflection about what the nature of the church will look like (primarily in North America) in the coming decades.

One of the pressing issues for all seminaries - not just Fuller - is the decline in students participating in the Master of Divinity program. Traditionally the MDiv was the standard degree for people going into ministry. It was considered alongside medicine and law as a professional degree and thus it has traditionally been a four-year master's degree (which makes it one of if not the longest master's degrees to attain). Some denominations (like the Presbyterians) still require someone to graduate with an MDiv from an approved seminary to qualify for ordination - but it is safe to say that the majority of evangelical denominations (like the Nazarenes) do not require any graduate education. Most seminaries started offering two-year Master of Arts programs in various areas of ministry some time ago, but they were usually add-ons to the staple MDiv degree. Now the roles are reversing.

This is a reality that seminaries have to deal with, but what interests me most is that I see the decline in MDiv programs as symptomatic of many changes taking place in and around the church. Cultural changes which are rapidly altering the way that Christians will think about and be the church in the future. Here are some of my observations:

1. Most students I know preparing for ministry want nothing to do with the institutional church. When I think about where the ministry students I had during my seven years at SNU (96-03) are today, very few of them are either senior pastors or on track to become senior pastors. Most went on to do PhD work and teach, went to work for parachurch and mission organizations, or went into some other form of staff ministry. Some who are in staff ministry may become senior pastors at some point but they will do so (most likely) without traditional forms of education preparation. I was recently on a panel of pastors that met with graduating ministry seniors at APU. It was fascinating to as a panel give advice to a group of ministry majors who overwhelmingly have no interest in replacing any of us on the panel someday.

There seem to be two other shifts that are sort of alike but also sort of in conflict but are taking place nonetheless:

2. Ministry specialization is taking place as churches become larger. In most denominations churches are getting larger and more specialized. In the Church of the Nazarene for example, we have relatively the same number of worshipers attending worship in North America each Sunday today as we did thirty years ago, but thirty years ago we only had a handful of churches over one thousand in attendance. Today, we have the same total number of people going to church but we have about sixty churches over or near 1,000 in attendance. Essentially middle-sized churches are disappearing. In large churches ministry is specialized. I am one of two traditionally trained (MDiv) pastors on a staff of eleven. The others are trained but in their specialty of ministry. I think that trend will at some level continue. I was with a very well known pastor recently who has just been officially made the "teaching pastor" at their church and another pastor has been hired as senior or "lead pastor." I'm seeing this happen more often as churches get really big. People are ministers but they are being trained in business, administration, education, music, counseling and other specializations - and are coming to the ministry from secular roles in those areas of specialization.

3. On the other side the house churches and emerging churches are almost going back to a non-professional lay-pastor model. There are many churches springing up that have a leader who has theological or biblical training but is usually bi-vocational and then other people in the congregation may also have some theological training and share the ministries of a smaller community of believers but also be essentially non-professional ministers. I not only don't find anything wrong with that, I find a lot that is admirable about it - Paul was a tent-maker. In some ways the idea of a professional clergy person is the by-product of the post-Constaninian state church culture. Now that the culture is increasingly post-Christian it makes one wonder what the post-Christian culture church will look like. Maybe it will look more like the church in Corinth than the First Church of Pasadena.

Having been raised by professional pastors and having been trained to be one, I probably should be more concerned than I am - especially since I have no other marketable skills - but I really trust that God is at work in his church and that the form of our polity and the location of our worship does not matter as much as whom we are worshiping and how we are reflecting his life in the world.

I'm excited to see how God is going to work next among us. It is going to be fascinating to see how my children and grandchildren choose to be the church in the world. What form do you think the church will take next?