The Gospel According to Bacon

Bacon is proof that God loves us.  Seriously.  Imagine what life would’ve been like in the days of the Old Testament.  The smell of fresh cooked bacon floating through the air as the Israelites camped out in the wilderness… never an option.  The pigs that jumped off the cliff because they were possessed by demons… imagine all the quality meat that could’ve been had if Jesus just said, “Let’s eat."  Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that the Israelites complain about the manna and want meat instead.  God’s people just want themselves some bacon.

The reason they couldn’t eat bacon came from some simple rules in Leviticus regarding their dietary laws.  Leviticus includes all kinds of rules about how God’s people should dress, what they can or cannot eat, and all kinds of details about how to properly make a sacrifice.

"Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you…And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.” - Leviticus 11:4-5, 7

This was the rule for thousands of years.  No bacon.  Bacon came from pigs and pigs were unclean, therefore bacon was off the table, literally.

If you are like me, you obviously don’t follow this rule.  Why?  What happened that changed a rule that was around for thousands of years?  Bacon wasn’t Kosher for the Jews, and Christians believe the Old Testament too, so what happened that changed the rules.

Jesus happened.

Two Kinds of Laws

In the Old Testament, there are two types of the law.  We see the moral law (or natural law) and also the ceremonial law.  The moral law are the laws that we see throughout Leviticus and in other books that could be summed up simply in a list like the 10 Commandments.  And then there is the ceremonial law, which are the laws that include instructions on the ceremonies.  It includes things like sacrifices, circumcision, dietary restrictions, the feasts and festivals, and so on.

The moral law are the laws connected to God’s nature.  These types of laws, like do not murder, are universal and timeless.  In fact, even before God gave the command, “Do not murder,” it was wrong to murder.  These laws are timeless because they are woven into the way that God has created the world to work.  These are the same laws that the apostle Paul would argue are “written on our hearts.”  Bacon is not one of these laws, bacon (and all the dietary laws) are a part of the ceremonial.  The ceremonial law is just a shadow of something better.  The restrictions, the sacrifices, and the festivals are good things.  But they are only good because of what they point to.  They are significant, but they aren’t the main thing.  The shadows are good, but the substance is much better.

The thing that these ceremonial laws point to: Jesus.

Jesus is what these laws point forward to and Jesus fulfills all that these laws could do.  And in fulfilling the law, Jesus brings about a new, better covenant.

"But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” - Hebrews 8:13

Enter the new covenant.  Now as people start following Jesus in the early days, people don’t immediately give up all their rules that they had previously centered their lives around.  Jesus and his followers celebrated the passover, they observed the Sabbath, and they followed the dietary laws.  The members of the early church were good Jews and kept the Jewish law and didn’t eat bacon… for a while.

Go and make disciples of all nations… and eat bacon

Jesus’ first followers were Jews, but this message of the death and resurrection wouldn’t be a message only for the Jews.  God wanted to make this clear.  When Jesus came and gave his life to be a sacrifice once and for all, that’s a message for everybody.  The news that Jesus came as the high priest who sits down at the right hand of God declaring, “It is finished” is not just a news for a nation, but it’s news for all people.

And so Peter is going to share this Good News with a group of people who aren’t Jews.  And when Peter goes up to the roof to pray, he gets hungry and has this crazy vision.

"In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.  And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” - Acts 10:12-15

Peter is a good Jewish boy and everything he knows is being challenged.  Clean and unclean foods.  Feasts and festivals.  The ritual washings.  Circumcision.  Peter all of the sudden is forced out of everything he knows for the sake of the Gospel.  Peter already knows the Gospel is for all people, but he quickly is faced with the reality that his dietary restrictions shouldn’t be what keeps someone from hearing the Good News.

"So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all) you yourselves know what happened…To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” -  Acts 10:34-37, 43

The Gospel is for all people.  It’s not reserved for the people who follow the right rules, it’s not reserved for a certain nation or tribe, it’s not reserved for the people who are intellectually superior, and it’s not reserved for those who have abstained from bacon.  The Gospel is the Good News for all people.  And for Peter this means giving up everything that he had grown to know for the sake of bringing the Gospel to a people who had not yet heard it.

Peter is told by God that the foods he once knew to be unclean were no longer unclean.  And in that moment, thus saith the Lord, “Eat bacon.”  And this is why you and I can eat bacon.  Because in the New Covenant, foods were declared clean.  The dietary laws of the Old Testament were no longer necessary because Jesus had come and because he came for all people

Jesus came.  We eat bacon.

Photo Credit: dave77459, misterjt

Where is your blue dot?

If you’ve ever used a smart phone for some sort of navigation, you’ve likely encountered the blue dot.  You know, the indicator that shows up on top of the map you are looking at as a way to make it clear to you, “You are here.”  The blue dot shows you at any given moment the exact coordinates of your location.  It tells you the city you are in, the street you are traveling on, the neighborhood you are entering, and the driveway you are approaching.  The blue dot makes it very clear that, “You are here."

Where is your blue dot?

The most natural way that we will think of the blue dot is likely our location.  But I’d like to expand our radius, if you will, to think about your blue dot beyond simply your location, and also your culture and your relationships.  If you’re blue dot says, “You are here at this location.”  I’d like to consider how it might also say, “You are here at this location, at this time in history, as you do life with these people.”  God has placed you wherever you are.  Your blue dot is the very place in which God has placed you.  Certainly that dot is affected by a variety of factors - like the housing market, your career, your family members, etc.  But God has placed you wherever you are and he has entrusted you with the Good News in the places he has placed you.

Location.

Where do you live?  Where do you work?  What community do you live in?  God has placed you in these geographic locations and has entrusted you with the Gospel in these places.  People all around you do not know the Gospel, many of them not even knowing a Christian who believes this very Gospel.  Being a missionary doesn’t require you to go across borders or over seas, it just requires you to walk outside.

Culture.

The communities in which we live are not isolated from the world and period in history in which we live.  What is the culture in which we live?  What is the language of our culture?  What is important in 21st century America?  How do people see Christianity?  Based on what many of us have likely seen and heard form culture, this can be terrifying.  For many, it does not seem like a great time in history in culture.  Regardless, it is important to understand the world in which we live.  None of us would dare go into a foreign country ignorant of the language they speak, the way the dress, the social nuances of their culture, and the religious influences.  The same is true in our own culture, we cannot ignore the world in which we live, even if it is far different than we would like it to be.

We live in a post-Christian, pluralistic culture.  This means that we must understand that our culture is not shaped by the same values that many of us hold to as Christians.  This means that our culture may be interested in spirituality, but have some difficulty with the idea of an objective truth.  This is important because being a missionary today means taking this message of the Gospel and sharing it in the context of a post-Christian, pluralistic culture.

Relationships.

If you look at your own spiritual life, who has been most influential in your spiritual growth?  Relationships are central to the way God has created us as humans and relationships are also central to to sharing of the Gospel.  1 out of 5 non-Christians don’t know a Christian.  For some unbelievers, the first barrier to hearing the Gospel isn’t some kind of argument but it’s simply they don’t know anyone who believes it.  God has placed us in all kinds of networks of relationships - in our workplaces, in our families, in our friendships, and in our neighborhoods.  And God uses these relationships as we look for opportunities to share the Good News with those around us and to love our neighbors as we have been loved.

What are the challenges surrounding your blue dot?

When God Calls You to Get Social (Media)

As Christians we believe that God calls us to live out our faith in all kinds of different arenas.  We are called to live out our faith in our homes as we raise our kids to love Jesus and as we treat our spouse with love and respect.  We are called to do our work skillfully and for the glory of God, even when that work is not distinctly Christian work.  We are called to love our neighbors, whether or not that always means talking about Jesus.  In today’s modern world where life is lived online, should we consider God’s calling as extending into our online profiles?  Has God also called you to your Facebook, Twitter, instagram, and tumblr?

I had an opportunity to spend some time talking about this topic specifically with a friend of mine. Justin Wise is an author, trainer, and speaker when it comes to online marketing and social media.  In fact, he recently released an awesome book called Social Church all about how the church might embrace social media.  In light of his work with social media, I asked Justin to do an interview about the subject and what it looks like for the Christian to live out his faith in a social media world.

[gss-content-box color="gray”]Make sure you check out Justin’s book The Social Church: A Theology of Digital Communication. [/gss-content-box]

Me: If you are a Christian, God has called you.  He has called you to your family, to your community, to your workplace.  Do you think this extends to our internet presence?  And if that’s the case, how does God call us to live out our faith in the digital realm?

Justin: The best way to answer that is by looking at the offline version of living out your faith.  Followers of Jesus live out their faith in all kinds of different ways.  In the scriptures, we most clearly see this in the commands to “Love God,” and “Love others.”  As Christians we are called to love God and love others, period.  This means we approach our work with this in mind, we approach our families with this in mind, we approach our friendships with this in mind, and we approach social media with this in mind.

Me: So for the Christian trying to go about using their Facebook, twitter, and instagram for the glory of God?  Does this mean that the Christian should tweet a verse-a-day and instagram quotes of bible verses with a cool filter?

Justin: A Christ-centered approach to social media isn’t about constantly tweeting bible verses and beating people over the head with it.  Instead it simply asks the question, “How can I live out my life online in a faith-based way?”  In many ways it is simply living out your Christian faith online and letting people witness that. And that can look a thousand different ways.

Me: When I think of this question, I think of the quote that’s attributed to Martin Luther that says, “The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes.”

Justin: I love that quote.  Let’s give an example of what this might look like.  Let’s say you are a Christian entrepreneur.  Not an entrepreneur running a Christian business, but a Christian who wants to start a normal, not Christian, for-profit business.  As you start your business and run your business you might use your twitter account in a thousand different ways.  You make sure that you are rendering a service that you are proud of.  You make sure your service is something that you care about.  You make sure you use tools like twitter to build connections with customers that you care about.  It may even mean that flowing out of the platform that you build, you use this platform to elevate others or promote an individual or organization that doesn’t have a platform of their own.  It’s not necessarily about quoting scripture, it’s about doing good and using your social media to help make that happen.

Me: In your book, The Social Church, you make the comparison between social media and the printing press.  But we aren’t all Martin Luther, so what role do we play as we use our tweets and instagrams? 

Justin: This is actually the genius of social.  When you look at the printing press, it was still a very expensive piece of technology and very few had access to it.  The impact of what we are seeing today with social will be much greater because of the accessibility.  Anyone with a computer connected to the internet can start their own publishing channel. Even if you are not looking to reform Christianity, the barrier to being able to publish, share, and connect with ideas is lower than ever before.

Me: I know with me, when it comes to technology I tend to jump in with both feet right away.  What cautions would you suggest to someone like me who is all about the new devices, the new networks, and the new technological fads? 

Justin: Use social media; don’t let social media use you.  Social media, and all technology, can quickly become consuming.  And this isn’t simply only a time thing, but it can even be a mind-share thing.  Are you constantly engaged with your Facebook even when you aren’t on your phone or desktop?  For those of us who are embracing social, we also have to learn to be able to distance ourselves and disengage.

Emaline Rose

A few days ago I posted about my soon-to-be princess; yesterday I finally met my little princess.  She was born at 11:57pm on February 12.  And since my family shapes the way I write and think, I am going to introduce Emmy to you with some pictures.  I am being reminded now more than ever of my calling as the daddy of a baby girl.

It seems surreal to now have a daughter.  And I really don’t have many words right now and since she's nearly one day old, why not start her digital footprint with some pictures by my sister.

Religion of Doing

In the minds of many, being a Christian is equated with a set of rules.  For many being a Christian means, “Do this,” or “Don’t do that.”  Christianity becomes defined by morality; it very quickly becomes about your ability to follow the rules and has little to do with faith.  While behaviors are certainly important - they do all have consequences - they do not define what makes a Christian.  The religion of doing is one that focuses on behaviors over the savior.  It focuses on what you need to do over what has already been done.  The Gospel is never about behavior modification, moralism, or more rules.  The Gospel is about what Christ has done to rescue us from sin.

Treat the Symptoms, Ignore the Heart

When we trust in the religion of doing we try to deal with the symptoms of the problem while ignoring the deeper issue. This would be like suffering from heart disease and simply trying to deal with the chest pain by taking some tylenol, all the while ignoring that your arteries were being clogged and you needed major surgery.  Treating the symptoms may temporarily make you feel better, but it doesn’t get to the heart of the issue.  Behavior modification only ever goes so far.  Because while we may slowly curb our behavior, what we will continue to find is that sin is much deeper than a single struggle.  And we will find that the behavior we try to correct either will resurface or come up in the guise of something else.

The Religion of Doing tries to deal with the symptoms of the problems.  Christ deals with the disease.

Are you interested in putting a Band-Aid on the wound that runs deep within your soul?  Being a Christian is about a finished work; the work that God has done.  If you make your faith about what you do, you will quickly find yourself exhausted at your inability to do it.  The Good News is that while we are sinful, Christ died for us.  While there is a disease that runs deep within us, it’s not on us to deal with the symptoms or the disease, because Christ came for the sick.

The preacher, Tullian Tchividjian, said, “Contrary to popular belief, Christianity is not about good people getting better.  If anything, it is about bad people coping with their failure to be good.”  In other words, being a Christian is not about us doing all the right things; it’s about Christ doing the one right thing that was necessary to save us while we were unable to do anything about our own situation.

The Good Samaritan

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers.  They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.” - Luke 10:30-32

The priest walks by.

The Levite walks by.

Many of us may look at that and naturally ask the question, “Well, how can the religious leaders leave the man on the side of the road?  How can the priest do something like that?”  And we think of our own church leaders and pastors and how appalling it would be to see them leave a man dying on the side of the road.

But when the expert in the law hears Jesus telling this story, he would not be surprised at this point. Because as Jesus is telling the story, the expert in the law knows the Hebrew Scriptures very well, and he knows the culture very well, and he knows that what the priest and the Levite do is exactly what priests and Levites do.  The expert in the law whom Jesus is telling this story to is familiar with the Levitical laws and the priestly system.

He knows the text:

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ‘A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die except for a close relative, such as his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother, or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband.  For her, he may make himself unclean.  He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage, and so defile himself.” - Leviticus 21:1-4

And like it Leviticus 21:11, which gets more specific about high priests:

 “The high priest must not enter a place where there is a dead body.  He must not make himself unclean, even for his own father or mother.”

When the expert in the law hears this story, he would not be surprised at the behavior of the Priest and the Levite.  They are simply doing what Priests and Levites do.  In fact, to this day, Orthodox Jewish priests still avoid going to cemeteries or funerals of people who are not in their family to avoid breaking the Levitical law.  And so, as the expert in the hears the story, he is not surprised.  Of course the Priest and the Levite don’t help the man on the side of the road, because he was dying.  And if he were to die on their watch, they would no longer be able to fulfill their priestly duties.  Helping the man on the side of the road would risk their obedience to the law.

And so a man is left dying on the side of the road because a Priest and a Levite are focused on their religious rules.

As the expert in the law hears this story, the question would quickly become, “Where is he going to see himself in the story that Jesus tells?”  It’s unlikely that he’s going to see himself as the priest or the Levite.  As an expert in the law, he would likely not only be not surprised by the choice of the priest and the Levite, but he would be a little frustrated.  He would get the feeling that we get when we turn on the news and see people in the name of the Jesus, declaring or doing things in the name of Jesus that are contrary to his message.

The expert in the law would be thinking, “Here are the religious people; more religious hypocrites, who follow their laws but ignore the law to love your neighbor.”  And so as he hears the story, in his frustration, he couldn’t imagine himself as the priest or the Levite.

This only leaves two characters.

Jesus continues the story.

‘But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.  Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.  “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”  Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’

Jews despise the Samaritans.  Out of anybody in the story that Jesus tells, the last person the expert in the law would resonate with is the Samaritan.  The Samaritans were the half-bloods.  They are the hated; they didn’t truly follow God.  The plot twists in Jesus story as a Samaritan shows up as the hero.  This presents a problem for the expert in the law.  If he’s not the priest and not the Levite and he’s definitely not the Samaritan, that only leaves one person.

The man dead and dying on the side of the road.

When life and sin leaves us beaten down on the side of the road, where do we turn?  In this story, religion leaves a man dead and dying.  The religious behavior of the priest and the Levite don’t come to the rescue.  They may have been following the rules, but the man on the side of the road was still left for dead. The only one that does anything while we are beaten and dying on the side of the road is the one who is hated, who was despised and rejected.  The despised and rejected comes when nothing else could rescue and picks us up, bandages our wounds, and takes us to the inn.

Why Dads Should Treat their Daughter Like a Princess

In a matter of weeks, perhaps days, a tiny little princess will be coming home.  We've got her room ready with her chandelier hanging, Cinderella's castle is on the wall, and a Rapunzel lantern on her dresser.  I cannot wait to be the dad of a baby girl, which has led to me thinking about what it will be like to have a little princess.  I cannot wait.  The princess movies, the tea parties, the dancing, and I'm sure there are some other princess details that I haven't even discovered yet.  Since I’m in the midst of decorating a room full of princesses, I couldn’t help but think of why I cannot wait to treat my daughter like a princess.

Why Dads Should Treat Their Daughter Like a Princess

1. A princess is defined by whose she is not what she does.  I already know that I'll love my baby girl; it's not because of the joy that she'll bring me, the cute things she'll make me, or how she will say, "Daddy."  I'll love my little girl because she's mine.  A princess doesn't earn being a princess, she's a princess because her dad is the king.  I want my little girl to know that she's a princess because she's mine not because of how she chooses to dress, act, or think.

"So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith." - Galatians 3:26

2. A princess is beautiful.  Every little girl needs to know they are beautiful.  And I don’t mean beautiful like super-model, magazine beautiful, but really beautiful - inside and out.  And when my little girl is old enough to walk into the room and show off her princess dress, I want her to hear it take my breath away.

3. A princess is joyful.  Every princess is full of joy.  They’re not immune to their fair share of trials, evil step-mothers, or witches, but even in the midst of this a princess sings and talks with the animals and goes about her life.

“Remember you’re the one who can fill the world with sunshine.” - Snow White

A princess might have challenges, questions, suffering, and difficult days, but joy seems to be the thread that weaves through her story.  A princess somehow knows how to, “Be joyful always.”  I want to teach my princess how to be joyful, even in the times life around us doesn’t give us much to be happy about.

4. A princess will one day marry a prince. The first thing I thought when I found out I was going to have a baby girl was, “Oh, crap.”  This was the reason.  I’ve been at weddings and have seen dads watch their daughters getting married… I don’t want to even think about that day.  But what I do know is that one day my daughter will find some strapping young lad and I’m going to do everything I can do make sure her expectations are set high.

What would you add to the list? 

[gss-content-box color="gray"]Be sure to get your free eBook Little Church: Discipling Your Family According to Deuteronomy 6 today for more parenting goodness![/gss-content-box]

Dear NFL

Dear NFL,

The NFL has been no stranger to controversy - that’s the result of being one of the largest organizations in the world, not to mention the sport which hosts the best sporting event in the world.  Every week there is some kind of talk about an NFL-related controversy, which often may have very little to do with the organization called the National Football League.

This year everybody talked about the Washington Redskins.  Even the UN was involved in the conversation.  This year the NFL had to deal with the issue of bullying when Richie Incognito filed a grievance against the NFL.  The NFL has faced people speaking out against the violence of football, including NFL players suing over expenses caused by concussions.  And we can’t forget all the talk when Seattle Seahawk’s Richard Sherman called out Michael Crabtree.

These issues come from all different sides and bring about all kinds of opinions.  Some of them I’ve heard and thought, “That’s bad.”  And others, I’ve laughed to myself thinking, “Really?  That’s an issue?”  These issues aren't what I’m interested in talking about.  Let’s talk about an issue that is deeply connected to the National Football League.

Human Trafficking.

27 million.

"That's how many slaves there are worldwide. Take a moment to wrap your head around it. That's the population of Georgia and Florida, combined. That's the population of New York City metropolitan area. There are more slaves around the world right now than at any time in recorded history. A problem that most people think ended more than a century ago is, in fact, thriving as never before.” - Source (via EndItMovement.com)

The cost of one of these slaves… only $90.  A ticket to the Super Bowl is almost twenty times as much.  And there are more slaves at this time in human history than ever before and it spans the globe.  This sickening industry that profits from the abuse and slavery of women and children (primarily, although not exclusively) makes more money than Google.

Human trafficking is specifically the transporting of people away from their communities in order to force them to work against their will using violence, deception or coercion.  And this happens all over the world, including the United States, and especially when the Super Bowl comes into town.

“New Jersey has a huge trafficking problem,” admitted Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), co-chairman of the U.S. House anti-human trafficking caucus told the Washington Post recently. “One Super Bowl after another has shown itself to be one of the largest events in the world where the cruelty of human trafficking goes on for several weeks.”  - DelawareOnline

And from the Washington Post:

“The Super Bowl is a huge, huge arena for sex trafficking,” Douglas said. Some visitors “are coming to the Super Bowl not even to watch football — they are coming to the Super Bowl to have sex with women, and/or men or children.”

I know this is not the problem of the NFL.  I am still going to watch the Super Bowl with my friends and family.  I am still going to proudly (although ashamedly) hope for the day that my Detroit Lions will play in the Super Bowl.  But while it is not the NFL’s problem, it is a problem that is on us - as humans - to do something about.

So while the NFL hasn't caused this issue (although GoDaddy certainly has no problem promoting women as objects during the Super Bowl), I believe the NFL can impact this issue.  The NFL has more power and influence than most other organizations and a bigger platform than most.  And who better to speak out against human trafficking than an organization who’s premier event happens to bring about slave owners from all across the country.

This may have already been an issue in the minds and heart of the NFL; I wouldn’t doubt it as it’s an issue of human life.  The NFL may have already been taking steps to do something about this and we simply haven’t been aware of it.  I just would like clearly ask the NFL to help.  Let’s make people aware of this problem and let’s do something about the problem.  Let’s raise awareness, give time, energy, and resources to fight for the end of slavery.  There are plenty of issues that will come across the desk in an NFL season, let’s actually do something about this one.  It just might save someone’s life.

[tentblogger-youtube C7yFuLxoldU]

Childlike vs. Childish Faith

Walt Disney said, “That’s the trouble with the world, too many people grow up.”  When we are kids, we can’t wait to get older.   When we have kids of our own, we desperately want to cherish the moments we have before they grow up.  There’s something incredible about seeing the joy, the innocence, the creativity of a child as they play and imagine.  But there are also traits that we hope don’t stick around forever - things like the potty training, the tantrums, needing to have their food mashed up and spoon-fed.

When the Bible describes faith, it uses children as both the example of what to be like and also what not to be like.  In Matthew 18:3 it says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  And 1 Corinthians 13:11 writes, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”  There is truth in this tension.  Be childlike.  Don’t be childish.

Childlike Faith

Frederick Buechner describes how he envisions the scene when Jesus says "become like little children."

Jesus puts him in front of him perhaps, his hands on his shoulders so he won’t make a run for it. The child stands there wide-eyed, more than a little scared, much more than a little embarrassed, toeing the dust. If it weren’t for the honor of the thing, as in Lincoln’s joke, he’d as soon have been left unnoticed. He wishes he’d had time to get the hair out of his eyes and button up his shirt, at least to spit out his bubblegum. He dreads being asked some question that he can’t answer or even one that he can. He hopes he won’t be told to do something beyond him. He’d give a lot as he waits there to be as tall as his big brother or as smart as his Uncle Joe. He wishes he were anything worth being or knew anything worth knowing. All he knows for sure is that when the man called him, he had to go. -  Whistling in the Dark

Children are helpless - powerless, in need of love, protection, and provision.  They are cute and bring about great joy to their families, but they don’t contribute to society.  They require a lot and have little to give.  Jesus calls up a little child as a great object lesson and says, “This is what faith should look like.”

Faith is not about your abilities to provide for yourself, it is not about the hard work you do or your dedication to following me.  Children are quite aware that they can’t do life on their own (at least until they hit middle school); adults on the other-hand are able to take care of themselves and think they know exactly what they need.  In the movie Willy Wonka, this same point gets made by Willy Wonka when he tells Charlie his reasoning for choosing him over and adult.  He says, “A grownup would want to do everything his own way.”  Isn’t this exactly what happens in our faith?  We want to do things our way, on our schedule, and based on our preferences.

Be like a child.  Helpless, powerless, and completely reliant on God.

Childlike is not childish...

Childlike is the positive qualities of childhood.  The qualities that we should embrace and encourage in our faith, especially as we no longer are children.  But not all qualities of childhood are childlike.  Children are afraid of the dark, unreasonable, and quarrelsome.  The require frequent changing of diapers, they can’t feed themselves, and they freak out if they don’t get what they want.  Childlike is not the same thing as childish.

So while the scriptures certainly call us to a “childlike faith,” they also call us to leave behind our “childish ways.”  This is what maturing is - both physically and spiritually - we leave behind certain childish ways.  As our children grow up, we hope that some of these things change with maturity.  If our teenagers still require us to mash up food and cut it into tiny pieces, that’s going to be weird.  That’s not maturity.  Instead, eventually our kids should learn to start to feed themselves, to go to the bathroom on their own, and take responsibility for their actions.

Childlike means we are helpless to do the things that only God can do.  We are helpless in our own salvation, our own forgiveness, and the faith that we have.  But we are not helpless to use the gifts that God has given us.  Childish means we are helpless to use gifts like God’s Word and don’t take responsibility for our own faith.  Childlike means we are helpless in that we have to completely rely on God to provide.  But being childish means that we claim to be helpless in using what God has provided to us.

Grow up.  But don’t ever grow up.

The Tiring, Difficult, & Humbling Race

I don’t understand runners.  I understand playing a sport and being punished with running, but running simply for the fun of it is beyond me.  And runners will often talk about the way it makes them feel afterwards - they talk about the adrenaline of the “runner’s high” - this has not ever been my experience.  Running typically makes me feel like I would rather die soon.  In the few times that I’ve tried to take up running, I’ve ended my running by walking into my house, with my heart pounding through my chest, and thinking, “What in the world did I do that for?"

My first experience with this kind of running was actually in fifth grade.  Fifth grade was the first year we were ever allowed to sign up for sports at my school.  I didn’t play soccer, so the only fall sport that was an option was a sport called, “Cross-country.”  I signed up because I had been told that this would be a helpful sport if I wanted to play basketball in the Winter.  And then I showed up to practice.  And we ran.  And we kept running.  That was also my last day of cross-country.

Marathons take a certain kind of athlete and a certain amount of work and commitment.  It’s strenuous, draining, and grueling.  It requires perseverance and training.  Throughout the scriptures in a few different places, the Bible actual describes life with this same kind of language.  Life is called a race.  We are called to “persevere" and “press on.”  The same kind of feelings that are prevalent in a marathon.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” -Hebrews 12

At time life grows tiring.  It requires that we endure through the trials.  And other times it seems like we run through life right on pace.  Some days we are celebrating the victories, joys, and personal bests.  And other times we have to remind ourself to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other, pushing on for one more mile, one more week.

The runner Bill Rodgers said, “The marathon can humble you.”

Isn’t this true of life.  Life humbles.  It is exhausting.  People disappoint you, let you down, and talk about you behind your back.  Life wears you down.  And this doesn’t change whether or not you are a Christian.  Life humbles all, whether or not your hope is in Jesus.  Life is tiring, it is exhausting, there will be pain and trials.  As a Christian, you can still go to a job that beats you down, where you feel under-appreciated.  You can give, give, give to your family only to have your kids disown you.  You can pursue Jesus with all that is within you and still face pain, loss, and tragedy.  Life will humble; it will wear you down, and for the Christian, in the midst of this grueling race of life, we look to Jesus with hope.

Hope that while we run the race, we can look to Jesus knowing that it doesn’t rely on us, but Him.  Hope that while we run the race, we look to the one who ran the race before us.  Hope that while we are exhausted and worn down, we look to the one who says, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened.”  We run the long, tiring, difficult race and look to Jesus.  We look to Jesus who “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross."

Do Your Work Skillfully

God has not called me to play professional basketball.  This might be obvious to you, as it should be.  I’m hardly tall enough to be a basketball player.  My genetics don’t lend themselves very well to me having a fighting chance in the NBA.  I have a wimpy vertical leap.  And while I may brag about my jump shot, I’m not very agile and have mediocre ball-handling skills.  Professional basketball is not in the cards when it comes to my calling.  God has not given me the skills to be a professional basketball player and no amount of hope, dreams, or commitment is going to get me there.  I enjoy playing basketball, but my skills are limited.

In Proverbs 22:29 it says:

“Do you see a man skillful in his work, he will stand before kings, he will not stand before obscure men.”

Skills are central to the work we do.  No matter what work you do - in your career, in your volunteering, in your family - God has given you skills so that you can use those in the work that you do.  He has given you skills to use in your family, skills to use in your job, and skills to use in your church.  And these skills are likely a combination of skills that have been wired in you from birth and skills that have been honed and refined through experience and hard work.

So… is there a uniquely Christian way to use these skills?

Do your work skillfully.

The writer, Dorothy L. Sayers said, “The church’s approach to intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays.  What the church should be telling him is this:  That the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables."

When talking about the work that God has called us to do, it is easy to begin thinking of ways to spiritualize our work.  We think that the Christian carpenter should make Christian tables.  The Christian designer makes Christian posters.  And the Christian filmmaker makes mediocre Christian movies.  But being a Christian doesn’t mean doing “Christian” work, it simply means as a Christian, you should be doing your work skillfully.  You work hard using the skills that God has given you to serve those around you.  If you are a carpenter, make good tables.  If you are a mother, raise your children well.  If you are a graphic designer, make great graphics.  If you own a business, run your business well.  If you are an artist, make good art.

Where in your life do you feel like you get to do work skillfully?

The Pub as a Sacred Space

[This is Part 2 in an interview with Ken Chitwood regarding his vocation as a volunteer bartender at a local brewery in Texas.  Check out Part 1, Pouring Beer for the Glory of God]

Mission happens in whatever places God places you.  You have been placed in your family and therefore have a calling to live out your faith in that family and be a blessing to your family.  You have been placed placed in your neighborhood and have a calling to that community.  And if you happen to a be a beer connoisseur, who likes to drink craft beer at the local microbrewery, God may have even placed you there for the sake of his kingdom.  And I don’t mean, you should start bringing bible tracts to the bar with you..unless you want to get treated as if you ordered a Coors or a Miller Lite.

In order to explore what this looks like in the craft-beer world, I asked my friend Ken a series of questions about God’s calling as he volunteers at a Texas micro-brewery.  In Part 1 of our interview Ken discussed pouring beer for the glory of God.  Ken Chitwood works at Crosspoint Community Church and Memorial Lutheran Church, both in Katy, Texas.  He blogs at Sacred Duty and is a phenomenal preacher.  Ken also is a volunteer bartender at a micro-brewery.  Ken has become a good friend in the past year and has been a huge help challenging me specifically in the area of preaching.

RJ: Why a brewery?  If you're looking to be bi-vocational, there are plenty of other places you could work, so why pouring beer for people?

Ken: As a bi-vocational minister I’ve worked as a security guard, a graphic designer and an assistant on a dairy farm. Here in Texas I applied to work at a running store, manage a wine bar and be a brewery volunteer. The latter made the most sense because this was a world that a missional community I lead was a part of already and seeking to actively bless with our presence and our gifts. I like to drink beer. I like to share beer with others. Checking IDs, helping with bottling and pouring taps at our Saturday tastings seemed an easy way to get to know people, deepen relationships and bless people on a regular basis.

RJ: Church people hanging out in bars isn’t really a new thing.  Some of the early reformers hung out and discussed theology in taverns and that shaped the trajectory of Christianity for hundreds of years to come.  How might what we talk about in bars today shape Christianity in years to come?

Ken: Excellent question, a couple things come to mind here RJ.  The missional community I lead is called “The Publicans.” This is an intentional name with four motivations:

1. In the past, local publicans (in Roman usage these were public contractors or tax collectors) were entrusted with a community’s beer supply. They doled it out as trusted members of the civil authority and as people with a firm foot in the community. Hence, people would go to “the publican’s” for a fine ale. This eventually got shortened to “the pub.”
2. Pubs, especially in British contexts, can often become the focal point for a community - the place where the community gathers to drink, talk and share life together.
3. The publicans were seen as a sinful and traitorous lot in Jesus’ day. Still, the disciple Matthew was a publican…but he was called by Jesus to follow him. We too, as sinners in the contemporary scene, are publicans called to follow Jesus as sinner-saints.
4. You bring this all together and we are people who drink beer, follow Jesus and gather together as a community - we are “The Publicans.”

This type of Christian community opens our eyes to a few important aspects of following Jesus in the 21st-century world.

We need to live out the life of a disciple, and extend the community of Christ, wherever we go - including the pub. And if the pub is the place where the community is gathering, as the brewery I volunteer at is, then that’s where Christ followers should be. Not as “undercover evangelists,” but as human beings trying to bring healing, illumination and hope as we all fumble, falter and fail in our following of Jesus. It’s just one more step in trying to break down walls between the local community that we live in and the Christian community we worship in.  The pub can be sacred space, and God is already at work there, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t be there too, mindful of how Jesus may be calling us there to be his ambassadors of reconciliation.

Beer, Orthodoxy, & Orthopraxy

Ken: Also, there was a study done to compare the impact of coffee and beer on the human mind. The researchers wondered which libation would make you more focused, more creative. They found that coffee, in moderation, makes you more focused - it helps you zero in on details and take care of business. It’s a left brain stimulant. Beer, and alcohol in general, again in moderation, opens you up creatively, releasing your right-brain resourcefulness, vision and innovation. For so many years the Christian church has done a great job of drinking coffee and eating stale donuts, and our theology and practice reflects that. We know our stuff, we’ve whittled down the details and rounded up all the informational theology we can handle. The problem is, we’ve self-segregated and stopped innovating. In all our coffee-induced theological focus, we’ve lost sight of the expansive, re-creative, enterprising work of the Holy Spirit in the marginal places of our world, in the community squares and local pubs. If we could adopt a bit more of a beer-drinker’s mentality to orthodoxy, and orthopraxy, I think we’d see some pretty cool innovation when it comes to imagining how the Gospel can indwell in our particular cultural context and historical moment. Plus, we’d have a TON of fun along the way.

RJ: There’s a growing popularity of things like bible studies at bars, beer & hymns, church plants in pubs, etc.  With the popularity of craft beer, so it seems the popularity of Christians hanging out in bars.  What would be one warning you would give to the Christian who wants to be on mission by going to the bar?

Ken: Right from the outset we wanted to be aware of two things as we waded into this world.

First, we wanted to watch out for alcoholism. If we saw it creeping up in us, or taking hold of others we met, we wanted to be mindful of it and do what we could to release and liberate people from it. Alcoholism destroys lives and ushers all types of sin, death and destruction into one’s life-orbit. We wanted to work at confronting this with the Law, releasing people with the Gospel and leading them into a new humble obedience of life-long recovery. At the same time, we wanted to learn from those who were recovering alcoholics - they have some of the best redemption stories in the world and know what it means to be an ever-recovering sinner-saint.

Second, we wanted to avoid the “Vegas” problem, or at least be prescient of it. When people drink, they get, as the rapper-cum-theologian Yeezus would say, "cray-cray.” Basically, people do stupid stuff when they drink. We really don’t want to drink too much, act a fool and regret a bunch of stuff later. We don’t want to see marriages ruined with one-time uninhibited adulterous flings or words to drunkenly escape someone’s mouth and cause untold, and unintended, damage.

I can’t say things have gone perfectly. Sometimes we drink too much. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we aren’t as aware as we need to be. It’s a different set of sins than what you typically deal with as part of a typical congregation. Still, it creates opportunities for confession and absolution, for confrontation and forgiveness, for repentance and restoration. That’s what being a follower of Jesus is all about anyways, whether there is beer involved or not.

Photo Credit: Corey Grunewald Photography

Little Church: Discipling Your Family Based on Deuteronomy 6

I’m excited to announce the launch of my new eBook.  I’ve spent some time editing, designing, and putting together: Little Church: Discipling Your Family Based on Deuteronomy 6 so I could give it away for FREE!

Update: This book is no longer available for free, but you can find it for on Amazon for only $2.99. 

This eBook began as a sermon that I preached at Faith Lutheran Church in June 2013.  It has since morphed into some blog posts and now into an eBook.  The theologian Jonathan Edwards once said, “Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church.”  This begs the question, “How is your little church?"  What are you doing to pastor your family?

About Little Church.

I intentionally made the book short and sweet so you could read it all in one sitting.  It’s also meant to be highly practical.  I want you to be able to read the things talked about and have some practical ways you can start implementing it in your home.  Years ago, I read the book Think Orange by Reggie Joiner and his description of Deuteronomy 6 has been influential ever since.

“Children learn best through routine, and when families create the right rhythm it helps to accentuate learning and development. Although every family should look for the patterns that work best for them in light of their schedules, four specific times are listed in this passage that any family can leverage to build the faith of their children.” - Reggie Joiner in Think Orange

This framework based on Deuteronomy 6 - teacher, friend, counselor, coach - is what we will explore in this eBook.

How to get a copy

Little Church is available on Amazon for only $2.99.