theology – Grace Breaks

Identity

April 24, 2011 rwrenLeave a comment

It's been 2 years since I stepped down as worship leader of our last church and I have to say it's been the absolute best thing God has done in our lives. God has revealed the idols in my heart and needless to say is chipping them away. It is indeed a slow and painful process because I put a lot of years of hard work in to building them. John Calvin gets credit for one of the best observations ever made in post canon theology. He said, "The human heart is a factory of idols…Everyone of us is, from his mother's womb, expert in inventing idols."

The idols I have created are far too many to name, but I will let you in on one of them. One of my biggest idols has been identity seeking. Before I was in ministry, I developed a pattern of moving from job to job. I would be content for 2 or 3 years until I realized it wasn't fulfilling enough. Instead of sticking it out and enduring the trials I was facing which usually centered around my relationships with superiors, I opted for lateral movement hoping something would click inside and I would settle down. After being laid off from a company after 8 years of employ, I bounced around some more all the while thinking that my musical gifts had to be the ticket to escaping this volatile existence. I thought that once I became a vocational worship leader that my heart would be filled, that my identity would be fulfilled. Many good folks along the way were enablers to maintaining the sheen of this idol. Anytime someone complimented something I did or a song I performed, my idol was being polished. It wasn't their intent, but I was more than willing to let them. I wish I could say my motivation behind serving in the church has always been to lead people to Christ, but mostly it has been done to lead people to myself.

As a worship leader, I soon realized the frustration in securing my idenity through my career. The biggest problem in finding your identity in anything other than Christ is that there is always opposition. There is no clear path to finding yourself in this world or anything in this world apart from Jesus. You discover the opposition comes from other identity seekers like the people you work with and those you work for. The evolutionary theory almost seems plausible as the larger egos win out in a spiritual survivor of the fittest.

I struggled mightily behind the scenes trying to reconcile my identity with the self-image I created. Thankfully the fork in the road arrived prior to the breaking point. Through wise counsel, I took the honest path which seemed to lead through the forest of uncertainty, while the disingenious path looked clear and comfortable. Now, here I am 2 years later and not where I expected to be. In fact, I would have fought this path tooth and nail 5 years ago.

Someone asked me recently if I enjoyed my job. I told him that I don't enjoy what I do, but I have more joy in the midst of what I'm doing if that makes any sense. I want a life like that tree in Psalms, the one planted by the stream. Though it's leaves wither, the tree never dies. It flourishes in all seasons. That's my desire, to not only weather the conditions of each seasonal turn, but to flourish in fruit-bearing joy. That is the identiy I long for.

In training

December 16, 2008 rwrenLeave a comment

I Timothy 4:7-8 "train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, asit holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."

You are probably already thinking about getting in good physical shape as the new year approaches as well we should. But what about spiritually? Shouldn't this be the starting point? Whenever we are dissatisfied with our lives in any way, we gravitate to the physical things, the things we can see. Rarely do we make a plan for the unseen, our own souls! Paul encouraged his protege Timothy, a young pastor in Ephesus, to train himself in godliness. While Paul acknowledged the value of working out physically, he was much more concerned for Timothy's soul. Isn't it strange how many of us were brought up to view the soul as something you scoop up from the reaches of hell as if it was some kind of object the size of a breadbox, some type of tangible material. So after we come to Christ, the soul goes unattended and uncared for. The only explanation that I can come up with is bad theology. The sanctification process of salvation gets reduced to moral deeds to be fueled by sheer will power. Our constant new years resolution failures should have informed us by now that we don't have what it takes to sanctify ourselves. Phillipians 2 tells us to "work out our salvation" and "it is God who works in (us)". So, this doesn't mean we don't participate in sanctification, it just means that our own strength (willpower) is NOT the source we draw from.
Paul tells us that godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and for the life to come! He goes on to say we toil and strive in this training. It makes sense that there would be work involved in training right? Remember this, however. There's always a motivation behind everything. Why do we work so hard to train in godliness? Because, Paul says, "we have our hope set on the living God"! God himself is why we train! It's not so we can be better people. It's not so we will look better in the mirror. It's not to ease our guilty consciences. We train because we are preparing for a great wedding day where we will be wed to our Creator God who we will adore forever and where we will be supremely loved by Him!

Where does your Gospel lead?

November 11, 2008 rwrenLeave a comment

I have written much about gospel lately, so much so that someone asked me the other day what I meant by gospel. Ah yes, gospel. Yet another word from our Christian heritage that hasn't so much lost it's meaning as it's direction. In other words, gospel is rightly defined as "good news", but there seems to be much confusion as to what IS good news especially on the evangelical landscape. Evangelicalism as a whole is increasingly more generic everyday. It's generic in the sense that the things that make Biblical Christianity distinct from the wisdom of our present day culture are absent or at best blurred in understanding. The gospel has suffered as a casualty of this Christian consumerism.

When I say the gospel has lost it's direction, I believe that it is a failure on the part of mainstream evangelicalism to protect the gospel in it's zeal to disperse it. I don't question the motives or the passion of many evangelicals in their quest to fulfill the great commission, in fact, I appreciate that the gospel "seed" is not merely cast down on the rocky ground without the passion and careful sowing that God requires of us. I appreciate that evangelism isn't reduced to "tract planting". But in our effort to reach the lost, have we been reckless in communicating what God says the the gospel is? As someone who is in the ministry, and as someone who reads many philosophical viewpoints and attends ministry conferences and has candid conversations with others who have chosen the ministry as their vocation, I find myself asking the tell-tale question, "where does our Gospel lead?". I believe the answer will reveal "what" we believe the gospel to be.

When asked, I have always defined the gospel with the stock answer that Jesus came to earth, died on the cross, and rose again so that I could be saved. But I believe this answer is a thumbnail picture of a larger image. It's not to say that the answer is untrue, but it is not the full view. Indeed. I could talk about how the gospel is not only about our personal forgiveness or the securing of our eternal destiny. I could point out that it is also about the "Kingdom at hand" as Jesus preached. I could mention that it's about all the nations being brought under the ruler ship of Christ. I could say that it involves world peace and the eradication of evil. I could say all of these things are gospel, and I wouldn't be wrong. The question is not only one of what, but where.

Get God, or something from God?

I think it's safe to say that to many, the gospel leads them to the effects of the gospel as being their ultimate satisfaction. As an example, the gospel I heard in my baptist church growing up was that the reason to believe in Christ was so that you could escape an eternal lake of fire equipped with gnashing of teeth and maggots crawling on your face. Sadly, this "gospel" did not lead to Christ, it led to fear. It led to a pursuit of safety. Matt Chandler of the Village Church says "Heaven is not for those who want to escape hell, it's for those who love Christ." As a result of this "gospel", there are many who experience a half dozen conversions hoping the last one will "take" and they won't wake up the next morning in a cold sweat thinking they've been "left behind". I want to tell you, this is no gospel! In fact, I feel a tremendous burden for those raised in this environment, because it's akin to a brainwashing that never completely goes away.

There are other examples where the gospel that people hear leads them to making the effects their ultimate satisfaction. There's the gospel that drives people to dream about heaven. Now that sounds good on the surface, but there are people who literally shut down in this life so they can get to the next one. They cease "upkeep" on the little house they live in the suburbs because they're waiting for their "mansion" in the next life. Instead of the prospect of seeing Christ, they're more excited about seeing their deceased loved ones. Christ is like a bonus to them. A Biblical gospel should drive us to a pursuit of Christ where He is valued above everything including our family! Actually, a reunion with our loved ones in heaven is the bonus! John Piper asks the tough question, "if you arrived in heaven and found out Jesus wasn't there, would that be okay with you."?

Speaking of our temporal home, often our earthly circumstances become the "where" of the gospel. This is most prevalent in mainstream evangelicalism and I understand why. Americans, especially, are chasing the pursuit of happiness, after all, that is one of our great American doctrines isn't it? So there is a segment of Christianity that equates personal fulfillment/improvement with the Gospel. It doesn't seem a stretch to say that God wants to make you better. Does it? Biblically speaking, what is a "better you" anyway? Is it someone who is successful as our culture defines it? I contend that "a better you" is someone like the Apostle Paul was slowly and methodically becoming every day. His "improved self" was characterized by the choices of "sharing Christ's sufferings" or martyrdom. Either way, His gospel, worked out, led directly to Christ. Paul wasn't concerned with raising his self-esteem, in fact he was concerned with dying to self-esteem. As nice as it is to have more money, a dependable car, and warm body to lie next to each night, these things don't lead to Christ. They are temporal. They are but mere foretastes of greater joy and so I thank God for these earthly blessings, but I pray that they do not become ultimate in my life.

There are many wonderful effects of the gospel. However, we should never let the effects be where the gospel lead us, nor should we define our natural desires as gospel effects. So many of us value the gifts of the Creator above the Creator Himself. As Piper puts it "if the Gospel doesn't lead to Christ, then it is no gospel at all." So when we realize that the true Biblical gospel is one that leads to Christ, our gospel definition is supplied for us. The Gospel is Christ. That's why salvation isn't escape from hell and entrance into heaven, although these things are included, but rather a pursuit of Christ as the ultimate treasure of our lives! This is the Gospel we should be pursuing, the one we should be preaching, and the one we should be living and dying for!