ken wilson online

Carl Safina, an environmental scientist and science writer of some note, spoke at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor two weeks ago.  Our first secular scientist as a speaker–a man who professes no Christian faith, but is an admirer of Jesus of Nazareth along with Charles Darwin.  He was nervous to be speaking to a congregation in the evangelical wing of American Christianity. He was nervous as one might be who is crossing a minefield without knowing where the mines are located.  Would he offend people without even intending to? Would he get me into trouble with congregants by what he might say?  I told him not to be nervous: we wanted to hear what he had to say about the oceans and science and the environment.  Tell us what you know.  But I was nervous too.

There were a few raised eyebrows within the church community–not many, but some: Why have you invited a man with no faith to speak at church?   More troubling were the comments to my blog post about the visit before it took place.  I didn’t post them as I didn’t have the heart to. One was a “prophetic denunciation”–how God was angered by the invitation, etc.; another was also in the  “guardian of orthodoxy” vein reminding me that “The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’”–a reference to the good scientist.  (As though this is the proper use of the Bible: finding a way to use it to call a person a fool. Jesus could use the Bible every moment of every day to call each one of us, “Fool!” but he doesn’t.  Maybe we shouldn’t.)

The way the brain works, these comments have their impact. They get the “alarm” part of the brain going, stimulating fear–just reading the words does that. It takes five encouraging words to match the impact of one “You’re an idiot!” comment.  That’s just the brain doing its brain thing.

no good reason not to

But I never doubted it was the right thing to do. Who wants to be part of church that can’t do such a thing?  Not me.  Our church, the Ann Arbor Vineyard, and the Blue Ocean Institute, which Safina co-founded, are sponsors of The Friendship Collaborative bringing together evangelical pastors and secular scientists to talk about our shared concern for the environment.  The only reason not to invite Carl to speak would have been fear–overblown, exaggerated, disproportionate fear–or worse, distrust. Who wants to distrust the church one attends and pastors? Who wants to believe the worst, not the best about her? Not me.

Carl was warmly welcomed at the first service, so he relaxed for the second. Both were dynamite. The man has great comic timing. He knows his stuff but can tell it to people who don’t as if they are intelligent too. And Safinas has a heart–a big, kind, caring one. What’s not to like?  His presentation was a little longer at the second service, so when it was done, I jumped up on the platform, my back to the congregation, and conferred with Mike Brooks, our worship pastor about how to use the time remaining.  When I turned to face the congregation, they were standing up, cheering for Carl. He was standing there, stunned and deeply moved.   Then Mike Brooks invited to him to play drums in the worship band for the final song–Long Train Runnin’ by the Doobie Brothers. How apt.

find a carl safina to adopt

What if every evangelical church in the United States adopted a secular scientist?  The pastor and the scientist would get to know each other and if a relationship of mutual respect were established the pastor would invite the scientist to speak to the church.  Tell us what you think we need to hear about the natural world as you understand it through the lens of the scientific method.  Don’t worry about offending us, just tell us the truth of the world as you know it.  Sell us your book if it can be read by someone without a Ph.D.

What if the church listened to the scientist?  What if they listened to the secular scientist as they would want all secular scientists to listen to them?  What if they applied what Jesus called, “The Law and the Prophets” (do unto others as you would have them do unto you) to the scientist?

What if the church welcomed the scientist?  By that I mean, what if the church extended the hospitality that Jesus extended to people on the outside of faith looking in, in the way that Jesus extended it?  Let’s share a meal together, you and I, as though we were already friends–while the righteous gnash their teeth at us both.

What if the church were not afraid of what the scientist had to say?  What if the church trusted Jesus to help them separate the wheat from the chaff, just as must be done when anyone speaks, including (especially?) the pastor?

There would be no need to put out the porcupine quills.  The defensive pricklies would be left at home.

oh for the day when this is not noteworthy!

Here’s what I long for–the day when this is not noteworthy.  I long for the day when the church begins to tackle the question of our times: “Who are the Gentiles of our day? Who are the despised of Israel (despised of God’s people) in our day?  Who are the people Jesus would extend a kingdom welcome to without pre-conditions today–a welcome so in keeping with the kingom that the righteous would gnash their teeth as they did in the day of his coming?”

If you are interested in Safina’s take on the experience, check out his blog.

If you were there when Dr. Safina spoke to us, and were moved by the experience, leave us a comment.

If you are the pastor of an evangelical church and you would like to explore the idea of adopting a secular scientist, contact me.  If you leave a coment, I think I can email you directly. Depending on where you’re from, I can give you a few names of scientists who might welcome an invitation, so long as you’re willing to give ‘em “The Law and the Prophets” treatment, a.k.a, the golden rule, which is, according to Jesus–well, the Bible, if I’ve got my Bible right.

ain’t it time for somethin’ NEW?

Rice Krispies go snap, crackle, pop—why not the church?

Wouldn’t it be more interesting if the church made some noise–beyond what we hear week after week?

Wouldn’t it be a sign that we were pressing into the new creation– if we actually did something NEW, unexpected, surprising?

Tags: bible, carl safina, charles darwin, flight of the albatross, golden rule, Jesus, rice krispies, secular scientist, song for the blue ocean, the law and the prophets, vineyard church of ann arbor

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 3:33 pm and is filed under environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.