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evangelicals, at our best
I’ve owed you this post for a while. Yes, I have a pebble in my shoe over the current state of the American evangelical movement of which my tribe, the Vineyard, is a part. Yes, I think Phariseeism is alive and well in evangelicalism. I’d call my own out if I saw it, but others are free to do so in the comments section. And yes, I’m bored by Christians who call out the sins of the world like it’s a worthwhile hobby. Or like it’s news. Been there, done that. Spent fifteen years of my life in that mode, and I guess I got it off my chest. I can imagine being wearied by this–hearing this, reading this– just as I am wearied, but not so much to stop. So the first of a two-parter: evangelicals at our best (to be followed by evangelicals at our worst.)
At our best we are activist, inventive, unembarrassed, globally minded, community networking types, who are willing to place our bets on a happy ending.
We Do Stuff
We volunteer to help out. More than any other religious group. We teach Sunday School. We usher. We send teams to New Orleans, long after the camera crews are gone. We run homeless food pantries. We like to get stuff done. And we like to do it for Jesus, to please him, to advance what we believe to be his cause. Carl Safina, my crappy atheist friend, and by that I mean he’s as crappy an atheist as I am a Christian, told me that he spoke to a religious group about the environment and they received him warmly. “But I had the feeling,” he said, and I knew what was going to follow, so I filled in the blank and said, “that they liked to study it more than do much about it.” How did you know? he said. I knew that if they knew all about the environment, they probably weren’t evangelicals. If they were evangelicals, they’d probably be a little suspicious of Carl, but once convinced, they’d want to do something to do about it. Because at our best, we like to do stuff.
We Invent Stuff
We invented the altar call. What a concept! Invite people to take a physical action, to walk up front in front of other people, to signify their willingness to surrender to Jesus. Jesus said, “Follow me!” And people either stepped forward or hung back. We invent ways for people to step forward. I don’t think the altar call works like it used to, but I think we’ll invent something else. Because that’s what we do. We invented Sunday School. But it’s even better than it sounds, as in invention. Because it was invented by D.L. Moody to gather poor kids who didn’t go to school before public education was widespread. He wanted to teach them to read, so they could read the Bible. Isn’t that great? He wanted to teach them to read BECAUSE HE LOVED A BOOK!
My daughter has a (boy)friend who spent two years in the Peace Corps in Bolivia. His job was to teach villagers to drill for their own fresh water. He learned a drilling method created by an evangelical missionary that cost about five dollars per drill using stuff you could get at any hardware store. It could be used by hand with an ingenious pulley thinga-ma-jiggy. I could go on and on about things we’ve invented.
We Couldn’t Care Less
What you think about us, that is, so long as we’re sure Jesus likes what we’re doing. Man, that’s a refreshing thing when its working right. It brings a freedom from group-think that groups need from time to time to move forward. People who couldn’t care less can really change things up sometimes. Certain things can only change when enough people get to that point. My friend Joseph, the guy who mentored me when I was a puppy dog believer, suggested we go door to door offering to pray for people and tell them about Jesus. I said, “Won’t they think we’re religious whackos?”
“So what?” Joseph said. I liked that about him.
I’m no historian, but if you scratched around in stacks at the library, I’ll bet you’d discover that behind every progressive movement, ever culture-wide moment of social transformation for the better, there were people, many of them evangelicals, who decided to care less what someone thought about this or that. And because they did something that needed to change did change.
We Know There’s a Wide World Out There
Nicholas Kristof, from the New York Times, that liberal rag, calls evangelicals, “the new internationalists.” Our government gives less to international aid as a percentage of our budget than many other nations. But evangelicals have an international relief corps that dwarfs the Peace Corps by many magnitudes. Gosh, we’re everywhere. Ordinary people in evangelical churches go to far off and far out places to do stuff, even when the State Department thinks it might be a little dicey where we’re going.
Ask any linguist where the world of linguistics would be if it weren’t for missionaries going out to every nook and cranny of creation to learn some strange tongue spoken by a thousand people or so: painstakingly figuring out what people are talking about when know one else in the world can understand their language.
We Know How to Improve Your Social Capital
Robert Putnam from Harvard, that training ground for liberal ideas (I’m having too much fun with this!) traces the preciptious decline in social capital that has plagued us, literally plagued us since the Baby Boomers came of age. Every generation since the World War 2 Generation has suffered a decline social capital–how much meaningful human contact a person in a given day–and this decline has resulted in higher rates of depression, suicide, headache, GI distress, physical malaise, and other bad things.
Putnam, who to the best of my knowledge is secular in sensibilities, says that one thing which has reversed a decline in social capital over the course of American history is a religious revival. And most of the religious revivals in the history of the country have been evangelical ones. We’re in the revival business baby. If you join a church, it turns out, you enjoy as 40% increase in your social capital. Unless you sit in the corner and don’t talk to anybody.
My friend Don, who was also a crappy atheist, came to faith in Jesus because his mother went to an evangelical church and when she was sick with cancer, people from that church rallied to care for her, in a way that took his atheism out of him.
And We’re Suckers for a Good Story
Oh yes, we are, at our best. I’ve spent many a morning, I won’t tell you where, reading “Drama in Real Life” from yes, the Reader’s Digest, and without fail, two-thirds of the way in to the story, I’m choking back tears because something wonderful and unexpected happens to save the day.
Here’s the thing: we’re not afraid to believe that God himself would appear two thirds of the way into a story that is THE story of the way things AND the way things could be, and not just get chocked up, but believe it to be true, and seek to enter that story or let that story intersect our own and re-write it from within. We know life sucks, but we’re placing our bets on a happy ending.
Tags: bible, evangelical, missions, Robert Putnam
June 1st, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Man I love that God made you Ken Wilson. I cringe and wait with excitement for the 2nd part of this, but for now, thanks for reminding me why we do this thing!
June 1st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
often read you. sometimes not sure what to think but that’s not a bad thing. today it’s nice to read something nice about being us. looking forward to the next post too.
June 1st, 2009 at 5:09 pm
“People who could care less (couldn’t care less, is what I really mean) when what is they don’t care about isn’t worth caring about can really change things up sometimes.”
What the heck are you trying to say, Ken? A small suggestion: proof-read your posts before you submit them… Please explain what you were trying to say…
June 1st, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I love this post. When I consider those who I know who are living the most radical lives in hopes to change the world due do some sick case of compassion I think of Evangelicals. There’s Mark who continues to bounce around the globe to use his hands to build hope. There’s Daniel and Jamie who are leaving their careers while postponing parenthood to move to the third poorest country in the world to bring hope (http://mccollumsinmalawi.com). Then there’s Brian, who gave away his truck to a struggling 20 year old to help the young adult regain his hope.
If I could describe the Evangelical camp in a few words it would be “Bearers of Hope” in what is unseen. I am proud to be part of this team…although I am sure your second blog post may have me second guessing my position!
June 1st, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Chris, That IS incomprehensible. I’ll fix it–assuming I can remember what I meant!
June 1st, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Amen to Ken!!!
June 1st, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Haha! It’s good to see that you can occasionally admit to your own incomprehensibleness, Ken. Nicely played.
June 1st, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Actually Ken the fact that you get tongue tied and it’s OK, is what makes you awesome.
Even when you are typing…so that is typing tied??
June 1st, 2009 at 8:57 pm
I thought that you left out a couple of good traits. What about love for the Bible and love for the Gospel.
June 1st, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Yes this is the true meaning of evangelical that I have been striving to find and so far have only found it at Vineyard. I have high hopes that these types of people are out there everyone because that has not been my experience. Maybe it is mainly my generation, not sure. Somehow I encounter the ones that are judgmental, critical, and want to determine what is best for everyone else. But like you I have high hopes. Great post
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:01 am
Glen, what about Love of Truth, even before love for the Bible and love for the Gospel? How would that grab you?
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:18 am
Ken,
Beautifully put! My one comment would be that you have spent the last year telling us what evangelicals do badly. So I’m not sure what the point of your next post would be, except a rehashing of your posts of the last year.
I learned a valuable lesson from a wise mentor years ago. He told me “Anytime you are bringing correction or a criticism, sandwich it between two things that they do well”. I have tried to live that. I have also pressed my ministry teams to make sure that when they bring healthy, good criticism, to always end on a positive note.
But if you’re going to dissect everything the evangelical church has done wrong, not only do you end on a negative note, but it is sandwiched between the negative. This might make us evangelicals forget the good you mentioned.
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:33 am
happy lad,
it looks like you broke your own rule with that post
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:55 am
Cassady.
Funny, my experience of evangelicalism has been quite different from yours. I have seen the judgmental folk, but I have also seen folk that are anything but that. They have been loving, sacrificial, tender and Christ like.
I also think that the word judgmental is thrown around too liberally and is also being misunderstood.
I think as believers or really, just people with morals, we will be judgmental, in as far as we make judgments between right and wrong.
We can do that humbly or arrogantly, but we all need to do it for events such as choosing a mate, a job, a place to live, whom to vote for, guiding our children, etc.
For example, if a fellow member of my men’s group casually tells the group he is being sexually active with his girlfriend, I (and I hope the group)will make it a point to communicate to him that this behavior is not honoring to God and if this is news to him, we can gladly and gently make our point, maybe even study the Bible on the matter.
There are those who would call me judgmental, in which case I am happily guilty as charged and would hope to get support from the church’s staff in my actions.
That’s how I see ‘judgmental’ in a good light.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Elizabeth,
Ouch!!! What a poor example I’ve set! So let me fix that. Ken, I love how you love people! I love how you love Jesus! And I especially love how you like to show the love of Jesus to people! Forgive my hypocrisy!
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
happylad, I love you to, man, but you’re still not getting my bud-lite!
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Human expressions of love defined as patience, kindness, justice, compassion, etc., none of these require a belief in Jesus. The human expression of love is one of the most powerful forces on the earth. For those of us that believe in God inspired humanity, we recognize that all humans created in his image have been gifted with this capacity for love. So, what sets apart the highest form of this love? It is the sacrifice; the human expression of a God who spends himself for humanity, while at the same time walking in the felt presence of the creator. True religion does not take from others, it gives. Ken, thanks for focusing on those aspects that bring out the best in all of us.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
awesome post dude. i take back all my previous nasty comments.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Sweet post. However, I’m cringing the next one… sigh… oh well. We need to hear both the good and the bad. =)
June 4th, 2009 at 10:24 am
everybody loves me now!
June 5th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Ken writes: “Everybody loves me now!
Don’t get TOO carried away, Ken! lol
Look at this post from a member of YOUR OWN church!
“Yes this is the true meaning of evangelical that I have been striving to find and so far HAVE ONLY found it at Vineyard.”
Good God, Ken!!!
What kind of church fosters this kind of CULT-LIKE mentality???
I can think of a DOZEN evangelical churches in the Greater Detroit area, housing the VERY people whose views you so routinely denigrate, where the thought that THEIR church was the only stomping grounds for TRUE evangelicals would be anathema.
Yet, at least one member of Ann Arbor Vineyard is willing to be honest enough to admit what NO DOUBT many others believe.
And no matter of ex post facto backpedalling, which I’m sure will be forthcoming, can diminish the fact that THIS was the very FIRST thought he posted.
Wow!
As predicted, you are reaping the EXACT opposite of what were hoping for.
Creating a group that thinks THEY’RE the only enlightened evangelicals, which is pretty obvious what you’ve done, is the WORST possible outcome.
What hath God Wrought, Ken?
BD