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3rd Culture Thursday: Who is my neighbor?

// December 17th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // 3rd culture

[The common theme throughout the 3rd Culture Thursday posts will be the definition of third culture from author & pastor Dave Gibbons: third culture = "the mindset and the will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort."]

One of the reasons why I believe we should operate from a third culture mindset is that it parallels the life of Jesus. We all feel that if we offer a perspective of grace and love to the world that we are following in the footsteps of Jesus. Well, this is true to a certain extent, but it fails to acknowledge a core value that Jesus taught and lived out. That is, living out the second Greatest Commandment in the proper context. When we learn that the Greatest Commandment was to love God with everything we have, we get that pretty easily. Then, when we hear the second Greatest Commandment, which is to love our neighbor like ourselves (Mark 12:28-31) we think we get it, but we often-times fail to put two-and-two together. Yes, we are called by Jesus to love our neighbor, but just exactly who is our neighbor?

When you live in a suburban neighborhood with a bunch of middle-class people, you may think you should go knock on your next door neighbor’s door and invite him over for dinner or something. While this may be your neighbor in your neighborhood, Jesus is really calling us to go outside of our neighborhoods into the unknown areas and love people that are not like us. This is confirmed in Luke 10:25-37 NIV:

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.‘” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “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. 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?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.“

As you probably already know, in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry the Samaritans were a very hated and lowly people in the eyes of Jews. No one outside of Samaria gave them any attention. Therefore, a Samaritan definitely owed nothing to a Jew, nor could he ever expect to be paid back for any good deed. This was a very profound and radical illustration that Jesus delivered in the form of parable that day. When he says, “Go and do likewise.” this is his calling upon each of us as well. We are to love people we don’t know and may not even care to know — love them as we would want to be loved. To follow in the footsteps of Christ will cause us to have: the mindset and the will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort. To follow Jesus is to experience the pain and discomfort of third culture.

The Myth Of A Christian Religion, Part 2

// June 13th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Christianity

Gregory Boyd makes the claim: “…religion doesn’t save people. Religion, in fact, may be one of the the greatest obstacles to being saved.” Heresy? I don’t think so.

Being a former atheist (as was Boyd) I can say to Christians that embrace religion, that it is your love of your religion that actually helped keep me away from Christ. Seriously, when it becomes more about words and judgment rather than love & grace, who in their right mind would be interested in joining that club? Once I did come to know God, religion did get the best of me–at first. However, as I’ve matured in my faith and grown in understanding who Christ Jesus is in me, I have been able to break free of religion and lend a voice to those that see it as idolatry and something that distracts one from knowing the true Jesus.

Don’t you know that when you take a stand and cast out someone that has committed adultery, or someone that struggles with alcoholism or a gay man or woman, then in essence you are trying to abandon them for the sake of religion. Jesus was known to be gossiped about by the Pharisees because he was seen dining with prostitutes and tax collectors (who were considered as enemies of Jerusalem at the time). Jesus shuns religion through every gospel account in the Bible. This put him at odds with those that felt the law was more important than the love of others.

Think about this. Is Christianity really meant to keep us in bondage to laws, or is it about sharing the love of Christ with others in selfless ways so that one day they may come to know our Jesus too? As Ghandi said in regards to Christianity:

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Look around you…look in the mirror…can you see the truth in the above-mentioned quote?

Boyd describes the struggle with religion as: “…religious idolatry is particularly resistant to the Kingdom of God. It’s no coincidence the main opposition Jesus faced in establishing the Kingdom came from the guardians of the religious status quo.” He goes on to say, “To establish and manifest the beautiful Kingdom in his day, Jesus had to revolt against religion. To advance and manifest the beautiful Kingdom today, we must do the same.”

Gregory Boyd contends throughout the chapter The REVOLT Against RELIGION that religious people get Life (yes, capital “L”) from their religion, and not from the one who is the actual giver of Life. For them, it has become more about religion than about Christ and his kingdom. Do you truly understand the message Jesus was telling those around him during his ministry here on earth?

• From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” –Matthew 4:17
• As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ –Matthew 10:7
• Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ –Luke 10:9

It’s about the kingdom of God, not about how closely we can follow legalistic rules and judge others as they try to do the same. Don’t you know that Jesus was crucified because even though he followed the Jewish law to the letter, he was seen as a threat to the kingdom of God because of his love radical love for others and the authority in which he spoke? It was the religious people of his day that tried to squash a revolution of love for fear that they would lose power and become ineffectual. That even though it was the religious that brought charges against Jesus and eventually celebrated their hand in his crucifixion, we still cling to religion in idolatrous ways. When we do this, are we really Christians that are following Christ, or are we following the Pharisees. Is it time for some of us to repent, for no matter how we try to cling to religion to give us worth, the kingdom of God is near?

Jasonisms for church planting

// August 29th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // church planting

Found what seems to be a huge blessing via twitter today. I’m now following @jasonsalamun and linked through to his blog about an awesome ministry: projectchurch.net. Just as Tony Morgan posts about Perryisms, I’m totally digging on some Jasonisms. Jason Salamun posted a list titled “101 Nuggets for Church Planters” and it’s very awesome! All 101 are necessary, but here are some that really made me say “Ah ha! Someone else gets church planting!” or “Wow! I definitely need to work on this!” I’ll let you decide which is which for me :)

2. If you are called, you have permission.

4. Don’t just plant a church; start a movement.

6. Don’t make the church your idol.  It’s easier than you think.

14. There’s a lot of wisdom in the words of dead guys.

22. Don’t talk about church all the time to your wife.  Pace yourself.

26. You should be able to explain the vision on the back of a napkin.

29. You’ll get criticized for things you never even said or implied. Get used to it.

40. Start a church where it’s okay to be a dude.

66. Typical is boring.

74. Be intentional.

77. Prepare- but understand that you’ll never been prepared enough.

79. Stand up for the ones who can’t stand up at all.

80. Time alone with a notebook, a pen, and a Bible often lead to something special.

81. Authentic people are led by authentic leaders.

87. It will be messy.

88. When was the last time you went to a bar or sat in the smoking section of a restaurant?

92. Repeat after me, “I heart simplicity.”

100. Church all boils down to relationships.

Rock on Jason! Praise God for putting the desire to be passionate for the Lord and minister to people and open enough to help other ministers stay on-track and to share in your victories!

Is diversity a taboo subject within the church?

// August 21st, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Christianity, God, church, church relevance, culture, diversity, evangelism/outreach, life, ministry, people

Scott Williams, campus pastor of LifeChurch.tv NW Oklahoma campus asks in his blog, “is diversity taboo to talk about in your team or organization?” Also, “how diverse is your church?”

As I prepare to wrap up my season leading services at a predominantly Korean-American church and begin the journey of being a Japanese-American pastor planting an intentionally diverse church I am getting feelings of misunderstanding. To some, there is a need for ethnocentric ministries to help keep individual cultures alive and well in the US. While I agree there should be some ministry that speaks to people that may have English as their second language, I think it makes the church more about one’s culture and less about God’s kingdom. Are we to minister to people based on race or are we to be light and salt in a world that doesn’t know Jesus?

When we get to heaven, there will no longer be a Chinatown, or Little Italy. It is a kingdom made up of disciples of Christ all worshipping the Lord in one voice with one love. If the kingdom of heaven should be made here on earth, then shouldn’t we cross ethnic boundaries and worship in one language with one heart to see others come to know what we know–Christ died for the world to be saved, not just me and not just you.

It would be so sad to know that diversity was a taboo subject in the church today, even though I know that the church is one of the most-segregated places in modern society.

Pastor Scott shared a thought provoking scenario. What if the world were reduced to just a population of 100 people. Keeping the ratios exactly as they are today, what would earth look like? Here is the result:

• 57 Asians
• 21 Europeans
• 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both North and South
• 8 Africans
• 52 would be female; 48 would be male
• 70 would be non-white; 30 would be white
• 70 would be non-Christian; 30 would be Christian
• 89 would be heterosexual; 11 would be homosexual
• 6 people would possess 59% of the world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the U.S.
• 80 would live in substandard housing
• 70 would be unable to read
• 50 would suffer from malnutrition
• 1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
• 1 (yes only 1) would have a college education
• 1 would own a computer (an he/she would be blogging LOL)

Are you surprised? Are you affected? Will you help change the world through seeing Christ known in the hearts of the 70% of people that do not know him already? Will you band together in love to help see malnutrition become a thing of the past? Would you encourage young students to stay in school so that more than 1% of the world’s population can be educated to be better equipped to be leaders of the nations in the future?

Gregory Boyd has it right!

// August 20th, 2008 // Comments Off // Bible, Christianity, God, church relevance, cnn.com, culture, evangelism/outreach, leadership, life, ministry, people

I follow a lot of what is going on in the church today, particularly here in America. One thing I am getting tired of is church leadership slandering other church leaders. At the center of a lot of this is political. Take a look at the forum Rick Warren hosted last weekend at Saddleback Church here. One of the things I admire about Pastor Gregory Boyd of Woodland Hills Church in Minnesota is that he gets it and isn’t afraid to talk about it.

As Christians we should be focused on the work of the kingdom of God and not about promoting political candidates or political agenda. Is it our job to polarize Christians through our political positions or are we to show the world that it is through love that others will know we are Christ followers as in John 13:34-35.

In his blog, Boyd comments:

“In my view, followers of Jesus are to be concerned with everything Jesus was concerned with – and Jesus was obviously concerned with more than people having a relationship with himself.”

What are some of those things? Well, for one Pastor Boyd speaks about racism:

Jesus revolted against racism by the countercultural way he treated and spoke about non-Jews , so his followers are to revolt against all forms of racism.”

Boyd states that, “Jesus was a revolutionary on social issues, so his followers are to be revolutionaries on social issues.” However, he concludes with these profound remarks:

Jesus was a radical social activist, so his followers must be the same. It’s just that Jesus never once placed any trust in the government of his day to address social issues. He rather just addressed social issues by how he lived and taught. So too, we who are Jesus’ followers are to place no trust in government to address social issues. We’re simply called to address them by how we live.

Following Jesus’ example, we’re to place our trust in the power of the cross – the power of self-sacrificial love – not the power of the sword. We’re to trust the power of Calvary, not Caesar. And this is why I believe those who spend their time and energy trying to control the political arena “in Jesus’ name” are profoundly missing the point. Our job is to love, serve and sacrifice for sinners – not argue about passing laws against them. For we are to know that, whatever sin we see in others, our sin is much worse (Matthew 7:1-3)”

Obviously there are many that refute what Pastor Boyd speaks about. However, isn’t the scripture clear on this that Jesus called his followers to be examples of their faith? If we live by the sword we die by the sword. If we live by love, we are keeping with the Greatest Commandment and it is through our love that world will know we are Christians.

Here is some video of Greg Boyd speaking on this a bit for the CNN series God’s Warrior’s:
[youtube]e22TOmFVswI[/youtube]