Innie or Outie? The Externally-Focused Church

Are you an "innie" or an "outie?"  I'm not talking about your navel, though it is sort of related.  Instead, I am referring to a life-or-death "posture of the heart" for churches and church people.  When it comes to matters of faith, is your heart "internally-focused?"  Or "externally-focused?" 

Warning: Bible Reading Can Be Dangerous To Political Stereotypes

Nearly everyone I know has a Bible, in fact, usually several Bibles.  I also know a lot of people who believe that the Bible tells us what we need to know about God and life.  I know some people who even have pretty firm convictions about God and life with Bible verses to back them up.  But the number of people I know who actually read the Bible in a systematic way - reading regularly, reading full passages rather than just favorite verses, and reading to let God "speak" to their life in what they read - is actually fairly small.

No need to point the finger here.  Just look at how much of the Bible you have read without commentary in the past three days.

A recent article in Christianity Today, based on research by Baylor University and  LifeWay Research identified some unexpected outcomes on beliefs and behaviors for people who read the Bible regularly.  It's worth reading and pondering the entire article - Click Here To Do That - but here are some highlight statements I have gleaned from the larger article.

Women in Ministry: Redefining the Disagreements

I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated of late with the way conversations about the role of women in ministry seem to play out.  I often find myself closer to some of the people I disagree with than with some of the people I supposedly agree with.  What’s going on here?!?

A Changing Landscape for Ministry

"Few things are as constant as change," they say.  Many have observed that the pace of the changes we face is increasing as well,  As a result, we do well to identify some of the changes going on around us, and consider their impact on ministry in our time and place.

From my observation, time is becoming the increasingly scarce resource in people's lives.  Here are two statements that really brought this into focus in my thinking:

Learning to Disagree Graciously

I'm certain we have all faced the wide, even contradictory, variety of convictions regarding foundational Christian truth that operate across the Church Universal.  With this diversity, is there any hope that the church can avoid becoming as partisan and bogged down as Congress?  How is it that that believers of differing convictions can live with one another and those differences?  Does it all really depend on winning the argument?  As if "once everyone agrees with me we can get along."

In sorting through these issues in my own ministry, I have concluded that it is one thing to study theology and Christian truth, but another thing entirely to interact with others about that truth.  One is theoretical and removed from relationship – the pure contemplation and pursuit of Truth.  The other is pursuing Truth in relationship with another person and their experiences.  It is an important and helpful distinction for me.

Unprepared to Meet the Real God

There is a vague childhood memory floating around in my head of a sign along the highway near my home outside Charlotte, NC that ominously declared: "Prepare To Meet Thy God."  It could bring on a vague sense of unease and judgement just riding past it.  I could picture an invisible god just behind it, angrily looking down his long nose with a frown and a face that said, "Now you are REALLY in trouble."  I would pedal on as hard as I could to get past it without getting struck by a lightening bolt.

Looking back, I realize that I wasn't sure what I was in trouble for with this god, but I clearly got the message that between who he was and who I was, there was nothing but disappointment and punishment.  I couldn't tell you why I was condemned, but I was certain somehow that I was, even if it seemed a bit unfair.

The God Who Contradicts Me

 There has been a lot of research lately on the "state of faith and religion in the United States."  I stumbled across a good summary of it in USA Today this week, and recommend it to you.  It's called "More Americans Tailor Their Religion To Fit Their Needs," and clearly describes - with reference to some research - what I have observed in ministry.  Click Here to read the USA Today article and get the full context for my post.

The article speaks of "America's drift from clearly defined religious denominations to faiths cut to fit personal preferences."  Notice the plural there: "faiths."