“The Bible’s purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible’s purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome… religion is ‘if you obey, then you will be accepted’. But the Gospel is, ‘if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you’re accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey’. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference.”
        ~Tim Keller
 
 

That’s the message from Seth Godin in his book Tribes. But not in the sense of choosing to err, but rather the colloquial usage, acting like a leader and ’standing out’ from the rest. I just read a great blog post over at backyardmissionary.com about this. Some notable quotes from his post (which are from Tribes):

“Faith is critical to all innovation. Without faith its suicidal to be a leader, to act like a heretic. Religion on the other hand, represents a strict set of rules that our felow humans have laid on top of our faith. Religion supports the status quo and encourages us to fit in, not stand out.” p. 68

“Challenge religion and people wonder if you’re challenging their faith. Heretics challenge a given religion (he is using the word broadly to speak of systems and not specifically about ’spirituality’) but do it from a very strong foundation of faith”. In order to lead you must challenge the status quo of the religion you are living under” p. 70

I’d encourage you to check out backyardmissionary.com’s post. One last thought from Tribes:

When you fall in love with the system you lose the ability to grow” p.71

Apple launched an advertising campaign you may be familiar with called Mac vs. PC. I stumbled across a parody of these videos called “Christ Follower vs. Christian” that I thought was pretty entertaining. Don’t worry, this is not becoming a video log (vlog), I will still be writing more great content, but some things are best communicated visually, and I want to give everyone at least one more day to digest the “Great Tensions of our Faith” post. These videos are all relatively short, but thought-provoking. Please note I am not trying to bash using the term ‘Christian’ or advocate an ulterior movement, I just think this is hilarious and accurately reflects stereotypes that my generation holds of ‘Christians’ today. As you watch, ask yourself if they appear to be justified stereotypes or not. For more of my thoughts concerning the terms “Christ Follower” and “Christian,” see my post entitled Nonreligious Christian Spirituality.

For more of my thoughts concerning the terms “Christ Follower” and “Christian,” see my post entitled Nonreligious Christian Spirituality.

This phrase was made popular with Donald Miller’s famous book, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. The subtitle of this book created another term for Christians to use in order to make it clear that they are “spiritual, but not religious.” What can I say? I was sucked into using this terminology for a few years myself. Cliches abounded such as “It’s a relationship, not a religion”, and “I’m a Christ follower, don’t call me a Christian.” Many young adults in my generation chose to distinguish ourselves with these terms and phrases because a majority of the people who identify with Christianity in America aren’t Christians!

To demonstrate that point, let’s take a look at some statistics that George Barna came up with in past studies surveying Christians:

• 60% of all Christians believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of its teaching (which means that 40% don’t believe that it is accurate
• 40% of all Christians believe that after He was crucified and died, Jesus Christ did not return to life physically (isn’t this a major part of the Gospel?)
• Only 62% of Christians believe that they are certain that God wants us, personally, to help the poor (this means that 38% of Christians think that we are not personally responsible for the poor)
• 51% of Christians believe that if a person is generally good or does enough good things for other during his or her life, he or she will earn a place in heaven (what was the purpose of Jesus dying)?
• 57% believe that the devil, or Satan, is not a living being but a symbol of evil (If there is no evil, maybe good doesn’t exist too? Perhaps God may not exist if Satan doesn’t exist)… hmmm

Did you know that less than half of all born-again adults (44%) are convinced that there is absolute moral truth. Do you now realize that the flip side of this (56%) of all born-again adults believe that there is no absolute moral truth? What is the point in saying you are born-again then? Born-again into what?

Hmm, with statistics like these, we can clearly see that many people who claim to be Christians aren’t really disciples of Jesus Christ at all! (For some even more horrifying statistics see part 2 of my series on the book unChristian by David Kinnaman). It’s no wonder why many young adults who follow Jesus (including myself) don’t want to be associated with the term ‘Christian’!

The Rev. Linda Mercadante, a professor of theology at Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio decided to do some research recently to figure out why so many people choose to identify themselves as being “spiritual” but not “religious.” In an article about this in the Christian Post, it says:

After speaking to SBNRs (spiritual but not religious) across the country. . . Mercadante found that many of them are not in the church – or are not religious – because of “stereotypical arguments against organized religion and the claims of churches.”

“I don’t know where this script comes from – no one knows any real churches that fit this profile or stereotype,” she said. . . . Some of the stereotypes SBNRs listed include churches’ claim to “exclusive truthfulness – that they have a corner on the truth market;” churches demanding that personal beliefs be abdicated; churches demanding conformity to a “corporate mentality;” and churches professing arbitrary or implausible beliefs, among others.

According to Robert C. Fuller, author of the 2001 book Spiritual, but not Religious, it is likely that one in every five persons could describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. Fuller cited a study in which those who described themselves as SBNRs were less likely to evaluate religiousness positively, less likely to engage in traditional forms of worship such as church attendance and prayer, and more likely to characterize religiousness and spirituality as different and nonoverlapping concepts.

Spirituality, in that study, was associated with higher levels of interest in mysticism, experimentation with unorthodox beliefs and practices, and negative feelings toward both clergy and churches. Religiousness, meanwhile, was associated with higher levels of interest in church attendance and commitment to orthodox beliefs.

“Those who see themselves as ’spiritual, but not religious’ reject traditional organized religion as the sole-or even the most valuable-means of furthering their spiritual growth. Many have had negative experiences with churches or church leaders,” according to Fuller.

I find this study very interesting. I laughed when Mercadante said, “I don’t know where this script comes from – no one knows any real churches that fit this profile or stereotype”. I do. And I know many others who do as well.

Why is this? I think a lot of it has to do with the way we do church. Because of pagan influence, church now looks a lot more like a college lecture course than an organic gathering. One man gets up and preaches while the passive “laity” listens. People learn by doing, not by being talked at. George Barna and Frank Viola, in their book Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices, point out that,

Today’s sermon is often impractical. . . . The sermon fails to put the hearers into a direct, practical experience of what has been preached. Thus the typical sermon is a swimming lesson on dry land! It lacks any practical value. Much is preached, but little ever lands. Most of it is aimed at the frontal lobe. Contemporary pulpiteerism generally fails to get beyond disseminating information and on to equipping believers to experience and use that which they have heard. . . .

Let’s be honest. There are scores of Christians who have been sermonized for decades, and they are still babes in Christ. We Christians are not transformed simply by hearing sermons week after week. We are transformed by regular encounters with the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who minister, therefore, are called to preach Christ and not information about Him. . . . The church needs fewer pulpiteers and more spiritual facilitators.”

So are sermons the culprit? No, THE ENTIRE WAY WE DO CHURCH IS THE CULPRIT. Am I saying that all forms of institutional church today are evil? No. But I am saying that it is certainly not the most effective, nor the most biblical way to do church. Christianity 2.0 is all about the missing elements of community, collaboration, and social networking. It will no longer suffice to “preach at us,” we want to be involved! And biblically speaking, we’re supposed to be.

The pagan notion of there being a dichotomy between sacred and profane, or common, is largely to blame for the mentality that has crept into churches regarding ministry. And that will be the topic of the next post. For now, here’s a few things I want you to think about:

• Is it popular to be a Christian in America? Is the attractiveness to identify with Christianity rapidly disappearing?
• Do you think the way we do church in America is a hindrance to spiritual transformation? Is it working?
• Do you identify with any of the cliches listed in this post? Why or why not?