The idol of acceptance and popularity

Way too many Christians put popularity ahead of their obedience to Christ. This is absolutely evident in the number of youth who walk away from their faith when they no longer fit in a youth group. It is equally evident in the fact that youth groups are often, maybe even in my church, a place that youth feel more popular. I know this is often the goal of church leaders and parents. They hope that youth group is a place where the young Christians can find acceptance with their peers.

That doesn't seem too wrong. We want our children to be accepted by Christian peers rather than be lost in the wrong crowd. The problem is that when that is the goal of youth group, the real purpose of the church is lost. The only valid purpose of the church is to hold one another up as we glorify God and spread his light to the world.

Glorifying God is not popular.

I have a challenge that hit me this week. Name one person in the Bible that God told to become popular and through politics of the day quietly bit by bit, with great sensitivity to the will of others develop a popular and comfortable community that glorifies God.

I can't think of one. The closest I can come up with is Esther. Her challenge from Mordecia was to gain political power to save the people of Israel. While this could be seen as a move to become political for a godly goal, the fact is that Esther didn't do what was popular. She stuck her neck out in great risk of becoming unpopular with the king. The fact that it worked was a blessing from God because of her obedience.

Of course in 1 Kings 12, the elders of Israel advised Rehoboam to lighten the tax load on the people after Solomon's expensive reign. One might interpret this as a step to make him more popular, but you'll see as that text progresses that the issue of seeking popularity is the downfall of Rehoboam. He was seeking to be popular among his peers. The elder's goal was less about popularity and more about wisdom of the moment.

As a follower of Christ and leader in a church, my goal cannot be about popularity. My goal is about obedience. Both my personal obedience to Christ and teaching others to be obedient. Church growth should be a natural outcome as more people obey Christ, but I cannot confuse the idol of acceptance with obedience in faith.

Leadership and Marketing: Are they the same?

Interact with me on this thought…

Marketers give people what they want. Leaders give people what they need. 

 I wonder if marketing is often confused for leading in a consumer-driven, populous society. In a couple days, I'll be attending the Willow Creek leadership Summit. I don't like this event but I go because my leadership team supports it and because I want to help them to interact with the different concepts that are shared their. I don't like it, because, in the end, I don't feel that the Summit trains leaders but marketers.

One speaker at this summit is a marketer named Seth Godin. I'm enjoy reading Seth Godin's books and his blog. I feel that Seth has a lot of excellent thoughts that should be considered by church leaders. However, recently, I haven't been so enthralled about what he has to say. My concern is that I have been drawn into the church leader as church marketer mentality. Godin constantly talks about getting people what they want.

What people want is often not what's good for them. I want a Rita's water ice right now. One was custard in it. But I don't need it. In fact it would be bad for me in the sense that I'm already overweight and I don't need the extra calories.

In many ways, the contemporary church is overweight. It's over program and most of these programs focus on giving people what they want, not good discipleship. Granted, the church, as a fully volunteer organization, must rely on people wanting to be a part of the organization. But maybe that's the problem right there; too many people are attracted to an organization before they are attracted to faith in Jesus Christ.

So am I right on this one? Is the job of a leader to give people what they want? Where is the job of the leader to give people what they need? Maybe it's a combination of both? What they want leads into what they need. But then I wonder, how do leaders know how to make turn from what they want to what they need so that the people are willing to move away from just the thing that they want. Is there any value in giving me a Rita's water ice but telling me what I really need is a well-balanced diet?

Is the Christian Religion a Myth. Review of Greg Boyd's book

Greg Boyd isn't the kind of pastor who says the things you'd expect pastors to say. No, he calls them as he sees them and The Myth of a Christian Religion: Loosing Your Religion maintains his MO. Of course, if you pick this book up knowing the title and didn't figure that this would be a different look at our faith, you didn't read the title.

Boyd's thesis is that Jesus didn't come to start a religion, but he came to start a revolutions. (Again, plain in the title.) A religion is too institutional, too people centered for what Jesus came to do. He didn't come to create more ritual. He came to be counter-cultural.

The revolution is against so many bad habits that people fall into. Interestingly, they are the same bad habits that many/most American Christians have: Idolatry of stuff; Judgmentalism; Individualism; Gaining power through military action. He adds issues like sex and secularism. By secularism, in contrast to so many Christians, he isn't attacking the secular world for being secular. Rather he is frustrated with Christians who live dualistic lives of sacred and secular.

Boyd's voice is important for the American Church to hear. We need more people pointing the misconceived values that have become standard in our churches and personal practices. He makes some bold statements. Bold statements will make some people uncomfortable, and he's certainly not perfect in his analysis, but this discomfort may be the Spirit prompting the reader to reconsider things that we often take as true without recent contemplation.

Review of The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani

The Divine Commodity by Leadership Journal editor Skye Jethani (Zondervan: 2009) is a green vegetable book, not a dessert book. It doesn't taste good, but it is good for you. You won't be happy that you read it, but you'll be better off. Skye Jethani will challenge your comfortable way of doing church. He will push you to consider your faith more than your religious out workings. He destroyed any chance I had of enjoying Christmas like in the feel-good way it has always been.  Jethani does all this using a wonderful comparison of the church and van Gogh paintings. It's a creative, well-written book, and as such a easy book to read. It's not an easy book to consume.

Should we celebrate Advent (or Christmas)

Note: I originally posted this as a response to a blog by Mark Roberts. He wrote on the question Is Advent Biblical? I would suggest that you read his post. He writes very well. I decided to re-post my response on my blog because I think it explains well why I'm not all keen on this season, Advent as well as Christmas.

Whether Advent is biblical, is not my concern. Certainly, it is based in the very biblical goals that you ask us to consider. All things, including Advent, and for that matter Christmas, are permissible.

However, I wonder how beneficial it is for the church to celebrate this season. I include Christmas as we currently celebrate it, particularly by demanding that the money takers take our money in the most religious was.

This whole season is a distraction. I don't know of a single family in my church that will spend more time focused on the elements of Advent that you talk about as good, instead use the Advent season to focus on material things. Celebrating Advent as a church encourages Open Season for materialism.

I say this as one who as a pastor to children. There is almost no way to spend Advent focused on Jesus. Advent, by its nature, focuses on the minor things of the scriptures, not the coming of the Savior. Sure Jesus is the consistent thread of the Advent season, but he because a minor player as we spend the month focus on Mary and donkeys, Joseph, Wise Men and Angels. Camels usually take a bigger role that Jesus. Even Jesus is caricature during this season. We talk a lot about a baby, but our link to the Jesus that died for our sins is usually lost in making Jesus God's gift to us. It is true that Jesus is a gift to us, but the way it plays out in the way we do Advent and Christmas is that Jesus is just another gift like the many we will rush out to buy after our worship service.

Sure Advent is permissible. There are many noble reasons for celebrating the season. Unfortunately, Advent and Christmas are not beneficial. Sure, you can name the half dozen people you know that turned to Christ in this season, but consider how many turn away from him and turn toward minor issues of faith or toward worldly matters.

Are you making your kids want to live with you forever?

It may be that your lifestyle is stunting the maturity of your children in such a way that they won't have the drive to move out of your home. A recent article in Psychology Today says that the trend for children to live with their parents later is attributable to our affluent lifestyle. Stephen Mason writes

It means that the tide of hormones that hits pubescent kids, the tide that causes them to want to fly from the nest provided by their parents, has been greatly attenuated by the economics of America in the 21st Century. The rights of passage and the periods of apprenticeship that have always been a part of the teen years and of growing up, have been largely replaced by an additional decade of utter dependence.

Beware the great danger of the suburbs

Did you notice the great danger in your suburban neighborhood?  Dave Gibbon has.  I've been concerned for some time about this danger.

The suburban enclaves with their middle class citizens and well- manicured lawns, gates, and guards protecting our Orwellian lifestyle and toys, Starbucks a few minutes apart from each busy intersection, and boasting some of the best schools in the country may actually be the most dangerous locations to live. Okay, we may not have the high murder counts or robberies, but I wonder if the suburbs have become breeding grounds for the accessible and shallow thrills of drugs and alcohol abuse, extravagant parties and proms, and mere facades of happiness and the American Dream. Just ask your local city drug dealer about his primary consumers. . . suburban teenagers and college students.

Okay, I’m not a researcher, but my gut impression from my travels and intersection with youth in the major cities of the world as well as the suburbs and rural communities is that they are all equally dangerous but just in different ways.

The dangers of the suburbs entail the lack of imagination (where do you find real art museums, innovative music venues and creative opportunities to explore nature. Sure there are exceptions but it’s not the norm); materialism; greed; isolation behind cookie-cutter neighborhoods and homogeneous clubs and churches; boredom: apathy; the fascination with the relevant more than the real; a love affair with popularity more than loving the poor; and a thirst for excitement superficially satisfied in the Friday night party. This takes precedence over a dangerous ride with God on the frontlines of His movement.

Nostalgia: grapes and baseball

I had one of those nostalgic moments this morning while looking in the fridge. I saw grapes. They were kind of old, squishing and small. I like grapes, but I like them only when they are plump and juicy.

When I saw the grapes my mind drifted back to a summer's day while I was in seminary. I loved the experience of living on campus. I guess I'm just a social kind of guy. The particular day that I'm think about, we had some wonderful grapes that I was eating out in the campus court yard. A fellow student came by eating another kind of grape. Mine were large with purple skins and white fruit. His looked like mine on the outsides, but the insides were midnight black. I don't know if I ever found grapes like those again.

I think this moment popped into my head because as I checked my Facebook this morning another seminary friend had posted something about missing Cubs games. He lives in New Zealand. Apparently, it's hard to watch baseball down there. I imagine so. I had just watched the Phillies whoop up on Cubs last night. Go Phillies! I've never been to a Cubs game and never really been to Chicago. He did his undergrad studies there.

I'd never been to a Cubs game, but just watching a Cubs game in that beautiful stadium called Wrigley Field can make a man nostalgic. What a sport! What a stadium!

Nostalgia is a good thing.  It helps us to reflect. It helps us to feel better about who we are. It's a good thing, but it has its limitations. You can't go back. Nostalgia isn't a reason to make major decisions. It will trick your mind. Those grapes were good, but I know those days are gone. I'm sure that Wrigley is a great place to spend the afternoon, but it just that and offers little more to life.

I skipped the grapes this morning. Just didn't think they'd stack up against my memory. I also suggest to my friend watching mlb online. It would cost a few pennies, but a lot less than a trip form Cambridge to Chicago. The Cubs are blowing it again anyhow.

Come to think of it. The Cubs blowing the season is in fact nostalgia.

I do miss those days though. I miss those guys.

Growth of a moment

I was reading Seth Godin's blog this morning.  He's talking about the growth of a movement. Guy #3 is his post title. This video demonstrates the Guy #3 principle.



I'm usually the dork at the beginning or one who runs in later.  I need more Guy #3 in my life.

Just call me....?

I was thinking about my name the other day.  Steve Johnson.  It's a great name.  Almost nobody misspells it.  There are a few who get confused.  "Is Steve spelled with a 'V' or a 'PH'?"  "Johnson is that with an 'O', an 'E', or an 'I'?"  (Yes there have been a few in my life who would think my last name was "Johnsin".

My name is a good name.  I know hundreds of thousands of moms and dads have agreed with that in the past 50 years.  They gave it to there children.

Skye Jathani had an interesting blog today about weird names. He says that with the election of Barak Obama weird names are suddenly in style.  That's what got me to reflecting back to the day I was thinking about my name.  Not only is "Steve Johnson" not weird, there are times that I think my identity is lost in my name.

Try it, Google your name (chances are you've done that before). When I good "Steve Johnson" including the quotes, Google returns over 800,000 hits.  I gave up really quickly any idea of digging down to see how many of those actually refer to me, but I'll venture to say it is very few.

Google "Skye Jathani" and you'll find about 8000 hits, 3 pages in, all relate to the same guy.

So, my idea was that maybe I should change my name.  I already have for my blog using my childhood nickname "Deets".  Maybe I should start using that more often.  It kind of has a cool differentness to it, don't you think?

Then I started thinking, my name doesn't really give me any identity as far as my heritage goes.  Johnson can be Swedish, English, Scottish or Icelandic.  I asked my dad which it was once.  He said one day he as his grandmother what grandpa Johnson was.  Her response..."He was a skunk."  That's not really helpful in giving me a positive cultural identity.

I don't know much of my heritage, but I do know that my maternal grandfather immigrated from the Basque Country of Spain.  The Basque culture is really unique.  Of course, Grandpa Bruner, as I learned to call him, had change his name to something more common in his youth.  I guess he didn't want to stand out with the name Ascargorta.

So here was my thought, I could use Deets as my name, but I could inject it with a bit of Basque heritage.  In the Basque language (which is very different than Spanish), there is a common use of "tx" in spelling certain words.  You know how sometimes and 'x' can sound like a 'z'.  Deetx would be a really unique name and spelling.  Don't you think?  Of course, as much as I understand the Basque language, that would be pronounced deech.  And deech isn't really Basque at all.

Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying, I could change my name, but I'm still the same me.  God knows me as a unique person...my common name can't hide that.  In Christ, my name has already been changed, from Steve Johnson to Steve Johnson God's Son.  That is my heritage.  It may be common, or it may be weird, but it is me.

Culture and Faith in the Twitter world

I just did a Twitter Search on the words "culture" and "faith".  Interesting results. I think you can see Andy Crouch's postures come out so clearly.  Here are a few of the Tweets and, in green, my thoughts on which Posture is represented.  You can hear about these in Andy's talk at Grace Point on March 15.

4hardy: starbucks northpark...absorbing culture sharing faith   Consume


jrminkel: "in the U.S. the default for culture is a blind faith in science, rather than a war on science."  Condemn



AndyGroenink: @jasonmitchener 6 page assignment on case study of reaching another culture, I picked the Muslim faith  Critic 



heathr: And yes Tom u can be Jewish and gay. Maybe not the Jewish your parents get, but your faith is yours + yr culture is big enough for u!   Consume



cjcasciotta: was interviewed by MTV about faith and American Idol. I hope I got the point across that the church should create culture, not copy it    Create



sumapriapus: Watchmen: This is why conservatives have a tough problem today. The pop culture undermines faith, family and freedom.    Condemn/Critic



brandonrae: [ HIP-HOP ] [ PANACEA ] [ STARLITE ] [ Enjoy, and have faith in theculture that I love ] ♫ http://blip.fm/~2v9zv   Consume



I didn't see copy there although on person talked about how Christians should not copy culture.  The rest were all there.  I'd love to hear your analysis of these tweets.  Maybe you could search again and see if they all still show up.

Andy Crouch coming to Grace Point in 10 days

Andy Crouch, award winning author of Culture Making , is coming to Grace Point on March 15 at 6pm.  For more information and to register for this free discussion on Making Culture Makers visit the event page.

Grace Point is located at 592 Washington Crossing Road, Newtown, PA 18940.

What I'm working on

Here is a graphical representation of the creative thing I'm working on during the winter months.



Keep checking back. There is more about this coming.

Hibernation and X Games

It's the middle of Winter now, January 26, a week before Punxsutawney Phil annually informs us that winter will go on, and so often for 6 more week.  The holidays have passed and all the joy of those things has become irrelevant.

It seems I have two options at this time.  Succumb to the strong call to retreat into my home and hibernate.  The television seasons are all gearing up to help me with that options.  I caught Lost last week and can't wait for next Wednesday.

However, while scanning the TV channels this week, I noticed that the annual Winter Games are on.  Snow
boarders and skiers doing ridiculous tricks for points, but even when the loose by falling on their heads they get up pumped because of the adrenaline rush they produced.

I realize that this winter season gives me two options.  Hibernate and do little of anything or seek incredible weather related thrills by becoming an audacious snowboarder.

Since the snow stinks in my area and my knees don't work as they should, maybe I need to find other ways to seek my thrills so I'm going to use this Winter to start something new.  I'm going to try to do something and gather people together in a way that I've never seen before.  I'm going to be creative in doing so.  And I just might dream up the details to this new, exciting thing while watching the X Games in my PJs.

New Year Predictions 2009

Happy New Year to all.  I pray that you will find 2009 fulfilling.

I thought I'd make my predictions for the coming year.  Some are more obvious than others.  I don't think I get too ostentatious. 

• The economy will go up and it will go down, especially as we measure it according to the sock market.  In the end there will be a push to find another economic barometer because the stock market will be seen as too artificial.  
• We'll have a new president; he'll be a minority, the first ever in the White House; Conservative Christian leaders will not be happy with him, but many other Christian leaders will consider his first months in a positive light.
  
• The Obamas will get a dog as they move into the White House.  It will be a mutt (sort of). 
• The Eagles will not win the Super Bowl.  Some fans will continue to call for Reid's head.  Others will call for a change of quarterback.  Neither will happen before the 2009 season.
• Phillies fans will boo at least one of the World Series heroes before the end of the first home game.  The Phillies will not repeat as World Series champs.
  
• There will not be a civil war that fragments the US, but some tensions will rise.
• Microsoft will not have a Y2K10 issue, but they will make news sometime in the year for a major attack on their operating system.
• Gas prices will go back up this summer but not to the $4 mark of last summer.
• In Iraq, the US withdraw will be behind schedule at the end of 2009.  The Military will point to an escalation of insurgents uprisings as the reason.
• It will be cold in the winter and hot in the summer and everyone will claim climate is the cause for it seeming hotter than it used to be or colder than it used to be.  At least one hurricane will strike the US and people will again focus on how much climate change has increased the chance of the event happening.
• Captain Phil will return the the Cornela Marie.  His sons will rip him off, he'll get angry and say bleeeeep a lot, then in the end he'll tell them he's so proud of their progress on the boat.
• Jack will get the gang back together to search for the Island, but they won't find it this season.  Or they will find it, but they won't find their friends on the Island.
• I'll continue to love my wife and she'll continue to be a better writer than me.  My girls will continue to amaze me.  We'll continue to wish we had more money, but, in reality, will be happy we don't have everything we want.
  

Why do Americans need smaller homes?

Maybe the environment would benefit.  Maybe it would help the country to develop a better economic stability if we built more smaller homes.  But those aren't the reasons I'd suggest the country needs to downsize.

I've found that the more time my family spends in the same room, the better balance we have. If I have a big home, my kids are in their space, I'm in the yard working and my wife is doing her stuff to up-keep the home in her space.  The little amount of time that we all actually spend at home is not spent together.  

In a smaller home, my family spends a lot of time together.  That time is time that we are building our relationships.  That's time that we are learning to love each other.

I'm hopeful that the economic downturn will have some benefits for the family.  Smaller homes can lead to better family relationships.

How does your family use the space in your home?