A Peculiar Kind of Sadness

It’s been a sad day for me.  As I struggle to finalize the sermon I’ll deliver to Village Community Church this week my mind continues to be captured by recent events.  Over the past ten days we’ve seen a racist gunman sit through an hour of bible study and then murder the people that had welcomed him into the study.  In the city I live we saw a police officer shot in the street by a 21 year old that wanted to commit suicide by cop.  These two incidents weigh heavily on my heart imagining the loss the families are suffering tonight.  Like all violence, it’s senseless and I struggle to not become desensitized to what seems to be normal reports of human hatred. 

Growing up I remember preachers using current events like these to remind us that “time was winding up” and that God’s judgment was “nigh”.  The implication was that human sin had reached its pinnacle and a line had been crossed.  Unfortunately, that line of morality seems to be continually moving and humans continue to step over it.  The truth is, this is not new.  Throughout history man has shown himself capable of horrific atrocities, all deserving of God’s final judgment.   Don’t get me wrong, things are bad.  We live in culture that has devalued life while at the same time making individual needs the center of the universe.   We’ve rewritten centuries of orthodoxy in favor of relevant truths that tickle our ears and satisfy personal opinion.  We’re smarter than ever and further from the truth.   

This leads me to the other source of my sadness.  Just yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a landmark decision that redefines marriage in our society.  The court, and public opinion, has ruled saying that this is an issue of equal rights.  If fairness and equality are our driving values then the court may have the standing to do what it has done.  If the rights of individuals supersede the created order then the court has acted properly.  If however, you possess a different view of God’s plan, one based on the scriptures, this is a decision that opposes our belief system.  A belief system that has now taken a back seat to a belief that individual choice trumps everything.  I’m offended by this decision and hold disagreement but not at all surprised.  This is the predictable progression of a culture set on centering all truth on individual rights.  It’s unfortunate but inevitable.  This makes me sad but it isn’t all that makes me sad.

What also makes me sad as I write is the response from Christians to this decision.   It’s not that I don’t understand the frustration and hold a similar view of scripture but I’m taken back by the vitriol and fear that this has caused.   It seems we’ve forgotten that the same scriptures that define marriage also define our response to a culture hostile to our belief system.   We seem to be concerned that God is perplexed by this court decision and wonder if He’s really in control.  We respond to His lack of movement on the issue with our own attempts to set the record straight using catchy phrases, snippets of scripture and social media campaigns.  Thank God he has us to straighten this whole mess out for Him. 

I can hear my critics now.  “Kevin we can’t just stand by and…”, “It’s our right to speak up…”, “The next thing you know they’ll be taking away the tax deductibility of our offerings.”  Don’t get me wrong, I believe we do have to stand for something.  I do believe we should speak up.  I appreciate the deduction from Uncle Sam but it's not why I give.   What I also believe is that we should stand up for is the true religion (worship) that the Apostle James asks of us when he said:

 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:26-27 NIV)

James was speaking to fellow Jews that had been displaced from their homeland, presumably because of their new found Christian belief.  In other words, their belief system cost them their Jewish rights and for this they were being persecuted.  James warns them that “friendship with the world is hatred toward God”  (4:4) so while he underlines our need to live by God’s standard he also defines true worship as watching our words, helping the helpless and not being negatively influenced by culture.  This prohibition against cultural influence is certainly moral but it’s also political.  Remember these are Christians that had given up their partisan and cultural standings as Jews to follow this new thing called “The Way”.  This “Way” also costs me.  It asks me to stand in opposition to cultural norms, not with strong words, but with quiet kindness.  Trusting that God is in control and that He’ll reconcile all things.  I’m involved but it is still His plan.  And while I’m short on ideas on how to make “those” people see things my way, I’ll continue to love them through my personal views that are sometimes obstructed by the log in my own eye.   I believe I'll preach on love this week.  

Generational Change

Generational Change

In business and technology we use the term Disruptive Innovation to describe a product or innovation that replaces or improves a previous market or technology.  It happens so quickly and often in today’s world that many are taken for granite but still measurable.  Some more obvious examples would be how mobile phones disrupted the communication marketplace or how the internet disrupted our shopping habits.   Sometimes these disruptions come in the form of people, Steve Jobs disrupted our perception of how people interface with technology and Ray Kroc disrupted America’s dining.  The examples are endless but they all have one thing in common, change.  These innovations and innovators bring new products, perceptions and ideas so powerful that the old way is permanently changed. 

We know that change happens in varied degrees, but the longer the old habit or reality has been in place the more forceful the disruption needs to be.  Disrupters have to be powerful because old technologies, old ideas, old habits, old dysfunctions die hard.  We see this resistance to change in the lives of people too.  The “normal” we know typically becomes the de facto-normal of our future.   Of course, this could be a good thing if we’ve experienced a healthy “normal”.  We know that parents that eat healthy raise children with healthier eating habits, parents that go to college have kids that are more likely to go to college and parents that save money have children that are more likely to save.  Unfortunately, not all “normal” is good.  Research tells us that children that grow up in homes with addiction are 2-4 times more likely to have an addiction, adult children of divorce are more likely to divorce and 70% of children with an incarcerated parent will at some point serve prison time.  Setting aside the debate on causation versus correlation, we can agree that the children are more likely to repeat patterns and habits of their custodial parents.  It’s a grim reality that needs disruption. 

Joshua’s Place exists to help break the cycles that cause instability.  In our work we see instability come in many forms and many are passed from one generation to another.  Not all struggles are generational but when they are it takes even greater disruption to change the future.  As a faith based organization, focused on the eternal, we’re not satisfied with short term solutions but rather bringing truth that has lasting impact both in this life and eternally.  Our model is to “Give a fish, teach to fish and fish alongside”.  We call it prepositional ministry, ministry done “with” not “to” or “for”.   We anchor ourselves in the scriptures that show us the power of generational change and how God moves in families to change futures.  These ancient truths tell us the stories of change but also equip us with the truths needed to bring change to individuals, families and the community we serve. 

In our eight years of work we’ve seen the impact of Generational Disrupters.  People that walked in our doors struggling with chaos, addiction, broken relationships and spiritual emptiness.  These same people, through the power of God’s truth, his indwelling Spirit and healthy relationships, have gone on to forever change the trajectory of their family.  These are the folks brave enough to think differently, trust bigger and change course for themselves and their children. 

To help these disrupters we offer development courses on parenting, financial literacy and self-discovery.  We have a community of grateful believers in Celebrate Recovery that are committed to overcoming the hurts, hang ups and habits in life that create bondage.  We work with children to improve reading literacy and offer extended camps focused on healthy views of self, God, other and our community.  It’s not a menu of programs it’s a strategy of change.  Change built on the truths of scriptures and implemented by 250 volunteers and the, more than 500, families we support.  Some have called this approach innovative, a break from the tired systems of entitlement and self-victimization that’s now several generations deep in our culture.  We don’t believe it’s innovative, it’s a timeless approach with contemporary application. We do believe it requires the innovation, commitment and courage of Generational Disrupters that will stand in the gap for their family’s future.   It is these disrupters that we seek and support, knowing that changed individuals change families that change communities.