Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Excuse Me, PLEASE!


I recently read, Mirror To The Church by Emmanuel Katongole. It was a page turner for me. I finished it in one week. It is the story of the genocide
that took place in Rwanda in 1994, when the Hutus were told to kill their Tustsi neighbors. The slaughter that lasted for 100 days began on April 7th, the Thursday of Easter week. In that timeframe, some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed throughout Rwanda.

In 1994 I was 37 years old. How could I forget about almost one million people being slaughtered? Do you recall this tragic event?

The author recommends that the reader watch the movie Hotel Rwanda to get the visual impact of what happened, which I did check out from the local library.

The movie sickened my stomach and saddened my heart. We should keep in mind that in the midst of the genocide, an international hotel (Hotel des Mille Collines, the Hotel Rwanda) offered more good news than the nearest church. The author's hope, is that Rwanda can be a mirror to the church in the west. As we (the church) look in a mirror to see what we look like, Rwanda can help us see ourselves more clearly.

Emmanuel introduces the reader to three different types of postures that do not work in Christianity. The “Pious Posture,” The “Political Posture,” and The “Pastoral Posture.” He alludes to the fact that the “Prophetic Posture” is the only one that can save our world.

Mary is an example of this posture in Matthew 26:6-7. Mary dares to bring into question the social, economic, and political assumptions of her day in a single act. She is crazy enough to interrupt. Are we?
Mary represents the “rebel consciousness” that is essential to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Wherever the gospel is preached, it must cause its hearers to be insane!
It has to force us to question the social norms.
Jesus’ teaching puts us at odds with the economic and political systems of our day. The good news will force us to act, interrupting the world that makes pious people indignant. Emmanuel states, “The rebel consciousness of a prophetic posture teaches us to rethink not only our mind-set and our approach, but also our timing.”

The Rwandan genocide exposes for the global church, that "Christian expression throughout the world has too easily allowed the blood of tribalism to flow deeper than the waters of baptism.”
You may be thinking, "What do you mean? We are not into tribalism in the United States. Don’t accuse us of that. We are a sophisticated and sufficient country." I won’t define the word tribe for you, but you may look it up and see if we, (white Anglo-Americans, or for that matter any people group in the United States) fit into that category.

How do we overcome acedia so this type of tragedy never happens again? The church is called to be a hopeful interruption to the death-bound reality of a broken world. We are the church. We are the people. So let’s make it a brighter day and just start being JESUS! And what about the timing of this? The prophetic posture always trusts that the time to worship Jesus and acknowledge him as our King is now. As George Allen (the long ago head coach of the Washington Redskins) used to say, “The Future Is Now.”

Friday, July 3, 2009

"'Restoration Movement,' what's that?"

I am starting this month’s blog as I sit at a Starbucks between sessions across the street from the Kentucky Convention Center in Louisville as the North American Christian Convention (NACC) is in its second day of activity. The NACC is the only event that brings Restoration Movement Christian Churches together once a year at the national level.

The "Restoration Movement?" I am starting to wonder if many attending churches borne of the restoration movement even know what the term "restoration movement" refers to.

I was speaking at a church awhile back in a Sunday School class of about 20 people. I was explaining to them our mission of planting Restoration Churches. Half the class stared at me like a deer caught in the headlights. I started to explain briefly what this meant, as even one of the church's associate staff looked on, wondering.

At a church we recently spoke at, I picked up a brochure that had this slogan on it -- “Where the Bible speaks, we speak. Where the Bible is silent, we are silent." This is a slogan the Restoration Movement used (and some still use), yet half the people in the church had no idea what the Restoration Movement is about.

I received a resume awhile back that had the following slogans written down, “I believe that we are not the only Christians, but Christians only,” and “I believe that we should have unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and love in all things” -- more quotes the Restoration Movement has used over the years! I wondered whether this person understood, or was just using
sayings to catch my “Restoration Attention”? (Please excuse my skepticism.)

At Cincinnati Christian University & Seminary, I was fortunate enough to take a Restoration History class under the legendary Dr. James North. Myself being an ex-Catholic who had no idea of the Restoration Movement, this class was monumental in enlightening me!

Without some type of Restoration Movement teaching, do people attending our churches really know what they are getting involved with? The bigger question is, “Why aren’t we introducing them to the principle of restoring the original church?" I am not insisting that new people read Union In Truth by Dr. North, but maybe some preachers should. Are we embarrassed to teach people what God has led them to? If you attend an Assembly Of God Church, you will learn about “speaking in tongues” and the “gift of prophecy” and the Assemblys' roots in the early twentieth century pentecostal movement.

Covering some basic historical facts and informing people about what they are getting involved with can be enlightening. We do not want to create “Campbellites,” and are careful to keep things in their proper perspective -- if the traditions of the restoration movement outweigh the scripture, we then become something less than the restored church of Jesus.

While we acknowledge and accept that we need to follow Jesus Christ only, still, learning about the period of time when the Campbells and their peers were discovering Biblical principles that had been ignored for centuries can help Christians appreciate just what exactly it is they have become part of -- the Lord's church, restored as she was in the beginning!

A 101 class, a new believers class, or a new member class would be an ideal time to introduce new Christians to some "Restoration history." The restoration era is not when the Lord's church was founded, but it is when she came out of "the wilderness" -- resurfaced in history. It's a good thing for Christians to understand that.