Food for thought… Are we as Christians merely ‘selecting’ the parts of the Bible or the Gospel we like and ignoring the others?
Can one truly live out the gospel completely, in its entirety?
Author: Rev. Evan Dolive
Transitions: Let the Journey Begin…
Change is never easy. The future is never as quite as clear as you would like it to be.
One of my seminary professors told me once “Remember you are always someone’s interim.” As a first year seminary student I remember hearing those words and thinking that once my time was over at a church it wouldnt be that bad. Boy was I naive…
Our time in Orange will soon be coming to an end. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we wait patiently on Gods next calling to ministry.
So yes, we will be searching for a new church, a new place to call home. We would ask for your prayers and thoughts as we trying to sell our house in this crazy housing market as well as listen for God’s call for the future.
Misconceptions About Christians: Part Four
Here is my fourth installment of my “Misconceptions About Christians” series for the Orange County Record.
If you missed the first three misconceptions read them now!
- Misconceptions About Christians: Part I
- Misconceptions About Christians: Part II
- Misconceptions About Christians: Part III
This is the fourth installment in the series “Misconceptions About Christians.” So far I have discussed three misconceptions: that being a Christian one must read the Bible literally, that being a Christian means you have to go to “church” and that TV minister/evangelist are representative of all Christianity. Today we tackle another misconception.
I was walking through a parking lot the other day and I saw a bumper sticker that made me stop to examine it more closely. It was a blue sticker with white words and a yellow Christian cross; it read “Christian Democrat.”
Misconception #4- Being a Christian means that you have to vote for Republican candidates and conservative ideals.
Generally I shy away from mixing politics and religion. It is of course the two things we are warned do not mix. We are taught this adage for good reasons, people are passionate about their faith just as they are passionate about their ideals about how the country should be run and organized. But somewhere along the way the two were interlinked and interconnected.
When did it become the norm that stating that you were a Christian meant in the same breath you were saying that you supported conservative ideals?
Christians for years have been reading the same Bible and yet due to their life experiences and personal understanding of God glean a completely different interpretation. Christians for the most part have never been unified on much of anything. Debates, often heated ones, are still raging today over women in ministry, homosexuality and contemporary music. Debates and differences are nothing new to the church and the Bible has been at the center of most of them. For the most part, the Bible has been used for and against war, used for and against slavery, used for and against accepting homosexuality and the list goes on and on– the same book at the center of all it.
Christians are free to express their understanding of God and Jesus Christ in the world in a variety of ways. Some take to the streets and feed the homeless and needy, some fix up homes for those who are unable to do so, some go door to door inviting neighbors and strangers to church. It is the same when it comes to government as well. Some Christians believe that government should be as giving and caring as Christ was, some believe that charity should be the work of the church; herein lies the problem.
Most Christians would not object to some people living out the gospel by feeding homeless people, but once you start making statements about politics, then all bets are off.
Why do Christians who agree with the philosophies of other political parties than the GOP have to resort to bumper stickers to show that they are different? Does the fact that some punched their ballot for a person with an “R” or a “D” by their name really matter? How is this any different than having a different interpretation of the Bible? For some people being a Republican or Democrat and Christian is fine, but there are some who believe that the Bible commands all of Christianity to come under the banner of the conservative movement. This is not what Christ came to this earth to do. Christ did not come to start a political party or even support one; yes, Jesus was political in his time, but he did not ever want to be President of the United States of America.
With all of this said, this does not mean that our faith does not inform our political assertions.
If Christians are supposed to be about sharing the love of Christ in the world today, why bring politics into the matter? Should politics be in the church house? Maybe… but then again maybe not. Does it matter if someone votes for a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Green Party member and still calls themselves a Christian? No, it does not. The church has bigger problems to worry about than whether or not a particular party’s candidate is in office come November.
Milestone: 1000
I know it’s not much but its something to celebrate in my book.
On May 5, 2012 this blog received its 1000th hit!
I launched this blog on February 28, 2012 so after 67 days I broke the 1000 hits mark. That is average of 15 per day!
I just wanted to take some time and say THANK YOU SO MUCH! Thank you for reading, thank you for sharing!
HERE’S TO NEXT 1000!
(“Fireworks” available under the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0 at http://www.flickr.com/photos/malfet/4881325010/)
“What Does Your Church Believe?”: The Beginning of a Series
I wrote this for my church’s newsletter and I thought I would share it on here as well. I will be posting this series as they come out. How do you respond to people when they ask you “what does your church believe?”
Enjoy!
As a minister I am often asked “what does your church believe”? I try to explain to them that within the walls of our church (and more than likely theirs as well) we can have a wide range of beliefs on most issues. Generally this is a bit puzzling for them. The follow up question is usually “doesn’t that cause problems within the church?” I usually smile and say “all the time, but that’s OK with me.” I truly believe what I said. Conversations about our faith and the questions that arise are vitally important. People today are seeking answers to life’s biggest questions. For many years people turned to the church to help ‘sort out’ their inquires but sometimes the answers they received were not good enough. Today, for the most part, people do not want to be told want to think or what to believe. They want to experience it for themselves and have a place to discern and evaluate their experiences. This is where the church comes in. The church needs to be a place of openness, a place where the questions are asked and the discussions are held.
As members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we pride ourselves on being open and accepting of other belief systems and interpretations. We want to have discussions about faith and practical matters. That is why our founders believed in the motto “No creed but Christ.” We are called to live out our faith in a way that is in accord to teachings of Jesus Christ. If we are able to believe and affirm that Jesus Christ is the son of the Living God and offers saving grace to all of God’s children, everything else is just secondary.
I have heard it said that Disciples of Christ churches are the ‘best kept secret’ or ‘if people just knew what we stood for, they wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.’ Well for the next five weeks I am going to be discussing the some of the theological beliefs and practices associated with the Disciples. This will be by no means an exhaustive account but it should give you a good foundation to build from.
We are never too old to learn, grow, change, think, rethink and think again about the issues of faith. Our faith is never stagnate. I hope that this series will be one that is informative as well as challenging.
In Christ,
Rev. Evan
And You Wonder Why People Aren’t Christians….
I’ve said many times before that I believe that some people who were Christians and left the faith or those who reject Christianity altogether do so not because of any objection to the teachings of Jesus Christ. They object to the actions of Christians themselves.
This is just another example of how one stupid act can make all Christians look bad.
I give you once again, Dr. Terry Jones, Minister of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainsville, Florida. You may remember him as the person who wanted to burn the Koran (the holy text of Islam) on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11th; he dubbed it “International Burn the Koran Day.” This event (which was eventually cancelled) made national headlines. The President, The Pope and countless others followers of Christ rejected the burning and rightfully so. It was pointless and hate filled.
Dr. Jones and his band of 50 or so followers have a hatred for the religion of Islam. They have even gone so far as to proclaim that Islam is of the devil and that it has a 1400 year history of rape and slavery. Jones even went to far in 2010 to put the Koran “on trail” where he was the judge and jury and lo and behold he found the Koran guilty.
Now Jones has upped the ante just a little bit more, he actually followed through with burning the Koran AND a picture of Mohammed. Read more about it here. In a video posted on YouTube Jones and others speak of the ills of Islam and how the followers of Islam must be converted to Christianity to be saved in the end times. To be honest, I tried to watch the 40+ minute video (the burning starting around minute 35 or so) but I couldn’t handle it. I skipped around through the video and heard three different people say the same thing but in different words.
The message is one directed to the Iranian government who is holding a Christian minister in jail. Dr. Jones believes that the Iranian government’s mind will be changed if they witness their holy book with an image of Mohammed being burned. Iran was quick to respond and denounce the act (read more here). I believe that they minister should be released too, but you dont see me going around lighting holy books on fire. What kind of reaction about Jones give if he saw the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, burn a copy of Bible and call out all of the times and ways that the Bible has been misused for the destruction of others and the world? My guess… he would not take it lying down…it might actually fuel his Islam hate firm more.
But alas while this didn’t make huge public headlines, its still a black eye for Christianity. People outside of Christianity need to know that this is not indicative of all Christians. This is not what the gospel is about. Maybe Dr. Jones forgot that whole passage about the spec in your neighbor’s eye and the log in your own. Maybe he forgot about Christ loving his neighbor. Maybe he forgot that even people who practice Islam are children of God. Maybe he forgot….
What Dr. Jones did was terrible with a “T.” It was heartless and disrespectful to a religion which for the most part has not done anything wrong to him. In most religions you are going to find radicals and fundamentalist who take their religion and doctrines to the extreme. Dove World Outreach Center joins the ranks of Westboro Baptist Church. They are in an elite class of Christians who give Christians a bad name. Yes they are trying to live out their faith and yes they have that freedom. But when action go against the central teachings of Jesus Christ, then they have missed the point. Jesus Christ’s message was one that brought wholeness to people not hate. What good could be done in Gainsville if that small group of Christians turned their attention to the hurting, the forgotten, to the lonely instead of the “evils” of Islam.
Ironically, Jones serves a congregation named after the bird of peace… the dove. May he forgot that too.
Below is the video if you care to watch it.
In Christ,
Rev. Evan
When Doubt Sets In…
As followers of Christ we are called to live out the gospel message in a way that is fulfilling to our understanding of the way God interacts with the world and with humanity. If we were raised in the church we were taught the stories of Bible, Noah’s Ark, Daniel and the lion’s den and Jesus’ ministry. As we grow and mature in age we begin to look at the world differently. We have different life experiences which shape our overall viewpoint. Things that once were clear are now a bit hazy, the truth we once believed does not seem to be plausible anymore. In any person’s faith journey there will inevitably be a section(s) where doubt has set in.
We have all been there…Doubt the very faith we have been raised in or believed for most of our life. We question the validity of the stories, the interpretation of the text and the practices of the church. Many Christians have left the faith all together because the level of doubt was too great. Others have simply changed denominations or changed their beliefs about certain issues like women in ministry, baptism and even homosexuality. All of these changes have come out of period of doubt.
Doubt is not necessarily a bad thing. Doubt makes us question, reexamine and reflect on even the most basic of held beliefs. Minister Brian McLaren wrote “sometimes doubt is absolutely essential. Doubt is like pain: it tells us something nearby or within us is dangerous. It calls for attention and action.”
I agree with McLaren, doubt does call us to action. Church communities are supposed to be places where our doubts can be shared, where our struggles can be brought forth, a place to say “I don’t know about this Trinity thing.” The Disciples of Christ pride ourselves on being open and accepting of a variety of belief systems and structures but too often our churches do not reflect that.
Our church today faces some grave challenges and it will be easy to doubt that anything can be done. This, my friends, is the wrong mindset. While doubt is healthy in one sense, it is completely destructive in another. I am not advocating for looking at the world through “rose colored glasses” but I am saying that through this time of doubt we can renew our faith in God. We can take this time of discontent and make it in a time of renewal and rebirth. Let us journey with God together.
Where were the times in your life when doubt set it? What did you do to ‘overcome?’ Let’s reflect on these questions in the weeks ahead.
In Christ,
Rev. Evan
Misconceptions About Christians: Part III
Here is my latest article for the Orange County Record.
If you missed Part I and/or II check it out now!
For the past two week I have been writing about misconceptions about Christians. So far I have discussed the misconception that being a Christian one must read the Bible literally and that being a Christian means you have to go to “church.” Today we will look at another misconception.
Misconception #3- TV ministers/evangelists are representative of all of Christianity.
One of the most popular and widely known Christian based television channels is the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). TBN was launched in 1973 has been expanding to other countries, bringing the people the message of Jesus Christ. I am not against this by any means but some of the people broadcasting on TBN have nothing in common with me (and many other Christians) theologically. Yes, there are times when I agree with something TD Jakes or Joel Osteen says but more often than not I disagree with them. The problem that I see with most of the TV ministers and evangelists is that their messages are from the same theological mold and construct. TBN and other Christian stations make it a point to only promote their brand of theology, their view of God, their view of Christ and their view of God’s interaction in the world. The problem arises when people who are not of the Christian faith or disenfranchised with the church think this is the only way to view God.
There are millions of people who enjoy and get something out of watching the programming on TBN and there just as many people who would want it to go away. By TBN promoting their theology as the theology of all Christians in the entire world, it greatly restricts the church and Christianity. This limits the movement of God in a person’s life; this limits the spirit to move and to intercede. This makes Christianity one-sided and monochromatic. TBN promotes a Christianity that is ‘their way or the highway.’ They seemed to have figured out Christianity.
One time I was speaking with a woman and the topic of me being a minister came up. She began to tell me her entire faith journey and then she told me something that I would never forget. She told me that she was raised in the church, raised her children in the church; she was a devoted and committed Christian. She told me that she felt she had been ‘misinterpreting’ the Bible because it was not the way Jimmy Swaggart preached and proclaimed the gospel. This got me thinking, was she truly believing “bad theology” until Jimmy Swaggart came along? Just because Jimmy said it and promoted it, that made it the “gospel truth?” This my friends is the power of the TV minister. This is the power of Christian television.
When a news organization like Fox News or CNN want the “Christian response” to a major event who do they generally ask? Answer: the late Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or Joel Osteen. While they speak for some people, they don’t speak for me and many other Christians. No one person or persons speaks for all of Christianity. Why can’t there be a Christian station that was “fair and balanced,” a station that showed all view points of Christianity, a station that started conversations about faith instead of ending them? This might be a dream that might never come into fruition, but it is something to strive for.
Next week I will continue my series on the misconceptions about Christians; I welcome your feedback.
In Christ,
Rev. Evan
Misuse of Scripture #420
This past Friday was April 20 or 4/20. There is a subculture in US in which April 20 is designated as a day to consume marijuana. (Learn more here). People took to public places and online communities to promote the day and ‘celebrate’ in their own fashion. I thought it was quite bold of them to openly and public profess their love and admiration for weed. I guess Snopp Dogg made a career centered around is music and love for pot so why not celebrate it, huh?
Friday afternoon my youngest sister (a college sophomore) posted this tweet.
Naturally this peaked my interest. She informed me that people on Facebook were claiming that the Bible promoted the consumption of marijuana. Which Bible did they chose? Genesis 1:29… which reads
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.– NIV (2011)
People in the 420 movement enjoy the more fluid language of the ye ol’ King James Version which reads
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
(They seem to like it because of the word “herb.”)
I’m not trying to insight a debate on the legality or the morality of smoking pot or anything like that, but I do want to open the door up to discussing the use of scripture in this scenario.
It’s no big surprise that Christians from all backgrounds look to the Bible to help them understand God’s interaction in the world. The problem that I have is when the Bible is used in such a narrow sighted way. I don’t see people who use this particular verse to further their pot smoking views rolling up oregano or rosemary and smoking that. No, rather they have found their herb or choice. If this passage is true they all of plants even the ones that cause allergic reactions in people (poision ivy/oak /sumack) should also fall under the umbrella of herbage. Why this one verse, why this one seed-bearing plant?
Generally when people are picking and choosing laws and rules to follow or not to follow in the Old Testament they don’t normally go to Genesis 1:29. Rather they choose something from Leviticus or one of the Ten Commandments. Where is their call to action and celebration about the proper treatment of animals and sacrifice rituals? Where is the party being held about not wearing mixed fiber clothing or not consuming pork or shellfish? Maybe the people at www.godhatesshrimp.com have it right…The Bible has been used for and against every major issue that one can think of so I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised that people have taken to the Bible to promote pot.
To look to the Bible to find a ‘ethical’ way to smoke weed at 4:20pm on 4/20 is a gross misuse of the Bible. Genesis 1 tells of how God created order out of chaos, brought light to the darkness and organized the world into the place it is today. To pluck out one verse for this reason tramples on the story and what it stands for.
In Christ,
Rev. Evan
Misconceptions About Christians: Part II
This is my latest article in the Orange County Record.
If you missed part, check it out now! Misconceptions About Christians: Part I
This is part two in the series of the Misconceptions about Christians. Last week I touched on the misconception that to be a Christian you have to read the Bible literally. Today I will speak another misconception.
Misconception #2- To be a Christian means you have to go to “church”- While this might seem a bit counterintuitive for a minister to say such a thing, hear me out. I like to remind people that nowhere in the Bible does Jesus Christ ever advocate or command that his followers go to church. Christ’s message was about bringing the love and reconciliation of God to all people in all places. Never did Jesus say “And on the Sunday gather together in a building for one hour and then return to your lives.”
The church at one time in the United States was the cultural center of a town. The perception was that everyone in the town was a Christian and attended service somewhere on Sunday mornings. It wasn’t ‘if’ you were going to church, rather it was “to which” church you were going to attend.
But over the years, the understanding of ‘church’ has changed and not everyone is on board with it—a conflict has arisen. One of the biggest so called ‘worship wars’ is how church is supposed to look. Some people want the ‘traditional’ way of worshipping: pipe organs, hymnals, wearing your ‘Sunday Bests’, etc. On the other hand there are those who want a more ‘laid back’ or ‘contemporary’ approach- ‘come as you are’ mentality to clothing, praise bands, screens with images and song lyrics. You can try to blend the two together which sometimes works, but more often than not, one side feels the other side has “taken over.”
These two different styles have literally split congregations. But the truth is to be Christian does not mean that you have to attend a worship service in a stained glass windowed building on Sunday morning at 11am. No, rather, worship is supposed to be an expression of gratitude and adoration to God, so how one connects with the Divine is up to them. Don’t get me wrong I believe that fellowship and support of other Christians is vital to faith formation, but it is not limited to a building we call “church.” More and more churches are finding that small group and house church ministries are reaching people that had never graced the door of a church before. Why? Because these groups are generally smaller and more intimate. There is something comforting about expressing one’s doubts about faith issues in someone’s home than in a church building.
The church grew out of a collection of people that wanted to get together and worship God. In the early church, they did not meet in multi-story buildings rather they met in homes. The church today is still the place where faithful followers of God come to worship, but what that looks like for the future is still unknown. I believe that the Church may not look like it does today fifty years from now. But one thing is for sure, I believe what Christ said about where two or more are gathered, there he will be also. Whether it is in a home, 100 year old stained glass building, an old Wal-Mart or a strip mall, the church will remain.
Next week I will continue my series on the misconceptions about Christians. I would love your feedback.
Rev. Dr. Evan M. Dolive 
