GCB

Recently, a friend introduced me to a TV show called “Good Christian Belles.” It was put out by ABC this past spring. The show is built around a prodigal coming home, yet refusing to conform to the culture around her. Amanda, the main character, was strongly disliked in high school for being the popular and incredibly cruel girl, ran off from Dallas (the “holy land”) to California (the “last stop before the Abyss”) years ago, but is now returning because her husband died in a car accident, an event which brought to light the facts that he was cheating on her and stealing billions of dollars from investors. Amanda, left with no job, no money, and no possessions in California, is forced to move back in with her mother in Dallas, which reignites much of the high school drama that she had long left behind—only this time she is the one on the outside. She, in her attempt to provide for her family and raise them in the way she thinks is proper, makes a number of decisions that do not sit well with the surrounding community. The part about the show that is supposed to be the “hook” that draws the audiences is that all the “bad guys” (and girls) are faithful, Bible-slinging churchgoers. They are also the worst set of hypocrites ever to walk the earth. They parade as perfect Christians (and judge others who can’t put on as good a show of being a Christian as they can) while their marriages are falling apart, and they are more marked by their gossip and scheming than by their love.

Although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the show, it has caused me to think about what the unbelieving world believes about Christians. Here’s what I’ve taken away so far:

• They don’t know who we are. The show portrays the church as a group of hypocrites who go to church solely because it is a cultural norm for them, it helps them look good in their circle of friends, and it helps them make and keep business contacts, portrayals which are all too often true of Christians. The problem is that this is the only type of person the show displays as going to church. Nobody is truly repentant for their sin. Nobody truly desires to know Jesus. In fact, thinking back on it, I’m not sure that His name was mentioned once in the episodes I’ve seen so far outside of a context where it was used in a joke. If we expect the world to take the church seriously, we have to show them that those of us in the church are not perfect, but are truly repentant for our sins and do truly want to know Christ. Church cannot be a game for us. 

• They don’t know what we believe. The show primarily displays church as a social springboard and self-help tool. The big message the show teaches is not grace, but karma. In one episode, the church sign has the sermon title, “You reap what you sow” posted on it. Amanda’s son asks her what it means, and Amanda replies, “It’s Texan for karma.” The world doesn’t get grace. It is too big, too powerful, too scary. And the church often doesn’t do a good enough job of clarifying the fact that what we believe is different than karma. If we want to see the unbelieving world believe the Truth, we must be intentional about making sure they understand the gospel as it is, not karma packaged as the Christian message. 

• They don’t understand gospel transformation. All attempts at moral reform in the show are for the sake of personal happiness or for the sake of keeping up appearances in the community. Nobody in the show is led to change by a genuine love of Christ. Nobody in the show truly hates their sin. They do try to make moral changes, but it is for the sake of controlling fate, not for the sake of knowing Christ. If we want an unbelieving world to understand the gospel message, we must let the gospel lead the change in our personal lives, not karma or pride.

It's Back

On my recent trip home, I had a realization—the things that I often take for granted about living in Hong Kong are the things that everyone wants to know about. Boring stuff like what I eat, what I do for fun with friends, how I travel around town, and even the size of my apartment was the source of constant questioning during my time in the States. I realized that stuff I have long stopped viewing as new and exciting (since it has been a part of my everyday life for the past 2 years) is still just as new and exciting to the people back home as it was the day I moved away.

Another thing I heard repeatedly when I was home was questioning about why I stopped writing the blog. I guess there wasn’t one single reason I stopped, more a combination of a bunch of reasons which eventually led to me stopping. Regardless, I have realized that my blog is an important tool for the people I love and care about back home to stay connected to me and know what’s going on in my life, so it’s back. I will try to write a post every week, although I will probably miss some weeks, but hopefully this will once again be an effective way for the people who care about me to stay updated on what I’m doing and thinking on the other side of the world.

Until next week…

Eric

I Know I'm a Slave, But...

Last night, I was talking with friends about our New Year's resolutions. The first three of us who shared mentioned desires to grow in our relationships with God and listed of ways we hoped to accomplish this. The last person to share, also a Christian, led her explanation by saying, "Well, my first resolution doesn't have to do with God." She then explained to us that her goal over the next two years is to build up enough wealth that she will be on the path to financial security for life. Basically, she plans to invest the next two years of her life getting money.

The other three of us in the conversation quickly began telling her that she was making money an idol--that it would never satisfy her, that it would demand more from her than she ever expected, that true security in lfe doesn't come from money, etc. I shared with her a quote from Timothy Keller, who said, "If you live for money, you are a slave." As we said each of these things to our friend, she agreed that they were true. She even went so far as to affirm the statement that she is a slave to money. The other three of us jumped in, saying she doesn't have to live as a slave--the gospel will set her free from her slavery. And then she dropped the big one on us. She told us, "I know I'm a slave, but just let me be a slave for another 2 years and then I'll be ok."

Needless to say, I was shocked. Why would anyone who knows they're a slave to a cruel master such as money and who has the opportunity to be free choose willingly to continue living as a slave? But as I have thought more about it, I have realized that this is an attitude I take toward sin in my own life much more often than I would like to admit. I know that the gospel frees me from the need to find my value in what other people think of me, and I know trying to please all the people around me makes me a slave to their opinions, but I say I'll start living in that truth only as soon as this person approves of me. I enter into a slippery slope, from which the only escape is the gospel--the one thing I am willfully ignoring at that point in time. In the words of Tim Keller, my idol "begins redefining all of reality in terms of itself."

Just as my friend needs the gospel to set her free from her slavery to money, I need the gospel to set me free from all of my idolatrous behaviors. As we go into the new year, may God give me the grace to rest in the gospel and find my identity in Him alone.

Do You Really Believe It?

One of my friends works on the trading floor of a major bank. He knows a lot about investments. He spends his days studying the markets so he can make the best moves that will be the most profitable for his company. He also uses this knowledge to increase his personal wealth. Recently, he was telling me about an investment he made in a company in Africa that has more than doubled in a little over a year. As he described the factors that went into his decision to invest in this company, he made it clear that investing in this company was an easy choice. They serve a large market of people, sell an item that is always in high demand, and the government kept their IPO intentionally low to encourage people to invest in them. My friend described the situation as them “basically giving away free money.”

Now, let’s pretend. Go back a year and a half, before my friend made this investment. He comes to me, tells me about the investment, and I say, “That’s nice. I hope you make lots of money on this one.” Although my response carries the appearance of believing his story, in reality it proves that I don’t truly believe his description of the situation. If I truly believed that what he said about the investment was true, I wouldn’t simply congratulate him on a good find; I’d ask him how I could get in on this investment as well. If I truly believed that my friend’s description was accurate and someone was handing out “free money,” I would do everything reasonably within my power to get my hands on that money.

Far too often, the response of Christianity at large to the existence of hell is like my hypothetical response in this story—we acknowledge belief in it with our mouths, but lead lives that prove we don’t believe it’s real.

I am currently reading George Marsden’s biography of Jonathan Edwards. In the biography, Marsden makes the observation that in Edwards’ opinion, most Christians only believe in hell as an inherited belief. Basically, they’ll say it’s real because it’s in the Bible and their parents or spiritual mentors taught them it’s real, but on a functional level they live on a day-to-day basis as if it wasn’t real. Marsden says that the reason Edwards preached so many sermons that were brutally descriptive of hell is that he wanted his people to constantly remember the reality of hell both so they personally could trust in Christ and be saved from it and so they would live in such a way around their non-Christian friends and relatives that they would point them to Christ as well. This style of teaching has given Edwards a lot of negative press in many circles, but his brutally descriptive teaching was not inspired by a joy in describing the horrors of eternal punishment; it was inspired by a love that desired to keep as many people as possible from having to live that fate. He not only believed that hell was real, but wanted to live his life in such a way that he demonstrated the urgency inspired by the fact that hell is real.

Do your actions back what you say you believe?

Youth Say Some Funny Stuff

In my new job, the group of students I'm responsible for is a slightly younger group than I am used to. Technically, I'm responsible for grade 6 through the end of high school, however there are no students in my church between the ages of 15 and 18, which means I'm in charge of a group of 11 to 14 year olds. Needless to say, with a group this age, some funny lines come out from time to time. Here are some of the highlights so far:

-Tonight during our discussion, I asked each of the youth what one thing is they can do over the course of the next week to follow Jesus in their everyday life. Each took turns sharing, then they decided to recommend ways that I should follow Jesus in the next week. Their suggestion? I need to tell at least 5 people that Jesus loves them... and each of these people has to be smoking as I tell this to them.

-I was talking with some youth about the concept of dying to ourselves and being alive in Christ. I asked these students if they thought their lives would be better or worse if they truly lived this way. One student told me it would be better... but only if he could still play video games.

-During their school break, I took my pastor's 2 middle kids--who are slightly younger than the age range I'm responsible for, but they're close to it--ice skating. After skating, we grabbed some lunch. During our time eating together, this conversation occurred:

Me: So do you know what you want to be when you grow up?

Pastor's daughter: Yes, I want to be a mom, so I can sleep in every day.

Pastor's son: I want to be a cop, because they get to fire guns and drive really fast.

Me (sarcastically to the son): And that's what life is all about, shooting guns and driving fast.

Pastor's son: Yeah, well, that... and drinking beer.

Let's just say there is rarely a dull moment in my life these days.

The Light

This morning, I was at a meeting with our University and Young Adults staff about a worship gathering they will be hosting this coming Sunday night. They were primarily discussing how to set up the space we have and organize the “flow” of the evening to help people experience God through the time together.

The lesson for the night will be on John 1:1-5, so a lot of emphasis on the planning was being placed on lighting: “In Him was life, and that life is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” This discussion and the reflection on the passage got me thinking:

When Christ came into the world, He was the light of the world, and no matter how hard the darkness tried, it could not overcome Him. His light was too powerful. In fact, the darkness’s best attempt to overcome Him (the cross) led to His greatest victory (the resurrection). Light and darkness are not equal opposites, but rather darkness is a weaker foe that is easily overcome when the light enters into its presence.

This is good, but I then realized something else awesome: when Jesus left the earth, He promised to be with His people forever (“ even to the end of the age”). This means that if we’re Christians, wherever we go, Christ goes with us. And wherever Christ goes, the light goes, and wherever the light goes, the darkness cannot overcome it. As Christians, we are “children of the light” (1 Thess. 5:5). Just as the darkness cannot overcome Jesus’ light, it cannot ultimately overcome our light either. In fact, its best attempts to do so have historically been some of the greatest victories for the faith, which is why the saying exists that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

Wherever we go, we bring the light. Darkness cannot stand in our presence, because the light of the world accompanies us. So let us live boldly.

Upward, Inward, Outward

Upward. Inward. Outward.

It may appear cryptic if you don’t know what it means, but for those of us at Watermark Community Church, it is the air we breathe. These three words summarize the process we long to see our people take in their relationship with God.

Upward—we want them to understand the gospel and have a relationship with God. This is the most fundamental step of the process, and without it, neither of the other steps is possible.

Inward—According to Jesus, the two greatest commands are to love God and love others. Once people have a relationship with God in place, our desire is for them to come into the family and engage in genuine community.

Outward—The goal of community is not that it would center solely on us, but rather that it would lead to mission (going out). As we learn to truly love each other within a community of faith, our desire and prayer is that we will learn to love our unsaved friends and neighbors as well, and that we, through proper understanding of the gospel and community, will be moved to live life on mission. In fact, our goal is for our community not to be merely a community, but rather a missional community, where we are living life on mission together.

Ultimately, the process is not meant to be linear, but cyclical. As we go throughout or Christian lives, we need to continually return to the gospel, both for forgiveness as we continue to sin, and as our motivation for our other steps in our walk with God (God’s love for us in the cross should motivate our love for God and our love for God should motivate our love for others). Also, as we live life on mission, our goal is to bring new people into this process, so just as the gospel (Upward) leads to community (Inward), and community leads to mission (Outward), mission always leads back to the gospel.

Everything we do at Watermark centers around the ideas of Upward, Inward, Outward (ie. gospel, community, and mission). This has been incredibly helpful for me as I have started my work there, since I am not responsible for starting the youth ministry from scratch on a philosophical level; instead, my job is to use these three steps as a skeleton and build a ministry where the youth will be encouraged to move through these steps. Obviously, maturity in Christ—not simply moving people through a process—is our goal, but this process is a great summary of how we want to see people mature in Christ and it has given me a great foundation as I have tried to figure out how to start the youth ministry here.