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I was recently talking with a friend of mine who had been in a snowboarding accident. His face bore the marks of the accident and his eye was still blood red from the ensuing damage. Someone approached who had not heard of his accident and when she saw his face she exclaimed, “What happened?” At this, my friend quipped, “I had to pull a log out of my own eye.”
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:2-5 (NIV)
Just the other day I had to pull a log out of my eye and I have to tell you, I would have preferred the damage of the snowy hillside.
After attending a leadership event, I was debriefing with a co-laborer in Christ. We were discussing the ins and outs of ministry and an area of concern in the ministry came up in our discussion. As we were discussing this concern, this blessed co-laborer related a conversation she had with some of the very people with whom I was concerned.
To make a long story short, it turns out that where I had attributed hard-heartedness and lack of concern there was indeed no such thing.
I was called up short because I had mis-judged them. I was thinking they were being hard-hearted and it was my heart that was hard towards them. I was thinking they had no concern for others and yet here I was showing no concern for them. These beloved ones had shared with my co-laborer that the root of their apparent lack of concern was a very real fear and I had judged them for it. I had been the one who was hard of heart.
I truly would have preferred to have fallen on a snowy hillside than to have suffered the pain of dislodging this log from my eye but I have learned a valuable lesson and one that will last me much longer than any lesson learned falling off a snowboard.
Recently I began attending a large Bible Study at a church in my community. It was the usual format for a study these days; do a portion of the study written by the author at home, gather together to discuss ‘the homework’ and then watch a DVD of the author as she expands on the topic with teaching. I enjoyed the discussion and found that we were able to get beyond the surface a few times. The ladies at my table were fun and willing to dive deep.
As we settled in with our coffee and pastries for the DVD, pens and paper in hand, our well-known teacher began to tell us about the context of the passage that we were studying for that day. We were studying the Beatitudes and to set the scene she took us to Matthew 4 to the end of the chapter reminding us that right after choosing his twelve, Jesus had subjected these twelve men to scenes of great suffering and tremendous pain within humanity as He went throughout the region teaching, preaching, and healing. Our teacher, for the moment, had given us the ‘establishing shot’ for the scene we were getting ready to see. She had shown us what was happening at the time, what may have been going on in the hearts and minds of those surrounding Jesus as they came onto the mountainside to hear Him deliver the memorable words we were about to look at in length. She began to teach what I have often heard and most likely you have too – this life on earth is hard; harder on some than others. Those who are in extreme poverty and have a relationship with Jesus will not live eternally in poverty because as the Scripture says, “theirs is the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 5:3 NIV)
This teacher used an example of going into India and seeing the most beautiful women that she had ever seen but they were living in abject poverty. Her heart went out to them and she was moved to speak to them and tell them how beautiful they were to Jesus. These beautiful women pushed in around her to hear the message of how much Jesus loved them and to be touched by her and she says that some came to faith in Christ that day but . . . when she left them they were still in dire poverty with starving children and no food for themselves.
She went on to say that Jesus was teaching that this world is not fair and that we are to live as salt of the earth and then began to tell us what it meant to live as Christ on earth by expounding on Christ’s admonishment not to judge in verse 37 of Luke 6. It was a message well delivered and one worth hearing however, my heart was crying out to hear something different. In saying that, please know that I am not critiquing her teaching at all. My comments reveal my heart and nothing about her or my opinion of her. I hold this teacher in high regard.
As I was sitting there listening to her speak, I noticed that she went from the ‘establishing shot’ and setting the scene to what a cameraman might say was a medium shot or maybe even a close up. I wanted her to stay with the establishing shot. I noticed as she read the passages around the Beatitudes that the Holy Spirit was showing me something completely different than what was being spoken through her. The whole context of the message that Jesus delivered was summed up for me at the end of chapter six in Luke with the story of the wise and foolish builders. Jesus told them that the builder who hears His words and puts them into practice is the one whose house is standing at the end of the storm. In choosing His twelve and then teaching, preaching and healing along the way, Jesus had demonstrated to them what He wanted them (and us) to do. He wants us to reach out in a tangible way to the poor, the hungry, to those who weep and those who hate us because in this we are demonstrating His blessing to a world searching for a king. Offering them an introduction to the King is important but if we do not minister to their physical needs we have left them dry and parched and fertile soil for the enemy to snatch the word from the soil of their hearts.
Reality says to us that there are those in this life that are going to suffer, going to be poor, going to weep due to the cruelty of others. Sin is rampant on this earth. I accept that as a fact. I am unsettled with the suggestion that this passage would teach that we are to be content with that. Jesus was a revolutionary. He came to defeat death! He came to transfer me from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of light! I don’t see Him letting His disciples sit on their haunches while others are suffering and patting them on the heads saying “Blessed are you someday.” (I know that is an oversimplification.) The point is, if you read through that whole passage (Luke 6:12-49) you will see that Jesus is saying, “Don’t just sit there. Follow me. Do something about it. Do as you see me doing. Get involved.” Jesus was a man of action and He demonstrated through His life and death what He wants from us. He fed the hungry, he had compassion, He loved those who hated him, He didn’t judge, He loved the unlovely. Jesus told us that each tree is recognized by its own fruit. I am wanting my tree to have tangible fruit.
If the Christian church is into keeping secrets, then the women at the NW Emerging Women’s Leadership Conference, Convergence let a cat out of the bag in a big way at the end of January. I have written about this conference already within the contents of this blog and it is not my intent to belabor the point however, I find myself unable to leave that weekend. I had an epiphany as I was driving home from the chiropractor this last week. I tend to have lucid moments as I stave off migraines. 
As my mind was dodging all over the place trying to occupy itself so that it was not focusing on the pain of the headache, suddenly the lucidity came. It occurred to me that during the weekend at Convergence the women had inadvently revealed the secret to discipleship and transforming a life for Christ. (Shhh! Don’t tell anyone.)
A couple of years ago, I had read an interesting book by Alice P. Mathews entitled Preaching That Speaks to Women. Please understand that I am oversimplifying one of the premises in the book but simply stated the science in the book showed that women learn best by a combination of teaching that speaks to their life and relationship with other women. Probably the word most often used for relationship is mentoring but that word is so often misconstrued that I don’t like to use it. The way that it was described in Mathews book was women modeling what it was like to be women in real and genuine situations in life and that can only be done if you are involved in relationship with those women.
This relationship involves a sharing of life experience. A vulnerability and an honesty to share when we haven’t always handled things correctly or that we aren’t handling things correctly right now and just don’t care that we aren’t. To say that we are fed up with the status quo and just plain angry or moved to tears because we can’t handle the sadness anymore. This relationship means rejoicing when another woman pushes through and gains victory over her circumstances and then coming to terms with our own jealousy because it isn’t us.
What I experienced at Convergence was this very thing. It was a place of being who you were at the moment and a challenge to move beyond it by sisters who knew the pain and who cared enough to look you in the eye and encourage you to push on to reach your potential.
The secret they revealed was that teaching Scripture is not enough. Being a friend is not enough. You would think that as a church we would know this, but we don’t. The combination of relevant teaching and relationship that comes from shared experience is however transformational and it is this combination that will set the world on fire for Christ.
“Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.” So said Niccolo Machiavelli and after reading an article by Jason Carlson on the emergent church, I have to say that Machiavelli is still ’spot on.’ A friend recommended an article to me that appeared near a blurb about Carlson’s DVD by the name of My Journey In and Out of the Emerging Church. The promotion for the DVD went on to call the emergent church “a new dangerous movement” that is “sweeping though the Christian church in America and around the world.” It went on to say that
“Jason will explain what he learned, witnessed and experienced during his time in the Emerging church. Are you currently active in church ministry? Are you a believer concerned about the future of the church? Do you have a son or daughter attending one of the strange new churches? If so you must view this timely and biblically based session on the Emergent church.”
Sounds like something dangerous is brewing, doesn’t it? I mean, I don’t want my daughter attending a ’strange’ new church. So I decided to try and find something written by him online to see what was so dangerous about this movement. It didn’t take me long to locate his article of almost the same name My Journey Into and Out of the Emeging(sic) Church.
Carlson begins the article friendly enough. After all, he came from the movement, maintains friendships within the movement, and they can all agree to disagree. He calls himself a ”friendly critic of Emergent.” I have to tell you though, the reasons that he cites for withdrawing from the movement had me feeling anything but friendly.
In fact, his reasons made me a bit angry. I was angry because he was maligning the emergent conversation by making sweeping generalities that are blatantly false. Can you find some adherents within the emergent church for which some of these would accurately reflect their viewpoints or actions? Probably. Largely however, Carlson has misstated the emergent church’s theology and motive.
I attended a conference this last weekend that included a good number of women who are in leadership within the emerging church and none of what Mr. Carlson stated in his article fit the paradigms that these women were operating under. Mr. Carlson argued from his experience. Let me argue from mine.
For instance, he states that “lack of a proper appreciation for biblical authority over and against personal experience or revelation.” This is not true. What the women that I gathered with this last weekend do have is a proper appreciation for my having the freedom to choose to believe differently. This allows for real fellowship among believers because we are not getting caught up in doctrinal differences. With non-believers, it allows the non-believer the grace to be able to have an open and honest discussion without fear of being beaten over the head with the Bible.
He also said the emergent church openly questions “the relevance of key historical biblical doctrines such as the Trinity.” Having spent the last weekend with this fabulous group of (horrors!) emerging women leaders, none of the ladies whom I had come in contact with were questioning any such thing. It wasn’t an issue for them. What they did allow for, however, was the fact that we would grapple with these issues for all time until Christ returns because we cannot truly comprehend them. We have enough from the Word to understand that they are true but that we cannot understand ‘how’ they are true.
Jason Carlson said the emergents have “an unbridled cynicism towards conservative evangelicalism and fundamentalism.” If it is true, could it be because of warrant-less attacks such as this? However, again, the tone of this last weekend was not one of cynicism but of “how can we work together with the traditional church to build the kingdom.”
He states that there is “little or no talk of evangelism or saving lost souls” among them. The ladies that I spent time with last weekend saw social action as an opportunity to earn the right to tell others of Christ. It was the action that led to the question, “Why do you do this?” and gave them the opportunity to share about a relationship with Christ.
And the final point that I will spend time on, that the emergents believe in “a salvation by osmosis mentality, where if you hangout with us long enough you’re in.” Again, not true! A recognition that there is a great number of people who now need to belong to a community before they will believe the truth that they see being lived out in the lives of those around them is quite a different thing than believing that if you hang out enough with us you are in.
I could take any of the points that Mr. Carlson raises in his article and do the very same with them – disagree! I have no problem doing so because he paints the emerging church with such a wide brush and in such harsh tones that it is not hard to see where his error occurs. He isn’t arguing from Scriptural grounds. He is lumping anything that does not fit his tightly held worldview into the label of ‘emergent.’ That can not be done accurately. Mr. Carlson might want to follow Machiavelli’s advice and stick to particulars instead of sweeping with such broad strokes.
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