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starting
a religion
if
you were to start a faith today, what
would you ask of your followers?
if you were to tell others that you knew
how to connect directly to God, what
would you say was important? if
you and your three best friends sat down
to list 15 things that would be central
to your new religion, what would they be
and would you all agree with them 100%?
imagine
this, a person you know just found a guy
who is telling people he knows how to
connect to God - in a direct and truly
meaningful way. as you approach,
you ask what it will take for you to
develop a true and lasting relationship
with God. he puts his arm around
you (which makes you uncomfortable) and
walks you over to a small bench and
invites you to sit next to him (which
continues to make you uncomfortable),
then he tells you this - "sell
everything you have, your house, your
cars, your cell phone, your computer - everything
you have, and give all the money to the
poor. you must, and this is not an
option, love - truly love - your enemies
and do only good to people who desire to
harm you. you must, and this is
also not an option, go out of your way
to help people and not out of your way
to avoid people. you must - not
optional - live life ready and willing
to be personally bugged at every turn of
life. you must - it's that option
thing - forgive, truly forgive, everyone
who has ever wronged you no matter what
that wrong was or when that wrong
was. you must - you know - love
everyone you meet, and be willing to go
that extra mile for those in need.
you must, again, eat last and be a
servant to others. you must,
bingo, give up your personal freedoms
for the slavery of helping others, and
you must - yup - do it with an open and
accepting heart. you must - need i
say more? - be a radical and go directly
against the flow of the world around
you. when you commit to this path,
and open your heart to the teachings i
will give you, you will see God and know
him."
needless
to say, you run and think this guy is
totally insane. you look at your
friend and say "give everything
away? sounds communist! love
everyone? sounds impossible.
become a willing slave to others?
slavery is just wrong and it insults our
african-american brothers and
sisters. besides, all that
"must" garbage is not freeing,
it's filled with rules that take away
the things we like to do - abuse people,
control people, hate people, kill
people, be greedy, self-centered and
self-absorbed - we like doing these
things. if not, why do we keep
doing them? after all, any
religion that won't give to me what i
want, is not worth following. your
closing remark to your friend is,
"a religion based on that garbage
is not realistic and is not in tune with
the times." which brings out
an interesting point -
does
a faith need to be in tune with the
times, or do the times need to be in tune
with faith?
it's
the old question, which came first the
chicken or the egg? which came
first, the culture of the faith? i
believe faith came first, and culture
has influenced it greatly, as faith has
influenced the culture greatly.
but i also believe that in america we
have a "constitution faith"
and not a biblical faith. that is
to say, we base our faith on
individualism, self growth, democratic
principles and "one person on
vote." over the past 350 plus
years of the church in america we have
moved away from a biblical standard and
moved to a cultural standard. we
do this under the thought of
"fitting in." but, jesus
is the ultimate counter-culture radical
ever placed on this planet - "go
against everything you know and walk
100% with God. it's hard at times,
and easy at other times. but it is
always rewarding and always
uplifting."
before
i go on, i must say this; i am not
talking about the style of the church,
that can be influenced, and should be
influenced by the culture. music
style, dress, location and terms used
must all fit the culture you are trying
to minister for God. but, the
faith - the message, while spoken in
different languages, must be the same
always. you like "punk"
- go for it; you like "gospel"
- go for it; no matter what you do the
style can change, the message must
never.
if
the teachings of christ were human
teachings, would they be so darn hard to
do? so, we water them down.
christ teaches "love everyone"
but we say, "loving everyone is
impossible." so we don't love
everyone, and because we don't love
everyone we say "see, loving
everyone is impossible."
let's be honest with each other, if it
were easy would it be worth doing?
if it were human based, would it be
counter-cultural? come-on, it's
hard enough to get people to drop a coin
in a tin cup to help those in need -
"sell everything you have and give
it away" - get real. love
everyone? it's easy to love the
cute and cuddly, but how do you love a
street bum who spends all his money on
booze and smells like he has been using
his shoe for a restroom? God could
not have meant them; he only meant the
"barbies and kens" of this
world, right? if it was human
based, we would demand justice and
"kill all those who kill
others." we would demand
justice and want to see justice
done. after all, God wants us to
judge and execute the "rapist pedophile
murders" of this world. if it
were human based, we would make gossip
and backstabbing a central point for our
communities. ok, you got me -
seems like a great amount of our faith
is actually human based. when it
is, it loses something in the practice.
have you ever wondered how people find
contradictions in the bible? i
don't think they do, i think they find
contradictions between what the bible
teaches and what we do - we are the
contradictions. we desire to make
our faith "a good thing" for
people to follow.
it's
not a "good thing" it's a
"God thing."
it's
not a "good thing" it's a
"God thing." i believe
we have taken the faith and, with good
intentions, made it "easier"
for people to follow. we have
taken out the bites and the
counter-cultural nature of jesus and
what he taught. keeping in mind
"counter-cultural" does not
mean dress, style or music. so
what does it mean? for me, simple
this -
love
everyone - everyone, the hard and
the easy - the cute and the not cute.
be
ready to be a servant - serve
others. do not seek to be a
leader, be a servant.
give
- give all you have, everything you have
belongs to God not to you, so be ready
to give.
order
- it is not, "God - country - and
family," but "God, God, and
God" - God is all and must be all.
radical
- be radical, and see the radical nature
of jesus.
when
we truly understand that our faith is a
radical faith, a counter-cultural faith
we see our faith in action. we
reach out to the hurting, the sick and
the homeless - we feed the hungry,
embrace those with AIDS. we know
it is a God thing when we are willing
and ready to open our homes to others
and allow them to invade our personal
space. would you share your home
with the homeless?
blessings
pastor
john
John
O’Keefe is the founder of www.ginkworld.net.
John sees a desperate need for the church as a whole to
change and reach a new people for Christ.
He is straightforward, honest and calls it the way it he
sees it. John is a
graduate of Drew and has been a Senior Pastor and Church Planter
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