Why So Many Separations?!

I'll be honest. I'm not a Free Methodist because I wanted to be one.

What can I say? I love my church conference, and they happen to be a Free Methodist Conference. As a matter of fact, I'm willing to bet that 9 out of 10 people in our conference are not Free Methodists because they believe in the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, against Pew Rentals or believe in small societies groups. Actually, I'm willing to bet that half of the people in our conference don't even know what a Free Methodist is. haha. I guess its safe to say that I stumbled upon my denomination.

For the last few weeks, I've been working on a 20+ page paper on church history. I could write on anything, but I chose to write about B. T. Roberts, the founder of Free Methodism. I'm still at the 13 page mark, but the more I dive into my research, the more I'm beginning to appreciate our denomination's roots.

Did you know that Methodism (not Free Methodism) was about nurturing everybody and blessing our neighbors? Eventually, they lost their ways, so a group was organized to reclaim what was lost. That became the Free Methodists.

But why so many denominations? I learned that there are over 33,000 denominations in the world, and approximately 200 are being formed every year. I used to think denominations were a bad sign of the way Christianity was headed. I mean, why so many divisions? I thought Christians were supposed to be united... As I learned more, I discovered that denominations were a sign of hope. Hope that people are not satisfied with the status quo.

When the world only had one church denomination (like in the book of Acts), it faced many problems. To fix these problems, they came up with new rules and doctrine. For example, what do we do about church leadership? Should women preach? Who can baptize? Eventually this church made up so many rules, that a group of people started complaining that it was straying away from what God originally intended the church to be. So they created a new denomination.

Denomination birthings are a way for the people of God to reanalyze where they stand with God's original plan for them. The Free Methodists were created because they realized the Methodists were straying away from what they believed Jesus wanted. At the time, Methodists were renting out pews to the rich, making the poor feel uninvited. They were compromising the Gospel just so more people will be in the church. They allowed people to own slaves. Just so you know, John Wesley (founder of Methodism) never stood for any of these. So B.T. Roberts, after years of attempting to reform the Methodists, was kicked out and began a new group.

Denominations is a sign that God's people are being held accountable by themselves. So, in a way, this is a good thing :-)

Boring But Insightful

So, I'm sitting in an 8 hour class. I'm typing this blog in the middle of class. This class meets Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Yes, five days. That's 40 hours. I get less sleep than that in 5 days. What are we learning?

Church History.

Yes, its boring. My butt is numb now. I've dosed off numerous times already. I can't really hear what the prof is saying because of my internal dialogues of complaints. But every once in a while, I tune in.

I'm glad I did.

Man, you can learn a lot from church history. There's a lot of things that would make you say, "What? Christians did that?" History is filled with mistakes. I've met so many people today who say, "All you need is the Word of God." This was the motto of many Americans in church history.

This led to slavery. Did you know its hard to make an argument against slavery if you are a biblical literalist? Did you know science can't advance if you take the bible at its word? Here are a few examples: Jesus said that the mustard seed is the "smallest of all the seeds of the earth." (Mark 4). 2000 years later, we know this is not true. There's a seed in the Tropical Rain Forest called the epiphytic orchid (spelling?). "Well, it must have been the smallest seed known to the people back in Israel 2000 years ago," some may say. Not true. Jesus' audience would have known of other seeds smaller than a mustard seed.

"But that's not the point Jesus was making!" Yes, exactly. But literalists get stuck on these small details. American history is littered with these examples. Jesus is talking about the amazing things we can do with little faith. However, there are people (even today) who argue that the mustard seed is the smallest, just because the Bible said so. Even after showing them the Epiphytic Seed, they continue to argue for the Bible. In a way, they're afraid that if there's an error in the Bible, then God is mistaking about everything, including their salvation. Is our salvation rooted in the size of a mustard seed? Is the existence of God dependent on the world being created in 6 days? I would hope our faith is based on something more solid.

In my ministry, I have met many college students. I least look forward to students who claim that the Bible is to be literally interpreted. They are very closed off, they are skeptical of everything, and they protest over the smallest things. They protest over things like, how women should not speak in the church, the church needs to revert back to the Acts 2 church, baptism should be only submerging, etc.

God is love. Christians do everything out of love. Literalists care more about being right or upholding righteousness.

Ok, back to zoning out in class. haha

Love our enemies?

On Sunday night, I was with ten of my buddies at a Chinese restaurant in front of a big screen tv when we learned that Osama Bin Laden was killed by the United States. Following this report, there were images of people celebrating the death of a terrorist leader that was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people around the world.

I logged into Facebook on my iPhone to see what my other friends were thinking. One post said, "Praise God! Bin Laden is dead!!!!"

I remember living up in NorCal where almost everybody is a Laker hater. When their beloved Golden State Warriors lost their chance at making it to the championships, they wanted make sure the Lakers didn't either. So when they watched the Finals, they began rejoicing at every shot Kobe missed. Okay, this is all fun and games... but later than night, a man with a Lakers jersey was found brutally beaten up on the streets, to which my Laker-hating friend said, "serves him well."

Really? Did he hate the Lakers so much that he forgot that a man wearing a yellow jersey is also a human being? Was my friend more a Laker Hater than a decent human being? Now, I know my friend well, and I know he's not a bad person. He just got caught up in all the hype and competition, and probably got carried away.

As I was slowly eating my friend rice with my buddies, I was a bit confused. We all looked at each other knowing that this was a historical moment. We took note of who was present and what we were doing because we knew that one day someone was going to ask us, "What were you doing when you Obama announced that Bin Laden was killed?"

Yes, I should be happy that justice was served. Yet, I had a hard time praising God for the death of a human being. Ezekiel 33 says "as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live." I mean, a sinner just died. God isn't pleased with it. A cause for celebration would have been Bin Laden repenting. However, as an American, I am glad that there is one less threat to the well-being of my family, friends, and of myself.

Which lead me to ask myself... are we more Christian, or are we more American?

We look at the terrorists' sins and say they need to be brought to justice, but what about Americans? Isn't this a classic case of pointing out the sins in someone else's life and ignoring the plank in our own? We naturally want other people's sins judged, but ask for grace in our own, don't we? How can we, as Christians, wish so much damnation upon another human being? What happened to "love our enemies"? Didn't Jesus die for the worst of sinners?

However, the death of a terrorist means most people can live without fear.

Perhaps the proper response ought to be relief, not celebration...

Competing

Did you know that the word "compete" comes from the Latin word "competere" which means to work together, meet, etc.?

This is an old olympian/fighting word. The idea behind this word is people meeting together to sharpen each other, so that when the day of olympics/fighting came, they can outperform the other. The word is rooted in the principle that the greatest of all athletes would not have made it that far it it weren't for their friends, enemies, and well... everyone else.

In today's world, we often think that in order to win, we need to destroy our competition. After pondering on the word competere, I realized that this is the easy way to victory, or not a victory at all. To win is to prove that one better than another, but without the other, you cannot be better. If that last sentence was confusing, let me put it this way:

We all strive to be better. The word "better" is a comparative word. You can't be better by destroying your competition. You can only be better by working harder than your opponent. If there is no competition, then you can be mediocre at something and still be considered good at it.

When we destroy our competition, we are deceiving ourselves. Its like being graded on a curve. If you only got 2 questions right out of 100, and you have the highest grade, you can be a winner, but it definitely does not imply that you are smart.

Now, why am I posting about my obsession about the word "compete"? I really don't know. I'm guessing God has been pressing on my heart that I've been just "getting by" lately. I haven't been pressing for excellence. No one gets to the end of their lives and brags about just getting by.

Today is Good Friday, and I'm reminded that Jesus didn't just get by. He went all out. Perhaps, it is time I went all out.

church's purpose?

Lately, God has been changing my paradigm on church. Actually, its not "lately", but for a while. I'm sure the Christian world of the 21st century has been questioning the establishment of the church as well. Many pastors wrote books on the matter, and about 2007, there was a huge popularity of the Acts 2 church.

Many Christians refer to Acts chapter 2 to and say that this is what church should look like:

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayerEveryone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles....

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-34; 46-47

Verse 47 is usually understood as the goal we should all strive for (add number daily to those who were beings saved), and the verses leading up to it has been seen as the formula for attain it.

I disagree. Which part? The formula? or the goal? I say, Both.

FORMULA: I personally believe that there is no formula for church. If there is, and we have discovered it, all churches would be thriving. If we haven't discovered it, then none of the Christians in the world (for 2000 years) have not been listening to the Holy Spirit, assuming that if there is a formula, He would have shared it with one of us by now.

In either case, I think we're wasting a lot of time on figuring out formulas. I saw this in a post of another blog:

When reading Acts 2, some understood "break bread and ate together" to mean communion.

Others claim it was a simple meal, and the churches ought to have meals in local homes.

All agree that church must have some teaching but, none agree on exactly what should be taught.

Some believe miracles MUST company every service.

Others believe miracles stopped happening a long time ago.

GOAL: If you read the passage, there is only one statement about it growing in numbers. The majority of the verses are about the transforming community. The verse that is often missed is the following:

All the believers were together and had everything in common.Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Acts 2:44-45

This verse appears between the verses I quoted above. I have never seen this quoted on church websites, or listed in most doctrinal statements.

Why is that.

I believe it is because it make us uncomfortable. In our individualized culture, it is so hard to convince people to share. The prevailing attitude is "I have worked hard for what I have and no one is going to take it from me." We may not say it, but we believe it.

A bit later in the story this idea of sharing of possessions is affirmed.:

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. -Acts 4:31-35

This is the goal of the church. To be selfless communities. This was so important, two people lost their lives in the first church for violating this principle.

The early Church took this idea of sharing of resources seriously.

So did the monastic communities that sprung up a few hundred years latter.

So did the Celtic Christian communities that sprung up after them.

And the early Anabaptists, and the catholic worker movement, and Mother Teresa's Missionaries of charity, and the new monastic movement today.

They all read this text and took it seriously.

What about us?

There is a story of an elderly Rabbi who is known for communing with God.

One day his disciple asked, "Rabbi, God is all powerful. Then why does God allow all the poverty, war, and human suffering in the world to exist?"

The Rabbi responded, "I've been wanting to ask God that very question."

"Then, why don't you ask him then?' the disciple said.

Looking to the ground the Rabbi answered, "Because I'm scared."

"Rabbi, Why would you be scared?"

"Because I'm scared he will ask me the same question."

Oh snap.

God Has A Plan for Who?

Have you ever come across a nugget of information that changes the way you think? About 6 months ago, a friend of mine (who is a student at a seminary) came to me and shared a quote from his well-respected professor. According to my friend, the prof said, "The Bible has no verses about God having a plan of prosperity for the individual person."

To this, I pushed back... what about Jeremiah 29:11? To this my friend replied, "If you read the passage in its context, you'll learn that the plan is not for a person, but for a nation." I scoured the Scriptures for other verses, and when I read them objectively, I came to a conclusion.

He's right.

But, it began to make more sense. For the past few years, I was beginning to wonder of the unhealthy commercialism that has crept into the Church. I was sick and tired of people who were disguising their selfishness with religious talk (sadly, includes me). "You died for ME! I'm going to heaven! Bless ME! Do this for ME!" I probably didn't like the professor's quote at first because I was a consumer as well.

Knowing that God didn't promise me a plan to prosper and not harm me helped me realize that its not about me. It's about Him.

Wait a minute... Does this mean, God doesn't care about us? God has plans for the world, but not for the individual? What am I supposed to do in this world without knowing my plan?

That's when I realized something: If God has a plan for the world, how does He accomplish it? He could easily do it with a snap of His fingers, but He doesn't. He uses His people, the church. What I'm trying to say is, rather than us focusing on God giving us a plan, He wants us to join Him in His plan.

His plan becomes our plan! The minute we said YES to Jesus, we have let go of our dreams and began living according to His dream that does not harm but prospers the world.

God, help me to find your perfect plan for this world, and help me to adopt it.