Why I Lean Anabaptist

I'm not a denominational guy. I've always had issues with the whole concept of denominations. Still there's always been something about the Anabaptist movement that's tickled my ears. It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that I even heard about the Anabaptists. When I was in college I studied the Reformation but my Prof seemed to gloss over the Anabaptist movement that birthed during the same time in church history. I always found it curious why he barely mentioned them, so back then I began to investigate on my own. I dove into a book called "The Reformers and their Stepchildren" by Leonard Verdui and another titled "Anabaptists and the Sword" by James M. Stayer. I came to understand why my Reformed professor didn't talk much about the Anabaptist's. Reformers in the 16th Century violently persecuted them. The Protestant Reformers under Zwingli were the first to persecute the Anabaptists using torture and executions. True to their convictions from what Jesus modeled, the Anabaptist responded with nonviolence.

I'm not a fan of all the paths the Anabaptist movement has wandered down. Nor do I embrace in entirety their ecclesiology. Still I’m convinced a good chunk of the principles of Anabaptist's offer something to a growing segment of culture that is burnt out on religion and is suspicious of the evangelical church world. Personally, I think that the Anabaptist movement offers a counter-story to the negative aspects of Christianity that have dominated most churches and Christian institutions. Non-Christians associate Christianity with power, greed, control, personal piety, and being-in-bed with political parties – but Anabaptist's seem to have a better story to tell!

Here are some of the values that resonate deeply with me that come out of the Anabaptist tradition.

1. Jesus is our example, friend, redeemer and Lord – Jesus didn't just come to save us but he came to show us how to live. His earthly life is a template for a life actively submitting to His Lordship.

2. Holiness is greater love - The Sermon on the Mount is the great manifesto for what a holy life begins to look like and it looks like serious, selfless, God-honoring love.

3. Jesus is the focal point of God’s revelation – Jesus is the interpretive lens that the Old and New Testament are to be understood through. The character and actions of God must be comprehended first by looking at Jesus.

3. The Cross is primarily seen as victory over Satan and death (Christus Victor) and secondarily understood as the consequence for our sin (Penal Substitution) - Jesus came to bind up the strong man and free us to follow him. The Cross is less about God's anger towards humans but more about God's relentless pursuit to reclaim humanity by doing battle with the enemy on the cross.

4. The frequent association with power poisons the nature of the church - status, wealth and force distort the witness of the body of Christ. Abstaining from voting for political candidates is a practice in solidarity. Effecting change from positions of power might seem most impactful but Jesus modeled the surrender of power to capture hearts.

5. Who you identify with is extremely important - Jesus risked his reputation with the religious to identify with the poor and suffering of our world. The church should carefully consider how they are identified and perceived by outsiders to the religious establishment.

6. Churches are called to create communities of mutual respect and mature love first, before orthodoxy and order - truth and doctrine are important but they are not necessarily the signs of spiritual health. How we relate with one another is the first and most important sign the Holy Spirit is among us. In an age of individualism, Anabaptists model a communal faith that fosters authentic relationships and the value of the whole body.

7. Spirituality and economics are inter-connected – In an age of consumerism, Jesus calls us to a simple life that leads to generosity with our time and money.

8. Peace is at the heart of the gospel – Nonviolence, as modeled by Jesus, is evidence of the good news of the kingdom. The believer must not use forcible resistance to wrongdoers, nor wield the sword.

9. The Kingdom is Now - Jesus resurrection launched the movement of the Kingdom of God on earth. Heaven is not some off distant place we go to when we die. Jesus is building His Kingdom here and now. Will we work for him? So be careful about giving you loyalty to any other power structure or empire.

There is a lot more to the Anabaptist way but these are a few of the things that I can get behind. Maybe I lean a little more Anabaptist than I do anything else.

P.S. There is a fairly new book out titled "The Naked Anabaptist" by Stuart Murray if your interested in finding out more.

Individualism and Community

In our culture individualism is a high priority.  The value to apprehend independence is part of the fabric of our society.   My personal goals, the things that satisfy me and my right to pursue them are supposed to take priority when I’m making decisions. In many ways we worship our freedom to express independence without constraints.  We think self-reliance is the strongest form of being human.  The primary reality is me; the person. In America we are conditioned and shaped by this hidden or maybe not so hidden worldview of individualism.

I can’t help but see this controlling value of individualism soaked into the Evangelical imagination.  Individualism has tainted and distorted almost every aspect of the modern expression of Christianity. The “personal” emphasis has been the bread-and-butter for the evangelical church for quite awhile.

1. Most worship songs are written based on this premise.

2. God’s will is something He reveals to me personally. I call this Subjective Personal Experience – “God  told me, God’s calling me”

3. Holiness is personal pursuit – more personal Bible study, a more intense private prayer life, conviction and rooting out sin is a personal endeavor.

4. God’s blessing is a personal thing – if I live an obedient or God glorifying life, He will reciprocate with personal blessing or favor.

5. Intimacy with God – I am supposed to feel close to God independently of anyone else ”I’m on fire for God or I feel his embrace”

6. Salvation is talked about almost exclusively in individual benefit terms.

You might read that list and think this is what the Christian life is about.  The sober reality is that the Bible never uses the word “personal” to speak of God’s interaction with us.  There are no phrases throughout the entire New Testament like “a personal walk with God” or “a personal relationship with God.”  We assume this is the motif of scripture because we are so affected by our worldview.  Individualism is so natural to us that we don’t question its presence in our understanding of being authentically Christian. We read scriptures like 1 Cor 3 as personal promises ”Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”  When we come across the pronoun “you” in our Bibles, we assume it means each of us individually.  But more often than not, it’s plural, not singular.  Paul’s not describing each believer as their own little temple here.  He’s saying you the community are God’s temple. God’s Spirit dwells in you as a community.  That is not a minor difference or small nuance.  The implications for reorienting our spiritual life around community changes everything versus the subtle narcissism of focusing on the self.

The glaring difference between the western modern church and the 1st Century church is; we are individualist and they were collectivist.  I do believe this simple difference is part of the reason the Good News of Jesus spread like wild fire throughout the Roman Empire without any marketing, blogs, celebrity preachers, buildings or websites. Their counter-cultural, love-filled, King Jesus communities stuck out like a sore thumb in the midst of a society were Jews separated from Gentiles, men thought of woman as dogs and masters owned slaves.

Ongoing preaching and discipleship that makes the "Personal God” primary instead of secondary might give us warm fuzzies and easier converts but I believe it is a regrettable example of importing western individualism into the biblical text and world. There is another way that is truer to the New Testament motif.

What do you think?

Thanks for the Sanity.

A viral video by Jefferson Bethke called "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" gained 2 million hits recently. I personalty loved the video. But Kevin DeYoung at the Gospel Coalition didn't. He rebuked Jefferson and attempted to correct his theology and use of the word "religion". I thought Mr. DeYoung's rebuke was over semantics (straining at gnats) and smelled of self-righteousness. Bruxy Cavey, one of my favorite communicators, addresses this spirit and demeanor well.

Check it.

Blue Collar Hope

Culturally the word Hope has a bright and shiny feeling to it.  It sheens with pictures of the Extreme Makeover bus pulling up or it has feelings of getting a big tax return when you needed it really bad or that feeling of someone you depended on coming through for you in a big way.  I think in some manner we think this is what hope should feel like when we get that one thing we really wanted or thought we needed; it’s utterly surprising and an emotional relief.

We often get hope mixed up with expectations. Expectations are often desires and wants that are bit removed from our gritty participation in them.  We put expectations upon events, relationships and situations.  We have strong emotional ideals that we thrust over the top of circumstances and confuse it with hoping.

But Hope as seen in scripture but more clearly in Jesus is very different. We often portray the resurrection as an explosive miracle that happened to Jesus one morning. But Jesus did not receive a gift that came solely from divine power. No, Jesus earned the right through persevering pain to be exalted as King. Hebrews 2:17 says “he was made to be like them, fully human in every way, he himself suffered when he was tempted, he earned the right to become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.” The resurrection is more than an event it is a supernatural blueprint for Hope. One of the key take home messages of the resurrection is that Jesus was rewarded for his perseverance and faithfulness in his body. God sees, acknowledges and honors the long, purposeful, faithful, self-sacrificing obedient work that Jesus did on earth (Phil 2:9).

Hope is built and assembled in persevering work and pain.  I call it Blue Collar Hope. Hope comes at great cost.  It requires personal risk and an emotional toll. It calls for deep faithfulness to God in the midst of great doubt and uncertainty.  Hope by nature asks for more time. It stretches from weeks to months to possibly years and challenges our ability to develop a long-suffering character.  I cannot truly hope for something and keep my hands clean.   To receive a hope that will not disappoint I must acquire calluses, bruises and wounds from sustaining a vision.

We often want the freedom to hope for something without experiencing the pain of full-bodied involvement. Because of the long steady work hope requires most slink out and opt for something less. It’s much easier to have expectations than hope.

Blue Collar Hope is a beautiful thing because it means a deep soul-wrenching cost.  It means pacing the floor late at night wondering if you have any faith left but waking up in the morning determined to press on.  It means when others were whining and cynical about the way things were you instead took more responsibility and sacrificed even more.  The Jesus kind of Hope is Blue Collar.

Most people fear the deep disappointment of not apprehending that thing they hoped for.   I've collided with understanding hope through the school of hard knocks. The funny thing I’ve learned is that by the time I’ve gotten to the other side of something I’ve hoped for, because of the process of hope, my character has changed in a way that I’m content with not receiving the whole of what I originally envisioned.  I think this is what Romans 5 is exposing when it says “we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

The Inorganic Church

I have to be honest, I’m totally late and groggy when it comes to organic food. My wife’s is adamantly organic in our food choices and for the most part I haven’t really cared. Often times when it comes to food for me, ignorance is bliss. The other night we cuddled up and watched a short documentary on PBS called the “Botany of Desire.” The show highlighted the practices of genetically engineered potatoes that are created to meet the demands of french fry suppliers in America. It attempted to explain the unintended consequences of speeding up the process of growing potatoes. After thinking about the documentary a bit I realized I’m adamantly organic but in a very different arena. When it comes to the building and growing of a church community I get a bit bothered by the “genetic engineering” taking place on a large scale.

1.To launch a church “Big” many try to engineer numerical growth by appealing to immediate gratification. This is done using overstatements about what God’s doing. I just received marketing material for a church plant that hasn’t even launched yet and their marketing already says a “significant movement of God” is happening. I find this inauthentic and an attempt to engineer excitement. This kind of speech really turns off the post-christian who is looking for transparent, no cliche, around-the-table, earthy community. The pursuit of doing things in culturally "big" ways has had unintended consequences on the DNA of average Christians. What most see as "big" really isn't what God sees as big; new building campaigns vs invasive home hospitality, thousands of dollars raised for big missional impact vs spending your hard earned time with real live needy people, preaching that produces altar call decisions for Christ vs living missionally amongst your neighbors while realizing evangelism takes a long, long time.

2. To make people feel God is blessing "our" church leaders, lean on the engineering of dynamic musical worship. From one of the fastest growing evangelical churches their website touts “come experience worship that will leave you speechless,” “God show’s up and leaves us in awe.” This kind of engineering declares what God feels like when he shows up. But this American interpretation of how God shows up unintentionally creates addicts for visible blessing they can see on a Sunday. But Post-Christians are aching and longing for a God who shows up without fanfare and promotional slogans. Funny thing, that’s exactly how God showed up when He finally came to earth in Jesus; vulnerable, humble and relational. Why not stick with this approach?

3. To grow people spiritually, churches attempt to engineer discipleship through expert run programs. Efficiency has replaced effectiveness. We’ve created a corporate Wall Street like church. In businesses, it’s about moving people from A to B as fast as possible, but has nothing to do with making people. Typically we have one charismatic guy with the vision and a culture of volunteerism to help that one guy get his vision accomplished. It’s the genius with a 1000 helpers. So while churches may claim to have “leadership or discipleship development programs,” what they really have are “volunteer pipelines” that are run by managers. Many churches are organizationally efficient, but aren’t affecting the lives of people the way in which Jesus imagined an organic family would. Living breathing people are formed in the context of shared life. The more we share life, counsel, time, truth and trust together in close proximity the more our Jesus-way rubs off on each other. Maybe in the engineered discipleship mode we run the campus well but don't create apprentices of Jesus. We’re keeping the machine of the church running but doing practically nothing to move the Kingdom into the cracks and crevices of our neighborhoods.

For me, staying disciplined to organic church practices is tough. Everything and everyone seems to be screaming for a quick return, a loud impact and an emotionally unbelievable experience you can brag about. I do not want the demand to drive how Axiom Church farms. I am convinced the engineering techniques the church unquestionably applies has created pew sitters that live their spiritual life through vicarious means. We’ve created producers instead of gardeners.