Bonnie Lewis

Evangelizing Techniques

Bonnie Lewis — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:24:08 -0800

Look, I am all for being passionate. To have something you believe in and the effort to share it with others is a very courageous endeavor. I don't care if it's your faith, your shampoo, your favorite recipe, or yourself when you were up for "most popular" in high school, I truly think that if you believe in it, then you should shout it from the rooftops.

"R-E-S-P-E-C-T"

I mean, done and done right?

"I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!"

Could this be more clear?

"Say no to drugs."

Very, very clear. In fact, we've established programs after this.

So please, shout out all you want. But can we talk about this? Can we try and be consistent with our policies? For example, if Aretha demanded a bit of respect and then punched someone and called them a "loser" then I might question her motives. Or if the ten year old who screamed for ice cream opted for a glass of lemonade, then well I would tell him that he should get his snacks straight. Or even, Mr. D.A.R.E. was caught smokin' the hash, I might wonder where he drew the line for "drugs".

So, GREENPEACE. I get you. I understand you are about going green, being friendly to the environment, and to keep the whales and the sea in mind. I have seen your maps of the trash that is the size of Texas, and I have seen the sad whales that have been hurt.

You showed me.

On the street.

As you blocked my way and would not let me get away. You showed me those photos up in Pasadena, and once was enough. I don't want to see them anymore. I don't want to see you at Albertsons, because when I tell you that I have already heard the pitch and that I have done all that I can, you don't believe me. You actually question my honesty. It's offensive. Because if you don't beleive me, then how do you know that I am not lying to you when I "listen?" How do you know that I am not preparing a banana cream pie to shove in your face at the perfect moment when you are pitching your story to me? I mean, if you think I am lying, then why ask?

I especially do not want to see you outside of Trader Joes. Because I watched you follow that poor old woman to her car and I watched you watch her put groceries in her car and you did not offer to help her. In fact, you just grilled her on why she would not donate.

But today, you really went overboard with your tactics. I confess, as I headed out of Trader Joes and I saw you with your clipboards with photos of Texan-sized-trash, I picked up my phone and called my mom. I did it so that I would not have to talk to you. I'm sorry. But I knew that no matter how much I explained to you my thoughts, you would tell me that I was lying through the asking of your questions. So I confess, I hid and I looked down, and you yelled to me, "Hey lady! Call waiting on line 2! It's the EARTH!"

I may be more apt to listen to you, but I do not get your inconsistency. You give me no peace to hear your story. And I find myself wondering, do we do this in sharing God's story?

Clutter

Bonnie Lewis — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:38:35 -0800

In her book, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott coaches her readers on the art of writing. She does pages after pages on how to write and what to write and where to start and the many drafts you will do. It's so hard for me to see the finished product and think that it was messy at first.

The "art", experience or journey, of sanctification seems to be the same thing. Sanctification is the "process of God's grace by which the believer is separated from sin and becomes dedicated to God's righteousness. Accomplished by the Word of God (John 17:7) and the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:3-4), sanctification results in holiness, or purification from the guilt and power of sin."* I say art because how many rough drafts of this process will I go though? I have been around for 24 years and feel like I could have written 7 or 8 autobiographies, because each time I pull out the Word and each time I let the Spirit work I am molded and I am changed and I am different. It's art because regardless of the process it's beautiful; it's a mixed up layer of redacting, exposition, strength, weakness, doodles, highlights and a starring method that I never remember the key. It's art because it s a form of getting out what has been inside, a pile of our thoughts and ideas on paper or our sins and transgressions before God.

"Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground-you can still discover new treasures under all these piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is a good as its going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, and suspended animation, while writing need to breathe and move."**

I am almost certain that if I were to hold up my yellow legal pad next to my heart it would look rather the same: cluttered. But it would still be beating and through the edits I would begin to see the makings of my final draft.

* Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary by Ronald F. Youngblood

**Bird by Bird by anne Lamott

You Invade

Bonnie Lewis — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:27:21 -0800

It's been cold and rainy here lately. I find myself going to sleep with the rain and waking to it as well. I adore it. There is something about the weather moving and changing, interrupting our lives that reminds me of the existence of something much bigger than my daily life and mundane tasks.

As a little girl I can recall being deathly afraid of the rain. My mom told me that God was moving the furniture, but as I pictured the giant couch being moved on the floors of heaven, I could not help but still shiver at the loudness of it all. My fear was quickly replaced with awe as I would watch my dad seat himself in front of the big picture windows we had in Arizona and marvel at the lightening that one only sees in a National Geographic catalogue. This is coming from a man who once watched a tornado pass from the porch a block away, or he who wanted to drive slower so that we may see the green cloud in the Kansas sky turn into that dreaded funnel shape. Later, he took me to see Twister on the big screen. I loved that date of ours. And he loves the storms. The lightening had a way of illuminating everything around us, causing the rain to look as though it stopped mid air and for that second, the dark was gone and was replaced with light.

I began to love the rain that night. Still, I hold a sweet memory of sitting on our plaid couch watching the desert drops pour down as hard and as much as they want. It stopped us in our tracks. It changed the fear in me to wonder. It illuminated the darkness around me and continually reminds me that always, no matter how dim or bright, the light will always shine in the dark.

So now, as I sit on my leather couch, hundreds of miles away from my dad, and years away from that fear, I am still moved by it all. We are so blessed to have a God that invades our lives, because they are not really ours in the first place.

New Year! (14 Days Late)

Bonnie Lewis — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:07:27 -0800

My gosh. I am 14 days behind the rush to start the New Year. I have finally chosen a resolution, and I have finally decided it's time to start 2009. The past two weeks have been trying in many ways, and I think we all sometimes feel similar emotions when on the brink of change. For odd reasons we feel depressed around Christmas and even the sparkling lights of the tree can not cheer us up. We are in the midst of the miracle of birth yet we often feel like death. It's statements like these that give me away, but I think that if we are truthful there is a part of that in all of us. Why does death greet me when I celebrate birth?

My mom, an English major in College, and now a high school librarian, always speaks of the literary device of the cycle of life and death. In a story when one person died, there would inevitably be a birth of a new life. Or, when there was a birth, there would soon be a death. Growing up, I never understood what she was referring to, and this past year, I lived in this tension, in this cycle.

My Grandma, my dad's mom, passed away this week. It was expected, but it still hurts. It's hard in many ways, but mostly because she is my last grandparent. It's a generation passing away, things they have seen will no longer be heard by mouth but only in printed words. It's hard because she has not been well for awhile, and when she was well, I did not have enough sense to appreciate that time. If only I could have frozen a moment or two when she was laughing when we were little, or she gave me a high five that was so awkward, and I could have taken a snapshot of that moment; but I didn't. And truly, this ink is not a spillage of guilt. I was so young, so naive and there was no way that I could truly appreciate and understand Grandma. Her wisdom. Her generation. The fact that now, in my life, that generation is gone, and the new one is rushing in is something that has, in one week, become a reality. The thought of being only second in line of my family name, instead of being third crosses my mind and I realize that instead of being last, I am now approaching the middle. It's puts a fragile cloud over my parent's life and my friend's parent's life. And mine. I am no longer a grandchild, but just a child, and my other friends, who once made the transition from grandchild to child are now...parents.

Two days after my Grandma passed, after a generation in my life came to an end, a new one began. My dear friends Megan and Randy had their precious twin babies. They are so beautiful and the beginning of this stage of life is something that now being married, I am beginning to grasp a better understanding for. I feel like I am in a race for wisdom, that I am so aware of what I have been missing by only living like I would forever be just a grandchild, and now, as a new awareness of being a child, I have much to learn before I become a parent. And so it's here, in the middle of that tension, of third to second, last to middle, that I find myself.

I am mixed with sorrow grief, joy and happiness and I can not help but begin to think of the generations that have come and those that will come next. We are fragile people. We are made out of dust.

Our history is precious and the patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith declared, as they saw God move "This is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Because, we know of where we came from, where we are headed, and who we are living for because of those who paved the way before us. We recognize the movement from generation to generation, yes as a literary device used in our favorite stories, but as an act of love, redemption, and culmination by our God, who knows each generation by name. And so, we too, will declare in the cycles of life and death, that "this is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob", because their lives are a thumbprint on ours.

The Wrath of God and the Upcoming Election

Bonnie Lewis — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:19:40 -0800

Romans 13:1-7 says this:

" 1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. 7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."

I have been pondering these verses over and over again in my head and heart and through prayer because they are difficult for me to accept. First, I think it's easy for all of us to live in fear of a government, an earthquake, a disease-anything that has the ability to have power over us. But, like this verse talks about, it is God who has appointed the government. But wait. What about corrupt leaders and rulers that have treated their people poorly or have failed us in the faith they professed to have? Did God really appoint them too? We are reminded of the Exodus and of Pharaoh's rule. Scripture tells us that God "hardened Pharaoh's heart", thus controlling Pharaoh and the situation even though Pharaoh was not a follower of Yahweh. It was a horrible time for God's people, and the fact that God allowed Pharoah to be in control, and His people to suffer tells us something about God. Our idea of comfort, or in this case, the Israelite's is vastly different from God's. It does not always look the same, but it does not mean that God has left the scene.

What we do see is that God used that situation to bring destruction against the myth of those days (some of the ten plagues is a a metaphor against the gods and goddesses of that day; resulting in an establishment of power and sovereignty of Yahweh over any other gods of Egypt), brought people out of Egypt and into the promised land, setting up the precursor to the story of our Christian faith: we are in slavery, and are in the Exodus. We need a Savior to rescue us and we are on this earth, rescued, but headed towards the promised land. So it is here that we find comfort and the truth of this Romans' passage speaks loudly: Our kingdom is not set up by the authorities of this world. We are called to abide by it because it's a part of order that God has set up on this earth. Why? Because He has appointed the leaders, and whether they know it or not, we see it or not, we have to have faith that God is using it for what He sees fit.

This last part is especially hard to swallow, because sometimes what we see is fitting, is hardly what God sees as necessary to His plan. We know that the Israelites hated their time in slavery, and in the wilderness. In fact, they even doubted God after He had rescued them! But God knew that the event of the Exodus would speak louder than the mis-understood cries of His people. This is why it is repeated in Scripture when God is declaring His name "It is I who brought you out of Egypt." This Exodus became a part of God's name, Rescuer and Redeemer.

So what happens when the president that is appointed is one that we do not agree with? What if we feel oppressed by a tax plan, a health care incentive, abortion rights to name a few? Does this change our view of God because He appointed it? No. In fact, it should change the view we have of ourselves and of our country. God's plan and purpose is to redeem all things. Revelation talks about the new heaven and the new earth, a restoration of all things He has created. So whatever the tax plan, whatever the foreign policy, God's agenda is to restore a world that He created, and we don't have a better idea of how to do it because we did not create it.

I agree that we should be in deep prayer, but our prayers should be focused on a deep faith in God and in His plans for our lives, this earth, and His return. No matter how bad it gets, or how scary it can become, we ultimately do not answer to this world, nor will we stay here forever, and it's empires, including the ones that we belong to will one day cease to exist. That is something that we can praise God for, and pray for ourselves and others-that we would have the strength to stand, no matter what the situation, in the peace that God is in control over everything.

This does not mean, however, that we should not vote, nor does it mean that we should vote for whomever is "cool" or "compelling" or the "norm". It is hard for all of us to stop judging other Christians for the choice they are making when they vote. We are all flawed in our thinking, every one of us, and the best we can do is read the Word, and vote not with our interest in mind, but how we truly feel that God would be honored the best. We must pray for discernment of these things, but these answers are also found in Scripture: caring for the poor, widow and oppressed, truth, honesty, the fruits of the spirit, the ten commandments, the beattitudes....the list goes on. But we face trouble when we realize that not one candidate fits all of these. So we feel the need to play warrior and we often give voice to slander or ridicule, and we put our faith in one person and we end up hating the other. This is no better than loving both and making no choice. Because it shows us our abilities to have faith in man rather than God.

The same thing happens when we make our decisions based on fear. Its so easy to get afraid of someone and so then we vote the other way. When we do this, we are putting our trust in the safer candidate. We must ask ourselves, "Is either one safe? "Or are both in danger of falling?" If we take a close look at the world around us, and Scripture we are aware that ever since the fall, the world is getting worse. It's not getting better. Sure we may have advances in technology or medicine, but the world according to God's purposes are not getting any better. So our trust can not be in one candidate, as we are tempted to claim that one person will destroy a good world. Our world is full of good things, but it's already in process of being destroyed. It's part of the plan. Both candidates will play a role in God's plan. To vote because we are afraid of the terrorist attacks that may happen if we vote one way, or the poverty if we vote another, for example, we are saying that the other candidate has the power to save the world. Unfortunately, I think we have to realize that neither have this ability. Sure, they may make things a bit better, but better according to whom? Better according to God's purproses to restore things in His timing, in His way, and only He knows that path. Afraid that this really is the end of the world? Then let's get this ball rolling. Why are you so afraid? Finally, it all can end. If it is, then our vote is not going to stop it. Cause it's not ours to stop. We did not create this earth, nor will we decide when it ends. The One who began it is the only One who has a say over life and death.

We are a Church that sees the upcoming election as a time of doom and dark ages that the wrath of God will come upon us. For aborting babies, for homosexual marriage, for not taking care of the poor, for stealing people's money, for being in a war. We think that this decision, this term, will bring wrath on His people. First of all, we are hardly a Christian nation. So let's stop that thinking now. The United States of America has not been appointed by God as His elect, and to act like that is to play God, and place politics with Religion in the same Bible, resulting in theology that is at best questionable. Secondly, we need to wake up and notice that this world is passing away. Abortions and everything else that we have labeled Christian issues and decisions and have thus cast our vote based on a few key words, is our sign that that is our wrath. We have been given over to the desires of our hearts, to be a world that has allowed this to take place. To exchange the worship of God for a lie. (Romans 1:24) This already is His wrath.

In addition, it has the danger of labeling people as "Good Christians" and "Bad Christians", and drawing thick black and white lines of what makes someone responsible or irresponsible. We must have grace for one another in our decision making, enough so that we can hear people out and we can discuss and pray together. How awful if we as the Body get to the point that we can not pray for whomever is appointed?

Man, woman, republican, democrat, barack or mccain need our prayers. Just like I need them and just like the homeless guy on the corner does. Because in Christ, we are all on the same playing field. We all are in need of Savior. So my hope is that we realize that we are called to act responsibly and through the Word, praying and discerning what would God want, even if that we means we have to potentially give up what we want. My hope is also that we all learn that our prayers need to not end in the out cry for the right person to be in office, but that no matter who is appointed, we realize God's sovereignty. And finally, my hope is that we do not judge one another, causing division between Christians because of who we vote for, that we would realize that we have the blood of Christ bonding us together that is stronger than any checked box on a ballot.

It had to be said. Where is our faith?

Gospel Today Pulled From Bookshelves

Bonnie Lewis — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:07:28 -0700

According to news sources, Gospel Today Magazine was pulled from LifeWay Christian Bookstores across the United States. Why? The cover, and topic, is "Female Pastors". According to the Southern Baptist Convention, owner of the LifeWay Christian Bookstores, it was pulled because it went against their belief on Women's roles as pastors, that it's only a role reserved for men. Gospel Today's owner, Teresa Hairston, is "shocked by this news." You can read the full story here.

But what are your thoughts? Yes, it can be about your stance on Women as Pastors, but what do you think about pulling it on the basis that you don't agree with it? Should readers have equal opportunity to read different views of Scripture since the store is LifeWay Christian book store, not LifeWay Southern Baptist book store?

For additional reading on the topic of women in ministry check out:

Two Views on Women in Ministry

Your or Someone Like you

Bonnie Lewis — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:39:41 -0700

I wish I could meet yourself...but younger. im not talking about the younger that you can get with botox or surgery which daily seems less shocking, but i mean the younger self: who you were before who you are now. i feel like all of us, love that self.

when i was little i used to cry and cry and cry every night because i was afraid of the dark and i knew that dad and mom would come in and comfort me and they would always take care of me. of course, after a few years (yes, years) this act got old and dad would threaten to put me in the cold shower. i never believed him, but one time, he came storming the room and I could only see the outline of his body as he reached down, picked me up and took me into the bathroom. the cold water knob was turned on to full strength and then the door opened, and i was shoved in, tears and clothes and all. i never cried in my bed again....not only to avoid a shower. but there was something liberating about that night. some freedom which was found in being saved.

we laugh now everytime we remember that story but as i sit here, i realize that i love that story. i love that self. i love that i was put into the shower. i love that story becuase that is me:

incredibly freaked out everytime that i hear a noise.
incredibly in need of someone to save me when i cry out.
and incredibly in need of some discipline.

i think we all are. i think that each one of us hates it at the time, but there is something refreshing and almost rewarding about being taken out of the hole we have fallen, or dug ourselves into, and brought into so much light that we must blink our eyes to see. I can not imagine a life without parents who sent me to my room, or a boyfriend who cared more about working things out then having his way, or a God who humbly carves away at the pride of my heart and gently uproots those weeds which are so deeply planted. as the weeds are being pulled, and the soil of my heart is being replowed, there is clarity that comes with the new found sun:

the noise i hear is the echo of the enemy's voice, speaking straight into wounds which have not healed, and hitting hard against the scars which i have so carelessly ignored.
i cried out to the One who I knew could, and did, save me...
and Jesus answered with loving discipline.

20 years after that cold shower i sit in my own room in southern california. i hear cars pass, roommates carry on conversation, and crickets whose voices echo from miles. what is different? nothing and everything at the same time. i still hate cold showers. i still wake up and night and feel like crying. i still cry. and now, as i have gotten older and i live away from my parents, not next to my sister and across the united states, i realize that i need that loving discipline more than ever.

the freedom i found on that night, and every cold showered night thereafter was the freedom to love myself. to clear the floor, lay out all of my tears, my fears, my insecurities, my pride, my sin and stand fighting to believe what i know is true. i am beautiful. i am loved. i am free.

" a rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool." proverbs 17:10

Leaving the Church from his perspective

Bonnie Lewis — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:36:35 -0700

August 2, 2008

the difference between names and faces is completely fascinating. I can go my whole day and see a hundred faces. Where I get my morning coffee; it's the same barista, the audience is the same as we play out a joke we seem to have played so many times before this moment. I feel connected to that person, yet i do not know his name. if i saw him, not in the uniform of black and white and that silly hat, i may not know why i know them, but I would register that somehow i do. would i recognize him quicker if i knew his name?

all of this is going through my head as I am lazily standing around sipping my coffee. its about 8:30 and the day has begun. nothing much has changed, and i woke up with that same feeling of insignificance as i had the morning before, and the one before that, and the one...

it's not the feeling of smallness i got when i grew up by the ocean. when my Dr. parents lived at the hospital and provided me with the entertainment of the waves crashing and the seagulls making noise just by staring out of any of the windows. we had a roof that was protected and had lawn chairs, a fridge, a bbq, and a fire pit, and i remember after a late nights with friends over, sitting up there, and when all was still I would look up at the stars and listening to the ocean and just felt small. real small. small like the whole thing could come crashing down on me and i would just. be. immersed.

no, it was not that smallness, it was insignifigance that is rooted in fear and rejection. it's the deteroration of the sugar as soon as it's placed in my coffee. the photograph up against the real thing. and it hits me every morning when i wake up; this reminder that there is nothing better coming, that this, young son, is your life.

so i got up, and i started today like everyday. i got dressed, ate in silence and went for my morning coffee. i know it's cheaper to do it at home, but i live alone and the chances of me actually cleaning that coffee maker are slim to none, plus i like the idea of seeing people in the mornings, even if it's just the normal crowd at The Fix. Ha. that name. i'm sure it was penned by some guy playing off the words of the caffeine induced culture we live in, or maybe he really thinks that people must get their fix, and as much as i like coffee, i could switch if i needed to. you know, like if we got a universal message saying that all coffee was extremely bad and we had to switch or our futures and health and families would be doomed, then i could do it. but not this morning. not today.

i'm already here at The Fix and that little girl with her mom is already here and they make me smile. i dont know her name either, and sometimes i wish i did, but you risk sounding more than you bargain for by being a 30 year old guy who is asking little kids their names. so i smile politely and i just keep going.

my order has been completed awhile ago, and i have already begun to sip my coffee but i just keep standing there. i replay the steps of making the coffee perfect, even though i can taste the sweet flavors in my mouth. i go through the list of ingredients and meausrements and they are correctly there. but i just keep standing.

i am really bothered that this person, who makes my drink and the guy who takes my money and exchanges it for something smaller, does not know my name. he knows my favorite drink, relatively what time i get up in the morning, and what dress style my work has me dress in. he could probably guess my age, although i have been told i look younger than i am, but it's at this shallow level that he must stop swimming. the pool ends. no more.

i am sipping my coffe, watching the little girl, and staring at the barista. i am so incredibly bothered all of a sudden that he is a stranger to me yet we interact like we are old friends i want to scream and yell my name out loud. i want to shout about my family, about my dad who loved me and my mom who got sick. i want to yell about the sister that i always wanted but never had, about my job that i can not stand most of the days, but that like many good novels, i try and pretend it will all have a happy ending.

my grip tightens on my coffee cup and i am suddenly aware of the fragile nature of recycled cup. it has never seemed to be malleable and my own strength begins to surprise me. as my fingers dig deep into the protective sleeve, i start to think about all the faux pas' about me that make me, me. all of a sudden, these private facts that stand between me and the barista are tapping their feet inside my head impatiently and their hands are rattling their cages in desperate effort to get out. as i make a list of my own secrets in my head i start to wonder if this barista, and this world, would love me just the same if they knew them. i start to wonder if what makes a secret not it's content but it's packaging. what if i just let it out so they could all hear, would the coffee taste different? would he keep asking me how my morning was? or would it suddenly turn sour and bland, would that be the day that we got the message that we had to switch our coffee habits to something else, something that would sting away the harshness of the sun that has come into my life since i stopped keeping secrets.

suddenly my grip is so much that the coffee explodes, jumps out of the cup and all over the floor. im soaking wet with the fix, and my skin is burning under my clothes. like a movie pushed on pause, the entire place. just. stops. moving. eyes are on me, on my tie, on my watch, on my face. murmurs begin to stir as people loose interest and a few napkins are pushed in my direction. the barista begins to re-make my drink, i do not even have to tell him. he seems to realize we all fall out of cookie-cutter patterns, but we just need a reminder, a mark of something familiar to get back on track. with my clothes stained brown and my ego stained with embarrassment, I reach for my new drink

i imagined hearing, "hey jack. no big deal, you all right man?"

what i got was, "you still have some coffee on your face."

leaving the church

Bonnie Lewis — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:12:13 -0700

Ever since I can remember, I have gone to church and loved it. I loved the Sunday School games, the hymns, the Christmas programs, the energy, the potlucks...we were a church family. However, I was just a child then. I went to church where my parents went to church, and no questions asked. Now, as I am newly married, a seminary student, and am asked by my community, my family and my self, what type of person I will be, what I will believe, and what I will allow to define me; my husband and I find ourselves very seriously thinking about where we go to church. For someone who has always accepted church as being a part of the non-questionable Sunday routine (and youth night when the activity seemed fun enough to go), we are finding ourselves refreshingly shocked that we are not taking church with such openness. We are being very particular, and dissecting the sermons, the worship and, if I am honest, the leadership.

We are making our very best effort to not be judgmental and instead of putting up sermons, practices, and programs up against our preferences, we are trying to put them up to Scripture and see what the Bible has to say about church and asking God to lead us to the right community. One of the many resources that we have found very helpful is Gordon MacDonald's book, "Who Stole My Church." It's a fictional story based on over 45 years of pastoring experience, where a church is facing the difficulties of a changing culture. It's phenomenal. It deals with problems and issues that we encounter, and in a unique narrative way, MacDonald tells a story of a community who searches Scripture and invites you to join them.

We also have been surprised to realize that many are leaving the church today. Some blame it on the church and they ways that they have been "burned". (Count me in) Others blame it on the poor exegesis that goes on in the weekly sermons (Count me in). What about the lack of programs or discipleship tools? Biblical Faithfulness? Although it is disheartening to see where the Church is going wrong; it is only by this knowledge that we can figure out how to make it better. I am not saying that we should leave the minute we have an issue; because that is what life is about. However, I am saying that we should always test everything, and weigh it carefully, and deal with it in a Biblical way. All that to say, here is a unique and telling blog that allows an inside look into the reasons that people are leaving church: Letters From Leavers.

If this many people are leaving the church building, are they leaving the Church?

According to PewResearch.org, in 2008 more than 25% of American adults have left the religion that they were raised in for another religion, or abandoned it altogether. 44% have changed religions, switched affiliation, or become dis-affiliated with religion, with 16.1% of American adults have declared no affiliation at all. Finally, 1 in 4 18-19 year olds say they are not part of a religion at all.

Why are people leaving?

What are your grievances with the Church?

What have you done about leaving, or staying and how did you walk through that?

Thy Kingdom Come (as long as I can control it)

Bonnie Lewis — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:27:01 -0700

The best thing about a good song is the beat. Now a days, people are always making iPod playlists, car soundtracks, and video montages with that perfect song because life is just a bit better when walking to a beat. This is most likely one of the biggest driving forces behind the sales and the obsession with the iPod. According to arecent study there are approximately 70 million current iPod users. [1] Take a second and think about that number. An average heart beats103,680 beats in a day. That means that if music was blood, there is enough music being played in to give 67,515 people breath. These white ear-buds give it’s owners the ability to drown out the societal noises of cars honking, baristas screaming and even their own thoughts and get lost in a rhythm that seems tobeat the same thump-thump of the emotions of their heart. But why, why must there be anelectronic phenomenon to create this rhythm? Is this world so chaotic that ears must be stuffed full ofbeats in order to truly hear? Must footsteps really be in tune to the latest and greatest song, or were they meantto hit the pavement to different sort of rhythm?

The Old Testament is filled with rituals, dietary laws, and festivals all centered around food. Celebrated yearly, at the same time, and with the same guidelines, these feasts and festivals imprinted a rhythm on the lives of the Jewish nation. They were feasts the Israelites could count on, rules they knew like the back of their hand, and blessings which they hoped for. These rituals have been continued on till today, and food holds the central part of the guidelines. One Rabbi refers to these festivals as a map of understanding and referenced these festivals as “lodgings for travelers making their way throughthe year.”[2] They have become more than holidays, but instead sign posts of the cyclical calendar of food and Scripture. Remembrance of provision. This calendar puts into place a seamless connection between food theology and God, and unlike in the Church today, they went together like peanut butter and jelly,not like water and oil.

Take the Passover meal. Today, it’s known as communion. Some take it weekly, some monthly and others never have really gotten the point of it. The communion meal began as Jesus’ Passover dinner. It commemorated the Exodusfrom Egypt and served as a reminder of God’s provision and faithfulness among His people. This story was knownby everyone who was Jewish, and so the Passover meal played a central role in their faith. Food, not only in Passover, but other contexts as well, became the beat that held the rhythm of remembering God’s faithfulness together. Could it be, that this rhythmic pattern of food has been lost in culture today? The number of people with eating disorders is three times the number of people who are diagnosed with AIDS.[3] If that is not shocking, then perhaps the fact that 15% of women who are pregnant have eating disorders and will give birth to babies who are malnourished. Globally, the price of grains and bread has sky-rocketed by 83%[4],making something as easy as bread to buy be close to impossible to some foreign countries, yet in some parts of the world there is an over abundance of food. Didn’t Jesus teach His followers to pray for “daily bread?” Why, then, is it so hard to find? In 1970, the average amount of food available to an average person was 1,675 pounds of food in one year. Since then, it has jumped by16% and now the average person has 1,950 pounds of food available a year. [5]With more food, then shouldn’t there be less starvation? The problem is that with the rise in food production, there has been a rise in food consumption. On average, people are consuming 42% more calories a day, and people are 74% more likely to be obese than in 1970 yet over half of Americans do not think their diet needs to change.[6] The statistics are jumping all over the board, but so is humanity. Food in overabundance and in deficiency costs $250 billion dollars in medical costs a year with over half (53.3%) of caused deaths. On some level the issue is overweight and underweight-neither are healthy. But on the other, more prominent hand, the question should not be pertaining to the amount of food available, but what is done with that which has been given. God gives man authority to enjoy food and drink in Genesis. In the New Testament Christ feeds 5,000 with two loves of bread and a few fish. However, how come these essentials to life have become so incredibly mis-treated?

Over eating, hording, under-eating, starvation and wastefulness is an epidemic that is just as awful as the starving children in the Sudan, and honestly; it’s worse. Many can afford the food but it has so much control over their hearts that they choose to starve themselves. One of the top three causes of death in America is dieting.[7]What sort of rhythm is that? Thisis just as awful as the consumption of food going up…whether we are eating too much or too little, there is not a rhythm in our lives and it is invading that which has been designed to remind us of God’s provision.

Close in on Sarah. She is a seventeen-year-old girl who, like most her age, is struggling with her body. Is she too skinny? Too fat? To dark? Too light? As she harmlessly posesthese questions in her mind, she begins to dissect her being. Day after day she dissects a bit farther and it’s not long until that scalpel has penetrated her core. She begins to hate the way she looks and she wants to change it, and so as she flips through the TV commercials, she can’t help but notice that food seems to be the proposed answer. Drink Juice for 72 hours. Eat only vegetables. Count calories. Get the results you want. Overwhelmed by all the choices, she walks away decides to try the mall. Determined, she begins to control her intake of food, her exercise habits…which eventually, will controlher body…her mind…and the way she views everything else.

About 45 million Americans diet each year, spending about $1 to 2 billion dollars on weight loss programs a year.[8] Whatever happened to a balanced diet and regular exercise? The truth is that that takes time, money and effort, none of which people have excess of. Weight Watchers is the only diet that has proven effects of weight loss, and this program takes lots of time and effort[9]. One must calculate out food, can’t eat whatever they want, and must exercise as part of the program. Other fad diets, like manufactured pills, eating only a certain kind of food, and never having to exercise give results for a few hours or few days at best, but do not show long term change. This is because food is not meant to be consumed in this way; it is meant for health, balance, structure and a reminder of that which is sacred.

God chose to use food to explain His Kingdom fully aware of the imbalance. Manna was given to Israelites in the Exodus on a daily basis, each day they were given what they needed for that day alone. No more and no less. In fact, if anyone tried to save some for the next day because they did not believe it would be provided, it would be inedible in the morning. In addition, Jesus begs His followers not to worry about food and drink, because He knows it will be provided for them. But in a culture that is obsessed with diet and control, he provision of God’s kingdom is not understood, because there is not a practice of understanding the provision of health that comes from food.

Fast forward six years down the road from Sarah’s teen years. She is now 23 and after long sessions of eating disorder counseling, countless sharing of her testimony, and daily battles, she has stepped over the bridge of mental turmoil and into a place of healing. She can eat her food now and not think of the calories, she can go to the gym because she enjoys it, and she can look in the mirror and believe that she is beautiful. However, regardless of what she eats, how much she eats, and what she does for exercise, Sarah seems to struggle with other issues in her life that never seemed to important before. She has no money. How will she pay off her loans? Payrent? She is constantly worried about the well being of her family. Are they safe? And after a string of hopeless relationships she begins to wonder if she will ever get married. Like any “good” Christian would do, Sarah opens her Bible to the teaching of Jesus. She is immediately faced with parables,examples, writings, of that which used to haunt her: food. Banquets. Feasts. Wedding dinners. Feeding 5,000 out of two loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus relies on food to tell about the provision of His Kingdom. It is open to all, and will provide for all. But Sarah is so used to controlling food and the results which it will produce, she is having a hard time fighting off controlling the Kingdom in her own life.

The treatment and understanding of food should be parallel to the treatment and understanding of the Gospel . Unfortunately, the power asserted over food and the effect it has, has been transferred into power over the Gospel. Paul warns the Church about this power struggle Romans 14. In fact, he uses food as an example of a divisive nature. He knows that food has the ability to separate and to judge, just as much as it has the ability to bring people together. So in a world that is divided much by food, a correct diagnosis of the problem is needed. In a recent study, 6 out of 10 Americans say that Aids and poor nutrition are the most serious problems in Africa. By ignorance, we have labeled Africa as the only place with these problems. What is not seen, is that globally, 88% of Africa suffers from poor nutrition and 80% of the rest of the world suffers from it as well. The problem cannot be diagnosed as only pertaining to under-developed countries. Foreign Aid policiesare often marked by needs which are thought the most important, but often they are grossly mistaken. Instead, it must be understood that it is an epidemic that has invaded humankind. As Christians, it as part of the cycle of this world, but also as having deep ties to Christ and the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately food as the source of life is marked by control, doubt, greed, waste, gluttony and pride and the deeper understanding that food is supposed to give has been lost. Is the current state of food consumption a reflection on the consumption of the Gospel? Pick and choose what tastes good, what will give the desired results, and throw the rest to those who we think need to hear it.

[1] http://mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/ipod_users_lies_damned_lies_and_statistics/

[2] Strassfeld,Michael. The Jewish Holidays, Harper Quill. New York, 2001.p 1

[3] http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=14958

[4] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89697004

[5] http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Consumption.asp

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid

[8] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/03/health/main664519.shtml

[9]Ibid