Don't Defend the Faith!

Instead, heal the people. God hardly needs us for protection, but the world most assuredly needs us to act as agents of Christ's hope and healing.

When I say "Don't defend the faith," I'm talking about how established Christians have this overwhelming urge, whenever a non-Christian makes a strong attack (either rightly or in error) on Christianity, to erect a defense. I spend a fair amount of time talking with people outside the church and I haven't found this to be helpful in any way, ever.

When the attack is accurate: confess
Sometimes people outside the church will tick off the reasons why they dislike God, the church, or church people, and they may be right on target. "The church is full of hypocrites," they'll shout, or "The church is responsible for some of the worst sins against humanity. Just look at the crusades, the Inquisition, and so on!" This is our opportunity to do a little confession. After all, there are these and more. The church could do well to spend more time listening to our sins and being heartbroken over them. And a sincere, heartfelt "You're right," often makes a tremendous difference to people outside the church.

When the attack is in error: wait
Sometimes the attack on God is spurious and insubstantial. Usually that means that there's something that isn't being said, an injury that goes deeper. These attacks usually turn up the greatest opportunity for healing, but you have to wait and watch for it. Sometimes you'll miss the cue, but you can count on getting another opportunity. There are still plenty of people in the world who understand very little about God.

Once the main part of the initial attack passes, you can begin to look for your friend's injury. Sometimes all it takes is making an observation, or asking a question.

I recently met a young man named Brandon. He initiated our conversation by telling me in fairly strong terms that he didn't believe in God, and that all religion was a crutch, or a drug. "Science explains everything," he adamantly assured me. Curious, I let him rant, and pretty soon the conversation took an unexpected turn. He shared with me an incident in his life in which he had treated his wife very badly. His speech slowed down some as he expressed his remorse. I knew my chance was about to arrive and started looking for it.

"Why do you feel such remorse?" I asked.

He looked at me as if I were nuts. "Because," he cried, "what I did was awful! It was a horrible way to treat her."

"How do you know it was bad?" I asked.

"I just know," he insisted.

"But how do you know?" I asked, "Science didn't teach you that. Science is impartial. Science doesn't care how you treat your wife."

He looked at me, silent for once.

This is when I knew I could offer the healing God brings. You never know if someone will accept it, but you if you can find the injury, you can always offer it.

"Science didn't make the world," I said quietly, "God did. And because God is good, and we are made in God's image, we're hardwired to know the difference between good and bad. Maybe that's how come you knew that you had treated your wife badly."

That was it. That was the end of my speech. For someone as angry and dismissive of God as Brandon was, I didn't want to bombard him with God talk, and he didn't ask. But in the end, the edge was gone from Brandon's anger, and I think he left with a new idea to mull, an idea which is pretty radical for him, and one which has the power to bring healing to his relationship with his wife.

Whenever I hear someone building walls around themselves or their faith (or lack of faith) I always wonder who or what they are trying to keep out. Jesus was more of a wall-remover than a wall builder, and our faith isn't a city to be defended from attack. It's a light to be shared.

How to get ready for your next non-defense of the faith: learn from the Master
The best way to share Christ is to know a little about him. Don't let your faith be a Sunday-only kind of thing; get involved in spiritual friendships, serve your church or find a ministry you can be a part of. Be a part of a small group or find a prayer partner. Read the great Christian leaders. The more you actively follow Jesus, the more you will know about how he operates.

Two of the tools Jesus used most to heal people were his ability to listen, and his well-put questions. Without being obnoxious, he was able to uncover what people didn't know about God. And when a person was vulnerable, he didn't rush to exploit, or crow about his superior way. Instead he invited people to join him on the journey and experience the peace and healing of living in harmony with God.

If God "provides all our needs" why do so many third world babies starve? (and more)

Q. If one of the foundational truths of our faith is that "God will provide all your needs", how do we put that in context with martyrdom, God's sovereignty, the third world, and Psalm 116:15 (Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints). If we exclude life, limb, comfort, food, and clothing from this promise, what exactly is it promising? Is it only spiritual? If so, why are we considering birds and flowers (Matthew 6:28 and 10:29)?

To begin with, I probably wouldn't characterize the idea that "God will provide all your needs" as a foundational truth of our faith. When I think "foundational truths" I hear one of the ancient creeds of the church. These creeds embody beliefs like "God made the universe," "Jesus is God's son," "Jesus was raised from the dead," and things like that. And in America, the notion of "what I need" is very often at odds with the Way of Jesus.

However, to address the idea of God's provision and sovereignty, and their relationship to the third world and martyrdom, we can begin with some basics.

First, Scripture is best understood as a whole piece of fabric; not every thread can equally represent the whole. God's provision for us can be seen from our perspective (a limited kind of view) or from God's perspective (of which we only have the barest understanding). There are good times to consider the birds and flowers, as Matthew 6:28 enjoins us, and there are other times when we are overwhelmed by the sorrow and suffering of the world, and we wonder what on Earth God has in mind. In the end, God's sovereignty means that there is so much more to life, death, and life after death than we will ever understand.

We do know this: God made us creatures of choice, and since we don't always make the best choices, there's going to be a lot of brokenness in the world. Americans are overweight while Rwandans starve. God could step in and address this, and God does it all the time: ever known a young person who left a promising career in law to feed children in Thailand? Ever been a part of a church that consistently creates opportunities to collect food for hungry people? Then you've seen, or been a part of, a tiny part of God's provision.

The issue of martyrdom and God's provision and sovereignty is more complex, but we still have some handles on it. Martyrdom, when it means dying for the cause of God (people will die for lots of causes, not all of them have anything to do with God), has long been understood in the church to be an act imitative of Christ's sacrifice of his life on our behalf. My understanding of God in Jesus does not make me think he enjoys death. In fact, the resurrection shows us that he will stop at nothing to be united with us in love no matter how much death we deal out.

The fact is that Jesus had the power to kill his enemies, and chose to love them instead. He died because he refused to kill. Many Jesus-followers have found themselves in similar situations. We often have the power to kill our enemies. Very often we tie our cause to God so that it feels morally right, although how often we've discerned that correctly is up for debate.

Sometimes we don't have the power to kill our enemies, but we do have the power to deflect our own deaths or suffering. On my first day in seminary, a teacher read aloud to our class the ancient account of the martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, much of which was written by Perpetua herself. At the end, many of us were in tears, and indeed, these two women's faith -- even unto death -- seemed deeply precious. Both of them could have avoided death by recanting their faith. They chose instead a path I can hardly fathom. In their story I see the brokenness of the world, the faith of two women (one pregnant and one a slave), and a God who inspires a kind of devotion I've never been called on to show. I come away with a different perspective on my life, and God's provision for me.

How do you know if it's God?

Q. I know someone who says God spoke to her in a dream. How do I know whether it was really God?

This is a question about discernment. In knowing what is or isn't "of God," there are at least three good sources of authority you can utilize.

1. The witness of Scripture. People love, of course, to pull out specific verses that they can use to "prove" or "disprove" things, but the best way to use it is as a whole, with an emphasis on the life and ministry of Jesus. In this case, Scripture shows us that God does in fact show up repeatedly in people's dreams, visions, musings, writings, and even in person.

2. The witness of God's people. The Bible and God's continuing interaction with creation is best interpreted in the context of a community of faith. The first thing young Samuel did when God called him in a dream was to go to Eli, his mentor in the church (1 Samuel 3). A great verse that tells about discernment in the New Testament church is Acts 15:28, in which the apostles say, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us…" There's the community of faith working to know God's will in the specifics.

3. The witness of the fruit that is borne (Matthew 7:16). The great evangelist, biblical scholar and teacher John Wesley was calm in the midst of the howling going on over women preaching in his day. In the end, he simply said that women's preaching bore great fruit, and people's lives were transformed as a result of his willingness to enable women to continue their service. With regard to dreams, the question to ask is how it played out. Did the results build the Kingdom? Were lives changed for the better?

A Quote for Questioners

"Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and dreams, try to love the questions themselves." -- Rainer Maria Rilke

Should women lead in church?

Recently I had another person ask by what authority a woman could lead a church. You would think I'd have my answer down pat after 15 years of doing this. But I still don't, and as a result I started a conversation about it with friends. Here's what came out of it.

No agreement necessary
Churches don't agree on this issue any more than they agree on divorce, the virgin birth, homosexuality, the Pope, or drums and projectors in church. And honestly, most of the issues we argue and fuss about in the church are field mice, not tigers, and the forces that oppose God get a lot of mileage out of our being embroiled in them. The question of whether women should lead churches is a field mouse. You can feel one way or the other (and go to a church that agrees with you) but it is not a question which will lead to your salvation. In fact, you can get so tangled up with it that you never get on the road with Jesus.

Scripture
You know, I had the classes in seminary on the "texts of terror" so often used to keep women from leadership in the church. Paul takes both sides of the issue, depending on where you look. Jesus doesn't say anything about it, but women fund his ministry, travel and minister with him, and are consistently accepted (healed, touched, fed, loved) by him. There are powerful women of scripture who prophesy, lead, judge, and serve God's people in a multitude of ways.

Experience
I didn't grow up in a church with a model of women in leadership. My experience of being called into ministry started the first time I ever saw a woman lead a worship service; I was about 25 years old, and utterly astonished by the power of that service. A year or so later Jesus came to me in a dream (very Biblical), and invited me to enter the life he led; guiding, being in relationship with, and teaching his people. My pastor and community affirmed this call, and here I am. Were all of us wrong? Could be. And I'm okay with that. I feel ready to face God and tell how I spent my life.

Err on the side of grace
My girlfriend Alicia had this wonderful thing to say: "If I’m going to err, I’d rather err on the side of freedom to serve Christ. I think the radical freedom God offers us in Christ — some have called it scandalous — has to be more than just freedom from… Yes, we have freedom from sin, freedom from rules, freedom from fear. But, we also have freedom to… We are free to serve, free to worship without fear of God’s rejection, free to love God and other people in wild and extravagant ways. For me, that’s the heart of pastoral ministry." You can read the rest of her thoughts here.

You shall know them by their fruits
The best response I heard to my inquiry came from my friend Mary Jo, who posed (and answered) the question this way: Does God have the power to call women into ministry if God chooses? If God has the power, how do we know if God has used that power to call women into ministry? As John Wesley said (and he got it from Jesus): by their fruits.

I'm good with that.

Matt Answers Monster Questions: I want to read the Bible each day, but never seem to have enough time. What can I do?

To understand how to start a good habit, you first have to think about other habits you have.

We have habits around things that we like to do and things that are easy for us to do. These may be good or bad habits. To start a good habit we have to use knowledge of ourselves and from that create effective patterns.

Patterns are actions that we can repeat every day and that will, over time, become habits. Here are some tips on creating patterns.

Start a pattern based on your habits and schedule:
If you are a morning person use that. If you stay up late, then use that. Do not try to shoehorn a new habit into an area of your life that will guarantee failure. If you have trouble getting up in the morning, then don’t try to get up earlier to read the Bible.

Keep the pattern going:
Do it even when you don’t feel like it and even if you don’t do it well. A winning streak matters more than the individual efforts. Maybe you have a bad day and don’t feel like reading the Bible. Do it anyway – make yourself read 5 verses – just a little bit can change your mood, or at least allow you to keep the pattern going.

Try to get the pattern to run downhill:
Think about how to make the pattern more pleasurable. Maybe involve music, going outside, another person, or some tool that helps you establish the pattern. Maybe you have a long commute each day and can get the Bible on CD to listen to in the car.

Try those things and let me know what you think. Next time, I will tell you how to make some really tasty BBQ sauce.

Matt Answers Monster Questions: How do I know when to wait for God to lead or to figure things out for myself?

I think a lot of people talk about waiting to hear from God to either do what they want to do or to not do the things that they know they should do.

We are not automatons (mindless robots) waiting for the next instruction from God. We should be in a relationship with God. People who are in a relationship are in communication and will know what actions:

1. Enrich the relationship
2. Erode the relationship
3. Have no effect on the relationship

Often WE want what WE want and will pretend that God wants that too or that God may not have an opinion on it.

The best way to get on the same page with God is to:

1. Serve others: in your home and at your job.
2. Give your honors to God: your titles, your accomplishments, your status.
3. Let go of material things: Identify the thing that you value the most and ask yourself if you could give it away.
4. Meet with others who want to know God.
5. Study God’s word.
6. Pray.

Matt Answers Monster Questions: Why did God make us?

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and when I ran out of ideas I asked my Thursday night small group what they thought. The universal sentiment was that they really don’t know either – some help they were.

However, we do know that God loves us. We know that God sacrificed a lot to save us from our sins. We also know that we are made in God’s image (though marred by original sin).

More interestingly, we know that the universe is a very large place and as beings that will live forever, we will have a lot of space to roam around in.

Many of us do not think that God made us because he was lonely. The closest thing that I can draw on is from my personal experience of having children. Karen and I did not have children because we felt lonely or incomplete. We had children as a natural outgrowth of who we are. Maybe the answer is as simple and as abstract as that.