What's missing in the gospel we spread?

North American churches have been sending missionaries to Africa for over 100 years. When I was in South Africa, there were churches everywhere, the effect of missionary effort visible every Sunday morning. Yet with all this apparently successful evangelism, why does the continent struggle so hard to enter the first world?

It begs the question: why hasn't Christianity made more societal impact? We witness extreme poverty, disease, crime and war in many areas of the African continent. Culturally speaking, the Gospel seems powerless there.

Then one day I heard a sermon preached by our dear missionary friend. He asked this rhetorical question to the group of church leaders he was preaching to: "If you had a choice to choose between being a pastor/missionary or the president of South Africa, what would you choose? Of course you should choose to be a pastor because it is much more important to represent God than a country!"

It seems self-evident that one way of rendering Christianity weak is by demeaning believers that fill functional roles in society--as if believers can't reflect God's lordship within those roles. Doesn't the good news of the kingdom of God have anything to do with the way believers live their lives within the kingdoms of men?

Is WikiLeaks evil or good?

My first reaction is that it feels very wrong to publicly disclose private communication. Morally speaking, stealing information and then disseminating it is sneaky and underhanded. Not to mention the potential danger to persons, regions and even countries. In some cases such leaks might actually jeopardize the work people are doing. And by saying we are entitled to know we second guess our leaders, arrogantly presuming that "we know better".

But then, the leaked communiques, while private, are not entirely personal correspondances; they pertain to the nations their authors represent. In a sense, the people writing these things were doing so on our behalf--or at least on behalf of the Americans (it was, after all, an American leak). We have the right to know how and why decisions are being made on our behalf, don't we? And if we don't like the way we're being represented we can then exert influence for change. Viewed this way, this becomes another way to keep elected leadership in check. The case can be made that this is consistent with democratic ideology.

Perhaps the question being asked is too black and white; everything doesn't just fall under two categories, good or evil. While information itself is neutral, individuals are seldom so. How we act upon what we know is the issue. And people do act on information...

Some say that the WikiLeaks sparked the Tunisian uprising, which has now rolled into an Egyptian uprising. Information is power. Given that humanity's track record for wisely using information isn't great, the role of Christians today to pray for divine influence on our decision-making cannot be underestimated.

WikiLeaks may result in good consequences, which wouldn't necessarily justify the release. Or it may result in awful consequences, which wouldn't necessarily condemn the release. In either case, we should see the need for God's help to steward the massive amount of information we face today.

What's wrong with this picture?

For the last few days, news media has been dominated by the unfolding story of the Egyptian uprising. Now on day 5 of their stand to end President Mubarak's 30 year reign, the movement was initially sparked by young people expressing their frustration through social media.

Ironically, I just now came across a different news item describing the apathetic attitude of Canadian youth has towards voting. Elections Canada is literally scratching its head over how to engage youth participation.

What's wrong with this picture? It seems that when things are good, people don't care very much. In contrast, oppression and injustice have a way of igniting passion in people--to right wrongs.

Yet we are encouraged to stay engaged and passionate with life and society even when things are rosy. Aim to go from good to great! Jesus said: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded..." (Luke 12:48).

The opposite of faith is works

But faith without works is dead (James 2:20). How confusing!

That's why it's hard to tell whether someone has faith or not just by observing their outward performance. Some people (religious and irreligious) work very hard because they are self-reliant, striving to justify their worthiness by what they do. In contrast, others work very hard because their faith in God empowers them to dream big, then strive to see those dreams become reality.

On the outside, the faithful and the faithless can both look the same. Though I'd bet that the faithful sleep better at night than their self-reliant counterparts.

Who needs faith when there is Tony Robbins

We live in an age of heightened self-awareness. All sorts of self-help gurus and motivational coaches teach us how to live successfully; they advocate behaviours that are good for us--things like having honesty, integrity, being grateful and positive, etc. And what they say does empower us, at least for the short term. These people help us recognize that there are principles in life, almost like natural laws, that guide human existence toward effective living. Who needs religion or faith when there is all this abundant knowledge about ourselves?

But then I'd like to argue that it's one thing to know the methods of successful living but quite another to actually do them over the long haul. The problem with self-help approaches is that they all rely on our 'self', i.e. on our works and performance. For those of us with weak will power, merely knowing a great methodology is basically useless. For those elite strong-willed few, constantly having to self-help becomes a heavy heavy burden; in time they show cracks too.

Unlike self-help gurus who put the burden on us, Jesus motivates with these comforting words: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Think win/win

That's habit #4 in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This win/win mentality is not our natural default. Life experiences point us toward win/lose thinking.

For example, there's only one champion for every Olympic race, one team holding the Stanley Cup, one winner crowned in each beauty pageant, one realtor claiming the top sales award, one movie receiving the Oscar for best picture, etc... In any contest or competition, each winner is trailed by numerous other 'losers'.

No wonder it is hard for us to be truly happy for others when they win. In the back of our mind their win usually means our loss. And so our scarcity mentality kicks in; instead of win/win, we think win/lose. How can we overcome this limiting and ungracious habit?

Christian theology has the key to free us from the scarcity mentality. Christians are children of the God of abundance and generosity (Psalm 50:10, Matthew 7:9-12; 2 Corinthians 9:8-10). By looking to God for our every need and desire, God's offspring can afford to be generous--making it easy for us to become win/win practitioners.

The challenge always is: do we have faith to live out this truth and make win/win thinking and living our natural habit?

Will there be faith when we need it?

When everything is predictable and familiar, faith can be just a concept; something we don't need now. That doesn't mean we don't value it, but we are content to hold it loosely until 'the future'...say, on our death bed or times of turmoil when life's storms happen.

That's not how Jesus talked about faith though. In the parable of the wise and foolish builder, he taught us to build ourselves on solid foundation before the storms of life hit us (Matthew 7:24-49). If we live through life without trusting God for much, how will we know that He'll come through for us when we have dire need?

I like the idea that faith will magically appear when we need it. But that's not how it happens with the Bible heroes we read about--Abraham, Moses, and Joshua for example. Each of these were in relatively calm situations when God called them to action--what I call faith-building opportunities. Later, when life's storms inevitably hit them they triumphed. We would be wise to follow this pattern, building our foundations when things are calm.

Challengers of the unknown

Christians should be adventurous risk takers; they have the right stuff for it. Because we know the worst that can happen to us in life--death--has already been taken care of and because we have God's assurance that he will be with us no matter what happens, we don't need to fear the unknown.

But I have observed that many Christians are just as risk averse as the rest of the world. We commonly function like atheists, living by our own wits, as intimidated by unknowns as anyone else. What good is faith if it just stays in our heads--failing to lead us to concrete action?

In contrast, Abraham challenged the unknown. He left his familiar country, people and family because he believed God's promise (Genesis 12:1-3). Trusting God, he put everything at risk when he prepared to sacrifice Isaac (Hebrews 11:17). And although he died without seeing the fulfillment of God's promise (Hebrews 11:39), the actions of his faith were considered righteous by God and proven fruitful by time.

Not too many of us are like Abraham. Comfort keeps us in our seats; we prefer the status quo. And even those of us that manage to step out a little often give up when we don't see immediate results. How little we grasp that our attachment to the familiar robs us of what God values most: trusting Him in the unknown.

Eternity is...

An artist's palette

sound of music

scented air

sweet as fresh figs.

Sore cheeks from laughing

joy from feasting

friends abound

foes no more.

Faith fulfilled

death defeated

fear vanished

perfection's home.