Christian Consumption.

Alright everyone welcome to my new site.

I've realized that the "art" of a blog is in attempting to keep things short and concise but full of power and influence. So if the last couple blogs are any indication of how I'm doing. (I apologize)

But hey I have quite a few things to say... here's the deal.

I spent an entire year at Kupyer learning how to hear others, to keep quiet and to engage in listening to others. (yes hearing and listening are two different things) I became pretty good at the whole "hearing and listening" thing. I'm actually very fond of hearing and listening to others, but I also feel that God is pressing quite a bit on me to engage and present material to others as well. So if I come across a bit exhaustive in my writings...I apologize (well sorta)...but not really- because I'm no longer writing for myself.(not entirely true). If you have known me for any length of time then you would know this...wherever I go- I have a pen and notebook with me. I'm CONSTANTLY writing down idea's, concepts, analogies, thought processes, stories, etc. This would be one of the chief describing things about me that even Tina would tell you. My mind does not stop.

So that was my intro, welcome to my humble abode- please take your shoes off and stay awhile.

I mentioned previously I'm not going to be a stickler here for grammar, punctuation, etc... I do quite a bit of academic writing through out the week. Let me be pleasantly lazy here... Please.

Guess what? I'm 26 today. Pretty awesome eh? I really feel that this is going to be a great year and a lot of changes are in order. There is a sense of a "Holy expectation" or a "Divine expectation"... I can't put my finger on it but things are slowly and surely becoming clearer. I've been doing a lot of reading on the emerging church movement (some really good stuff) and I've come to a conclusion- I am entirely okay with doing whatever needs to be done to spread the Gospel and that may look a little rough around the edges, it may look outside of tradition, it might fail right out of the gate, but that's okay. Let's be scientists, artists, story tellers and engineers!

When I look at what the Kingdom will look like- I of course see the face of Jesus. Yet I also look at this concept of community. It's all about community- not group huddles, not organized little circles but deep, loving, sharing in joy and tragedy communities. Jesus speaks an awful lot about children. So I took a minute or two to look back at what I in particular viewed as enjoyable in kindergarten. What did I view as engaging, thought provoking (about as thought provoking as it can be for a 5 yr old)?

Show and Tell!

And why?

Show and tell created opportunity for sharing, for creating community, for fostering individual worth and significance.This was vital to my Friday afternoons at Edison elementary... if I forgot my item for show and tell - I became absolutely crushed. There is no performance anxiety with show and tell "Oh the person before me will be more enjoyable" Or "the person after me will be funnier than me or better than me" This does not happen in "show and tell." What is vital to me is most important to me and for you just the same. What would it be like to hold "show and tell" at our churches? "Hey... so this might just look like a candle stick but its vital to me because it is a family heirloom and its priceless" It's priceless because it holds history, heritage, love and communal aspects.

Hey 5yr old Lance what did you bring to show us today?

"I brought my Michelangelo Ninja Turtle because he's my new toy."
"Oh really, why is he important?"
"Because... my Dad bought him for me, and I love my Dad."

You see the power?

We open up, we share, we discuss, we move to action as a community about the things we know, love and care about! and (PS: we do it together)

So that's my little rant about community. Again just imagine if we lived like micro communities...what that would mean. "Oh Bob... I hear things are tough right now financially- how can I help?" Bob, "I'm short $100 for rent" "Here you go Bob"

"But...but..."
"Don't worry Bob, we know and love you. You have me next time."
This is Kingdom language.
It's as if Jesus is saying through out the entire New Testament.
"Hey welcome to the family" "
"Welcome to walking with me as you were always intended to walk"

"You will learn what its like to be fully human in Gods eyes"
oh and...
"Welcome to the Community"
Boy I have to move on... I'm getting heated up. I have quite a bit to say and I'm getting long winded here. Just remember... flesh must touch flesh.

This morning Pastor Dave and I briefly got on the subject about the secular and sacred world. This has been a vital point of study, and interest for me for sometime. I'm intensely interested in breaking down the divide. All is Gods, So we need to act like it. I've written about 5 years of online blogs about this sort of thing, I've written recently an entire seven page paper about this sort of thing, I discussed this in class last night, and it found its way into coffee conversation this morning. Oh and while I've been thinking, examining, hypothesizing about what this means... my buddy Zac in his place of conversation (where ever that was... work, school, etc) was having a similar thought process. God is Great, and sometimes he just acts in such weird ways or dare I say "creepy ways." Can God be creepy? Come on think about it... (just have a sense of humor for a second) Okay... now back to the discussion.

So what was I saying?
Oh yes we were talking about Sacred and Secular, Christian consumerism.

There is a particular "family" store in this area that sells books and Christian trinkets... I'll leave it at that in my attempts to keep things respectable. I shop here from time to time... I've bought books, shirts, and I may even go in there soon to buy an ESV study Bible (because I do not yet have a "good" study Bible and because the study notes are from a reformed perspective... so that could be good and it could be bad (or dare I say a "learning" experience) So this local Christian bookstore is really not horrible by any means but there are some definite short comings. This store operates exactly like every other store. That is a problem. It's a problem because the business model of "secular stores" do not operate on Christian ethics. Yep I said it, and I mean it... So they close at 4pm on Sundays instead of 7pm like everywhere else. That is being radical? Sure that's nice but how about this... close Sundays and close on an noteworthy "business day" like... Thursday. Close Thursday and Sundays, most retail folks work 5 day weeks anyway... so stay open Monday-Wednesday, Friday-Saturday.
Why?
Because your a store that represents something bigger than a product line. You represent the King, and you represent a Kingdom that does not operate like the Empires of the world. Make people question what you are doing. Because if they question, then they seek to involve themselves in what you are doing in order to find answers. This in a way is discipleship and it's imperative to the expansion of the Kingdom and it doesn't "just" happen.

Don't do the typical "Christian thing" ohh we observe Sundays. etc.... etc. Do something completely different to throw everyone off of their Christian complacency and drawn up bias. Make them scratch their heads, and make them ask questions. Be the revolution. Do things different because the text you live by tells you to.
Which brings me to my next thought...
These type of Christian stores do this often as well...
Take something that is popular in the secular world and they say "hey that works and sells with the greater majority" So they take the concept, they build it themselves and they put a Jesus cross or fish on it and now its "safe, good, clean and creative."

But it's not.

Take for example. (I'm really not attempting to be a bully here...)
Guitar Hero (huge hit with the mainstream gaming crowd)
So Christian companies do this... "hmmm Guitar Hero... how about making a "safe, clean" version?" Then we end up with Guitar Worshipper, or something similar. There are a bunch of Christian bands, a guitar, and a game disc. It looks from the outside like the secular product and if you stopped to smell it... it may just smell the same also. But and there is always a but... here's the deal.
The product is just as expensive to buy, but its made cheaper, it feels cheaper and the graphics are awful. Instead of going to the experts who made the gulp..."secular" version of the hit game... a cheaper, more affordable copy has been made. With this line of thinking it becomes awfully easy to connect the attempted message with "Bad product- Bad message" Even if the message and the agenda is that of a "good agenda"- the product can overshadow it.
So what should someone do?

Here is a novel idea: Contact those who do it well and say "hey we would like to pay a little up front to put this band and this band from the "Christian landscape" on your next gaming disc"
So a Switchfoot track next to a Metallica track? Yeppers. Rulers and peasants, Pharisees and sinners will be sitting together (and in the end Truth always wins)

Its like this...
"Oh so we found out that kleenex is pretty popular with the sneezing crowd" "They like the way it feels on their sensitive lil' noses."
So what should we do? Oh I gotcha we should make "Holy tissue" "If they like kleenex now, imagine if we put Bible verses on it... that will engage them and excite them!"

Yet if the tissue feels like sand paper and my lil' noseee hurts after using it. I can care less about Bible verses being on it- the purpose that it was built to serve has little or no function to me- so I disregard it.

Not to mention what are we doing putting Bible verses on something we wipe our nasel waste with? I guess this puts a whole new emphasis on "Bless You"

If you are going to call something "Christian" then it better be as good or better than... dare I say its "secular" version. Because far too often a product will meet its message head on. Bad products send bad messages. Good products send good messages. I can "trust" this product. I "enjoy" this product. Just because a cross or a Jesus fish is on something does not mean that it is good, creative, true and powerful.

So with that being said... I must go. Thanks for reading and lets take a hammer to the Sacred and Secular divide shall we? Let's change the World.

Question to think about:

"What is it like reading a text about revolution while sitting in the comfort of your four walled church?"

Until next time. Thanks for reading, enjoy your week and May Peace be with You.

- Lance