10:35 PM Posted by Justin Manny

Change is Coming

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This is my first post of the year.  It's been a long time since I had time to sit down and do this.  Since I couldn't sleep, I thought I'd blog.  But after pre-ordering the new U2 album on iTunes and check facebook, I apparently only have 39 minutes to get out a lot of thoughts that have been plaguing me of late.


I'm struggling with what the American church has become.  I'm struggling with how, now, for the most part, we are consumers first.  I'm struggling with how being a consumer has change the expression of the church.  I realize that the marketing machine of all the large corporations have done an incredible job of telling us that unless we buy this specific brand of soap, no one will like us, or girls will fling themselves uncontrollably at you.  Why have we become consumers?  When did the shift happen for being active in producing things to simply buying products that make our lives easier.  Here's an example.  My sister, who lives in Florida, is mesmerized the Snuggie.  If you do not know what the Snuggie is, well you are missing out.  The Snuggie is a blanket with arms in it.  They say, "Oh blankets are so inconvenient.  When you are sitting on the couch, they slip and slide off, and your can't change the channel on the TV cause you have to take your hands out to use the remote.  But with the Snuggie, you are wrapped in a cocoon of warmth.  Simply call this number and for $19.95, we'll send you a Snuggie in one of three colors.  But wait, if you call in the next 5 minutes, we'll throw in another Snuggie free!  Plus, if you use your credit card, we'll throw in two book lights so you can read books in the dark, just pay shipping and handling!"  So, when I see that commercial, first I think, "Man, a Snuggie!"  But then I realize, wait a minute.  This blanket that I have is doing a perfectly fine job of keeping me warm.  Why do I still want a Snuggie?  That's marketing.

Why are we quick to change what we do when things are hard?  Why do we change when something doesn't go how we thought?  Well, that has to do with the messages that are sent to us in ads everyday.  And I see it coming over to the church.  I see people coming in to be entertained.  But if the music isn't how they want it to be, or the message didn't have enough jokes, they complain.  If something isn't exactly how they want it, they'll leave and find another church.

I tired to find some where in the Bible where it said things about Christian going church hopping.  I couldn't find anything.  I also looked through all of the letters of Paul to see where he said that church was about making myself feel good.  Couldn't find that either.  I looked for references to singing only upbeat songs with catchy lyrics and a smooth melody.  I never found it.  But what I did find was, Paul, being beaten and shipwrecked and stoned and bitten by snakes and ran out of town and hunted down, because he was a Christian.  I found a man named Stephen, who was so bold in what Christ had called him to do that he let the Jews stone him to death.  I saw James saying that we are to love our neighbors, no matter what, and that includes the guy who just cut you off on the interstate.  I think the most important thing I found was Jesus.  Not the guy with the white robe and light-blue beauty pageant sash.  I saw a Jesus who went where other people wouldn't.  I saw a Jesus that challenged the religious right, people that were more concerned with following every letter of the law than the heart of the law.  I saw a Jesus who preached that the Kingdom of God was coming and that it was going to rock the world to it's foundation, and it was going to bring people to their knees.

Why was the Kingdom of God so much more active in the book of Acts?  Why were the first century Christian so ghung ho that a martyrs' death was welcome?  When did Christianity become about safety, and hanging on till I get to go to heaven.  Jesus called each of us the Kingdom of God.  We can bring that to the earth right now.  The Kingdom of God is a giving up your Saturday to go downtown, every week, and talk to homeless people.  The Kingdom of God is loving a girl who is pregnant, no questions asked.  The Kingdom of God is not being satisfied with poverty, but fighting to make the world free of poverty.  The Kingdom of God is something that should be advancing into enemy territory, not waiting inside their church building till it's time to go to heaven.

Our culture has started to make a difference to those who need it.  Why is the church not on the forefront of these issues?  Why isn't the church more concerned about AIDS?  Why doesn't the church want to care for God's creation?  When did the church become aligned with on specific political ideology?  Change is coming.  For the better.  And if we don't wake up, and look at what we call important, it's going to change without us.  And in the process, a whole generation of people who are making a difference in the world may miss out on the church.   They don't want to sit and consume.  They want to do.  The want to get their hands dirty.  They do it because they know all people are equal, not because they are called by the God who made us to what he is doing.

Bono said in his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2006 that God is on the move.  He is going to the place he has always been.  He's going to the poor, the downtrodden, the broken, the enslaved, the marginalized.  Are we going with Him?  Are we being the Kingdom here on the earth?  It's time to bring the change to the world that God is calling for.  If we don't God will use others.  And I don't know about you, but I'm tired of consuming the American church.  I'm ready to be an active participant in the Kingdom. I'm going to make a difference.

Thanks for reading.

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10:49 AM Posted by Justin Manny

unChristian

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Lately, I've been reading my way through a book called unChristian.  I don't think it's for everyone.  A lot of statistics about what people really think about Christians today.  Needless to say, it has really opened my eyes.  


For three years, David Kinnaman surveyed the new emerging generation about what they thought on a range of subjects, but specifically their thoughts about Christianity.  The top opinions held were: hypocritical, over evangelical (meaning, they only talk to people to get them saved), antihomosexual, sheltered, too political, and judgmental.  I'm not going to get into it, if you want to find out about that, buy the book. What I got out of this book was that what our Christianity looks like to the outsider is the exact opposite of what Jesus intended it to be.  And aren't what outsiders think about it what really matters?  Aren't we supposed to make other people want what we have, not drive them away in droves?  Let's think about this.

Jesus came to the earth to shake things up.  The Pharisee show up a lot in the NT, usually debating with Jesus.  We seem to think of the Pharisees in a negative light, and rightly so.  But truthfully, modern American Christians seem to show a lot of the same characteristics.  We have set up what we think "church" is, and we make others conform to it.  We know what sin is, yet we try to make up rules to get as close as possible without sinning.  We do things that once had the right meaning, but now we just do them because we always have.  Judgmental sticks out a lot to me because it turns people off the most.  I think about the story in the Gospels of the woman caught in adultery.  Sure the Law said to stone the woman, and the Pharisees were ready, and right, in doing it. But what did Jesus do?  He turns the Law back to the original meaning, which is Love God, and Love People.  Plain and simple.  He says, if you haven't sin, stone away.  These Pharisees were quick to judge because it somehow validated them.  As Christians today, don't we look at others a judge them so we don't feel like we're as bad, when actually we all sin just the same?  

The other thing that this book made me realize is that it's time to stop trying to make the church cater to the people in the church.  Isn't our job to get others to come in.  Sure we want those inside to grow and become stronger, but I feel like a lot of times that's our main goal, not bringing in the people who need the salvation.  I don't think we need to do things that make us sit in our churches and feel good about ourselves.  The church of the apostles didn't do that.  They had a sense of urgency to get others inside and into the Kingdom of God.  I have a friend that's going on a missions trip overseas.  The place she is going is not what most Americans would consider safe, some unrest and things are happening.  And people don't understand why she wants to go.  They keep asking if she's canceling her trip.  The part I don't understand is why people feel like being a Christian is just hanging out in safety, making each other feel good about themselves.  Where's the danger and adventure?  Jesus didn't shy away from those who needed help, no matter where they were.  The temple of the ground of Sadducees and Pharisees, his chief opponents.  Yet that is where Jesus went to reach people who needed to understand that God loved them and wasn't just trying to rule over them.  Firefighter, such as Tim Pride, run toward the burning building to save those trapped inside.  Shouldn't we do the same thing when eternity hangs in the balance?

Honestly, saying these things and doing them are two very different things.  How do I step out of my comfort zone?  How do I put my life in danger for the Gospel, when every inclination of my being is self-preservation?  These are things we need to all actively struggle against.  We are a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.  And according to research, that larger thing has bad reputation, because of how we live that out.  It absolutely breaks my heart that I may have had a part in furthering the wrong view of Christianity.  I know what you may be saying, "It's just their opinions, so what. We know that they are not totally correct."  I agree with that, but I also understand that perception is reality.  For my generation, many will miss out on salvation because of the reputation our faith in society.  I don't want to be a part of it.  I want my life to direct people to a God who so passionately loves us that He would sacrifice something so much greater than anything I will ever have.

Let's break the cycle, together.  Stop perpetuating a stereotype.  Help others see the true, measurable impact Christ has on us and others.

For more on redefining Christianity in the eyes of the current generation visit, www.fermiproject.org. 

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7:48 PM Posted by Justin Manny

The New Christmas Time

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It's been a long time since I posted anything.  I had some people ask me when I was going to put something else up.  I don't feel like posting just for the sake of posting.  I want to have something good to talk about.  


In the time since I posted last, a lot of my life has changed.  I had a daughter, which was the absolute greatest thing that has ever happened to me.  She is amazing, but I've told myself that she will be completely average.  When she is in second grade, she'll read at a second grade level.  I just think it's funny that everyone's kid is so "advanced."  Kennedy has made me look at life in a completely different way.  I know I should have more about that, but she really makes me speechless.  

So the other day, I went to the mall to get my present for our Giving Tree kid.  This was last Saturday.  It was like 33 degrees and raining.  When we got to Kenwood, there was not a single place to park.  The whole lot was full.  I ended up parking about 1 mile from the mall and walking, in the rain.  So obviously, once inside, it was wall to wall people, and there was Christmas stuff everywhere!  Santa was already set up in the food court.  It was November 18th!  I couldn't believe it.  I was walking next to a family and I heard a guy say, "So we're in a recession?  Economy is bad?  Doesn't look like it here."  That got me thinking.  What does it mean to have a bad economy.  At Kenwood, maybe the clientele is recession proof.  Or maybe they feel like they have to be, and then use credit.  Either way, Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier every year.  It's a huge money boom for all retailers.  I read somewhere that America spends $450 billion dollars a year on Christmas.  That's $450,000,000,000.  That's a lot of zeros.  And let's think about what that money is spent on.  My granddad used to go into Sharper Image and buy me some random electronic device, like an alarm clock/toaster that projects the time on the ceiling.  Most years I get 4-5 more Jaguar shirts, and Jaguar flags, and calendars.  I honestly cannot remember more than about 3 things I got for Christmas.

Can you imagine what kind of good  could be done with all that money?  We built a well in Kenya, that provided clean drinking water for an entire village for $3300.  That's 136,363,636 wells, per Christmas.  Basically you do that once, and the entire world has drinking water.  Malaria kills thousands of people in Africa every year.  To help prevent this a simple $10 mosquito net almost the problem.  The math is really easy on this one, 45,000,000,000 mosquito nets.  We live in the richest country in the world.  Because of that, we can make the biggest impact on others that really need it.  If we start to think about life in an eternal sort of way, we'll look for ways to make a difference in people's lives, not fill our houses with useless crap that doesn't matter. 

After all, Christmas is the celebration of the greatest, eternal gift, ever.  We humans screwed up.  We ruined our perfect existence with God.  We could have lived in total communion with God.  Sin entered the picture.  Our relationship with God was ripped clean in half.  It hurt God, it hurt mankind.  God wanted to give man a way back to him.  That's where Leviticus and Numbers comes in.  Boring sure, but it should give us as Christians an amazing understanding of what it should actually take to get close to God.  Try reading Leviticus with the eyes that it is what you had to do at church on Sunday, or all the time, 24/7.   The people tried to follow these rules, but man, it was really hard.  They couldn't do it all the time.  Sometimes they flat ignored God.  God, not happy, let his people get wooped and carried away.  Things were really bad.  Dark.  It seemed like God had took His face from his people.  And this is where Christmas come in.  God finally decided that enough was enough.  Into this dark moment, God sent His Light.  Christmas is the celebration of a healed relationship.  It's the start of the greatest gift ever.  That baby, which was completely helpless, [Something that had never truly registered until now what that really meant.  Unlimited power, created the world, can do everything possible, not only takes the flawed earthly form of a human, but came as a baby, completely helpless, dependent on a human for His survival.  Unfathomable.], eventually grew and became the ultimate sacrifice that ended the need for Leviticus.  Now it's the symbol that should remind us of that sacrifice, and that we can't do it without Jesus.  

So this year, why don't we stop being a part of the Christmas money making machine, giving money to companies, and let's make a true difference.  Let's give to people who need basics, instead of buying mom some smelly thing from Bath and Body Works, cause we can't think of anything else to get her.

Thanks for reading.

For more info on how we can use this holiday to make a huge difference in the world, visit www.adventconspiracy.com.  Also check out www.rethinkingchristmas.com.

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