Ok what I am about to share with you is something that I have been pondering over and eventually become convicted about over the past 2-3 weeks.
Christian literature, media and music. I think that we would all agree play an important part in helping us define our spiritual lives as well as differentiate us from the world. Now while here at Bethany Bible College I am bombarded with all of these things day in and day out now for the past 3 years. Needless to say I had been getting really tired of hearing about Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Whatever and John Eldridge's Epic Journey of a Wild Heart...and needless to say there are probably others out there in ministry today or perhaps studying for ministry that felt/feel the same way I did.
However one Sunday at my church, who is doing the 40 Days of Purpose campaign, I had, what was at the time, the disappointment of sitting through the simal-cast for the second time having already seen it here in Sussex. And even though I had a bad attitude because I was tired of everything to do with Rick Warren, I found myself listening to every word that he said. I don't know why either. I had already seen it once, it was old, heard it all before, yada yada yada. But there was something there, even after all I already knew.
And it wasn't something that I had missed before, it was actually something that didn't change. The truth in the things that Rick was talking about. Now there are some things that I do question in the 40 Days thing-ma-bob but overall there was a great sense of truth in what he was talking about. Then it hit me. Just because I am tired of hearing about a book, or a song or a movie or whatever doesn't mean that everyone else is. Yeah sure we in ministry are overwhelmed by the Tomlin's, Perretti's and Warrens. But the people that we are ministering to/going to be ministering to are not. They don't hear about it 24/7 like we do, and for some maybe not even at all.
So how are we going to help our people if the stuff that is geared for helping them, we are sick of and have negative tones about? I think that we maybe need to start looking at the positive things and the impact that they have on our spiritual lives, and if not our lives, then the lives of those who don't know Jesus. I think that we might be losing sight of what is important if a book that tells people they were created by God for a purpose makes us groan.
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8 comments:
jon, this is a pretty penetrating post. i appreciated your humility in the whole thing. i sometimes have the attitude that I want Christians and the Christian faith to be successful (read: excel at what they/it genuinely are/is), but once that happens, i am critical. warren's work has done an excellent job at pre-evangelizing many people and discipling many more. that is something to applaud, though it may not be our style/make-up/whatever. thanks.
ouch.
i'm constantly criticizing the 'christian marketplace'--it's cheesiness, it's financial pick-pocketing of people who don't know better, it's lack of creativity--but there is some truth to be found in it. i have much more to say, but not much more time to say it, so i'll just end here, but good post, jon.
My approach to the whole thing while I was at BBC was to not read the popular books. Not because I thought they had nothing to say but because I knew I was going to hear it anyway in class and chapel and around the preverbal water cooler. Here is the good news (at least in my experience). Once you are settled into a local church you are not sitting through hours and hours of class and chapel learning about and discussing ministry tools. In fact most people you run into including the core Christians in your church won't give a rat’s ass about the stuff other than if there is a way it can personally help them. And so these things become what they were meant to be - tools. Some guys says I'm not wild at heart enough pastor - you say, maybe you should read this book. You get the sense from talking to people that they feel their life is not driven by Purpose. You do the 40 days thing. A few years out of college and you have no idea what the hot new thing is nor do you have any clue what it says because you spend your time with real people with real problems and before long you start keeping an eye out for these tools because they have become a way for you to really help real people instead of a discussion started for a conversation you have had to many times with people who don't need to hear it. Also avoid Christian bookstores.
Brewer - Not saying that the Christian media and such isn't cheesie, cause it deffinitly is in alot of cases. And I think that as Christians it is ok to joke about that in our own little circles, but we cannot allow it to affect the way that we communicate with others. If we think negativly about these things and share these views with non-Christians how will that refelect on our faith?
Hello Jon, I appreciate your desire for the deeper-ness of God and the Christian life. Being a former BBC'er and now a student at Tyndale Seminary, I have realized the foundational perspective that BBC pursues, but one thing to keep in mind is that the Kingdom is not solely made of Wesleyans and Bible college students, but of prostitutes, ragamuffins, and sinners like me! Keep Hidden!
Good post Jon. It's very easy for full-time ministry oriented people to be critical of something popular in the Christian sub-culture.
Sometimes we may be right to criticize. I really disagree with the prayer of Jabez and the Left Behind series. That's my opinion.
Sometimes, though, you're right..we just get sick of things b/c we hear about them all day and forget to realize the average church attender doesn't hear all that.
And sometimes, I fear, it's jealousy. Rick Warren's book is so simple, so basic...I could have, seemingly written it. Why should he get all the fanfare?
Good word, Jon. I think AJ's right... you stop being inundated with this stuff and get less jaded (ideally) post-Bible College. So don't worry. But you're right, there's a lot of good stuff in PDL, in spite of the fact that many of us are sick of it. I used it in a small group in the fall and they loved it. I didn't get much out of reading it (especially since it was my second time) but it was a great tool for generating thought and discussion in the group. And, yeah, we do have to remember that obviously we in ministry are coming at stuff like this from a completely different point of view than the people in our churches and especially on the street.
PS -- Why haven't you linked to MY site yet?!
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