Monday, April 30, 2007

Driving Al the carney to Amarillo

I'm guilty of looking down on people in a way that I know is wrong. I'm not talking about thinking that someone is an idiot when they have gone out of their way to prove it to you, but in general allowing a faulty perspective to influence the way I view or listen to a person. Take carney's for example. When I go by a carnival I generally hold my children close to me and try not to look any of the carney's directly in the eye. First of all, it's my theory that most people end up working in the carnival because they were lost at carnivals as children, stowed away when the carnival left town, and then just did the only job they knew as they grew up amongst the "Tilt-O-Whirls" and funnel cakes. I have always viewed carny's as hardly even having the capacity to talk to me (me being such a high minded and intelligent being). It's like they are almost invisible people (probably why many of the missing children are never found, because people really don't even see carney's and would never think of one of them as their long lost child). I think most people believe that carny's are born directly of the earth, much like the ogres in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, and therefore most people are in no way compelled to relate to them as humans. Carney's go from town to town, operating the rides and selling the snacks and I've never thought to stop and talk to a carnival worker, and never really desired to either.

My aversion to carney's was suddenly challenged when my good friend Ryan called me up the the other day wondering if I would like to help a guy that needed a ride to Amarillo. Apparently "Al" had come by the church where Ryan works and was needing some help. He and his dog, "Dog", were traveling to California where they would meet up with the carnival and begin thier 8 month tour that they had done for about the last 29 years or so (according to Al). Al's car caught fire in Springfield and he had spent the last 11 days hitchhiking and had finally made it (somehow) to Fairview where he met Ryan. Al told Ryan that he had a friend that was going to meet him in Amarillo to take him the rest of the way so he could make it on time to join the carnival caravan. I only live about 2 hours from Amarillo so Ryan brought Al to Elk City and I took Al and "Dog" the rest of the way to meet thier friend.



Al was a big bearded scruffy looking man, he said he was 39 years old, which meant he joined the carnival when he was 10 (probably got lost). He was a little dirty, but what would you expect from 11 days on the road? He was friendly and so was "Dog". Al said that his dog was a service animal. Not a "seeing eye dog" but a "hearing ear dog" because Al was hard of hearing. Apparently, according to Al, Greyhound doesn't allow "hearing ear dogs", even though he had the "papers" to prove that "Dog" was a legitimate service animal *. This unfortunate circumstance is what forced Al to have to hitchhike from Springfield as opposed to getting on a Greyhound to finish his journey. Al said that he had owned "Dog" since he was a pup, which seemed a bit odd to me because I assumed that a officially recognized "hearing ear dog" would have to come from a training facility where they produce animals that do that sort of thing. On top of that "Dog" didn't really seem to do anything that would indicate that he was helping Al to hear any better, to me "Dog" just seemed like a well behaved black lab. This inconsistency and the fact that Al was a big talker was my first indication (aside from my general wariness of him being a carney) that Al might be prone to certain inconsistencies in lifestyle that would account for his current status in the social hierarchy (nearly deaf hitch-hiking middle aged carney with a dog). It seems to me that people who talk alot are often times trying to take up all the airspace so that you won't have an opportunity to ask any questions that might make it possible for you to get to know them. It's been my experience that these kind of people generally have a low opinion of themselves and have for the most part been surrounded by people throughout their lives who also had low opinions of them.

Now I'm not saying Al isn't a truth teller just because of his dog story or his mere verbosity, there were a few other stories that Al told me that lead me to this conclusion. One story was that Ryan had commented to Al that his habit of smoking was unhealthy and expensive, to which Al replied that he doesn't buy name brand cigarettes, he has a machine that rolls the cigarettes with filters and they only end up costing him like $.40 a pack. "I'd never buy name brand cigarettes" he proudly proclaimed. Now, I know that there are such machines, however Al was telling me this as he opened a brand new pack of Winston cigarettes and lit one up, I didn't bother asking if he also had a machine that made the boxes, bar coded them, and shrink wrapped them in plastic too.

I asked Al a little about his past, where he grew up and all that. He said that his parents were both killed in a car accident when he was 7 months old and he was a ward of the state of Pennsylvania all of his life. He said that he moved from foster home to foster home, most of them abusive. He admitted that he was a trouble making kid that was hard to manage, but he also related that he thought it was wrong that his foster parents were allowed to beat him and his foster siblings. He recalled one story when an old woman neighbor of his called the police to come stop his foster parents from hitting him, he said the police came and were unable to do anything about it. He said that one time he and one of his foster brothers got a shotgun and were going to kill his foster dad, but they chickened out. Later in life, after he got saved, he decided to look his abusive foster family up and paid them a visit. He said that they didn't recognize him and barely remembered him, and he told them that he forgave them for what they did to him. It made me sad to listen to him talk of his childhood, which seemed pretty rough. I don't know how much of what he was saying was true, but I did feel a sense that Al had been kind of discarded by society early on in life. It was interesting that Al on several occasions commented on how great a place Pennsylvania was. For a kid that was raised by the state, it seemed to me that he was bragging on his dad.

Al told me that he was saved when he was 30 and that he spent some time in a pentecostal ministers house while he was a foster kid. This home was a good place according to Al and he told me stories that his foster dad told him about being a missionary over seas. For Al the proof of his own salvation was a feeling he had that Christ was in his heart. Al believed you could lose your salvation (which I argued with him for a while about), and we talked about how works must accompany true salvation. Al agreed and quoted Jesus saying "You can give a man a fish or you can teach him to fish". I don't know where that is in the Bible but maybe it's in an older pentecostal translation. At any rate I could tell that he got the gist of the idea. Al was not afraid to talk about his faith and he had several of his elaborate stories about how he had stood up for his faith in the past. One story involved a woman laughing at him as she left church while he hitchhiked through Lamont, Oklahoma, and one involved the police, IHOP, and an ACLU attorney who was formerly one of Al's foster parents.

When we finally made it to our destination we stopped for some dinner at a Chinese buffet. Al asked me if I noticed the statue of Buddha out front, and wondered if we should say something about it to the owners. He said that generally he would say something, but I said that maybe we should let it slide this time. Al used my cell phone to try to get in touch with his friend that we were meeting, but his friend never answered. One time I heard him talking to someone that he said was his friend's son. I tried the number Al dialed several times but only got the generic voicemail greeting. The Chinese buffet was next door to a church that was having Wednesday night services, Al told me thanks and politely declined my several offers to drive him around town to look for his friend. He got his back pack and dog and said that he would go over to the church and use their phone to get in touch with his friend. I wished him luck and headed home. After about 30 minutes on the road home I dialed the number that Al had been dialing on my phone again, and again there was no answer. I noticed that it was a Pennsylvania number. I wonder if there was really anyone on the other end of the phone for Al? I wonder if he really had a friend waiting for him?

On the trip home I realized that I had a very hard time not seeing Al as one would see a drunk homeless person on the streets. I really don't think he was like that. He was intelligent and articulate, he had email and an XM Radio (but no cell phone). He watched videos on youtube and was into conspiracy theories. He was up on politics (he hated President Bush), and had fairly well informed (albeit very left leaning) opinions on the direction the country ought to take. He even had theology, it was bad theology, but you could tell that he had really considered it with a good amount of thought. In many ways Al wasn't much different than many of my friends, not really that different from me. However because of my own predetermined stereotypes, I had a hard time listening to him.

Have you ever known a person who was physically handicapped in such a way that it slurred their speech or impaired their ability to use their body? Have you ever caught yourself relating to them as if they were less intelligent than you are, even though in many cases they are probably equal to or superior to you in intellect? That's how I was relating to Al, and it was hard to keep my frame of reference from really affecting my overall impression of this man.

I realize that many of my predispositions toward Al were accurate, this fact is apparent simply considering the circumstances surrounding my meeting him. The problem is that I really had a hard time...in fact, I was totally unable to come off my high horse long enough during the 3 or 4 hours that I was with Al to actually try to get to know him. My thoughts were on my good deeds, or on what pearls of wisdom I could offer this poor cretan, or some other self righteous aristocratic separation that I had so happily constructed between myself and Al. I was glad I wasn't Al.

I guess what I learned from Al is that I don't really care about people the way I should. Al was a person, he had flaws and some of them were pretty big. But he was searching for meaning and happiness just like the rest of us are. I think it's funny that I somehow thought myself better than Al because he was hitch hiking, or because he was a carney, or even because he was a big story teller. It's sad because it really kept me from getting to know him. My own arrogance kept me from really getting out of this experience what was there to get. I got home feeling glad that I was able to help someone out, but somehow feeling like I had really missed the point of the whole situation. If I want to reach people for Christ I can see now that I really have to get beyond this arrogance and be able to connect with people without putting up pretenses of superiority or false humility.

I can't imagine what it would be like to be Al. I don't think there is a circumstance where I would find myself having to hitch-hike to anywhere, except maybe the nearest phone. Considering Al's past and the situation he was in, I can imagine how some of his big stories might help him get through the day. I really hope that Al has a good relationship with Christ and that over time Jesus will help him to live more fully outside his tall tales. And at the same time I hope that Christ will help me to be able to love people better and see through the stories and the chit chat to the person and make the most of the opportunities God gives me to get to know other people.

The next time you go to the carnival, look the carney in the eye and give him a smile. Ask him how he's doing and mean it, take the time to listen to his answer. Let him tell you a story, tell him about Jesus. Maybe he is just lost and doing the only thing he knows how to do, maybe someone just needs to look at him and recognize him for the lost child of God that he is...serving up funnel cakes and running the "Tilt-O-Whirl" for all the Christians as they politely ignore him. That would be Al.

* (from greyhound's website): No dogs, cats, birds, or other animals will be transported. However, a service animal, trained for the purpose of accompanying a disabled person, will be permitted to travel with the disabled person at no additional charge.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Where is the wise man?

If I asked you to name the smartest person you could think of many people would probably immediately say "Stephen Hawking", who of course is the brilliant theoretical physicist who helped us to understand black holes and several other very important ideas. This man can ponder complex and multifaceted problems for hours on end, he can grasp ideas that most of us could not even comprehend, yet in all his wisdom he cannot grasp the power of the miracle of the cross of Jesus Christ.

A Reuters article titled "Physicist Hawking marvels at life's existence" explains:

Hawking also said he has written a children's book with his daughter called "George's Secret Key to the Universe," which will be published in September.

The secret key evidently will not be religion.

"I'm not religious in the normal sense," Hawking said. "I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."

This belief is called deism and it is not a new idea. In fact, many of our country's founding fathers are accused of being deist, such as Thomas Jefferson who tore out all the references to miracles in the story of Christ, omitting the virgin birth, the angels, and the resurrection. What did Jefferson find when he looked for the "real" Jesus? Not surprisingly, according to the above linked author:

In short, Mr. Jefferson's Jesus, modeled on the ideals of the Enlightenment thinkers of his day, bore a striking resemblance to Jefferson himself.

It's interesting that Hawking would imagine a God that does not interact with the world (much like he cannot), and Jefferson imagined a God who ended up being a lot like himself as well. It's also interesting that in Hawking's "religion" the laws that govern the universe cannot be broken therefore there can be no sin other than what is defined subjectively.

These men were and are both brilliant human thinkers and have contributed much to our society, however their inability to comprehend the "otherness" of God, and his infinite holiness leaves them empty and continually seeking for that which will fully satisfy the longing of their souls.

Deism rejects the possibly of miracles, thereby rejecting the atonement provided by Christ or even His very existence as the God-man that he was and is. It seems that their rationality is bounded by what they can observe therefore the comprehension of a standard set by a being who exists apart from and independent of everything else is impossible, or more likely this idea is simply undesirable because it does not line up with the god with which they have fallen in love while gazing in the mirror.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25:

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Compassion International

Another and probably better use of your money is a group called Compassion International. They have been around for a long time helping children get food clothing and education. Compassion is a very established organization with a very good track record for helping people, over 80% of what you give goes directly to the child you sponsor, and you get to develop a relationship with the child you sponsor through letters and other correspondence.

Sponsor a child online through Compassion's Christian child sponsorship ministry. Search for a child by age, gender, country, birthday, special needs and more.


I have a friend who was able to go to Ethiopia and meet the child he and his wife were sponsoring, and they also got to meet some of the people involved with Compassion International an he was blown away by how this organization is able to meet the not only the physical, but also the spiritual needs over over 750,000 kids world-wide. For $32 a month they are able to provide medicine, clean water, nutritious food, and hope to people who desparately need it. So cut back on the double decaf mocha lattes and save a kid's life. Most of the developing world live on less than $1.00 per day, so $32 a month is effectively doubling the income of the child you are sponsoring, and through Compassion International they are able to put that money to the most effective use possible to make sure the child is healthy, receives a quality education, and hears the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This isn't meant to be a substitute for meeting the needs of the people in your own community, but as Christians we are also called to spread the gospel to every nation, and this is a good way that you can do that (until God calls you to pack up and head to Africa or to plant a church in downtown Detroit).

1 John 3:17-18

"But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

James 1:27

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

Monday, April 16, 2007

kiva.org

This is a really cool site that I saw a PBS (the only TV channel we have right now) documentary on. It is called kiva.org and it was founded by a guy who used to be with paypal. Anyway they have contacts with micro lending organizations all over the world and they enable you to directly help to finance a small business in a developing country. So for instance if some guy in Azerbaijan wants to build a stand so he can quit selling his vegetables out of the back of his car, except $500.00 is an enormous amount of money for him, you can help him by loaning him the money through kiva.org. They have a 100% payback rate right now. I think paypal even waives the normal fee they charge on transactions when you use it to loan money via kiva. I really think this is a good way to help people and to also develop some relationships with people who may need to hear the Gospel.


Kiva - loans that change lives


One idea Julie had was to ebay some "junk" we have laying around and use the money to lend to some people needing it on kiva. I think that is a great idea, so my Roomba's going the way of the virgin mary shaped cheeze sandwich so it's value can be better put to use helping someone's small business.

Another cool thing is that you can loan as little as $25.00 to someone and really make a difference. They give you the ability to track the progress of the money being raised on a project and also the payback rate of the project. I think this is an excellent way to help people in a way that respects their dignity, one of the big problems in the developing world is simply access to the capital necessary to get their business rolling, and by rolling I mean simply buying goods to sell, or buying the lumber to build a fruit stand, or buying seed to plant a small field, etc, these are all things that are so inexpensive most of us would not even think twice about it, but they are major obstacles to providing for the families of many people out there trying to eek out a living.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Drive-by evangelism

Interestingly enough right after I posted about "Evangersation", I came home to find a packet of materials hanging from the doorknob of my house, and I noticed the packet hanging from the doorknobs of my neighbors' houses as well. When I looked at the packet I found the following pamphlet inside:
It's basically a very bad version of the "Roman Road" technique, except this pamphlet doesn't show you what the Bible says, it just has little asterisks beside every point that are referenced to a list of Bible verses on the other side of the pamphlet. However, to me the asterisks communicate that there may be an exception to every one of the points. And in my mind the little asterisk says, "Don't worry this doesn't apply to you". I am used to seeing asterisks in pamphlets that say things like "Everyone who signs up for the Visa Super Platinum card will receive a free toaster!*", and then the asterisk says something like: "*Free toaster only to those suckers willing to accept the $400.00 annual membership fee and 34.5% introductory APR which increases to 48.7% after your first purchase."

This little pamphlet basically addresses the points I made in my earlier "Evangersation" post in that I can't imagine how it could be read with any relevance or be taken seriously.

Seriously though, if you are reading this blog and you have some testimonies from believers who came to know the Lord through a pamphlet alone please let me know. I don't mean someone who was led through the basic tenants of salvation by another believer who was using pamphlet as a guide, I mean someone who found a pamphlet, read it and got saved right then and there.

Another interesting point is when you look at this pamphlet, although it addresses sin as the reason we deserve death (the "wages") it doesn't address repentance from sin at all. All this basically says is that your a sinner, your going to hell, Jesus died on the Cross to pay for your sins, say this prayer and it's all taken care of...this is a half Gospel and it hurts and confuses people.

To me the idea behind the action of repentance is that in response the message of the Gospel we take the object of our worship from the things of the world and change it to Jesus. The reality of Christ living in you enables your repentance and will be evidenced by a changed life. It seems like this is much different than saying a prayer to get forgiven so you don't go to hell.

Here are some examples of where the Bible calls for repentance:

  • Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 3:2
  • From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17
  • 20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Matthew 11:20
  • The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. Matthew 12:41
  • and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. Mark 1:15
  • 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Matthew 1:14-15
  • So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. Matthew 6:12
  • I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:32
  • No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Luke 13:3
  • No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:5
  • Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:10
  • Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, Luke 17:3
  • And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38
  • Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, Acts 3:19
  • Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. Acts 8:22
  • The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, Acts 17:30
  • but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. Acts 26:20
  • 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10
  • I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced. 2 Corinthians 12:21
  • Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. Revelations 2:16
  • Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Revelations 3:19
  • 20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelations 9:20-21
  • 8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. 10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish 11 and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds. Revelations 16:8-11

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Evangersation

Do you regularly express the supremacy of Christ in your daily conversations?

I don't know many people using the old confrontational evangelism like "Has anyone ever taken a Bible and showed you how to go to heaven?" The problem with this question is that it assumes that the person you are talking to accepts the Bible as a place to find accurate information, and it assumes that the person has an idea of heaven as a place that they would want to go to. I also think that this kind of method doesn't show the supremacy of and need for Christ from the outset, but it focuses on the supremacy of my being being able to do something in order to obtain "heaven" (which to me is a lot like the promise of 70 virgins in paradise for the Muslim Suicide bomber), anyway it seems like this kind of questioning seems to leave God out of the idea of Heaven.

Personally the fear of hell and the desire for heaven were very influential in my own accepting a "half Gospel" (which is no Gospel) when I was younger, and because of this I spent a long time living in sin, since the other half of the Gospel that I didn't "get" was repentance. One question struck me later in life. It was when I heard the question "Would you still want to go to heaven when you died if God wasn't there?". It occurred to me that it NEVER occurred to me that God would be there, or if it did it seemed like an insignificant part of the "heaven" experience. In my mind it was mainly streets of gold and mansions and the freedom from sin (no actually it was freedom from guilt), all things focused on me as the center.

To show that the culture is catching on to the ineffectiveness of this kind of evangelism you can look at this video at youtube by a user called "PaganWolf" who gives people advise on how to do "counter evangelism". (UPDATE: apparently a bunch of christians were "offended" by paganwolfs videos and got them removed from youtube, yeah christians...what a um...victory...up for the ... um gospel?)



The premise of all his videos is that the Evangelist has no real personal relationship with the person being evangelized and therefore the methods he describes are very effective and play on typical stereotypes of fundamentalist Christians.

What you have here with "PaganWolf" is not an unreachable person, but a person being reached the wrong way. "PaganWolf" is a person that Jesus died on the Cross for and loves, and if we were to relate to him in that way it would be much more effective.

I've been reading some about the new "Postmodern" culture and how they think. At first I thought that these people were totally unreachable, but the more I study the more I can find ways that I think in similar ways and the more I see inroads to the Gospel that can be really meaningful. It seems like the better approach is to appeal to their spirituality (because they are not ashamed of it) and also to their desire to find meaning in life that does not come from the receiving of rewards or physical goods, but instead of how to experience God in a meaningful way. Postmoderns also have to be more gently led into the premise that the Bible is a source of truth (because generally they are wary of anyone that claims that the have an absolute truth, they will see this claim as an attempt to control them and resist it). Postmoderns don't necessarily think they are free to define truth personally, but instead they value the idea that truth can be come to as a community. This notion should give great encouragement to the role of a healthy church body in reaching this generation.

If you'll notice, many times "PaganWolf" is not railing against the actual message of the Evangelist, and if you look at some of his other videos he actually presents some very good points on life in general that would be tremendous material for reaching him with the Gospel. It seems to me like he is more offended by the fact that the evangelist would engage him in these kinds of conversations without really getting to know him first. I do believe that if you first befriended "PaganWolf" you would be able to go along way in spiritual talk and find many inroads to his listening to the Gospel in a more positive light, but whoever took on this task would really need to see "PaganWolf" as a lost friend who needed Christ.

I think the result of the "heaven orientated" thinking that I mentioned at the beginning of this entery leads to this kind of rude evangalism that treats people like a "mark" who could be chalked up as "another jewel in my crown" when I forcefully and inconsiderately "evangelized" him.

If we will regain a sence of community, befriend the lost in our community and truly see the need they have for Christ, we will be able to reach them. The Postmoderns generation is nothing that the Gospel has not faced before, and nothing that God's Grace can't easily overcome.

Read Planting new Churches in a Postmodern Age and The Radical Reformission for more.