Faith Venture

The young family was walking at the park. Parents were probably in their 20s. She was pushing the baby stroller while simultaneously trying to control the dog on a leash. He had a remote-control unit in his hands as he piloted his remote control all-terrain vehicle along the road.

I guess some boys never grow up.

It’s like the 30-something guy beside me on a plane late one night. He’s watching an action movie on his laptop. It’s amazing the perspective when you aren’t into the story and can’t hear the dialog and just watch the picture. There were cars flying all over the place. Up over ramps and colliding. Speeding around turns. And colliding. Reminded me of little boys playing with their toy cars. They build ramps and take the cars and have them speed and fly and collide and make exploding noises while they do it.

I know. There are probably girls who have a hard time growing up, too. And there is a place in God’s great universe for fun.

But, I wonder at times.

Especially I wonder when I watch TV news with no sound (thank God) while I’m in airports or the United Club. It looks like junior high boys shouting at each other—challenging, provoking, antagonizing. Problem is, these little boys are supposed to be leading our country.

This is not unique to our times, I think. Maybe just more widespread. I’m thinking of Solomon’s son who took the throne and sought advice from his father’s advisors. They advised him to go easy on the people and give them a break. Then he consulted with his buddies. They were enjoying the benefits of being bff’s with the new king and advised him to pile on more taxes so that he would have more revenues. What followed was rebellion and a divided kingdom.

Failure to grow up has consequences.

Do you ever watch TV commercials from the 1950s? Or even TV shows from that era? Or print ads from the 30s through the 50s?

Are you ever shocked at the way women are treated in the media from those days?

Society has come a long way from those days regarding the treatment of women—and actually even among men, too.

And yet.

News still percolates out about men using power relationships to get sexual activity that otherwise would never come their way.

Silicon Valley. Of course that is filled with semi-adolescent geeky boys who evidently never learned how to treat people.

The movie industry. But that became a caricature years ago. Yet it is still going on.

The media industry.

Politicians.

Even in ordinary life. Flight attendants, who must work in close quarters with their customers, all tell of the many times that men “reach out and touch”.

2,000 years ago, Jesus gave us a commandment. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul, likewise, every time he talked about human relationships it was all about being sensitive to the other person.

It takes a long time to change a culture, I guess. Or maybe a long time for people to grow up.

There is so much talk of freedom of speech. Or, “I’ve got my rights.”

But we seldom hear of responsibility.

Yes, I could say that. But, is it the wise thing to do?

Would I be proud about what I did or said if it were on the evening news?

Think of the ethical decision of some prominent people even in the last month who have had to explain away moral failure. Deeply “conservative” lawmaker who a) has a girlfriend even though he’s married and b) texts her that perhaps she should terminate the ensuing pregnancy.

We’ve had more than our share of political leaders and religious leaders and sports leaders who have had to try to read a statement composed by their lawyers with an appropriately contrite attitude to the national media.

But what about us? Our likelihood of being on national news is not as great—but these days, think about a video clip going viral on YouTube. We could all be in that situation.

Jesus came to give us freedom—but not license to do whatever we please.

Yes, we can do it or say it, but is it the wise thing to do?

Proverbs 18:13 (NIV)“To answer before listening — that is folly and shame.”

Did you ever answer someone’s problem only to discover you misunderstood the problem?

Perhaps you took longer to give the answer than was the description of the problem?

I discover this anew every day—sometimes several times a day:

Sometimes the answering lies in just the listening.

Detective Chief Inspector Morse solves murder mysteries. Eventually. The hero of a series of novels by Colin Dexter, Morse leaps from one fantastic explanation of the murder to another, often completely different, like a wife who continually rearranges the living room furniture (not that I have any experience with the latter).

He will either ignore or overlook facts as he thinks through possible scenarios.

Eventually he will arrive at the correct answer. Sometimes he is too late to the party, though.

How many teachers of the Bible have you run across who have the same type of intelligence?

They have a quick mind, but they tend to overlook inconvenient facts in their rush to espouse a complex and grand theory or theology.

Reflect on the New Testament. Who thought through things and devised long, complex systems? And who boiled things down to a couple of statements that anyone could understand?

The first would be the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law. 

The second would be Jesus.

Even Paul, former Pharisee that he was, sometimes fell into the overthinking trap.

When Jesus was asked which of the 618 laws was most important, he replied love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and also to love your neighbor. That’s all you need to do, he said.

When your mind starts racing from one thought to the next, each ever more complex or fantastical than its predecessor, it’s time to pause and take a deep breath. Then return to the basics.

They were worried that Jesus was becoming too popular among the people!

I’m reading through the middle section of John’s gospel. It struck me. I never thought of the Pharisees and priests in a popularity contest with Jesus. But there it was. “The world has gone after him.”

But in our democracies we have some of those people—and they even get elected sometimes. Those humorless, intense people who know The Truth and seek power to impose it on others. That would be the Pharisees of the time. The priests seemed to be more political. They knew they had to work with Rome in order to minimize Rome’s interference in their private Temple affairs.

I can’t think of a time when Jesus tried to elect new synagogue leaders or push out the ruling priestly class.

He poked at their foibles—a lot.

I think he was less interested in winning a popularity contest. Obviously (think back to his temptations) he was not interested in political power.

He was trying to change lives. Even the lives of the Pharisees and ruling class. And some he did.

As his disciples, we should do the same.

What would be left in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles if you removed the Holy Spirit?

I never contemplated that question before.

There would be nothing much left. Certainly nothing of consequence.

I’ve heard for years about “Acts 2 churches.” These are churches that are filled with the spirit (not necessarily in a pentacostal way) and reach out to their neighbors to include them as part of the spiritual family. Much like the churches described in Acts attracted people because they really did live differently.

Willow Creek Community Church was founded as an Acts 2 church 42 years ago. I heard about it some 30 years ago or more and studied its model. I attend there when I’m in the South Barrington, IL area. It is a large church—the auditorium seats 7x the population of the town where I grew up. It now has eight campuses. It has a tremendous ministry.

The founding pastor, Bill Hybels is closing in on retirement. That is a serious point in time for an organization. Hybels has written on leadership, and I’d expect him to tackle the transition intelligently and with the Spirit. I thought about the pending transition for the past year or so (because I think about things like that) and figured the best solution for that church was to promote the Executive Pastor to Senior Pastor and promote the Teaching Pastor to Senior Teaching Pastor—sort of a team leadership where they divide an impossibly large responsibility. It’ll work if neither has a big ego and the board is strong.

So last Sunday that’s exactly what they announced as the new leadership. The senior pastor of one of the largest congregations in the country will be a woman. 

Actually although we’ve never met, I respect Heather Larson. Several years ago I accepted a position leading the missions activity for my church (at the time about 600 Sunday attendance, much fewer now I think). I wrote to a number of missions leaders asking for advice. The person down the road in the same denomination failed to even respond to my request to buy coffee or lunch and learn how they are organized. No one else responded either. 

Except, that is, for Larson. She contacted me, apologized profusely for taking a couple of weeks to respond. It seems she just changed offices and was catching up on correspondence. She sent a wealth of ideas and sources of information. Then I learned that she had been promoted from leader of the missions ministry to Executive Pastor. Of a huge church. I am still impressed. What a lesson in leadership and service.

Back to the Spirit. Another question.

What would be left in our lives if you removed the Holy Spirit?

Schools love to slot people. Give a test, divide students into groups. Slot them into tracks.

They are often wrong when it comes to predicting success.

Even worse is the message they send. “You are this good and no more. You’ll always be…”

And they are wrong.

I’ve developed a passion for reading research into brain physiology and how the brain works. One good book from many years ago now was “Descartes’ Error.” The French philosopher famously said, “Cogito, ergo sum.” If you’ve forgotten your Latin (which I did beginning when I was forced to take it in high school), “I think, therefore I am.”

He was wrong. In reality, it is “I am, therefore I think.”

And what we now know is that the brain can continue to grow and develop throughout your life. You are not slotted to be something (barring abnormal injury or “birth defect”) for the rest of your life.

I’ve recently seen a couple of articles reporting research on the brain that describes how reading “rewires” your brain and keeps it healthy and growing. Especially reading fiction is good for you.

Activities such as crossword puzzles and other brain puzzles, learning a new language, and reading can reduce the occurrence of dementia by 40% or more.

The same works for spiritual formation.

Paul talks to his new converts who surely are adult that they are like infants. They still need milk. But assuredly they will grow and someday will eat adult food. He is speaking metaphorically about spiritual growth there. 

We can continue to develop and grow spiritually until the end of our lives! Never stop learning; never stop growing.

The president of a GE business unit told me about how his manufacturing plant won an award GE calls “Brilliant Factory” by implementing the principles called Lean Manufacturing or sometimes popularized as the Toyota Production System.

The goal of Lean is to eliminate waste. [aside—this is probably something we all need to do in our daily lives and our spiritual formation lives, wasted time, wasted money, wasted energy, wasted food…]

The foundation principle of Lean is respect for people. [aside—also something we need to do in our daily lives…]

I asked the president how his plant did it.

First, the plant manager took extensive training and a team was also sent for training.

Second, they had to change the culture in the plant.

I asked, how did they do that.

Well, the first time they took a Gemba walk—take a team through a part of the manufacturing process—the worker on the line led the walk. When the worker pointed out a problem area, the team immediately took corrective actions.

And then repeat.

In my now 20 years of researching, interviewing, and writing about things like this, I’ve run across many who know a lot about Lean. Doing is tough. What did the members of this team do? Built trust. They actually did what their training told them to do.

Is this something new to modern people?

Let’s look at a short letter written by James, the brother of Jesus. He pointed out 2,000 years ago (probably calling forth his memory of the Proverbs) that if all you are is what you know, then you have fallen short. Be doers of the Word, not hearers only.

Are you like me? You know too many people, and maybe me in an early stage of my life, who know way too much and do way too little?

Chair time with the Word is a great 15 minutes every day. But what about those other 900 minutes? What are we doing?