What IS a "Human Video?"

Cheap Knockoffs & Artistic Lament

Several nights ago I watched a group of visiting high school students at our church's youth night lip sync and perform dance and drama to a dozen teen-oriented "contemporary" Christian songs.

Each time, song after song, cheesy reproductions of secular music were paired with ghastly, uncreative, untalented, shameless dance routines and pantomined scenarios.

The music was so trite, so shallow, and the messages so blatant, unsubtle and juvenile... my wife and I sat in our seats, uncomfortably waiting for the time to pass so we could leave and breathe some refreshing "secular" air.

The real tragedy of that evening was not the performances themselves - in fact, youth groups across America routinely perform these "Human Videos" at schools, churches, homeless shelters, senior centers... anywhere they're allowed. The REAL tragedy (and I say this emphatically) is that we have convinced these kids that this is EFFECTIVE ministry in our world. That this is reflective of the Kingdom of God...

...perhaps most detrimental: we've taught them that this is artistic expression. That corny lip sync has beauty.

Once again, the Church has made a pitiful carbon copy of the world, slapped a Christian label on it, and "called it good."

But it isn't good. It's lazy. In fact, MOST Christian-labeled arts and entertainment are just that: lazy.

Instead of making something new, something beautiful, transcendant, provocative and evocative and even (dare I say) sexy, we've sold ourselves short. We've sold our kids short. We've sold the Kingdom of God short.

There were a bunch of very chubby high schoolers up on stage, dancing around, trying to catch their breath between songs. I felt no sick humor in watching the spectacle. I only wanted to slap the parents and youth directors who allowed them to make fools of themselves on stage with reassurances and false encouragment.

Kingdom: can we get to a point in Christian art where realistic criticism and honest opinion can be tolerated and welcomed in love? We shouldn't have to humilate these kids and justify it by saying that love allows them to do what's in their hearts.

That's not art. That's enabling!

I really sound like an asshole in this post, I know... I feel really badly for the kids. I'm in no way trying to mock them or show distrespect toward them, but I hate this little microcosm they're growing up in. Youth ministry in America is in such dire need of radical change...

please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://emergingchristianity.blogspot.com

K-Love - Home of Paradigm Shifters?

I met Oregon's Regional Manager of K-Love Radio at lunch the other day. It was a weird, random occurrence. He happened to be an ex-member of our local chapter of Rotary, and sat right across from me.

When Ted Gillette introduced himself as a K-Love director, I told him I was a George Fox Seminary student. "That's my alma mater!" he exclaimed, and we began talking.

Many who know me are aware that I think fairly little of K-Love. To me, it's a shiny, happy ad campaign for white, middle class Christendom. It overpromises and under-delivers on a life without problems, full of happiness and blonde children with ponytails and tragically.

But as Ted and I talked, I started to hear some very shocking things. First he said, "I don't like to call myself a Christian... that word is defeating. It turns people off. I just follow Jesus." Keep talking like this in public, I thought, and you won't stay with K-Love very long. "Postmodernity is everywhere. Even in rural, smalltown Oregon." He was speaking my language. "I'm a paradigm shifter," he continued, "I used to think I'd go into the ministry as a Reformer, but I realized several years ago that real change came through healing ministries. That's what I do. That's how you change the church... through healing, on a local level. The foundation of the church needs healing - it's sick."

We went over to my office after Rotary and talked for another hour. Ted listed the approaches he's used in ministry (he particularly likes Len Sweet's SoulCafe concept), discussed some of the people he's met (Tony Campolo and Don Miller to name a few...) and talked lovingly about the young gay couple that visited his church several weeks ago.

This was not the human face of K-Love I expected. Watch a music video by ZoeGirl if you want a taste of my old impression. But now I wonder if, even within this Audio Empire of Christendom, this Tower of Babel of Christian Entertainment... God is still breaking hearts and healing minds and even... changing paradigms. I guess if Ted Gillette can read SoulTsunami and A Generous Orthodoxy and Blue Like Jazz and reach people who don't find Christ through 4Him or Michael W. Smith, then thank God that K-Love is paying Ted's salary!


please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://emergingchristianity.blogspot.com

Interviewing Len Sweet...

Questioning (E)mergent?
Little was happening in my relational/missional/spiritual life lately. For how much I pride myself in getting out of my comfort zone and getting into peoples lives... well, I've been enjoying the safe, comfortable, clean joys of marriage. And who could blame me?

But something in my spirit was churning... my desire for adventure juxtaposing my boredom with God.


I've gotten several e-bulletins from Emergent Village lately that sounded more like 700 Club pitches: personal testimonies about "why I gave money to Emergent!" This did nothing to improve my mood.

Then it occured to me! If you read some of my recent posts on www.EmergingChristianity.blogspot.com, you'll know that I am taking an online class taught by Len Sweet. I remembered that Len said a few things in class, when we met in Portland for a weekend, about the "selling out of Emergent," and the political hijacking that's taken place there. Feeling the urge to churn the waters a bit, I called up Len and asked if he'd be willing to do an interview on the subject. I e-mailed Relevant Magazine at the same time to see if they'd be interested in the story. Boy, were they! I got several responses from multiple editors there: "Yes yes yes, this is exactly what we've been talking about lately. But no one with Len's credibility is willing to discuss this."

And believe me, Len's scared too. At first he said, "No. Absolutely not. I'm not going to get into that mess..." but then he softened. "Over the weekend, the Lord really worked on me. I like the spirit in which you're doing this (in kindness, love, and relational conversation)." And if Emergent is a Conversation then someone better talk about where it's heading!

I still haven't sat down to do the formal interview with Len yet, but I'm really excited because I worry that the postmodern church won't know what it's missing if all it's offered is a 1960s-Style Social-Justice-Christianity ala Jim Wallace and Bryan McLaren. Forgive me both, Jim and Bryan, because I love you and I love your hearts. But we need more spirit. Spending our lives, identifying which political or governmental bill is "Godly" is, I think, an Adventure in Missing the Point.

More to come...

Forgive me for being so sporradic in writing lately. With my lovely wife, Seminary, and this project for Relevant, as well as a church Easter Drama to produce... I'm tired.

But thank the Lord, I'm getting my wind back!

please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://emergingchristianity.blogspot.com

"Some of my best friends are black!"

There's a great episode of Seinfield where George has to prove he's not a racist. Some of his co-workers at the NY Yankees seem to be wondering.

To ward off the allegations, George pays his pest exterminator (the only black man he knows outside of work) to go to lunch with him.

It's pretty ridiculous and not very realistic, but I think it reveals an instinct a lot of us have in regards to people or things we aren't (a) comfortable with, or (b) simply have no experience with.

Most of us spend much of our lives in desperate efforts toward self-vindication.

I've known my company's plummer for several years now, and we've always gotten along well. He's in his early fifties, cheery, talkative, with a macho-trucker-in-flannel kind of appearance.

It was a year ago that I found out he was gay. I was so surprised to discover it because he fit none of the stereotypes I'd collected over my lifetime - he seems straighter than I do!

I went out to have a couple of beers with Alan the other night. We'd been having casual conversations about Christianity and homosexuality for several weeks, and it took me most of that time to convince him that he could trust me. He's always liked me, but the "Christian thing" seemed to sit on the back shelf for awhile - an uncomfortable subject he'd rather avoid.

Finally I asked him: "Alan, what's your experience with the Church, as a gay man?"

"Oh boy - that's a can of worms you don't want to open," he laughed sadly. I assured him that I did, and that I was sure he'd been treated badly and was desperately sorry for it.

We finally met at an brewpub in Corvallis, and over the evening's discourse he laid out in detail his frustrations and wounds from the Christian Church.

At the end of the evening, he asked, "Are you going to write about this?"

I said, "Not a lot. I think what I'm going to write about is the idea of having a gay friend to clear oneself of bigotry. You know? Like on Seinfield, when George tries to prove he's not racist by going to lunch with a black man?"

Alan chuckled. "I actually wondered about that when you asked me to have drinks. I didn't really think it was true, but it crossed my mind."

It still crosses my mind. Not as a sin I have actually committed - I wanted to spend time with Alan, I like him - but as an instinct that I confess exists in my heart.

Will & Grace exploits gays for comedy. Most of us exploit them for self-vindication.


_________________________________________________________
please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at http://emergingchristianity.blogspot.com

Cultural Refugees in Gay Nightclubs...

Sometimes things don't work out exactly as I plan. I idealize super-spiritual events and pray for ground-shaking God-moments... they don't always come.

Two weeks ago I went up to Portland for a friend's birthday party. I knew there would be homosexuals and Buddhists, liberals and Darwinists there – all the most interesting kinds of people I seldom encounter in my church.

I planned on bringing up an assignment I was working on for a seminary class: designing a postmodern church plant. In my mind I envisioned exciting, stimulating conversation – delving into the very nature of faith and community. I wondered about the fascinating perspectives I might encounter…

Little of the spiritual talk I had hoped for took place. Whether led by fear, complacency, or the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t find the proper time to introduce my class project. After cutting up a cake, we went out for drinks and somehow ended up at a gay nightclub.

And when I say "gay," I mean really gay!

We made our way through a large, open bar area that connected to a dance floor. Men were everywhere, dancing, laughing and drinking; an occasional woman stood out prominently in a few of the groups. We entered a lounge area in the back that was fairly well lit, comfortable, with couches, cushy chairs and even a Christmas tree.

What struck me sitting there with my three straight friends (our gay companions stayed on the dance floor) was the unspoken aura that filled the room. It wasn't happiness or fun or even sadness. It was more like partial relief. A tense undercurrent still seemed to permeate the air. These men looked and acted like distrustful refugees.

As we talked, I watched two young men enter, glancing around the room. They said nothing to each other as they carefully sat down in two overstuffed chairs facing one another. I thought I caught a brief look of ease as they began to adapt to their surroundings, and if I could have put words to what I witnessed they would have said, "I think it’s okay. We're safe now."

I was in a bomb shelter. A refugee camp. A place where the wounded and broken came to hide and confide - to find solace or escape.

You can say what you want to about the theology or legality of homosexuality. I’m initiating no-such discussion. Instead, I raise the question: if not a gay bar, where could these men go to be broken, wounded and imperfect? Again, regardless of theology, can the church be a place for solice? Can we let these hurting souls recoup in a safe, respectful, gentle atmosphere? Or must we break down their walls of sin before we allow any relaxation or decompression to occur?

I don't think a gay nightclub is a good place for a gay man to find healing, wholeness or safety. Yes, he can be gay without fear of judgment in such an environment, but no one can be transparent in a meat market - gay or straight. No one can put down the facade when they're being checked out and sized up by potential suitors (one of the reasons I think many church youth and young adult groups are so dysfunctional - but that's a whole separate can of worms).

Maybe we could take a little break from the gay topic in church. Maybe if we let people come in and feel safe, the Holy Spirit would do some amazing, powerful things. Maybe we jump the gun on the Holy Spirit. Maybe we don't trust the Spirit to speak without our vulgar voices chiming in at a whim.

I don’t think this issue is simple or black-and-white. I don’t even think it’s ready to be resolved in our Christian culture yet. I also don’t think it would be appropriate for every Christian to walk into a gay bar – maybe it wasn’t appropriate for me. But right or wrong, I’d rather take chances to discover these refugees in hiding than stay so safe that I never meet the people I once called “lost.”