So what does this all have to do with the Gospel? (Remember the question from the first post in this series…can’t we just preach the love of Jesus??) To reiterate, “the Gospel” means different things to different people. But, according to Jesus, the Gospel (or Good News) is that the Kingdom of God is near.

And if we want to consider the values and corresponding behaviors of the Kingdom, then it would serve us best to look at the words of the King. So let’s look at a brief survey of Jesus’ words relating to power.

Shortly after Jesus sent out 72 of his followers (2 by 2), they returned with reports of casting out demons and healing people. Jesus responds to their reports with, “Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.” 

Where the enemy had power (the ability to do something), he no longer has that power, because Jesus gives his followers power over the work of the enemy. We also see Jesus giving power to his followers so they can drive out impure spirits and heal every disease and sickness. After his resurrection, Jesus promises that we will be clothed with power from on high; which most agree is a reference to the gift of the Holy Spirit who comes later following Jesus’ ascension.

So for our conversation on power and equity, this quick survey through the story of Jesus shows us that the purpose of power in the Kingdom is to

• triumph over the enemy
• cast out unclean spirits
• heal disease
• be witnesses
• do good
• free people from oppression

And we see that Jesus is the power and the wisdom of God.

From all these examples, we can draw a conclusion that the receiving of power is not for the earthly benefit of the recipient. Instead, Kingdom power is for the benefit of those with no earthly power. 

And now for an application:

When it comes to one particular segment of people who lack earthly power – those in poverty – this concept of Kingdom power is especially relevant. We tend to think that creating more feeding programs and fundraising programs and educational programs will fix the situation. We believe more programs will alleviate the issue of hunger in our society. But here’s the real problem:

People don’t stay poor for a lack of programs. People stay poor for a lack of power. 

When you create a program, power resides with those who own the program. Until there is a sharing and repurposing of power within our society, the core deficiencies within our society will remain. Remember, we already have countless programs to fix the fish. Remember also that we are all swimming in a lake fed by the groundwater of inequality.

So how do you know if you are creating a program or providing true empowerment? There are two sentences that can help us understand the difference. The next time you are deciding how best to serve a particular group of people, consider this:

If you feel and act responsible for them, then you have the power. If you allow yourself to be accountable to them, then they have the power.

This can seem like only a slight difference, but it shifts the power dynamic entirely and will empower those beginning on the low end of the scale longterm.

This whole concept of shared power and equity (and the language used to explain it) might sound scary or even like propaganda to some. If that’s the case for you, I encourage you to pay attention to the tension. Why is it that these ideas and this language cause you to feel the way they do? Secondly, I’m not suggesting that we throw everything out entirely – our form of government, the current ways of carrying out commerce, etc. – and start over completely. I am suggesting, however, that we be honest about the distribution of power in our nation and the history that has intentionally led us here.

What would it look like if just the believers in Jesus were willing to walk through this discomfort and disruption together? What if we began to acknowledge and address the groundwater that runs through our communities and through our veins? I’m convinced that doing so would lead to a freedom from bondage we don’t even realize we are in until we have come out from under it.

So what do you say? How can we begin to pursue the freedom awaiting us on the other side of some disruption and discomfort? Let’s continue to do the work many others have been doing for generations of repurposing our power.

Special thanks to REI for their work and the role it plays in creating awareness around these issues!

Below is the second part of a three part series. I encourage you to read the first post prior to continuing.

Now onto some examples…

An article published in 2016 showed the disparity and discrimination we see in our supposedly much enlightened marketplace here in America. Over 1,600 resumes were sent to employers in 16 metropolitan areas of the country—not way out in the sticks—the only difference in the resumes being evidence of ethnicity. Not surprisingly, there was a direct correlation between the number of callbacks and an applicant’s ethnicity as you can see in this graphic taken from the Harvard Business School’s “Minorities Who ‘Whiten’ Job Resumes Get More Interviews” article at https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-resumes-get-more-interviews:

Another example of the inequity by ethnicity in our society comes from a book written in 1997 titled “Poverty and Place.” The author illustrates that the ethnicity highest in number is also the lowest in poverty rate. Which ethnicity is this? That would be white. There has been a concerted effort to place poor people of color in concentrated areas geographically. Essentially, our nation has worked to group poor people of color together where there has not been a similar effort to group poor white people together.

These are just two examples of the how the inequity and the balance of power has been intentionally tilted in our society, but there are countless other ways this plays out over the course of our nation’s history. These ways are apparent to anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear.

So why are we even talking about this?? It’s for sure not because we thought it would be fun or just a good idea! And it’s not because we’ve become leftist, socialist, liberal, humanist activists, or whatever other label you might be tempted to apply. Instead, there’s another reason…

When you walk through disruption and discomfort, you find faith and freedom on the other side.

I’m sure you have experienced this in your life at some point. It may have been at work or it may have been with your health. No doubt there have been difficult moments in life that knocked you off course. And you now know that growth has occurred in those times of discomfort. They go hand in hand.

Whether it was something forced on you or something you chose…

you stuck with it…

you persevered…

you pushed through…

and you came out the other side with more. 

Many times, when a situation begins to feel uncomfortable, we want to say, “No, thanks!,” and run the other way. But when we choose to run, we also choose not to mature.

As I shared this message with the congregation of Multiply Church, I told them the real reason I am talking about this is because I love our community. I love the people who are Multiply Church too much to not talk about these issues.

The freedom we experience on the other side is from a bondage that many of us don’t even realize we’re in until we walk through the discomfort and the disruption.

So what does this have to do with the Gospel?

I’ll answer this question and make the connection in the final installment next week!

Let’s get awkward…

We are in this season at Multiply Church we’ve been calling Clash of Kingdoms. In this season, we are examining the Kingdom of God for certain values and behaviors of those living as citizens of the Kingdom. Many of these values and behaviors are countercultural to what we regularly see put on display in our earthly kingdoms. This conversation can get awkward quickly…especially when we focus on politics, poverty, and racism.

Now for our next topic: power and equity in our society

But first…why are we even talking about these things?? You might be thinking…can’t we just preach about the love of Jesus? After all, shouldn’t this be what the church is about? Love, forgiveness, etc.

Love and forgiveness are great and, yes, we could simply just preach about these concepts every week.

But to be honest, there have been countless preachers living homogenous lives and just preaching the love of Jesus to homogenous congregations for centuries. And this might be related to the fact that the church hour on Sunday mornings continues to be the most segregated hour in our society. Therefore, I will preach about the love of Jesus, but not just the love of Jesus. We also have to preach about how the love of Jesus commands and empowers us to address biblical injustices in our society today.

Ya dig?

I recently had the opportunity to attend an extremely eye opening and difficult racial equity workshop over the course of two days thanks to our partnership with the YMCA of Greater Charlotte. The information in this workshop was not necessarily new to me, but the order in which it was compiled and presented made the experience especially powerful.

In this three-part series of posts, I will give you some high level learnings from this workshop, along with a framework to better understand power and equity in our culture. Then there will be some examples of the inequity in our society. Finally, I will answer what this has to do with the Gospel. (Remember, the Gospel is the good news that the Kingdom of God is near.)

Let’s go!

Let’s start with a definition of power. Power is the ability to do something or act in a particular way. Power is also the capacity to direct or influence the behavior and actions of others. As we consider the concepts of power and equity, the biggest takeaway from the workshop for me serves as a great metaphor!

The workshop facilitators used this helpful metaphor to frame the narrative of inequality in our nation. Allow me to explain…

If you go to a body of water and you see a single fish floating upside down on the water, what question do you ask? Most likely, you wonder to yourself, “Huh, I wonder what happened to that fish?”

If you come to that same body of water the next day and there are hundreds of fish floating upside down, you ask a different question. Your curiosity shifts from the fish to the water…to the environment in which the fish are swimming. In other words, what’s wrong with the water?

Now to the best part of the metaphor:

Did you know that 94% of the freshwater in the world is underground? This water is cleverly called groundwater and groundwater feeds all of our rivers, lakes, and other bodies of freshwater.

When it comes to power and equity in our society, we have been reared and trained to blame the fish. The fish have defects and deficiencies. That fish is lazy. This fish is unintelligent. And we become a nation of fish fixers. The problem is that the root of the issue is not with the fish. The real issue is with the groundwater.

So we can try to create programs that address the so-called defects and deficiencies of the fish, but the environments in which the fish swim remain the same. Our fish-fixing programs are good, however, they do nothing to address the real deficits in the lake and the toxicity of the groundwater.

So this is the framework to better understand where we are in our society. You may be tempted to disagree, and I totally understand that pressure, but the real and the full history of our nation leads to this conclusion.

Next, in part two, I will begin by providing some real-life examples of how this metaphor plays out in our society. Stay tuned!

(This is a follow-up to my original post on politics.)

No, he was not.

Before you revolt, let me explain…

Let’s start with the definition of politics: activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties hoping to achieve power. If we begin with this foundation, then no, Jesus was not political.

Jesus never aligned himself with a political party.

Jesus never aligned himself with a political leader or political agenda.

Jesus never lobbied or campaigned for a political candidate or cause.

Therefore, Jesus never participated in politics.

And at the same time, yes, Jesus was political. Again, let’s look at the narrative…

Jesus was born a refugee – seeking asylum in a foreign country to escape political persecution.

Jesus was executed by the state (in collusion with the religious leaders) in a political execution.

And, most importantly (with all diction at his disposal), Jesus used the language of kingdom.

The documentarian, Mark, reveals some of Jesus’ perspective on politics in his account of Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees and Herodians. (Sidenote: the Herodians were a group with very convoluted beliefs that mixed religion and politics in an unhealthy manner. Google it.)

These two groups – the Pharisees and Herodians – who were enemies, expect when it came to trying to trap their common enemy, asked Jesus if it was right for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar. In other words, “Jesus, what are your views on the separation of religion and state?”

And how does Jesus respond?

Mark writes:

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Rather than dismissing them because of their hypocrisy, Jesus uses the opportunity to engage them and those who were observing the scene. Then Jesus, being the master teacher, employs a prop and asks a thought provoking question before giving any instruction; which is:

Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

And they were amazed at him.

And the question I remember a professor in seminary asking as a followup to this teaching…

Now, whose image is on you?

If Caesar’s image is on the coin and we should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and we should give to God what is God’s…hmmmm.

Here’s what I take away from Jesus’ political message:

All political matters are matters of the heart and you cannot legislate matters of the heart.

So for those of us who are in to following Jesus and maybe for the sake of those who are not, there’s another question:

Will we politicize these matters or practice these matters?

As a quick example…

Will we get caught up in the passionate conversation around issues like communism (i.e. universal healthcare, etc.) or will we choose to live generously so that our resources are used to provide for those whom life in this world has not?

It may sound idealistic and many, if not all, of you may want to push-back (which I very much welcome in the comments below), but at the end of the day…I still think this is an extremely helpful question:

Will we politicize matters of the heart and align our identity with current politics or will we, perhaps even quietly, practice the matters of the heart that inform our politics?

Our answer to this question, and the implications it carries, will demonstrate to this world the true source of our hope and faith.

So was Jesus political? Yes…

and no.

The church I get to pastor, Multiply Church, recently participated in an incredible display of church unity with over 100 other churches in the Charlotte metro area.

Local churches of different socioeconomic, denominational, and ethnic make-ups together focused on loving our neighbor. The reach of this effort spanned over 60,000 people here in the Charlotte metro area.

As you play those numbers out, 60,000 people with 8 neighbors each is a potential of over 480,000 lives impacted by this effort! All this to say…the opportunity the church has to make an impact in our local communities is huge!

And it all starts with a simple command.

As we think about the greatest command Jesus gave…to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves…I have to admit that I’ve not always been the best neighbor.

In fast, when we originally moved to the Matthews area almost six and half years ago, we decided to rent for a short time while we discerned where best to set up permanently. Our neighbor right next door was named Sicily. Sicily was like 130 years old…and she was amazing!

She was originally from a Caribbean island where everyone eats only greens and mangos for every meal so even though she was nearly a century old, she was active and could easily pass for being in her late 60’s or early 70’s. I guess there’s something to that whole clean eating/ natural diet thing!

Even though we knew her name and would say hi whenever we saw her outside, we didn’t have much interaction with Sicily. One day, after returning from a week at the beach, Sicily rang our doorbell. I welcomed her in and said it was good to see her.

Upon entering the foyer, she asked if we had been out of town. Without considering why she might be asking, I told her how we had been on vacation and shared some details of our time away.

What she said next convicted me about my neighboring…

“Oh, well I had picked some fresh tomatoes from my garden last week and left a basket for you at your door when you didn’t answer, but since you were out of town, they rotted. You should let me know when you will be out of town. That’s what neighbors do.”

Ouch!

I immediately knew she was right and looking back on it, I wonder if it was the difference in our stage of life that kept us from really acting like neighbors. In fast, there was a family who lived a couple streets over who we had befriended because our kids played so well together. And they actually knew we were on vacation!

(More to come on neighboring next week…)

(If you missed last week’s post, I recommend checking it out here before continuing!)

Well, as David Kinnaman puts it, “we have allowed our technology to outdistance our theology.” We now turn to Google above friends or trusted advisors (if we even have any).  Kinnaman writes, “Young people are looking to their devices to make sense of the world around them. They are using the screens in their pockets as their counselors, their entertainers, their instructors, and even their sex educators, among many other digital-Sherpa roles.”

And, in true millennial fashion, I would say adamantly that it’s not our fault!

Instead, as David points out, the issue is discipleship. The main reason why people drop out of church or fall away from the faith is insufficient discipleship. When the true troubles and worries of this life rear their ugly, painful heads, many exiles tend to go the way of culture rather than the way of Christ.

And there are different levels of “exile” today. One of the most helpful aspects of Kinnaman’s latest work is the stratification of exile and the corresponding definition.

• Resilient Disciple
• Habitual Churchgoers (my personal favorite designation)
• Nomad
• Prodigal

You can read the book to find out the definition of each grouping, but they are very helpful and it would be interesting for the Barna Group (Kinnaman’s research firm) to create an online assessment individuals could take, based on the data, to determine the category in which you’d fit!

So what can you do about all of this?

Kinnaman is careful to explain that this is an explanation of lots of research and not a guide on how to reach young people. (By the way, that kind of language–reaching young people–will typically send exiles running the other direction!) But, if you must reverse engineer this from a particular end point, the Faith for Exiles book might be helpful.

As to top predicators of resilient Christians, the research reveals four big factors:

1. Feeling connected to a community of Christians
2. Understanding the church as a place where you feel you belong
3. Feeling loved and valued in your church
4. Feeling connected to people who are older

As you can see, people feeling connected, like they belong, and valued will more than likely result in resilient disciples.

Therefore, the organizational/institutional local church might do well to direct its resources to making all people feel connected, creating a place where they belong (no matter what they believe), showing love and value to all people, and providing environments where people can connect intergenerationally.

Along with being awakened to our current reality straight from the horse’s mouth, Faith for Exiles creates some great language to describe the current state of the church in America. For example, concepts like brand Jesus, insulating tribalism, empowered atheism, cultural indoctrination, among others are helpful language to get a grasp on how the experience of the local church is viewed in the eyes of many today, especially younger generations.

To be fair, Faith for Exiles is not your typical page-turner, but for anyone interested in what’s really going on in the hearts and minds of those leaving the church over the past several years, it’s an incredible resource…and one you might need to refrain from defending yourself against if you are going to make a difference moving forward.

And I highly recommend it!