Dissatisfied With Church?

I once went to a youth group that seemed to have everything going for it. Upbeat music, a talented worship band, interesting activities (that were, of course, Bible-themed), and because teenagers need sugar, they let everyone have a bottle of root beer every once in a while.

For the most part, I enjoyed it. And I'm sure most everyone else did.

And yet, there was something missing, and I knew it.

Over the years, I've grown more and more dissatisfied with the way church is done. My youth group was merely one example. Sometimes we're focusing on other things when we ought to be preaching, and when we are preaching, it's cotton candy and does practically nothing to give people what they actually need to apply the Gospel in their own lives.

I think this dissatisfaction is a good thing. It means we know we don't have everything right, and that there is a model for churches, one we're not currently meeting. Dissatisfaction with the way things are leads to change.

However, we must never mistake dissatisfaction for change for the sort of dissatisfaction that leads to division – and the problem is, they are very, very easy to confuse.

This past Sunday, I visited one of our home churches with the rest of my family for the first time since we've gotten back to America. One of the first things I noticed after the service started was that the church had switched to electronic drums.

And for the rest of the first song, I was only half-singing, distracted and more than a little annoyed at how wimpy the drums sounded.

After the first song, I got my head on straight and figured it was more important to worship Jesus than to get annoyed over drums. So I got over it and the rest of the service was great.

But that was a prime example of the wrong sort of dissatisfaction. My example was a really minor one, but you can easily apply it to another situation. A church changes youth pastors and the new one is boring, or one of the pastors leaves the church and a quarter of the congregation leaves with him, or the style of the worship changes and either the younger generations think it's too old or the older ones think it's too modern. There's a myriad of different manifestations of it.

My point is, in “critiquing” the modern church, we can become too dissatisfied with it. Because we dislike the way church is done we say we'll be done with church. The church has problems, and I'll be the first to agree. But it's still the church. We can't just abandon it or get annoyed with it and cause problems. The best way to change something is not by pulling out, but by pouring in.

I have problems with the amount of money spent on church buildings, to use another personal example. But I'm not going to get into a fight about it. What I am going to do is immerse myself in the Word of God (encouraging others to do the same) and then He'll do the talking from there.

If we're focused on God, He'll produce in us the right sort of dissatisfaction – the sort that leads to the right kind of change. But it's always important to distinguish between the two. One will lead us closer to the church in order to change it, and one will take us farther away because it hasn't changed.

Let's make sure we've got our heads on straight.

Unlocking the Brain

There is a problem I suspect most people have, even those who don't write half as much as I do.  It's the problem of an essentially locked brain.

You see, while my mind is capable (and unfortunately, more than willing) to create fodder for your thoughts and my own, outside circumstances render it incapable of actually writing these ideas down.  I'm locked.  I've had a dozen ideas, any of which would have made a thought-provoking and decent article.  It takes time and effort to write them, however - and when I have time (which is rarely), I don't have the effort.  Usually I go and read instead, although writing an article would be more productive.

The sum of this rather rambly post is that I have not posted on here, and that I have read Agatha Christie instead.

While the coming week will be hectic, I should be able to buckle down and write some meaningful stuff the week after.  If I'm not busy writing my novel.

But if I don't blog on here for two months - AGAIN - well, you'll know the reason.  See ya then.

Service (And How Liberia Views It)

“That's okay, I can do it myself.”

How many times have I said that one? More than you'd think. Most of the time I say it when I'm trying to do some form of work. If I'm washing my own dish, washing the car, painting a basketball backboard, drawing a bucket of water from the well, etc., at some point some Liberian, such as the security guard on duty, will come up to me and say, “Oh, Jake, I can help you with that,” or “I can do it for you”.

Needless to say, I'm an American born and bred and I don't particularly like having people do things for me, so I reply with, “That's okay, I can do it myself.”

An old picture of our well

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to keep people from doing things for me. “I can do it myself” isn't an anti-service thing. But really, doing such things myself is counter-cultural.

There's this underlying mindset of “service” in Liberian culture when it comes to menial labor. The lower you are on the ladder of success and prestige, the more menial labor you have to do.  Such as drawing water from the well.  So when a white person (like myself) comes into the country, no Liberian wants to let the “boss man” get his hands dirty and do actual work.

One Tuesday we were having a teen Bible study with some local Liberians just out of school. At one point I was trying to explain in a relevant way the significance of the fact that Jesus washed his disciples' feet. They had heard it before, of course; they knew Bible stories from church, but oftentimes Liberian teens don't grasp the meaning behind the stories.

So here's what I said:

“Say that Ma Ellen” - (that's the president of Liberia, by the way) - “is coming into the compound.” I gestured to the rusty gate to our concrete-block fence. “She gets out of her car and says hello. Then she says this: 'Oh, I see your feet are very dirty. Let me wash them for you.' And then she gets down on her hands and knees and washes your feet.”

At this, their eyes flew wide and they shouted, “No, no! You can't do that!” Evidently I had succeeded, and the message got through to them: Jesus' act was completely counter-cultural and crazy. Nobody as high and important as President Ellen would stoop as far as to wash someone else's feet. It's crazy!

But like I said, it's deeply embedded in the culture. When outsiders come in, this is what they see. They often say, “Wow, how generous these Africans are! They're always serving others.” And this is true. When Christ has changed a Liberian's life, it's beautiful to see. They're unselfish, generous, and serving.

But too often good things can be twisted. Service is an important part of Liberian culture, but it's the wrong kind of service.

The service Christ calls us to is inherently democratic. One person is not better than the other. Democracy was born when Paul said, “All are one in Christ Jesus.” The kind of service the Christian is called to is where one person serves the other because all are equal. It is love-motivated service. But the Liberian kind of “service” turns this truth around: Liberian service is where one person serves the other because all are unequal. The Liberian serves the boss-man because he's the boss-man, not because he wants to serve. But the boss-man doesn't serve him. Yet this is exactly what Christ calls us to – to serve one another regardless of who that “other” is.

Christian service is out of love. But Liberian “service” is often out of selfishness. I had one of our security guards tell me that “the Liberian love office job”. Why? Because it involves no menial labor. They only work so that they can get to the point where they don't have to work.

Yet Christ says the exact opposite. The last shall be first – completely counter to everything in this culture, where everything is a race to be “first”.

But if this country can regain this kind of Christian service, this real service, it will be transformed. And I think that the best way to start is to serve.

That's why I say “I can do it myself.” Because the white man can work too. I'm not higher than anyone else. So I'll wash my own dish; and other people's dishes too. I'll draw my own shower bucket, and my dad's shower bucket too. Change has to start small before it can grow big.

And maybe we can turn self-service in to self-sacrificing service.

When In Doubt, Post Pictures

This is a mantra that has been oft-repeated by my mother, whose blog mostly consists of pictures.  As I don't have anything particularly meaningful to say (yet), and I have some blank space that needs filling, pictures appear to be the way to go!

This is a picture of the beach at ELWA, which is an acronym meaning Eternal Love Winning Africa.  It's essentially a great big missionary compound where many of the Samaritan's Purse and SIM (Serving In Mission) missionaries live.  This picture was taken several weeks ago shortly after we went swimming.  (We live several miles from ELWA, so we walked there along the beach.)  This was an hour or two after low tide, so the waves were still manageable.

This is the fence at our compound.  The tree you see there is a coconut tree, which we've harvested several times since moving in in December.  (While coconut water is rather strange-tasting, I do like the coconut flesh.)

This picture, however, was likely taken in December or earlier, before we had any work done.  The wire hanging off the fence there has since been taken down and replaced with broken glass and new wire.

Here's a rather artistic picture of a sunset through our new wire.  If you look closely you can see the broken bottles cemented to the top of the wall.

That's the same coconut tree, by the way. ^_^

And that's pretty much all I've got.  If you have any questions, ask away!  Maybe I'll respond with pictures. 

What's A Blog About?

Greetings, wanderers from near and far!  This post marks the debut of my new blog, "Reflecting the Mirror".

When one starts a new blog (something I haven't done since beginning Teenage Writer nearly three years ago) the first question to answer is this: what's it going to be about?

So far I've found that question hard to answer.  The primary reason I created this blog is to fill a literary hole in my life: something you might not know about me is that I'm very fond of writing essays, for lack of a better word.

Before you shut down your computer at the sight of that awful word, let me explain that I mean "essay" in the very best sense: a piece of writing having to do with one's opinion on a subject, whether it be G. K. Chesterton's infamous essay "On Lying in Bed" or a simple theological treatise or a commentary on some political issue.

I mentioned, however, that I've found the question of this blog's subject hard to answer.  That's because I don't want this blog devoted exclusively to one thing.  If anything, the subject of this blog is everything - or everything that comes to mind, anyway.

So what should you expect?  Well, the one thing I know I'll be writing (at one point or another) is an essay.  Besides that, it's all open.  I could revive old traditions and give some cautionary words on rabbits; I could very seriously write a theological post on justification; I could post pictures of Africa; I could post stories on Africa; I could talk about lying in bed; the possibilities are endless.

One thing I do promise, however: it is going to be entertaining!

Welcome to Reflecting the Mirror.