The Image of God

We are in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 states so, and while some heretics will claims that the fall removed that quality of us, but Genesis 3:22 states that after Adam and Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:

And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

implying that man and woman became even more like God with the knowledge of good and evil. The banishment from the garden was to keep them from eating of the tree of life. If that wasn't enough to show we are still in the image of God, see that Genesis 9:6 speaks of murder being wrong on the basis of us being in the image of God.

But that's not my point today. Rather, think of the ramifications that we are made in the image of God. First of all, there is nothing in the scriptures to make a claim that this is true only for those who are in Christ. This is true for all. How should such knowledge impact evangelism and discipleship? Does the knowledge that something of what God is is written on everyone, from the honored to the lowest of us all, impact how we treat one another? Does it impact how we "do church"?

If we come with the mindset that the image of God is on everyone, shouldn't an emphasis then be on seeing that image revealed? Doesn't it increase the honor we give one another, the respect?

Integrity on Christmas

I've debated for a couple of weeks even doing this post, but the issue of integrity among followers of Christ is a growing concern. Particularly, the integrity of intellect.

It's a post for another time all the anti-intellectualism and anti-science sentiments among many Christians. But if, as many claim, Christianity is reasonable, let us act with integrity on many common practices and beliefs.

First of all, the assumption is that all Christians celebrate Christmas. Not so. I grew up in a Christian faith system that did not set aside special holidays (for as Paul writes in Galatians 4: "how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years!" ESV). The Puritans, who were an influential part of English and American history, thought Christmas as too pagan. There may be many others I'm not aware of, denominations that don't celebrate.

Second is the perception that Christmas is fundamentally a religious occasion and has been since the day of the apostles. Yet:
>In 245, the theologian Origen of Alexandria stated that, "only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod)" celebrated their birthdays. ("Natal Day", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911.)
>In 303, Christian writer Arnobius ridiculed the idea of celebrating the birthdays of gods, which suggests that Christmas was not yet a feast at this time. ("Christmas", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913.)
> More recently, Christmas celebration was banned in England from 1647-1660, and was banned in much of the New England colonies in the 17th century, including Boston from 1659-1681

Christmas was "out of favor" in the early years of the U.S. where after the American Revolution it was seen as an English custom, not a religious obligation. Congress actually convened on Christmas day in 1789. The first state to make Christmas a holiday for its workers was Alabama in 1836 -- it wasn't a federal holiday for DC workers until 1870 and didn't become a holiday for all federal workers in 1885. And it wasn't until 1893 that all U.S. states and territories had made it a holiday for all its workers.

So what led to the "return" of Christmas in the 19th century? Some big religious revival? Nope. Christmas literature become popular in the U.S. and England in the 1820s and 30s. This was the time of much of our Christmas themed stories and poems, most famously Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (1834) and Clement Clarke Moore's A Visit From Saint Nick (1822). Most of this literature had no or only passing mention of religious motivation for Christmas. Even then, Christmas was largely a non-event for most Americans until the 1860s (Daniel Boorstin, The Americans). And some actually credit department stores like Macy's of New York for that popularization of Christmas. So the tradition of retail stores "creating" reasons to buy gifts is tied to Christmas (consider that the next time you complain about the commercialization of Christmas).

There are other aspects of Christmas celebrations that we need to watch - the date itself is fairly random.

The Roman Catholic writer Mario Righetti candidly admits that, "to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the 'Invincible Sun' Mithras, the conqueror of darkness" (Manual of Liturgical History, 1955, Vol. 2, p. 67).

And De Pascha Computus, a calendar of feasts produced in 243, gives March 28 as the date of the nativity.

You know the fable for the three wise men -- check the bible, the true story is they arrived months later (the shepherds weren't still there like many of our nativity scenes), scripture mentions that the wise men arrived at a house (not a barn, in other words, Joseph and Mary went home w/Jesus), and there were three types of gifts. No mention that there was three wise men -- the number is actually unknown.

The need for integrity is great. Many churches use Christmas as a time for evangelism and revival. If the integrity on the facts are poor, what does that say of our witness? If we are sloppy about the history and practice of Christmas, if we are to practice it at all, what's that say when we teach about why Jesus came? We need integrity about it all.

Systems

There's a saying: "your system is perfectly designed for the results you are getting".

I look at churches that struggle for volunteers, while all the creative and resourceful duties at church belong to the professionals. "Your system ..."

I see churches that overmanage, requiring spiritual gift assessments and meeting with potential volunteers to counsel them on involvement, then they wonder why so few members initiate action. "Your system ...."

I see the vast majority of churches having as their most resource intensive activity being Sunday "worship", where the majority of the crowd sits in the pews being entertained. Then you have those who wonder why so many of the church members don't evangelize their neighbors or serve in some capacity in the community, why they don't seem to be growing in Christ. Essentially why they aren't "active" members of the church. Well, you teach passivity on Sunday. Your system is perfectly designed for the results you are getting.

Training Circles

Sorry not to be "around" much. I keep thinking of this site for one set of thoughts, but God has been clear that there are interconnections where I don't see them at the time. So I should have been posting here more, perhaps, but not seeing the connections.

In this journey to restore my own heart, see others restore theirs, to find more specifics on my calling, one theme has continuously resurfaced -- church. A few months ago, I tried to walk away from thinking so much about church and how it impedes people from walking in their calling, and how it could help, just to go and act. To move toward what I thought was more my calling, to help others find theirs.

Wasn't sure exactly how that looks. If you saw The Mask of Zorro you may remember the scene with the training circles. The circle started out large, but as the new Zorro was gaining skill, the circles shrank. "This is your world" the old Zorro said. And each new circle represented his world shrinking.

As you journey into calling, discovering your calling is like that. You get a general idea, and act in that. As you learn and experience, the circle shrinks. It's like knowing you want to teach, and in walking in that the circle shrinks and you discover you want to teach adults, then it shrinks again and you find you want to teach young adults, then college students, then it's teaching literature, and on it goes until you discover you want to teach 19th century English literature to seniors in their final semester. The circles shrink as you discover yourself.

All that to say that I wonder if I forced my circle to shrink around the wrong center. After trying to move away from "church" (see some of my posts around August), I wonder if I should have moved more away from "institutions" and more toward community. One key on this was the last few weeks (the 'distraction' that took some time from blogging) is working with some friends on "Redemptive Tribe" (I put the link there for those reading this a few weeks from now, but for now I believe the settings are still "private" while we build some content). This is a collaboration site for those "friends of Ransomed Heart interested in redemptive community". I'll probably write more on some of the thoughts it has stirred as we seed the site.

Is all this God drawing me back in a circle with the center he knows is my deeper desire?

So, how was your Thanksgiving?

Yesterday

Yesterday, I had coffee with another man.

"David" has an adult son and daughter. His son works for an internationally known ministry in North Carolina. Dave himself has worked for a number of Christian ministries over his career, mostly in community development and CD consulting, dealing with places in Africa and Asia mostly.

Dave, age 54, doesn't go to church anymore.

You see, Dave was active in church for years, but as he grew to know what God made in him, what made Dave unique in his father's eyes, he stepped toward that. But the churches he was a part of wanted to plug and play him in what they wanted to do. Dave has grown and matured and knows his part in the kingdom, but apparently that's a threat to local churches he just need someone to feel their predefined roles. Dave was even told "we know you don't like doing this, but you are good at it so it must be what you are to do here". It was killing his heart.

So he left.

Online, in ministry (I've volunteered with Ransomed Heart and The Noble Heart ministries) I've come across dozens of men like Dave. Men called by God in a direction that brings them in conflict with their churches. Some stay for their families' sake. Some stay as their ministry creates the church as a kind of mission field for them. Others leave.

The "church" was meant to equip. Somewhere along the way it placed itself in the place of God. If the church returns to equipping men, then the work done by the church will be the work the members are called to do. Not what some committee decides.

How to settle disputes

Core beliefs

I posted last week's "why some theology matters" to a social network site I'm helping to seed before we open it up to like-minded others to join. A friend Reggie posted a good reply, including this list of core beliefs that matter:

The Good Heart (Core)
The Larger Story
God's heart (The Prodigal, The Shack, etc.)
Warfare (there is an enemy)
The need for healing (the wound)
Uniqueness of our Calling
The value of Relationship
Hearing God (This does happen)

And actually within a couple of days I was rereading from John Eldredge's Walking With God the section entitled Not Every Gospel is Equal (page 164ff). He makes a similar point. Now, he spends most of his time undoing the damage done by "judge not lest ye be judged" mentality (in context, that is a statement about making right judgments), but in the end he has his three core points: the heart is central, intimacy with God is the goal, and restoration of the person matters.

If restoring heart is a goal, if it is the mission, then understanding your beliefs on the matters of the heart, God, and relationships are key. Understand that, then understand who your allies are, and what your mission is. If your heart matters, then who you allow close matters as well.

Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.