Have you ever had the experience that what you believed didn’t integrate with what you experienced. That which you once held so dear seemed lacking when life jerked it away from it’s comfortable place in your grasp. That is one of the many experiences I have had lately in my life and faith.

There are certain theological beliefs (orthodoxy) and practices (orthopraxy) that I hold and others that I embrace and I think there is a difference in nuance that I want to explain. There are beliefs I embrace which identifies them with something I love, cherish, adore and hold tightly. These things are those that are non-negotiable: importance of the Church and community, theological beliefs such as the Trinity, inerrancy of Scripture or the incarnation of Christ.

There are other beliefs and practices that I hold but not embrace. Holding implies a looser grasp, beliefs that are open for debate and ones that are not as essentially foundational to my faith. These allow me to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ that differ with me on what I hold but agree with what we embrace. These are things like my hermeneutical (fancy name for interpretation) technique for the Book of Revelation, my view on what happens to the elements at communion, how communion is celebrated, whether the creation account was seven literal days or representing God’s good creative work over time, or whether I worship God though contemporary choruses or traditional singing without instruments. These are just a few examples.

Oddly I find, as I grow and mature in my spiritual life, that I embrace less and hold more, but what I do embrace, I am learning to truly embrace – to love and cherish.

I have been reflecting on leadership lately; more specifically, I have been reflecting on the idea of pastoral leadership. You don’t have to look very far in Church sub-culture and you realize the incessant desire to be the best leader you can be (just take a tour of your local Christian bookstore). I am not against that but what I do struggle with is the measure by which pastors often view “successful pastoral leadership.” Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, John Maxwell are but a few of the plethora of leadership gurus out there, all of which are considered very “successful.” They have pastored large churches, written books, regularly speak on leadership, and many pastors look to them as their example and what they are striving to be.

I am not against good leadership, leadership workshops or leadership books. I am a leader who is passionate about being the best leader I can be, but I struggle with what I call the “mythical leader.” By “mythical leader,” I refer to the fact that, like superstars in our culture, people have warped views of what they are like in person. Like young girls measuring their exterior beauty with models that are Photoshopped and airbrushed, many pastors can feel a deep blow to their self-esteem because they believe the myth that these “leaders” are superhuman, never making mistakes or wrong decisions. I am not saying that they aren’t very gifted, but they are also human. So we can compare ourselves with mythical figures and think we are not worthy of our calling, but in the end we are comparing ourselves with a mythical character that, although gifted, is not as perfect as we perceive them to be. Contrarily, I believe, and think the Bible clearly teaches, that each pastor has been created and gifted uniquely for the calling that God has given them.

I think this conversation also needs to address the perceptions of the Church. Many people in church (speaking generically) compare their pastor (his/her leadership capability, administrative prowess, preaching gift, and counseling skills) with these mythical figures and of course no one can measure up to a fictionally ideal standard. In fact, that is one of the drawbacks of our twenty-first century culture. Sixty plus years ago, there wasn’t this same mythical picture. I think this began a bit with the iterant speaker, expanded with the use of radio and exploded with TV. Although I am very comfortable with the pastor that I am, my gifts and my limitations, there is always this opaque expectation I place, and at times others place, before me that I will never reach.

I wish there were more books and ministries that focused on being the person, follower of Jesus, and pastor that we are called, gifted and created by God to be. Maybe if we, as pastors, spent less time focusing on something we can never be and tried more to be better at who we are and how God created us, we would see a revolution of pastoral leadership that would lead to greater self-esteem, greater ministries and therefore greater effectiveness.

I don’t think this dismisses the need for personal and professional growth or the desire to be a better leader or even the need for good leadership in the church. All of these I wholeheartedly embrace, but maybe we need to focus more on being ourselves and thus be a better leader within the framework God has created and called.

I don’t know about you, but because of my experience growing up with Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, superheroes and other cartoons, I got the overwhelming message that I was special. I was told that I could do anything I wanted if I put my mind to it and worked hard enough. I don’t think I am the only one with that message imprinted on my psyche.

Consequently, we now have an adult generation (my generation) of people who are to some degree dealing with disappointment and depression because they have realized the truth; we each have limitations and as someone once said: “we are special, just like everyone else.” I think this is evidenced in our culture with the obsession with fame and the eventual disillusionment of what I call “American Idol Syndrome” (the individuals who audition and are convinced they are a rock star yet have no possibility of fulfilling that dream).

I am not against dreams but maybe we have to temper them with a dose of reality at times. I love music but I know that although I at times dream of being a rock star, it is more a fantasy than a dream because it exceeds my capabilities. God didn’t give me the gift of an amazing voice and no matter how hard I try, I won’t be a rock star or anything close to it.

I also know that I am very normal and therefore my question evolves: “What is wrong with normal?” Why is normal seen as appalling? I think, for the most part anyway, this is a problem plaguing our postindustrial materially wealthy culture where “special” is, to some limited degree, possible for the average person. It is possible for a select few to be a superstar, for the son of a carpenter to become a rock star or for the daughter of plumber to be an actress. In view of history, this is a fairly new development in the sociological history of humankind. A hundred years ago or in the majority of the world today, your future was/is determined, usually by the career of your parents. Your life was the way it was by what seemed like a predetermined destiny, with little choices except whether or not to make the most of your destined situation. Contrast that with our culture today where the average 14-16 year old is forced to make major life-altering decisions about their career path from a seemingly limitless list of choices. The pressure of that and the potential to be wrong are equally distressing.

It is this phenomenon that I think feeds into shows like Heroes (which my wife and I began watching this Christmas). I think all of us want to be special…to do something no one else can do. We all fantasize about having an ability that would make us unique and special. I know I am not alone in this struggle with who I am and in many ways coming to grips with my limitations and beginning to see them as gifts from God. Let’s face it, if we were all gifted in every way, with no limitations, we would self-destruct…so I remember that we are normal. We each have numerous limits that are not the bane of our existence to be grieved, rather they are limits that need to be celebrated as gifts from God as much as our abilities are. Part of what makes you and I special is not simply our abilities but our limitations. So maybe we all need a dose of reality and accept who we are and who we are not.

The following post is an article I wrote for our Church’s Monthly Newsletter. It was inspired by my trip to Bolivia and thought you may find it interesting…

Cultural Differences
One of the many things my mission’s trip to Bolivia has caused me to reflect upon is the reality and influences of culture in our lives, specifically in Christianity. Although I knew cultural differences would exist, I didn’t realize that they would exist in such stark contrast. For example, there are obvious differences between what South Americans consider personal space issues verses what we consider personal space. There are also striking differences in what “on time” means as we have a very scheduled culture and expectations, where South American culture is very laid back and things start when enough people arrive. There is also the difference of our very individualistic culture while their culture is more based on community. There are also differences in how we as North America consider and find “stuff” important compared to those who live in the third world, where they are more focused on community rather than commodity.

Although I never directly experienced this, I was also told that in Bolivia, and probably for many South American cultures, it is culturally unacceptable to deny a request. For example, if you are invited to attend a birthday party, it is an insult to deny someone’s invitation. Instead, it is more polite to say you will be there (even if you won’t) rather than to offend the other person by saying you have a previous commitment. South America is also a very different culture in that people are very willing to do what you ask of them. One of the things my friend Ken told me was that if I were to have an alter call and have people physically respond by coming forward after a church service, almost everyone would. They would do it whether or not they agreed with what you were teaching or not. Even if they disagree with you, it is just polite to do what is asked.

Those are just some of the examples of cultural differences between North and South American cultures. These differences have prompted me to reflect upon a number of issues related to culture and Christianity. Christianity, at its core, is not a Western belief system, but an ongoing life-transforming relationship with God that supersedes culture, language, time, nations, genders, etc. Although our cultural expression of Christianity may be “western,” Christianity is not. This is the entanglement that has demanded my attention lately, the determination and distinction between the core message of Jesus and the North American, western, twenty-first century expression of Christianity.

Christianity Beyond Culture And The Compulsion It Creates
I think that if we truly believe that the Good News of Jesus is essential and applicable in every time, culture, language, nation and genre, then it would make a fundamental and radical difference to us. Thus as we, and those on our behalf (Missionaries), bring the message of Jesus to others, we first and foremost bring a message of life – an invitation to be a part of the Kingdom of God. We bring a message that it as applicable and desperately needed to any culture around our globe at any time in history.

But we also need to understand and realize that each culture needs to express their love for God differently and for us to convert them to “western” culture is not what we are called to do and I would strongly argue that it is also both counter-productive and wrong. Instead, we need to understand that each culture needs to express their love for God within their own language and culture.

This is dramatically presented in the scene from the movie “The Mission,” where we see the main character, played by Robert De Niro, hauling a massive organ up a mountain under the false pretense that the people of that culture couldn’t worship God without it. In essence, he confused a cultural expression with the core and essential message of Jesus.

Moving One Culture Closer
You may be reading this and saying that you agree with me and missionaries need to do this all the time but I would like to challenge your thinking one step further. Although we may find it easy to say that Missionaries need to do this and should do this in their ministries, I also believe that there is a need for us to constantly be rethinking this in our own ministry context in North America. When you look at your life, as well as the ministry of Devon Alliance Church, what are the cultural expressions that you, or we, have established as essential to the Gospel message of Jesus?

Knowing Culture… Explaining God
Which leads me to this… in order to know how to communicate God’s truth and love in any culture, Missions 101, we have to know the culture in which we are sharing God’s love and the message of salvation with. I think we would all agree that the colonial way of doing missions was both unwise and wrong. The colonial missions philosophy transported culture and cultural expression of Christianity and radically confused it with the core message of Jesus. Instead, we need to learn a culture and understand it so we can explain and share the message of Jesus with the people in it – the timeless, language-less, genderless and cultureless message of Jesus. But to do this we MUST know and live in the culture. We can’t explain or interpret something to those we don’t know or understand.

It would be like the Americans I heard about in Bolivia who arrived on a mission’s trip to the boy’s home and were under the false presumption that if they talked loader and slower the boys would understand them. That somehow English spoken slow and loud equated Spanish. The same goes with Christianity. We have to know and understand the culture to which we are sharing it with – to do it any other way would be meaningless.

This is the example we see in Scripture with Paul at Mars Hill in Acts 17. Here Paul uses culture and the local philosophy/religion to share that the unknown God they were worshipping is the God who sent his son Jesus; the same Jesus who lived and died for them so that they could have and live the abundant and eternal life in Him. We need to learn from Paul in how we view missions and evangelism. In order to know the culture we have to live in it. The Bible says to be in the world but not of it (John 17:15-16). We have too often focused on the second half of that phrase and forget that we need to live in the world, culture and society to interact and share the life-transforming message of Jesus with those in it.

In Bolivia there are some examples of those who I would argue have gone to the extreme of not being a part of the world. There are several Mennonite colonies in Bolivia that only speak German and live very separated lives from the society at large. It is quite bizarre to walk down the street in South America and see a traditional Mennonite family from an isolated colony, as you would see in Canada, walking down the street. The problem with this philosophy, whether lived exuberantly or subtly, is that God’s message stays within rather than moves out. Think of the phrase “abundant life” (John 10:10). This phrase implies that there is so much life, it is overflowing and must be shared. I would even argue that it can’t, by definition, be horded or protected… it must, by its very existence, be shared and given away.

The Message of Jesus and Us
We need to consider how we view the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus. Have we relegated it to our cultural expressions and substituted those insufficient expressions for the life changing/transforming message of Jesus. If we truly believe this, I contest that our voices and our passion for the lost would grow and our heart for missions would explode. And consequently, our desire for the Kingdom of God (the dream of God) would begin to germinate in our lives and in the world.