The following stems from conversations I have had with recent graduates who are attempting to determine where God is calling them. It is meant as a reminder to both myself and others:

If you truly believe you have been called by God to serve in the capacity your in…and…If you truly believe that you are in the place God wants and desires for you…and…If you believe God only ever desires us to be real, authentic and without pretense…then…you must also equally believe you must be yourself and yourself alone. You can’t be anyone else, no matter how great or gifted they might be. It is not only impossible but a worthless exercise that only will end in disastrous disappointment.

This of course is difficult. It is difficult because people often project their opinion of who you should be. However, the only expert, besides God, on you is, well, you. Then I would simply ask: What are you waiting for? Who are you trying to be? Why are you spending so much energy trying to be someone or something you can never be? Why, instead, don’t you just be you and allow God to profoundly use you as the exact person he wants in your present location and circumstance. To be anything else would simply be hypocritical and dishonoring to yourself and, more importantly, to the God who wonderfully and beautifully created you.

I had a great conversation with one of our church leaders the other night about the possibility of bringing someone from overseas to do a short-term ministry in our church sometime in the future. In other words, reverse the traditional North American mission’s model – which would be interesting to say the least. In the midst our conversation, I began to realize how much our culture’s colonial roots still exist in my thinking. I talked about the appropriate concern of making sure that this person was ready for a ministry like this and then I thought: Why don’t we assume that when we send a team to a different country that they would have those questions of us? Do we just assume that they should be grateful to have a group of North Americans minister to them? I guess it has just made me think about some of the things we assume when we interact with other cultures – often without even realizing it. Maybe our ancestor’s colonial worldview still lingers closer than we think.

I have noticed a trend in churches and Church growth material recently. There seems to be a growing theory or hypothesis that unchurched people are attracted to churches who reach out in the community, feed the poor, care for others, get involved in issues of justice, etc. I don’t disagree with this hypothesis at all and, in fact, think it is quite accurate. However, it is the result of this assessment that bothers me.

There have been a rash of churches who are getting involved in the community, helping the poor, and engaging the needs of our culture because of the belief that it will grow their church. I am not arguing that churches shouldn’t be involved in these virtuous activities but want to ask the question: “Does our motivation matter?” In other words, is it right to get involved in the community and engage the needs of others out of the motivation to the grow the church?

I am not against feeding the poor, being involved in areas of injustice or meeting the needs of the community we are called to serve (I fully support them and argue we don’t do enough), but shouldn’t we do them simply because they are good and because we are called to do them? I would argue that even if they didn’t produce an evangelistic response or if the church didn’t grow, we are still called to participate in them. This is part of what the Church is called to be and what the Church is called to do. What would happen if your church would decrease in size if it cared for the poor or issues of justice? Would it still do it with the same passion and fervency?

Does our motivation matter? I think so. If we become the Church we are called to be, people will be attracted to it, but we need to be the Church simply because we are called to be the Church that radically loves people and shows it through everything it does, regardless of the results.

In our Google Age we often “google” a term for more information about it. I thought I would try an interesting and telling exercise and post the top two pictures for the following terms…

Church

Community

Faith

Peace

Joy

Postmodernity

Preaching

Sermon

Forgiveness

Theology

Humour

When one typically hears of Martin Luther they think of the great Reformer who brought the Church out of the corrupt clutches of the Medieval Catholic Church and led her into the modern era, promoting several doctrines. Luther is best know for promoting the theological conviction that salvation is by grace through faith alone. Although this is one of the “main stage” theological convictions of Luther, there are other less known “side stage” beliefs and convictions that have been largely ignored in recent years. Recently, I have been doing some research and study on Luther’s view of Supersessionism (the conviction that the Church has replaced Israel and is now the new “spiritual Israel” and that the Jewish people are now without a covenant and cursed because they have rejected the Messiah). Luther was not alone in this view (there is widespread unanimity on this theology conviction in Christendom from the early Church Fathers up to and beyond the time of Luther until WWII), however when you combine Luther Suppersessionism, and at times blatant Anti-Semitic writings, with his positive view on Autocratic government and mix it with the potency of his massive influence, it is apparent that it helped to create the fertile ground in Germany that eventually gave birth to Nazism.

I am not saying that Luther was a Nazi or that he would have supported Hitler, in fact I would assume otherwise, but his writings definitely influenced the Third Reich. In fact, Luther’s infamous tract: “On The Jews and Their Lies,” was quoted often by the Nazis and the original copy of this tract was proudly displayed at Nurenberg during Nazi party rallies.

My research has focused on the influences of the Church Fathers, who were largely Supersessionists, upon Luther and then Luther’s influence upon Christendom and eventually the Holocaust. I am also looking at the current typical Evangelical position which has grown after World War II that views God’s covenant as still binding with Israel. Interestingly, the common Evangelical expression God will bless those who bless the Jews and curse those who curse the Jews would have been unthinkable before the Holocaust in Christianity.

I am not making any theological claims but simply stating how culture, world events and societal beliefs have drastic and profound effects on our theology and conversely, how our theology can have profound, even horrendous, affects on society.

Luther is a fascinating man whose influence and affects are still felt today, some 500 years after his life.