How angry is your God? Is God going to slam you with a bus, or perhaps a tornado, if you miss the mark? Recently, John Piper (a well known pastor and theologian) speculated that a tornado was a message from God urging Lutheran’s not to affirm homosexuality.

Jonathan Brink points out:

If his response did anything it was to give us a glimpse of Piper’s image of God.  And what is sad to me is that is the God Piper lives with, one who is always ready to strike the moment John does something wrong. In contributing to a culture of fear, Piper has inadvertently revealed the culture he himself lives in.

One of the ironies of contemporary evangelical Christianity is that countless people who read the Bible and outwardly profess to follow Jesus live in fear of him. I don’t know Piper’s heart, but I know my own. It has taken me years just to begin wrapping my mind  around the idea that I can completely trust God’s love for me, even if I don’t have all the right answers.

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I’m glad Mark Scandrette is blogging again and writing about things like “a Jesus Dojo.” He’s one of the few writers I know who thinks widely and freely enough about what it means to be a follower of Jesus to inspire me. Far from leaving the faith in such venturing, I believe he trusts that there is a resilient reality of life in Jesus that will capture the hearts and minds of people in any age, including this postmodern one. I relate well with his latest post, in which he says:

Changes in our society and resulting consciousness are raising new questions about what it means to be faithful to the way of Jesus, and how to understand the unfolding story of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Many of us are rediscovering the holistic and integrative nature of the message and work of Jesus– the message and reality that the kingdom of God is present and progressing. We bring new questions to ancient traditions and texts. Instead of primarily asking, “How do I get to heaven when I die?” more and more of us wonder “What does it mean to live conscious of God and God’s purposes in the hear and now? “

Yes, that’s me. He goes on to say that more and more passionate followers of Jesus are not interested in serving in traditional roles: pastor, missionary, etc. They don’t divide their roles in life into secular versus holy categories and roles. They want to live in community that is engaged with a variety of others and serve the poor and marginalized whether in ministries or NGO’s. They want to make a difference.

Skeptics will wonder where these people are, and why they hardly register statistically. I think many don’t indentify themselves as evangelicals, even though they share a similar faith in Jesus. They affirm Jesus but hesitate to call themselves Christians. They don’t want the religious and political baggage that comes with the label.

But they — well, we — believe the good news Jesus announced is worth sharing. We want people to experience forgiveness and love in a way that truly changes everything, starting with ourselves and extending to the world. I grew up going to a place called church listening to sermons about our duty to tell everyone about Jesus and invite them to come inside. But there was remarkably little vision about how following Jesus would alter my daily life and relationships out there.

Growing numbers in recent generations have disdained faith by proxy through participation in religious systems, and they are sick of illusions and mere words. They want to know and experience God in reality.

In a holistically oriented environment skeptical people are less convinced by the rationality of Christian belief and more curious to see if Christ-oriented faith actually makes a positive difference in the quality and character of a person’s life….People of all ages and cultural backgrounds are sensing a pull towards a way of faith that is more holistic, integrative and socially engaged… It is a quest to embody a way of life that reflects the goodness and beauty of the kingdom of God.

These days I don’t feel compelled to tell everyone about my faith. I want to live it out. If it’s real, and the Love of God is in me, then people will see. If they respond, or ask questions, then I may invite them to share the journey for awhile.

We’re taking steps to move forward with our work in Cambodia. Tomorrow we’ll meet with several people I’ve brought to Cambodia in the past year, and we’ll make plans to launch our Japanese NPO by the end of this month. About half the people who will meet are followers of Jesus. The other half are not following Jesus, but they are drawn to the journey of learning to love with us. As we travel and share our hearts in words and action along the way, I trust they’ll see whether Jesus is a reality in us or not, and the Spirit of God will be at work in us all.

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I could imagine a large chunk of the aid industry drying up in the next 25 years without much of a loss, but I don’t think it will happen. There are too  many vested interests, like governments who want to buy favor in emerging markets and people whose income and future careers are on the line. What I can realistically hope for in the next 25 years is that a new school of foreign aid will eclipse the old school. This new school will be characterized by dignity over dependence, freedom and choice over charity, and real empowerment over imagery and token words. I think an encouraging sign is the movement toward investing in social entrepreneurs. One key player is the Acumen Fund. They are not only doing this, they are raising up young leaders who can share and multiply the vision.

Check out this very worthwhile video of Seth Godin addressing an inaugural Student Leader’s Workshop:

Quote (5:41 mark):

Making change is addictive. Making positive change — doing things that matter to people — will change your life forever for the better.

Doesn’t this have a spiritual ring? It’s a gospel message: make a change, change your life, forever…

Why not call people to live for something bigger and better than a high paying job and working for the system? (Okay, a quick rejoiner, it’s a bad idea if you can’t deliver. It’s got to be more than a sales job.) Anyway, I’m hopeful and heartened to see them going for it.

I’m a bit skeptical, given my spiritual perspective, about how far the changes will go or how purely motivated the movement will remain without a God-sized love at the core. I know “markets” are supposed to be neutral, but greed may cause people to act unreasonably and warp a good thing. Still, as Seth Godin says, we move forward through failures. I’d like to see followers of Jesus humbly leaving the sanctuary of buildings and religion to join in these kinds of efforts as investors and learners. We are, after all, seeking a reality beyond politics and institutions in which (as Jesus said) captive and oppressed people are set free, not merely given a handout.

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“Leading is inspiring people to participate with you.”

I wrote this in my notes last month while listening to Sherwood Lingenfelter, Professor of Anthropology and Provost of Fuller Seminary.

I’ve heard and seen many models and definitions of leadership: top down, bottom up, leading from in front (horizontal). I almost skipped this one, but the word “participate” grabbed me. I realized this is what I do, or hope to do, when I bring Japanese to Cambodia.

For those of you who don’t know the background of this post, here’s a quick summary of what we do. I have been taking groups of people from Japan to Cambodia for the past one and a half years. The primary purpose has been to develop the Japanese participants. They go to Cambodia where they share their lives and serve in simple ways. In the process, they have life changing lessons. Currently we’re in our infancy. Our long term purpose is to have a learning/serving community in Japan with some common experiences and values. We hope they will work together with us to support effective Cambodian leaders helping people lift themselves out of extreme poverty and move forward under their own power in the face of great challenges (such as living with HIV).  As I said, we’re still in our infancy, but you can see our current activities at www.globaladventure.jp (in English).

We’ll be starting a non-profit in the USA soon, mainly to help people give money to be used effectively in Cambodia. Let me know if you’d like to participate in that.

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I’m a regular listener to The God Journey, a podcast that I highly recommend if you are attracted to “following Jesus outside the box of religious rules and obligations.” The other day I was stopped at a traffic light listening and scrawled this quote:

Why do people prefer to ‘command and control’ when developing something new? Because the alternative would take much longer and could take a turn into the unknown.

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