The Violence of the Christian Life #dmingml

You can imagine my surprise when Jason Clark, lead mentor for the Global Missional Leadership DMin track, asked us to listen to a sermon he gave to the Vineyard Church in Sutton, London. Clark planted the church in 1997 while he was an investment broker in London. On the surface, one can understand not seeing the connection. On the otherhand, the focus of his investments has merely changed from funds to people, from the temporal to the eternal. While there are times we naturally question the validity and implications of the eternal in our day to day activities, they don't seem as far removed as they once might have been, given the uncertainties and instability of our world.

One of the primary objectives of a mentor is to stretch his students. Clark is a master of this. I have read more widely these past six months on a range of topics that I never once contemplated I would be interested in. I have consumed both historical and modern texts related to the Protestant work ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber), radical community activism (Alinsky), transformational models of international development (Myers), economic and social changes of the 19th and 20th Century (Polanyi), a culture consumed with pleasure & leisure (Erdozain) and sport (Hoffman). A subtle thread (and sometimes not so subtle) that Clark weaves throughout the online interactive discussions is the concept and reality of consumerism. How it influences, intrudes and sometimes masters key lifestyle and life changing decisions.

Anyway, back to the sermon. Firstly, what strikes me is the title. One could expect an historical reflection on the 'Christian' Crusades. But no, this was not what it was about. Or, perhaps we would think that a title like this could be coined by someone trying to discredit the Christian faith, rather than entice people to intelligently consider it. Herein lies a significant truth for Clark. While he does want people to consider why a personal relationship with God is a remarkable thing, he wants people to be clear that this is markedly different from going into a supermarket and weighing up whether or not you want to buy something. He wants people to understand that should they decide they want God to be central to their lives, there are forces in our culture that are constantly at work to prevent this reality.

As we approach Easter, both the secular and the sacred are familiar with the bloody story of Christ being falsely accused, beaten, having flesh torn from his body, and then cruely hammered onto a cross and left to die. This is the epitomy of violence. But this does not represent a call to violence, but rather a recognition of violence to God himself.

Similarly, Clark holds up the example of the Apostle Paul, who prior to being stopped in his tracks by a blinding light, was on his way to persecute Jews who were giving their allegiance to Christ - who the religious leaders of the day despised! But let's press on. Clark goes on to say that the very essence of the word "persecute" is what Paul now uses in relation to how he devotes his own life to Christ. In the same way that his hatred of the Jews who had turned to Christ, had brought about an intensity and destructive force in his life, he now says, that same intensity and force or pressure he devotes to pursuing a relationship with Christ.

What Clark is wanting us to understand is, that the enjoyment of God necessitates a spiritual intensity or aggressiveness that needs to take hold of us so that whatever may distract us or prevent us from achieving this goal is absolutely and thoroughly thwarted. There is so much more to say here, but if you want to listen to the sermon yourself, just click on the link. Clark does a much better job at articulating this than me. - 

In finishing, I would be remiss if I failed to point out that we deal with forces in this world that Clark would say are violently and forcefully at work to destroy what we value. We love our children, but can see that they must content with many destructive and negative influences. Marriages become vulnerable and susceptible to affairs and addictions when unhealthy behaviours are allowed to linger. The material comforts and physical pleasures of this world have a tendency to superficially fill a void in our lives in such a way that we are convinced spirituality has become redundant, and perhaps worse, we wonder if it ever really existed.

In the same way that this Easter we reflect on the violence of the cross, Clark contends that real freedom only comes when God violently seizes us and rescues us from all that is destructive, negative and critical, and all the more when we cannot see those things because we have become blinded by the comforts and pleasures we consume. And then once we are rescued, in turn, we violently protect what we have discovered against whatever it is that would take it from us.

I hope this is the last sermon Clark asks me to listen to for quite a while. It's a little easier to pick up a text on economics! :) 

How is India's March to Modernity relevant to the consumerist Church in the West? #dmingml

This is a rather tough follow up to my last blog where I was trying to unpack the pitfalls of consumerism and how it correlates to the Church's inability to engage more deeply and effectively with people because it has become consumed by the very values it seeks to rescue others from.

Why is it a tough follow up? Because I have just returned from India where I have been for the past eight days. This was my third visit, and second in just over a year.

Although it is going to take some time to fully appreciate and process all that I saw and experienced, I must be honest and say that it both rocked my comfortable world, while being excited about the future of this nation. I had the privilege of seeing firsthand the results of social transformation happening in small, rural communities. Often, in amazing ways.

While I understand that being 'comfortable' is a somewhat subjective experience and relative in many ways to the standard of living being experienced by those around us in our communities as well as those who reside in other communities, one quickly ascertains from India that there is a huge gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots.' Describing it like this is too simplistic, but the reality is, India's 'March to Modernity' (as Kishore Mahbubani describes India's material progress) results in substantial material wealth for a few and the continued abuse and exploitation of millions (estimated to be around 780 million) of others trapped in an extremely rigid caste system. Some would argue that this is a very Western view, but it is also one that is being challenged increasingly from young (and not so young) Indians who believe that this discriminatory system can no longer be justified or protected merely because it is part of India's rich cultural heritage. In fact, progress cannot be achieved without this being overturned.

How is India's March to Modernity relevant to the Consumerist Church in the West?

If you've read this far, then you may be asking how is my Indian experience relevant to the challenges the Church is grappling with in terms of its identity, relevance and function? As Clark points out in some of the most insightful chapters I have read on the status of the church and its mistress (consumerism), the Church has not so much faded into the background of a consumerist culture, as much as it has become bedfellows. It has been a willing participant, and as a participant, those outside the church merely see its role and function as a catalogue of products and services that consumers can pick and choose from. If you like what you see, come on in. If you don't, then move onto something else to consume that may fill a void with something perceived as more pleasurable or valuable. Clark calls this phenomena, commodification. 

From my observation, this is where the Church in India stands in direct contrast to the Church in the West.

The Church in India does not enjoy the material wealth and depth of resources that it has in the West, nor does it have widespread legitimacy and acceptance in a culture that is centered around a dominant Hindu social structure. What this means is, the Church in India is unlikely to be corrupted by a progressively modern, consumerist culture, at least for some time. Furthermore, the Church has the added challenge of being a minority faith in a culture where the efforts of Hindu activists persecuting Christians and Muslims have often found the support of the Indian government. 

What did surprise me and challenge me about my own life, and the degree to which I allow the values that sit at the core of my faith to find expression, was seeing how this often came at enormous cost to individuals belonging to a minority faith in India, even it ultimately cost them their lives. I met many followers of Jesus Christ (Indians prefer this description over 'Christian') who's willingness to reach out to the untouchables of India - the dahlits - those defined as being below human rights, put themselves and those they served at risk of offending those who belong to a higher caste. As they built schools, established homes for children whose parents could not afford to care for them, provided vocational skills training, planted church communities that became hubs of social and spiritual transformation, dahlits were given rights that had been previously out of their reach. Naturally, 'consumerism' was also far removed from their reality.

On a number of occasions I heard Indians say that one of the biggest hurdles they faced in describing to their families, friends and neighbours why they followed Christ, was the misconception that many Indians held equating Western ideals with Christian values. They shared concerns that the Church in the West can no longer be distinguished from all that is corrupt, fragmented, broken and immoral in its Western culture. Some would argue that these factors have their roots in unrestrained consumerism and greed, although there are many other valid factors.

India is a wonderful country with a rich history, culture and beautiful people. I hope that as it continues its March to Modernity, that caste reconcilitation can be achieved while at the same time successfully avoiding the pitfalls of Western consumerism, along with the Indian Church