scared to talk politics in church?

1. scared to talk politics in church?

2. Why is it often scary to talk politics in church?

3. The problem with being a bridge is that you get walked on from both ends!

4. Problem 1: What do you mean by politics?

5. Politics: Dirty, partisan, divisive, dishonest, power-grabbing attempts to make US winners and THEM losers.

6. Politics: The way groups of people organize their lives together.

7. Problem 2: “The gospel isn’t political…”

8. Our contemporary gospel is primarily INFORMATION ON HOW TO GO TO HEAVEN AFTER YOU DIE with a large footnote about increasing your personal happiness and success through God. with a small footnote about character development with a smaller footnote about spiritual experience with a smaller footnote about social/global transformation.

9. self church world A gospel of self-enhancement and sin management in this life and the next…

10. Dallas Willard calls the dominant understanding “the gospel of sin management.” The purpose of the gospel is to answer these questions: What do we do about original sin? How do we go to heaven after we die? In a footnote hidden away in the back of “The Divine Conspiracy,” he adds ...

11. that the gospel of sin management produces “vampire Christians” who want Jesus for his blood and little else.

12. self church world A gospel of self-enhancement and sin management in this life and the next…

13. world church self

14. Nation? Religion? Ethnic group? church self A dangerous diversion

15. World transformed = Kingdom of God church self

16. world church self

17. Gospel of saving individual souls from hell, and abandoning earth to destruction. Gospel of saving earth* from human sin, beginning with us. *Including individuals Two Gospels:

18. Personal transformation is the starting point but not the end point. We are “blessed to be a blessing” … Changed to be agents of change Healed to heal others Transformed to transform the world.

19. A friend’s mission statement: Reaching Christians for Christ, beginning with myself. Why would that kind of mission statement be needed? We need to be reached with the gospel of Jesus: the gospel of the kingdom of God.

20. Remember: Kingdoms (or Empires) were contemporary realities in Jesus’ day!

21. Too few people realize the radical nature of the message of the Kingdom of God. There are 2 main reasons for this misunderstanding.

22. The Matthew Problem: Many think “kingdom of God” means heaven (after you die). Why do Mark and Luke say “Kingdom of God,” but Matthew says “Kingdom of Heaven?”

23. As the most Jewish gospel … Matthew follows the Jewish reticence about using the name of God directly. “Heaven” substitutes for God.

24. It is clear that “kingdom of God” (or heaven) does NOT mean “heaven after you die,” because the Lord’s prayer teaches us to pray …

25. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

26. It does NOT teach us to pray … May we come to your kingdom when we die. May we all go to heaven where, unlike earth, your will is done.

27. 2. The John Problem: John uses “kingdom” only in chapters 3 and 18. Elsewhere, he uses the phrase “life” - life to the full, or eternal life. But it is also clear that “eternal life” doesn’t simply mean “life in heaven after you die,” contrary to popular opinion.

28. Eternal life is defined by Jesus clearly in John 17:3 - Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

29. To know means “to live in an interactive relationship.” If we know one another, we interact with one another in a relationship.

30. The phrase “eternal” literally means “of the ages.” (zoein aionian) It means life above the present age and regime, “life on a higher plane,” life above the mundane, life that is part of what God is doing across time. True, that life doesn’t end at physical death - but neither does it begin there!

31. So … what is the kingdom of God? It is a life lived in a network of interactive relationships … With God as King With other citizens, creatures With the territory or land With other kingdoms

32. It is a matter BOTH of personal transformation AND of social transformation. Jesus says, The time has come! The kingdom of God has come near! Repent and believe the good news!

33. The gospel of sin management and earth-abandonment produces institutional believers (Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Catholics, etc.) who adhere to a system of belief and a structure of religion - but ultimately support the status quo. The gospel of the kingdom must produce disciples who learn a radical new way of life and participate in the transformation of the world.

34. Personal transformation…until Christis formed in you.(Galatians 4:19)

35. Global transformation…the kingdom of this worldhas become the kingdom of our Lord...(Revelation 11:15)

36. So personal transformation is not the end point. We are “blessed to be a blessing” … Changed to be agents of change Healed to heal others Transformed to transform the world.

37. Transformed disciples transform their world: You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

38. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

39. Salt of the earth … Light of the world … Light to everyone … Jesus is calling his followers to re-inhabit the original calling of Abraham … a light to all nations … bringing out the whole world’s potential for beauty and fruitfulness.

40. Salt of the earth … Light of the world … Light to everyone … This is inherently and unavoidably a political calling.

41. A warehouse to store a growing inventory of souls awaiting their final shipment to heaven: Mission: Increase inventory, protect from spoilage, damage, wastage, theft. What is the church in relation to these two gospels?

42. A warehouse to store a growing inventory of souls awaiting their final shipment to heaven. Mission: Increase inventory, protect from spoilage, damage, wastage, theft. 2. A community of spiritual formation. Mission: Train people to be agents of the kingdom of God who live in the way of Jesus and bring healing and transformation to the world (tikkun olam). What is the church in relation to these two gospels?

43. PROBLEM 3: WE WANT TO BE BOTH PROPHETIC AND PASTORAL (PRIESTLY) - WE WANT TO FEED THE FLOCK WITHOUT DIVIDING AND SCATTERING IT … (and without violating tax exempt status!)

44. DOING SO REQUIRES US TO BE WISE AS SERPENTS AND INNOCENT AS DOVES …

45. To those under the law I became like one under the law … so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law … so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do this for the sake of the gospel…. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

46. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view…. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)

47. COMPLEXIFY DUALISMS AND BIPOLARTIES … There aren’t just 2! Secular Left vs. Religious Right Secular Left vs. Secular Right Religious Right vs. Religious Left Secular Right vs. Secular Left Secular Right vs. Religious Left … etc. Then add “Corporatist vs. Populist,” “Nationalist vs. Globalist,” “Modern vs. Postmodern,” “Colonial vs. Post-colonial,” or “Globalist versus Localist,” etc., to previous bipolarities.

48. As center

49. Liturgical Social Action Evangelical Charismatic

50. a stage