Sacramental Living » Rants

Not Missional, But Rings of Truth

Brian Niece — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:30:29 +0000

Those crazy Brits are at it again. This satire has some bitter truth in it, does it not?

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Ecky Thump: Christianity Becomes More Irrelevant

Brian Niece — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:49:21 +0000

So I caught a bit of a Headline News segment last night called “To the Point” featuring Doug Pagitt and John MacArthur. They were asked to debate whether yoga was diametrically opposed to Christianity or not.

I said aloud “Ecky Thump!” (Ever since receiving the latest White Stripes CD by the same title, spelled “Icky Thump” I’ve become fond of the phrase.) Loosely translated from northern England, it means “What the heck?”

Has Christianity really become so irrelevant that all the main stream media can consult us on is yoga? Well, that does nothing to make me feel we are being missional. I can see it now …

“Hello, Pastor Niece?”

“Please, just call me Brian.”

“Well, um what is your stance on the yoga debate?;

“Excuse me?”

“I’m with the local paper and wondering where you and your congregation stand on yoga.”

“Well, some yoga poses do require you to stand … those are the easier ones. I used to do yoga three times a week when I was in the theatre. Is that what you mean?”

“I guess we’re wondering if you think it’s Christian or not.”

Good grief! Our Lord must shake his head in shame and disappointment when Christendom leaders like John MacArthur say that to relieve pressure and stress we should read the Bible rather than push our bodies through physical practices like yoga. Has he ever tried to read Job when stressed? Give me a break.

Apparently, we still suffer from the neo-Platonic divide of mind and body. This is a notion Jesus and the first disciples never expressed. The body was the body … and the mind was just a part of the body. The gospel of Jesus was for the whole person … the whole body.

If it didn’t make the Church look so ridiculous, I would laugh at the whole thing. But in reality, it’s heartbreaking to see that we have so distorted the message of Jesus, and been so unable to live the gospel, that now we are consulted on such silly things.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
What have you noticed lately that is an “Ecky Thump” moment?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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Tags: Headline News, Doug Pagitt, John MacArthur, Ecky Thump, missional

Truthful Power

Brian Niece — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:51:36 +0000

So today the Farm Bill will likely not be reformed in Congress. For all the joining of hands from social progressives and fiscal conservatives over the possibility of reforming this bill, our efforts will likely be defeated.

Why?

As stated on NPR’s Morning Edition large agribusiness interests (lobbyists) are just too strong. The richest 10% of American farmers and farming industries pour millions into congressional campaigns and threaten to oust incumbents over this one issue. All the while, the Farm Bill increases persecution of the poor world-wide and on US soil.

As Christians, we are to speak truth to power. Yet, there comes a time when power must embrace truth and act truthfully. How can our representative form of government be an authentic republic when the “power” entities succumb to threats to their power, rather than embracing truthful ways of living and being even at the expense of their power?

An example of truthful living … I’m a pastor. But God did not call me to be a pastor, rather to preach the gospel (in words and by the way I live my life in community). Now, it could be said that a pastor wields power (though it is ebbing away in our post-Christian society). That power is usually within one’s own faith community. When I am faced with the choice of living and/or speaking truthfully OR clinging to my power of influence and being well-liked, I must choose being truthful … even if that comes at the expense of my “pastor” position. I can always be truthful to the call to preach/live the gospel … though I may sacrifice the “power” of pastoring in order to do it.

Are our politicians called to be truthful representatives that make right choices on behalf of the republic, or are they called to be career politicians that must be powerful members of Congress at all costs?

SO TELL ME:
What power do you sacrifice in order to live truthfully?

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: Farm Bill, agribusiness, persecution, poor, power, truthful

Why Clarity of Mission Is So Important

Brian Niece — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:27:32 +0000

It’s been four years since George W. Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and declared victory in Iraq in front of a banner that said, “Mission Accomplished.” I guess the lingering question is: “What was/is the mission?”

Spoken word artist Steven Connell has teamed up with Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices and Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers) to produce a video promoting a contest to decide what should go on that infamous banner.

Watch it first:

Now, think about how absurd it is to cling to a mission that is confusing, undoable, or something worse.

SO TELL ME:
What’s your mission?

SO TELL ME SOMETHING ELSE:
Are you living your mission?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: Iraq, Mission Accomplished, mission, Steven Connell, Robert Greenwald

Being Postmodern and Biblical

Brian Niece — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 17:41:10 +0000

Pastoring in the south, I run into all sorts of interesting notions about the Church. I’m a son of the south, so I’m allowed to deconstruct (I think). One interesting phrase I heard of late was, “postmodern isn’t Biblical.” Now, after the initial shock of that statement not even computing with me, I began to sift through the mountain of self-assured misunderstanding that amounts to such a statement.

I think that only a Biblical foundationalist could adhere to this idea. The foundationalist after all will embrace the dead faith of the living far easier than the living faith of the dead. The foundationalist will scrutinize scripture for the plain sense of the Word, but will instead strip the complexity of scripture in a synchronistic approach. A view of life (and faith) that accounts for “both/and” could certainly be proof-texted to death by the foundationalist.

Yet, I find our spiritual ancestors embraced:

a creating God who occasionally condoned evil;

a vengeful God who was also a loving God;

a fully divine God and a fully human God;

a Church that embraces diversity within unity (a reflection of the Triune God, by the way);

and a gospel that speaks through a certain people and yet to and through the world.

Amazingly, I discover these things in Scripture. In fact, a cannonical-narrative view of scripture (which is holistic, healthy, mysterious, tangible, knowable, and livable all at once) yields postmodernism. And — like the good postmodern I am — I acknowledge and embrace the fact that our world is populated with a mix of different learning styles that cover the spectrum of modernism to postmodernism. It even appears that each learning style is helpful to the Church in America as we try to discover who God wants us to be right now and tomorrow.

I can think of no world view more Biblical than postmodernism.

Incidentally, I’m reading Beyond Foundationalism right now, so who knows how I would lay out this apologia in a few weeks.Related Posts:

Self-imposed Creative Catalysts

Brian Niece — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:09:14 +0000

NPR ran a story this morning on the Pigou Club, “an elite group of economists and pundits with the good sense to have publicly advocated higher Pigovian taxes, such as gasoline taxes or carbon taxes.�? They propose raising the gasoline tax at an obscene rate in order to release the creative energies of silicon valley to find means of energy that are environmentally conscious, ecologically stable, and financially viable. My first impression: that’s a pretty good idea!

Imagine self-imposed restrictions and obstacles that sparked creative fervor in finding ways to eliminate those restrictions or obstacles. It sounds a lot like what we did all the time during my days in professional theatre. There was a deadline to get a show up, a group of people working on it who at first do not agree, a (very) limited supply of money, and somehow that served as a catalyst for amazing creative that worked.

What if such an approach were taken toward church restrictions and obstacles?

We don’t have enough money:

why? debt;
solution? put all funds toward that debt and eliminate funds for compassion, ministry, service to others, etc.;
result? you better believe people would find a way to eliminate unnecessary debt in order to be good stewards of monies for the purpose of serving others.

People won’t darken the doors of the building we call the “church” on the property:

why? buildings are irrelevant in the realm of spiritual reality;
solution? stop thinking of “church” as an irrelevant building and think of “church” as a verb carried out for the good of others by many participants in Christ’s work for the purpose of building bridges of irresistable influence;
result? the church will be relevant, meaninful, and helpful in local communities (which is to imply it largely is not at present.)

We don’t see not-yet believers responding to God’s grace which we believe is already at work in their lives:

why? we don’t pray for them and we don’t go to where they hang-out;
solution? pray regularly and passionately for not-yet believers with trust that God really wants to answer those prayers; also, get our butts out of the “church” building and property and spend more time in “third places” (i.e., restaurants, bars, coffee shops, the beach, the park, etc. — places that people hang out when they aren’t at work or at home) especially if that means we must cancel some of the activities that weekly take place on “church” properties;
result? we will see Christ’s kingdom multiply in surprising ways.

The social agencies and government authorities don’t seem to care much about the disenfranchised, nor are they very effective in helping them:

why? Christians have not held agencies and authorities accountable, nor named the injustices for what they are in a public and deliberate manner;
solution? we need to sing the dangerous songs of our Story on behalf of the disenfranchised and persecuted (songs which will put is un in harm’s way) while at the same time joining together with other believers to actually do something that moves persons from enablement to sustainability.
result? we will see Christ in the least of all people, we will go beyond service to capacity building, we will finally understand and live compassion and justice.

There are other obstacles that could be turned into creative catalysts. I only suggest a few. Please submit other possibilities.Related Posts: