I'm not a Christian

How's that for a provocative statement to start out a Saturday morning blog entry? The term "Christian" just holds so many negative connotations. Dallas Willard (who's coming to Christ Community in September) is known for saying to inquirers, "No I'm not a Christian. I'm a follower of Christ." When you tell many people you're a Christian, their minds may race to the worst stereotypes imagineable. I'd like to explore this a bit today, invite comments, and continue a conversation for a while.

Take the example of Kansas's own Fred Phelps. His Topeka-based "church" of 91 members (75% of which are his own family) is known internationally for picketing at various events holding signs and spewing drivel to the effect that "God hates fags." Their latest gig is picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers because their deaths are "proof" that God is punishing America for "teaching homosexuality." Apparently that's because America hasn't passed laws mandating that all people who engage in homosexual practices be stoned. They also express pleasure that so many people died in 9-11 and hurricanes like Katrina.

Why in the world would any self-respecting person, with any concept of the dignity of all of humanity as created in God's image, want to be associated with such hatred? I heard a recent interview with one of Phelps' numerous children, and I'm fully convinced that they are not just completely outside the mainstream of evangelical Christianity, they are a cult. But to the minds of many, the "religious right" includes everything from evangelicals to Fred Phelps and crew.

So, yes, I've decided to not refer to myself as a Christian much anymore. Instead, I'm consciously trying to think of myself as a follower of Christ. Does that mean I'm completely removing myself from any association with "Christians" throughout the world and throughout history? Of course not. I am as ever a student of what it means and has meant to truly follow Christ where and when people have found themselves.

I hear in my church frequently that "the local church as God intended it is the hope of the world," and I do agree. But there is much to explore about being the church even if it means doing things differently than we've done before.

Thoughts?

Campout update

I'm sitting and waiting for the "other" computer to work on something for the video from the Rapid City trip, so I've got a second to spare. Why not blog about the campout?

The night itself was not too bad. My earplugs kept out a good deal of the nightly noises. I did wake up pre-5 AM to the sound of water falling onto/into the tent. This came as a shock as we were not expecting any rain at all - and had not put the rain fly up! Turns out it was SO humid that we were essentially inside a giant cloud all night. About 4:30 AM, the outside temperature fell to the condensation point. We were right under a tree, so the condensation collected on the leaves and dripped right into our tent. I got up and threw the rain fly on, sloppily. Fun!

The highlight of the trip for me was the 3-4 hour float trip. I had never been on anything like that, and haven't really been serious-canoeing either. (Rene told me she once had to canoe down a river all day as the "final" for her canoeing class in college.) The kids loved it! Between a water snake, a too-short rope over the water that noone could really reach, and my own adventure getting sucked under branches and almost losing my tube (and wedding ring...), the day was great. I did get pretty fried in the sun.

I don't have anything earth-shattering to report as far as conversations go. But, I am thankful for a great bunch of students along on the trip. OK, so they ate live bugs (and headless moths) in the middle of the night. But there were no problems. They were cooperative, hard working when it was time to work, and there were no worries whatsoever about "purpling." (Boys are blue, girls are pink, we don't need to make purple...) I enjoyed my time, despite myself I suppose.

If you're still holding out for something profound in this here blog, I'm mulling some things over. A thought I'd like to think through: Do you have to be a Christian to be a follower of Christ? I'll explain what I mean, perhaps next week.

Camping

So I'm going camping this weekend. Woo hoo. The excitement should be dripping off your screen. I'm not crazy about sleeping outside, even in a tent, and haven't done so since I was in college.

So why am I going? "It's all about the kids." Our middle school ministry is having a campout a couple hours away in Missouri. I really wouldn't be going any other way. And "only 2" of the guys in the grade I work with are going. But, our mantra in our leadership team is, it's all about the kids. There are SO many things we do that in our adult-ness, we'd rather not do. But because kids in our middle school ministry thrive on doing crazy things within the safety that we as adults provide, we do them anyway. Camping out is not one of my favorite things to do. But I will do it, enjoy it, and help create memories for those kids that are going.

As I learned on our short term mission experience in Rapid City, SD a few weeks back, being in an offsite experience can really open doors to conversation that might never happen otherwise. I had a great conversation with one of my students who's been struggling lately at a ministry site one day. I had thought we were sitting down next to a man staying at the homeless shelter to talk to him and hear his story. But as it turned out, the student was the one who I needed to talk to. That likely would not have happened back home. Perhaps the "only 2" guys going on this trip are looking for connection. We'll see.

I'm looking forward in a couple more weeks to summer camp. A week away eating WONDERFUL food and frying in the sun! OK, the cabins are air conditioned and I'll have my own adult shower. That makes a huge difference. Busted.

But for now, off to lay all night around all the things that go bump in the night. Sleep can wait... (Seems like I say that a lot in the summertime.)

First post

This is my first post in this new blog. I have blogged before for a very narrow audience that I don't think really ever read it anyway. I'd like to share a few thoughts about what I'm learning, what I'm reading, what I'm listening to (podcasting, audiobooks, music).

I just got the 60G Video iPod last weekend. I haven't done much productive lately! I had actually spend months and months working with iTunes getting things "ready" so all I had to do was plug and play. OK, so it took almost 5 hours to copy over 11,000 items, but whatever.

I'm now exploring world of podcasts and even vodcasts. I've come to a quick realization that a lot of what's out there is just crap. It will take me a while, I suppose, to filter through what's really worth listening to. I'm trying to focus on a few podcasts that explore how the church of Jesus Christ may be reconfiguring to meet the emerging world of the 21st century. I've also got a couple other ones just for thinking believers, a junior high youth workers training vodcast, and of course, Strong Bad emails from homestarrunner.com!

That's all for now. I need to unplug for a bit and connect with real live human beings, namely my wife.