Jarrod McKenna’s Wednesday’s with Gandhi:

“Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics understand neither.” -Mohandas K. Gandhi

“God will judge you for what you did today!!!”

If phone text messages could yell, I think this one I received might have been screaming. It was clear, not just from this sentence but the whole message (which I will not repeat) that this brother or sister (Identity withheld under the “I’m not being a fantastic witness” protection program) wanted to ‘open up a can of correction’ on me. What provoked this responce? The day of the last election we had in Australia I sent the following message to friends on my mobile phone:

“G’day, was think that while many don’t care about today, maybe if we live today for “the least of these”,  the poor and the marginalised, today could be an act of worship. Grace and peace, Jarrod.”

While it sparked some amazing conversations with people who aren’t Christians, it really upset this one Christian. Another friend message back:

“So I guess you’re voting for [insert party]? :)”

I replied,

“Who’s talking about voting for a party? I’m just talking about daily following Jesus. :)”

Political options in Australia: Howard, Rudd or… Jesus?

Both major parties in Australia are kissing more than babies in the hope of votes. In an interesting twist it looks like political parties are “finding religion”, in the faith that this move will find them votes.  As the political master minds are plotting how to capture the Christian imagination to win their vote at the next election, I wonder what would happen if the church had it’s imagination captured by the politics of a suffering servant that saves not through tickling ears, the way of the sword, scapegoating others or by enforcing what is ‘right’ on others. Rather who saves through the suffering love of a crucified God.  I wonder what would happen if we would let the Holy Spirit empowered the church to live the politics of the kingdom of heaven instead of in our own power seeking to be ‘a force for influence’ in running the violent kingdoms of this world?I’m not talking about retreating into a holy huddles and letting the world go to hell. While Ammon Hennacy words ring in my ears, “When choosing the lesser between two evils people often forget they still chose evil”, I must admit I’m a “lapsed-Christian-anarchist” and I do vote. But I don’t think voting is my primary form of ‘political engagement’.

My political engagement happens daily living as church in community, by housing those without a home, hanging out and making food for local kids without a meal, welcoming refugees to live in our home, visiting people in prison, growing food in the garden, getting to work on my skateboard and bus, teaching the practicalities of nonviolence. And other ways God lets our lives be a megaphone of amazing grace despite the fact we’re cracked vessels (or crackpots!) 

We are to be ‘in the world but not of the world’.   So what are we to be of?  We are to be of the way of Jesus. The way of the kingdom of God.  The politics of grace.  The politics of generosity. The politics a new age where it’s not the rich but the poor who are blessed. The politics of the ministry of reconciliation. The politics of the weightier matters of law. The politics of the trust of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.  The politics of forgiveness.  The politics of peacemaking.  The politics of hungering and thirsting for the healing justice of God. The politics of sharing so ‘no one is in need’.  The politics of being a colony of heaven. The politics of seeking first God’s Reign (or kingdom) in all things.  For the early church, you could look at their life and see their politics, see who they were ‘voting for’ as their authority.  Thier words and lives spoke a different politics to the violent ruler Cesar being Lord (maybe the closest thing we have today is Prime Minister) but the crucified and risen Jesus.  Maybe the early Christians today wouldn’t say “Jesus is Lord”. Maybe they’d say, “The nonviolent Jesus of the Scriptures is Prime Minister. Come and join us in community where we can daily vote for him with our lives!”

• For the early Christians politics wasn’t a personal decision alone in a polling both. It was a communal practice with your sisters and brothers as you together lived as church. The community of God’s grace-filled alternative to the ways of greed, lust, oppression, violence, fear and exploitation.

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And while many want to say Amen to the above the question comes ‘how’ do we do that. Politics classically isn’t about just who’s in ‘government’ but  how, (or the way) groups interact, organize and make decisions. (I think this is important to remember not just to keep democracy healthy but to keep church healthy! ) For the early Christians the only way you witnessed to Jesus being the Way is by living the Way (or ‘politics’) of Jesus.  By seeking the Spirit’s empowerment to live a Christ-like life, AS A COMMUNITY. To live lives that speak of God’s great clean up of creation that God has started uniquely in Jesus.

This is where I think Gandhi can be the greatest assistance to Christians today. In showing us that being obedient to Jesus is not only faithful, it’s effective in bringing real and lasting transformation.  For those that think our only options is retreating into holly huddles or alternatively those who seek to put in power a Christian version of the Ayatollah to kneecap everyone so that “every knee bows” (Calvin and others have tried it), Gandhi shows us, as Martin Luther King puts it, “Jesus gave us the means, Gandhi showed it was possible.”

Gandhi freed a nation from the biggest superpower of his day without a militia, without weapons, without running for parliament or holding a political position. How?  By the sheer force of his character that had become obedient to Jesus teachings in the Sermon on the Mount.  The politics of love are practical. Oddly enough I think Gandhi as a Hindu had a better understanding of the Christian paradigm for political engagement than most Christians seem to! The Christian paradigm is found at Calvary while trusting in resurrection power.  For it’s impossible to take up our cross and take up the ways of coercion at the same time.

Oh… for those who are interested I agree with the person who sent me the text, God will “judge [me] for what [I’ve] done”. And after reaching out and trying to hear where they’re coming from and offering to meet with them, pray with them and study the bible with them I told them I agreed:

“I too think God will judge me.  And in Matthews gospel, chapter 25 the criteria seems pretty clear. 🙂 ”

Yesterday was the final day of the Summit and again there was some excellent content.

The first session with John Ortberg was sensational – probably the best of the whole event. Ortberg preached narratively thru the book of Esther and in the process focussed on a leaders’ greatest fear – and the ‘shadow side’ of our leadership. It was powerful and compelling as well as being personally relevant for probably everyone there. Ortberg is quite brilliant and it was amazing preaching.

At morning tea time I was able to catch up with John, the CEO of Willow Creek Australia and discuss my reflections on the conference. We spent the whole 30 minutes or so in conversation, a valuable time for listening to each other and understanding each other’s points of view. John was very open in sharing with me the costs of the conference and the overall cost Australia-wide. He divulged some significant information in relation to where the money goes and how things are costed. I appreciated his openess and his willingness to listen. To the cynics out there, I don’t believe I was being conned or ‘bought’. He struck me as a person of integrity and someone who genuinely wanted the best result possible.

However my conclusion is that the place where we part company is on values.

WCA hold the value of excellence up very very high, so everything needs to be done at a 10/10 level. This obviously costs more money and because of this value they both spend and charge the money to see that value realised.

In discussion with a friend I suggested I may value ‘simplicity’ over excellence and would be content to run the conference at cheaper sites, using cheaper data projectors and with cheaper handouts/booklets. We also use predominantly email marketing and very rarely use hard copy brochures. I realise the value of these things – and we do use them as needed – but they cost a heap and that cost must be accounted for.

John shared how much one of the speakers had cost WCA and I nearly fell over. I don’t feel I have the right to offer that info anywhere (so don’t ask 🙂 ) but it was a huge amount of money. It may well be ‘market value’ in the business world, but I was stunned at this. Again – we hold different values and I would almost always choose the ‘save money’ route on this one too. There are many brilliant people out there who do not charge the earth.

The other value that came thru the was the highly business/corporate aspect and while I recognise the need for organisation I don’t believe the church is firstly a business. (There are business elements – because this is the world we live in.)

At the end of the conversation I have to say that I was satisfied that (within their value system) WCA are doing everything they can to minimise cost. We just don’t share common values… hence the conflict. I’m not going soft on them here, because I want to be quite honest about what I experienced. I just don’t think they can see any ways to cut costs without cutting ‘quality’.

From here it was back to listen to Michael Porter of Harvard Business School who was speaking about how we maximise the investments we make in our local communities. He wasn’t rivetting, but he did say some good stuff. He also made a few feaux paxs that didn’t endear him to an Aussie audience. I left to go to the toilet about half way thru and didn’t make it back in… A few good conversations won me over.

Lunch time… hanging out…

Colin Powell… many people were looking forward to this session, but I found it quite dull. Hybels interviewed Powell and while he said some useful stuff it was very much leadership 101 with few real gems. I wouldn’t bother hearing it again.

The final session was Hybels on the power of inspiration. He spoke about self leadership stuff and keeping yourself inspired. Useful, helpful and practical, but I left before the end to get home in time.

Truthfully, I found the two days really valuable both for content and for connections. In my role with Forge I intentionally place myself in these environments so that I can engage with other Christian leaders and make useful connections that will assist our own work. I also find it helpful to keep reminding people that we are not in opposition to one another and while we may be working with different (sometimes vastly) imaginations of church we are seeking many common objectives.

As Andrew commented in the previous post, this is not the expression of leadership and church I am seeking to grow in, but there is still much to be learnt and plenty of inspiration to be had.

What would I actually

pay for an event like this?…

Its probably hard to say. The original costs of speakers etc would need to be factored in as well as the local venue costs, but I reckon if ‘simplicity’ was elevated as a value then we may be able to save a heap.

Its been great to see the interesting discussion that Jarrod has developed over the few weeks of writing on here!

He is away today mountain bike riding, but suggested I could post an article he wrote recently which you might be interested in.

Rather than repost it here I’ll simply give you the link and you can shoot across and dig into it.

So what does it stir in you?…

I had an email over the weekend from Mark Edwards, friend and regular commenter on here. He was concerned that his comments on here may have appeared to convey the wrong message in terms of how he feels about different expressions of church.

He sent this to me and told me I could post it.

Thanks Mark!

As I said to Mark, I never mind some disagreement and while we might come at things from different angles I’d rather have the open discussion and the thoughts of those who don’t agree with me than the simple hum of the choir drumming in your ears 24/7. So here you have some thoughts from Mark:

There has been over the past few years a lot of discussion of the so called ‘emerging church’. The very name causes much angst among both its protagonists, and antagonists, with neither agreeing exactly what it means.

I went into the city the other day and spent the book vouchers I had been given and that had sat in my wallet since my birthday in May.

I had a few books in mind, ‘Gould’s Book of Fish’ by Richard Flanagan, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Affluenza (I have read this but wanted a bookshelf copy) and Hugh Mackay’s latest, Advance Australia Where.

However none of these were available in the ABC shop, so I finished up buying Tanya Levin’s autobiographical account of her experience of her life in and out of Hillsong. However it would probably be more accurate to say it is Tanya Levin sharing her struggles with life, faith, family and her own self esteem. Hillsong was a player in all of that, but I wonder if Levin mightn’t be an unhappy camper even if she had never discovered the Hillsong brand of Pentecostalism.

I hesitated to buy a book that is clearly a swipe at other Christians, but I was also interested to hear her journey. I believe that “sometimes our critics are our best critics.” They will tell us the hard things our friends won’t dare to. I had seen her on Denton, and while I was not overly impressed, I was sufficiently interested to hear her side of things.

It seems Levin grew up in a rigid tight family that made sure she was well separated from the world and cocooned in a Christian bubble. If it weren’t for the Hillsong angle her story could be any one of many young Christians who found themselves in rebellion and reaction to the narrow paths chosen by parents. This is an all too frequent story and something we ought to be paying attention to as Christian leaders. Separation from the world does not produce healthier disciples. Often it actually produces fragile vulnerable people unable to survive in the ‘wild’, or young adults who choose to throw off all restraint. (Listen up advocates of closed enrolment Christian schools!) Or if you don’t like my words then listen to Bonhoeffer: ‘The church is at its most false when it seeks to preserve a separation from the world’.

Levin is a self confessed rebel and cynic, a questioner who doesn’t take anything at face value. This trait is valuable and yet does taint her story with some fairly crude sarcasm and invective. A regular smattering of proof texts are snidely woven thru the story as she seeks to offer the Hillsong theological position on different aspects of life. While the biblical references definitely ring true, a more skilled writer might have said the same thing, but with greater subtlety and a better result. I found myself both nodding in affirmation at the issues she raised yet also seeing her as something of a habitual fault finder. However given her many years of submission to and ‘not questioning God’s annointed’ maybe her sarky tone can be excused.

I appreciated her honest struggle to stay with the simple ‘black and white’ faith of her childhood. As a questioner she discovered early that the simple answers just don’t cut it with the big questions of faith. When she prayed God didn’t answer and things didn’t work out as the pastors said they would… No kidding…

She had the integrity to question both God and the church but in doing so perplexed those around her who saw her as a nuisance. Alan Jamieson affirms this as a problem with ‘Evangelical Pentecostal Charismatic’ churches in general (EPC). They tend not to allow people to easily progress thru stages of faith and seem to isolate / marginalize those who express real doubt on a consistent basis. Perhaps if doubt and mystery were allowed greater permission to exist then we wouldn’t have so many people ditching faith because it didn’t ‘add up’. Reality is that it doesn’t

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always add up, but it’s probably only been the last few years that I have been comfortable enough to say that myself and still consider myself a true believer.

It was disturbing to read of her perception of God as the ‘vengeful’ one who would cause you to fail your TEE exams because you had been naughty at schoolies week. Levin grew up with an angry God who needed pleasing and appeasing. But it was personally disturbing because it reminded me of the world I grew up and the similar torment I experienced as a teenager wondering, each time I did something wrong, when God would punish me. I am not sure where I gained that image of God from, but I know it was pretty common in my teenage world and obviously retarded us in seeing him properly. Could it have been the image of God that fitted the era?

Someeone asked me recently ‘what is it with all the immorality and licentiousness in church these days?’ I told him ‘I blame Phillip Yancey’. In the 90’s we were long overdue for a pendulum swing and Yancey provided it with his brilliant book ‘What’s So Amazing About Grace’. He wrote some brilliant stuff and in the process seemed to validate anyone who was failing and/or who couldn’t be bothered trying. So the church pendulum swung from hardline legalistic holiness to a ‘grace covers everything so it doesn’t matter what I do’ position. I don’t know which is more destructive, but I wonder why we just can’t seem to strike the balance.

Levin departed from faith at 17 years of age on her Schoolies week and did not come back except to investigate the Hillsong phenomenon. She was married briefly, and then paired up with a Maori bloke to whom she had a son. She returned to visit one of her old pastors when her Maori partner began manifesting serious demonic activity, but the response was underwhelming and only seemed to further her disillusionment.

While it is loosely chronological, the book is also quite erratic in its presentation with the Geoff Bullock story only getting a geurnsey in one of the final chapters. Levin seemed to like Bullock as he was a fellow sufferer and one who may understand her.

There is much that makes the book both interesting and concerning.

• Levin’s story of being banned from church and later ejected really doesn’t do Hillsong any favours, but it does read as a true account.

• The failure by Brian & Bobbie Houston to respond to her personal emails is rather poor also. If church is a corporation then it is understandable but if we are a family then it is nasty. That said I can think of some people from my pastoring days, who were genuine trouble-makers whose emails I wouldn’t have responded to either.

• Her comparison of Hillsong to Amway is not a first and has a little merit, although I genuinely doubt this would be in the hearts or minds of most of those involved.

• Her chapter on fundamentalism was kinda weird as I wouldn’t have perceived these guys as fundies, but then some of the behaviour and beliefs Levin cites would fit that category. There is a cult-like allegiance and devotion that ought to evoke some concern. However I don’t think she fits them in the right box when she uses the ‘F’ word. She does go on to describe them as a cult. Again I think this may well be pushing the boundaries of the definition. As I see it there are cult like elements in the focus on recruitment and $$, but people are free to come and go. That would surely rule it out.

• Her chapter on the ‘Colour’ conference was enough to make you want to vomit as she depicted a ‘princess’ culture in the making and what she believed was a call to women to get over abuse and allow their husbands to call the shots.

I realise that simply reviewing this book will piss some people off – ‘Why did you even give it the time of day Hamo?!’ while other will feel I have not been scathing enough of Hillsong given the content of the book. This is not me trying to carefully walk a middle line. I simply believe that Levin does write some interesting and no doubt accurate critique of the beast that is now Hillsong, but she does it with some serious baggage and there is no way she can be considered completely objective.

I believe she sounds a warning to all of us in churches that there are people out there not afraid to ask question and not afraid to blow the whistle when we start to look more multi level marketing schemes.

Unfortunately the writing in the book is a bit average, but it is very easy reading, so if you are interested you can probably digest the 269 pages in a few hours like I did on the plane this weekend.

If Tanya Levin happens to read this then I would want to apologise to her for the abuse she has suffered at the hands of us, the church, and the lack of dignity she has been shown. I would want to ask her to remember that some of it wasn’t intentional. It was people locked in a system genuinely doing what they thought was best – even if it was destructive and damaging. I would encourage her to keep seeking and questioning because I believe God is much more complex and mysterious than fundamentalism would like him to be, and yet at the same time he is knowable and personal. Tanya – not all you were told was bullshit. I truly believe God does love you whether you care or not…

And having read Tanya’s story of her experience at Hillsong, I have to confess that there have been people who have left church because of me – because they felt I didn’t treat the with dignity and respect, or that they were simply part of my plan for world domination. There haven’t been many but there have been a few. And I would have to confess that a couple are probably quite justified in their view, while others were projecting their own issues onto me. As I read ‘Glass Houses’ I sensed Tanya was both of these people at the same time.

I am interested in her story for what we (as the church and church leaders) can learn from the angry and disenfranchised in our midst. I realize you may not wish to read the book on principle, but I wonder if there may be a voice here that we need to pay attention to…

A few years back I pondered jumping ship to a different denomination.

I was in flux with my work roles and open to all possibilities. At that stage it was a Church of Christ I was looking at, in many ways our closest cousins. It never did eventuate but not specifically for denominational reasons.

In the process I discovered that I am actually more ‘Baptist’ than I realised. I am probably not deeply ‘Baptist’ in the theological sense, (although that is there) but more in the sense of affiliation and family. It is a comfortable relationship, much like living in the same suburb for your whole life. It has been my tribe for so long that it would feel a bit odd to join up with someone else.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t do it. I would if I felt the need and occasionally I ask myself if ‘I still belong’. Moving denominations would be much like moving house. It would need to be for a good reason and it wouldn’t be a shift I would make too easily or too often, but it would be doable.

Occasionally I ponder who I would be if not ‘Baptist’ and probably the best fit for me would be the Vineyard scene. Part of that is because of one my closest mates is a Vineyard pastor and part of it is that I do like what they stand for and who they seek to be. I like their kingdom emphasis, their focus on church planting, more demonstrative faith and the work of the Holy Spirit.

As much as they have mellowed somewhat since the Wimber days I still like the vibe of the movement and their theology of the Holy Spirit seems more even keeled than stock pentecostalism. (I feel this is a lack in our conservative denominations but the theology of some of the pentecostal set leaves me cold.)

While its not a big issue for me currently, it is one that lurks. We are a denomination in the midst of significant change and because of the influence of Paul Borden we seem to be adopting a more corporate and ‘one size fits all’ approach to church. From where I stand it seems the focus is on the larger church / CEO model and the space for diversity seems to be decreasing. I could be wrong on this, but it is the feeling I get from around the place.

I am hopeful we will still be a denomination that welcomes experimentation, that champions innovation and encourages those willing to leave the familiar in search of different ways of doing mission and being church, but as of yet my jury is out on that one.

Perhaps this is why I do resonate with the Vineyard (as I perceive it). There seems to be a real openess to new ideas and a valuing of those courageous enough to have a go at different things.

I must say there are a few in my own denomination who have been cheering for us and have been genuinely supportive and they are highly valued and much loved. I can handle those who oppose us and those who don’t ‘get’ us, but the people who I find particularly difficult are the dickheads who cheer us on to our face but secretly despise us or see us as losers.

The again I am dickhead sometimes too…

So if you weren’t part of your denomination who would you join up with?…

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