I Will Not Be a World Changer

I recently finished a great book called Culture Making by Andy Crouch.

It’s all about how Christians engage culture and how we are to respond to culture.  His main argument is that the only truly effective way to do so is to actually be creating new cultural goods and environments. I just want to focus here, though, on one small point he made that made me think quite a bit.

Crouch correctly pointed out our desire to be people who change the world. This is especially true of my own generation of twenty-somethings. We are extremely ambitious, which definitely has its pros and cons. It’s good that we want to take initiative with things, but it can also be a little destructive when we settle for nothing less than changing the world.

In reality, however, we cannot change the entire world. By simple fact, that statement cannot be true. Some would say the Internet has changed the world, and yes, the Internet has changed the vast majority of the world, but there are still billions of people that do not even have Internet access.

What we can change is our world. We can and do have profound influence on the cultures we are a part of and that is ultimately what we must focus on. Take me for example: I have influence at The Gateway Church,  America’s Family Coaches (employer #1), InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (employer #2), Grinnell College, Des Moines and within my family and friends groups.

Within those groups, I have the ability change culture. Whether or not it goes beyond those places that I have direct contact with is completely beyond my control. You see if we focus on changing the world, our sights are too big to know where or how to start. We must concentrate on the things that are right in front of us, and slowly our ability to influence and change grows.

I will not be a world changer.

But I will be an influencer within my social location.

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

Everywhere. (That’s the answer to the question.)

Proverbs 1:20-21

Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech.

So, I’ll ask again. Where can wisdom be found? This time, I’ll let Scripture speak for itself: “In the street…In the public square…in the gateways of the city.” Basically, all over the place.

Wisdom is not ONLY found in Scripture. It can be found even in.. get ready for it.. secular culture (gasp!). God created culture, right? He is the Creator of all things, even if we have perverted most, if not all, of them. This means, that at their core, must cultural goods have some semblances of wisdom within them. Yes, maybe you have to dig through lots of junk, but it’s there. Now obviously some bits of culture lack wisdom in and of themselves (pornography, tanks, etc), but there are many lessons to be learned simply by their existence.

If we cannot find wisdom in every sphere of life, perhaps we aren’t looking hard enough. Maybe we’ve put our blinders on and become arrogant enough to think that wisdom is only found in “Christian” things. I have news for you: everything, at its base,  is “Christian”. God created literature. God created art. God created motion pictures. God created food and automobiles and pretty much everything else as well. As I mentioned above, people have simply someone managed to mess it all up.

Wisdom can be found if we look for her.

She can even be found in the latest New York Times bestseller and last weekend’s number one box office hit.

Love and Peace,
Jeremy

The Globally Aware Christian

I’m gonna go ahead and say that Christians are generally less aware of what’s happening in the world around them than other people. That’s my experience at least. You may have a different experience, and if so, I’d love to hear it. I would say this also true of my generation in general. Part of it is simply the environment of college. It’s kind of inherently this bubble of ignorance that shields us from the reality of the world. Now that I’m out of that, I’ve discovered how necessary it is for all people to be aware of the news.

Maybe it’s the journalist in me, but I don’t think so. Shane Claiborne has said that Christians should be a people who hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. We are to be a people who respond to the events happening around us. During the great plague in Europe, Christians were known as the people who stuck around with those who were quarantined, even at the high risk of death. They cared for the masses, and became known as the people who saved. This is actually where the term “saved” comes from. Those Christ-followers saw a need, and responded. They did not just share the Gospel with the sick, they did the Gospel with the sick.

What are the events happening in the world right now that we must respond to? Immigration? It’s bound to be one of the hottest topics for debate in the next five years. The Bible tells us all over the place to welcome the foreigner and the stranger as one of our own. I don’t want to start a debate here and now, but how are we to respond? The Catholic church has responded beautifully, I think, and has made it known that their churches in the south will be open as sanctuaries for those who need it.

What about the oil spill? How are we to respond? What about the fact that more oil is spilled in Nigeria nearly every year than was spilled in the Gulf of Mexico? Clearly this is not what God had in mind for His creation.

There are countless other examples that I could point to. What if we spent less time with our heads down and nose pointed in our Bible and more time responding to the news with our Gospel in hand? (Don’t turn this around and say I don’t think it’s good to read the Bible. If you know me, you know that’s not true.)

Personally, I’ve semi-committed to just reading the news for a half hour or so every day. I make sure to not just scan CNN, but world headlines. America, contrary to popular belief, is not the center of the world. Awareness is the first step. In order to respond, we must first know what’s happening around us.

Will you join me in making an effort to be more globally aware?

Love and Peace,
Jeremy

Adjusting to Post-College Life

I’m sitting here in my dining room at 11:25am on a Tuesday. In sweat pants. Looking out the window as cars go by. This apparently, is what life after college is like.

Now I know that’s not true. But right now, for me, it is. I have two part-time jobs, one of them being mostly work from the home should I choose. It’s strange.

It’s strange to not have my friends by my side 24 hours a day.

It’s strange to not have every hour of my day planned out.

It’s strange that I can take time to relax on a regular basis and not feel guilty about it. (Still workin on this one.. I was trained for four years to think that relaxing meant you were getting behind.)

It’s strange getting paid to do things I used to do in my free time like checking blogs and social media, studying the Bible, writing, etc.

What was your hardest adjustment from post-college life?

Follow Me To Freedom

Didn’t realize it had been so long since I last blogged. Sorry about that. I just finished reading Follow Me to Freedom by Shane Claiborne and John Perkins. I did not receive it for free, so this is not a disclaimer. I actually bought it for a paper I wrote back when I was still in college (like three months ago) and I just finished it. (Come on, we all know that we’ve written papers for books we didn’t actually finish.)

It’s a really good book. It’s all about leadership and followership. I love the format, which is just a series of conversations between the two men ranging in just about everything from prayer to civil disobedience. Like all of Claiborne’s other books, it has the potential to mess you up inside. He challenges most assumptions Christians have about leadership and dwells in the land of gray (as opposed to seeing things in black and white).

Although they cover a variety of topics, the one thing that purveys throughout the entire book is theme of leaders entering into the pain and suffering of their followers. Christian leaders have almost tended to be too protected from their own people by board room meetings and planning committees. A great leader, the authors suggest, is someone who can deeply relate to the suffering of his/her people. Jesus was the ultimate example of this in coming to us to be a servant, not some highly exulted “leader”. God chose death for our sake. We must do the same. If we really want to be leaders, we must kill our selfishness and see the needs of those around us.

I loved this book because it really did read like a conversation. I had the privilege of hearing these great men speak together at a conference, and I could hear their voices as I flipped the pages. I had a hard time underlining things because you obviously can’t underline someone speaking.

Read it. It might not change your life, but it’ll probably at least make you think, which I’m sure is exactly what Claiborne and Perkins are hoping for.

Some snippets just from Chapter 1:

• Movements require deep faith and revolutionary patience.
• Jesus was always available and attentive to the interruptions and surprises. He was never so fixed on His vision for the Kingdom that He missed the folks right next to Him.
• Before we can lead we need to have confidence in God.
• There must first be leaders who can imagine a different world from the one in which they live.
• The content of your character will determine the caliber of your relationships.
• Stashing away our resources is not how we’re supposed to live. The best way to take away money’s power is to give it away. Keep doing that, and eventually it won’t be worth much.

Love and Peace,

Jeremy

P.S. If you don’t recognize the name of John Perkins, you should. Wikipedia him here. It doesn’t do a justice to his life, but he did incredible things for the Civil Rights Movement in the ’60s. He’s an 80-year-old man and the humility enough to write a book with a young dude who makes his own clothes. That is awesome.

Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain

This is a book review for Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain by Paul Meier and David Henderson. I received it as part of Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program. I am in no way required to give a positive review.

Honestly, I wasn’t looking forward this book. The title killed it for me. I’m in a pretty good place in my life right now and I’m not experiencing any overwhelming pain or depression. I figured I would read it when and if that time came. The book was sitting on my shelf though, so I figured I’d skim it and give it a shot.

What I learned, mostly psychologically, was deeply beneficial. The authors both have their MDs and it shows. They bring incredible insight into what it means to feel pain and how to not only move beyond it, but find God’s purpose in it. Most of us, whether we admit it (or even realize it) are generally experiencing some form of pain in our everyday lives. It can be anything from the injustice in our world (BP oil spill, for example) to the simple feeling of worthlessness that comes over us when we waste a few precious hours of time.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of pain, I think of the big things. One of the biggest things in overcoming any pain, however, is realizing that we are actually experiencing it. Sometimes this is especially hard for Christians to do. We are so caught up in being the light of the world that we often just rush by the hurt in our lives. We also have this fear of admitting to people that we’re not in a good place, because Christians are obviously just supposed to have everything pulled together all the time. To really be light, though, requires that we know ourselves and know what God says and promises about pain. Here’s a hint: you probably won’t like what He has to say.

Reading this book not only gave me insight into my life right now, but I know has helped prepare me for the pain that will someday come. It’s inevitable, and I am okay with that…because I’m ready.

Love and Peace,
Jeremy

Where the heck is Grinnell, Iowa?

Grinnell, Iowa is a small town of about 10,000 people. It is almost exactly one hour straight east of Des Moines, where I will continue to live. Part of being an IV intern versus full-time staff is that you have another part-time job on the side. I’ll be putting in 15-20 hours a week on campus at Grinnell, and another 15-20 hours a week at my internship in Des Moines. Logistically, it’s a slight pain in the butt, but I couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity!

Grinnell College was founded in 1846 and was the first institute of higher learning west of the Mississippi. It is a private, liberal arts school with only around 1,500 students. It is regularly regarded as one of the best academic institutions in the entire country, and in 2004 was actually voted the “Best All-Around College” by Newsweek.

Grinnell is known for its academic rigor and passion for social activism. As I’m sure you can imagine, Christianity is not the norm on this small campus even though it is situated nicely in the Bible Belt. It is also an incredibly diverse school. Of the 15 students I’ve met so far, only two were local Iowans. Otherwise they were from Oregon, New Mexico, Texas, Maryland, Taiwan, Ohio and many other places I’m forgetting.

At Drake, the default religious stance seems to be “Christian”. At Grinnell, it seems to be “Atheist” or “Spiritual, but not Religious”. This might make my task of campus minister seem difficult, but I’m rather excited for it. It means that those who do claim Christianity aren’t doing so out of social pressure or conformity, but genuine love for Christ.

These students who are part of IV at Grinnell are hungry for Jesus, and it is my hope and prayer that I’ll be able to bring my skills to this chapter and help students be transformed.

Tomorrow of Friday I’ll give some more details about the chapter at Grinnell and more specifically what a couple of my roles will be.

Love and Peace,
Jeremy

What is InterVarsity and why did I choose it?

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship “is an interdenominational, evangelical Christian student-led ministry dedicated to establishing witnessing communities on college and university campuses.”

That’s the copied website version. InterVarsity (IV) was started in the UK a long time ago, and apparently in the UK the word varsity means university, unlike here in the states where it means sports. Most people end up thinking that IV is a sports club, like FCA. The better way to interpret it, however, is Inter-Campus or Inter-College Christian Fellowship. That makes much more sense.

Over 550 colleges in America have IV chapters, and we serve over 32,000 students and faculty. So what does a chapter look like? It basically functions as a church community within the campus setting. There are generally small group Bible studies, large-group gatherings, regular service projects and outreach events, etc.

Those are the basics. (I’ll be giving you some more Midwest/Iowa specific details later in the week – I wanted you to get an overview of the larger organization.) So why did I choose to apply and accept a position with InterVarsity as a campus staff worker who raises his own salary?

As an organization, I’ve been impressed more with IV than just about any other organization I’ve encountered. College ministries sometimes get a bad rap for being in-your-face and only about evangelism. InterVarsity most certainly values evangelism, but we also value a more holistic approach to ministry. Service and missions are a driving force behind nearly everything we do. Every summer hundreds of students do month-long overseas missions trips and local projects are regularly integrated into the fabric of each individual chapter.

I also love the uniqueness that IV offers each chapter. Each region, state and campus has its own flavor and personality. At Drake, for instance, we created our own vision statement that led our chapter in the direction we thought was best for it. There is no set protocol for how a chapter is supposed to operate, other than to radically love Jesus and show that love to students.

The most important factor, however, in my choosing to do college ministry is the simple fact that it is a largely forgotten and ignored mission field. Churches pour thousands of dollars into youth ministries and programming, but what happens when they go off to college? Nearly 80% of students who grew up in youth groups will not identify themselves as Christians by the time the leave college. That is CRAZY!!  It is too critical a juncture in one’s life to ignore.

As a staff worker for InterVarsity, I will be a missionary to students.

To your friends…

your peers…

your future sons and daughters…

and to the future leaders of our world.

The call it too important for me to ignore. Will you support the cause?

Love and Peace,
Jeremy

The New religioniseasy.com

Hi there.

Obviously, my blog looks a little different. Hopefully you like the new design.

This new season of blogging will look a little different for me than it has in the past. I was recently provisionally hired by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as a Ministry Intern at Grinnell College. This basically means I’ll be ministering to college students for 15-20 hours a week and also working another part-time job.

As a result of this, my blogs will likely carry a bit more personal touch. I’ll be sharing the lessons I’m learning being in ministry and also the stories of what God is doing on college campuses in the great state of Iowa. I will continue to do book reviews and theological questions and things like that, it’ll just be mixed in with other stuff as well.

I’ll be starting a series probably next week on my ministry…What is InterVarsity? Why did I choose it? What is Grinnell like? Look for that starting Monday at the latest!

Love and Peace,
Jeremy

Is Your Jesus Imaginary?

I just finished reading the book Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos and to say that it’ll challenge how you see Jesus is an understatement.

It’s written semi-fictionally in that Matt is being led on a journey by the Apostle Peter to hunt down all kinds of different Imaginary Jesus’. There’s:

• Masculine Jesus: eats red meat and protects woman (while still making her cook for him)
• Bargain Jesus: will do things for you if you do things for him (i.e. read the Bible every day)
• Hippie Jesus: just wants to be everyone’s friend
• Political Jesus: thinks the only way to change is through power
• 8-Ball Jesus: gives fuzzy answers to questions that appear right out of an 8-ball
• Evangelism Jesus: has no arms because he’s too busy evangelizing to serve
• Janitor Jesus: has no mouth because he’s too busy serving to evangelize

The list goes on and on…

The main point is that all of us construct a Jesus in our head that matches our theology and context. The Jesus of Scripture might look quite different than the Imaginary one occupying our brain space. Mikalatos wants us to take a long, hard look at who we think Jesus is and how we picture Him. The reality is that’s He’s much more unpredictable and inconvenient than we care to admit.

So how do we get rid of the Imaginary Jesus? The number one thing is to simply recognize him and fight him off. We have to start fresh with a blank slate and dig deep into the Gospels to find the real Jesus, and it’s probably going to be messier than you expected.

A few highlights:

• If you never confront the Imaginary Jesus, he’ll keep popping up, perverting what you know about the real Jesus.
• To be a disciple is more than just learning. It means to become like your teacher. It means transformation from what I am into what my teacher is.
• The real Jesus isn’t afraid of your questions. The Truth is our friend.
• Jesus liked story, but he also taught in lecture. A good teacher doesn’t box himself into one mode of transmission.
• You say you can’t hear Jesus, but it’s because you have earbuds in all the time. You’re afraid of silence.
• He is talking. You’re not listening. You’re trying to avoid him by filling up your every moment. You need to clear some of the static.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free as part of Tyndale’s blogging for books network. I still highly recommend it though, as I’m not receiving it in order to give a positive review. I could’ve hated it and told you all. Seriously though, read it, it’ll mess with how you think of Jesus in the best way possible.

Love and Peace,
Jeremy