Uniforms and Rules

I listened to a great interview this morning with Seth Godin on Episode 45 of the Catalyst Podcast. This episode was release on March 10, 2008, so it has taken me a little while to get to it. You may have already heard it.

For a large part of the interview, Godin speaks about concepts from his two latest books The Dip and Meatball Sundae, and applies those concepts to the way that modern church or religious organizations try to market themselves.

I thought the most important thing Godin said in the interview was in his response to host Ken Coleman’s following question:

What are your observations about the shortcomings, challenges or problems that the religious community as a whole faces?

I think that there is a really big difference between faith and religion.  And I think faith is the most important thing human beings have, and I think faith is beyond reproach, and faith should never be criticized.

I think that religion is a tool human beings use to amplify faith. And I think sometimes it’s easy to fall in love with the process and the rules and the modularities of “this is the techniques of my religion,” and suddenly we stop talking about faith.

It happens in every organization, not just religious organizations. The fact is, if you show up at McDonald’s without your uniform on, and it doesn’t matter that you have a great attitude or really support the mission of the company, you didn’t wear your uniform. You are in trouble.

Uniforms are sometimes overrated. I think that it’s important to remind ourselves everyday about why we set out to do this. I don’t think we are living in 1492 where defending the rules is as important as amplyfying the faith.

Filed under: Faith , Catalyst, Faith, interview, marketing, religion, seth godin

Holistic Gospel

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. (I Corinthians 10:16-17 NIV)

Paul is highlighting an important idea regarding the holistic nature of Christ’s call. There should be no compartmentalizing of the secular and sacred areas of one’s life. God does not look at his children and see a distinction between those in ministry and those in normal jobs. Instead, he calls each one of his followers to live in communion with Him right where they are in their normal life every moment of the day.

At one point in my life, I thought that having a job in full-time Christian ministry capacity was a higher calling than any “other” job. For someone in a secular job to have that mentality is potentially lazy! Instead, God wants people who are transformed by His love, and actively care for the hurting people all around them.

Filed under: Faith, Life , 1 Corinthians 10, 40days, Lent, ministry, sacred, secular

Raw Emotion

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered… -Hebrews 5:7-8 NIV

Reverent submission doesn’t mean no emotion. Jesus was able to be reverent while showing His emotion to God. It is natural for people to show emotion when thinking (or speaking/acting out) about their passions. If an outsider were to judge my passions by watching my prayers, they might conclude that I am not passionate for the things that I am praying for. They might just see a quiet list of requests and praises being recited.

Now if the Green Bay Packers were playing for the NFC Championship (as they did not so effectively last month), the same viewer would see crazy emotion being expressed for a football team. My prayers need a jump-start!

I vividly remember passionate times of morning prayer on the rooftop of the convent next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hyderabad, India during the summer of 1998. It was one of those mountain-top experiences. I was pouring every ounce of energy I had into the Indian people that I was working with that summer. My passion for them could be heard in those morning prayers. I would like to live everyday with that kind of passion, and I would like to pray every prayer in a way that my passions are evident.

Filed under: Faith, Life , 40days, emotion, Hebrews 5, india, Lent, passion, prayer, submission