protection theology

For many years I have been critical of what I call protection theology. That is when Christians completely remove themselves from the culture around them and isolate themselves inside of a Christian bubble. Inside this bubble or wall, you can only find like people who believe the same things, dress the same way, and never talk about anything outside of their constructed walls – in order to stay safe from all evils.

This weekend my eyes were opened to a potential reason of why these walls exists. As an avid Ohio State fan and having a desire to brainwash my 4 year old son, I felt like 4 was the appropriate age to let him experience heaven, I mean, his first OSU game. An opportunity arose and we graciously accepted tickets to the first game of the year.

Isaiah had great expectations of seeing all the good, the band, the stadium, the hot dogs, the football team. We parked a few blocks north of where I used to live, just north of the stadium. I carried him on my shoulders as he looked around at all the tailgaters. Naturally I was aware he’d be exposed to some beer and choice language, but I didn’t really think he’d get the full exposure as most OSU students aren’t back on campus yet. Well ooops, I was wrong.

And coincedentally enough we sat near some Navy fans who were entitled to voice their cheers for their team which only ticked off the OSU fans surrounding me. Personally I felt one or two OSU fans were clowns & jerks, one particularly set me off for his total idiocy. Suffice to say, Isaiah got to hear the bad that comes with a college experience football game, a lot of bad language and a lot of drunkneness.

Part of me wanted to rescue him and protect his little ears. Thankfully I don’t think he really paid keen attention to all that was around him, he was focused on finding the real Brutus and the real band.

So bc of this experience I see the need for protection theology, or maybe not the need, but the reason that many churches and believers subscribe to that philosophy. Afterall the best way to be different and to be salt in the world, is to completely remove all the evil and isolate yourself away from all that.

But to me, the reality is, there are dangers to this way of thinking. Let me also say that I do believe there is a time and season for many people to be isolated from the world, but this should never ever be lived out forever. Here are my thoughts on the potential dangers of protection theology:

1. we never learn how to engage culture
2. we become prideful in our way of living
3. when we are exposed to the world around us, we have no idea how to respond
4. the world passes us by and we become out of touch with reality;
5. thus we let years and ppl pass by w/out any meaningful relationships with those Jesus called us to reach
6. when Jesus said, “go to all the world” we translate that as only a few select missionaries are to go
7. missionary lifestyles become an event – not a lifestyle

I’m sure there are more potential dangers I could list but that’s it for now. Again let me repeat, there are times I do believe it’s important to withdraw & isolate & to regroup and reorientate, but never should that last forever.

feel free to comment.

fear

Today my son went for a well check-up in order to enroll in preschool next week. While there, we learned he was due for a shot. Immediately he was overcome with fear, fear of pain, anxiety, fear of the consequences of the needle. Now 1-2 years ago, needles & doc visits didn’t bother him. Neither did sleeping in a dark room by himself, now he’s somewhat intimidated.

It amazes me how quickly as we age, we experience different things and we become fearful. Now don’t get me wrong, Isaiah still lives with wreckless abandon in many areas, but a few he’s allowed fear to take hold of him.

Don’t we do this as adults? We live our lives out of fear. We fear success, we feel failure, we fear speaking to others, we fear reject. Most of these feelings of failure are a direct or indirect result of previous experiences… but seriously do we have to let fear rule us?

How do we overcome fear? Can we overcome it? How can we get back to those years when we did everything in complete freedom of fear? I believe that this life devoid of freedom is what Christ meant when he said something about living life to the fullest. When we experience him completely, we rid ourselves of fear, and thus truly live.

This one’s directed at me

Short & not-sweet, but directed at me. I’m the guilty one here and by doing this, I only continue the cycle.

We spend too much time writing blogs, expressing our opinions, invoking the name of God for certain causes, more time tweeting, more time talking… and frankly not enough time listening, reading, reflecting, and thinking.

That’s it, that’s me, I’m guilty.

Posting this blog doesn’t save me from it, doesn’t change my wrong course of actions, nor does it change my life. Life change speaks for itself. We all have stories to tell, how this or that changed our life, but maybe we should let our lives speak for themselves for that speaks volumes.

Crazy Love

This past Saturday, with a great host of volunteers, Centerpoint showed the community of Chillicothe some crazy love in the form of a free carnival.

We had a great day in the sun with up to 500 people, kids and adults like. The carnival had: 4 inflatables, a face painter, 2 stilt-walkers, a train to ride on, food, and a petting zoo courtesy of Petland. We had an amazing slew of businesses offer gift cards to use at their place of business and overall we gave away 123 gift cards.

Many people asked us, “why are you doing this?” We tell them, “we just want to give back to the community and love you guys.”

Then some would say, “so you’re a church, so does this mean we’re signing up for your church or you want us to come there?”

“Well we’d love to have you at centerpoint, but that is not what this is about. We truly want to just love people and provide hope.”

So many times, our efforts within churches are inward-focused, which means, we are doing everything we can to get people to our church. And while some of that is necessary, sometimes we just need to love without strings attached, to provide hope without handing out a tract. If this hope & love we are offering is legit, then the rest will work itself out.

It was so amazing to be a part of this event and to provide people with a day they could enjoy. Many parents admitted they came bc they can’t afford to take their kids on vacations so this was the perfect thing for them; then many of them got free cards to eat at local restaurants, with nothing asked in return.

Today – offer love, offer hope, offer grace & redemption. Do it with no strings attached. Do it bc you love people and at the end of the day, our world needs love.

Crazy Love Family Day

This Saturday, August 29th, 2009, yes 2 days from today, come join Centerpoint for our first annual Crazy Love Family Day from 11-3 – located at Danbarry Cinema in Chillicothe.

Because we love our community and hope to provide a fun event for everyone, everything is free. We will have inflatable slide, a jousting inflatable, a train to ride on, 10 carnival games. Local business in our area have pitched in and we’ll be doing a gift card giveaway to many restaurants in our area and busineses.

You don’t want to miss out on this awesome event – everyone welcome from 11-3!!! THIS SATURDAY AUGUST 29TH

17 days till kickoff

This part of the year excites me like no other. Yeah Centerpoint is moving and have an awesome launch at Danbarry Cinemas. Okay so truth is that’s way more exciting, but c’mon it’s southern Ohio and it’s OSU time!!! I’m the dork who reads the dispatch the entire year for its updates on the football team.

This year we can expect a very young, very talented team led by Terrelle Pryor at QB. As he goes, so goes any title run.

nicely packaged

For some reason, after our annual fantasy football draft last night, early this morning, I couldn’t sleep. It was either the salsa Nick made or the Mt. Dew I chugged at 9 pm to stay football – focused.. But thoughts were running through my head.

The theme was how Christians tend to have the world figured out, or think we do. We stand in awe & wonder at the beautify and complexity of creation, yet we always seem to have a neat answer for all of life’s complex questions. I was reminded and reflecting on my wife & my past with our children. We have two amazing children, but it came at a cost. We had two previous miscarriages and lost our first and third child, one baby weighing half a pound when he was delivered.

It takes two hands to count all the women I know who have suffered the same hurts of miscarriages. We have some other friends who have been unable to conceive and have gone through months and years of heartache as they watch other friends have children, time and time again.

Life sucks, life hurts. Life is tough. Life happens. Death happens. It’s unfortunate.

How we react as Christians to these situations can be harming. Far too many times, we say our nicely packaged Christian response “well God has a plan,” or “hang in there.” Which don’t get me wrong, God does have a plan, and hang in there, it’ll get better is true hopefully. But maybe we should just learn to be there, to listen, to hug, to embrace, to challenge, to cry, to mourn, to grieve. Maybe we shouldn’t feel the need to package our responses so quickly. I mean, life and all its hurts and complexities, why are we so quick to make a one-liner that solves it all. Why can’t we embrace what we don’t know and all we can do is do life together.

Afterall, Jesus was just there. He came to be with us, to save and redeem us, but to be with us. Did he and was he the answer for all? Yes he was and will always be, but Jesus was just there and he embraced the hurting and helped the sick and grieved with friends who lost loved ones.

May we learn to just be there, to love & listen, hug & embrace. Life isn’t always a nice package, it’s ugly and complex and difficult, perhaps our responses should be done in silence and compassion.

second chance

Blogs, twitter, forums, sports radio & tv, and yahoo searches have been bombarded with the breaking news that Michael Vick signed a contract to return to the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles. Everyone knows why this is such a big deal – bc Vick heinously broke the law and served a jail sentence for his involvement in dogfighting.

Much like political debates, this is highly controversial and creates a huge division. People on both sides are justifiably angry and equally passionate about whether a man can earn the right to play a sport again after such evil crimes.

My perspective is this: he deserves a second chance. In fact, as a human being, we all should get second, third, and fourth chances. Not bc we deserve them, but on the flip side, bc the love of Jesus abounds any evil, over and over and over again. This doesn’t mean we kick grace in the face and arrogantly due things in err; but it does mean that the love & truth & grace of God wins every time.

We’re humans, we make mistakes, it’s what we do. Many times we know better, and there will be consequences for every action we commit. But when we pay our dues (whether ask forgiveness or do jail sentences) we are offered another chance. As humans, we have our consequences, and it’s amazing to think that love abounds and runs to embrace us prior to judgment.

No matter the mistakes you’ve made, may you find hope in truth & grace. May you experience true love and redeem your second chance.

It can’t be done

Last night during the Faith & Film series at Centerpoint Christopher delivered a great teaching on the power of our words, more specifically, the power of gossip. It’s something we’ve all done. From time to time, we have engaged in conversations that have diminished people we know. And we find out how badly it hurts on the receiving end of that. You’d think that one time on that end, would cause to never be on the dishing-it-out end again — but it doesn’t.

Over the last few years, sadly enough, many peers and friends felt free to use my name and character in stories, some somewhat true, embellished, and some flat out hurtful. And while that hurt deeply. I must admit, my responses were equally hurtful and I, too, engaged in conversations that had one thing in mind – revenge.

With this message about gossip and the previous ones I’ve listened to about forgiveness, I realize my humanity & frailness. It’s so easy to get back at ppl, with our words and actions. To be cutthroat is so American, but so anti-Gospel. To seek revenge brings us comfort, but in the end, does far more damage than we might know. I for one, have needed this stern kick-in-the-behind message to ensure that my weaknesses are dealt with and that the hope of Jesus may abound, in all my words & deeds.

Gossip & revenge is something we’ve all been guilty of, and one I hope ends with me… May you come to know the hurts you’ve experienced thru gossip & revenge may be overcome with good and hope and love. May you experience this hope today.

Following is a clip from the movie used at Centerpoint, Doubt, and this message is radical when you realize the depths of damage done when ppl gossip about one another. The hurts, the damage, can’t be done, bc its effects are felt everywhere. May we find ways to overcome ourselves and experience true grace.

WE’RE MOVING

A few weeks ago, Christopher VanBuskirk announced to the attendees of Centerpoint that’s we’re moving.

DATE: SEPTEMBER 13, 2009
LOCATION: DANBARRY CINEMAS CHILLICOTHE, OH

Some of you might wonder why a church would move after only one year at its current location. The analogy that Christopher has used is that we’re like the young adult who lives at home. Life’s good, rent’s paid for, but at some point, it’s time to move out. Vineyard Chillicothe has been awful good to us for over a year and at the direction of God and those who have done this thousands of times over, Association of Related Churches, we’re moving from Sunday night to Sunday morning and changing our location to better meet our identity.

BIGGEST reason of all for the move is to meet the needs of more people, to serve more people, and to maximize the amount of people that are exposed to the Gospel of Jesus. That’s it, everything we do will always revolve around that question: how do we point more people to Christ and serve the most amount of people? When churches no longer have a heart for the unchurched and dechurched, then eventually that church ceases to exist.

Centerpoint is uniquely different & passionately real.