Tag: Christianity (Page 7 of 9)

Christians Shouldn’t be Advocates for Homosexuality

May 4, 2015 / Bruce Pagano II / 4 Comments

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog titled, “Keep YOUR Gospel to Yourself.” I wrote it on the heels of a group of high school students in Pennsylvania that organized an “anti-gay day.” To be honest, my issue wasn’t that they planned such a day. I spent two decades in the military for the very purpose of protecting American’s right to say what they want, not matter how shortsighted or ignorant it sounds. My issue with their ”anti-gay day” was that they used Christianity and scripture to be hateful and violent toward other people. In that article I tried to make the point that if you use Christ and His teachings as the foundation for your hate, it isn’t Christianity and suggested that they weren’t followers of Jesus.

Last Friday I had a friend repost that article on Facebook, to which I had someone comment on it. They even went to my blog and commented there. I was stoked. I don’t get a ton of comments, so when I do, I get excited. After reading it, I wasn’t so excited. The commenter suggested that because I called a kid, that was using the cross as a symbol of hate, ignorant, I was hypocritical because I was being “judgmental and hateful” toward him. He suggested a few other things, but ended with, “I skeptically wonder if the author would also turn his hateful judgmentalism toward Christians gathering for anti-abortion? Or anti-child molesting? Or anti-drug abuse? Or anti-anything else other than homosexuality?” I won’t even start on the ignorance in that thought. I can only assume the commenter doesn’t think through things on a regular basis. You can read my response to his dribble HERE. I could have deleted it, but I’m not afraid of people disagreeing with me.

The comments and questions continued much further on the FB post. Most of what he said doesn’t even warrant repeating. But, toward the end of our back and forth he asked, “Are you not an advocate for homosexuality?” I thought about it for like 5 minutes and responded with,

“I’m an advocate for Jesus. I’m an advocate for not spewing hate at people and choosing to show Christ’s love. I’m an advocate for choosing to let the Holy Spirit deal with people’s hearts and souls. I’m an advocate for being in the world, with people and ministering to their deepest need, Jesus. On my best day, what I have to offer Jesus is filthy rags. I’m an advocate for doing life with people and pursuing Jesus in a community that cultivates love, so that others can meet Him. I’m an advocate for Christians applying the bible to their life before they try to force others to live by the standard it sets.”

That answer wasn’t good enough for him, so he insisted I answer, but I ended it because nothing I could say would be good enough, lest I quote Leviticus and call for the stoning of gays everywhere. But, it did get me thinking about whether I’m an advocate for homosexuality or not, because I’d never put a any thought into it. The short answer is, I’m not and I don’t think any Christian should be, even if you identify as a Gay Christian.

Jesus followers are people advocates.

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An advocate is someone that publicly supports a particular cause. In that case, I’m an advocate for Jesus. The cause that I want to publicly support is the one that He came for; to seek and save the lost. God’s chief cause for sending Jesus into the world was not to “condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” The real answer is, I’m a people advocate. My cause in this world revolves around Jesus’ command to love God and that’s done through loving your neighbor, other people. Jesus made no distinction about who that was. Well, actually He did. In the story of the “Good Samaritan” the injured man’s neighbor was a man he looked down on, so there’s that.

Bottom line is that if you’re a Christian, Jesus requires you to not only serve those you think are beneath you, but commands you to love them. Jesus followers are people advocates. Plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if they’re a different skin color, economic status, gender, religion, sexual orientation or anything else, we’re called to love others. That’s it.

I know some will read this and have issue with the fact that I said “Gay Christian” earlier and may try to use 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 as an argument for their responsibility to tell other Christians how they’re living in sin. But, before we worry about others, let’s remember that Jesus said, “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” I think it’d be beneficial for most of us if we started to worry more about how we’re following Jesus, rather than how others are.

Whether or not I’m an advocate for homosexuality is irrelevant. That isn’t the cause that I stand on. I’m an advocate for loving God, through loving others, so that they can come to know Jesus. And for those that already know Him, I’m an advocate for loving them well, so that others will know we’re His and so that we grow in unity and deeper in our love and knowledge of Him. If you’re a Christian, you ought to advocate for the same. His agenda is people, our agenda is His, so our agenda is people.

*I‘d love to dialogue with you. But, I want to dialogue with you only if you’ve actually read what I said. If you chose to comment, please start your post with “Fish Fingers & Custard.” Thanks.

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The Call to Tear Down the Church’s Four Walls

April 29, 2015 / Bruce Pagano II / 0 Comments

In recent years, the idea of getting outside the church walls has become the mantra of the millennial church goer. There’s this open air tension between traditional vocational pastors and the new (actually been around forever) “trendy” house church leaders. On the house church side you have some leaders that insist that the idea of a church building is wrong and that we need to get back to the Acts 2 church, which consequently gathered mainly in homes; mostly because they were a new religion and didn’t have a building. Oh, but they did actually go to the temple, which is THE building, so they could worship together. On the traditional church side you have leaders becoming defensive and feeling the need to justify the fact that they meet inside of a large, high-tech, church building. The argument is silly and for both groups saying, as often as they do, that “they aren’t saying their way is the right way, just a way,” they seem pretty adamant that their way is the right way. So they argue back and forth about a building

In reality it has little to do with not having a building. Very few churches don’t have some sort of a structure. If you meet at home, you have a building. In a community center? Building. Movie theater? Building. At the Krispie Kreme? That’s a building. In the public restroom of a city park? That’s gross; stop doing that. You get the point. But in truth, it’s so much less about meeting in a building and so much more about what focus you give the building as part of your ministry.

In the church my friends and I just started, right now our building is our homes; which actually means we have two buildings. We’re only a couple months in, but we’re already talking about where we’ll meet for larger gatherings. The most obvious and cost permissible way is the elementary school in our neighborhood. We’re not afraid of having a building. We’re not even afraid of what happens when we do move into a building. We’re actually so confident in the call that God has placed in us that we’re excited for the time that we get to meet in a larger group.

I think one of the biggest confusions with churchies (shout out to my girl Sheri) is what the word “ministry” actually means. There’s an assumption that ministry only happens behind the walls of an actual church building. It’s almost like there’s some secret method to conducting “ministry” and only a select few have the ability to administer it. In reality, when you “minister” to someone, you’re simply “attending to their needs” or “giving aid or service to” them. It’s by that definition that we are called to be ministers of The Word. And just so we’re clear, everyone’s “need,” whether you’re a believer or not, is Jesus. When we minister to each other and others, we’re attending to our need for Jesus. In our church, we’ve made a very specific distinction about what type of ministering happens in which place. For the sake of this article, we have two spaces: The Communal Space and The Open Space.

The Communal Space

The Communal Space is for the believer. Inside the communal space, we will gather corporately to attend to the needs of the believers that are part of our community of faith. We will gather as a body of believers and equip each other for the work of attending to the needs of those outside the communal space. We’ll minister to each other until we have attained unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God; until we all reach mature manhood and womanhood and grow into the fullness of the character of Christ. (Eph 4:11-13) We will gather with other believers to celebrate all the good things that God has done, is doing and will do. We will gather together to seek God in prayer. We’ll gather to grieve our losses, as one body. We’ll gather to encourage those that struggle. We’ll gather to worship and sing God’s praises. We’ll gather to break bread and participate in Holy Communion, that we might remember our Savior’s sacrifice and imminent return. We’ll gather to make much of Jesus and in doing so, minister to each other’s continual need for Him, so that we’re able to minister to others’ need for Him, so that they may make much of Him.

The Open Space

The Open Space is for the unbeliever. We live life in the open space with both believers and unbelievers. This is where we do life. Inside the open space is where we allow others to see how messy and un-put-together our lives really are. This is where the glitz and polish of “I’m great and just keeping busy” turns into the bedraggled mom that’s told her 5 year old one too many times to put their shoes on or the dad that has a bad day at work and instead of leaving it there, takes it home to his family in the form of shortness and snappy remarks. This is where others get to see that being Christian doesn’t mean you have it all together, but that Jesus is strength in our weakness. It’s where other see that following Jesus isn’t about perfection, it’s about progress. The open space is where you get to be the love of Christ to those that don’t know Him. In the open space you get to be with others to celebrate and to grieve loss. You get to be with others to encourage and counsel. You get to be in real life with others, without exception to who they are. That means we be with them regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, economic status, or religious belief. We do so without placing expectation on them, even that they might be “saved.” You hope they come to know Him, but it isn’t a contest of conversion, it’s a long walk of revealing Him, in hopes that they meet Him. The open space is where we get to love God by loving others and we get to love each other so they know we’re His.

That’s how Bucknell Neighborhood Church has decided to minister to each other and others. There is value in gathering corporately with other believers, in a building. Right now, because there’s like 12 people in our church, we attend a corporate gathering at National Community Church. They have 7 campuses and the lead pastor is Mark Batterson. We love it, but eventually we’ll start our own corporate gathering and stop going to NCC. But, all the value that corporate gathering brings equals nothing if it doesn’t equip you to operate in the open space. That’s where Jesus sent us. That’s where the command to “make disciples” was intended to be acted out. We gather together with those who depend on Him, to be in life with those who need Him, but don’t know it yet. In that, we are Him, to them.

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Are You Discontent with Your Church?

April 27, 2015 / Bruce Pagano II / 3 Comments

You should totally tell everyone in your small group. If you’re not in a small group, post on Facebook all the ways that your church is doing church wrong. The best thing to do when you’re discontent with the church you attend is to complain until you can’t stand it anymore and then leave and start attending another church, but don’t forget the scathing email, disguised as “loving advice,” to the lead pastor as you exit. After that, start telling everyone how great it is and how they’re “doing” church so much better. At least until they do something that you don’t like. Better yet, instead of just attending another church, just across town, start your own “new” thing. But make sure it’s started on the grounds that you can do it better and completely based on frustration and anger at the “system” you left… is the advice that most Christian would never accept as “good,” but is actually the way that so many will leave their current church.

I know that for the last few years I’ve been an advocate for doing church differently, but I’ve never said that I had THE way or even a better way, just a different way. It’s the way that I feel God has called me to. It’s a model that is intended to serve and love people that traditional models would likely never reach. It’s the result of years of prayer, seeking God’s wisdom and collaboration with other believers. It isn’t built out of anger toward another model or a specific church. It isn’t even built out of frustration toward a model that others use. It was not built out of a discontentment, or dissatisfaction, with someone else’s model, but from seeing groups of people that other models, not for not trying, couldn’t reach. It was built out of a desire, that God placed in my heart, to see more people join us in the Kingdom and become disciples of Jesus, that make disciples of Jesus. It was built out of a God given desire to see the marginalized find healing in Jesus.

With that said, it wasn’t something that came easy. As I said, it took a lot of prayer and wrestling with what God was calling me to. At the beginning I did think, for just a second, that there may be a problem with the way “traditional” church was “doing it.” But, I had a great community of people that I was able to talk through it with. My lead pastor (at that time), coach and friend, Jeff Maness, helped guide me through it, wether he knows that or not (maybe I should make sure he knows). And, a lot of prayer and seeking God revealed that it had nothing to with the ministries that God had called others to and had everything to do with what He was calling me to. And that’s where so many, that are not happy in their current church, miss it.

If this sounds like where you’re currently at or potentially headed toward, I think there’s two main things that could be happening.

1: God is calling you to something else.

This was my situation. God had placed a desire in my heart that took years of cultivating and watering for it to develop. Being dissatisfied with something is a hard thing, especially when you don’t know what exactly you’re discontent with. Some of the most frustrating times in my life have been when I was discontent, but couldn’t pinpoint any particular area or thing that was causing it. Turns out that most of those times, it was a discontentment that God had placed in me because He was calling me to something new.

It’s so easy to misinterpret or mistranslate that discontentment and assign it to the very thing we’re being called away from. For me it’s because fear tells me I’m not good enough or equipped to do that new thing. So, instead of exploring and seeking where the discontentment is coming from and where it may be leading, we try to figure out how to change where we currently are, in an attempt to be content. In church that looks like attenders that convince themselves that their church is “doing” church wrong. All of the sudden, you’re more focused on what you’re not getting and why it’s your church’s fault, rather than seeking to follow Jesus well and being obedient to God’s call on you.

The truth is, if your church is teaching Christ and Him crucified, then the method they use isn’t wrong. If Jesus is central to the pastor’s teaching, chances are he is listening to the call God placed in his heart and the church model he is using is what God has called him to. You don’t get to influence that just because you feel like it should be done a different way. That leads us to number two.

2: You want something that you’re not getting.

This is going to seem a bit harsh, but it’s a very real possibility and potentially something that needs to be wrestled with. In some circumstances, there are people that perceive, for whatever the reason, that the church leadership is not giving them the authority or influence that they feel they deserve. Typically this is the result of the person having attended for a significant amount of time or having held lower lay-leader positions (small group leader, kids church class leader, etc.). Whatever the case, the person feels like they’ve gown to a level of maturity or leadership that their church leaders should recognize and reward with increased leadership. When that doesn’t happen, all of the sudden the church is “doing it wrong.”

This is a pride issue. If this is the case, then maybe maturity hasn’t been achieved in any great measure and maybe you haven’t gained the leadership traits you thought you had. When this happens and the person doesn’t seek God and wise counsel to deal with it, the result can play out in a couple ways:

1) The discontent member simply complains to other members. This just creates dissension, disharmony and disunity. This is no good. In fact, in Proverbs 6:19 God identifies “one who sows discord among brothers” as one of the seven sins that are an abomination. At the minimum it creates tension within the congregation. Worse case, if the person is someone that people will follow, it detracts from others’ relationship with God and that’s how church splits happen. I’ve seen churches that were started as a result of anger, pride and discontentment; they aren’t healthy and typically don’t last.

2) The discontent member stews in his/her discontentment until they can’t take it anymore and decide they need to leave. Typically they leave by sending the lead pastor a scathing letter/email written “in love,” but really it has no love in it anywhere. After that they leave and begin attending a new church that has an almost identical model as the one they left. In no time the person is discontent with the way that the new church is “doing” it and they’re looking to change them or they leave. Sometimes they get the idea to start a church of their own, but again, they typically aren’t healthy and don’t last.

So what do you do, then? Talk with others. But talk with them in healthy ways. Be honest that you’re discontent with something, but you’re not clear on what. Seek God. Pray, read the bible and journal. Let God clarify for you. And He will. He promises that if we draw close to Him, He’ll draw close to us. Continue to joyfully serve where you’re at. If you’re serving God and others, no one, not even you, will benefit from you being angry with something that you’re not clear on. If you just can’t get passed it, maybe consider stepping out of whatever roll you’re serving in and take a season of simply attending and seeking.

After that, if God is calling you to something new, awesome. It’s so exciting and scary and amazing and God is bigger than any of that. New things are God’s thing and you can leave a church well, with the church’s blessing. But remember, the most important thing you can do for God is be obedient in where He currently has you and the most important ministry you’ll ever serve in, is the one you’re currently serving in; be there joyfully.

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Tag: Christianity (Page 7 of 9)