There was a thing that happened on the internet, in DC and in the poorest countries on earth last week.
A lot of people were hurt. A lot of people felt the need to draw line in sand. There are a few dead bodies on mountain tops.
I’m not one of them.
There are two reasons I’m not overwhelmed by this:
- I’ve never really understood evangelicalism.
- Handing out bacon keeps me busy.
When it comes to evangelicalism, I consider myself a well-informed outsider. I respect its passion for scripture, mission and transformation. Yet, evangelicalism’s inconsistent relationship with culture has always left me dumbfounded.
By the grace of God, I hail from a strange little tribe that shied away from both “evangelicalism” and “liberalism.” A side benefit of this was that I never forcefed Amy Grant or had to kiss dating goodbye.
As a kid, I remember being perplexed at evangelicals boycotting Disney. It seemed mean and sad because Aladdin was really great. Over the past five years or so, the meanness has turned internal into a constant heresy hunt.
It is strange. It doesn’t feel like Jesus.
There have got to be better things to do with our time.
My own baggage is not evangelical, but it is just as heavy. A few years ago it became obvious that it would probably be impossible to plant churches out of the tradition I came up in. After a lot of lost sleep I decided to look beyond my tradition for a church that seemed to be representing Jesus in their own unique context. It was less of a “farewell” and more of an application for a work visa in a foreign country.
About a year ago, a friend asked me to be his co-conspirator for a new little project called Austin Mustard Seed. Six months ago we hung out a shingle and prayed like crazy.
Today, we have a budding community full of some of the most loving and capable people I have ever met in my life. Not long ago, they were strangers. Now, they are taking up the call to love each other, love their neighbors and try to do the things that Jesus said to do.
Every Thursday I have drinks with friends from our church community. We discuss what movies we like and what God is teaching us.
There are liturgies to plan and sermons to write. There’s four pregnant couples that need our support. There’s an octagenarian that needs a pedicure in order to go to the hospital.
There was a marathon that ran through our neighborhood a few Sundays ago. We canceled Liturgy in order to stand on the street and hand out bacon.
We’re excited because we believe that God can use us in a way that is meaningful in our time and place.
When evangelicals (or anyone else for that matter) does something frustrating that shows up in my Facebook feed, it bugs me. But the truth is that I don’t read all the blog posts or get too worked up about it.
Because it’s a lot more fun to stand out on the street and hand out bacon.
To you who died on a hill last week, I’m sorry. Ugly things have happened and people have gotten hurt.
There’s a lot more to evangelicalism than what happened last week. There’s a lot more to the kingdom of God than evangelicalism. But I don’t think we’ll ever find it in what other people are affirming or not affirming.
We’ll find the kingdom of God when we follow the Holy Spirit into the world. We’ll find it when we listen to God to find out how to join what he’s doing in our time and place.
When you’re ready, I hope you help us hand out bacon.
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