Our changing worldview

Recently I was listening to Steve Moore talk about ‘reset moments’.  What he meant by those is those times in life when the world around you is changing to a new paradigm. Now he was speaking primarily from the viewpoint of the changing face of world mission, but his line of thought comes from the fact that our whole worldview is being challenged right now:

The stability of the US as a world power is not sure anymore – they’re being replaced by the developing world as they spiral into the inevitable decay that comes from too much self-focus.  Fear rides our emotions as we grapple with what a Chinese led economy might look like (one that takes sovereign responsibility seriously and that lets sovereign interests make decisions ahead of individual interests).  Millions of foreclosed Americans are realizing that the American dream is someone’s else’s plot to greedily take their cash, not a path to material well-being.

The value of the dollar is not sure anymore – our Canadian currency is up and down wildly, and whether we’ll need our dollars or Euros or gold for future purchases is being openly debated.  The trust we used to have in MBA’s and Harvard grads is hugely eroded by the errors, miscalculations and blatant untruths witnessed almost weekly on the stock market.

The value of education is not sure anymore – the wide availability of information means you can find differing opinions from your professor’s (or your textbook’s) straight away.  That makes you question the validity of what’s being taught.  And with the rapid changes in technology the reality is that most of what you’re taught is replaced with new information before you even get your degree.  With an uncertain economic picture, university degrees are no longer a sure ticket to peace of mind from a vocational or financial stewardship perspective.

The same is even true of the church.  The movement is toward ‘house chuch’, no church or mega-church.  It’s away from denominational historic churches.  Likewise the role of how mission is carried forward – from full time career international workers funded by others to short and mid-termers who will largely self-fund and seek the experience of mission as well as the spiritual impact.  "Where should we worship?" is being replaced by "How should we worship?" which is being replaced by "Why should we worship?".

This is not change as our parents experienced it.  They went from ‘the old way of doing things’ to ‘the new way of doing the same things’ – a change in method only, and they felt it was scary enough.  We’re experiencing change in purpose as well as change in method.   And the Scripture is full of warnings of not only change in purpose, but change in environment - dramatic, life-altering change. 

Steve said something I think bears repeating as we consider these changes.  He said, “Reset moments play out under the umbrella of God’s sovereignty…. They call for a both AND theology – yes it is crazy, yes God is in control, both of them are true.  This is especially important for leaders to understand because in a reset moment all the data points a leader is analyzing will tell you that everything is spinning out of control.  And all the natural instincts that rise up inside of you as a leader will cause you to believe “I have to do something, I have to make something happen”. And it is in that moment that leaders have to push back, take a deep breath and remind yourself that the Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all, including this reset moment.”    Amen.  

http://themissionexchange.org/reset/video.php

More than we can ask or imagine...

I wonder what you think when you hear the word ‘revival’.  To me, the word brings to mind an euphoric sense of wonder, but it’s couched in a number of complex layers – not least of which is a certain level of disbelief that I could be involved in an revival, let alone be an instrument of one.  To be sure, a revival is firstly an act of God and not anything we do per se.  Yet we do have a part, for it is also something that is borne out of deep and sustained prayer – God most very rarely does anything apart from prayer (someone may say He NEVER works apart from people praying, but as I recall He created the world without us).   

Even so, the blunt fact is that many churches and many people pray for revival and yet see little if anything in response.  What’s missing?   Is it that God doesn’t want His people to be revived?  Of course not.  Christ came that we might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).  Further, the Lord says in His Scripture that He desires all to come to faith (2Pet 3:9).  So it’s not that the Lord is unwilling to act – what then?  Could it be that once you have all the pieces for revival in place you yet need a catalyst?  If God is willing and we’re praying, are we missing faith?  No you say – that can’t be it because we have faith.   But how much?  Jesus said if we have faith like a mustard seed we could move mountains.   I haven’t seen any mountains moving literally, and metaphorically I’ve seen very few moved recently.   Is it possible that we are so short of faith?

Fortunately, the Lord allows that we can grow our faith.  Like exercising muscles grows muscles, stepping out in faith grows faith.  The challenge in our Western and consumerist society then is to step out in faith.  Well, that sounds easy.  So does exercise.  Just try to do it of and by yourself though, and you find that maintaining it long enough to make a noticeable difference is really tough.  Far easier to have a personal coach to come alongside you for a time.  At least till exercise (and proper nutrition) becomes a lasting behavior – an unbreakable habit, and at least till we see noticeable improvement.  But to do that you’ll need to stop gorging yourself, and start listening to your personal coach.  Even though they’re telling you to do things you might think are too hard for you.  Even though the final goal seems hopelessly far away.  If you do that – if you listen to your coach – you find that in a surprisingly short time you’re on your way to lasting fitness.

In my new role as a Seamless Link Advisor I’m a coach like that, except not a personal coach for a person’s physical betterment but a faith coach for a church’s corporate betterment.  I come alongside a church and encourage/foster and build faith by creating a lasting relationship with the church to do something that’s very difficult to do by themselves, with a goal that’s flat out impossible in their present state. 

Instead of weights and exercise machines to work muscles we’ll use involvement with an international worker to stretch faith.  Instead of a fit physique as a goal we’ll look toward reaching a lost people group.  Instead of leaving food on the plate we’ll put financial resources to work in the mission field.  Over the course of a mission term we’ll find that the churches’ faith has grown.  And, almost as an added bonus, the international worker’s ministry has grown.  The body of Christ, working together – and suddenly revival in our church and spiritual awakening among a lost people are not pipe dreams, but reality.  Praise God!   

Such a wonderful process – such a wonderful result.  What stops you from trying? Doesn't He say He is able to do more than we ask or imagine (Eph 3:20)?  Doesn't He say He'll do what we ask if we ask Him in His Name (according to His will)?  John 14:14.  Do we actually have enough faith to ask Him?

A Difficult Negotiation

So this coming week we get to see just how the markets react to the news that Standard and Poor (now there’s an ironic name!) have reduced the USA’s credit rating. I pay attention to such matters because the spillover and tie-in with the Euro-crisis mean we Canadians cannot escape unscathed.  S&P lowered the rating as a result of the hoo-hum conclusion to Obama’s negotiations with the GOP over the debt ceiling.   Now at this point most are more concerned with how the world reacts to Obama’s solution as it is offered and so the focus is on that. Yet what is coming is clearly seen in what just happened. 

For if you watched any of those negotiations or read the news at all regarding it you know they (the negotiations) went right to the final wire, and only then resulted in what I would call a big band-aid instead of a solution.   The whole spectacle was akin to watching WWF characters parade around insulting each other before a match, and then making much noise and drama while ‘fighting’ to a pre-determined and premeditated conclusion. 

Such conduct is most unbecoming outside of a sporting event for the temporarily immature.  Worse, there are a few things that make such behavior stand out even more.  For starters, everyone was aware going into it that a real solution is mandated, and failure would result in major economic issues worldwide.  Also, we would expect that given such enormously high stakes mature and professional people ought to take pains to be calm and level-headed.  And that the very top people in the country ought to be mature and professional (at least in these kinds of situations).  Instead we were treated to a very political and highly damaging game of brinkmanship.

The childishness of the ordeal and the minimalist conclusion (which is not a true conclusion, for it does nothing to ‘solve’ the debt – it merely puts off the debt time bomb for another president to deal with) speak very loudly of the root cause of Western society’s present grief.  Selfishness.  

It is dogmatic individualism that insists that “my” side ‘wins’ in the debt debate, for at the end of the day the whole of society will suffer for it.  It is a ‘me first’ mindset that demands that everything be cut EXCEPT what I personally benefit from.  It is flat out full-tilt and in-your-face selfishness that insists that a real and tangible reduction in standard of living not affect the rich in a profound way. 

I think we all understand that such an outcome is not pleasant for the rich, but neither is even more hardship for the poor.  Surely that’s not news to anyone, and what is coming should not be news to anyone either.  But it will be reported as news.  Shocking and disturbing news. 

There are just not that many ways to solve a crisis of selfishness. Actually there is only one way that I’m aware of, and that is a humbling experience.  The choice is to do it yourself or to have it done to you by someone else, with the latter being much more painful and humiliating.  In light of refusal to decisively deal with the issue in what surely would have been a difficult negotiation, a series of most difficult negotiations are now coming down the pipe.  Unfortunately, to humble ourselves or to be humbled is only the least of them.