A two way street?

Sometimes we think if the pastor gets it right, then results will follow. I challenge that assumption by noting that Protestant churches now have some of the best trained leaders we've ever known.

We hear too much talk about leadership and not enough about following. Congregations that do great work have strong followers. People work out of their own deep faith and commitment to the church they love, not necessarily because their leaders have some special skill or knowledge.

Thomas Russell, The Christian Century, December 28, 2010

Porn..

The Atlantic Magazine reports that the US produces 89 percent of porn websites in the world today. I realize this is a free country and that porn is a multi-billion industry. But sometimes the voice of the church is all too silent on matters such as this.

The issue crosses many theological boundaries and related topics. Theologically conservative ministers now bemoan the high rates of porn use, adultery, alcoholism, drug abuse, and divorce among their members, no different from the larger society. As if all the church teaches has a minimal impact on people's lives, if any.

Would this make you happy?

Philosopher Robert Nozick poses this question. Suppose you could attach your body for the remainder of your life to an "experience" machine. Floating in a tank of fluid, connected by electrodes to an incredibly advanced computer, you would spend the rest of your days fully realizing your greatest personal dreams.

You could win the Pulitzer Prize, the Super Bowl, the Indy 500, invent a cure for cancer, travel in outer space. Any dream you wish comes true. These experiences would not be true in reality, but they would be utterly indistinguishable to you from reality.

Given this choice, would you plug yourself in, thus ensuring the perpetual satisfaction of all your most cherished desires?

For those who opt out, see the post below for what makes most people happy, at least in America.

What really makes us happy...

Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University, has just published a new book about happiness, and how public policy might be shaped to improve the level of happiness among US citizens. One of his findings is that people are poor judges of what will make them happy.

His findings confirm other studies in which key elements of happiness include lasting marriages, contributing to charities, engaging in community service, maintaining friendships, and participation in organized religion. Bok believes that happy people tend to be morally good people, at least by standards of mainstream American ethics.

So here's where we can all evangelize. Come to church, be a generous soul, help others, and Nirvana awaits! I'm not joking.

Life in the US of A...

In his book, We Have Met the Enemy: Self Control in an Age of Excess, author Daniel Akst writes,"American life resembles a giant all-you-can-eat buffet offering calories, credit, sex, intoxicants, and other invitations to excess. Americans accept these invitations so promiscuously that bad decisions about smoking, eating, drinking, and other behaviors account for almost half of deaths in the US. We are losing the war with ourselves."

Where is the church's voice in all this?

Hope for 2011?

During the past year, I worked with congregations that made me wish I lived closer and could be part of it all. With other congregations, I resisted mightily the temptation to tell them to just close the doors and go home, there was so little of value there.

Theologian Miroslav Volf often writes that churches fail at their central task because they do not define a way of life that is worth living. My less hopeful side suggests that the prevailing consumer culture overpowers the church's message of prayer, forgiveness, and redemption.

During 2011, I'm hoping readers will provide examples of churches that do, indeed, define a way of life that goes beyond acquiring consumer goods; a way of life that transcends our individual interests, whims, and preferences.

The purpose of worship..

A friend of mine is a sixty-something, lapsed Presbyterian who is quite cynical about the church. She attended a service at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, a rock and roll church that is one of the fastest-growing in America. I expected her to scoff at the experience.

Instead, she cried. She said, "That service led people to their pain very effectively, and having done so, led them out of that pain and gave them hope for the week ahead."

Episcopal priest Philip Weihe once wrote, "Anyone who has had an experience of the presence of God during a worship event is forever marked by that experience and will try to recreate that moment."