Tag Archive for 'Orthopraxy'

Some more ways to be nice…

Published
by
Todd
on Tuesday, September 4, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 4 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about being nice. Over the weekend, I came up with some additional ways for kindness to be a ministry.

Shopping Cart1. Putting your shopping cart in the shopping cart stall before driving off. There are few things that are more annoying to me than pulling up to a parking spot at my local grocer only to discover that a shopping cart has been left in the spot, making parking difficult. Even if the abandoned cart doesn’t affect my park, it still bothers me to see them left there.

I don’t have any scientific evidence, but I can assume, based on the frequency of seeing the unstalled carts, that Christians are just as guilty of this behavior. Look, I know, going grocery shopping can be stressful and maybe even exhausting. But how big of a deal is to walk 30 feet and deposit your cart? If you’re wearing a Christian t-shirt or have a Jesus fish on your car and you leave a cart, you may as well deny Jesus right then and there for the poor parking lot attendants.

Movie Trash2. Throwing away your trash at the end of your movie. Yesterday, at Stardust, a couple in front of us left their trash (which contained brought-in food in the form of a Sprite can and foreign candy) in the floor, causing some people on their row to trip on their way out. I know, I know, there are people who are “paid to clean up the theaters,” but I don’t think that gives us the privilege to leave our movie-viewing area a wreck. I think we should carry our gallon Coke containers and lampshade-sized buckets of popcorn to the trashcans ourselves and let the cleaner-uppers sweepvac up our popcorn remnants and dropped Nerds.

Hostess3. Don’t annoy the hostesses at the restaurant. This area is perhaps more personal than the first two — I used to be a host, so I know what this is like. It’s a busy night, you’ve got as many people on the wait list as you do in your dining area. As you’re frantically trying to balance the call-in orders, clearing the tables and updating your pager list, there are few things as frustrating as someone walking up to your desk and saying, “I see two tables open, why can’t we sit there?” Or, as you’re taking a person to a table and they say, “Oh, can we have a booth instead,” usually in a fakely sweet voice with a slightly embarrassed, but not really, smile. But worst of all is when someone gets frustrated or annoyed with you, the lowly host, because of a long wait, poor service or a perceived seating discrepancy.

Hosts get paid slightly above minimum wage, don’t run the kitchen and are more than likely in high school or not far removed. What good does it do to get angry or annoyed with them? What good does it do to “press your case” for a quicker or better table? None, none at all. So stop. Particularly stop when you’re wearing a shirt that says “To know Jesus and to make Him known.”

So, do you have any Labor Day weekend or recent experiences that fuel some “nice” ministry ideas? Share them here!
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The “nice” ministry

Published
by
Todd
on Tuesday, August 7, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 7 Comments

Be polite!It is appalling to me the number of Christians who are rude. I run across these Christians on a daily basis – they cut me off in traffic, they are impolite to check out clerks at Dillon’s and they craft hateful blog posts. But I know they’re Christians because they have Jesus fish on their cars, wear Christian t-shirts and boldly proclaim their devotion to God in their “about me” sections.

I think before we have any lessons about doctrine, evangelism or ecclesiology, we should begin with the basics of manners.

Because Christians should be nice.

It is incredible the impact that a smile or kind word have on a people .

I worked in the food service industry for a couple of years (let me make a quick shout-out to my peeps at Applebee’s - WOW Them!), and I can’t tell you how awful it was to serve the Christians. They would come in on Sunday afternoon in groups of about 20, dressed in their Sunday best (so we knew they were Christians) and were the most demanding, inconsiderate and unsympathetic groups we were forced to deal with. And, perhaps worst of all, they were the worst tippers – sometimes leaving a one dollar bill and fake 20 dollar bill that, when fully opened, shared the saving message of Jesus. I know of not one server who ever committed their lives to Jesus after receiving this evangelistic tool (I could make a joke about the individual who left the fake money being an evangelistic tool, but I will refrain. This is, after all, a post about being nice.).

I love that Romans 2:4 tells us that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance, not His righteous judgment or condemnation. His kindness. His kindness.

So, let’s be like God. Let’s stop being jerks. Let’s start being the best tippers, the most polite drivers and friendliest grocery store patrons. I think we would be amazed by the results.

EDIT: If you visited the link with the posters, I hope you were appalled. These are created by a Christian blog and supported by our friend Ken Silva and his readers. The fact that they mock very real and very valid concepts AND make hateful implications about the people pictured shows just how badly Christians can screw up this kindness thing. Here’s an example of someone getting it right. She didn’t respond with anger (as I confess I was about to do when I first came across them), she responded with kindness and meekness.

Binding and Loosing…

Published
by
Todd
on Wednesday, March 22, 2006
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

In Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis, he mentions the concept of binding and loosing from Matthew 16:17-19. I’ve never really thought about this idea before, never really knowing what it meant. Bell proposes an interesting explanation for binding and loosing.

He says that the disciples are given the liberty and the responsibility to interpret and explain the teaching of Jesus. I’m still working this out, but the implications of this are pretty incredible.

First of all, the liberty aspect. For a long, long time interpretation of scripture has been anything but liberating. It has been dogmatic, uniform and resistant to questioning and change. Imagine the possibilities for growth and open mindedness when we’re open to new ways of reading God’s words! Our eyes, hearts and minds could be opened to radically new truths about who God is and His will for our lives! His words could be new every morning and the lamp unto our feet could receive a brighter bulb.

However, as the great poet Stan Lee once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” We can’t be careless in our new reading of the scriptures. We can’t add to God’s words. God still speaks, God may have spoken in other mediums than the Bible, but any words, written or spoken, contrary to the words in the Bible lack credibility and authority.

We must be responsible in our binding and loosing. Jesus has given us incredible authority to communicate His truths. We don’t create truth or reality, but we certainly have a hand in shaping it. We can’t be flippant or careless with this responsibility.

Orthodoxy vs. Orthopraxy

Published
by
Todd
on Monday, February 20, 2006
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I picked up a new book this weekend by Brian McLaren (pictured above) titled A Generous Orthodoxy. I’m not sure what I think about it yet, but I’m intrigued by what I’ve read so far. Specifically, the part that talks about correct orthodoxy (knowing what’s right or true) leading to correct orthopraxy (doing what’s right or true).

For too long I believe churches have been focused on having correct doxy with not enough emphasis on praxy. Scott Waltman, our education minister, addressed this on Sunday. He estimates that he’s spent 10,000 hours learning about the Bible. 10,000 hours. Imagine what could be done if Christians spent 10,000 living like Christ?

Our church building is a perfect example of a -doxy emphasis. We have dozens of classrooms. Our church is built like a school!

I don’t want to downplay the importance of studying and knowing the Bible. Feasting upon the word of God is essential for anyone who wants to be a committed follower of Christ. But until we start doing what the Bible is teaching, what’s the point?

Our church is starting something I’m very excited about. On Wednesday nights, a night that has typically been spent as another hour of study, we’re focusing on service. There will be no class (aside from a 4-week class that shares service opportunities) and every member who shows up will be put to work.

If we as Christians can focus less on knowing and studying and more on believing and living the church will never be the same. And I think that’s a good thing.

Christians and Politics

Published
by
Todd
on Friday, November 11, 2005
in Politics
. 0 Comments

It seems that many Christians want to see America return to its “moral foundations.” Yet, as seemingly wonderful as a “Christian” nation would be, if it were simply a political victory that enforces rules of better behavior, it would be empty.

How often do we hear that political triumph over the enemies of godliness is the best strategy? Yet, a political solution is a merely a sidetrack. It tempts us to shift our eyes away from what must be the focus of true followers: concern for the lost and for the growth of believers in Jesus.

It’s easy to become distracted or to believe we are doing our Christian duty by marching, politicking, protesting, and supporting groups that do these things. However, it may distract us from our most important duty of glorifying God through Christlikeness and an unwavering commitment to the eternal destinies of friends and enemies alike.