Religion's Demise & the Victory of Jesus: How I Know He Lives

You ask me how I know Jesus lives?

Well, it’s not because some kid nearly died and claims he saw grandpa and the kid’s stillborn sister.  And it’s certainly not because some popular TV preacher says a lunar calendar’s normalcy for an event that happens every few hundred years is somehow prophetic.  Or even because some people find significance (or opposition) in political leaders who take advantage of the gullible and betray a nation’s history and purpose.

Those examples of syllogistic thinking just reveal how desperately mankind clings to hope & change…as well as how biblically illiterate and undiscerning people are, especially many who sit in pews of all stripes & colors.

Nor is it because the haters have managed to produce anti-Christian films that sell at the box office by stirring up controversy, playing to Protestantism’s biggest weakness (mindless protest).  We were played, and it’s downright embarrassing how often we keep falling for such overt hucksterism.

No, such examples simply reveal how ignorant of  truth we are and how much we want to have something to believe in, even if it means fighting in support of the enemy of our soul without even realizing it…at the expense of the very community and people we claim to love and opposing the very spirit of unity our Lord prayed we would embrace.

Further, these inadequacies only reveal that the problem IS religion – mankind’s attempts to appease (and please) God.

Sadly, most of what our world sees today isn’t Jesus, it’s religion.  Ridiculous, ill-informed, misguided, lame beliefs passed on to unsuspecting and undiscerning patrons who shove it off on others without thinking about the consequences.  Religion isn’t the opiate of the masses (that’s an understatement); it’s death and depravity disguised in altruistic form.  It’s deception at its most heinous: Pretending to be that which we are not in the hopes we can convince ourselves we’re not as bad as we really are.

And when we act religiously rather than Jesus-ly, no wonder the world rejects our message (after all, Jesus came to OPPOSE the very system our human nature likes to perpetuate).

In Jesus’ life and ministry, I see firsthand somebody who understood this full well…somebody who saw the depravity of man and the nature of God and exposed both for who they really are.  And the world has never been the same since.

Civilization has seen many “good men” and great prophets and leaders with noble intentions, but none that comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable like Jesus did.  Not only did he unconditionally love the lowliest of lowly, defend the innocents, embrace the outcasts and misfits, and redeem those society said could never be; He questioned those in powerful positions, challenged their authority and misaligned beliefs, and overthrew their petty systems of self-reinforcement.

He did not establish a Church and neither did Peter or Paul.  Jesus founded a way of life, a living relationship that transcends and transforms.

And in His very death He played the ultimate April Fool’s joke on the biggest sucker of all: His critics and enemies believed they’d finally silenced Him while in the midst of their celebration He was providing for our salvation and toppling their authority because even death could not hold Him.

I know I serve a risen Savior who’s in the world today because I’ve seen two things:

1. I’ve seen God at work in the big and the small things of life: Things science still cannot begin to explain (or which science finally confirms that God has said all along), irrational beliefs that bear out and make sense only in light of an otherworldly existence, the creative potential of innovation that bears the stamp of a genius designer, and selfless redemptive actions that even altruism can’t account for.
2. And I’ve seen the alternative.  I’ve seen the hopelessness and depravity of man and know firsthand the reality of evil – and know full well that man (or woman) at their very best can’t even begin to fix the mess no matter how much we try to brag otherwise.  I’ve seen the worst we can dish out and know it only echoes what the Bible already says is the problem, and I’ve seen the best we can do and know it falls dismally short, affirming yet again what God already told us was true.

Religion has had its day for thousands of years, and you’d think mankind would get a clue sooner or later that it simply doesn’t work.  You can’t fix stupid, and that’s all it does.  It perpetuates systems of control which keep us from experiencing what’s actually real (and yes, it IS a “matrix” of sorts).

But Jesus?  That’s another story!

Jesus has been consistently changing the story of humanity, re-framing the rigidity of religion, changing people from the inside out, and empowering people to redemptively transform society ever since.  And I see firsthand the impact when He speaks and I listen…I love the opportunity to participate with Him in doing the very things He lived to do and died to enable.

And I, for one, am very glad He’s alive and well and living in our world today in the hearts of genuine believers.  There are lots of religious pretenders, but the people who actually know Jesus personally and live out His mission in the world around them are a much smaller lot...and they’re out to change the world.

Communication that changes lives (& gets great leaders killed)

I was taught (up through about 7th grade) that bias and subjectivity were to be avoided: All "good" journalism (and often writing itself) is "bias-free," we were told, and I remember even being graded down if I let subjectivity color my writing (unless it were a "creative writing" project, but that of course, was "play").  In other words, we learned to be rational expositors of knowledge that was "pure" and scientific (where was Polanyi in all this?).  But what we got was communication that was devoid of influence, and the people who's speeches changed the world (MLK, Roosevelt, Hitler, etc.) didn't fall for it...or at least ignored it when they were trying to call for transformative change.

As an example, Peter did this in his first sermon (Acts 2): He unpacked the significance of Pentecost using the signs/metaphors/codes his hearers knew well, but gave it new significance - i.e., re-framing.  His sermonic story journey begins with re-framing their misperception of drunkenness by explaining (& justifying) it as prophetic utterance (something they knew from their cultural religious codes).  Then he draws yet another connection to King David (again, a religious and cultural code of his audience), and more specifically, to their messianic hope (a sub-code), making the point via re-framing that the day of their hoped-for destiny had arrived.   Even with his use of strong accusatory verbage (essentially, "You just killed the Messiah you've been waiting for"), they got the message loud and clear.

RESULT: The audience begged, "what shall we do?" and 3,000 people got saved. 

Here in America we are so wrapped up in ordered rational modernist thinking and half-baked rhetorics (with just enough philosophy and quasi-structuralist thinking thrown in to make us sick) that we seldom distill the codes as they meant to the audience to whom they were first delivered; instead, we rush to "exegete" them (an important teaching function, but not a communication one). Ironically, I've even heard preachers and Bible college prof's suggest that Peter may have misquoted or distorted the OT!

Nor do we (preachers as a whole) very often communicate in the codes of our day like like the great rhetoricians of the past did - for example, check out the full text of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech - note the metaphoric language of promissory notes America had defaulted on, blank checks marked NSF, whirlwinds of revolt, the "summer of [the Negro's legitimate] discontent, etc.  He's basically doing the same thing as Peter did at Pentecost and Paul did on Mars Hill, doing a masterful job of connecting the biblical imagery and metaphors our culture knew well then with the "signs of the times" they were seeing in the early 60's.  And not only did it change the world, but it was a threat to the establishment, too.

What's really come alive for me in the last few months through my D.Min and exposure to several writers in the field of semiotics and narratology is the impact of the first part above...that to connect to today's culture, we have to understand the codes that were at play with the original audience.  I think we neuter our words when we skip that vital step, and then we wonder why they're not pregnant with meaning.  Peter knew exactly what he was doing; he was re-framing their codes & interpreting the events they were observing firsthand in a way that gave the words of Scripture immediate relevance and meaning.  The Word of God came alive for them!

Misconceptions About Church Communication

A Perceptive post on church communication by Len Wilson. Apparently it's been up for awhile, but I wasn't following him when it first went live, and thankfully he just retweeted it today:

A Massive Misconception About Church Communication
http://lenwilson.us/a-massive-misconception-about-church-communication/

Great insight on the predominant protestant misunderstanding that church communication as merely a marketing tool to share information (and I, too, secretly admire those Church Marketing S@cks folks):

          "I am very much for using church communication to strategically shape a church’s story
           and create a covenantal community."

That's the right reason! It has a marketing and informational component, but that's not the purpose...story and community is. Bingo!

Love the quote from Mike Slaughter in response to the debate about whether a church should be “missional” or “attractional” (a false dichotomy - it's both/and: "The gospel is offensive. We’re just making sure you know you’ve been offended.”

Superbowl & Worship

Intriguing article on the Superbowl & Worship: http://www.ransom.tv/article/the-super-bowl-worship

Leonard Sweet says the Superbowl is required reading for semioticians, and I'd have to agree...it is loaded with semiotic meaning and clear indicators of cultural trends, and even if you could care less about the sports teams, the commercials and the halftime entertainment are cultural statements in their own right.

First paragraph:

We were born to worship. That’s why Americans invented the Super Bowl. Our national religion is not Catholic or Protestant, it is sports. Last year just over 111 million Americans watched the Super Bowl—that’s roughly the same number of people who go to church each week in the United States. Advertisers pay almost four million dollars for a 30-second commercial during the game, because they know we are paying attention during those three hours. ...

Semiotic awareness & the fast food "script"

A few months ago I had an experience at McDonald's that helped me see firsthand the impact of semiotic awareness on our outreach effectiveness.  Semiotic awareness is the ability to recognize the signs and feedback of the recipient and environment around you (in the outreach context, of the person you're talking to and the environment in which it's occurring) so that you can be more effective at what Leonard Sweet calls "nudging" instead of just coming across as "pushy," which oftentimes can close doors to receptivity swiftly.

Here's how that conversation went:

McD: "Welcome to McDonald's.  Order when you're ready."
me: "Ok, give me just a minute"
McD: (5 seconds later) "Order when you're ready."
me: "Ok, I will - I need a moment to decide."  [note: no one else in line behind me]
McD: (10 seconds later) "You can order when you're ready."  [I ignored this one - still no one in line behind me]
me: (about a minute later) "OK, I'd like a Double Quarterpounder with Cheese - just the sandwich, and that will do it."
McD: "Did you want the meal with fries & a drink?"
me: "No, just the sandwich - I have a drink already."
McD: "Would you like fries with that?"
me: "No, just the sandwich.  That will do it - that's all I need."
McD: "Would you like anything else with that?"
me:  (now irritated) "No, that will do it."

Is it just me, or are some people in marketing and retail professions so wrapped up in their "script" that they are tuned out to obvious feedback from the customer and everything else going on around them?  Lest we be too hard on McDonald's, I should also point out that I had a nearly identical exchange at Wendy's just this last week.  I'm not sure I understand the point of saying, "Order when you're ready" if the person taking the order doesn't really mean that, or up-selling if the prospective buyer has already indicated they're not interested.  Yet it happens all the time in evangelism.
I love the way my colleague & fellow D.Min cohort member Rick McKinney re-worded this exchange, showcasing its relevance to a common outreach encounter:

Church Member: Welcome to First Church! Let me know when you're ready for Jesus.
Seeker: I'd like to get to know Him a little better first.
Church Member: Just let me know when you're ready for Jesus.
Seeker: Could you tell me a little more about Him?
Church Member: It's all right there in the Bible (Menu).
Seeker: I think I've been noticing Him showing up in my life from time to time. Do you think that's possible?
Church Member: Probably not. He lives here and pretty much nowhere else. Just let me know when you're ready for Jesus.
Seeker: Can I get just Jesus, or do I have to take the whole church thing?
Church Member: No, I'm sorry there are NO substitutions. Jesus comes with a side of baptism, communion, tithing and Sunday School. Take it or leave it.
Seeker: I guess I'll leave it for now. Thanks anyway.

How much different might this exchange have gone if the Church Member had been sensitive to how the Lord was working in this Seeker's life and picked up on the invitation for meaningful dialogue regarding how (s)he sensed maybe Jesus had start showing up in his life lately?  It seems to me that we in the Church are also too comfortable with our scripts and struggle with deviating from the comfortable & familiar, even when the needs of the person we're talking to warrant it and the cues should be obvious.  I grieve when unchurched folks get the message that Jesus isn't concerned with their problems (or is too consumed with other things to reach them at their point of need), all because it's conveyed by well-meaning but scripted communicators.

May we learn from these script-driven exchanges and embrace the semiotic awareness that is needed to nudge those who need Jesus just a bit closer to faith instead of turning them away.

Scaring Off First-Time Visitors?

Great article from Thom Rainer which highlights several vital "first impressions" areas that can unintentionally scare off first-time visitors:

5 Things the Unchurched See When They Come to Your Church
By Thom Rainer • Outreach Magazine 09/06/2012
http://www.outreachmagazine.com/features/4924-thom-rainer-what-the-unchurched-see-when-they-come-to-your-church.html?p=1

Ironically, these are not typically the areas most pastors and ministry leaders think to check; after all, we tend to be understandably focused on the first impressions of the worship service, the announcements, the message & the visuals, & how people will receive these vital ministry connections.

Having visited some 400+ churches myself as well as spending alot of time helping unchurched people make church connections, I would heartily affirm Rainer's findings.  These 5 things aren't the main reason we do church ministry and they're certainly not the most important aspects, but nevertheless they do have a lasting influence on those who visit.

About This Blog

This blog is about the semiotics of church communication…in other words, the way that we (the Church) communicate our message publicly and how well we do so.

I’m interested in how well we “read” our culture & society’s trends, what methods we use to communicate the message of Jesus to our culture, how we use signs & symbols to engage our culture, and how relevant & useful our metaphors & narratives are.

This blog will explore our successes and failures at communication. When I see outstanding examples of relevant & meaningful communication that inspires, I want to share that. When I encounter misleading & confusing church communication that confounds, I want to explain how to do it better. And when I find hilarious (& sometimes embarrassing) “here’s your sign” moments in our church communication, I want to get a good laugh from it but also learn from it. If you’ve been around the Church as long as I have, you know that we likely have enough fodder to keep me posting ’til Jesus returns.