Repentence is for believers

Its hard to pick one thing to write about so I will try to make all the things I want to say fit together somehow. Todya at church, Josh talked about repentence. One thing that really stood out to me was his comment that repentence is for believers...PLease thing about this and email me or leave a comment if you want to talk about it. This morning was sooo good for me. Church was very meaningful for some reason and all of a sudden, everything was just as it should be. I experienced church/God.
It all started a few days ago.... because I am unsure of my audience at this point, I want to be general in this blog...Anyway, a few days ago, one of my new KC friends made a comment that really convicted me of some things. LIke I said, no details necessary, but even though it was not his intent to make me feel bad or change me, His example called me to repentence. On a similar note, I also was able to lead by example with another friend. so what did I learn or how has this changed me. Does this mean that I am cured of all impure thoughts, or temptation to talk bad about people?....Heck no. It probably means that the temptation will be greater and I will probably catch myself falling into the tempation or justifying things at times. Or will my friend that I have helped be cured forever of what he struggles with....No, not at all. Does this mean that he or I need to sit in a puddle of guilt because we have not been changed or because we are human and we struggle with things? By no means....I thank God that my friend cares enough about me, a member of his community, to stand up to me and call me to a higher standard. I also thank God that I am open to the gentle rebuke or at times the swift kick in the you know what.
I find that one of the biggest disservices the church did to me and many other young church goers is the sense of guilt that we have attached to the conversion experience and repentence. Some people are more prone to guilt than others I am sure, but I watched a documentary last week and one of the saddest things that I saw was a group of children crying at a church camp. the speaker had an alter call after an intense childrens sermon and the children all wanted to recommit their lives and cry, and from experience I know that many of them were experienceing a false sense of guilt. I cannot remember how many times I experienced paralyzing guilt trips as a child and even now.
There is so much more to be said on these things but for now this is it. so now I challenge you to be sensitive to your community and to God. Look for the areas where we can learn from each other and instead of feeling guilty and not good enough, lets figure out how to help each other and look for help from others when we need it.

"I am wrong and of these things, I repent"
~Derek Webb

What have we done?

Disclaimer: I have not put much thought into this topic yet. I want to read more and discuss more.

Last night i was sitting with Montague and we were discussing many things, as is many times the case with Montague. We were talking about a paper he has to write for his module and he brought up this topic. He talked about the social justice trend. (This was not the first time I have been exposed to this conversation, Brennan also shed light on this possibility before I came to KC) Anyway, I think many christians our age, especially those recieving theological education, especially from Olivet, are attempting to "break the mold" and become a "new kind of Christian". all this talk of the emergent church and community as our buzz word and especially social justice is really hot right now. GREAT. I do think it is important and I also have bought into this trend and mindset, but I have been holding back a little to be honest. Im scared that it is a trend. Im scared that if I sell all I have to the poor, I will find out that maybe I was wrong or missed the point somehow.
BUt back to the real issue. Montague said something that I had never thought of before. first of all, Christians that are on fire for social justice many times have the mindset that social justice in itself is Christianity. What we all have to consider is the fact that even the "secular world" is starting to notice the poor. Therefore there must be something more to Christianity than social justice. (I dont think I made that point very well and would love for montague or someone to comment and say it better.)
second, are we not somehow redefining holiness in our attempt to rebel against what mom and pop said holiness was? (read that again). OK let me try to elaborate. Back in the day, mainly I am speaking about the time when the Nazarene manual was published, the founders of our denomination looked at the social scene of the day and also at the group of people that they wanted to share the kingdom of God with and they defined holiness by what now seems like a do's and dont's list in order to make church a safe place for her members. This meant that the members decided they would not drink alcohol. They had seen the vicous cycle of alcoholism in themselves and their brothers and sisters and decided that by not taking part they were being strong for those that at times were weak and by not buying into the alcohol industry, they were keeping their money from supporting more alcoholism. this also meant that they stayed away from bars and other social scenes. (Some now argue that we need to be among all types of people and we need to go where they are, whcih may not be wrong to think, but lets not roll our eyes at our founders.) There are other examples such as dancing, but all pretty much have the same story. They looked at their convictions and made life decisions.

So what about us, how does this affect what we are doing today. Many young Nazarenes have turned their backs on some of the legalistic rules set forth by our forfathers. We can be found in bars and clubs and even.....movie theatres. To this I say...OK I get it, lets not follow rules for the sake of following rules. If someone has a drinking problem or struggles because of movies then I say lets be strong for our brother. I pray that nothing but Jesus has control over our lives, and we need to be accoutable to each other to strive for that goal, but if Im honest, thats not what our generation cares about. To us, like I said before, it is just a bunch of rules that we long to rebel against. so how are we going about this rebellion?' We look around the world, and we see what many other people see and that is hurtig and dying people. Eventually we ask the questions and we realize that we might beable to help. Maybe somehow we are the oppressors. Middle class america can do something, we think. So first of all, we make it a christian cause, and then we start building the structure. This is what it might look like to stop oppression. We buy fair trade, we dont dare shop at Walmart, we look for ways to "screw the man" and for heavens sake we do not buy corporate anything (namely starbucks). I applaud all efforts to stop oppression. I love every individual who makes the decision to live simply, and I think there is a reason that this is our cause, but we have to make sure that we realize that not everyone will experience God in this way. social justice is necessary for us to enter into crucifixion, and to help lead others into ressurection (Thank you Montague), but lets not get too carried away. Lets not rewrite the manual to say, thou shall not shop at walmart. Lets stay in converstaion with one another and do our part to live as Jesus without mandating what the christian life must look like.

I hope I articulated this somewhat well. and I hope its not something that everyone who reads this has already wrestled with and I am just the last person to think about it, but please respond if you have thoughts on this.