Hell House

The temperature is low out side. In a small church, high school students gather early in the evening to pray and for the evening’s event. They help each other slather on stage makeup. Some are completely covering their faces with red and black and white. They look like ugly gules and ghostly skeletons. Others are just applying enough eyeliner and lip liner so that their features are sure to stick out in the dim lights of the dark church. For the next few days this church is not a church. It is a haunted house designed to scare the hell out of you, quite literally. Hell house is what it’s called; a mini amateur theatrical theme park that was dreamed up in Cedar Hill, TX more the ten years ago. The idea of it is to show the visitors, who are just looking for a good thrill, all of the horrors of this world. Then scare them into becoming a Christian. Since its incarnation, hell house has spread across the nation, from coast to coast. It even has franchises. A church in Colorado has sold over 800 of them. They include set designs, scripts, and costume designs, the whole shebang. The scenes you will experience going to Hell House may vary a little, depending on where your Hell House is, but most of them include; an abortion scene, a suicide scene, and a hell scene. A man/woman dressed as a demon guides you through the experience. At the end of the tour you ascend to what I believe is supposed to be Heaven. Once there, you are confronted with a cross and Jesus. You’re told the story of the gospel in an abbreviated version. You are asked the classic Christian evangelistic question, “ If you died tonight do you know where you would go?” This question is pointed and purposefully uncomfortable. The idea is, like I said, to coax people into making a decision to follow Christ. It seems to be effective. Most don’t want to go to hell, and if they believe they can get out of it with a prayer they will.

There is another question that needs to be asked then. If our purpose for believing in Christ is motivated by fear, can we call it faith? Certainly we can, and should, have a healthy fear or respect for God. But should that be the reason for our devotion to him? Should we feel that if we don’t serve him, we’d spend eternity suffering? Wouldn’t love be a far greater motivation to serve God and accept his Son’s way? Faith based in fear is no faith at all.

I am not questioning the motivation of the creators of Hell House. I think their reasons for producing it are pure. They don’t want to see anyone go to hell. They think that the only way to get people to surrender to Christ is to show them how wicked and lost they are. The problem is that in doing this you often inadvertently create a faith that is based in works. We are evil and going to hell. We need to accept Jesus and then show that we are changed. I have friends that have changed their lives over night because of a conversion experience. But I also have friends that have struggled with drugs, sex, and hate for years after their conversion. Their faith consequently was based on fear; a fear of going to hell.

So my final question for the makers of Hell House and any who regularly participate in it is this: The people you are converting-are you setting them free? Or are you putting them in a greater bondage? If they are not free to love as Christ they probably are not free.

What I Don't Want To Be

When I was a teenager I was part of a church that would be best described as Pentecostal / charismatic. I was heavily involved there, playing drums and singing on the youth worship team. Due to circumstances unknown to me, the youth pastors were fired by the church leadership. My family and I, upset by this seemingly random dismissal of someone whom we had become very close to, stopped attending the church. Not long after this breakup, the former youth pastor and his wife formed their own church. He stated that this was something he had always wanted to do. (I have no reason to believe this was not the case.) My parents and I began to attend this newly formed church. I quickly became as heavily involved, if not more, as I had in the previous church. I was playing drums, singing, and even leading worship from behind my newly acquired guitar skills. At the time I felt that this church was the newest and greatest thing. We were different and more progressive in our worship. God's anointing was all over us.

We started this church with a sense of martyrdom. We had been wronged and we were going to show the world how right we were. A real and tangible sense of pride quickly became our leading force. We were anointed by God to worship him "the right way", with a pure heart, in spirit and in truth. I was totally sucked into a state of self-righteousness. Going through the motions, I said and did all of the things that would ensure God's favor. However, I never read my Bible or cared much about the troubles or sufferings of any of the people around me. After all, I was God's chosen vessel to lead people into His presence with my self-exalting worship. I didn't have time or patience for others' petty problems. I had my own. I had to worry about what song would best produce the proper emotional thrill for the church. I was like a worship dealer getting high on my own dope. They all just needed to stop sinning and come to Jesus. It wasn't until I started dating my wife in my senior year of high school that I realized how off-base I had become. She saw me for what I was:

A joke!

She doesn't even realize that she set me free with her criticism. She helped me to see my pride. How it was out of control. Worship was/is bigger than me. It is bigger than all of us. No one church has ever, or will ever, have the inside fast track to God. He meets all of us where we are and loves us all the same. He doesn't care where we've been, or even where we are, just where we are going.

I still have a tendency to think of myself as special some how. But I am quickly reminded of what I don't want to be by the simple thought of what I once was.

Christian Or Free

I grew up in the church and listening to Christian radio. From both of these sources I heard a lot of the same things about our nation, and it’s founding. They would make claims that our nation's founders intended for our nation to be a Christian nation.

“We are founded on Christian principles”.

“Our nation has walked away from God”.

“We need to take America back for Jesus”.

As if God needed our help.

First off, I don't believe we are a Christian nation. I don't believe we ever were a Christian nation. Although the Bible may have been the most sighted reference in the writing of our Constitution, I would not go so far as to say that our nation is a Christian nation, or that our forefathers intended it so. We are one of two things: we are a Christian nation or we are a free nation. We cannot be both, and I think most would agree with that sentiment.

Jon Meacham said in a USA Today article, "As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America's unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom—not least freedom of conscience." This is a great statement about the core of our nation and its commitment to freedom. Our liberty is broader than one faith. You can be catholic and free. You can be Protestants and free. You can be atheist and free. I know this is not the view you would expect to hear from a professing Christian (a worship pastor at that). However I have very good reason for my views. First off although a few of our founding fathers professed Christianity, many of the church leaders of today claming this nation was founded as a Christian nation, would brand many of the founding fathers beliefs as heresy. They certainly wouldn't attribute to them the name Christian. Thomas Jefferson for example, was a Unitarian. He didn’t believe in Jesus’ divinity and rejected the idea of the trinity. Fawn M. Brodie (Jefferson’s biographer) said about his presidential campaign

“Clergymen told their parishioners that a vote for Jefferson was a vote against Christianity, and warned that if he won they would have to hide their bibles in their wells”

Jefferson also created his own version of the bible where he edited out all the parts he didn’t like. I highly doubt any of the Christian nations advocates would affirm his cut and paste job. It was also known that he hated clergy. This does not sound like a guy who would be in favor of Christianity being the state religion.

John Adams was also a Unitarian.

Benjamin Franklin was another one who questioned Jesus’ divinity. He in fact was a Deist. He believed in a god, just not a personal one.

These are all some really influential men who played a huge role in the founding of our nation. I don’t think any of them would have been in favor of a Christian state.

You see the founding fathers would probably be familiar with history and known that every nation in history that was a Christian nation was an oppressive nation. Not a free one.

So although there was a certain amount of Christian influence in the founding of our nation, our fore fathers were wise enough not to make it an established state religion.

What About Grace?

So, what about grace? What is it? What does it look like? I have often heard it said that grace is the strength to do what is right. Although I think that this is true to a degree, I don't think that definition is all encompassing. Grace can be our strength. But it is not our strength to do what is right necessarily. Instead it could just be our strength to keep trying and moving forward in spite of what we have just done wrong. You see if grace is the strength to do what is right, then God has not given any of us enough grace.  Because all of us have fallen short of perfection, and will continue to do so.  The best of us are nothing without grace.  Grace goes hand and hand with mercy and love.  We should really focus more on these 3 things, and less on the legal rights and wrongs. If we could just understand that we are forgiven, and share that forgiveness with our neighbors.  All the right and wrong stuff may work itself out.  Don't you think?  But hey, what do i know? 

B.I.B.L.E.

How important is the bible?  How was it written?  How should it be read?  

The Scriptures are our holy text.(we being Christian) They are the foundation of all we believe.  I believe they were/are inspired by God.  I do not however  believe that they were written in a vacuums or that the hands of the writers were in some way possessed by the Holy Spirit.  

The old testament writers I believe were inspired by God, but they still wrote in a way that suggests that they were writing from their limited earthly view point (i.e. the sun standing still for joshua).  We must also remember that they were writing from a particular cultural and political viewpoint as well.  To simplify the point here we can not take every word and try to cram it into today’s world.  

The new testament writers read the Scripture they had available to them, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit they were able to write truth for the new believers.  They needed to take laws from the old testament and find meaning in them.  Laws that gave specific instructions on what one could eat, how one should dress, and methods of worship.  For the new testament writers we also can not forget the relationship many of them had with Jesus wile he was physically on this earth.  Remember however there is still a limit to their understanding of the world and there cosmological views. There were also many thing that Jesus said that they may not have totally understood.

The Bible is a vital source for us today.  We need to study it endlessly.  There is a wealth of truth in it that can guide us through life and teach us how to love one another.  History shows us however that it can be misused and misunderstood by both wicked and well intentioned persons alike. Therefor when reading it we need to understand that it was written in a time and a place. It has a context.  We need to interpret it within that context.  If we do this with our hearts open to the Holy Spirit and we humble ourselves, there will be less room for error.  The scripture taken word for word will hurt more people than it saves. We should always try to err on the side of grace, and never claim to have figured it all out.  The bible should be understood in its original form and then adapted to the context of today's world just like the original church did with the scripture they had. For example there interpretation of the scripture due to an influx of non Jewish believers is why we eat ham at christmas with no guilt.(only 1 of many examples) If we see something in bible that seems harsh to us if applied to everyone, it may be that it was written for a specific situation.  Remember much of the new testament was written in letter form.  The writer did not necessarily intend it to be or expect it to become the Bible.  They weren't better than us.  They were just like us.  Trying to figure out life. 

The fact that the Bible was not written in a vacuums does not in any way mean it lacks authority.  In some ways this fact almost gives it more authority for more generations when read in context.  Its authority is just not an easy one to grasp.  It needs to be studied for a lifetime in order to completely grasp it.  Even then I doubt we would understand it fully.  The Bible is a living book.  It is a story that is continually being written and re-written.

The Boy Is Here

So monday night after house church at Chestnut Hill, my pastor and a friend from church went out for some drinks.  We ended up at my friends house talking theology and what not till 2-am.  I got home from this discussion at around 2:15.  Around 2:40 my pregnant wife wakes me up having contractions.  I say, "is this the real deal?"  She says, " you better get up and get ready to go."  So i get up in an adrenalin rush and start getting ready to go to the Birthing Center.  I call the midwife to let her know.  She says she wants us to monitor it for 30 minutes to be sure.  

Lauren is sure!

So i call the midwife back to tell her so.  Wile I'm on the phone lauren cries out from the shower, " Tell her she needs to come here."  I tell the midwife so and she asks if lauren feels like she has to bear down.  Lauren being in the middle of a contraction on her hands and knees nods her head in an emphatic yes.  Two minutes later she is yelling,

 

"the head is coming out!" 

The midwife then tells me to check to make sure the umbilical cord is not rapped around his neck.  The cord is not, so on the next contraction baby Jacob comes out in Lauren and my hands.  

He is beautiful.

very beautiful

I don't think I mentioned that my oldest daughter Katrin is standing right next to me wile all this is happening.  She was very excited. 

The midwife said she would be there in 15 minutes, so wile Lauren is holding Jacob I pick her up and carry her to our bed(with the cord still attached ).  There we wait for the midwife.  Katrin and I cut the cord together when she gets there.

This has been one of the scariest, messiest, and most beautiful experiences of my life.  I will be changed forever.  I didn't know what I was doing, and I don't know how I did it.  But looking back on it God was with us and he has blessed us.  I am so happy to have Jacob Liam Slesser in my life now.  He is wonderful. 

 

I found this video on youtube.  it is very disturbing.  not sure what to say about it except,

OH MY GOD!

what are your thoughts?