“Do you love me? Then feed my sheep. Don’t feed on my sheep!”

nakedpastor - May 2006

David is a minister, and an artist (some of his artwork is on his blog). He is a man who has walked away from evangelical triumphalism. He is minister at a Vineyard Church in Rothsay New Brunswick. His blog is called nakedpastor.

As you will hear more and more about and I’ve commented on briefly before, we went through a church split 10 years ago. Since then we’ve made some enemies as a corporate church and as members of this church. Our character has changed quite a bit. Some have suggested that the Spirit has left the building, that we are cursed, and that we are under God’s condemnation and will never succeed.

And to be honest, we look cursed. There’s lots of pain in our congregation right now. We’ve had suicides and devastated families left behind. We’ve got missing children. We’ve got cancer, insurmountable debt, depression, anxiety, panic, bankruptcy, unemployment, doubt, unbelief, hard questions, rebellion, drunkenness, drugs, and many other sins. And that’ s just me! (Just kidding). We are, at first glance, a rather sorry lot. Which is why we get many people visit us for a bit and then leave. I think, as Jack Nicholson said, they can’t handle the truth! I’ve had people actually tell me, “There’s just too much pain here, too much suffering.” Sorry folks, but we gave up on triumphalism a long time ago. It doesn’t work for us.

Dan at Cerulean Sanctum writes along a similar theme, bouncing off a question at Christianity Today’s Leadership blog - Out of Ur. He looks at 21st Century American Evangelism: The Ne Plus Ultra of Christianity?

We Americans suffer from this delusion that we are the pinnacle of any particular cultural expression seen as worthwhile. It’s the very backbone of the concept of “The Ugly American.” And we show few signs of abandoning this delusion.

Because the Church in America is made up of Americans steeped in this mentality, Christians here act is if we’re the control for all of Christianity worldwide. Nowhere is this conceit more grounded than in Evangelicalism. For Evangelicals go to great lengths to assert their superiority over the rest of the American Christendom, creating a king-of-the-hill bravado. Needless to say, this not only bothers other Christian sects worldwide, but even other Evangelicals outside of America.

So we consider ourselves the control portion of the experiment. Any results we gain from any experiment in the Faith must be measured against us.

Does that bother anyone else? I’m livid over it, frankly, because it’s so inherently self-centered. Not only this, but the tendency is to denigrate the Christians who came before us, as if they were practicing a kind of Preschool of the Faith. They were the devolved Australopithecines and us the fully realized Homo Sapiens. As such, they have nothing to teach us.

Both bloggers are leaders.
Both are creative.
Both are not satisfied with the status quo.

When I get discouraged seeing church marketing campaigns like this - I’m all the more grateful for bloggers that don’t toe party lines, don’t get caught up in silly arguments, retreat from the clamour of the marketplace or the pull of power before posting. They are many, and they will never be in the Christian Top 1000, interviewed by The New York Times, get a call from CTV or be glowingly reported, sought out or praised in success seminars. Male or female, rich or poor, young or old, I am continuously surprised by the wisdom available at my desktop from all around the world at a click of the mouse. 
I thank God for blogs, and for all who lovingly tend them.

via: Bible Belt Blogger and Today at the Mission