Posted in Commentaries, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged cooperation, increased dialogue, unity on February 18, 2020| 2 Comments »
The members of an orchestra don’t come together by taking their cues from each other, they do so by fixing their eyes on a singular person and responding to the promptings of that Conductor. And so it is with the Body of Christ. We will not achieve genuine unity through increased dialogue or simple cooperation. It will only happen when we collectively succumb to the guidance of the One, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Posted in Commentaries, Opinions, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged counterfeit, genuine on December 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Exposing the counterfeit is of little value unless we go on to manifest the genuine.
Posted in Commentaries, Opinions, tagged defining moment, identity, retrospect on November 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »
There is no doubt that life is a long journey, made up of a countless number of moments. Most of them, good or bad, eventually dissolve into a mist of vague memories. But there are others which distinguish themselves in such a way as to become watersheds, where the very flow of our lives can be altered. These instances ultimately come to define our journey, and often times can significantly impact the way we see ourselves and/or the way we are perceived by others. Such an occasion is commonly known as a “defining moment”. Just as significant as the moment itself, is how we interpret it in real time, and the lens through which we choose to view it in retrospect.
An example of interpretation can be found in an experience I had in elementary school. As the youngest of three boys, I struggled mightily in school, while my older brothers were both model students. My beleaguered parents were constantly being called in for Parent-Teacher conferences, which isn’t something they had to deal with previously. So when I managed to go for an entire 9 week period with no significant issues, and brought home a solid report card (A’s and B’s), they decided to reward me with a new Harlem Globetrotters lunchbox. All they were trying to do was acknowledge my progress and encourage me. Unfortunately, I was keenly aware that both my brothers had straight A’s on their report cards, and that they were getting nothing for their efforts. Thus, I interpreted my parent’s gift as an implicit acknowledgment that I was their stupid child, which completely diffused the virtue of their intent. Instead of encouraging me, the lunchbox became a symbol of my inadequacies.
This faulty reading of my parents gesture was rooted in both my habit of comparing myself to my older siblings, and the conclusion I had already drawn about myself, which was that I was in fact stupid. Because that was the lens through which I viewed the situation, it clearly colored my perception of reality. Though my parents never openly compared me to my brothers or belittled my intelligence, I felt woefully inadequate whenever I was around them, and thus I came to that judgment on my own.
There is no doubt that what we believe about ourselves is far more consequential than what others believe about us, and once we draw such a conclusion, it becomes nearly impossible for anyone else to change our mind. For me, it took becoming an adult, moving away from my family, and learning to stand on my own merits, before I could gain a new perspective.
While we are not in control of many of the things which befall us in life, we do bear some responsibility for how we choose to respond, and we do have a choice about which moments will ultimately define us. Remaining focused on the most painful moments of our lives, pursuing people who reject us, while ignoring those who value us, seeing ourselves through the lens of our greatest weaknesses and failures, holding on to bitterness and unforgiveness for those who’ve hurt us… are all recipes for misery. People will define us by whatever measure they choose to use, but they do not have the power to control how we define ourselves. When we blame everyone else for our present condition, we have unwittingly forfeited the power to change it.
No one gets through this life without some amount of adversity, pain, and struggle. We can see ourselves as a victim, or a survivor, or maybe even an overcomer. I believe that we have far more control over this than most of us understand. If we don’t like the moments that have defined us thus far, it is up to us to change our course. I have a sister-in-law who was once an addict, a convict, and judged by the courts to be an unfit parent. She made the decision to change her life, and though it took some time, she is now a sober, loving wife and mother, raising her family. Not long ago she was seen as being beyond help, but today, she is an inspiration. She is living proof that if you don’t like your story thus far, you can rewrite the ending.
Posted in Commentaries, tagged Body of Christ, Bride of Christ, church, dechurched on September 30, 2019| 2 Comments »
Like a lot of people my age, I can say that I was raised in church. The Catholic Church to be exact. And in those days my understanding of “the church” was a building where good, God-fearing folk gathered on Sundays, and other specified, “Holy Days of Obligation”. As a child, I was told that it was “God’s House”, and so I just assumed it was where He lived, which is why we always needed to dress up to go there, and why my mom always insisted that we whisper, even when the service was over. I did find that last part a little confusing, because I was pretty sure He could still hear us. Even at a young age, I also recognized that our “church” was part of a larger institution known as the “Catholic Church”, thus my concept of church was largely steeped in the idea of buildings and institutions.
In that era, the “Body of Christ” was both the image on our crucifix, and the communion wafer that was such a prominent part of our Sunday tradition. One represented the suffering Jesus endured for us, while the other represented our way of staying connected to Him. Indeed, participation in the sacraments was the key to remaining in good standing with God. We had infant baptism to cover original sin, confession to cover our ongoing penchant for sin, and we had the Eucharist to cover our communion with God. As near as I could tell, if I stuck with the program, God would remain relatively pleased with me, and my spot in heaven would be fairly secure. For a long time, that seemed like enough.
But by the time I reached the doorstep of adulthood, both the internal and external forces at work on me had managed to reshape my reality. Though I can’t say that I ever stopped believing that there was a God, I had developed no real sense of connection to Him, and my ongoing participation in the sacraments didn’t seem to be making much of a difference. Indeed, my struggles seemed very real, and my religious practice felt largely ceremonial. So at 19 years old, as I left home to join the Navy, I unwittingly walked away from the tradition that had been such a big part of my upbringing. Not because I was hurt, or angry, or even frustrated; if anything, I was empty. I just left it behind like some old shirt hanging in my bedroom closet because it didn’t really fit anymore.
I offer this little testimony as an example of how devout religious upbringing/practice doesn’t necessarily translate into a genuine relationship with God. Of course, part of the problem was that I never really understood that was the goal. Whether it is conscious or unconscious, institutions have the tendency to both preserve and perpetuate themselves, which keeps them at the forefront of your experience. Even if I had known the importance of relationship, it would have simply driven me back toward the institution. After all, I was taught that I needed them to tell me what the scripture said/meant, and to administer the sacraments, which could restore and maintain my relationship to God. Some might read this as an indictment of the Catholic Church, but I would maintain that this esthetic exists throughout all organized religion. Even ministers who’ll say things like, “it isn’t what happens inside the four walls of the church”, and/or “the church isn’t a building, it’s the people”, have a vested interest in the long term health of their organization. That doesn’t necessarily make them evil or greedy, it’s just the practical reality of overseeing such an entity.
I did go on to build a life without much more than a passive reverence toward the idea of God, and a quiet admiration for people of faith. For a while, that seemed to be working out, as I attained some level of success in worldly terms. But when the inevitable storms came, my good looking life collapsed into a pile of rubble. That’s when I finally cried out to God in a way that I never had, and sought to know Him in a way I never did before. I needed Him to be as real as my pain, and my fear, and my weakness. It was a journey, and it didn’t change overnight, but I steadily felt drawn into something that was far more profound and genuine than anything I’d experienced before. Indeed, I would testify that He made Himself real to me, and that radically changed everything.
In my desire to know Him more, I decided to take on the daunting task of reading the scripture for myself, and again, I felt as though God met me there. Though many of the individual passages were familiar, I emerged with a very different sense of who God was and what He wanted for me. Instead of the thundering judge, demanding payment for sin, I saw the loving Father who yearned to be a part of His children’s lives. Repeatedly, I saw Him create situations whereby He might connect with His creation, and repeatedly, I saw mankind thwart those arrangements. With the perfect sacrifice of His Son, He finally accomplished what He’d been after all along, as His Spirit could now come and dwell within the hearts of His people. No more bloody sacrifices, no more annual visits from the High Priest, no more middle men. Without a doubt, this would be the “better covenant” of which the scriptures spoke.
Yet, the same fallen nature which led to the forfeiture of Eden, and to the request that God not speak directly to the His people (from the mountain), and to the refusal to enter the Promised Land, and to the clamor for an earthly king (like everyone else had), continues to plague us to this very day. Despite the fact that the veil was torn, affording every believer direct access to their Father, we cling to our time honored traditions, expecting someone else to go in our stead. Despite the promise of His most Holy Spirit coming to dwell within us, we continue to search through the ruins of a torn down temple (as if that is the only way we might know Him) as we cry out for Him to send us something more (as if what He’s already given us is insufficient for the task at hand).
The word so often interpreted as church within the scripture actually refers to a people who have been called out by God. It was never meant to rest upon a building or an institution. It points us to a living, breathing organism, not an inanimate, man-made object or system. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, this body would now have the very real potential (and calling) to become the manifestation of Christ upon the earth. But to become partakers of that divine nature, one must first be willing to allow the old nature to be crucified, and for most, that is too high a price to pay. The Apostle Paul repeatedly spoke of the need to participate in Christ’s death, so that we might also participate in His resurrection, while Jesus himself told us to take up our cross and follow Him. Without that, there is little chance of substantive transformation, and we are left with little more than rote religious practices.
While the scripture tells us that there is a form of religion that God ultimately views as pure, we must also remember that Jesus’ strongest rebukes were reserved for the religious elite of His day. He manifested amazing grace for sinners, but great ire towards those who purportedly knew the Torah best, and controlled the temple system His Father had commissioned. While the Pharisees seemed impressed with their own sense of holiness, Jesus characterized them as a “brood of vipers”. Indeed, practices that flow out of a vital relationship with God are vastly different from those rooted in trying to appease a God we don’t really know, much less trust.
Religion has a tendency to stir spiritual activity, and there is a demonic component that I will simply refer to as the “spirit of religion”. At its heart it is an Anti-Christ spirit that seeks to substitute just about anything for a genuine connection to the Savior. Jesus taught us that those who abide in the vine (i.e. remain directly connected to Him) will produce fruit. Without that connection, “the church” becomes indistinguishable from the world, and “Christianity” becomes just another murky philosophy. It cannot hope to point people to a Jesus that it doesn’t even know itself. The spirit of religion is fine with folks doing their daily devotions, or going to service three times a week, or partaking of the sacraments, or memorizing scripture verses, or listening to Christian music, or flowing in their giftedness, or any other religious practice, as long as it never really results in a meaningful relationship with the person of Christ. When this spirit attaches itself to our aforementioned nature, men tend to build lifeless monuments to their own sense of righteousness, and feel good about their eternity.
In 2017, the Barna Research group published an article about a growing population of believers who, “Love Jesus, but Not the Church”. It characterized this group as being largely comprised of people who take their faith quite seriously, and who have a surprisingly orthodox belief system. It cites their distinctive as being their negative views towards organized/institutional religion, and it refers to them as “dechurched”. In my experience, this term is operative, as these are generally folks who’ve spent years within the institutional structures of Christianity, with the vast majority of them coming from positions of leadership. They are not only disillusioned by the abuse and corruption they’ve witnessed within the system, they are convinced that the current blueprint (i.e. format/structure) followed by most denominations will never allow the people to reach spiritual maturity. Because of this, they’ve parted ways with the traditional model for doing “church”.
For those who have experienced (and/or witnessed) serious damage done within the church system, the temptation to firebomb institutional religion is somewhat understandable, but the Lord is quick to point out that there are people He loves within those buildings and organizations. He doesn’t demand that they get their doctrine and theology straight before He comes, He meets them right where they’re at. Those of us who were the beneficiaries of such grace, must also extend it to those who are still finding their way. In His sovereignty, God uses deeply flawed vessels and vehicles to accomplish His will – ultimately those are the only kind He has to work with.
The struggle for the “Dechurched” is finding an expression that more accurately reflects the New Covenant model, and allows people to step into the fullness of who and what God’s called them to be. Another challenge is not falling into the trap of misidentifying the system/institution as the enemy. To be sure, there are inherent issues with any man-made structure or system, but if we battle not against flesh and blood, then it cannot become the focal point of the fight. As many who’ve left the pews behind have already discovered, simply changing the venue and format doesn’t fix the problem. Human nature, and the spirit of religion are just as comfortable in our living rooms as they are in our sanctuaries.
Sitting around and sharing stories about our bad church experiences will only perpetuate bitterness. It is not enough to simply leave behind a flawed system, it now becomes essential to step into something deeper and more authentic. If all we do is free up our Sunday mornings, we are in real danger of becoming even less useful to God. Any hope for a new and fruitful season must begin with an honest examination of our connection to the vine, but we also need to understand what kind of fruit to look for. The fruit of genuine repentance is transformation. Until people know us by the way we love each other, there is little chance that we will reach beyond our own small circle. If the “Dechurched” simply fixate on the shortcomings of the institutional church, they will likely become nothing more than the new anti-institution denomination. The Lord deserves better. He deserves a glorious Bride, worth returning for.
Posted in Commentaries, Thought for the Day / Quotes, tagged adulthood, adulting, growing up on July 10, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Growing up can often be a disappointing process. When you’re 10, you imagine that becoming a “teenager” will change everything. But a few days after your 13th birthday, you realize that things are pretty much the same. Then you start dreaming about turning 16, and getting your license, which is cool; but again, you quickly recognize that it doesn’t make as much difference as you thought. Even 18 is that way. Yeah, you’re legally an adult now, yet you still have to turn in your homework and get up for school the next day. But finishing High School is different. Though you may not sense it immediately, the rules change dramatically. Up to this point, there was a system specifically designed to carry you along. There was a whole panel of adults (e.g. parents, grandparents, pastors, youth group leaders, teachers, coaches, counselors…) assigned to provide guidance, boundaries, bedtimes, wake-ups, rides, resources, and incentives to stay on the right track. There were organized activities intended specifically for you, like sports teams, school plays, dances, and 4H club. And there was an education system built to pretty much ensure your success. As long as you cooperated (i.e. showed up with a decent attitude) with these processes, you were almost guaranteed to make it through. But now, that all changes. Adulthood is very much a give and take proposition. Generally, you get out of it what you put into it. Even staying in school changes. Colleges and Universities are businesses. You pay to take their classes. If you don’t show up, the teacher isn’t going to come looking for you. If you don’t turn in your work, they will not scold you, or even ask about it. If you fail the class, they will happily allow you to pay them to take the course over again next semester. The workplace, and relationships, and almost every other facet of life works similarly. If you want to have a great marriage, a successful career, or even to live in an exceptional community, you need to invest yourself (i.e. time, energy, passion…) in it. Simply showing up, empty handed, will no longer get it done. Ultimately, life was never meant to be a spectator sport – if you hope to get somewhere, you’d better dive in.
Posted in Commentaries, tagged 20/20 vision, far-sighted, focus, near-sighted on July 2, 2019| Leave a Comment »
This dates back to before I had a blog (2008-2009)
As someone who has been near-sighted since birth, I’ve never struggled with the concept of being able to see things that are in close proximity, while struggling to see things at a distance. But I must admit to being somewhat confused the first time I heard of someone being “far-sighted”. In my young mind I reasoned that if your eyes were strong enough to see things at a distance, they couldn’t be too weak to see what was right in front of them. It wasn’t until I first tried to focus a camera that I began to understand. As I zoomed the lens in on a distant mountain range, I noticed that everything in the foreground had become blurry and I realized that it isn’t the strength of the eye that is the issue; it is the ability for it to focus.
I was again reminded of this concept by the lyrics to the song, “God of this City” (Chris Tomlin). Within the refrain it says, “For greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city”; which caused me to ponder all of the things that we’ve yet to see happen in our city. I realized that at one time reaching the city for Christ had been the top priority, but that over time the desire to impact the nation and even the world for Christ had diminished the focus on that goal. While it is certainly not wrong to want to impact the nation and ultimately the world for Christ, I felt like the Lord began to speak about becoming spiritually “far-sighted” and about the balance of things that He’s calling us to.
As in the natural sense, both near-sightedness & far-sightedness are spiritual impairments as well. Spiritual near-sightedness will keep us focused on ourselves, our circumstances; our perceived lack… and will likely keep us from ever extending ourselves beyond our own self-interests. In this condition the church can simply become a place for God’s people to hide from the evil of the world until Jesus returns to rescue us. While this is a serious problem, it should be a fairly easy condition to diagnose; whereas spiritual far-sightedness may not be quite so apparent. This latter condition is likely to occur in active ministries, where there is visionary, goal-oriented leadership and where there is a general understanding of the fact that God has commissioned His children to have an impact in the world. Often the only indicator that there is a problem is that the church is having a minimal effect on the spiritual condition of the community around it.
I’ve heard it said that if you want to measure the spiritual health of a church you shouldn’t look at the congregation itself, but at the community that surrounds it; and I believe that to be a valid point. Throughout the New Testament there is a sense that we are first called to reach out to those people that God places us amongst, before reaching for the uttermost.
As Paul talks about the qualifications for leadership (1 Tim 3), he says that one must be an effectual leader within the context of their own family before they are fit to oversee matters within the church; Jesus speaks of our need to show ourselves faithful over a few things, before we will be entrusted with greater authority; and in perhaps the most pointed example, we see Jesus initially turn down a Canaanite woman’s request for help, because His first obligation is to the lost sheep of Israel (Matt 15: 21-28). He goes so far as to say that it would be wrong for Him to give bread that belongs to the children to the dogs. Though this woman’s faith eventually caused Jesus to comply with her request, this story seems to substantiate the principle that our first calling is to those that He puts within arms reach of us. While for an individual that would most likely be his family & neighbors; for a church, it would likely be the community in which it is planted.
In praying about this far-sighted condition, I don’t sense that it develops because a church is apathetic toward their community, but because in many ways it is more difficult to reach the people who are closest to us than it is to touch someone who is half a world away. Anyone who has endeavored to reach out to a lost relative, an unbelieving spouse or a rebellious child would likely testify to the same. Even Jesus Himself experienced this in His hometown; causing Him to conclude that “A prophet is never honored in their own town” (Luke 4:24). I would guess that in many cases this condition develops after long seasons of outreach to the community fail to bear much fruit, which perpetuates the concept that it is ultimately more productive to find some other field in which to plant seeds. While it is not difficult to understand how we might arrive at that conclusion, such thinking can result in a church becoming like a minister whose platform ministry is enthusiastically embraced, but who goes home to a completely dysfunctional family. While I don’t believe that we have to conquer the community for Christ before we can reach out beyond it, I would suggest that our efforts to impact the community must remain at the forefront of the local church’s’ mission. Though the local church is often viewed as vehicle for ministry, it is first and foremost a community of Believers.
As the church seeks ways to impact the culture, there is a temptation to view culture in broad and distant terms (e.g. Entertainment = Hollywood, Government = Washington DC…), but the Lord impressed upon me that the place He’s called us to (e.g. family, neighborhood, community, workplace, school, city, region…) is the culture that He’s calling us to impact first. He reminded me that while Jesus most certainly came to impact culture, He wasn’t born in Rome (i.e. the epicenter of Roman culture) or even Jerusalem (i.e. the epicenter of Jewish culture); He didn’t spend time trying to engage Caesar (or Herod) on altering their public policy and that His disciples impact on the world did not come through positions of power within the cultural infrastructure.
Ultimately Christ’s influence is most effectively conveyed on a personal level and to those with who we are in relationship with. As I queried the Lord for an example of what 20/20 spiritual vision might look like, He reminded me that Jesus said that He didn’t do anything that He didn’t see the Father do first and that we have been counseled to fix our eyes (i.e. focus) upon Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Posted in Commentaries, Lists, tagged charismatic, confindent, coveted traits, empowered, experienced, goal oriented, knowledgeable, open minded, practical, proactive, visionary on July 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »
I definitely need to preface the presentation of the following list with the understanding that I’m not saying that these traits are ungodly or undesirable; but as the church in America has in many instances veered dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality, I think it is important to understand that these characteristics are only worthwhile to the degree that they are brought into submission to Christ Jesus, and the power of His Holy Spirit.
Bjcorbin's Blog 
Sons vs. Clones
Posted in Commentaries, tagged clones, duplication, father, sons, sonship, spiritual fathers on March 11, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Several years ago, an internationally known TV ministry sent one of its associate pastors to prepare our church for a visit from their senior pastor. Everything about this man seemed to be an exact duplication of the senior pastor, his voice, his hair, his mode of dress, his mannerisms, expressions that he used… He began his presentation by exclaiming what a great church we were and with a spiel about how he didn’t know what we were paying our pastors, but it was not enough, he didn’t know what kind of car they drove, but it ought to be a BMW… Ironically, when the senior pastor arrived a week later, he began his presentation with a word for word rendering of that same spiel.
While it is not particularly surprising or even a problem that these two men would share certain characteristics, such a complete replication of someone else’s image edges dangerously close to a cult of personality. And in the midst of this, I felt like the Lord began to speak to me about the difference between “raising sons” and “producing clones”.
As a father of four children (two boys & two girls), I can attest that each of my children share some measure of similarity to me. Though some of that is undoubtedly due to DNA, there is also the profound influence that comes from sharing life experiences together on a daily basis. For example, how they see their mother and I relate undoubtedly helps to shape their ideas about relationship and marriage; just as our beliefs and attitudes about things like God, politics, patriotism, education… helps to form their conception of those things. A testament to the profound effect of this is that one of my daughters is not my biological child and yet I can see myself in her almost as clearly as I can in the other children.
But just as easily as I can identify the similarities, I can also see that all of them possess many other traits that we don’t share, and to be sure they are four completely unique beings. They each have different gifts, fears, learning patterns, strengths, inspirations… I believe that this is a testament to the fact that while God may have used some raw material from their mother and me within the creation process, He created them to be far more than just an amalgam of the two of us. He created them to go further than we’ll go, and to do more than we’ll ever accomplish. To be sure, we as parents must be diligent in helping them to forge a good foundation, but it is ultimately the “Master Architect” who designs what is to be built upon it.
There is a very natural temptation to want to duplicate the things that we view as being successful, but as the old saying goes, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got. It is often what has been successful that causes us to become protective of what we’ve already attained and reluctant to venture into new territory. Some leaders fall prey to the idea of leaving a lasting legacy, which on the surface can almost seem virtuous, but which in practice can often cause what was once a dynamic organization to become little more than a lifeless monument.
In truth a legacy is not something that we ourselves can create, it is simply the byproduct of how others perceive us. As much as I hope to leave a legacy of faith for my children, the danger in them asking themselves how I might handle a given situation is that they may never bother to ask God what He would have them do. As we seek to “empower” the leaders of the next generation, we must ensure that they understand exactly where that power comes from. We’ll know that we’ve genuinely “empowered” them when we allow them to draw different conclusions than we have, and when they are allowed to pursue visions that didn’t come from or through us.
As I considered the scriptural representation of these issues I thought of Moses and Joshua. To be sure, Moses was an amazing leader, with an unparalleled record of achievements and yet it was God who ordained that Joshua would be the one to lead His people into the Promised Land. There is nothing in scripture that seems to indicate that Joshua did anything to imitate Moses and I’m sure that it isn’t a coincidence that Joshua’s introduction to leadership began with a very definitive proclamation from heaven, “Moses is dead”. That pronouncement seemed to signal the end of one very painful era and the beginning of another, more fruitful one. While some might suggest that Joshua could never have done what Moses did; I would suggest that it is equally true that Moses could not have fulfilled Joshua’s mission either. In ways that may have only been known to God, Joshua was just the right man, at just the right time.
Those who count themselves as fathers need to be mindful that their children’s destiny is to be transformed into the image of Christ. If we are being effective in the discipleship process, they will look more like Him than us. He created each of His children to be a unique representation of who He is, and not one to be a replica of a person who happened to come before them.
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