8.30.2006
Life Under The Canopy: Nathan's new website
Life Under The Canopy: Nathan's new website is a post worth looking at, if you're into expanding your musical horizons. (No, it's not all about "Christian" music - it's about good music...)
8.15.2006
C. S. Lewis quote...
"Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities. "
There's more to this than 8 words... A friend has said that we can only really love someone when we are willing to see the darkness in them and embrace it. That's neither saying "yes" to it, nor winking at it. It's really seeing it, realizing that it is a part of the person, and still choosing to say, "I love you, warts (or worse) and all. I'm not going to (try to) change you (we'll leave that to the Holy Spirit); I'm not going to reject that part of you."
At the Canopy we say, "Come as you are." I really hope people can and do come as they are. I really hope that the Canopy is a safe community. And I really hope that everyone who comes as they are ends up different then they were - not because I've changed them (God forbid - to quote the Apostle Paul) but because the Spirit of Jesus is alive in them.
If the church were to understand this -- and I'm speaking as one who knows the theory, and struggles with the practice -- we might actually grasp what it is to "hate the sin and love the sinner," and we might actually have a real voice with those sinners. Instead, we often hate both sin and sinner, and our voice is nothing more than one more voice shouting condemnation. And we wonder why the gay community hates us so.
One more quick thought - hating the sin. Do we hate a particular sin because it is wrong or do we hate it because of the damage that it has done, is doing and will continue to do to someone we love?
Why does God hate divorce? Because it is the undoing of what he has done in joining two people into one flesh, and thus is an act of rebellion? Or because it is the tearing apart of one flesh into two pieces, and thus is an act of violence against two of his children?
That's not to say that sin isn't rebellion. But is God a loving Daddy or a demanding Ruler? Better check with Jesus before answering that one...
Just a few thoughts stirred up by a great quote.
There's more to this than 8 words... A friend has said that we can only really love someone when we are willing to see the darkness in them and embrace it. That's neither saying "yes" to it, nor winking at it. It's really seeing it, realizing that it is a part of the person, and still choosing to say, "I love you, warts (or worse) and all. I'm not going to (try to) change you (we'll leave that to the Holy Spirit); I'm not going to reject that part of you."
At the Canopy we say, "Come as you are." I really hope people can and do come as they are. I really hope that the Canopy is a safe community. And I really hope that everyone who comes as they are ends up different then they were - not because I've changed them (God forbid - to quote the Apostle Paul) but because the Spirit of Jesus is alive in them.
If the church were to understand this -- and I'm speaking as one who knows the theory, and struggles with the practice -- we might actually grasp what it is to "hate the sin and love the sinner," and we might actually have a real voice with those sinners. Instead, we often hate both sin and sinner, and our voice is nothing more than one more voice shouting condemnation. And we wonder why the gay community hates us so.
One more quick thought - hating the sin. Do we hate a particular sin because it is wrong or do we hate it because of the damage that it has done, is doing and will continue to do to someone we love?
Why does God hate divorce? Because it is the undoing of what he has done in joining two people into one flesh, and thus is an act of rebellion? Or because it is the tearing apart of one flesh into two pieces, and thus is an act of violence against two of his children?
That's not to say that sin isn't rebellion. But is God a loving Daddy or a demanding Ruler? Better check with Jesus before answering that one...
Just a few thoughts stirred up by a great quote.
8.03.2006
Back to Applebee's
I've been thinking about why the quote concerning Applebee's so grabbed my attention. Jim, of course, was right on the mark - Applebee's is about food, and the church is about Jesus.
In the restaurant business there is nothing wrong with striving to never disappoint. In fact, from a bottom-line perspective, it seems like a pretty intelligent goal. People who aren't disappointed become repeat customers, and repeat customers pay the bills and then some.
Striving to inspire, however, is much more risky. Different people's palates are inspired by different things. What is delectable to one is offensive to another (as a person with a growing taste for sushi I've experienced this first hand, many times).
But never disappointing means making some conscious compromises. You don't let your chefs/cooks get too creative; people are less disappointed when the get what they already know, and can be VERY disappointed when what they get offends them for some reason. Never disappointing means being always predictable: not too hot, not too cold, not too spicy, not too bland. And it means that the customer is always right, even when they are wrong.
I have a vivid memory of being at an Applebee's restaurant in Calgary. The customer behind us was making a pretty big fuss about how undercooked his steak was. The waitress was trying to be accommodating, but was having a hard time, because there was almost nothing left of said undercooked steak.
The loud-mouth had eaten almost the entire thing, but was still complaining about how bad it had been. And yes, the waitress had done the 30-sec-after-your-meal-appears-how-is-everything-sir-? check at the start of their meal. Finally the manager came out, apologized for the poor quality of their meal, and offered complimentary dessert. Applebee's - never disappoint. It's good for business - if a little hard on staff retention...
But the more I think about it, the more I think that our churches often slip, (hopefully) unconsciously, into the never disappoint way of doing things. How many leadership decisions are made, or unmade, because of public perception/tastes/complaints? How many sermon ideas never leave the pastor's study because the face of dear saint sour-puss is burned vividly in his or her psyche from the last time the sermon got "too creative?"
"That was an interesting approach this Sunday, Pastor, but I certainly hope it's not the way things are going to be EVERY Sunday." In other words, what the hell were you thinking when you came up with that idea!?!?!
Having been on the receiving end of those kind of comments (as recently as 2 minutes ago during a phone conversation that interrupted this blog post being written; someone has left the Canopy because a guest speaker a while back had a style that didn't suit their taste, and if that's the direction the Canopy is going, then they won't be comfortable with us anymore - I'm not being sarcastic, or demeaning. In fact, I'm genuinely sad to see this person go, I like them a lot) I can honestly tell you that the temptation to compromise is HUGE. People who aren't disappointed stay: they volunteer, they pray, they worship, they give financially, they (sometimes) grow spiritually, they become people I care deeply about. And too often they grumble the next time they are disappointed by something, expecting to be accommodated again.
But people who are inspired... they change the world. People who have seen Jesus, tasted Jesus, been disturbed by Jesus, had their cages rattled by Jesus, are unstoppable. And they tend to put very little stock in being offended. It becomes less of a gauge of whether or not something is true. Sometimes it is even a measure of how they, personally, are doing spiritually: "Am I too easily offended?"
Now, again, Jim is right. The temptation is to confuse entertainment or shock or titillation with inspiration. Ultimately it is the Holy Spirit's job to inspire. It is the Holy Spirit who inflames our hearts with passion, compassion, zeal and tenacity. But I think that as a leader in the church, I have the capacity to cooperate with his inspiring work, or to interfere with it. And I really think that working hard to never disappoint - compromising to alleviate every discomfort or objection voiced - interferes with it. It's called "the fear of man" in some circles, and it's deadly to effective leadership.
So, with regret, I have told my friend that, while not every service is going to be like the one with that particular guest speaker, when we do have guests we will continue to give them a lot of latitude. And now I genuinely hope that this person will change their mind and reconsider their decision. And if not, well maybe Jesus will inspire them in a different community.
I know that none of this takes into consideration truly bad leadership decisions, or unnecessarily offensive things said or done for the sake of creativity. It doesn't weigh the legitimacy of people's concerns, what they are hearing from the Holy Spirit about the direction a church community is going, or whether or not something is inspiring, genuinely offensive, both or neither. All of these are part of the tight-rope walk called leadership. But here's the point: striving to inspire almost guarantees that these lines will sometimes be crossed and that mistakes will be made. Striving to make no mistakes almost guarantees that there will be little room for inspiration.
And I want to strive to inspire, because never disappointing is just too low an aspiration.
Oh, yeah, to finish the Applebee's story... after loud-mouth left, my wife asked our waitress - who just happened to be loud-mouth's waitress - if we could please speak to the manager. You should have seen the look on the poor girl's face! The manager came over, with an expression that screamed, "Now what!?"
My wife proceeded to say, "I just wanted to let you know that our waitress did a very good job of dealing with a very difficult customer, and we are very impressed. She was gracious and polite the entire time, even when he was being belligerent and unreasonable. I wanted you to know that she handled herself very well."
The manager smiled, SAT DOWN IN THE BOOTH WITH US and spent the next 5 to 10 minutes thanking us, telling us how much he appreciated the feedback, promising to commend his waitress (which he did, in front of us, while we were sitting there) and, if I remember correctly, I believe he paid for our desserts, too (I'm a little fuzzy on that detail, but I seem to recall that's what happened).
In all, we weren't disappointed with our Applebee's experience, and we have been repeat customers. But I hope, even that one time, that we left at least one waitress inspired, even a little bit.
And I really hope that the Canopy inspires people, in Jesus, a lot.
In the restaurant business there is nothing wrong with striving to never disappoint. In fact, from a bottom-line perspective, it seems like a pretty intelligent goal. People who aren't disappointed become repeat customers, and repeat customers pay the bills and then some.
Striving to inspire, however, is much more risky. Different people's palates are inspired by different things. What is delectable to one is offensive to another (as a person with a growing taste for sushi I've experienced this first hand, many times).
But never disappointing means making some conscious compromises. You don't let your chefs/cooks get too creative; people are less disappointed when the get what they already know, and can be VERY disappointed when what they get offends them for some reason. Never disappointing means being always predictable: not too hot, not too cold, not too spicy, not too bland. And it means that the customer is always right, even when they are wrong.
I have a vivid memory of being at an Applebee's restaurant in Calgary. The customer behind us was making a pretty big fuss about how undercooked his steak was. The waitress was trying to be accommodating, but was having a hard time, because there was almost nothing left of said undercooked steak.
The loud-mouth had eaten almost the entire thing, but was still complaining about how bad it had been. And yes, the waitress had done the 30-sec-after-your-meal-appears-how-is-everything-sir-? check at the start of their meal. Finally the manager came out, apologized for the poor quality of their meal, and offered complimentary dessert. Applebee's - never disappoint. It's good for business - if a little hard on staff retention...
But the more I think about it, the more I think that our churches often slip, (hopefully) unconsciously, into the never disappoint way of doing things. How many leadership decisions are made, or unmade, because of public perception/tastes/complaints? How many sermon ideas never leave the pastor's study because the face of dear saint sour-puss is burned vividly in his or her psyche from the last time the sermon got "too creative?"
"That was an interesting approach this Sunday, Pastor, but I certainly hope it's not the way things are going to be EVERY Sunday." In other words, what the hell were you thinking when you came up with that idea!?!?!
Having been on the receiving end of those kind of comments (as recently as 2 minutes ago during a phone conversation that interrupted this blog post being written; someone has left the Canopy because a guest speaker a while back had a style that didn't suit their taste, and if that's the direction the Canopy is going, then they won't be comfortable with us anymore - I'm not being sarcastic, or demeaning. In fact, I'm genuinely sad to see this person go, I like them a lot) I can honestly tell you that the temptation to compromise is HUGE. People who aren't disappointed stay: they volunteer, they pray, they worship, they give financially, they (sometimes) grow spiritually, they become people I care deeply about. And too often they grumble the next time they are disappointed by something, expecting to be accommodated again.
But people who are inspired... they change the world. People who have seen Jesus, tasted Jesus, been disturbed by Jesus, had their cages rattled by Jesus, are unstoppable. And they tend to put very little stock in being offended. It becomes less of a gauge of whether or not something is true. Sometimes it is even a measure of how they, personally, are doing spiritually: "Am I too easily offended?"
Now, again, Jim is right. The temptation is to confuse entertainment or shock or titillation with inspiration. Ultimately it is the Holy Spirit's job to inspire. It is the Holy Spirit who inflames our hearts with passion, compassion, zeal and tenacity. But I think that as a leader in the church, I have the capacity to cooperate with his inspiring work, or to interfere with it. And I really think that working hard to never disappoint - compromising to alleviate every discomfort or objection voiced - interferes with it. It's called "the fear of man" in some circles, and it's deadly to effective leadership.
So, with regret, I have told my friend that, while not every service is going to be like the one with that particular guest speaker, when we do have guests we will continue to give them a lot of latitude. And now I genuinely hope that this person will change their mind and reconsider their decision. And if not, well maybe Jesus will inspire them in a different community.
I know that none of this takes into consideration truly bad leadership decisions, or unnecessarily offensive things said or done for the sake of creativity. It doesn't weigh the legitimacy of people's concerns, what they are hearing from the Holy Spirit about the direction a church community is going, or whether or not something is inspiring, genuinely offensive, both or neither. All of these are part of the tight-rope walk called leadership. But here's the point: striving to inspire almost guarantees that these lines will sometimes be crossed and that mistakes will be made. Striving to make no mistakes almost guarantees that there will be little room for inspiration.
And I want to strive to inspire, because never disappointing is just too low an aspiration.
Oh, yeah, to finish the Applebee's story... after loud-mouth left, my wife asked our waitress - who just happened to be loud-mouth's waitress - if we could please speak to the manager. You should have seen the look on the poor girl's face! The manager came over, with an expression that screamed, "Now what!?"
My wife proceeded to say, "I just wanted to let you know that our waitress did a very good job of dealing with a very difficult customer, and we are very impressed. She was gracious and polite the entire time, even when he was being belligerent and unreasonable. I wanted you to know that she handled herself very well."
The manager smiled, SAT DOWN IN THE BOOTH WITH US and spent the next 5 to 10 minutes thanking us, telling us how much he appreciated the feedback, promising to commend his waitress (which he did, in front of us, while we were sitting there) and, if I remember correctly, I believe he paid for our desserts, too (I'm a little fuzzy on that detail, but I seem to recall that's what happened).
In all, we weren't disappointed with our Applebee's experience, and we have been repeat customers. But I hope, even that one time, that we left at least one waitress inspired, even a little bit.
And I really hope that the Canopy inspires people, in Jesus, a lot.
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