The Personal Issue

I have had a rough few years, but I also had a great few years. This is a story about my life, but it is not a story about me.

Let me start in the Winter of 2009. My family lost my cousin Chris. I can honestly say this is the hardest thing I have ever gone through. It made me question God, his goodness, and even his love for me. I barely skated through the following months with a low opinion of him and the church. It took some quality time away, by myself on a spiritual retreat of sorts to begin to mend the relationship. Throughout that year I thought I was getting better, I thought God and I were getting better. But then I met a girl, and things went to hell. She was great, don’t get me wrong. I was a lunatic. I think all my deep seeded fears and emotions boiled to the surface. I was desperate, lonely, and ready to commit, this is a very potent and dangerous combination. I threw myself into it, head first. I gave myself over to the first thing that made me feel loved.

I knew then, that God and I were not okay.

At the same time I was taking my first class at Seminary called Spiritual Formation. Part of the class requirement was to meet with a Spiritual Counsellor. Their job is to help keep your spiritual life on track. The guy I met with had a lot of work ahead of him. Just as I was beginning to meet with him, my relationship, or lack thereof, with the girl fell apart. I was literally a mess. I didn’t know who I was, or who God was to me. I felt that I had given so much to God with so little in return. My counsellor suggested that I was not rooted in Christ, that in fact I had no Christian identity. I was too busy finding love from everything but God that I had completely missed the mark. It was the closest I have ever been to thinking, who am I and not knowing the answer.

Thus began a journey.

My counsellor made me dig into my past and root out issues I had. He made me face things I never thought I needed too. He told me that my friends, my family, my church are all great things, but none of them can sustain me like God can. I then began what I have come to call my revolution of biblical proportions.

If what I had learned to that date hadn’t drawn me to a place with God where I was passionate and comfortable with who I was, then maybe I needed to unlearn and relearn everything. So I essentially took all the Sunday School lessons, sermons, wise counsel, pastoral advice, and teachings I had learned and put them on the chopping block. I removed my pride about scripture, and decided to approach it as if for the very first time.

I began to see God differently. I began to see his love and grace in new and exciting ways. I found I was passionate about certain things, and I began to grow in them and root my identity in my God-given passion. I was alive in the word and was questioning, wrestling, doubting, enjoying everything. I realized how big God was, and that he could take my words, he could take my struggle. When reading Job I came across the passage where he calls God his enemy, and yet Job never sinned. Pure honesty flowed and I was willing to yell at, love, scream at, cry to, embrace God in ways I never had before.

What is the result?

I want people who are jaded with the church, or turned off by Christianity to know that it’s okay. We all see things and learn things that rub us the wrong way. God is okay with your questions, he is okay with your harsh language, and he is okay with your doubt. It is what leads to know him better. Love seeks the best, even when it hurts and leads us down a road of pain. Love wins in the end, love is stronger in the end.

The personal issue in our church is that we are afraid to have personal issues. It wasn’t until I embraced my struggles full on that I was able to overcome them. Embrace your questions, doubts and fears. But don’t just leave it at that, take them somewhere, lay them at the feet of God, ask people, ask scripture, read a lot. Explore the things in life that make you question God, don’t run away from them or ignore them, embrace them.

Please feel free to leave a comment or send personal feedback to: james.alan.brooks@gmail.com

The Consumerism Issue

A friend said to me, “The only excess a Christian should have is an excess of love.” If that is the only line of this blog you read, than that is all you need. Consumerism is funny, in some forms it isn’t all bad, but in a lot of forms it is just down right awful. How can consumerism be good you ask? Well let me tell you.

We live in a world the essentially runs on things being bought. From farmers to Microsoft they are all dependent on you, me and everyone else buying stuff. So in it’s truest sense buying things helps people live and put food on the table. Buying stuff isn’t all bad. Buy carrots from the farmer so he can get the essentials for his family. Buy an iPhone from Apple and that money goes to pay it’s thousands of employees. It is the truth of how our economy works. However, the problem comes as a result of the greed inherent in the system. Greed fuels us to buy when we don’t need to, or to replace things long before they need replacing. If we have money to spend we will spend it, and in fact we spend more than we have. The average Canadian has $25,594 in non-mortgage debt (Source).

But this isn’t a financial blog, I am no better than that above number. I am the last person who should be giving advice. There are a tonne of resources out there for debt consolidation, I hope you find one useful for you if you need it.

No this is a blog about buying crap.

Consumerism is idolatry at it’s finest. That which you sacrifice for you worship. We lay down a lot at the altar of stuff. I admit I am not very good at battling this in my life, I am the pot, you are the kettle. We purchase things to make ourselves feel good, to make others feel good, to be the best, to show off, to be on top of the latest icon, for a million reasons. And there is nothing wrong with owning things, it is what you do with them, and how they shape you that matters. I have a car, it is my car, but I don’t want to ever be so possessive of it. I often volunteer to drive people places, or on occasion lent it to friends in need of a car for a day. My phone is useful for making calls, but it is also useful for letting youth at church call their parents when they need to. The point is, in the New Testament we are told the church came together and had all things in common, and there was no need among them. If you are a member of a community of believers, I believe you need to begin to let go of what you own, and see it as a tool, or an object useful for the Kingdom.

There is another aspect of consumerism that is becoming more and more apparent these days. That is the source of our stuff. I listened to a tremendous podcast from This American Life that I recommend everyone listen too. It was about Foxconn, the technology factory in China that Apple uses. It has made news recently partly because of this podcast, and partly because Apple just released their annual report on their overseas factories. Apple was definitely reacting to the backlash against them. And that’s good, they have set in motion some good practices. The truth is those most tech companies use this factory, and chances are whatever device you’re reading this on some part of it passed through Foxconn. But this podcast brought to light the fact that working conditions even in these so-called state of the art factories is deplorable. They work on average 12 – 16 hour days, and there have been unsubstantiated reports of people being fired for getting sick or injured on the job. This is not to harp on Apple, they just happen to be taking a lot of the criticism lately, it is a global problem. We live in an age of information when we can find out where our stuff comes from, and try to help make things better for workers around the world. But here is the rub of the issue. Simply not buying their product doesn’t help. In a way creating a global community in which we manufacture, and import and export isn’t terrible.  At its most base form the global community is just an exchange of goods and services. Like you would have found in an ancient marketplace. But our Western world wants and wants and exploits the rest of the world to get what it wants. I feel we can’t keep ignoring this problem, and it makes my heart glad to see businesses champion product made for fair wages, or traded at fair value. I will buy those, even if they have a premium, because it is something that helps to push forward the agenda of treating everyone as equals, as human beings. God created us all in his image and we are all brothers and sisters of his creation. Nothing makes me more special than you, so why do I deserve the iPhone that cost you your hand?

Church let’s begin to be an example for the world of basic human dignity and ethics. Let’s be an example of living within, or below our means. Let’s not be another statistic, but rather begin to show the world that we can share, love, and have all things in common.

Here is the American Fair Trade website  http://fairtradeusa.org/ a useful tool for evaluating your purchases.

Feel free to leave comments, or provide personal feedback to: james.alan.brooks@gmail.com

The Passion Issue

I think I’ve done a lot of complaining lately, and I never wanted to do that, or be that guy. I love the church of Christ and fully recognize her as the Bride of Christ. Something to be loved, cherished, challenged, and also something sacred. So this blog is not about how we have an issue with a Passionless church as my initial The Issues blog stated. I’ve decided to change it and talk about the passion I do see in the church, and how encouraging it is, and how much it motivates me to be more passionate.

Community is a funny thing. God designed us to be together. We are called to love our neighbour as a vital component of being a follower of Jesus. The fundamental problem with this command to love is that we need to be together, and yet most of the time we can’t tolerate each other. We come to live with each other and learn to laugh at each other and understand one another.  A friend of mine recently spoke on this issue a little, and he wisely said, “We laugh at one another’s quirks and habits and the insecure and absurd within each of us. We laugh because we understand. We laugh because we relate. We laugh because I think if we didn’t we’d probably kill each other.” (Source) Community is what brings us together as humans, and it is in that community that we find purpose. We are all made in the image of God, and we all posses a fiery passion different from the person next to you. Passion like a flame spreads, and when we come into contact with one another passion will flow until it ignites us all.

This means we need a passionate person to start the fire. We all know these people, maybe we know 5 or 10 that have more passion then they know what to do with. We need to harness these people and put them out for us all to catch their fire.

I know a guy named Trevor that bleeds passion on everything when it comes to prayer and worship. If you give him a guitar he can’t but help sing a song of love to God. If you give him a Bible he looks for a passage to pray over. When I see him sing or pray I smile because he is doing it with so much of who he is, putting it out there in honesty for the praise of God.
I know a girl named Bianca that smiles more than anything else. You give her a group of teenagers and she’ll keep them entertained for perhaps days on end. She’s passionate about making people feel value and seeing people live to their fullest and tapping into parts of them they didn’t know they had. She organizes and prepares things to make others succeed.
I know a guy named Alex that is so passionate about Jr. High ministry that he made up a job for himself and gets paid for it. He has more energy then most 28 year olds should. He loves his youth group and desires more than anything for them to know God and to know God’s love. He has created a ministry that is changing lives.
I know a guy named Ben that sees people in a way I never knew possible. He’s passionate about people seeing God in way they never thought they could. He sees a relationship with God as the height of life, and he desires for every person to see God in a unique way.
I know a girl named Nikki that has a heart so big her passions can’t be nailed down so easily. But what I do know about her is that she loves people. She makes you feel so good about who you are and believes in challenging you to be better. She is going to be a teacher, and I could not think of a better place for that passion.

These people help to fuel my passion. They help to make me see my passion and they help to keep my fire going. Who do you have? Who in your life helps to keep your passion going? Who’s in your churches, your schools, your homes that will challenge, encourage and spur you on?

Passion has the power to literally change this world. It saddens me to know that people out there feel passionless and lost. The issue with passion in our church is not the lack of it, it’s the untapped potential of it.

Feedback: james.alan.brooks@gmail.com

A Response to the Gay Issue

If you’re reading this to get a theological response to The Gay Issue blog then you’re in the wrong spot. No, this blog is more about apology, correction and response.

I wrote this blog hoping to air out some ideas I had been struggling with and to begin to wrestle with a key issue in the church. I never intended or expected the response I received. I thought a few close friends would read it and enjoy it for what it was. Normally my blogs don’t generate a huge amount of buzz. However, this one did, and for whatever reason I was faced with a ton of responses and I didn’t know what to do. I chose to remain silent and that was perhaps the wrong way to go about it. After receiving some wise counsel I will be removing comments from The Gay Issue. As well in the future I will monitor all comments, and if they are genuine criticism and require response, I will do so personally. My intention here is not to suppress discussion and dialogue, in fact it is to encourage it more. I want to stop debate, and in particular heated debate. We were never called to fight or get in arguments with one another. I just want to be able to respond in a fashion the suits genuine discussion rather than argument which can lead to misunderstanding and hurt feelings. I am going to provide my e-mail address at the end of every blog for people to write me with thoughts, criticisms and compliments as I continue this series. I do plan on continuing these blogs, and I hope they come across as genuine and thought provoking.

For those that responded to The Gay Issue and feel I didn’t respond, I am sorry. I am so thankful for everyone that responded and I want to take some time to personally communicate with you in some way and try and continue the discussion that way.

My goal and intent with this series is to get the people of the church thinking, and perhaps thinking in a way they didn’t know they could or would.

Thanks for reading this: james.alan.brooks@gmail.com

The Gluttony Issue

The ignored sin of gluttony. Isn’t that a great way to get your attention? I need to start this off by saying I know there exist certain medical conditions that make it hard for some people to control weight. I get that, and I am not writing this to harp on obesity, I am writing this to harp on over the consumption of food, but you can’t talk about that without mentioning obesity.

Statistics are a good way for us to gauge how we do as a society as a whole, but not on the individual level. The stats I am going to provide will hopefully challenge and enlighten you to not be a part of them.

Here’s some stats according to the public health agency of Canada.

“Approximately one in four Canadian adults are obese, according to measured height and weight data from 2007-2009. Of children and youth aged six to 17, 8.6% are obese.”

“The economic costs of obesity are estimated at $4.6 billion in 2008, up about 19% from $3.9 billion in 2000, based on costs associated with the eight chronic diseases most consistently linked to obesity. Estimates rise to close to $7.1 billion when based on the costs associated with 18 chronic diseases linked to obesity. “

“Between 1981 and 2007/09, obesity rates roughly doubled among both males and females in most age groups in the adult and youth categories.”

As well an American stat from The Economist.

“They found that the average American wastes 1,400 kilocalories a day. That amounts to 150 trillion kilocalories a year for the country as a whole—about 40% of its food supply, up from 28% in 1974. Producing these wasted calories accounts for more than one-quarter of America’s consumption of freshwater, and also uses about 300m barrels of oil a year. On top of that, a lot of methane (a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) emerges when all this food rots.”

We obviously have a problem with how we eat in this country, and I think most people recognize that. But does the church see it as a problem they need to deal with? I once heard of a Christian talk radio host that asked the question, “Can you trust a fat pastor?” He was obviously being tongue in cheek, but his point was valid. We would expect a pastor with a pornography problem to be forthright about it. We may even expect him to step down from his pulpit depending on the depth of the problem. However, we wouldn’t expect an overweight pastor to admit an over eating problem.

The church today has decided we can choose what parts of scripture we want to follow and what parts of scripture we want to ignore. Biblical authority is a hot topic these days with Evangelicals accusing Liberals of ignoring it and Liberals accusing Evangelicals of not understanding scripture. The truth is we all do it, and no one group is better than the other. When it comes to over eating, or gluttony my issue is less so with the sin of the matter than the fact that it is just plain idol worship. A friend of mine once wisely said, “we worship that which we sacrifice for.” We of course give money for food, you have to in order to eat, but what we really sacrifice is ourselves. We gave our bodies over to the God of good eats a long time ago.We indulge until we can barely hold it in. But it also goes further, in the above stats we waste almost 40% of our food annually. That is sickening, where is taking care of the poor and oppressed in that? The very fact that we have homeless shelters that struggle to put food on the plates of those in great need within our own cities should speak volumes to us about our eating problems. One of the times I have felt closest to God in my life was in India feeding the homeless. I had to be reminded to eat food myself because I got so caught up in serving those without food. I say this not put myself on a pedestal, but when you have seen real hunger it gets a lot harder to fill your plate to overfull.

As well we have a deeper spiritual problem when it comes to discipline.We have a problem of disciplining our minds and stomachs. We also have a problem following the spiritual disciplines, in particular the discipline of fasting. The New Testament specifically assumes we fast on a semi-regular basis. I know personally this is a struggle, we have food all around us, and we have trained ourselves to eat on fairly regular schedules. After six hours I might say, “I’m starving!” When in reality I could go days before even approaching starving. Going without food as a discipline helps to make us realize how dependent on God we are for life, food, the basic necessities. As well fasting is proven to be medically healthy as well, I found this from a secular doctor in an article on whether or not fasting is healthy “”The excess calories Americans eat shorten their lives,” says [Doctor] Fuhrman.If you want to live longer, Fuhrman’s best advice is to “eat healthy and fast periodically.”" Disciplines help to form the whole person, not just the spirit.

I feel I need to admit that I am slightly overweight and I know I need to stop eating as much as I do. I have decided that in 2012 I will begin to spend less on food, and also begin to eat smarter. It doesn’t mean I’ll never eat at McDonald’s or waste food, but it needs to start somewhere. Portion control, and spending money wisely, and giving to those in need are far more important to me now and I hope to continue to grow in that. As well I am determined to make fasting a regular part of my faith, and it might only be for a day here and there to begin with, but again it needs to start somewhere.

The church needs to realize its place in the world is to help people love God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind. We’re good at the heart one but we seem to have lost focus of the other ones. Loving God with our physical bodies needs to be just as important as loving him with creation care, biblical learning, acts of service, and how we treat one another. Maybe it means churches begin to have aerobics classes, or community nutrition plans, or promoting local farmers. It also means our churches need to emphasize the things we are lacking, like self-discipline, and this goes far beyond food. I don’t know what will work, I just know doing nothing is worse than doing something. Let’s stop letting our culture of over consumption invade the church. Instead of trying to be counter cultural by refusing those we should be loving, let’s be inviting, caring and concerned with the whole person.

We also need to give back, that which we have in excess and some. Not every person can get out there and feed the homeless, but you can support those who do. If you live in the Toronto area and want to support local food ministries check out these websites.
Yonge Street Mission
Scott Mission
Daily Bread Food Bank
North York Harvest Food Bank
Good Shepherd Ministries
Salvation Army

The Woman Issue

In an ongoing effort to cause people to think differently I am now going to talk about something that has always been a personal struggle for me, women in ministry. And when I say personal struggle I mean that I was raised in a church setting that was/is more traditional and often viewed as backwards when it comes to women in ministry, and I always struggled with that. Part of the reason I struggled so mightily with it was because I had had great Sunday School teachers or other leaders who were women, but we couldn’t have a woman pastor? As well I heard some persuasive arguments for why a woman couldn’t be a pastor.

I recognize for some churches this is a non-issue, but for a lot it is still a big stumbling block. I also see woman as marginalized even in the marriage setting and I think how the church treats its woman is how the husbands in the church treat their wives.

This whole argument can really be broken down into two sides which are, complimentarian and egalitarian. People on the extremes will tell you that these two sides have nothing in common, don’t believe them. Being someone who was raised one way and sought another I see that each side has merit and flaws. If you have never heard these terms before, I’m sorry for making your life a little more complicated.

Let’s start with complimentarian. I want to highlight some notable figures that sit in these camps, and I believe this will help you discern which is best for you. Famous complimentarians include D.A. Carson, Wayne Grudem, Tim Keller, C.S. Lewis, John Piper, and John MacArthur to name drop a few. There are people out there that give this view point a bad rap, so I excluded them from my list. What does it mean to be a complimentarian? Well it’s all in the name. Men and women compliment each other, there are specific roles for each and never should the roles meet. Men are dads and women are moms for a basic example. The main problem I have with this is that it seems the restrictions are only on women. This view also holds to the classic ideas of marriage in that a women submit to her husband as per the teachings of Paul. Submission though is a tricky term, and has earned a bad reputation among even some evangelicals. I will talk about the idea of submission more later on. For now, let’s generalize and say complimentarians hold to a more strict man is the head ideal. This translates into the church as well, men should be the head of the church and women are submissive to that.It can be said that this view in its most basic form holds to traditional hierarchy. They would say scripture holds to this, and that it is also quite clear on the distinction between men and women. The nice thing about these people is they believe in order and tradition, they believe in a place for everything and everything has a place.

Egalitarians on the other hand believe in a level playing field. It comes from the French word Egal which means level. This view believes men and women are equal, that whatever men can do women can do and vice versa, except for that which biologically divides us. Some famous egalitarians are Shane Claiborne, Gordon Fee, Greg Boyd, Martin Luther King Jr., N.T. Wright, and Rachel Held Evans. This view does not seek to destroy distinction between gender, but rather to view gender as distinct from traditional gender roles. In the church setting these folks would be okay with a woman as the head of the church. They do not view men as the head of a family in the traditional sense but view marriage as a 50/50 relationship where each partner has equal say. Submission is viewed completely different, in that it should be mutual. They assert that scripture that refers to women is bound by society and culture. They would insist you examine the heart of the issue, not the words themselves. They suffer from a tendency to go to far I think, becoming almost too feminist and holding women in higher regard than men, and that’s not the point, it is about equality.

I do not think these ideas are mutually exclusive, you can easily blur the lines between them and pick and choose if you so desire. My descriptions are also basic and general, so please don’t think this sums up what either side thinks, if you are interested in more info on complimentarians consult this book, and egalitarians consult this book.

When I approach any issue like this these days I have to ask myself a few things. First, when I approach God one day and he asks me to recount what I have done what will I be proud to say, and what will shame me? Secondly, if scripture says one thing but culture has shifted, can or should scripture shift as well? And thirdly, what will help the Kingdom most?

First, I want to be able to tell God I did my best. I don’t think my best includes prohibiting women from speaking, teaching and leading people.

Second, and probably most controversially, I think scripture needs to shift with culture.This does not mean questioning the authority of scripture. All of us would be ready to admit that women don’t need to wear head coverings in church anymore, but think how dare she lead the congregation. It is a pick and choose theology, and is unacceptable. But if you examine the heart of scripture we begin to hear a different story. Women shouldn’t wear beads in their hair because that’s what prostitutes did. Essentially Paul is asking women to respect themselves and dress appropriately, don’t dress for guys, don’t dress for the occasion, dress for yourself and respect your body and image. When it comes to teaching and leading we again run into cultural issues. Then it was not okay for women to hold authority over men by cultural standards. Paul pushed the bounds by having them as deacons and coworkers and prophetesses. Jesus also was first revealed to women and was anointed king by a woman, so we can’t say the New Testament wasn’t progressive for its time. But this is a new time, and our faith is always calling us to be progressive, not regressive. Putting women back into the kitchen and out of the pulpit is regressive.

Third, the most good for the Kingdom includes every member of the body serving with their gifts. If a woman is a gifted speaker, give her a stage, if she is a gifted teacher, give her a classroom.

Now that I have said all that, there are some areas still that are tough to think about and that I think every church needs to reconcile. What does it mean to submit? Should women be the only submitters? Men are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church, what does that mean? True submission and love in marriage must be on some sort of mutual, and beneficial level. Woman are more than wives for our husbands, they are partners in a life long process of love and growth together in God. I think we need to begin to explore the idea of marriage, teaching and leading through the lenses of a progressive forward thinking church. One that loves scripture and holds it in the highest regard, but also understands its fluidity and context. I think every church has the potential to be advancing how culture and society treats the marginalized and outcast. Every husband and wife needs to discuss how they will run their house. Every church needs to admit we live in a world where women are respected as more than property, but as beautiful creations of God who have more to offer than motherhood. They have thoughts, ideas, and ways to take the church forward in the 21st century. These two sides need to realize neither is reading scripture wrong, they are reading it differently, and sometimes that’s okay.

The Gay Issue

So as promised here is my first thought provoking blog in my “The Issues” series. I wanted to tackle this one first because A) I think it is the largest issue facing the evangelical church right now that we aren’t immediately aware of, and B) I have thought a lot about it lately.

For me when it comes to homosexuality and the church I think I need to begin with what my relation to the issue is. I am straight and raised to believe that that is the only way to be. I come from what would be considered a staunch conservative background, meaning some people in my church wouldn’t even consider this an issue because the Bible is quite clear on it. But that is the very notion I want to challenge today. My upbringing had me denying homophobia on the grounds of love thy neighbour, but knowing that were I to actually meet someone who is gay that I would probably run and hide, or treat them as less than human. Truly one of my largest regrets in high school was not being more friendly toward an openly gay student. I would never say I, or other Christians stopped him from knowing Christ, but we certainly didn’t help.

For me, I don’t care where you come down on this issue, you could be “gay affirming” or believe that homosexuality is anti-biblical, the one thing I cannot stand is intolerance. There are extremists on either side of this discussion and I don’t care much for either of them. In fact one of the greatest articles I have ever read on this issue is from a blog by Rachel Held Evans, where she interviews an openly gay Christian. He runs an organization called Gay Christian Network and in the article talks about side A and side B reactions to gay Christians. Side A asserts that gay Christians are legit and biblical, that they can marry and that God affirms this. Side B asserts that they are gay Christians, but think that God does not affirm gay marriage and they choose to remain celibate. Both claims make known that being gay in not a choice. This is where I think every church should move towards. (Please read his interview)

One of the lines that we in the evangelical community have touted for a long time is, “homosexuality is a choice.” I no longer believe this lie. I do believe some men and woman are born with natural inclinations toward same gender attraction. Yes I said natural. Sexuality is more than just sex, it is about companionship and friendship. Same gender love is more than just sex. Those that are gay affirming would also be purity affirming and say that whether you are in a gay or straight relationship you need to save yourself for marriage, I can’t disagree with that. But to say that people who have an attraction to the same gender is just a choice is not understanding what attraction is. It is not a switch you can turn on and off. I think about the first girl I fell for and how my heart skipped a beat every time I saw her, and when I held her hand for the first time how it made me feel. Then I read a homosexual describe their first encounter in the same terms, it makes me realize it is something deep within them. It is something that we all experience as we grow up. Choice has nothing to do with it, it is not simply something you can turn off. Just as I can’t tell you to simply stop loving your girlfriend, or wife or husband, or to not have a crush on that girl or guy.

Many theologians have discussed passages in the Bible with regards to homosexuality and come down in different ways. It is the beautiful and terrible thing about our faith. It allows for tension, but that tension can also destroy. One good source on this is Jay Bakker in his book Fall to Grace.  He talks at length about how one can interpret specific passages, especially Romans 1. He is gay affirming and performs gay marriages at his church. I will make no judgments either way, that’s not why I am writing this, but I think it is important for conservative Christians to know that there is a Christian world out there that is big, doing good things, and thinks differently. If you see same gender love as biblical then you have wrestled with scripture and come to terms with it, and I think that’s great. I would ask anyone who takes a theological stand to do the same. That’s also why it’s great that people who have wrestled with scripture and decided same gender love is wrong. But it does not give you permission to insult, condemn, or hurt those who don’t agree with you on both sides.

This brings me to the church. How have we reacted? We say “love the sinner, hate the sin.” Can you see how damaging a statement that is if you realize the sin in questions is something the person believes to be at the core of who they are. All the church needs to say is “love”. I think you can be a church that does not support gay marriage and still welcoming of them into your community. I know that is where my church would/should be. We need to remember we are all under grace, whether you think homosexuality is biblical or not, Christ never came to condemn, he came to love. We need to practice that in deed in our churches. I am not entirely sure what the solution is, but I hope to be a part of it. The church has destroyed a lot of its good will that it should have with the marginalized in our world. We talk a big game of love and peace, but can’t stand to have a gay man sit beside us in the pew. It is devastating and unsustainable. We force things into the closet, we force people to neglect and reject parts of themselves because it might be considered taboo. Almost 100 years ago we forced prohibition in America because we thought a certain way about drinking. Now we are creating an “us and them” world with the homosexual community because we think a certain way about them.

At the same time I want to say to the gay Christian community that you need to understand that there are people who love and support you out there. But there are a lot who don’t, but might be wrestling with it and you need to be patient with them. Change doesn’t happen over night. As well making arguments like, “don’t I deserve to be happy?” won’t win you any friends. I could make the same claim for a million dollars. What you do deserve is to be loved in a community of believers by them, and most importantly by God. I want to say publicly I am sorry for the hurtful things I have said in the past, and I hope to demonstrate God’s love to every human being I encounter.

Church, let’s begin to change how we talk, let’s begin to change how we act and welcome and love people for who they are, not what they are. God created us all, and loves us all regardless of theological issues, so let’s try and do the same.

feedback: james.alan.brooks@gmail.com

The Issues

I’ve decided 2012 is a year where I am going to start talking about the issues in my heart and what has been forming in my mind over the past couple years. My next few blogs over the coming weeks and months will be ones where I tackle issues that I think face the church today and how the church is and should be responding. I am going to talk about my thoughts, but not necessarily my conclusions. Some of these topics can’t be wrapped up into nice little packages with a bow. However I can promise that I am open to your interpretation and thoughts on these issues.

Some issues I know for sure I will be addressing are:

- Homosexuality and the church
- Women in the church
- Process theology
- You, me and consumerism
- The ignored sin of gluttony
- A passionless church
- Hell, heaven and everything in between
- Why Love is the most important
- Missions

I know some of these topics are hot right now, like Hell thanks to Rob Bell. But at the same time they are the topics that persist through time. I need to talk about them, and I need to air them out to be able to think better about them. I hope if you’re reading this that you strongly consider your positions, or lack of positions on these topics. This past year I had to destroy everything I thought I knew about certain things in order to even be able to read it with an open mind.

I am already composing my first topic for discussion, and that is homosexuality and the church. Prepare for the roller coaster. Prepare for the unexpected.

Old Long Since

I was watching It’s a Wonderful Life over the Christmas break and as amazing as that movie is I realized it is a better New Year’s movie then a Christmas movie. The movie concludes with the classic song Auld Lang Syne, a song sung primarily at New Year’s now more than any other time of the year in North America. I decided to investigate what the song means and why we sing it at New Year’s.

My primary source was of course Wikipedia, you can read the article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne

This article talks about the origins and meanings and when and why it is sung in various cultures. What got me was what the intended meaning of the song is. You have to read between the lines a little, but essentially the song urges you to think of friends and times of old as you move forward. Hence why some graduation ceremonies will play this song. Also why George Bailey gets a rousing rendition of this song in It’s a Wonderful Life. He has just had an experience where he is forced to remember and recall all the good things, despite the bad, that he has done or been a part of.

The literal translation of Auld Lang Syne is Old Long Since, and can be thought of as saying “It’s been a while, but let me reflect on what’s happened, who I’ve met, and what I’ve done.” I like that. I like it for New Year’s.

2011 I will remember as a year of change for myself. I had what I call a revolution of biblical proportions. Meaning I revolutionized how I read the Bible, and how I think about ideas of theology and scripture. I am not a heretic, but I wanted to re-evaluate everything I thought I knew, basically stripping away all my Sunday School lessons until I had the bear bones, and begin to rebuild from there. I needed to reassert my belief in God, the Trinity, Christ, the Authority of Scripture and so on. It isn’t over, and it wasn’t always fun, but I will always remember 2011 for that.

I will also think of the people I met this year, or the people I reconnected with, or the people I lost touch with. It happens every year, and sometimes it’s painful and sometimes it’s natural. I like to think we come into each others lives like characters in a story, seemingly with no purpose, until there is a purpose. I like to think of life as a story, and I know this hotly contested by a lot of people, but it’s just my personality and how I see the world, I don’t think it’s for everyone. But I think there is a romantic idea in the world as a story and we are characters in each others stories coming in and out having a large or small effect.

Most of all 2011 is the year I found myself. This sounds horribly cliched, but it’s true. I went through a lot emotionally and spiritually this year, and it helped to restore lost confidence and to root my identity in Christ, where it should be. I am not perfect, nor would I ever claim to be, but I will claim to be more of who God made me to be then perhaps ever before in my life. This has brought about more passion and desire to do certain things, and be a part of certain things, and has also allowed me to begin to say no to things I really just don’t want or need to be a part of.

For old long since this year I reflect upon what has come and gone. Thankful to God, my friends & my family for what has been a memorable year. Here’s to many more!

“My Heart is ravisht with delight,
when thee I think upon;
All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,
and speedily is gone;
The bright resemblance of thy Face,
so fills this, Heart of mine;
That Force nor Fate can me displease,
for Old long syne.”

Unrequited Love

I was talking to a friend about past relationships and how often times we neglect to see the one-sidedness of them. What I mean is when a relationship isn’t going well, or is maybe on its last legs, there will be one person giving more. This leads to all sorts of problems, such as stress, anger, self-doubt, and usually the end of the relationship. This is unrequited love, that is love that is not returned.

It got me to thinking about God and how we often don’t return his love. This isn’t a new idea, nor any great revelation other than I started to think of it more from his perspective. Personally knowing what it is like to be in a lopsided relationship helped me to realize what kind of torture it is to love someone, and pour your heart out to them, and get nothing back. God has done the same for us, he has poured himself out for us, he loves us with an unending love, and he constantly pursues us, and we neglect to return his love.

Makes me wonder does God get stressed out? Does he get angry because he demonstrates his love and we ignore it? Does he doubt his ability to love? Is it okay to ask that question?

Unrequited love is a dangerous thing for human beings, it destroys us in a lot of ways, but it also helps us to grow and benefit from past experience. What does it do to God? We may not know in this lifetime, but what I do know is he has more emotion and more vibrancy than we often think he does. He is explosive with his love for us. He is jealous for us! We were created in his image, and this makes me think we must experience something of what he does with un-returned love.