Bewitched

OK, so I went to the Christian book store (the white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant, evangelical, upper-middle class, republican, family values propaganda store) in the area, and I was hit immediately by the overwhelming amount of Narnia crap that absolutely filled the place. Disney has marketed this film to Christians in a way that only the Disney advertising juggernaut can, and I find it all hard to take in. It may be that I just barely missed being attacked by the live lion they had prowling around the store as a way of drawing attention to the Narnia display (thank God he found that cute little blond-haired 5 year old boy instead of me) (I think the lion was attracted to the smell of stolen "Testamints" candy on the kid's breath). It may be that I love the books and even read them to my unborn daughter while she was in the womb, and I am very afraid that Disney will destroy my favorite books. I think I have figured out the three main reasons for my disturbed feelings:

1) Disney and Evangelicals Make Strange Bedfellows

Evangelical Christianity has a long, happy history of protesting everything Disney. The very existence of Disney has been a thorn in the side of Evangelicals for years. Christians love to portray Disney as the Magic Kingdom of Satan (mostly because of Disney's acceptance of "The Gays") Disney, for its part, is quintessential US consummerist culture. Disney is the Evil Galactic Empire. It is all about buying and consumption. Looking back at the astronomical success of Mel Gibson's The Passion, Disney wants to grab some of those Christian bucks. Disney and Evangelicals working together is as disturbing to me as the union of Flava Flav and Brigitte Nielsen.

2) White American Evangelicals Will Co-opt the World, If They Can

The Passion, Left Behind, multi-colored leather bibles, X-treme faith stuff, Christian hip-hop, and other such stuff are all examples of boomer generation Christianity trying to look cool to my generation and younger. I am an "Xer", and it started with marketing youth groups to my generation and grew from there. We had "X-treme Ski Trips", "X-treme Pizza Blasts", and X-treme Contemplative Retreats" pitched at us ad nauseum. The difficulty with this is twofold. First, it is a self-deception on the part of Christians. We have fooled ourselves into believing we are the controllers in this consummerist marketing Christian explosion. Sorry. Mega-conglomerates like Disney laugh at these naive simpletons who were protesting them yesterday and are now PAYING CHURCH FUNDS TO MARKET FOR DISNEY!!! Disney no longer has to even spend for its own advertising. I have no problem with Disney. In fact, I already have my tickets to see the movie with my kids. However, you will never see a shred of Narnia advertising in my church. I am not saying I am above anyone else. I am just sick of seeing the Church that I love act like a whore, spreading her legs for whatever company or product comes with a smile and a nice ad pitch. John Cusak, an actor who has become a pseudo-voice for my generation, summed up our feelings best in "Say Anything" as Lloyd:

"A career? I've thought about this quite a bit sir and I would have to say
considering what's waiting out there for me, I don't want to sell anything, buy
anything or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or
processed or buy anything sold or processed or repair anything sold, bought or
processed as a career. I don't want to do that. My father's in the army. He wants
me to join, but I can't work for that corporation, so what I've been doing
lately is kick-boxing, which is a new sport...As far as career longevity, I don't
really know. I cant figure it all out tonight, sir, so I'm just gonna hang with
your daughter."

FROM ROD'S QUOTES FROM SAY ANYTHING

3) Pretty Picky With Our Witches, Aren't We?

I love C.S. Lewis' Narnia books, as I said earlier, but please. Why is this British witch acceptable and Harry Potter is the devil? I love the Harry Potter books as well. There are a number of lessons in those books about growing up, facing fears, and handling the worst of life. Yet, Christians have avidly protested the books and the movies. They have been very self-righteous as they have driven to bookstores and theaters in their GM SUVs (burning a ton of gas, while GM has been liked to Apartheid in South Africa) to march in their Nikes (made in Indonesian sweat shops) while drinking Coca-Cola (linked to murders of Columbian peasants) bought from Wal-mart (guilty of almost completely destroying the US small market economy and keeping minimum wage at an unjust level), while they burn books in front of the children who love them (causing these kids to have a horrible first experience of Christianity). The Lewis books are full of magic and fantasy, but they are acceptable, because they have been marketed to Christians. The fact is, Lewis did not write them for Christians or even as an evangelistic tool. He simply wrote them to share with his niece, Lucy. The Holy Observer whote an excellent sarcastic article after the 5th Harry Potter novel offering new children's books to protest for Christians. The hypocrisy and the picking and choosing of our little "stands" makes us look like fools.

My point is this: I believe this worshipping at the feet of American culture is destructive of the Gospel message. I am not an isolationist. I believe we need to enter the culture and engage and connect with as many people as possible. I also believe we are to be set apart. We can love people without marrying the culture. I am looking forward to the movie, but I will keep it in perspective. I will not sell my soul to Disney.

Where Has All the Spirit Gone?

I am experiencing some angst. Of course, as a quintessential Gen X’er, it is quite expected that I would carry angst. However, what I am experiencing is not quite a “Pearl-Jam-raging-against-Ticketmaster-because-Eddie-Vedder-could- only-be-angry-at-his-parents-for-so-long-before-losing-momentum- and-needing-a-new-object-of-wrath” kind of angst. Rather it is a frustration and disappointment with the older generation in the Body of Christ. My mom was a hard core Charismatic Renewal person in the 70s and early 80s. If you don’t know what that term means, it refers to a real movement or time of renewed activity of the Holy Spirit. I saw some really crazy stuff during that time. I was only 5 years old when my mom started hanging out with this Spirit-filled prayer group. They were rockin’ and rollin’, speakin’ in tongues, castin’ out demons, healin’ the sick prayer warriors, and I got to see and experience some really awesome stuff. My God was a big God who could do anything at all, whenever he wanted. When He showed up, He showed up in power and authority. His very presence demanded respect and awe. Every moment was full of the supernatural and was charged with infinite possibility.

Now, as a young pastor in the Vineyard, a community of churches founded in renewal and the power of the Holy Spirit, I am frustrated that we are not experiencing these things much anymore. I am being offered condolences and pity from the “old timers” in the Vineyard. They say things like, “Yeah, this was a good conference, Bill, but you should have seen what they were like when Wimber was around!” or “You should have seen the Spirit move in the old days!” I am told that we are just in a trough between waves of the Spirit. Perhaps it is just me, but I find that to be dissatisfying, inconsistent, and more than a little sad. I love the Vineyard. It is my family; my tribe. Also, this is not just a factor in the Vineyard. Many churches that were formally on fire with the power of the Spirit are hardly even a dying ember anymore. People shrug, say “oh, well”, and hunker down to wait for the next great revival. I can’t even fathom the absurd notion that I may have peaked spiritually as a 6 year old Catholic!

I see no evidence in Scripture of God teasing us by giving, withdrawing, and re-giving the Spirit, like some kind of divine yo-yo diet. In fact, in John 14, in referring to the sending of the Spirit, He says that He does not give as the world gives. In Scripture, He has pulled back from individuals, usually to speak to the person by His absence, as in the case of Job. Sometimes He would withdraw from a person to punish or judge, as in the case of King Saul. The only time He withdrew from His people as a whole was in the inter-testamental period, when the prophets were silent. I think when the Spirit came at Pentecost, it came to stay. I think the waves are not with the Spirit, but with us. We stop paying attention. We lose the awe and wonder. We get sick of holding revival services every day for 2 straight years. We start to handle the Sacred with the flippancy of Uzzah with the Ark. I am not a Dispensationalist, so I do not believe the Spirit comes and goes. So why are we continuing to miss it? The miracles and manifest power of God has not ceased to be displayed in places like China or Africa. In fact, there are still accounts of people being raised from the dead in those places! Personally, I am sick of the fatalism that comes from thinking that we have to wait for the next great revival. I think God is poised and ready to move right now. Actually, He is already moving. We have to reawaken our hunger for Him! As the Church in America, we need to stop pretending to be filled and satisfied with powerless services and small groups that are more like therapy than ministry. Lately, it seems like almost daily I get an email to pray for a pastor in the Vineyard who has cancer, or I hear of some other illness or fall from grace of a person in ministry. I am not saying those pastors do not have enough faith. I would never say that, because it is simply not true. It seems, however, that ever since our founder died of cancer, that demon has all but defeated our church. I think it is time we said “Enough!” and we start fasting and praying to conquer this satanic disease and every other one known to humanity. I want to see demons cast out, the sick healed, and the captives set free! I even want to see the dead raised! I simply think it is foolishness to wait another 50 years, and our nostalgia is not going to save anybody. We will see a new and fresh outpouring of the Spirit that goes beyond anything in the past, if we merely see our need and desperation for God to move in our lives. We must acknowledge our spiritual poverty and seek his face. We need to crest again with the power of the Spirit, because the Devil rejoices in our disempowerment. Let’s wake up and see God move! Maybe I am foolish, or maybe I have never really lost that sense that God can do anything He wants whenever He wants. I Think He is right here waiting. My breath is caught in my lungs, because the Kingdom is going to break in right now or at any moment. Let’s not miss it!