Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Race for the Least of These

May 18-25 we return to Los Angeles to work on Skid Row and in South Central. We will be tutoring homeless children, working with children in South Central (Gang Land), and serving and working with the homeless. There are 90,000 homeless in LA. 20,000 are women. 6,000 are children.

I am blessed to take 21 amazing students on this trip. The trip always transforms lives and develops leaders. God always shows up in the most amazing ways as we are all stretched profoundly. We get to see some of the most beautiful things in the darkest of places, hope in the midst of despair.

We are sponsoring a 5K Fun Run and a 10K Competitive Run on April 24, 2010 at McAllister Park in San Antonio (Race starts at 8:00 a.m.). All proceeds from the race will go toward sending our students to Los Angeles for a very intensive week of work.

We would like for you to participate in the sending of our students! You can do so in several ways:

1) You can pre-register online ($15.00). Here is the link to the race registration site (cost is $20.00 on race day):

http://www.active.com/running/san-antonio-tx/race-for-the-least-of-these-10k-race5k-fun-runwalk-2010

You don't have to be a runner to participate! While there will be trophies and medals for the winners of each age group, this race is all about sending students on mission. You can walk, enjoy a day in the park!

2) You can help sponsor the race. Sponsorship begins at $200.00. All sponsors will have their church or company logo on the back of the race T-Shirt.

3) You can send a gift to help send students to Los Angeles on mission trip. All gifts are charitable contributions and are thus tax deductible.

Checks are payable to San Antonio Baptist Association. In the memo section of the check, you can designate "BSM Mission Trip" or "BSM Race Sponsorship." If you want to sponsor, please send me your company or church logo so we can get it to the t-shirt designer. All sponsorships are due by April 13. You can contact me at: utsabsm@gmail.com

The address for San Antonio Baptist Association: 5807 I H 10 W; San Antonio, TX 78201.

Your investment in our students is an investment in the leaders of tomorrow, in the lives of many homeless in Los Angeles, and many children in South Central.

Your prayers are greatly needed as well. The week is taxing, challenging, and quite difficult. We need prayer covering. We are not always in the safest of places.

Thank you for your prayers and for your support of BSM.

Grace and Peace,
Kevin

Science, Faith, Theodicy and Ed-Engaging the New Atheists

His name is Ed and he is a friendly young man. Approximately 24, Ed returned to school at the University of Texas, San Antonio after two tours of Iraq. When Ed graduated from High School, he considered himself a Christian. He knows the Scriptures-very well. He 'walked the aisle' at the age of 12, and grew up in the church. He will tell you that he prayed to receive Christ and believed everything in the Scriptures. He will tell you that he had no doubts, trusted Christ and grew up a strong Christian in a strong Christian home.

He will also tell you now that he has disavowed Christ and is certain of his atheism.

He will tell you that the first cracks in his faith surfaced in Iraq, where he saw "so much evil go on in the name of religion, in the name of God" from professing Christians as well as devout Muslims. He wondered where God was in all of this, why He would allow so much suffering and evil if He were truly loving. He wondered why God would allow such evil to flourish if He was all powerful? He wondered why God did not seem to answer his prayers while in Iraq. He considered all of these things as he came back to the States to resume his academic studies. God seemed distant, and Ed wondered why people in America were so 'oblivious' to the evil that was in the world and so blindly trusted in God. He wondered if Christianity was a convenient faith in a comfortable land.

During his studies in school, he threw himself into studying science and history. He concluded that science and the Bible were incompatible. He studied history and determined that a 'group of men just made decisions to control people at the early church counsels.' He said there came that moment when "I was liberated. I saw it was all a sham, all something made up, something designed to be a crutch for the weak, to comfort the intellectually lazy, something to control people's behaviors."

I met Ed two weeks ago at our Wednesday lunch. We talked for over an hour. Ed had many questions. God gave much grace in that conversation as I spoke to him. Our conversation was not hostile-it was lively, but not dishonorable. I hold tightly to the apologetic of 1 Peter 3:15,16. I did not answer all of Ed's questions to his liking-but we did have several moment where it became clear his thinking was distorted or his view of Scripture or Christianity was a misrepresentation of what we truly believe.

I told him about a book, written by Dr. Hugh Ross that I would like him to read. He agreed and last week I lent him the book and he is reading brilliant writing from a brilliant Christian astrophysicist on the subject of creation. Please pray for the conversations that will follow.

A lot of praying was going on in that conversation. I prayed the Spirit would open Ed's eyes, heal the wounds, and remove the blinders that kept him from seeing The Christ. I prayed against the enemy who was blinding him and holding him hostage. This conversation was not some mere intellectual debate-it was spiritual warfare to the core.

But there was certainly a great deal of discussion that involved apologetics (defending the faith). Scripture (again, 1 Peter 3:15,16) makes it clear that we are to 'always be ready to give reason for the Hope that is within us-and to give that reason with all gentleness and respect.'

I took away several things from that conversation:
1) We Christians as a whole are not taking "loving God with all of our MIND very seriously." We like to give pat answers to real, probing questions our lost friends have. We give Sunday School answers: "The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it." That is a wonderful personal credo when it comes to faith-but is not something to spout to intellectual seekers when they have serious questions. Ed even joked "When I ask Christians questions that are really important to me, I get the same answers: "God....Jesus...the Bible...no one seems to be able to talk about faith and science, faith and history or faith and philosophy." Ed has legitimate questions.

My first question: Are we properly equipping Christians to defend and share their faith with the "New Atheists?" ,with people who have legitimate questions who are seekers?"

2) A lot of seekers are encountering a lot of angry Christians. Peter said we were to give reason for the hope that is within us, but to do so with all 'gentleness and respect.' Sometimes we Christians are good at arguing with those who disagree with us, but not so good at speaking the Truth in love. We don't have the option of 'opting out' of loving our neighbor-and yes, even Atheists are our neighbors. This leads to my next question:

Are we really embracing the second greatest commandment? Love is supreme. We can disagree with people and discuss ideas without being hostile or hateful. We can defend our faith without dehumanizing others in the Name of Christ. There were several tings Ed said about his encounters with Christians, and one in particular broke my heart: "I have legitimate questions and you have no idea how many times Christians start yelling at me or calling me names or just saying 'you're going to hell,' as opposed to talking about the issues. Christians are just angry people! And Jesus is supposed to be loving? This God is loving? If that's the case why are His people so hateful?"

Ed had many questions. He said during his 'crisis of faith' that point where he was making a decision to believe in God or not, he asked many questions from Christians and in his church. He was told on several occasions something along these lines: 'I'm concerned you have so many questions...faith doesn't do that. You just believe.'

My third question: "Does God tell us to check our brains at the door when we come to faith in Him?"-or, related to this-"Is Christianity illogical?"

God is the Author of Truth and our faith is certainly not 'illogical.' Some of the most brilliant minds throughout human history have come from Christianity. Some of the greatest scientific breakthroughs came from Christian scientists who engaged in scientific pursuit because they believed in a Sovereign, Creative, Orderly God who gave sense and meaning to life and to the cosmos. Unfortunately, there has been a 'dumbing down' in the area of discipleship, even in the area of preaching and teaching. The focus on 'felt needs' has in many ways led us to focus more on making people feel good (and make sure we keep them happy in our gatherings) our as opposed to walking through the full counsel of God and addressing not only 'felt needs' but also real needs-and that includes the need to share the Gospel with non-believers in a way they can understand.

Paul's missiological approach in Acts 17 (his encounter with the Greek philosophers) is informative. Paul knew what the philosophers believed, understood their philosophy and even quoted from some of their poets and philosophers, using the insights the lost thinkers had as a bridge to share the Truth. Paul was heartbroken over the idolatry, but respectful, even commending the philosophers for being 'religious men.'

We can learn a lot from Paul. Paul did not compromise the Message, he showed love and respect and he knew how to defend the faith with some of the intellectuals of his day. What Paul did not do was spew hatred towards the philosophers who were somewhat arrogant as they pondered Paul's ideas, ideas which were 'strange to their ears'-they even called him a babbler. Still...Paul persevered, shared the Truth and demonstrated love and respect.

There are many people like Ed in our city, in our culture. Ed is not opposed to the idea of God, he simply wants some legitimate questions answered. He has a lot of anger towards God. In our conversation, I did point out (carefully) that he seemed quite angry with someone who does not exist from his point of view. Ed slipped several times in this area. It makes no sense to be angry with a non-existent Deity.

You see, the core issue of Ed's 'unbelief' was his inability to reconcile what he was learning in science, his life experiences in Iraq, and what he was hearing in his history classes. To be frank, many of his objections from a historical and scientific point of view were related to poor discipleship-and professors who had an agenda to undermine Christianity.

Poorly discipled Christians encountering 'intellectuals' with an agenda against Christians often find themselves dashed on the rocks.

We can and must do better.

Please pray for Ed. God knows him and loves him. Pray that Ed will come to truly know Christ. Pray for our students and for me, for those who are in conversation with him. Pray for wisdom and discernment. Pray also that the enemy be bound. He is wily and crafty and has blinded Ed.

Pray also for the church. Pray that we would rediscover what it means to love God with 'all of our mind'-as John R.W. Stott said, our minds "matter to God."

If you are wondering what some of Ed's questions were-here are a few statements and questions:
1) "If God knows everything and is Good and Loving, why did He create a world where He knew we would fall? Why would He do that to condemn most of humanity to hell?"

2) "It's like God slits our throats, tells us we are dying, and then says, 'love me and you will live. Do not love me, and you will die. He cut our throats, making us imperfect-what kind of love is that?"

3) "Most of the evil in the world has come from religious zealots doing all of this evil in the name of their god. We would all be better off if we were all liberated from these superstitions."

4) "You Christians believe the earth is 6,000 years old. It's laughable. Science has proven beyond a doubt that the earth is millions of years old. How can any intelligent person believe such a thing?"

5) "Why does God create people He plans on tormenting for eternity in hell? If He knows everything, He knows who will love Him and who won't. Why would He make people just to torture them in hell for eternity? Isn't that evil?"

6) "If God is so wise, why couldn't He figure out a way to create a perfect environment where there was no possibility for evil or sin?"

7) "If God is so good and heals people and things like it says in the Bible, why don't we see amputees growing limbs back or the lame walking or the blind seeing? Where is the evidence for that?"

I could go on-but this is a starting point. Interesting questions, and we can address these issues, but are we willing to study and learn and are we willing to have meaningful dialogue?

The culture is asking a lot of questions. Bumper sticker theology isn't going to answer these questions, but followers of Christ, filled with the Spirit, available to Him, who are learning to love God with their minds, will be quite useful in His Hands.