What Has Kept Me In The Church (and ministry)

This past week, Rachel Held Evans, a popular blogger, caused a stir with an entry entitled "15 Reasons I Left the Church." I believe that to date she has had almost 800 comments on that posting. In the "blogosphere," that is officially a whole bunch. I think I once had five people respond to one of my blog entries. Rachel followed up her article the next day with another entitled "15 Reasons I Returned to the Church." For some reason that hasn't had the same type of response from her readers.

Ms. Held Evans' posting was inspired by the popular statistic indicating 8 million Evangelical, twenty-something youth have walked away from the church. According to some, the religious category entitled "none" (such as in "none of the above") is the fastest growing group in the States. Add the nones to the "New Atheists" (which have always seemed like the old atheists to me - just with better book contracts) and Agnostics and you begin to see a changing religious demographic in the States.

Ever willing to wade into religious controversy, I have decided to share with you eight reasons I have stayed in the church and ministry. I would have written 15, but I always have to be mindful of Su's editing pen on these postings. Besides, in my simple-mindedness, I guess I didn't need 15 reasons to stick around.

So, without further introduction:

1. Jesus. Plain and simple. My faith walk started by being confronted with the person and the work of Jesus. Now, more then ever, I find that I desire to reflect His character and His priorities in my life.

2. Good honest preaching. I know. This probably proves I do not watch or listen to enough religious programming. However, that is not my fault. I have especially appreciated relatively "unknown" preachers like John Faulkner and his son, Jack. I would never tell him this, but C. John Steer's messages usually speak to me. I wouldn't tell John this because he is a Brit and Brits do not do well with compliments. Mark Kieft gives a good, honest word. You can find John Steer and Mark on-line. Jack is technologically impaired, but he smokes a better brisket than the others. In my opinion, we would probably have less people leave the church if there were more preachers and pastors who could smoke a good brisket.

3. Caring, imperfect people. Time and space do not allow me to begin to communicate the outpouring of care Su and I have experienced from Christians during our lives. However, the fact that a woman had a vision to knit a shawl for Su and pray for her while it was being made, brought tears to my eyes this week. Su has had a rough week. Each time she puts on that shawl, she somehow feels specially covered. I don't think "nones," agnostics or atheists get many "prayer shawls" in the mail.

4. Fellow pilgrims. I have been blessed to be accompanied by some honest companions in my faith walk. Guys like Gary, Joe and Mark (and probably all the preachers mentioned above) have never seemed reticent to encourage, strengthen and, occasionally, place a proverbial shoe or boot on a strategic part of my anatomy. It is hard to "opt out" when things get tough if you are surrounded by these type of celestial hitchhikers.

5. The Bible. I must have something wrong with me, but I do not sense a disconnect between the Word and the experience of facing challenging realities in life. In fact, the Bible has been a lifeline to me. It serves the same basic purpose as the fellow pilgrims mentioned above, but is much harder to argue with.

6. A milkshake. That's right. At a real low point for me in ministry, Bob McFatter took me out for a malt and we had "one of those talks." I am not really sure what we discussed. I know the malt didn't cost much (or, Bob wouldn't have paid for it). However, I went into the conversation about ready to give up on ministry and check out the career opportunities at the fast food establishment where we talked. By the time we finished the conversation I had decided to at least keep "trying to try." That was about 19 years ago...

7. Music. Singing has always been part of my faith experience. I grew up listening (the words "obligated" and "forced" come to mind) to my Father's Gospel quartet. When I became a believer I listened to Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman, and Mustard Seed Faith. Gary and I sang together. Tom, Ray, Jerry and I sang in a band. Su and I always sang.. even when we washed and dried the dishes. My father once took me with him on a summer day when the quartet was going to try and comfort a woman who was dying of cancer by singing outside of her bedroom window. Because of that experience when I was ten years old, I knew that Christians had something special that others couldn't counterfeit. It is true... atheists have no songs.

8. My daughters, son-in-laws and, now, grand kids. Sorry, I do not mean to tug on the emotional heartstrings here. However, having raised my daughters to become women of God; after making sure that each of the men who married my daughters were serious about their own faith; and, after seeing my oldest granddaughter baptized, I couldn't turn back now. Last week I think 49 people were shot where our middle daughter, Krista, and her young family live. 7 died. One was a six year old girl. Chris, my son-in-law, constantly tells me about what the church is doing to reach out in that troubled community. So far, I haven't noticed either new or old agnostics offering comfort at the funerals of these young people... maybe the GPS in their fuel efficient cars does not show southwest Chicago.

So, it is not perfect and mistakes are made. However, thinking about church, belief and ministry, I think I will stick around for a while. That is until “nones” begin to reach out in effective ways in tough places like La Villita. I think I will stay here until agnostics fall in love with a historical Jesus. And, I really want to hang around until atheists sing something besides those old camp songs.