Ben Lemery | Church & Culture

10 Cents and a Lot of Weight

Last Sunday, I went to Taco Bell to get something quick to eat.  I wanted to check out the one on 41st because they had rebuilt it and it was all new inside.  So in I went. 

As I was approaching the counter, a rough looking guy approached me and said that he was a dime short to get a soft taco.  I defaulted with my response that I don't carry any cash on me (which I don't) and turned away so I could focus on what I was going to order.  However he started mumbling under his breath, "a guy your size doesn't have money?" 

I was ignoring it because it wasn't the first time I had heard this since I moved to Santa Cruz. 

The comments caught me off guard and after I ordered the clerk at the counter offered to help the guy who wanted a soft taco.  As my food came up, I had to maneuver around the guy again to get my food and he made more comments about my weight and the food I got. 

All I could do at that point was leave.  No taco sauce and not even a fork for my cheesy potatoes.  I was pretty speechless going out to my car and a little angry inside.  Inside of me I was asking, "why would someone who needs help be so crass to someone who could help him?"  I drove home kinda hurt by it all.

But yet it stuck in my mind.  What if I had offered to pay for his 89 cent soft taco and not just defaulted to my normal answer?  If I did that for everyone would I be broke?  Did I miss a moment to show God's love?

Of course then I think, does God give chances for people to point out my sin of gluttony?  A sin that is evident no matter what, unhideable?  That I don't take care of my body at all?  Was that a moment where the Lord allowed me to be wounded so that I could be more proactive?

I don't know and I don't have the answers.  But my commitment to you, as readers, is to share my heart. 

Personal Changes: Goodbye Charismatic Movement

Since the year 2000, when I was sitting in a dorm room with other friends and my friend Kelly encouraged me to find my personal prayer language or praying in tongues.  That night, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit that night oh so long ago, since then, I have been a die hard Charismatic Christian. 

Over the last ten years, I have attended no less than one hundred prophetic,apostolic, healing, etc, conferences; been apart of a Charismatic church and have participated publicly in my spiritual gifts as much as possible. 

I have seen people fall, twitch, scream, run; you name it, I saw it. 

I was taught that by the power of Jesus that anything could change.  I believe that still but this has been an interesting year and a half and the old "In the name of Jesus" prescription certainly has not been as effective as I had hoped it would be.

I desperately want revival but not the shows that were put on in Lakeland. 

To be honest, I am tired of being a Charismatic Christian and I want to get back to some semblance of the real.

After having a very good talk with my friend Daniel the other day, I told him that I felt that I was going from Charismatic right to Evangelical right in the church.  (Politically we are right wing, center right, center left, left wing.)  I said that I was tired of this consistent idea that there is always something "more" with God, that we just need to have that "more" thing.  Like somehow, God is supposed to be Walmart and we just go in for more, more and more. 

I get tired of hearing of people "toking the Holy Ghost" or "shooting up the Word."  I mean come on.  You have to ask yourself, is this stuff for real? 

I really got tired of seeing a man, who was given great authority, was on tv and surrounded by other leaders, kick the crap out of people and then claiming that it was healing.  It got even worse when none of those leaders were around to explain how a whole "revival" could crash so suddenly.  I mean, are we really that self-concerned that it is more important to look good on tv when it is all going well but to shy away when it doesn't?

I got tired that the accountability we so preach lacks so much, especially in the prophetic movement.  Prophets in both the Old and New Testament were taken seriously, now they aren't even listened to.

That bothers me.  It isn't fair to the thousands that give money to these movements and people.  It isn't fair that thousands run to these places to have a personal fulfillment but yet return to empty lives because they haven't developed this on their own.  It really isn't fair.

So for now, I am putting a lot of involvement with the Charismatic church on pause.  There are people I trust that I will still walk with but beyond that, I need to take a second look at myself first and at the movement second. 

I have realized that I can still prophesy to someone and not be apart of a Charismatic church.  I can still operate out of the gift of discernment just fine.  In fact, being out of the Charismatic movement has made me more aware and vigilant to not be so flippant with the gifts that God has entrusted me with but instead to approach every opportunity in His grace alone.  Not saying that I am anywhere perfect in this but I am learning.

In the coming weeks I want to share, more in depth, my concerns and personal experiences that have made me question the movement as a whole but also my hope that they can get back on track. 

So that is one personal change I am making on this journey God has me on.  There are others, so many others.

The Donald Miller Book Tour

Last night I attended the Donald Miller Book Tour in Fremont, CA.  I have already blogged about his new book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years but if you are able to attend one of the tour dates, it is well worth it.  (I would buy the book at Amazon though, it is $20 a book at the actual event)

First, Susan Isaacs, whom I had never heard of before last night, was amazing.  She gave a highlight from her one-act show/book Angry Conversations with God.  It truly was snarky but very authentic.  It also opened up a whole new way to communicate a story and God's redemption. 

The overall tone of the tour and the book is your story, God writing it and what will be your plot line in life.  This was a new an intriguing way to reflect on my own life and having it reemphasized last night was refreshing.  Miller stated that a character has to have conflict in your story to have meaning and the character in a story changes through pain. 

I could have lept up and shouted Hallelujah right there but I restrained myself. 

In a simple and honest way, Miller was able to explain my own journey throughout the past two years.  He jokingly talked about how Christians get a marketed message thrown at them, that if they accept Jesus, everything is going to be ok but this isn't true.  If you go to one of the tour dates, you can hear the rest.  It is impacting.

To put this into context, I am not just trumpeting yet another big name person.  I was not a fan of Miller's for the past couple of years.  I liked the guy but didn't gush over him like so many other bloggers out there.  (That isn't negative, I gush over Pat Summitt so sue me!)  But, I was pretty critical of his unstructured view of religion and my "fear" that it would lead people onto a path of doubt. 

After the year and the half that I have had, I am putting a lot of things into question and reevaluating many things.  I will be writing about those as soon as I have them more plotted out. 

Miller is an important voice in our generation because he is speaking to a lot of hearts that have been wounded, abandoned and have gone through real pain.  He is able to write about these from personal experience and how he has dealt with them honestly. 

So when you go to the tour, I hope that you see a man that has made a choice to choose not just to be honest with you but to be vulnerable.  He is no different than you and I.  He is still seeking out the greater things of God but has also made a choice to do great things in his life.  Sometimes hearing another person's story validates our own but also challenges us to make a better one for ourself.

Please consider going to one of his stops if you are nearby. 

Because I have friends in Michigan he will be there twice:
Grand Rapids - October 13
Flint - October 26
I expect CMU to represent, so bring groups and take advantage of any group rates they provide. 

Finally, you know that mentoring is a huge part of my heart.  Miller has started something called The Mentoring Project, please check out the information on his website.  He focuses more with late elementary to middle school boys while I am more passionate about young adults.  If you feel this is something your church may be interested in, please contact The Mentoring Project.

Why the Church is Losing the Fights They Should Be Winning

Just like the current political divide in America, the church has become caught up in a similar divide.  The liberal and conservative movements have now distanced themselves from each other regarding some very important issues.  This is disconcerting for a movement that is stronger united than divided.

I have been just as much of a dis-unifying voice in many of these instances by taking hardcore stances one way or another.  However, even a stubborn mule eventually will move to a better pasture.  Unless a view is completely anti-Biblical, it is hard to figure out why we take one stance over another.  The only thing I can think of is pride.

During the Bush 43 administration, the Evangelical church bowed down and worshiped at the president's feet in hopes that their agenda would be passed.  As long as a law banning abortion and gay marriage was passed; as long as the right Supreme Court justices were picked; and as long as they had a voice at the table was provided, they would do whatever was asked of them.  Eight years later and none of those things happened. 

You see, when we put stipulations as narrow as those out there, we also stipulate to God that this is the only way that you can change this issue.  But God being God, took a different stance, hence why I love God so much.  He doesn't act out of our wisdom, He does His own thing.

During this time, a new movement arose that was not a fan of the current Evangelical movement, the Emerging/Emergent church movement.  They began to question the motives of the Evangelical church, especially in the area of social justice.  They made the statement that said, there could be a better way.  Theology set aside, this was an important argument that needed to be made, not in spite of the church but to SAVE the church.

The Emerging/Emergent movement (and I should add in quite a few mainline denominations) tend to be at the least center-left politically to complete left-wing bomb throwers.  So now they got their guy in, President Barack Obama, who is very social justice minded.  Now the liberal faction of the church has a voice at the table and the cycle continues. 

Really they look no different from one another, different year and different takes on issues.  Yet the church is losing more power in communities more and more.  Why is this? 

I agree that abortion should be outlawed.  I have always stood on that ground.  However, it was silly of me to think that for years, we could put a law in and suddenly the heavens would open up, streams of God's glory would settle on America and all would be well.  It is my view that God put the church on earth to proactively be the movement of God's glory.  If that is the case, then churches should contain a view against killing a baby but also be the conduit of creating a cultural change where options could exist instead of the limited ones that are currently in place right now.

Adopting a baby from another country is not a bad thing but how many babies would have been saved had we had stronger American adopting agencies?  Agencies that worked with single mothers and church members to find homes for babies coming into the world, while being able to share the love of Christ in a very intimate and unique way? 

Church mission councils send thousands overseas for orphanages to be built but do nothing in their own communities to take care of the orphans in their own communities.  Wouldn't that be killing the chances of a child right here in America because there is no outreach for them? 

I remember a teen community center that was opened in Menominee when I was in high school.  A pastor felt that if you created a place for teens to go to, where a good message could be shared, that they may walk out of there with a new take on life and make a difference.  Four years later, because of lack of funding it shut down. 

It is easy to shovel money towards causes but yet not be part of the solution.  This was an argument of the Emerging/Emergent movement.  So why can't we begin to work together?  Why can't we take the issues that are most important and dear to our hearts and see some progress happen right here in America?

We want the change but are we willing to set aside ideology to see actual change happen?  As we are seeing in congress, if you want true reform it is going to take everyone to get into the mix.  Let's at least realize that we serve a smarter leader than those who are currently in Congress.

This was on my heart.  If it resonates with you, share this with someone else. 

Book Review: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

It is a hard thing to critique a book.  When you read the dust jacket, there are never any comments that say, "this book sucks, DON'T READ IT!"  Instead they are full of lipstick stained kisses telling you how great the book you are about to read is and even more so how terrific the author is. 

So when I was given the opportunity to receive Donald Miller's new book, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" and the Twitterworld was tweeting their overzealous love for him, I was honestly a little cynical about what I was about to read.  Add to the fact that Miller had done the unthinkable and voted for Obama and openly campaigned for him.

Just being real about my filters coming into this.

"A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" is a story about a guy who is un-extraordinary in every way, seems lonely, lost and not sure what he is doing with his life.  Totally a surprise considering I am reading a book by a bestselling author, who should have a little more money now that he has a sold a ton of these books and is on one of the councils that President Barack Obama has formed.  Not this guy, who should be everything but yet is writing that he is nothing exciting. 

So why would you read it?

Because this guy is you, me and really most of America.  His story is really all of our stories but Miller has given us the privilege of walking with him through his story. 

Donald Miller writes like Annie Dillard.  His description of events, places and life draw you in as if you are a fly on a wall.  The stories he shares, both his own and of others, are real, touching and create an intimate encounter that would make you feel like you are friends with him.

I don't know what you will get out of this book but you will walk away challenged and thinking about where you are in your own life.  The main question that arises is, what is your story and are you letting God write the best story for your life? 

Because many of us, including myself, have very little lives of our own, I would suggest that this book can at least help you live through someone else's and maybe spark some desire to get your own.  I know that I will certainly take a harder look at my own life and start taking a few more risks.  As Miller exemplifies, you only need to take one step to start the journey of a million miles in a thousand years.

Please buy this book.  Please buy it for people for Christmas.  Please buy it for anyone, Christian or non-Christian alike.  Pretty simple eh?