Ben Lemery | Church & Culture

Rogue Christianity: Why YOU Need To Be A Rogue Christian

At the beginning of the week, we looked at the term rogue and the definition behind it.  I didn't make it up, didn't twist it, I simply took what the dictionary states the word means.

Rogue: no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade

In some sense, this is quite a negative definition.  Not something that you would want to be associated with if you were trying to be a good little church goer and never stir the waters.

Here are some realities. 

• Modern day church isn't working.  Young adults don't want a theatrical production, another program or another catchy sermon; they want Jesus, nothing more, nothing less.
• Culture has a higher priority than living for Jesus. We live how we want to live, by our own rules and you can't challenge me because it's my life. (That is the negative rogue that we have talked about)
• Black and white has turned into the color gray.  The boundary lines of life have been smudged so much that we can't really tell right from wrong in a lot of areas anymore.

With that said, it is going to take some rogue Christians to buck the system and say, "there is a better way!"

Martin Luther didn't break away from the Catholic Church because he was meek and mild.  He chose to be disobedient in the face of their rules to bring a change in the system.  I am sure he fit the definition in the dictionary but look at the good it brought to the world. 

You don't hear about meek and mild Christians making a difference, it is always those that see the status quo and they do anything to change it. 

The debate can be made for what "being rogue" looks like.  I do have strong feelings about submission to authority and at the very least not usurping authority to push your agenda through.

So, let's start here.  If you feel that you are a rogue Christian, looking to make a difference, I will suggest the following:

• Pray, pray and pray.  Even when you are done praying, pray a little more.  Your communion with God will help to refine and develop His vision and not yours.
• Pass your ideas by some trusted friends who will CHALLENGE you.  Having yes men around you is stupid.  You need to talk to friends that you can 1. Vent to; 2. Be bluntly open with; and 3.  Will stand with you when you decide to approach others with your vision.
• Serve.  Noone will take you seriously if you aren't part of the solutions to the problems currently in place in your own church community. 
• Read the Bible.  If your vision doesn't have a Biblical foundation, then it is crap.  Start over, get it based on the Word and move forward from that point on.

We need some new voices in the church.  If we are called to be one of those voices, then God will make it happen.  Ironically, it is only out of our submission to God that we can be a rogue force on earth.

Your thoughts.  Do you feel called to be a rogue Christian?  How are you doing this now?  What are good and bad stories from taking the risk of stepping out?  What could you have done better?

Rogue Christianity: Accountability

This is a major theme in the comments of this blog series, is accountability a warranted action in the church?

It seems that there is a lot of debate about this because there are simply not clear answers laid out in the Bible regarding this.  The Bible does not really give strong clarity on the "how tos" of life.  It gives guidance, it gives you boundaries and it gives you an idea that if you choose your own ways, it will lead to a destructive path.  I will cede all of that upfront. 

With that said, I do believe that we like to be answerable only to ourselves and feel that anyone who impedes into that process is either judging (an obnoxiously misrepresented term in present-day Christianity) or you simply don't have their best interest at heart.

I have also found that it is easier to hold someone else accountable than being held accountable by someone else.  We don't mind when we are helping someone else get better but when the tables are turned, we can manifest like a principality right there.  So, I would suggest that we live in a double standard world also.

The other section of accountability that rings clear is that it is a highly emotional issue and if you are going to hold someone accountable for their actions, you may get burned in the end.  I have been the person who has done a great job at completely laying on the guilt and hot coals of the Lord when someone has fallen into sin but I have also learned, from those experiences, how to love someone into freedom. 

Knowing that I am an intense person in regards to getting things done, I have had to work extra hard to let God do the talking, work in tact but be intense all at the same time.  God has a pretty good success rate but I know that there were some major setbacks with people along the way. 

So if there are setbacks and you have been the one who has hurt someone in accountability, been the one hurt or have seen the results of other people hurting others, does that make it wrong?  Absolutely not. 

We all make mistakes.  God gives us the opportunity to ask forgiveness for those mistakes.  In the end, accountability provides the opportunity to build even more on your own character while helping others build theirs. 

Accountability is not an opportunity for you to use someones sin to beat them down; it is not a blackmail item; it is not something to be shared with others "in prayer;" and it is not something to be used for manipulation.  I am probably guilty of all those things.

Accountability is an opportunity to look out for another person's interests; (Phil 2:4) it is an opportunity to spur one another in love for their calling and to do greater works; (Heb. 10:23-24) and it is an opportunity to receive prayer so that God can work within that prayer to set you free from sin and provide a place for repentance with a trusted friend.  (James 5:16)

The reality is, we need each other.  Doing this whole Christian thing on our own is ridiculous and opens our lives up to false doctrines, false interpretations and for the enemy to come and take us out.  With more we can defend each other, hold each other up and see our legacies on earth fulfilled.  (Ecc.4:12) 

While this is emotional and we do get hurt at times, we need to get past the fact that we are allowed to have disagreements, we are allowed to debate and that it shockingly isn't judging another person.  We need to hear each other out, hear the narrative behind the cause and not simply come in with a preconceived idea of what you think the issue is.  We also need to love a person enough to stand with them through their healing process but also be open enough that we can share our struggles and story.

It isn't necessarily about sin, it is about preserving the legacy of God for our lives.  We should be compelled to want a great legacy for everyone. 

What do you think?  Have you been hurt by accountability?  Helped?  What are the effects either way?  Do you feel after reading this that you could maybe give it another try?  How could we do it differently? 

Let's start the conversation. 

Rogue Christianity: I Love God and That's Enough

"Who is holding you accountable?" 

"Jesus does."

"Where do you go to church?"

"I don't need to go to church, I don't want to be labeled under a denomination."

"Ok, so do you believe in any structure like going to church?"

"I believe you can love God/Jesus and that's enough, everything else is extra."

I am sharing mishmash conversations I have had with people over the years.  The one above is about 18 different conversations laced into one.  Today's church culture has created some very important questions that would not have been asked 50 years ago. 

50 years ago, churches were represented as:

• a Christian denomination that you attended in the building down the street. 
• You had a pastor, worship leader and elders. 
• Structure was everything, never questioned because theoretical knowledge was not apart of the culture at that point. 
• You went to that church because your parents went or at least belonged to that denomination. 
• You were part of a community and you didn't need to question it beyond that.

Present-day Christianity has created:

• sermons from multiple thinkers, scholars, theologians, etc. at the click of a button
• books espousing different theories on church, takes on church history and interpretations of scripture.
• house church models, internet based church, church on your own, church in a building, a coffee shop, you name it you can have it.
• smaller, specific community groups based on your needs, likes and desires

It is not surprising when people stick with an argument of "I love God and that's enough" because if they can hold onto a core foundational point that you definitely can't retort, then they shield themselves from being questioned on their other values that have few solid points to back them up.

You can't argue that scripturally love is enough, because loving God/Jesus is enough, that is the key into getting heaven and being saved.  However, until you're dead, you have a life to live on earth and how you live it, who you are taught under and who you are influenced by does matter.

Technology has given us a wealth of theoretical knowledge at our finger tips.  Many times, you can read something and you feel that everything a person is writing matches what you have always been thinking.  How many of us know that what we always think doesn't always make it right!  Our motives, wounds and life experiences can lead us down emotional paths of destruction or freedom.  Without checks and balances, we put ourselves into situations where we no longer need to "love God and that's enough;" we end being God for our own lives and we tell everyone that is enough.

There is A LOT to dissect out of modern Christianity.  It is a huge conversation and I am not the holder of the keys of knowledge.  I have opinions, you have opinions and we all need a place to talk about our feelings.  I don't have to "be careful" as some have suggested when talking about this.  It's being careful that has gotten us into the politically correct church that we all hate right now anyway, so I am presenting the stuff we all think about but don't talk about.

So what do you think?  Has modern Christianity weakened or strengthened the church?  How well do you check if the teachings you receive are 1. Biblical, 2. Fact-checked, 3. Written/taught by people who have the background to write or teach on the subject presented?  Is love enough or do we just dismiss that Paul worked to set up entire church structures and guidelines in the Bible?

Weigh in on the conversation below.

Rogue Christianity

"Do you go to church?"

"No, I haven't gone in awhile."

"Why?"

"I haven't found one that really meets my needs."

"Sooooo, who is holding you accountable?  Where are you finding community?  Who is leading you spiritually?"

"Well, I listen to a lot of online sermons, pray a lot on my own and I mean, really, what is the church anyway?  It isn't a building so when my friends and I gather, we are the church."

This is a common mishmash of conversations I have had with Christians throughout the years.  It is easy to write because they all are similar.  These conversations come from strong Christians, weak Christians and those who are just doing enough to stay Christian.  Regardless of the person, the conversation is always the same.

Rogue Christianity.  To be completely honest, I took the definition of rogue primarily from the title of Sarah Palin's book.  From what I thought the definition was and what it really is are two different things.  Whoever marketed her book did a good job on deviating from the true meaning of the definition and instead makes it a cool thing to be "going rogue."

Here is the definition of rogue from Dictionary.com: no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade

No longer obedient, not controllable or answerable, deviating.  Those are pretty strong words that I simply don't want in my character.  However, it does speak to a greater point that there are a growing number of rogue Christians out there.  It doesn't necessarily fit an age group, it is more of an ideology.  We think that we know so we don't need the church community.  We don't need to be taught by someone else, because I can teach myself.  We don't need to be held accountable because I can do it on my own.  I don't need you because you never needed me.  Notice how the we turns to I and then it is all about You.

Isolating tactics are the best move the enemy makes because in numbers you are able to defend and stand your ground, on your own you are just an easy takeout.

Where do you fit into the overall spectrum of this?  If you are not going to church, why?  Is this a church issue?  a you issue?  or both issue? 

I will write more about this this week but let's start the conversation.

My Wrong Marathon

I should be a hundred pounds lighter at the rate I have ran in the last two years.  Last week marked two years since I moved to California.  I still remember what my friends looked like as my car was getting pulled down the road through the snow drifts so I could finally get on my way.  I remember the feeling of finally being able to be someone and that I was going to make my mark in the world. 

Two years later.

I just want out!  I am tired of me, myself and I.  Tired of where I am not at.  Tired of the same old struggles.  Doubtful of the call of God on my life. 

I am definitely not going to run back to Him because that would be a sign of Him being right. 

Admitting that would mean He did need to put me in the wilderness and work on my heart.  That I did need to be brought to a foreign place, where nothing seems familiar and where I would have few friendships or people to talk to.  That in the end, this was more about me and Him than me and everyone else.  

We put a lot of energy into running the wrong races in life.  We think that we are accomplishing something when in the end, we accomplish nothing. 

A friend told me that until you embrace the reasons God put you in the place you are at, you will never be released into the next season of your life.  Even in the difficult place, He is working things in you and teaching you so that you can deal with future situations.

These are easy things for me to tell you and encourage YOU what to do but me, haha, oh well I already know it so why would I have to learn such things.

See the lies I tell myself!

So there are moments in our lives when we realize that our arms are embraced around ourselves and the only way to find total freedom is to open our arms wide and embrace the cross.  Out of the greatest eternal struggle ever to happen on earth, that is the only place we can truly understand the freedom we gain from a total embrace of giving everything to God.

So there is where I am at.

Do you find yourself running away from God sometimes?  What happens when you recognize you are?  Is it difficult to embrace the cross after running for so long?