In the 1976 Academy Award winning movie Network, the “mad prophet of the airwaves” Howard Beale (played by Peter Finch) tells his television audience to turn off their TV sets and leave them off. I’m thinking maybe the guy was actually on to something, because I didn’t realize how addicted I am to television until just this week. I always assumed that my TV viewing choices were “healthy” and intelligent — mostly news, documentaries, etc. — none of the reality shows that have taken over the tube in recent years. But when I tried to turn off the set this weekend to focus on setting some goals, I felt like I was coming down off a caffeine high with no more coffee in sight. The silence was deafening– and uncomfortable. The funny thing is, I realized that I haven’t been watching TV so much for the content– I’ve been keeping it on for background noise.

Recently, I began wondering why God has seemed so silent lately, and I started asking him to speak to me more. Then I happened to notice where he was speaking to me. In the shower, when I’m out for a walk or run, on my way to work.  (All the places where there aren’t other voices and images bombarding my senses.) I thought it was interesting that I could hear God over running water and traffic noises, but I couldn’t hear him over Wolf Blitzer and Shepard Smith. One of the problems is that TV engages both our eyes and ears at once. And unlike books, TV doesn’t give us good opportunities to stop and process what we just took in. Even if we’re watching something that’s “good for us”, unless we press “pause” or turn off the set on a regular basis, any positive intellectual or spiritual stimulation we receive is going to be drowned out by the next set of sounds and pictures.

TV can certainly be a force for good. I’ve watched some great sermons on video– and picked up a lot of truth along the way. But sometimes the best kind of truth is the kind you discover for yourself, not the kind someone else serves you. If you’ve ever had a spiritual “light bulb moment”, you understand what I’m saying. From my experience, watching too much TV makes those moments few and far between. It’s like being spoon-fed processed food versus preparing homemade food for yourself from scratch. Which one is ultimately better?

Too much television is bad because it keeps us from using our minds to their fullest potential. Sure, we can get some truth from the tube, but it’s usually the already-chewed, processed, pre-packaged kind of truth. The beauty of reading a book is that we can look up from the page and contemplate what we just read. And if we’re reading without background noise, God can jump in anytime and prompt us with a lot less competition for our attention. Sure he could easily speak so we could hear him over all the noise of the TV, but for whatever reason, that’s not the way God usually works– at least that’s been my experience.

When I think of the times in my life when God has clearly spoken to me, I was usually away from the TV, radio, and yes, even my computer. Our church in Austin used to have an annual family retreat at a camp which was in such a remote location that mobile phones wouldn’t even work there. I hated being cut off from the rest of the world, but God always spoke to me when I was at that camp. Coincidence?

Television, mobile phones and computers are here to stay, but it’s important that we teach younger generations how to use them in moderation. Unfortunately, we’re becoming a culture that’s terrified of silence. The trouble with that is, if we forget how to be quiet, we’re going to forget how to hear God. I’ve observed it in my youth ministry experiences and now I’ve seen it in my own life.

It’s been 5 days since I arrived in Nashville, and so far, so good. Leaving Austin was harder than I thought it was going to be, but I’m confident I’ll adjust to everything in a few weeks. Working at the United Methodist Publishing House is going to be a blast– the people there have gone out of their way to welcome me to the team, and I’m excited about all the cool stuff my department is going to be putting together.

Writing and editing is all about time management– you have to prioritize your tasks. Building something from the ground up is challenging, and when you look at everything that has to be done, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Without setting up a system of some sort, everything simply won’t be done as efficiently as it should be.

If you think about it, the cliche “Time is money” has some truth to it. We’re used to hearing the phrase in a business context but it makes sense whether you’re in the business world or not. That’s because time is a precious commodity– a nonrenewable resource. Once it’s gone, you don’t get it back. And everyone– from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to regular people like you and me– has the same amount of time each day to do all the things we do.

We can do two things with time: invest it or waste it. My feeling is that when it comes to investing something we can’t really make more of (such as time), we need to invest it in things that are going to be around for a while. When I look at it that way, the things that really matter are God and people– because those are the things that are going to be around forever. With that outlook, the way I spend my time suddenly becomes a much higher priority. If I’m a business person, my desire to make money will become more about impacting people than storing up treasures for myself on earth. Even my times of leisure and recreation will become more holy– because what I’m really doing is getting replenished so I can do even more for the Kingdom of God after I’ve rested!

We can’t create more time, but what we can do is multiply our ministry through other people. When we invest time in others, we are hopefully raising up people who will do the same– that’s how the church grew from a few hundred people to the multitudes of Christians that are alive today. People invested time in God and other people, and God’s Kingdom has been gaining ground ever since.

I was reading from John Wesley’s journal last night about his experience sailing to Georgia in 1735. In one of his earliest journal entries, Wesley gave an account of a typical day’s routine for some of the folks on the ship. It looked something like this:

4am: Private prayer
5am: Reading Bible as a group
7am: Breakfast
8am: Public prayer
9am-Noon: Wesley learned German– someone else learned Greek– Charles worked on sermons and someone else taught the kids
Noon: Accountability meeting
1pm: Lunch
Lunch-4pm: Discipleship/Counseling/Bible study
4pm: Group prayer
5pm: Private prayer
6pm: Wesley read to some of the passengers
7pm: Joined the German passengers for worship
9 or 10pm: Went to bed

The first thing I noticed was no mention of dinner. (Perhaps the passengers were accustomed to only two meals a day.) The second thing I noticed was how structured and purposeful Wesley’s day was. I understand that being on a boat with no cable TV or video games makes it much easier to be spiritual, but Wesley’s personal schedule seems remarkable even by 18th century standards. And remember, this was before Aldersgate.

John Wesley was intentional about spending a large amount of his time investing in the spiritual growth of himself and others. And it paid off. Eternity is still being affected by the decisions an Anglican priest made almost 300 years ago. I don’t know about you, but I want to be like that. Who cares what big things we accomplish if it’s all gone in a couple of generations? What difference does it make how rich or famous we are if it doesn’t mean anything ten thousand years from now? I want my work time, break time, recreation time and prayer time– everything I do–  to mean something. It’s all a gift from God, and it’s up to me to make sure he gets plenty of bang for his buck.

A few years ago, someone in our church’s youth ministry decided to make a list of rules for the church gym. If I recall correctly, the rules were written in red letters on white poster board. Someone hung the rules at the main entrance, and with gems like “no profanity”, “no drugs” and “side hugs only” it didn’t leave a good first impression with some of the unchurched high school kids attending our Wednesday afternoon basketball ministry. Thankfully most of them probably just ignored the sign. After a couple of weeks, I arranged for the list of rules to “mysteriously” disappear. (Church politics– you know the drill.)

It’s not that I’m against rules. But to a kid who had never set foot inside a church, being greeted by a tacky list of “don’ts” (in red letters) probably reinforced the idea that church was about as fun as school. No disrespect intended toward our public education system, but it’s just not the image I wanted our church to project to teenagers.

The truth is, when it comes to faith, rules can be a good thing  as long as we don’t get caught up in legalism or trying to earn our salvation. When John Wesley started putting together Methodist societies (large groups) and classes (small groups), he was addressing the needs of people who wanted to deal with the sin in their lives and to “flee from the wrath to come.” He published the General Rules of the societies as expectations and guidelines  for those who had come to faith in Christ.

Those rules were:

• Do no harm, avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced.
• Do good, of every possible sort, as far as possible, to all people.
• Attend upon all the ordinances of God, such as public worship, the ministry of the Word, Communion, prayer (family, group and private), searching the Scriptures and fasting.

Bishop Rueben Job rewords the third rule, “stay in love with God,” while Kevin Watson prefers, “practice the Christian disciplines.” I guess the original doesn’t convey much meaning to the modern reader, and in my ministry mostly with males in their teens and twenties, I’ve found Kevin’s version more useful than Bishop Job’s. Sometimes I even add my own explanation, “invest in your own spiritual growth.”

The bottom line is this: if you put these rules into practice, things are going to change– there’s no way around it. Essentially, these rules are corollaries to the two greatest commandments that Jesus taught: “You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with all your being, with your whole mind, and with all your strength” and “You will love your neighbor as yourself.” (CEB) If Christians really get serious about following the two greatest commandments and the three general rules, they’re going to find themselves on the road to a successful Christian life.

Conversely, if someone is experiencing chronic defeat in their walk of faith, a quick inventory of Wesley’s General Rules will almost always help them find the hole in the boat. (From my experiences of informal counseling, people often don’t have to go past the first rule to figure out what’s wrong.)

It’s almost too simple. Like Naaman when he was told to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times, we’re tempted to ask, “Is that all?” Yet we shouldn’t kid ourselves. The rules are simple, but they aren’t so easy to implement. But it’s worth the struggle, because there’s spiritual dynamite in the General Rules. It’s impossible to overstate this fact.

I’m planning to do a series of posts soon on the General Rules, and I’ll be approaching them from a slightly different perspective than those you may have seen so far. It’s going to be fun for me to put it all together, and hopefully you’ll find it both fascinating and helpful.

Watching cable news these days makes me feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone.

First, President Obama spoke at a White House Ramadan dinner and expressed his support for the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan:

President Obama

But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure.

You can read the entire speech here. In fact, if you do, you’ll find that the President had a lot more to say than what you heard in the sound bites on the news. But the media went nuts because he had “shown support for the Ground Zero mosque.” Yet the the controversial part of the speech could have just as easily been said by President Bush– because it’s true! Muslims do have the right to build a mosque on private property if they want. Pundits were apparently upset because the President didn’t encourage the group to build the mosque elsewhere. (As if that particular group of Muslims have control over the New York mosque.)

Then the President clarified his statement:

My intention was to simply let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country, we treat everybody equally in accordance with the law. Regardless of race. Regardless of religion. I was not commenting on and will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there.

The big story the next day was that President Obama had backtracked. Really? Maybe I’m missing something. So far I haven’t seen a problem with anything he said. Could someone please fill me in?

Then today on CNN’s John King USA, Frankin Graham was asked about the President’s faith:

Franklin Graham

I think the president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name. Now it’s obvious that the president has renounced the prophet Mohammed and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ. That is what he says he has done, I cannot say that he hasn’t. So I just have to believe that the president is what he has said.

It seems clear to me that Franklin Graham was referring to the perception problem for Obama, i.e. the increasing percentage of people who think the President is Muslim. Later in the evening on CNN, Rick Sanchez seemed aghast that Franklin Graham had said that part of the perception problem was Obama’s father being Muslim and that the seed of Islam is passed through the father. But Graham was right. Here’s an excerpt from Islam: A Very Short Introduction, by Malise Ruthven, published by Oxford University Press:

There is, however, a secondary meaning to Muslim which may shade into the first. A Muslim is one born to a Muslim father who takes on his or her parents’ confessional identity without necessarily subscribing to the beliefs and practices associated with the faith, just as a Jew may describe him- or herself as Jewish without observing the Halacha. In non-Muslim societies, such Muslims may subscribe to, and be vested with, secular identities.

Graham was pointing out that to the Muslim world, if you have a Muslim father, then you are Muslim “by default.” But he was quick to add, “Now it’s obvious that the president has renounced the prophet Mohammed and he has renounced Islam and he has accepted Jesus Christ.” Yet later when Rick Sanchez interviewed United Methodist pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell,  Sanchez seemed to ignore the second part and ran with the first. There’s no video for the interview up yet, but here’s a partial transcript:

SANCHEZ: I want to bring somebody in now who’s very important to this discussion, Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell who’s one of the president’s religious advisers. Before we do anything else, by the way, I should let our viewers know that you were also close to former President George W. Bush and counseled him in the same way. Before we do anything else, I was just taken aback and I think you may have seen the expression on my face when I played Franklin Graham’s interview with John King moments ago. Before we do anything else, Kelly, if you can re-rack that, I want to make sure I heard it correctly again. And then I want to get your reaction, Pastor, to this. Can you guys do that for me in the control room? All right, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM: The president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim. His father was a Muslim, the seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim. His father gave him an Islamic name. Now, it’s obvious that the president has renounced the Prophet Muhammad and he has renounced Islam and he’s accepted Jesus Christ. That’s what he says he has done.I cannot say that he hasn’t, so I just have to believe the president is what he has said, but he — he — the confusion is because his father was a Muslim, he was born a Muslim. The Islamic world sees the president as one of theirs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Pastor Caldwell, I want you to react to what you just heard.

KIRBYJON CALDWELL: Yes, sir. Good evening, Rick. Thank you so much for having me.

SANCHEZ: It’s a pleasure, sir.

CALDWELL: Thank you, sir. Well, obviously, I have great deal of respect for the Graham family, and in this particular case I respectfully disagree with Franklin Graham, and we don’t want to get involved in a deep theological discussion, but let’s be clear about this. When one accepts Jesus Christ as your Lord, liberator, savior, and deliverer, as far as I’m concerned, as far as the Bible is concerned, as far as the mainline Christianity is concerned, the blood of Jesus blasts and just blocks out all that stuff, if you would, which Franklin Graham just referred to. You know, the president is not responsible for –

SANCHEZ: Yes, but what he’s saying, Pastor, is –

CALDWELL: Right.

SANCHEZ: — let’s suppose that my biological father was a Hindu, for example and for some reason –

CALDWELL: Exactly.

SANCHEZ: — something happened and I ended up leaving a country where the principal religion is Hindu and I ended up –

CALDWELL: Right.

SANCHEZ: — in the United States, for example.

CALDWELL: Yes.

SANCHEZ: And someone else raised me, and they brought me into the world and I found Christianity. I happen to be Catholic, for example.But by Franklin Graham’s argument, then, being Hindu is something that will stay with me, simply because my father was Hindu, or he says in the case of different religions because your mother is a particular religion. That — that — is there any base to that theologically or –

CALDWELL: No, not at all.

SANCHEZ: It’s the common sense of it.

CALDWELL: Exactly and that’s precisely my point. I think Franklin is mistaken and, you know, to make that statement implies that there is no power in the blood of Jesus Christ and there’s no power in one confessing to be a Christian. Once you confess to be a Christian, you’re a Christian. It doesn’t matter who your mom or dad is. Once you’ve confessed to be a Christian, in fact, your Heavenly Father becomes your father. So, you know, I mean, again, we could go on with this. I just think that Brother Graham is mistaken, and I have heard the president very clearly, systematically and scripturally express his faith in Jesus Christ.

Do you see the problem? Rick Sanchez and Pastor Caldwell both jumped to a wrong conclusion. They both were going on the assumption that Graham thinks there’s a spiritual significance to Obama’s father being Muslim, and that he still carries that with him. But Graham was talking about the perception in Muslim culture and how it’s contributing to the President’s PR problem now. Graham even made a point of saying that Obama had renounced Islam. Did no one hear that?

It’s so obvious to me. And I think if Rev. Caldwell saw that clip again and thought about it a little more, he’d realize what Graham meant. To be fair, Caldwell was in another location and Sanchez sort of sprung the video clip on him right before he asked his opinion. But Sanchez had seen that clip more than once, so he was without excuse.

This is a problem I’m seeing over and over again. It happened with Shirley Sherrod, it happened with Glenn Beck (who defended her on his show), it  happened with President Obama and now it’s happening with Franklin Graham.

It’s like everyone’s hearing something different from what is actually being said, or they’re taking sound bites out of context and creating controversy based on flawed observations.

It’s good for cable news ratings, but I believe it’s bad for America.

Going back to the President’s faith, here’s what he told Rick Warren in 2008:

Franklin Graham and Kirbyjon Caldwell both take the President at his word, and so do I. For eight years we watched President Bush’s critics beat up on him for every little thing he did. Now it’s President Obama who can’t seem to do anything right. Don’t misunderstand– it’s okay to criticize the President for his policies. But whatever happened to giving folks the benefit of the doubt and assuming the best about them, especially if you don’t know all the facts yet?

Will we ever get civility back?

I’m excited to announce that within the next couple of weeks, I’ll be joining the United Methodist Publishing House as an editor, writer and content manager. I’m going to be part of a team working on an exciting new project called MinistryMatters.com– a website aimed at everyone involved in Christian ministry, both laity and clergy. It’s going to be interdenominational, and I can tell you this much already, it’s going to be like nothing you’ve seen from a Christian publisher so far, especially a mainline publisher.

I can’t give many details about Ministry Matters just yet, but community is going to be a big deal there– and MM is going to provide practical stuff for ministry as well as engaging articles and other content. It’s all still taking shape– so if you have any ideas, shoot me an e-mail. The site will be in full production during the fall and will go live soon after. I’ll keep you posted and let you know here when we launch. You’ll probably start seeing news releases and ads for the new site as the time gets closer.

While Ministry Matters will be my primary outlet for writing, continue to expect regular content from me at Faith Experience as well as occasional articles from me in other magazines and publications.

Readers here are among the first to find out about the new project– I’m not even sure if press releases have been sent out yet, but I wanted you to hear it from me. This means I’ll be leaving my adopted hometown of Austin to live in Nashville (aka the Metho-Vatican). I’m excited about that– Nashville is an awesome city, and has some things in common with Austin.

If you want a little historical background on the United Methodist Publishing House (which began in 1789 as the Methodist Book Concern) check out this entry from the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

Stay tuned!

I haven’t listened to Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s radio show in over 10 years. One, I rarely listen to talk radio anyway. Two, I can’t handle much on-air “therapy” . Whining people and chastising hosts… it just gets old to me. Mind you, some of the people who call into these shows need to be chastised, just maybe not where it’s heard by millions of listeners.

Larry King

Last night, Dr. Laura  announced on Larry King Live that she’s not renewing the contract for her radio show at the end of the year. Her reason? She says she wants her First Amendment rights back. Part of the controversy comes from a phone call from an African-American caller last week where Dr. Laura dropped the n-word into the conversation 11 times in five minutes, claiming she was trying to make a philosophical point about use of the word. The caller and many others were offended and rightfully so. Some sponsors have already pulled their ads. While Dr. Laura was making a point (about black comedians and rappers using the word), she stupidly used the word herself (perhaps for shock value) and now she’s paying a price for it. She apologized, but the damage was already done.

Now she’s complaining about losing her First Amendment rights. But the reality is, that’s not what this is about. She says she’s not retiring but is instead going to shift her platform exclusively to books and the internet. The incident is reminiscent of the controversy surrounding her short-lived television show in 2000 when gay activists protested Paramount studios and the sponsors of the program, effectively relegating her show to late night time slots. Her argument is that when special interest groups try to silence those with whom they disagree, they’re infringing on their First Amendment rights.

Here’s my take:

Freedom of speech is a right, but it comes with responsibility. And the bigger your audience, the bigger the responsibility. The First Amendment gives you the right to say what you want, but it doesn’t give you the right to be heard. Dr. Laura’s show is advertiser supported. At any time, if listeners tune out the show, or if too many sponsors drop their support of the show without being replaced, then she effectively loses her platform. But her platform isn’t her voice. The government hasn’t silenced her, so I don’t feel that her rights have been violated. And people have the right to ask advertisers to drop their ads if they’re offended by something on a program– that’s part of their freedom of speech. Dr. Laura, for all practical purposes, is employed by her syndicator and her affiliate stations– they pay her and then they make money selling ads. But the First Amendment doesn’t really apply here. I’ve never been able to say everything I want to say when I’m at work, have you?

Yet, as a society, I feel we’ve become too quick to dismiss and silence those with whom we disagree. What happened to the days when people respectfully debated each other? Too often today, we make up our minds and don’t want to listen to anyone else’s opinions. Personally, I don’t want everything I read and hear to only reinforce what I already believe– what a boring life that would be!

The most interesting development here is Dr. Laura’s move to alternative media.

We live in an exciting time when anyone can have a voice and reach hundreds of millions of people. My little website, for instance, is accessible by anyone who can access Google. (Too bad I don’t get Google’s traffic.) Think about that for a minute! Although I pay for my site’s hosting, anybody who wants to can go to a public library computer and start a basic blog– one that’s immediately available to most of the world– for free! Granted, money will give you a leg up and help you promote yourself and get an audience more quickly, but it’s not the deciding factor. Multi-million dollar sites have gone under while garage operations have succeeded. I think it’s an amazing time for free speech. The internet has become the great equalizer.

Dr. Laura, like her or not, will be able take her website, get sponsors, add a premium pay section, and get enough subscribers to make a comfortable living. (Not that she needs the money, having already made tens of millions of dollars each year for the past 15 years at least.) But make no mistake, nothing happened to her right to free speech. Even if her syndicator had pulled the plug on her show that day, she wouldn’t have lost that right. No doubt Dr. Laura will have more freedom on the internet, but if she thinks people aren’t going to hold her accountable when she says something stupid or hurtful, she’s in for quite a surprise.

People can tune you out online, too.

Last year, when I was reporting on the United Methodist Church’s “Rethink Church” campaign, I noted the similarity between the look of the UMC’s ad campaign and KFC’s “Unthink Chicken” campaign. The post was written  in fun– I figured the similarity was a coincidence or the work of a lazy ad agency– and I left it at that. Until now, my ministry-business analogies have mostly been limited to McDonald’s, Starbucks, soft drink companies and TV networks.

What a difference a year makes.

It appears that KFC’s ad campaign has bombed, sales are down 7% and the franchisees are suing the parent company. (You can read about it at MSNBC.) While reading the Bloomberg/MSNBC piece, I picked up on three lessons I think the UMC can learn from the KFC train wreck. These are things I’ve already expressed, but this article about KFC’s mistakes reinforces that what I wrote last year still holds true.

• Lesson 1: Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. In April 2009, I wrote: “Can your church deliver on the promises made by a crackerjack marketing campaign? Or will any visitors you get leave disappointed and never come back?” KFC learned the hard way. They did a grilled chicken promotion on Oprah and didn’t have enough product in their restaurants to meet the demand. Customers left disappointed and franchisees lost a ton of money. What are we promising in Rethink Church? Can our churches live up to the hype?
• Lesson 2: Major on the majors. For us it’s Jesus. For KFC, it’s fried chicken. KFC promoted its grilled chicken at the expense of its fried chicken. Franchisees are upset because they feel that this strategy has hurt the brand. They believe that KFC has deliberately distanced itself from the very product that made the company. Let’s make sure we’re not making that mistake with Rethink Church. After a year, I’m still not confident.
• Lesson 3: Produce a “bottom up” campaign, not a “top down” one. In April 2009, I wrote, “We could drop the idea of national branding altogether and use our budget to adapt local branding from our most successful congregations for use by like-minded churches.” It looks like the KFC franchisees just got the same idea:

Franchisees are working with Light [a marketing guru] to develop their own marketing. So far the group has created an in-store promotion to celebrate this month’s 70th anniversary of Original Recipe, complete with pennants depicting fried chicken buckets and life-size standups of Colonel Sanders. Unlike KFC’s corporate advertising, the franchisee group’s ads and promotions will emphasize fried chicken.

Fried chicken was the key to KFC’s success. Why would a huge corporation listen to an ad agency without listening to its own franchisees who are actually in the trenches dealing with customers every day?

Hopefully Rethink Church won’t meet the same fate as Unthink KFC. The key to success is going to be the leadership of United Methodist Communications listening to churches, seriously considering constructive criticism, and being willing to rework the campaign along the way when necessary. A strategy of digging in heels, relying only on market research and blindly staying the course just isn’t going to work. We should learn from the mistakes of a Fortune 500 corporation so we don’t have to make them ourselves.

Be sure to check out my interview with UMCom’s Larry Hollon in the Aug/Sep/Oct issue of Circuit Rider magazine.

No, I don’t mean that Erasmus. The one I’m referring to was an 18th Century Eastern Orthodox bishop, from the Diocese of Arcadia on the Greek island of Crete.

What does he have to do with Methodists, you ask? Well, not much or a lot, depending on what you think of the Catholic view of apostolic succession. Simply put, apostolic succession is the unbroken line of bishops from the apostles to the present day, with every new bishop having been consecrated by other bishops in the succession.

Peter

Catholics, Anglicans, Orthodox (big O) Christians and a few Lutherans here and there hold to a similar view of apostolic succession, and they all claim to have it, even though some people have argued that it’s impossible to demonstrate this succession all the way back to Peter. As for Methodists it depends on whom you ask.

John Wesley preaching

Anyway, back to Erasmus. He apparently visited London in 1763 during a time when John Wesley faced a dilemma. It seems Anglican bishops wouldn’t ordain Methodist preachers, yet more and more people were coming for Communion. Wesley refused to allow unordained lay preachers to consecrate Communion, but people wanted to receive the Sacrament from them anyway. I guess getting all the new Methodists into Anglican parishes wasn’t as easy as Wesley thought it would be. So when Erasmus visited, we know that he ordained some of Wesley’s preachers (which Wesley scholar William Abraham called “bizarre in the extreme”), and by some accounts, he ordained Wesley a bishop.

"What? A bishop?"

What? A bishop? Yes, you read it right. And I’m inclined to believe it, but it’s probably no surprise that many people don’t agree with me. Most Methodists don’t even agree with me, and to be honest, I really don’t think the supposed ordination is a deal-breaker one way or the other. I don’t believe the authority of Methodist bishops and pastors rides on the story, but it’s still a fun one to explore. And if it turns out to be true, what a game-changer it is if you’re a Catholic or Anglican who’s thumbing your nose at Methodist ordination!

So if Wesley was ordained by Erasmus, why didn’t he tell everyone he was a bishop and act accordingly? Perhaps it was a law called the Praemunire Act. This statute, dating from the 14th Century, was designed to restrain papal authority in England. By receiving ordination from a Greek bishop, Wesley could have been arrested for being an instrument of a foreign power under the Praemunire Act. (According to Wikipedia, this law remained on the books until 1967!)

Coke ordains Asbury

I believe that Wesley’s alleged ordination by Erasmus in 1763 explains  his extraordinary ordinations of preachers in 1784, and his ordination of Thomas Coke as “superintendent” (read: bishop) of American Methodists. (Coke later ordained Francis Asbury.) It was Wesley’s nuclear option. Even after the ordinations, he avoided the term “bishop” like the the plague, but the truth is, Wesley acted like a bishop. His brother Charles, not surprisingly, wasn’t too happy with John. In A History of the Rev. Hugh Peters, Samuel Peters writes:

This very unexpected event gave great offense to his brother the Rev. Charles Wesley, and many other high episcopalians, who waited on Mr. John Wesley, and asked him to tell them, by what authority he had done those things, so perfectly contrary to his former creed and practice? Mr. John Wesley answered: “My brethren, I have not changed my creed, and my actions will speak for themselves– but have you not heard nor seen the law called the Praemunire Act?” His visitors were astonished and went away. His friends and enemies ever afterwards believed John Wesley had been consecrated to be a bishop by Erasmus, the Greek bishop, either at Amsterdam or London.

Wesley believed in church authority, which I don’t think he bucked lightly. He ordained a bishop and preachers only as a last resort, yet I believe he still would have needed to rightfully justify his authority to do it, at least in his own mind. If Wesley truly was consecrated a bishop by Erasmus 21 years before, perhaps that was his justification. Note that the ordinations took place in 1784, one year after the American Revolution ended. There could now be no consequences from the Praemunire Act for Methodists in America.

It all makes sense to me, but I doubt I could convince many Catholics or Episcopalians. Perhaps the final answer to this Methodist mystery lies somewhere in Greece in the archives of Erasmus, if, in fact, such archives still exist.

USA Today would have you believe that teenagers are staying away from church and youth group because they’re too busy.

Not so.

I don’t buy the excuse that youth are busier now than they were ten years ago. Sure, there are technological distractions that didn’t exist then, but does anyone honestly think Facebook is the real reason kids aren’t going to church? Give me a break. If that were so, what does that say about how weak youth group has become?

The truth is, no one is ever too busy to go to church. Everyone on earth, rich or poor, gets the same 24 hours each day. Time is an equalizer– it doesn’t discriminate. People generally find the time to do what is important to them, and if they aren’t going to church, that just means church is not a top priority. So the idea of teens being too busy for church is mostly balderdash– they simply have other places they’d rather be. The truth hurts, doesn’t it?

I believe there are at least 5 reasons why churches are losing young people.

• Teens don’t show up because they don’t think God is showing up. And you know, they might be right. If the power of God isn’t moving in your church’s youth group beyond the free pizza and the basketball (or name your big draw), you’re eventually going to hit a wall. This is where churches really mess up, and I’m the world’s biggest offender. Gimmicks are like the dot com bubble of the late 90’s. Sooner or later, everyone wants substance, and if it isn’t there, they’re going to bail. There’s always going to be a church (or someplace else) with better pizza, a more talented band, a better gym and bigger crowds with hotter people. It’s okay to use draws, but you’d better have a good foundation for your ministry and back up the draw with something real.

• Teens don’t make church a priority because their parents don’t make it a priority. Too many families are either pulling out of church altogether, or they’re moving it so far down the list of things to do that it gets lost in the shuffle. Back in the day, we thought teenagers dropped out of church to rebel against their parents– but if we follow that logic, youth should be coming to church and youth group in droves now, because parents are dropping out. But that’s not happening. Remember, kids take cues from their parents. Soccer practice takes priority over church only because parents have allowed it to happen. Parents, make sure you pay close attention to my next statement. I’ve realized that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with making teenagers go to church. You’re not going to turn them against Christianity. (That’s assuming, of course, that your church isn’t some abusive, cult-like nuthouse.) Man up and be your kid’s parent, not their friend. But before you do that, you might want to make sure you’re participating in worship and Bible study yourself. You’ll stand a better chance of avoiding the whole hypocrisy factor. Yes, your kid is still probably going to go through an anti-church phase when they finally get out of the house. But odds are, sooner or later they’ll be back. Proverbs 22:6 tells us, “Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.” Life is a marathon, not a sprint.
• Teens are very connected to each other now and don’t need church to hook up anymore. Since the beginning of Christianity, the church has coasted on the assurance that teenagers would at least come to church to see each other, if for no other reason. Well, now they have texting, Facebook and Myspace so they’ve effectively eliminated the middleman. Why would they want to come sit through a message just to hang out with friends when all their friends are now as close as their computer or cell phone? Real spiritual substance within community has to be the draw– not just community. Because there’s probably somewhere or something else that does community better than church. Sad but true.
• Unchurched teens see no significant difference between church kids and everyone else. This issue is bigger than you think. I’ve run into it over and over again. Put yourself in a teenager’s shoes– if one of the reasons they might go to church is to become a better person, what does it say to them when the church kids cuss as much, drink as much, do drugs as much and have sex as much as all the other kids? Suppose you were thinking about joining a diet program where the participants never lost any weight? Or a gym where no one ever showed any physical progress? Or a karate school where no one ever got a black belt? You’d see it as a waste of time. A lot of kids see church as a waste of time for the exact same reason. Most teenagers aren’t expecting church people to be perfect, but they do want some kind of assurance that church is going to make a difference in their lives or they figure, why bother?
• Many teens get impatient with churches that major on the minors and try too hard to seem relevant. They can spot smoke and mirrors from a mile away. Here’s a secret. Youth pastors officially have permission to not be cool. In fact, it’s a rather endearing quality. You don’t have to force the current teenage lingo, fashions and culture (especially if you’re pushing 40!) In fact, if it’s not who you are, it’s going to come across as contrived and desperate. Desperation is definitely not cool to any generation. Your messages need to be relevant, but they don’t have to be over the top. No one expects you to know about Jersey Shore, and teenagers won’t think less of you if you don’t watch it or use it in your sermon titles. (“Why Snookie Needs Jesus”, anyone?) That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use cutting-edge methods and integrate illustrations from pop culture, but style should never override substance in our ministries. Twenty years from now, your teenagers probably won’t remember who “the Situation” was, but they will remember whether or not they learned how to connect with God at your church. Major on the majors, or we’re going to lose a generation.

Those are my top five reasons. Why do you think teenagers are avoiding church in greater numbers now?

Roland Martin is one of my favorite analysts on CNN. He believes what he says, and he says it with passion, whatever the issue. In a cable news environment full of stale talking points, Roland keeps things interesting.

His Twitter feed is no different. Sunday he was Tweeting about his visit to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and he was sharing his frustration with the lack of support for reading in many communities, especially with youth. Having done ministry work in an urban area, I get where he’s coming from.

Our view of education is shaped by our view of reading, and I’m convinced that we develop that view at an early age. I love reading, and have since I can remember. From infancy, my mom and various babysitters would read to me, and I think they taught me to read  so early because they got tired of reading the same books to me over and over! (Anyone out there remember Pickles, the Fire Cat?) Growing up, my mom would always bring an evening newspaper home to read after she worked her second shift job. When I visited my dad (my parents were divorced) he would make a ritual each day of spreading out the morning paper on the kitchen table to read while he drank coffee. I think that’s why I’m a news junkie now. My parents gradually instilled in me a desire to read– and I’m not even sure they knew they were doing it at the time! Remember, kids take cues from their parents. If parents make a big deal about reading when their kids are small, I think it makes a huge difference later.

But why is reading so important? Let’s take a look at history:

In the 19th Century South, as the Abolitionist movement continued to gain ground, some states made it illegal to teach slaves to read and write. This was done because of pressure from slave owners who feared that educated slaves would be more likely to escape or rise up to organize insurrections. Slave owners understood that knowledge was power, and reading was the primary way of obtaining knowledge. So, keeping slaves from reading and writing would effectively keep them from getting knowledge and sharing it with other slaves. It also limited communication in general.

But you say, “That’s in the past. Everyone’s free now, and no one keeps anyone else from reading, right?”

Not so fast.

Nowadays, many kids don’t want to read by the time they reach middle school. Sometimes it’s because they never really learned, but more often, I think it’s because they just aren’t motivated to do it. There may even be peer pressure not to read. I was bitten by the reading bug early on, so even when I went through my “hate school” phases, I still read the stuff I wanted to read. I was filled with wonder and I usually read anything I could get my hands on… I just didn’t want anyone else telling me what to read. (That made reading seem too much like work.) I think a big problem today is that a lot of kids never catch that reading bug– or they catch it for a little while but lose it later. And even though the institution of slavery is long gone in this country, the sad fact is, choosing not to read can still perpetuate other types of bondage:

Ignorance

Most of us have heard Hosea 4:6 quoted: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… (NRSV).” Ignorance can be a dangerous thing. When we don’t have knowledge, we make bad choices. Sometimes lack of knowledge also causes us to limit our choices. Granted, reading isn’t the only way to acquire knowledge, but  next to supernatural direct revelation from God himself, it’s probably the best, simply because of the amount of information available in written form. Consider the news, for example. If I can’t read or won’t read, I limit myself to audio or video news sources. That means I’m forced to watch or listen to news on TV or radio, and I have to receive it the way it’s packaged, spin and all. Written news, on the other hand, will usually have much more information and I can easily access a number of sources to make sure I’m getting an accurate picture of what’s going on. By choosing a few quality written sources, I’m not limiting myself to sound bites and sensationalism.

On a spiritual level, reading gives us a way of  “hearing” the Gospel. I grew up in a fairly evangelical United Methodist congregation, and I thought I’d heard it all. But it wasn’t until I read the Gospel on my own that I actually understood it and had a conversion experience. Perhaps God used written communication to reinforce everything I’d grown up hearing. However it happened, I’m certain that reading played an instrumental role in my decision to become a Christian.

Lack of Imagination

Someone told me once, “I hate reading books, so I usually wait for the movie to come out.” That surprised me, because I’ve discovered that with very few exceptions, the book is almost always better than the movie. Whoever said that a picture is worth a thousand words forgot about the power of imagination. When you watch a movie, you get it the way the producer wants you to see it, but with a book, your mind takes written words and paints its own picture. I don’t know about you, but my mind can create scenes that are better than the best special effects or CGI. I think reading keeps our imaginations stretched and in shape– and I believe this can carry over into other areas of our lives as well. Faith, for example, and prayer involve imagining what is possible. Praying for God’s kingdom to come is a lot more meaningful (and fun) if you try to imagine what that kingdom could be like. We have pictures of it from Scripture, but I believe it’s something that’s impossible for us to completely fathom. I’d sure like to try, though. Ephesians 3:20 tells us that “God is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us (CEB).” For some of us, God doing beyond what we can imagine wouldn’t be that big of a deal, because we don’t even think big anymore. We’ve lost our imagination.

Deception

Deception is directly related to ignorance. Everybody has been deceived at one time or another. On the natural level, it’s usually because we take someone’s word for something when they aren’t trustworthy or when we haven’t checked our facts. On a spiritual level, it’s because we don’t recognize the truth. And the reason we don’t recognize it is because we haven’t been exposed to it enough. When I worked in youth ministry, it amazed me how many Christian kids bought into anti-christian ideas– and part of the reason was because they didn’t know how scripture addressed those ideas. They didn’t recognize if something was from God because they hadn’t encountered enough of God in scripture to know the real deal when they saw it. When I could get them into Scripture, their attitudes would begin to change, but that was a struggle because so many kids in the urban community where I did ministry had somehow been conditioned to hate reading.

Poverty

Education doesn’t guarantee financial stability, but statistically it’s one of the best safeguards against poverty. That’s because, on average, the higher a person’s education level, the more money they’re going to make. Poverty is a cycle that runs in families, and there are a couple of reasons why. I mentioned earlier that parents instill things into their kids whether they mean to or not. Our financial habits are one example. Attitudes about reading and education are another. Then there’s the spiritual side of it, which adds a whole supernatural element to our finances. That’s why it often takes a combination of education, prayer and spiritual warfare to break cycles of poverty, especially ones that have been in place for generations. But whether we’re talking about the Bible on a spiritual level, or schoolbooks on a natural one, reading can be a powerful first step to breaking those cycles. Remember, knowledge is power.

The Truth Will Set You Free

Roland Martin feels strongly about reading– so much so that he says we should have armies of volunteers going door to door in communities signing up kids for library cards. John Wesley had a few things to say about reading, too. In 1760, he wrote the following in a letter to a preacher:

What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety, there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. O begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not: what is tedious at first, will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a petty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer.” (Letter to John Trembath– August 17, 1760)

Jesus said, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31b-32 CEB). We can’t follow Christ’s teaching if we don’t know what that teaching is. The truth will set us free. Do we take our chances and wait for someone to share the truth with us or do we learn how to find it in the Bible for ourselves?