Hey everybody! Today, we have Wendy Nolasco on the podcast. Wendy is the general supervisor for U.S. Foursquare Church. It is said she is able to leap tall egos with a single bound, able to freeze water with a single stare, and she’s able to bring peace with a single word. I don’t know if that’s true, but what I do know is true, is she is a leader, a learner, and a passionate gatherer of people. In my time of getting to know Wendy, my respect and admiration for her has only grown and increased. I think you’ll enjoy this podcast as we talk about some very meaningful leadership lessons.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at jroper@foursquare.org, or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don’t forget to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts.
As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It’s your life, now go live it!
DISCLAIMER: You may think this about politics, but it is not. It is about something far deeper. It is not about being a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, or member of the Bull Moose Party. It is not about specific policies or personalities. It is about returning to the God who is above, outside, and Wholly Other than us, and his radical call to come, drink deeply of the waters of life, and there find healing for your soul. OK, now carry on.
“How did we get here? I don’t want to have anything to do with any of the Christians I know. How did we come to this?” It was not the first time someone said that to me. It was just the most recent. It happened while Debbie and I were talking with some friends. The subject comes up a lot these days. I’ve even had pastors ask me to start support groups for pastors and leaders who look at the Christian community and say, “How did we come to this? I don’t know if I can pastor people like this any longer.”
How did we come to this?
I tried to answer my friend’s question. After a long jeremiad about the cultural, ideological, and theological movements of the last fifty years of evangelicalism, my wife looked at me with a puzzled expression and said, “You are not making any sense…” She was right. I had launched into a lengthy stream-of-consciousness screed about how we arrived here, none of which could be explained in a tweet or an Instagram photo.
My incoherent mixture of theological, social, and cultural issues, laced with historical references and pivotal events, became an avalanche of information burying the essence of the truth: We are here because we have forsaken the fountain of living water and have hewed out cisterns for ourselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).
Once we replaced the fountain of living water with our broken water holes power became our religion and identity politics became our creed. We invented new beliefs; re-wrote history to add legitimacy to our claims; and created new models and stories to give meaning and purpose to justify and explain our initial turning away.
Forsaking the fountain of living water is now justified and defended by a thousand moving pieces that include theological and doctrinal arguments; histories both true and fabricated; and role-models with talking-points who have become our new pantheon of unseen witnesses.
This pantheon of witnesses include historical figures who have become mythologized. Dietrich Bonhoeffer comes to mind. Bonhoeffer was a faithful witness who has become a folk hero to many who would reject him were he to walk among us today.
Hollywood was kind enough to add a few witnesses to our new pantheon: John Wayne, William Wallace (Braveheart), and Rambo are among those who became examples of what masculine Christianity ought to be, what “real Christians” should look like. Promise Keepers, Wild at Heart, and more than a few of my sermons included clips and quotes too many to mention. I, after all, wanted to die in the saddle with my boots on while I fought for freedom, even if it meant being the lone, misunderstood, and violent hero for Jesus.
The evangelical models of “real Christians” were supposed to represent for us strong, rugged, tough men who take action to defend freedom and use violence against injustice. No one bothered to notice these models were an actor pretending to be a tough guy, a fictionalized story of a man we know almost nothing about, and a movie character who resorts to violence. No one noticed we substituted pursuing being pure-in-heart peacemakers who love our enemies with being warriors pursuing glory and power to crush the enemies of God. No one noticed our leaking water hole.
Evangelicals were looking for a hero, a defender who would rescue us like a damsel in distress. Someone, anyone, who could play the role of a rugged, tough, principled but misunderstood successful businessman fighting for truth and justice and the American way. We would say of this person, “Surely, here stands before us the Lord’s anointed.”
It makes perfect sense for those whose models are actors pretending to be heroes using violence to avenge themselves to support someone like this. It would be a dream come true. It would not be an aberration; it would be the culmination of a long ideological transformation.
We evangelicals can no longer tell fact from fiction. Our models are illusions, and our justifying stories are lies. Consequently, we are now suckers for outlandish lies and conspiracy theories like QANON, plandemic, stolen elections, utopian promises, political salvation, and false prophecies spoken in the name of Jesus. Left-winged, right-winged, or middle of the bird, we are all guilty. The lies we have held to have become the idols of our destruction.
Once untethered from the fountain of living water, it was only a matter of time before evangelicals started believing QANON is real and the news is fake. We love the lies that comfort us and hate the truth that confronts us.
The models we uphold and the stories we tell shape who we become. Evangelical Christianity, if it is to survive, needs to reject its false images and real lies and return again to the fountain of living water. Let us turn again with our whole hearts to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Let us return again and again to the fountain of living water and drink deeply, that our souls may be healed and our minds renewed.
We have defamed Jesus Christ long enough. We are sorry. I am sorry. May these days be the end of our error. May today be a new day to look unto him, the author and finisher of our faith.
*** Interested to learn more? I highly recommend, “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Broke a Nation,” by Kristin Kobes Du Mez.
I used to think of sin as a crime that needed punishment or I would think of my sin as a weakness and feel shame, or a character flaw, something I need to hide. That somehow, sin was evidence I did not really sell out to God or that I was secretly rebellious. But I came to a point where I began to understand that sin is a wound from which I need healing. It started me on a journey that changed the way I view myself and others. I recently read a book that really captures this called The Pastor by Bradley Jersak and Paul Young.
Brad has authored several books and has been a guest on the podcast before and Paul Young is the well-known author of The Shack. This week we are exploring the perilous human journey from self-will and striving through defeat and despair to hope and the redemption found only through surrender.
If you’re enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at jroper@foursquare.org, or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don’t forget to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts.
As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It’s your life, now go live it!
Today, I want to talk about the Bible. The Bible is a complex and challenging book. In fact, it’s not even a book by today’s standards. It’s a compilation of many books, genres, eras, and authors. So keeping that in mind, reading the Bible and making sense of the Bible can really be overwhelming. The complexity of the issue only increases when you factor in that Christians don’t even agree on how many books should be in the Bible. Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Bibles all contain a different number of books.
When you look at it as a Protestant, 76% of our entire Bible is the Old Testament and yet, we are a new covenant people. So what is our relationship to the Old Testament? I wanted to explore this and I could think of no one better than Professor Jim Adams from Life Pacific University. I first got to know Professor. Adams while getting my master’s degree there at LPU. He was both my favorite and most hated professor because he really challenged us. But I will have to say, he was my favorite in the whole program. The Old Testament is an area he specializes in. I hope you enjoy this episode!
If you’re enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at jroper@foursquare.org, or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don’t forget to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts.
As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It’s your life, now go live it!
Last week I spent a few days in downtown Seattle hanging out with my daughter, Victoria. I had not been in downtown since before the pandemic. And the protests. And the riots. It was sad to see businesses closed due to COVID-19. It was heartbreaking to see stores boarded up for protection against rioters. It was heartrending to see peaceful protests seeking social justice hijacked by criminals claiming violence as their right. Cries of the spirit for economic justice, social justice, and criminal justice are being drowned out by the screams of fascist agitators and provocateurs of both the radical right and the extreme left.
As distressing as all this is, the most distressing thing I was dealing with was the overflowing crowds of homeless people. It seemed every street was strewn with the homeless: Overpasses serving as shelter from the elements; Green spaces intended to beautify the city and give respite to the soul of the city-dweller have become homeless camps of weather-beaten tents and stolen shopping carts.
I was not angry. I was broken over their condition. And I was overcome with the feeling of helplessness in the face of such overwhelming need. What can I do to fix homelessness?
Homelessness is a complex ecosystem that includes unemployment, poverty, mental illness, family and societal alienation, drug addiction, criminal acts, anti-social behavior, free will, economic injustice, bad luck, and bad choices, all emerging together in lockstep to beatdown and dehumanize image-bearers of God and to further the alienation of human beings from one another. Not knowing what to do, I did nothing, even when a homeless man asked me, “can you help me get something to eat?” I did nothing…
I felt overwhelmed by the immediacy of the perfect storm we are facing: Health care, race-relations, immigration, social justice, police and legal reforms, poverty, and economic justice, all summing a day of reckoning. I simultaneously felt like throwing my hands up in surrender, running to the mountains to hide, and jumping into this mess to make a difference.
The chaos and confusion around me were equally matched with the chaos and confusion within me. I wanted to throw up my hands and say, “What can I do? Am I my brother’s keeper?”
While I was walking around Seattle and thinking these dark thoughts, I was also being haunted by Matthew 25:31-46: You know, that passage that says, “in as much as you did it to the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.” I have always wrestled with this passage because it is about God judging the nations. Individual judgment I understand, but how will God judge nations? Do we get in the “individual judgment” line, then once we are judged individually, do we get into the “Nation judgment” line? What if I am a dual citizen? Do I get into the line for the United States and then Canada? Lame, I know. But those are some of the questions running through my mind.
Early on that Friday morning, I was sitting in my hotel room drinking coffee and thinking about these societal ailments and the judgment of nations. I was not thinking about them being connected. I was bouncing between the two issues, like flipping between channels on the TV, when suddenly they snapped together like two magnets: God will judge the nations on how they treat the poor, the powerless, the accused, the incarcerated, the stranger (those “other” than “us” in nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, religion), and the sick because it requires the nation to fix these areas.
Economic, social, and legal justice, along with caring for the sick, are not only current pressure points in society: they are the cries of Jesus to the nations, “in as much as you have done it unto the least of these you have done it unto me.”
The whole nation is accountable because no one individual or group can fix poverty, homelessness, race relations, criminal justice, and health care. It will take the entire spectrum of human participation to bring about justice and healing in these areas. The full spectrum: Liberal to conservative; free-markets to government taxation and regulation; for-profit businesses and not-for-profit institutions; families; churches; synagogues; mosques; community centers; private initiatives; government programs, all working together for economic, social, legal, and health care justice for the poor and the powerless.
This is not a liberal thing, a conservative thing, a political thing, or a religious thing: It is a human thing. And Jesus takes it very personal, “for in as much as you have done it unto the least of these, my brothers, you have done it unto me.”
I am not advocating a specific policy, but for an over-arching value system that shapes all policies and practices. If we get the value-system right and we have open, honest discussions and debates based on truth, integrity, transparency, and accountability, we can become a more perfect union, a more just society. It is what He requires of the nations. It is what He requires of me, “For He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8),
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
