Andy Stanley is the lead pastor of North Point Church in Atlanta, a campus of churches with over 40,000 members. Stanley and his leadership team recently made the decision to cancel in-person worship for the rest of the year. Needless to say, in this current climate, that was met with some strong opinions. Apparently, many of those opinions came from his own congregation.
Stanley used his sermon Sunday to address the thinking behind their decision. For Stanley, what it boiled down to is the idea that a culture wars faith is a perversion of Christianity. A culture wars faith is in it to win it. His church, he said, was never going to be in it to win it. Stanley went on to say: The church looks more like Christ when we are defending other people's rights rather than our own. The church looks more like Christ when we are giving away rather than demanding our way. The final strong point he made in his message, which I'll include a link to in the comments, is that Jesus didn't play to win - at least not the way we look at the game - Jesus played to lose. Everything Jesus did was to sacrifice his opportunity to win so that WE COULD WIN. If Jesus was about winning to make his point, he would have climbed down off the cross instead of dying on it. He would have defeated the army crucifying him instead of asking his father to forgive them. So after listening to this sermon while I was running, I didn't find myself thinking about the church, I found myself thinking about me. What are you in this life for, Keith? Are you in it to win it - to be aligned with a certain side - the side you think is the right side?Are you in life to defend your rights or the rights of the people around you?Are you in this life to give away or demand your own way? As a Christian, there is really only one measure of victory for me. Victory for me is living a life that looks like Christ. Victory for me is knowing every day just how far short of that I fall, knowing every day just how much that impacts me - the negative way falling short makes me see the world and the negative way it makes me feel - and knowing the answer to that is turning to the Christ I so want to look like. Stanley pointed out that Jesus' disciples, no matter how many times he told them, didn't believe Jesus when he said he was going to be crucified. Because in their minds, that would be defeat. They just couldn't comprehend how a Jesus who said he was going to be the king over all would willingly die on a cross. Because they too - they too were living with an in it to win it mentality. But for Jesus, the cross was victory. Jesus spent his ministry telling the people he met - and US - that his idea of winning was sacrificing all of us for the good of others. Jesus on that cross - that was Jesus saying I meant it - this is what winning looks like. Jesus was saying the only right I came to fight for was the right to serve others - the nails in my hands and in my feet - they are my "proved my point" moments. I too have only one point to prove in life. Oh, I get sidetracked by a bunch of other points. Man do I get sidetracked. I, too, get caught up in the in it to win it culture. But as I was walking and reflecting on Stanley's sermon, I was reminded that in my writing and in my conversations and in my interactions here and there - I only have one point to make in this life. That point is that my life always has been and still remains quite broken. And for me, after years of searching for a fix behind many different doors, there has been no fix for me personally more healing - more present in every moment of my life - than the man on the cross who says to his father on my behalf, every single day: father forgive him, for he knows not what he does. Saying that out loud, for me and for you, that is my point. Remembering it as I tackle this day - in what will be in many spaces an in it to win it space - that is my challenge....
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
May 2024
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