Faith Revolution

If I Could Choose…

I was thinking today…

If I could choose to do anything I wanted with my life right now, I would do what I am doing…

Just more of it.

September 22, 2007 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | General | | 1 Comment

On Being a Servant

“Being right is not always perceived as being nice” ~Clifford Cartwright

I love quotes. I used the little one liners of wisdom a lot when I am writing. I have never quoted myself. I don’t know if it’s cool to do so. When did I ever worry about being cool? Tonight I am quoting myself.  I believe that it is one of my sister’s favorite quotes. However, I think that I created a monster when I told her that principle.

What does all this have to do with being a servant? Let me explain.

I was driving home yesterday afternoon and it dawned on me again: I have the privilege of serving THE living God. How cool is that? Furthermore, I love it! How could I not love it? I am not really sure how anyone could not. With that in mind, I began to ponder the fact that much of a person’s life is shaped by an effort to be liked and appreciated by other people. In other words, we expend much effort in an attempt to move up a ladder to a position of acceptance. Donald Miller talks a lot about this concept in his book “Searching for God Knows What.” It’s a good read. Certainly worth the $3.99 that I paid for it at Ollie’s.

Miller talks about a life boat mentality. That is, there is only so much room in the life boat and people that are perceived as worthy get a seat and those who are not do not get a seat or are pushed out of the boat. Miller claims that we live our lives ranking each other’s worth and our greatest fear is losing our place on the boat because others perceive us as worthless. Jesus wasn’t affected by this because all of His self-worth needs were met by the Father. He knew that His heavenly Dad loved Him and was very pleased with Him.

If our need for love, self-worth and meaning in life are being met by our heavenly Dad, then we can set aside the life boat mentality. In fact, to fully experience this, we must set aside the life boat mentality. Jesus said that that whoever is greatest among us will be the servant. He said the first will be last. We must lose ourselves to find ourselves.  We will be hated for His sake.

Being a servant of the king by being Christ on earth (as part of His body) is not always easy. A servant of God is working to advance a kingdom that is not known or understood by the world. So when a servant must stand on principle for the sake of his Master, it isn’t always perceived as being nice by the world, or many other Christians.

Christians are supposed to be nice. But too often they will compromise in order to stay in the life boat.  The ones who choose not to live in the boat are often labeled as a not-so-good Christians.

God loves me. He saved me. I am righteous because of the grace of Jesus. If He is pleased then I am ok; no matter what the people in the boat are saying.  If God is not pleased then I have to deal with Him.

Mainline protestant, evangelical, independent, non-denominational, traditional, contemporary, post-modern, emergent,  emerging, large, small, mega, clergyman, layman,  suits, blue jeans, your way, my way, whatever…

I’m not in the boat, I guess.

It’s about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I have the extreme privilege of serving Him.

Dad, are you pleased with me?

September 19, 2007 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | General | | 1 Comment

Praise the Lord!

September 19, 2007 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | General | | No Comments

Cultural Relevance

Tonight is one of those nights where I know what I want to write about, but I am not sure how to write it.

I was just reading articles on a web-site by traditional Christians (well known, mind you) who were absolutely lambasting certain younger Christian leaders for being false teachers. Of course, one of the ongoing arguments included in the writings on the web-site, is that of cultural relevance.

I guess I am sort of an oddball. I often say that I am doctrinally fundamental; spiritually, somewhat pentecostal…somewhat; and missionally emergent. As such, there are certain arguments within Christian circles that I just don’t get. We label our worship as traditional, contemporary or blended. Christians change churches all the time because of this issue. In my case, I love the old hymns. I also love contemporary worship. Where we miss the boat is that we have made it about our worship when it is really about Who we worship. But I digress…

To me, cultural relevance is a given and those who argue against it are not logical. In our American culture, those who argue against cultural relevance state that the church is becoming like the world and that is not biblical. The funny thing is, that church buildings, pews, church lingo, proper dress, music etc. are all culturally relative. Our hymns are mostly less than 200 years old. I don’t think that the churches in the book of Acts sat in pews, played organs and pianos, had sanctuaries, foyers, fellowship halls, church softball teams, bulletins and Sunday School pins. I don’t think that they wore ties and suits. I am pretty sure that flannel graph was not invented yet. There were not church buses, revival meetings, tent meetings or church camps. What did those poor souls do before Christianity was Americanized or Westernized?

Culture, society and people change. Even the English language is changing. A professor friend of mine who has a doctorate in linguistics was telling me that the English language is going through another major vowel shift like that of a few hundred years ago and that, if we could come back in a hundred years or so, our language would be as archaic to them as Shakespearian English is to us.

Why do we train our missionaries to largely assimilate into the foreign cultures of the countries they serve. Why do we send them to language school? Why don’t we take our organs and pianos or our worship bands and our pews and foyers and all our other American Christian stuff to Africa, teach them the English language and then tell them about Jesus?

Even the most fundamental of us teach our children in a culturally relevant manner. When I was a youngster in the 1970’s, space travel was the big topic. We were taught the a song that goes like this:

Somewhere in outer space, God has prepared a place for those who trust Him and obey

Jesus will come again and though we don’t know when, the countdown’s getting lower every day.

10 and 9, 8 and 7, 6 and 5 and 4, call upon the Savior while you may.

3 and 2 coming through the clouds in bright array, the countdown’s getting lower every day.

Talk about culturally relevant!

Yes, in some ways the gospel is being watered down and maybe certain churches or leaders are becoming too worldly. There’s really nothing new there. However, here’s a question to ponder and discuss: Do we really want to deny the younger American generations the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ in their own language and in their own world. Must they come back into our world to be saved?

September 14, 2007 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | Pastor/Church Related | | 1 Comment

Where, Oh Where Is My Chutzpah?

It never crossed my mind. I never considered that the circumstances of life would cause me to lose my chutzpah.

Today I ran into an old friend. Nearly a decade had passed since I last talked to him. I had to look twice to make sure it was him because his hair had turned gray. He told me that he had become a grandfather that very morning.

Of course, we reminisced about times that now seemed ancient. On the drive home, I realized that I had lost something in my life. It was something that this particular group of friends brought to my life.

As young adults, we were involved in a particular hobby together. We were a team and spent a lot of time together. Some of it working. Some of it fighting. A lot of it laughing. Today I realized how much I miss those days…and those guys. But what I really miss is the “anything is possible” attitude that they brought to the table. Nothing was out of reach for them and they instilled that attitude within me. The phrase “work harder, longer, take substantial risk and go for it” pretty much sums up what they were about. Boy, was it fun. What a ride!

Today, as the memories flashed through my head, I realized that, when we all gradually walked away from the pursuit and each other, I lost more than some great friends. I left a part of me back there.

I am not involved in that sport anymore. But when I think about the verse that states “with God all things are possible” and I think of my life as it is now with my current pursuits, I realize that I need to find my chutzpah again.

Thanks guys. I appreciate you.

“‘Let’s go across to see those pagans,’ Jonathan said to his armor bearer. ‘Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!’ ‘Do what you think is best,’ the youth replied. ‘I’m with you completely, whatever you decide.’” (1 Samuel 14:6,7 NLT)

September 12, 2007 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | General | | No Comments

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