Donald Miller is the author of Blue Like Jazz: Non Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality, Searching for God Knows What, Through Painted Deserts and To Own a Dragon. He is the director of The Burnside Writers Collective and co-editor of The Ankeny Briefcase, a quarterly journal of short stories and unpublished music. Tens of thousands of Blue Like Jazz books have been distributed to students on college campuses across the country as way to introduce people to the relevancy of Christian spirituality as an explanation for the human story.
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Donald opened up sharing about a DVD set he recently watched about Michelangelo. He talked about how amazing it is that the beauty of his artwork from centuries ago is still being beheld today. That’s not just true about Michelangelo, but many artists from the Renaissance – and he pointed out that all of these people were released to express their creativity. Their works of art were done out of love.
Donald shared about a recent trip he took to Scotland with a group of Greek Orthodox priests. It was a two week pilgrimage to tour cathedrals throughout the UK and perform the liturgy.
One of the Cathedrals they visited was Durham Cathedral in Durham, England. It took over 150 years to construct the cathedral, which is made in the shape of a cross. Because many people were illiterate in the time that the cathedral was constructed, they had to innovate to create ways to communicate the Gospel, even down to the architecture.
Donald went to take a picture of the cathedral and noticed that there were towers on the top of the cathedral closely resembled the towers on the castle across from the cathedral.
He wondered if the church was not only trying to represent the Kingdom of God, but also trying to mimic the castle, which was the idol of the time. He wondered if they were feeding two desires in making the cathedral the way that they did.
The pastor/priest of the cathedral wore heavy robes and the services were done with reverence and the services had tradition with deep meaning.
When we fast forward in the history of the world and the history of the church we enter into a time where truth become important. The church evolved, formulas of service changed. Ideas of truth were more important. The church more resembled a classroom, and in an essence, the church was saying to the culture, “can we be accepted by you?”
Then we move to the Industrial Revolution. For the first time in history men were plucked from their homes where they were with their family and plowed their fields, and were placed on an assembly line. Also for the first time in history, men’s life expectancy decreased. Their sense of purpose, meaning and well-being declined. Big-business became a major ideal .
Our grandparents church looked more like a school, and our parents church looks more like a conference center where the church is a corporation, God is the CEO, we are consumers and the product is spirituality.
The new fake god of our society is entertainment. We don’t like big business. We value consumerism. Mattering and competing is more important than family.
In the evolution of the church from where it was like a cross, communicating to illiterate peopl if the pastor died it wasn’t a big deal, they just put the robe on someone else. In the church age that valued truth, the pastor was like a teacher and the church looked more like a schoolroom. The pastor’s main job was to be a teacher. When the pastor died they just found someone with the same beliefs and replaced him.
The corporation church looks like a conference center and is consumer-driven. The pastor teaches profitability – and when he dies the find someone to replace him as CEO, because the business must keep going.
In the entertainment church, if the pastor goes, the show’s over.
N.T. Wright is the pastor of Durham Cathedral. Donald shared about how when he attended the church, there were only 40 people there. A friend of his in Scotland recently merged four churches into one and the total attendance there was 20. Both churches were not small because they weren’t being proactive, they were small because the culture in Scotland doesn’t change – everything stays the same. They aren’t influenced by media and marketing like we are. They aren’t influenced by consumerism.
The Church in the West looks like a success because we translate the church for our culture, but sometimes our translations differ from true meaning and intent, and instead of speaking truth, we are deceiving.
Donald pointed out three things he thinks are influencing the church in the West:
1 – A free economic system
2 – Darwinian theory
3 – the Bible
Donald shared about how he went to a Yankees/Red Socks game in New York City and went to Times Square for the first time. He talked about seeing all of the images and thinking, “this is it!” We see Christianity through the lens of commercialization.
The average American sees over 3,000 commercial advertisements every single day.
The two rules for advertising are: (1) convince people they are not happy (2) tell them if they invest in your product you will be happy, complete or fulfilled.
These ideals are so true in the way we preach spirituality today…
There’s a hole in your heart that’s round – and you can’t fill it with the square peg of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Only the circle peg of Jesus can fill that hole.
You can be the person God designed you to be.
Investment is action. We talk about 3 points, 12 steps, keys to the Kingdom – all of them are our reduced solutions that don’t require commitment or effort to try to solve complicated problems. We will consume whatever we think will fill a need we have.
Donald talked about how he doesn’t have a television in his home, but as he travels he often finds himself watching infomercials on TV, especially the Magic Bullet. He likens them to magic shows. It’s all about getting your fulfillment NOW!
Don talked about how when he was writing his latest book he took a retreat to a cabin owned by Leonard Sweet. One day he was in the kitchen and found a Magic Bullet in one of the kitchen cabinets. He was so excited and he ran out to the market to get a tomato and an onion to make salsa. Instead of salsa, he got baby food. It was a huge let down.
That’s really a picture of the way we live, especially in the church. We’re told we are going to get something great, but in the end we just get let down. What does that say about our ‘product’? He works, but the system we are using is not.
Donald shared Matthew 6 from The Message:
“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?
“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
“The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes. ”
In the church today we pick slick, sharp people to represent us and there is a desire to make us want to appear better than we are because we are representing God. We become false people, we role play.
Don talked about how one time he was playing tennis and had to go into the woods to get a ball when he encountered some adults dressed up playing Lord of the Rings. He said they had swords and fake accents and everything, but when he talked them, they talked in a normal tone. They were role playing.
Sometimes when we are with non-Christians we can see how really goofy we are. What are we playing? Role play makes us goofy. When we are clear and focused, we shift from us to God and we will sense His grace when we are real.
The world is full of formulas. Don’t fall for that nonsense.
The culture around us is lying to us 3,000 times a day.
Don’t adapt to culture, but translate to culture as a prophet.
Infants can’t live alone on their own. They need someone else. Imagine giving an infant a Magic Bullet. Just because it makes baby food doesn’t mean it will keep the infant alive.
Eugene Peterson talks about the three languages… the language between a mother and a child (the ‘goo, goo, ga, ga’s’), descriptive language (this is a blog. You are on a computer) and manipulative (you WILL do this.) The dominant language in prayer is #1.
Donald talked about not knowing the importance of having a father and how he didn’t realize how important it was to have a father until he lived with a family. One of the girls he lived with was a girl named Cassie. One night when the family was eating mac and cheese, Cassie decided she wanted chicken nuggets. In her last effort, she threw herself on the floor and asked her dad, “how could you do this to me?”
In that moment Donald said he had the revelation that love isn’t always going to give you what you want – but it gives you what you need.
Commercials tell us we can get whatever we want when we want it, but with God, it’s not like that. Out of love, He is more concerned about ‘fathering’ us toward maturity. He’s concerned about what you need, not what you want.
If you look at the metaphors of our faith, ‘you will be like a tree firmly planted…’, it’s evident that spiritual maturity and growth is slow. Growth has to do with nutrients. It’s all relationship, not investment and return.
The icons Jesus used were natural – farming, ranching, relationship.
Spirituality works like reality – and reality is an educational toy to teach you about God.
As prophets, we need to expose the lies of now and introduce people into a relationship with Christ.
In closing, Don talked about meeting his father for the first time last week. Donald was abandoned by his father over 30 years ago and drove to meet him last week. On the way, he called his pastor and close friends to ask for their support and they all encouraged him saying, “go see your dad… go see your father…”
Don said his dad talked about not feeling like he was man enough to be a father to him and he asked for Donald’s forgiveness.
On the plane ride home while Don was thinking about everything and taking it all in, and fighting feelings of resentment and bitterness and he heard God saying, “He might be your dad, but he is My child. Don’t get in the way.”
Right after meeting his dad, he met up with a friend who had just been reunited with his sister. He flew into NYC and gave his cell phone to the cabbie so she could direct the cabbie to her house in New Jersey. After hanging up the cabbie asked the guy what was going on, and the man relayed the story about this being the first time he and his sister will meet. The cabbie then turned around and asked if he cared if he watched the reunion take place.
Our job is to bring people to their Father. We don’t need good theater or CEO’s. However we translate church in our communities we need to remember we are not a movement, we are family – and our goal is to reunite families, lost sons and lost daughters back to their Father, and Fathers to their children.
