Is our biology contributing to Church segregation?

Invisibilia is a podcast that explores the "invisible" forces that affect life. In a recent episode the reporters explore "The Power of Categories" and second half of the episode talks about a retirement community. 

If you don't want to take time to listen to the episode, or at least the second half, here is the setup. 

Man from India (Iggy) sets up a retirement community (Shantiniketan) that feels more like his native country. Other retiring people from India are attracted to  being a part of a community where they are no longer an outsider. While the community does not turn non-India people away it is still a community that can feel rather exclusive. The original founder does not want his children to live in a community like this - too insular - but he also feels that people are like salmon and as we get closer to death we desire to return back to what is most comfortable or familiar. And according to Jeff Greenburn, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, humans get just a little bit more racist as we move closer to death. Here is the transcript from this point:

GREENBERG: I am a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona.

MILLER: And for the last 30 years, he's been studying how we behave when death is on the mind.

GREENBERG: That realization that, someday, we're not going to exist.

MILLER: And Iggy is absolutely right. If you raise the specter of death in a person's mind, which you can do experimentally, by the way, by simply asking a question like...

GREENBERG: ...What do you think happens to you as you physically die and once you're dead?

MILLER: People like people in their own group way better than they do when they're not thinking about death.

GREENBERG: So we had them rate them on, you know, traits like, you know, honesty, kindness, intelligence.

MILLER: Christians like Christians better. Italians like Italians better. And Germans, who most of the time are actually pretty lukewarm on other Germans...

GREENBERG: I think it's still - it's lingering, you know, guilt.

MILLER: ...If you get them to contemplate their own mortality, suddenly they really like Germans.

GREENBERG: So if you interview Germans near funeral home, they're much more nationalistic.

(LAUGHTER)

MILLER: But it's not just that we like our own more. Its reverse imprint is also true. We like people outside of our group much, much less.

GREENBERG: People become more negative toward other cultures.

MILLER: So why? Why might we do this?

GREENBERG: Well, because death haunts us as it does. We have to do something about it.

MILLER: Greenberg thinks it's this strange way that we try to fend off death. His thinking goes that people who are not like you, who do not share your language or your values or your beliefs, well, in some very primal way, it's like they can't see you.

GREENBERG: And so to manage the terror that we're just these transient creatures...

MILLER: ...We shoo those people who make us disappear away.

GREENBERG: Right.

MILLER: That is, when you dive deep into your own category, what you're actually getting is the illusion...

GREENBERG: ...That we're significant and we're enduringly significant.

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And so if it is true that human individuals become more concerned with surrounding themselves with their own when they are thinking about their own death, is is also true that human institutions become more concerned with surrounding themselves with their own when the institution is thinking about it's death? Does the chatter of the "death of the Church" and the Church's inability to draw in new Christians create a feedback loop where the Church is only able (or willing) to drawn in others who look/act/feel like us?

Why it is a problem that most ministers are freelancers

Seth Godin describes a freelancer as one who gets paid when they work and only works when they get paid. More fundamental than the economics of this is that freelancers are the people who get things done by doing them themselves. If a freelancer wants to get a project done, the freelancer does it herself. She draws up the designs and executes the plan and then reaps the rewards or outcomes. If she does not do any of this then the project is not accomplished. 

This is not a bad way to live. In fact it is a very liberating way to live a way that many people choose and do well at. Most people and churches in recent decades, we have been trained that the senior pastor is a freelance minister. If the church or the people were going to accomplish a project then it was dependant upon the minister to do most (if not all) the work. This is not a bug in the system but a direct result of the fact that ministers usually have the largest communication platform (pulpit) and the collectively recognized authority (maybe not the power but the authority) and so it only made sense that if anything was going to get done in the church or by the people it would require the ministers active participation. 

Some ministers horde onto that sense of power that comes with getting the church to move, and amp up their position so that really nothing happens without their awareness and blessing and even work. Out of fear or intimidation or ignorance of what to do, many lay members become unable to experience ministry autonomy, mastery or purpose. 

Most ministers are freelancers who are stressed out and burned out trying to meet the expectations of getting everything done. There are so many articles and reflections on why ministers are burned out and much of it comes from the expectation that the minister needs to do it all. Like a freelancer, the minister has to prove their worth/value. 

Conversely, Godin offers up that there is another way to be in the business world and that is one of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are people who build a system so that everyone else is better at their job then the entrepreneur is. Work happens on projects even when the entrepreneur is asleep. The entrepreneur is one who in constantly disrupting the system in order to promote risk taking - something that freelancers do not have time or sometimes the desire to do. It is in taking risks that future, unseen growth can happen.

While the freelancer can do great things, the entrepreneur can scale those great things up to affect larger groups or people. 

One way is not better than the other. The both have their drawbacks. Godin's argument is not that we should live one way or the other, but that we are clear on what sort of dent we want to make in the universe. Be a freelancer or an entrepreneur - but not both at the sametime.

Forgiving and Forgetting - A recipe for failure?

There is this little passage in the book of Matthew, you may have heard of it: "Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times."

For the longest time I always read the scenario Peter puts out there in this way. Someone steals Peters donkey thus sins against him. Peter is to forgive. But then that same person sins against Peter again by spreading rumors about him. Peter is to forgive that as well. Then that same person sins against Peter by bringing false charges against him. Peter is to forgive that as well. At some point, the question becomes - how many times do I have to forgive this person who keeps committing sins against me? Jesus says, seventy seven (a number designed to be so high that one cannot keep count and thus forgiveness to the number of infractions is endless.

This interpretation is reinforced by the "forgive and forget" idea. In which we are to forgive something and then wipe it from our minds and forget it ever happened. It seems that forgive and forget is not humanly possible. In fact if there is one verb in the bible that reoccurs the most it may be the word "remember". We are to remember all sorts of things, Gods grace, the covenants, the exodus, commandements, care for the sojourner and outcast, etc. It can be argued that it was when the people forgot was when they got into the most trouble in the Bible. As it is said, those who forget history are bound to repeat it. 

Some might say, but if we remember the sins of others (and don't forgive and forget) are we not disobeying the very teaching of Jesus at the beginning of this post? Are we not commanded to forgive forever? Remembering the sins of others does not mean we hold grudges or that we resent others. Perhaps this is what Jesus means when we should forgive seventy seven times. We are to forgive the same (single) sin seventy seven times. 

Jesus knows we are not able to forgive and forget. In fact to do so may be irresponsible on some sins. But if we do not forget the sin then we can fall into the trap of resentment. Knowing we cannot forget past sins and trying to help us avoid resentment toward others, Jesus may very well be saying, if someone steals you donkey you have to forgive that sin seventy seven times. If someone spreads rumors about you, forgive that sin seventy seven times. False charges - forgive that seventy seven times. 

Could it be that Jesus is saying, forgive someone who sins against you as many times as you remember that sin - seventy seven times. We cannot forget the hurts others cause us, but we can remember to forgive every time we see those wounds.