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Who’s Lost Us or Them?
Jim Henderson wonders whether Christians have drifted off course from their primary purpose and reason.

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The People Formerly Known as Lost
Jim Henderson explores the power of words and takes another look at Jesus’ three parables of lost things found in Luke 15.

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The Great Connection
Jim Henderson reviews Jesus’ life and how he chose to intentionally connect with others.

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Reflections on the Missing
Jim Henderson wonder about whether love has something to do with it … our perception of non-Christians that is.

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See articles by Rose:

Small Church–Big Impact
First They Fast–Then They Follow

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[photopress:dave_web_color.jpg,thumb,alignright]Dave is cofounder and a board member of Off The Map. Dave is a Christian and high-tech business leader. He’s been a worship leader, small group leader, led multiple youth groups and assisted in planting a church in the 90s. On the business side, Dave has led many high-performance software teams and marketing efforts. Dave and his wife Sharon are the proud parents of three children and live in Seattle.

Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous (140 million people) nations, is the international poster child for poverty and natural disasters. In fact many leaders have given up hope that Bangladesh will ever amount to anything more than a black hole for foreign aid.

Mohammed Yunus was born in what is now Bangladesh. He came to the US on a scholarship, earned a Ph.D. in Economics and then returned to the newly formed country of Bangladesh to head up a university economics department. While there, Yunus became increasingly disillusioned with the rampant poverty and quickly realized that the economics theories he was espousing were functionally irrelevant.

Do Something
Yunus chose to do something. He visited local villages and discovered that the poorest people were paying local moneylenders 10% interest per month (or even per week!) for working capital to purchase raw materials and small equipment for their self-employment livelihoods. This practice of abusive usury consumed their potential profits and trapped them in an unrelenting cycle of poverty.

Yunus decided to do what he could do. He began offering tiny (micro) loans to the poorest people with amazing results. Out of this emerged the Grameen Bank.

Grameen Bank’s primary focus is providing very small loans (as little as $25-50) to the poorest of the poor to be used as working capital in their own micro businesses. Today the Grameen Bank is the largest bank in Bangladesh and still focuses exclusively on making loans to the poorest of the poor.

Challenging The WHBS (Widely Held Belief Systems)
As is the case with all significant change, there have been innumerable critics and naysayers. Yunus doesn’t fit nicely into either the conservative or progressive philosophical camps and he’s had to challenge and overcome many objections and widely held [mis]beliefs about poor people. Here are a few of them:

Widely Held Belief		Grameen Bank Experience/Results
Poor people could not find remunerative occupations		Millions of poor borrowers are successfully self-employed without any training
Poor people would not be able to repay loans		Repayment rates have reached 97%
Poor rural women were not bankable		96% of borrows are women
Poor people cannot save		Micro-savings have proven as successful as micro-lending
Rural power structures would make sure that the bank failed		As of July 2004, there are 3.7 million borrowers with 1,267 branches in 46,000 villages, covering more than 68% of the villages in Bangladesh.

The fundamental reason Yunus has succeeded is that he believes in the built-in entrepreneurial survival capabilities of poor people and their commitment to keeping their word. As a result, Grameen Bank has never required any collateral from borrowers.

Widely Held (mis) Beliefs about Ordinary Christians
In a similar way many pastors have Widely Held (mis)Beliefs about Ordinary Christians. The problem looks something like this: fewer and fewer people in their communities are excited about evangelism activities/programs and participating in evangelism on a regular basis. When they (pastors) put more energy, attention and money on big events to re-invigorate people to care more and do more about evangelism, the resulting returns are weak. In many ways this is similar to the frustrating situation the various governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) found themselves in Bangladesh. It took a new approach with fundamentally different assumptions to begin the gradual process of creating an effective, working, sustainable approach.

Perceptions of Ordinary Christians
Here are some (unhelpful) perceptions I’ve held at times about Ordinary Christians. See if you can relate.

1. Ordinary Christians don’t tithe without constant “encouragement”
2. Ordinary Christians are looking for religious entertainment experiences [and complimentary childcare], not the sacrificial service of true servants
3. Ordinary Christians can’t remember the correct full and life-giving Christian doctrine, so we have to keep reminding them
4. Ordinary Christians have kind of messy [sinful] lifestyles/habits which makes it very difficult for them to be “used by God” as “witnesses”
5. Ordinary Christians are too busy focusing on their jobs, kids, work, leisure time, non-Christian social groups than being good servants in their local church

Embracing The Ordinary
My biggest Widely Held (mis)Belief, when it came to understanding Ordinary Christians, was thinking that all of these “issues” needed to be overcome rather than embraced. I also began to understand why Jesus was so angry with the religious leaders he encountered. It was simply because they were not making the journey of faith doable for the ordinary folks around them.

Yunus believes that “religion … should take into account the reality of people’s lives; moreover, religious leaders should strive harder to improve people’s lives here on earth” [Give Us Credit, Alex Counts, Time Books, 1996, page 322]. He believes that if financial resources can be made available to the poor people on terms and conditions that are appropriate and reasonable, “these millions of small people with their millions of small pursuits can add up to create the biggest development wonder” [Grameen Bank Info web site, Dec 2004]. I am particularly struck by his term “appropriate and reasonable”. When it comes to providing Ordinary Christians appropriate and reasonable approaches to evangelism we have much to learn from Yunus and the Grameen Bank.

Inappropriate Evangelism
The problem with most evangelism programs (like bad lending approaches) is that they are “inappropriate and unreasonable” and therefore are not sustainable or scalable. They require people to stop doing what they normally do and do something different. We ask people to put their normal lives on “pause”, do something “unnormal” and then work double-time to catch up on the things in their lives which have been queuing up. All of which (to the Ordinary Christian) feels like the abusive usury I mentioned earlier in this article. It may even be fun to “act” bold for a while but eventually we head back to our ordinary lives. It seems like we leaders are addicted to the dramatic and allergic to the ordinary.

What about an evangelism approach designed for ordinary, busy, distracted people? One that didn’t require people to remember much, present/pitch anything, didn’t cost money, and something they could do everyday even on their worst days? Could this be the key to unlocking the hidden potential in each ordinary Christian?

If you’re interested in some ideas of what this might look like, check out Ordinary Attempts. If you like these ideas, you might be interested in investigating an upcoming Evangelism For The Rest of Us event.

Interested in learning more about microfinance? Read: Banker To The Poor or check out this recent study reports that there are now estimated to be some 10,000 organizations involved in some form of microfinance yet together these organizations are only supplying about 1% of the estimated $300 billion need for micro-loans. Two (of the many) Christian organizations that are leaders in microfinance are Opportunity International (a “pure play” in microfinance) and WorldVision/VisionFund (offering microfinance integrated with other development services.)

Where did you meet Jim?
I met Jim at the April 26th U2 show at the Key Arena in Seattle.

What did it feel like to meet Bono in person?
I may seem silly to some people but Bono is a very important figure in my life because I admire all the work that he does in the world. Particularly for his work in DATA. He’s a rock star that uses his influence and assets for immense good. I’ve always felt that if we all chose one thing that we cared about and used whatever time or influence we had to make a difference, that the world could be exactly what we want it to be. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I believe in that. Bono personifies it, so to meet him felt HUGE – that I had experienced greatness. It gave me renewed hope in the beliefs that I contribute time and money to.

What did you think that Jim was up to with his explanation about his work?
I was fascinated about what Jim does and excited because it is a wonderful example of unification. I loved it that he was using his life to help show all of us that despite what our beliefs are, we can respect one another. The illusion is separation, really we’re all one.

You were raised in an evangelical home, what are your memories of church growing up?
My memories are mixed. I loved it because my Grandparents were amazing role models for me and I loved going anywhere with them. Church was a very important focus in their life. In fact their love of Jesus was their first love. They walked their talk and I admired them for it. I wanted very much to share in this with them, and the reality is that I feel now in my adult life that I do despite following a different path. But as a youth I felt divided, even sad, because I couldn’t reconcile the teachings of “one path to God”. When I say my youth I don’t mean as a teenager, I mean from as far back as I can remember. I had many questions for my Grandparents. I loved the spirit of church but could never commit to my family’s beliefs. That was a very lonely and difficult path to walk for awhile.

How old were you when you consciously decided to not be a Christian?
I would say that I was never a Christian; I just lived in a Christian home. I don’t mean that out of disrespect, quite the opposite. But when I became strong enough as an individual to research all the other spiritual avenues that the world and its people followed I was about 12. I was 16 when I truly discovered and understood Buddhism. Buddhism answered all the questions in my heart and for the first time I didn’t feel so much like an outsider or that I was bad for believing differently than the rest of my family. It was difficult to explain to my family that I didn’t believe that they were wrong or that anyone else was wrong to embrace whatever religious or spiritual path that they chose. It was the opposite. I couldn’t live with the exclusive nature of Christianity. I have much love and respect for Jesus and Christianity. I just feel that God is too big to exclude anyone. This is just my own heart speaking and I am not intending to disrespect anyone else. Buddhism allows for the possibility that everyone has their own path to God. I don’t profess to KNOW anything. As a matter of fact, I readily concede that as a human being I don’t really know anything. I only know what is in my own heart. I live my life personally as seeing everyone as my brother and sister.

Who is your pastor/leader/guru?
My husband is also Buddhist and we attend a Unitarian Universalist Church in our community. Our Minister is Reverend Rick Davis who is also Buddhist. We also have a Dharma teacher that we attend meditation and Buddhist retreats with. His name is Noah Levine and he leads Dharmapunx.

What would you say to Christians if you thought they would listen?
Wow, that’s a powerful question. One that I’m not sure that I can answer without sounding like I think that there is something wrong with Christians, or that Buddhists are somehow better. It might be better if I direct this to Christians in the United States. This is a bit political, but with the current administration there has been an overt favoring of Christian beliefs. The United States was founded on separation of church and state to protect everyone, no matter what their religious belief. It’s one of the most beautiful aspects of our nation. We’re very lucky to not have to worry that we may be persecuted for the path to God that we choose. I suppose that if there were anything I would like to see Christians adopt is a more live and let live approach. We’re all humans having a spiritual experience. We all care about morals and the rights of our brothers and sisters. There’s room for us all.

What does your family think of you practicing Buddhism?
My family has had many years to get over it now, but at first it was a huge issue. I was as black a sheep as you could get! Gradually they relented when, as the years passed, they saw my actions weren’t so far from their own in pursuit of God’s love and walking a spiritual road. These days it doesn’t come up at all.

What do you think Christians could learn from Buddhists about spirituality?
Again, this is tough without sounding holier than thou. I guess it would be that we’re all sons and daughters of God… every plant, animal, body of water etc. is a beautiful reflection of God. We aren’t separate from these things, we’re ONE with them. And we’re not separate from one another except in thought and intention.

When you learned that Jim was a Christian, were you expecting a sermon?
No, but even if Jim had conducted one I would have listened to him from my heart and understood that he was sharing with me something that he holds sacred and beautiful. I would have been thankful because I try to remember that everyone I meet is a teacher and has something valuable to share. I enjoyed meeting Jim very much and found him to be a wonderful person. His dedication to his spiritual path is inspiring. I am honored that he asked me to conduct this interview. I only hope that it has been useful in some way.

[photopress:jim_sign_looking_lost_person.jpg,thumb,alignright]I was recently in Nashville with Off The Map. As many of you know, part of our presentation involves interviewing non Christians (a.k.a. “The” Lost). Our motive is to ascertain how we’re coming across in our attempt to convert them. I had a very edutaining experience I want to tell you about.

That Bible Belt is Tight
Three months before we headed to Nashville I put the word out to several of my contacts in Nashville so we could find 3 lost people to interview. For one reason or another they were not able to find any lost people who were willing to talk with me about their lostness. Hmmm, I knew this was the Bible belt but I’d underestimated just how tightly that belt was cinched.

I asked several young people – van drivers, waitresses, etc if they were Christians- O Yes!! (I sensed they were lying but didn’t have time to break them down). In Seattle a random young person would almost never self identify as a Christian., Here in the Bible belt I suspected that these folks were really identifying as members of the Christian culture rather than as practicing Christians. On I went in my search until I finally asked my daughter who had lived in Nashville if she had any non Christian friends. She led me to the person I would ultimately interview – my one lost person interview.

The One Lost Person Interview
[photopress:idl0506_kathyinnashville_bb_lost_1l.jpg,thumb,alignleft]Kathy is 34 and works as an oncology nurse. She was raised in a Christian home (Presbyterian) and accepted Christ at church camp as a kid. She continued to go to church and follow Christ into early adulthood, never marrying. She now attends a Unity church because she finds it more accepting.

As I began the interview with Kathy most people in the room were wondering why I was talking with her, after all she sounds like a Christian, talks like a Christian and in spite of my assertions that she was lost – she self identified as a Christian (just like almost everyone else in the Bible belt)

Christian or Not?
[photopress:idl0506_kathynashville2_BB_lost_2l_1.jpg,thumb,alignright]Then I asked Kathy to tell me about her issues with church not being accepting. At which point she dropped the bomb. “Well”, “I’m gay”! The room fell silent as everyone rapidly retreated in their heads trying to figure out how they had thought she was a Christian in the first place.

She then went on to describe how hundreds of gay people were attending church in Nashville, never revealing their gay lifestyle. “They have those signs that say, Everybody Welcome” she said – but I don’t know if they really mean it”. She recounted the painful experience of overhearing “on fire” Christians at her work (who don’t know she is gay) talking together about how the primary cause of all of the problems in the United States is homosexuality.

I then asked Kathy to tell us a little more about her work. She said, “I hold peoples hands as they’re dying and I pray for them, I really believe Jesus has called me into this kind of work”. “I feel very close to Jesus.”

Pastors Want to Know?
[photopress:idl0506_kathynashville3_bb_lost_1R.jpg,thumb,alignleft]The Q&A time was even more fun. A mainline pastor wanting to differentiate himself from the more narrow minded evangelicals told Kathy that his church was considering marrying gay people and asked what she thought about that. “I’m really not into all that gay rights political stuff” Kathy responded “I really think that marriage is still between a man and a woman.”

Finally a young man in his twenties wrapped it up by telling the Kathy and the audience this story. “When I came in here I was not really paying attention, I thought this was supposed to be an interview with a lost person but you didn’t sound lost to me. Then when you said you were gay, everything changed. Now I was even more confused. Then I had this thought – If you had stood up and said “I’m a porn addict and a Christian” I would have said – Yea that works for me. But when you said you were gay I couldn’t make the same allowances. I repent, I’m sorry for not giving you the same kind of mercy I would another person. I still don’t know if you are or aren’t a Christian (and I don’t know if I am) but I do have a lot to think about.”

Where is Off The Map headed? For those of you who follow Off The Map I thought it might be interesting to provide a feel for what we think the road ahead might hold for us. It has been an exciting first five years we anticipate even more from the God who likes us.

We Exist!

Somewhere along the line Off The Map turned 5 – Yea for us!!

Seeing several failed projects in my rear view mirror from taking the “I can change the world in a year” approach, I determined, when starting Off The Map, to keep a softer, more moderate foot on the gas pedal.

Coming into your fifties has some huge upsides, not the least of which is that you have now collected hard evidence of life patterns (good and bad) and hopefully significant amounts of denial and minimization have been squeezed out of you by the steamroller called Life. Consequently I decided to try the five year experiment with Off The Map.

Where We’ve Been – Doable Evangelism – our back door into the church

I’m convinced that my interest in evangelism is not born so much out of a desire to see more people get into heaven (although I do want that) as it is about irritating people.

I’m a provocateur. I get energy seeing people struggle with new ideas and old biases. I like to help them move past reactivity and into creativity. I like to help them escape those nasty cul de sacs and get out on the freeway. I like to help them think, pray and imagine new possibilities to old problems.

Most of us know that non Christians have a bad taste in their mouth about our traditional attempts to convert them but less well known is the distaste Christians have for the evangelism. It turns out that this is one issue Christians and non Christians have more agreement around than disagreement.

Off The Map decided to take on this issue with one caveat. We didn’t want to offer a “cooler version of an old approach”. We wanted to reinvent the whole enchilada. We knew that the one word ordinary Christians associate with evangelism was not-doable (I know it’s not a word but you get the idea). So, being provocateurs we decided to call our approach Doable Evangelism (an oxymoron to be sure).

We started by building a picture frame using the available materials of ordinary people’s lives (time, money, energy and fear) and paint our picture of doable evangelism within those borders. We had to leave a lot of things out. We had to decide what was essential and what was peripheral. We didn’t leave much space for long explainers or cool technical flourishes. We also purposely left “blank spaces” where an ordinary Christian could add their own touch. And it had to be as user friendly as a “paint by numbers” painting. We called our little invention Ordinary Attempts.

We are going to continue to move forward with Doable Evangelism. We have created a one day seminar for those who want to learn more about how Doable Evangelism can be utilized in their churches.

Where We’re Going – Doable Spirituality – our back door into the culture

Boomers thought that getting to the moon was a pretty cool idea until they got a close look. There’s a reason no one has rushed back over the past 35 years. It looks nice from a distance but there really isn’t much to write home about once you’ve taken a couple of spins on the rover. It turns out that the moon is actually more launch-pad than landing zone. Now that NASA has a more comprehensive view (getting to Mars) they understand the role the Moon can play in helping them get to their next destination. In other words, landing on the Moon was never really and end in itself, President Kennedy’s bold leadership appeal notwithstanding. Landing on the Moon has value when it is understood as a step toward something larger, something more profound – something like exploring the universe.

Please – No More Religion
One thing we know for sure- the world doesn’t need another religion!

Walk around the spiritual life bazaar and you will find 3 basic choices packaged using different names, containing the same ingredients and usually promising the same outcomes- hipness, happiness or heaven

   1. Beliefs – right thinking gets you in
   2. Religion – right behavior gets you in
   3. Spirituality – right feeling gets you in

The Spirituality of Me
Maybe it’s just me but it seems that there is increase in vitriol, mean spiritedness and just plain selfishness associated with religion and spirituality on almost all fronts. Christians want a theocracy, New Agers want to feel mellow and Muslims want the advantages of the West without experiencing the sins of the West. They all have a plan for how to escape being left behind and each of them claims that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

Religion is about me getting to heaven, Beliefism is about me being right and Spirituality (the religion formerly known as the last bastion of pure motives) is about me getting comfortable without accountability. Escapism, beliefism, religiosity and the self fulfillment groups consistently over promise and under-deliver, Christianity included!

Why I Don’t Want to be called a Christian (sometimes)
Many of us find ourselves defending a religion we don’t identify with. We feel trapped in a historical convergence. The only thing we know for sure is that we believe in Jesus, his story and we want others to experience him as well. We feel no need to defend the “historical claims of Christianity” but we do feel passionate about trying to live a life that attempts to imitate the values and practices of the founder of our movement. We want his story to be told through us.

We believe God is inviting us to explore and explain doable kinds of spirituality – practices not philosophies and to engage the larger culture in that exploration and involvement.

The Fear of Being Overly Human(e)
There appears to be a deep seeded fear among today’s religious service providers of appearing overly human (or humane). This has led to spiritual offerings that have little to do with people’s ordinary lives and the issues that impact them day to day. Escapism is the big seller whether it’s called the rapture, prosperity, feeling good, or certainty. This is true irregardless of your belief system of choice. What’s missing is something called doable. What’s missing is something called otherly.

Doable Means…
Doable means an ordinary person can put your idea into practice without a lot of effort. It is different than a thought, feeling, reflection or even a prayer. It is an intentional act of love, an attempt to serve. The size of the act is irrelevant – the motive is what counts. The founder of our movement illustrated this in his stories about the woman who gave a penny giving more than those who gave hundreds of dollars and the cup of cold water given to a child not going unrewarded.

Otherly Means…Otherly means our spirituality is directed toward others. It is not about me, mine or ours instead it’s about them and theirs. Again the size or scope of the act is not the issue the intention of the heart is the issue. Jesus loved the whole world but he spent much of his time talking with individuals. Jesus spent a lot of time connecting with, redirecting and introducing people to a God who likes them. At Off The Map we like to say – Jesus walked on water once – the rest of the time he took a boat. We think there is much of value to discover in the lives of ordinary people.

We think there’s a place in our cultures spiritual quest for Doable Spirituality be it ordinary acts of kindness like paying attention to others or churches remaking themselves as community development centers to Tsunami relief efforts, Doable Spirituality helps us learn how to become the spiritual concierge in our communities. Doable Spirituality gives all of us a way to go into our world with good news.

We want to bring new offerings of doable spirituality to the marketplace that will help Christians and Non Christians make their (little) worlds a better place.

We intend to create a new category of spirituality for non religious spiritual seekers (nrss)–spiritual practices that are about serving others more than a religion of me for me and about me. Think “Habitat for Humanity” for the soul.

Blogs and More
Beginning next month we will launch the Doable Spirituality Blog edited by Lisa Wellington. This blog will gather the stories of practitioners of Doable Spirituality. Be sure and log in when you see it. We will also be presenting a variety of events this year that will explore Doable Spirituality like “What Ever Happened to the Holy Spirit” with David Ruis, smaller conferences and then our annual Doable Spirituality conference in Seattle later this year – don’t miss that gathering of the tribes.

[photopress:jim_sign_atheist.jpg,thumb,alignright]About a month ago I was at an airport in Chicago when I got an email from my friend Joe Myers. He sent me a link to a story about a guy who was "selling his soul" on Ebay. Joe knows about my strange hobby of interviewing "lost" people so he thought I would be interested.

I had a couple of hours to kill so I went online and read about Hemant Mehta. Hemant is not only a “lost” person he’s an atheist/lost person. So I bid.

Pretty soon the bidding started climbing into the $50 range (my personal threshold) and about that time I got an email from a newspaper in Chicago saying they wanted to talk with me.

Never one to shy away from free publicity I called Dan at the Daily Southtown. Dan had a 4 PM deadline and wanted to write something about Hemant and his attempt to sell his soul. “Why are you doing this” he wondered (the set up I live for) “We’ve actually been doing this kind of thing for about five years” I explained. We hire non believers to go to church and do a survey so churches can know how the people they say they are trying to reach feel about their “services” (we call it a service don’t we?).

Dan went on to write the first of what has now become literally hundreds of stories about Off The Map hiring an Atheist. We continued to bid and with the help of some savvy eBay coaches (and Jesus – yes I’m still a Christian) managed to win the bid for Hemant’s atheistic attention in the last 6 seconds (it was really exciting to watch the numbers roll and know that we were going to make the 3 point shot to win the game with 6 second left on the clock BTW the winning bid was $504 which was our complete marketing budget for 2006. Donate to Off The Map

Wall Street Journal Calls
The next day I received an email from the religion reporter at the Wall Street Journal asking for an interview. Two days later I was back in Chicago to meet Off The Map’s first atheist/employee Hemant Mehta and the WSJ reporter who had flown in from Boston. We spent two days putting the deal together, attending church, and laughing a lot.

Since that time Hemant has surveyed five churches in the Chicago area. He will visit another 5-10 churches in the next month or so to complete his assignment for Off The Map.

Behind the scenes Hemant and I were working closely with the WSJ to prepare the story so that it could make the front page which it did in the March 9th issue. “On eBay an Atheist Puts His Own Soul on the Auction Block”.

Save Hemant
The other bidders competing for Hemants soul included Atheists who wanted to save Hemant from having to go to church and on fire Christians who knew for certain if he would hear their pastor or come to their church he would definitely get saved. We just wanted to hire him to convert Christians.

Off The Map is in the business of helping Christians learn how to be normal. Let’s face it – we have a pretty weird reputation out their in the open marketplace of ideas and frankly, we’ve given them plenty to work with. Besides legitimate points of disagreement we’ve offered up language they don’t understand, inward looking communities and a belief centric religion they find unattractive.

Off The Map wants to help change that perception, we would like to contribute to a movement that aspires to help Christians become better human beings and make our world a better place. One of the most effective ways we’ve found to do that is to invite those who disagree with us to simply tell us why and then to offer some suggestions for how we could improve, not just our church services but more importantly, ourselves.

So, we did not hire Hemant to convert him and I told him that. I told him that if he got converted it would have to be “off the clock” (btw one thing that is seriously missing in our work as christians is humor)

Atheists = SATAN
One thing you need to know about me is that I am seriously in love with Jesus and see the world in two groups, those who follow Jesus and those who don’t. Whether they self identify as non believers, non christians, agnostics or atheists makes absolutely no difference to me. However, some of my fellow believers seem to see “red” when they hear the word atheist. Somewhere along the line they learned to correlate the term Atheist with SATAN. I don’t know why atheists got chosen to be the worst of the worst of infidels in the minds of (fundamentalist) Christians but having had thirty days to hear the views of atheists I can say with certainty that they get the message loud and clear. So if our job was to make atheists feel like we hate them we can say in the words of our President “Mission Accomplished”

Atheists and Christians Unite
We aren’t called Off The Map for nothing. We decided to take this story public and started a blog. We told Hemant that rather than sending him to 50 churches (his original offer) we would prefer he spent some of his time writing for us online. The otmatheist.com blog has received thousands of hits and hundreds of comments in the past 30 days. We have even formed something of a community of Atheists and christians who respect and honor one another and even protect the “sacred” space we have created from fundamentalistic interlopers (be they atheist or christian).

Ink
Because of the brilliantly written Wall Street Journal article we have received inquiries from Good Morning America, The Anderson Cooper Show and local radio programs. Hemant was interviewed on the Chicago CBS affiliate and was featured in the Chicago Sun Times. Hemant and I both appeared recently on The Big Story on the Fox News Channel. We have even gotten press in India.

Follow The Story
If you would like to stay current with this story check out the blog and post your comments and read Hemants surveys and pass this around.

About sixty days ago Off The Map hired an atheist on eBay. Since that time we have appeared on Fox News and been interviewed many times on radio and done a number of print pieces. Hemant has done nine church surveys for us as well. Here is a short story about how it happened, where we are and how you get connected with the story.

I was yelling into my cell phone balanced precariously between my ear and shoulder’ $298, $302, $379, $402.I kept one eye on the ebay screen hitting the refresh button every few seconds, the numbers came fast and furious. Money was going up and time was running down – soon to intersect and change life for two guys 3000 miles apart but with both sets of eyes glued to the screen.

Ebay auctions are like a basketball game decided in the final seconds. I was shouting now to our web guy who was also watching the final seconds– Wow, those numbers jump, this is exciting ,lets get our home page ready to announce our winning bid. $465, thirty seconds left $478, $489, one bid trumped another as the final seconds ticked off. 10, 9, 8 – $500, 7, 6 our bid for $504 came up 5,4,3,2,1 no other bidders!– we win! A three point shot from the corner while falling out of bounds. Our little organization Off The Map had won an atheist – now what?

Without the internet Hemant and I would not have met. No ebay, no bidding, no bidding no story. The internet is the great flattener of culture. The Roman road system for the 21st Century. The rules have changed. No one is an authority “just because” anymore. Anyone can find out anything they want about you while you are talking to them on the phone. Welcome to Google World 1.0

When it comes to buying and selling information online it’s the wild wild west and Hemant and I were like two gunslingers swaggering onto the internet. We’d decided it was better to talk than shoot. We bellied up to Bar eBay, slapped our philosophical six shooters down and began the dialog or should I say diablog.

“Hemant, how about this, instead of visiting fifty churches how about writing for 50,000 people. I need you to blog about this experience so we have an online journal and provide a place where a lot of people can ask you questions and hear what you have to say”

“Can I talk about The Secular Student Alliance, he asked” What’s that “It’s the group I help lead, kind of like Campus Crusade for Christ only without God” “Jim ,why do they still use Crusade in their title? Who are they fighting, what are they conquering and what are they against “ I thought to myself, if you only knew all the outdated and arrogant sounding language we use to describe our mission it would really give you the creeps. “ I don’t know” I muttered, “I think is has something to do with keeping the donations coming in”

“Sure, write about whatever’s real” I told him but let’s avoid the debate trap” What’s that, his eyes lit up “The Case for Christ syndrome, I answered, where I “prove to you” that I have the right idea and you have the wrong one. Or where we argue over evolution ad nauseum thinking if I can get you to admit that evolution is a theory you will fall on your face and accept Christ as your personal savior” “Have you read Strobel’s stuff,” Sure “ And…? “ He makes some good points, Hemant was trying to be polite, “hey lets be straight with each other, I hired you to tell me the truth, Don’t hold back, “but nothing we atheists haven’t already thought through, Let’s avoid the debate and instead lets have a dialog.

Since it will be online we’ll call it a diablog.

What’s the difference Hemant wondered? Essentially it boils down to this, in a debate you lead from strength, in dialog you lead from weakness. In a dialog you actually admit your weaknesses to your learning partner “you give ground”, become vulnerable which makes it easier for your conversation partner to respond in like manner”

For example, Christians are perceived to be judgmental because we really are , somewhere along the line we began practicing what I call “beliefism” the worship of right beliefs. And if you don’t agree with our beliefs, well nothing you can say or do will make you an equal in our eyes. we need to becoming better at being interested in the viewpoints of people who disagree with us not to “catch them” making a mistake in their logic, Hemant’s eyes lit up, Jim I think one of the reasons Atheists are slow to admit weakness is because whenever they do the religious person trying to convert them jumps all over them for some small detail. “Right” in fact one of the guys on the blog put it this way “If I make one typo or make one point incorrectly in a debate that idea is beat until not only the horse is dead but in the glue factory”

Remember the guy who stayed up all night so he could write on the blog? Yea the one who said “This is like the KKK inviting the Black Panthers to share their point of view” Now that dates him and me. Speaking of which, how weird is it for you to be partnering with an old musician turned pastor guy when you are young hip and just getting started into your twenties? I’ll bet you thought I was some kind of kook when I called you about surveying churches?

Learn more at www.otmatheist.com

If the number of people serving was counted rather than the number of people seated then Rich and Rose Swetman’s church in Seattle would be in the top 1% of effective churches in the U.S and getting lots of press.

When it comes to finding creative ways to serve those around them this church is definitely off the charts.

Rose recently sent in this report:

We decided to track the people responding to the idea of mission projects that are doable and that don’t necessarily involve the church–people are really grabbing hold–they are looking for doable ways to give a ‘cup of cold water’ and asking for their co-workers, family, employers, etc to join them. The response has been awesome.

This is the response we received from a group of about 12 people in our leadership training class.

1. Josh with his co-workers: Organize food drive for Seattle Food Bank
2. Emily with her husband’s co-workers: Organize drive for Women’s Shelter
3. Gary with friends: Organize blood drive
4. Ron with friend’s, co-workers and church members: Organize clothing drive and bicycle drive for overseas
5. George with friends, co-workers and members of another church: Organize shelter and meals for victims of domestic violence
6. Diane with co-workers: Organize clothing drive
7. Tuesday Group from our church: Christmas Caroling at Elderly Housing Complex; Provide Thanksgiving Dinner for family with need
8. Our Church: Members serving at Thanksgiving Dinner for residents at low income apartments
9. Our Church with local Housing Authority: Christmas Party with gifts and Santa and crafts and caroling for 100 kids, infants to 17 year olds
10. Lisa with co-workers at Police Dept: Donating $$ towards Whispering Pines Apartments Christmas Party
11. Tonya with family and co-workers: Went door to door in neighborhood and left grocery bags with a list to fill and put back out–then went and picked up grocery bags (she filled her Ford Explorer) and donated to local Food Bank.

This church is on the smallish size but has discovered that size doesn’t matter when it comes to serving. They also discovered that before you tell people what to do it is more effective to ask them what they would like to do.

Rolf Smith, a corporate consultant once had the daunting task of trying to help the Air Force make some significant changes. His tactic? He went right to the troops and asked them what they had in the way of ideas. The response was overwhelming. He had over 13,000 ideas sent in over a five-year period. Rolf thinks that the job of a leader isn’t so much to come up with good ideas, as it is to create an environment where people aren’t afraid to tell you what they’re already thinking.

That’s what happened to the Swetman’s when they went to a few ordinary Christians in their Leadership Class. By the way when it says, “friends and co-workers” it’s referring most often to their non-Christian friends at work. Even lost people know how to hand out food, give blood and collect clothes, and they are even willing to do it with Christians if we will simply invite them to join us.

Marilyn is interested in investigating faith/spirituality and asked if she could attend church with her friend, Dee who about 18 months prior decided to become a committed follower of Jesus through our church.

The second Sunday Marilyn attended church the message was on the spiritual practices of fasting and prayer. We’d already decided that as a church we were going to participate in a community fast and prayer time for three days. After listening to the message and also being moved by the music that day, Marilyn told her friend she was going to fast with our community.

DURING THE FIRST THREE DAYS OF THE FAST AND prayer, Marilyn began reading A Case For Christ by Lee Strobel. We began our fast on a Thursday and ended on Saturday evening. The following morning at church, Marilyn had not broken her fast. That morning there was a particular sweet presence of the Holy Spirit among us. Again, Marilyn felt very moved by the music. She told me after, “I don’t know what happened to me; the music so moved me all I could do was weep.” Her friend Dee told her that what she was feeling was the presence of the Holy Spirit. Marilyn thought that was awesome, that you could actually feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. She told Dee that while she was engaged with the music that morning she had made some important personal decisions. One decision was to try to reconnect with her father whom she has been estranged from for some time.

As Dee talked with Marilyn about all that she was experiencing she sensed the Holy Spirit nudging her to pray for Marilyn. Dee said to Marilyn, “I think I got a prayer for you,” to which Marilyn responded excitedly, “Really, from who?” Dee said, “The Holy Spirit.” Marilyn felt loved and very receptive to Dee’s prayer.

This is an amazing experience to witness and be a part of. People searching for faith, investigating spirituality, wanting to have an experience with God to the extent they would be involved in a community fast and prayer before even believing. I’m amazed and grateful of being able to just be who we are and invite others to join on our journey. While being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s work in their lives, we continue to invite them to follow Jesus.