Push Pin Vision

I wanted to share a vision with you.  I got it in Ridgecrest last year and some of you may have heard it but since I just shared it at the GLR meeting I thought I would post it.

A while back during worship at the retreat, I found myself getting frustrated.  I was unclear and in some ways still am about Roots worship.  Was it simply a diverse expression of worship in our movement, or what is where worship was going as a movement.  While I absolutely love John, Ryan, David and Chris, I was feeling really out of place. I was wondering if there was a place for me in worship in the Vineyard.  I knew it wasn’t a worship heart thing because I drop right into worship when these guys lead. 

I just know I’m at the polar opposite spectrum musically.  I was conflicted and getting angry with God.  So rather than stand there and not engage, I stepped out of the room and asked God to deal with me on this.  And man he did.  He immediately showed me a picture of a map of the United States and right in the middle of it was a beating heart.  If you have ever seen a map with push pins in it where people have vacationed it looked kind of like that.  There was a red string that came out of the heart and attached to each of the red push pins.  These push pins where in Yakima Washington, New Orleans, Anaheim, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Boston, Columbus, Texas.  At least those were the one I could make out at the time.  Every time the heart in the center of the map would beat, those strings would pulse on their way to the pins.  While looking at this map I felt God say, “You should be honored to be in a movement that has the ability to translate the heart of worship into so many languages.”  I stood there silent.  All of the sudden, I saw the diverse expressions of worship from my friends who lived in these areas become interpreters that were translating for their communities.  That is when I heard myself in my vision say....”wait a minute, I don’t have to be the next anything.”  “All I have to be is me, and I get a push pin.”  As soon as I said that a red pin dropped on the map in Cincinnati.  

I left that retreat no longer frustrated or angry or confused but feeling like a dialect of a language that has not yet been translated for my community.  I left that retreat feeling refreshed and clean and ready to write.  I came home and was able to write for my congregation and for the one person hurting.  I was able to enjoy the diversity of expression and know that there was not an ounce of competition in me.  I wasn’t trying to be the next anything.  I didn’t have to be.  All I had to do is translate the heart of worship for my community and my congregation.  On 8/12/11 I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit.  During a time of reflection we were given a piece of clay and were instructed to ask God to tell us the one thing we could do.  I heard “Sing The Story”  I wrote it on the clay and keep it on my desk here at work.  I know without that vision at the retreat, that I would not have been able to hear that from God without attaching my view of the worlds economy to it.  I would have corrupted and tainted the call and cheated my congregation and myself.

Facebook: The Peanut Gallery For The Passive Aggressive

Yesterday I surrendered.  I realized that Facebook or at least who I was exposed to on Facebook was toxic to my spiritual life.  I was angry, short tempered and basically over all pissed of.  Then I had to take the stage and talk to my worship team about the reality that we are losing another worship team member only five months after the death of another worship team member.  All the sudden perception and clarity punched through the anger and I realized I didn’t have to descend into this trap.  I was choosing to. I even got into a stupid conversation with a good friend over gun control. What a freakin’ waste of energy, time and relationships.

I was angry because my pastor and worship leader friends thought fighting over what eating a chicken sandwich meant, rose the level of national conversation.  I read the posts about how Gays felt attacked and how racism against blacks have been replaced by the mistreatment of gays in society.  I read how the church failed yesterday, and how Mike Huckabee rallied for a show of appreciation.  I read the posts from believers that said, we have lost our voice as the church to speak into these issues or even to be relevant to the gay population.  I clinched my fists as I read how gays have suffered like blacks did and more so because they have to hide their preference.

So now at the risk of being unfriended by most of you I would like to set the record straight.

Blacks were taken from their own country, captured and hunted like animals.  

They were chained up in the belly of massive cargo ships and dumped into the ocean if they did not survive the trip.

They were sold like property, forced into labor, raped, beaten and mutilated. 

They had their children sold out from under them 

They had their identify taken from them and were given new names that stole from them this heritage and history.

They built the country we now enjoy and were given nothing as compensation for it. 

They had to sacrifice themselves to prove themselves worthy to wear a military uniform and in some cases were killed by the men they were supposed to be fighting side by side with.

The government they helped build labeled them lazy, and deficient.

Government programs to take care of people in their old age kicked in after the life expectancy of Blacks had expired.

We were denied transportation, education opportunities and terrorized by organized agencies that in some cases were sworn to protect us from this exact type of terrorism.

We were denied the right to vote, own property or run for public office to change it.  

Our non violent protests were met with absolute violence including murder, animal attacks and lynchings.

The most sacred places blacks gathered on Sunday mornings were bombed. 

We were depicted in society and film as criminals and gang bangers.

Our contributions to history, film, music, science and culture were simply written out of history, and continue to be rewritten in history today even depicting a pilot in a recent 9/11 movie as white to the amazement of the African American family that lost their Dad and spouse on that day.  These were not isolated incidents. This was an oppression that spans generations and engulfed entire populations.

So with all do respect, please don’t compare the plight of gay rights in this country unless you can show me a 200 year generational history that encompasses an entire race of people that endured what is listed above. This country prospers because of those sacrifices.  That same country now allows individuals to earn and spend their money they way they see fit.  This includes Chick Fil-A and Apple computer.

Chick Fil-A sells fast food.  The president of the company doesn’t believe in same sex marriage.  All hell broke loose as a differing opinion was aired. All the sudden tolerance was no longer tolerable. 

I’m not going to get into the gay rights thing because the arguments, unlike the actual persecution is all to familiar.  When one of my friends would drop the N-Word, I would hear, “I’m not a racist, one of my best friends is black.”

So that narrative continued yesterday.  “I have a gay friend”  and now that somehow makes you an expert.  I get it, I get it all to well. Life does not play fair.  Did you really expect it to?

Here is the sad truth that was apparent to me yesterday and led me to the decision I made. When pastor’s blog sites have more fans than their church has members, something is wrong.  When attendance in church is dropping but friend requests are increasing exponentially, something is wrong.  When the preaching takes place in cyberspace at the expense of teaching in the pulpit, something is wrong.  When liberals in your church feel like they are on an island by themselves at the same time, conservatives in your church feel the same way, something is wrong.  When unity is something we talk about on the weekend but we spend the rest of the week in cyberspace being divisive, something is wrong.  

My Dad use to say: “Never argue with a fool, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience, every day of the week.” Facebook is becoming the peanut gallery for the passive aggressive, and if you let it, it will do the exact thing that my father warned against. It will drag you down and beat you with it.

So I leave you with this thought.  It has been reported that Apple Computer supports same sex marriage. It has also been reported that they financially support organizations that lobby for this.  Yet many of the pastors and worship pastors I know use Apple computers every day to write and record worship music and use apple technology to spread the message of Christ every day.  Spin that one around in your noodle for a while.  

Where was the outcry for tolerance yesterday?  I couldn’t find it.  Why?... Because the things no one will talk about face to face were all happening in the peanut gallery of the passive aggressive. 

I believe the gospel is the most important message for people this side of heaven.  However when we lower that message to the level of politics we splinter it into liberal, conservative, democrat, republican, oppressor, liberator, and an infinite amount of others.  At best we might as well hand out cognitive filters at the door because once you’ve vented on facebook, everything you say from the pulpit if then filtered.  Jesus had the ability to cut straight to the point, and if he offended you, you were free to challenge it.  However he always told you what you wanted to hear and what you needed to hear simultaneously.

As for me, I stayed up until 4:15AM changing Facebook settings and removing my friends posts from my news feeds.  This morning I woke up to what felt like victory.  I haven’t closed my mind or my heart to dissenting opinions, I actually welcome it.  I just refuse to do it on Facebook. If you want to discuss something with me and you actually know me, call me, we’ll meet face to face and have a healthy conversation.  As for Facebook, it is now a one way information stream for me.  If you have asked to follow me, you are welcome to, but no longer will I spend any part of my day, randomly being someone’s seagull friend.  I refuse to Fly By, Crap All Over People and Fly Away.  My last post on Facebook said:

“If you want to play the role of the match, you can’t be pissed off at the gasoline when it does what it is designed to do...and blows up in your face.”

Sincerely, Free at last!

Charlie Hines