The Gospel and Mental Illness

I will begin this post with a confession: I struggle with anxiety and depression. There, I said it. The guy who stands up in front of a thousand-plus people almost every Sunday to talk about the good news of God regularly sees a shrink and takes crazy pills. Hypocrite... right?

Well, in many other ways, yes. But in this instance, I'm not so sure. Since I was about sixteen or so, I have suffered from anxiety and depression. I have wrestled with dark thoughts, moodiness, social anxiety, and, in my teenage years, suicidal thoughts. These symptoms have not been constant, but rather have come in year-long-or-so waves over the past twelve years. And in the midst of all of this, I have been highly functional- or at least good at hiding my symptoms from others. For a long time, this has been my dark secret that I did not want others to know about. It was a huge stumbling block in answering my call to ministry. I thought that there was no way a person who leads others in their journey away from the slavery of angst and into the glory of God could suffer from a mental illness. Something must be terribly wrong with my faith. But I have found this to be just the opposite.

I have confessed my illness to several preachers and, to my surprise, many have replied, "I struggle with it too." Recently, I read this excellent interview with a pastor of a large African-American church, who has struggled holding together his leadership in the church and his depression. In fact, one of the things I have learned from the more experienced pastors who struggle with mental illness is to share and be open with our congregation about mental illness and all of our weaknesses. Doing so allows us to be, as Henri Nouwen once fleshed out in his classic book, "wounded healers". It enables us to point to the enormous grace of God when we sing, "You are my strength when I am weak." It illuminates that old adage that the church truly is a "hospital for sinners"- even for its leadership (after all, physicians are not immune to disease). It gives us the ability to sit alongside those in the congregation who struggle, to empathize with them, and to be fellow-sharers with our flock as we all grow together into holiness. In short, I think sharing and openness protect all of us in the church from the truest illness, self-righteousness.

Someone once told me that upwards of 35-40% of Americans have some sort of mental illness. I have not checked my facts and I don't know if that's true. If it is, you can point to societal issues and personal "attitudes", and you can rightly assert that something is wrong with our world. Perhaps these are major causes of mental illness. Given that mental illness runs strongly in one side of my family, I am tempted to say that it is both these factors and a biological/genetic issue. I am no psychiatrist and I don't know for sure. But as a preacher, I can say, let's no longer chastise those with mental illnesses, fight the powers that are at its root, whatever those powers may be, and submit our weaknesses to God together in order to see how great and wonderful is his grace.

Church Growth and Anxiety

Check out this post by Sarah Howell, daughter of the pastor from my home church and a very promising young preacher in her own right. In this article, Sarah cautions the church from becoming overly anxious about growth strategies, because, after all, God is in charge. Her article prompts several questions about evangelism for the reader: How does the church share the good news without spreading itself thin? How do we as Christians walk the fine line between our duty/calling from God and our rest in God? What is evangelism anyway?

Go to Israel!

OK, so I have been slacking on the blog lately. But in my defense, Easter just finished a few weeks ago, and I have had a lot going on. One of those things that went on was an amazing trip to the Holy Land. Back in February, I went to Israel with a group of 40 from my home church, Myers Park UMC in Charlotte. The group was led by my role model in ministry, Dr. James Howell. Dr. Howell holds a Ph.D. in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and really knows his stuff. It was was a once-in-a-lifetime treat to sit at his proverbial feet and listen to his wisdom on Scripture, archaeology, and the ministry. On top of that, it was great to meet and spend time with some wonderful disciples of Christ, including my parents (who I don't get to see very often).

Instead of giving you a boring travelogue, I thought I would share some of my favorite pics (I apologize that they are a little out of order from the chronology of our itinerary). My short message is "go". Don't listen to the news- the Muslims were the nicest people I encountered there and the only fight I saw was between two Jews (another story for another time). To place yourself in the very geographical context of Scripture will open your mind, heart, and soul in fresh and life-giving ways. Enjoy!

 Our group at the top of the Mount of Olives, near Bethany, looking into the Old City of Jerusalem

 A monument to the Hebrew vowels in Tiberias, where they were created. This is only important to biblical language nerds (guilty).

 Me by the waterfall in Banias/Panias. Was this the place the author of Psalm 42 had in mind?

 Caesarea Philippi, a center of Greek and Roman worship. This is also where Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"

 A view of Mount Hermon, the northernmost point of Israel, covered in snow

 The site of Herod's palace, which once jutted out into the Mediterranean Sea, in Caesarea Maritima

 The Mona Lisa of the Galilee tile in Sepphoris, where Jesus and his father may have worked

 A view of the Jezreel Valley from the Mount of the Precipice

 Modern-day Nazareth from the Mount of the Precipice

 The Jordan River

 The library cave at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found (again, only nerds are interested)

 A view of the Dead Sea from Masada

 The Church of the Beatitudes on the supposed site of the Sermon on the Mount

 Me floating in the Dead Sea with the ashen cross on my head

 The Western/Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem

 A typical street in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter

 Looking over Jewish graves on the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem's Old City

 A Franciscan friar tending to the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane

 Rev. George Ragsdale and I presiding over a communion service in the Garden of Gethsemane

 The Pool of Bethesda inside of Jerusalem's city walls. This is where Jesus healed the lame man in John 5 and told him,  "Take up your mat and walk!"

 The shrine on Calvary in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

 A Coptic shrine around Jesus' tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

 Joseph of Arimathea's tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. This tomb is unadorned and gives us a better idea of what Jesus' tomb would have looked like in the first century.

 The "Jesus Boat" in a museum by the Sea of Galilee

 Our group taking communion on the supposed site where Jesus fed the 5,000

 The second synagogue in Capernaum, the city in which Jesus spent most of his ministry. The temple during Jesus' time likely lies beneath this structure.

 The city gates at Bethsaida, hometown to some of Jesus' disciples. Can you spot the bull-like god/idol in the middle of the frame? Somehow it has lasted in this location approximately 2,800-3,000 years.

 Me at the archaeological site of Hazor, a city conquered by Joshua

 The site of Jereboam's altar at Dan. If you climb up the steps in the background, you can look into both Lebanon and Syria. As we were approaching this site, we heard several rounds of gunfire coming from the direction of Syria (where their inhumane civil war is still going on).

The Canaanite city gate to Dan. This site dates to about 1,800 BC and it is reported in Genesis 17 that Abraham entered this gate to look for Lot.

Joel Osteen

While I was on vacation last week, I saw a commercial on TV for OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. The spot showed a clip from Oprah's forthcoming interview with Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, TX and perpetual punching bag for theological snobs like me. When Oprah asked questions in the clip regarding Osteen's wealth and preaching of the "prosperity gospel", I thought to myself, "OK, this is one Oprah interview I might actually watch."

So I made sure that I DVR'd the episode and I finally got around to watching it. While I was pleasantly surprised at some of his answers, I mostly heard what I expected.

I was shocked to hear that Osteen does not take a salary from his church. Osteen's income, according to him, comes from his book sales. While that does seem very admirable, Osteen's house (as shown in the interview) is baller. There was a huge grand piano behind him, he and Oprah were lounging on plush couches, and the houses in his neighborhood that you could see outside his window were anything but paltry in size. Osteen overtly does not apologize for his lifestyle, repeatedly referring to it as "a blessing". Well, it's a blessing for him, I guess; not so much for the kid in urban Houston who would do anything just to eat a grilled cheese sandwich tonight. I do think Jesus had something to say about a camel and a needle, as well as something in the Sermon on the Mount about the poor and blessings. Oh, and I think Paul may have had a lot to say about humility too. I can't remember exactly.

Also, I was intrigued by his approach towards ultimate salvation in other faiths. Upon Oprah asking him if Jesus is the only way to heaven (citing John 14:6), Osteen replied that people of different faiths may see Jesus in different ways. It was not the hard-line fundamentalist stance of exclusivism that I expected. While Osteen seemed to beat around the question for a while before he got to that answer, and though it is not the answer I would have given myself, it seems that Osteen may in fact have a brain and think through theological issues rationally (overturning some of my preconceived notions about him).

In my final point about surprises, Osteen seems very much on guard against the slickness of his televangelist predecessors. He is upfront about it in the interview. He knows the tradition in which he stands (seems strange to use "tradition" in a sentence about Osteen). He knows the stories of all of the Jim Bakkers that have gone before him. He desires to be authentic and true to his people. Props to him there. In fact, he may be trying to hard. In his benedictions he will throw in a few "ya'lls" and in his interview he almost seems to go out of his way to utter "Gosh, Oprah" and bashfully avert his gaze for someone who is a dynamic public speaker (ask any speech professional and they will tell you that, despite his theology, Osteen is a master at public speaking). But it is not my place to ultimately say whether or not he is genuine. That is between him, his congregation, and God.

All of this said, my ultimate beef with Osteen is in his general theological approach. Osteen is less a preacher of the Word of God than he is a self-help guru. His sermons are all about the individual and how one can better oneself. While there is a place for this in preaching, the ultimate crux of Christian theology is the Good News about God, not us. Intrinsic to any good theology is the basic notion that we humans are made in the image of God, yet there is, in the words of Karl Barth, an "infinite qualitative distinction" between us and God. In short, there is sin. Furthermore, we are encouraged in our struggle for holiness, not by our bootstraps, but by the community of faith. For a guy who is the pastor of the largest church in the US, he seems to have no ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). In the sermons of his that I have heard, Lakewood is approached as a collection of individuals rather than a community of those called out to bear with one another and serve in God's mission as the Body of Christ. Although it doesn't come through well in our translations (sadly), most of the exhortations in the Bible are in the second-person plural. In other words, Osteen might be best served to remember the deeper communal significance of one of his favorite words: "y'all".

Click here to see a clip from the interview.

Speaking of the Bishop

Check out this article written by him on the message of Christmas over and against some of the political and economic messages we are offered (especially this year with the GOP debates raging simultaneously with the Advent season). It serves as a prime example of his prophetic spirit. He and I actually had a conversation closely related to this topic during our time together (mentioned in my previous post). I'd like to think I inspired this article (probably not, but let me take what I can get). Let me know what you think.

24 Hours With The Bishop

Last week, I had the privilege of spending a day with the bishop of the North Alabama Annual Conference, Will Willimon. Willimon is a rather infamous character in the world of Methodism. On the one hand, he is known for being abrasive and unafraid of confrontation, all the while possessing the vocabulary of a disgruntled postal worker. Yet on the other hand, he is a role model for prophetic ministry, willing to take daring stands on issues of justice (including HB 56, Alabama's controversial immigration law), and a living archetype for the peculiarity of the life of a disciple of Jesus. Not to mention, he is often voted as one of the most influential and powerful preachers in the English-speaking world and referred to quite frequently as "the Pope of Methodism".

So when he sent me a message to see if I would join him for an overnight stay in Nashville, I jumped at the chance. I was to drive him to and from a meeting there, spend the night in a hotel, and accompany him on a visit to a district meeting in Athens, AL on our return trip. This is essentially what happened, so I won't bore you with the details of our itinerary.

What I will detail is the great respect I gained for him during our trip. I say this not to kiss his rear (he does not read this blog anyways; nor do more than about 3 people), but to counter both widespread attack of his character and the prevalent criticism that I often hear of the episcopacy in general.

Given his aforementioned reputation and my own mild-mannered nature as a people-pleaser, in conjunction with my greenness in ministry, I half expected him to criticize most of the things I said and leave me feeling like an intellectual and spiritual worm. Instead, I was not intimidated. Our conversations in the car were some of the most engaging I have ever had with anyone, let alone an authority figure. He has a deep concern for the thriving of the church and its ministers. He is especially concerned with the future of the church and the pastors who will lead it. Much of our conversation centered around generational differences between the world in which he grew up (the '60s) and the Sitz im Leben of us folks in our 20s and 30s, and how God might use those differences to raise up the Body of Christ. He seemed genuinely interested in my answers to his questions (which were very pointed and unguarded), and he offered up some wonderfully vulgar anecdotes (I have never heard so many four-letter words in my life, but somehow that rawness of the human condition he described in his stories was refreshing to hear) from his own experience- many of which you will probably hear in my future sermons (censored version, of course).

To my second point, I discovered that being bishop is a tough gig. As Bishop Ken Carder once said to a class of mine, "This is not a job to which you should aspire in ministry." I can see why. Throughout our discussions in the car, Willimon frequently had to check his e-mail and make phone calls in order to fulfill the administrative aspects of his job (fun fact: the Greek word for bishop, episkopos, literally means "overseer")- none of which was responding to pleasant requests, I'm sure. He somehow, while juggling all of these administrative tasks, managed to be a wonderful conversationalist and listener with someone whom he will likely not move to a new appointment (a primary duty of a UMC bishop) before he leaves this coming summer. Oh, and he had to prepare to give two lectures to a group of hundreds of clergy the next morning in Nashville, on top of preparing for a district meaning later on that afternoon.

Such is a day in the life of a bishop. I thought about how hectic that day was- speaking engagements, sleeping away from home, responding to complaints, etc. And then I thought about how he probably had to wake up the next day and do it all over again. And the day after that. And the day after that. Knowing what I know now about all that is on the plate of a bishop, along with the brief timetable they have to think through all of these matters, the unpredictability of job, and the tireless schedule, I will probably think twice before criticizing a bishop. In fact, I think I shall instead praise God for gifting such people with the rare abilities to oversee this messy, divine thing we call the church.

The Enigma of Young Adult Ministry

United Methodists (and all mainline Protestants for that matter) everywhere lament the decline in church membership and attendance among young adults. Since "young adult ministry" is under my purview here at Trinity and since I am a young adult, this issue is especially near and dear to me. Over the last year, I have been a part of several young adult ministry workshops, read a few good books on the subject, and experimented (while failing quite often) with ministry to younger adults. So I thought I would provide some tips on young adult ministry based on what I have discovered. As usual, I welcome your input on things you've seen that have worked.

- Beliefs haven't changed much, but participation has. One of the best resources I have found in my reading on young adults and religion is Robert Wuthnow's After the Baby Boomers. Among Wuthnow's myriad of observations in this book is the notion that young adults have not changed their abstract religious beliefs much since their parents' generation. In fact, some more "fundamentalist" beliefs have even strengthened among young adults since the '60s. What has changed, however, is the young adult's willingness to participate in a religious community. Wuthnow says that young adults today are "tinkerers", experimenting with other forms of communal life (read: other religions, partying, etc.), before "settling down" once they get marred and have children (both milestones that Wuthnow reveals are happening later than they used to). For reading more specific to the ages 18-22, I recommend Souls in Transition by Christian Smith and Patricia Snell.

- So what defines a young adult? When I tell folks my responsibilities at Trinity, this is often one of the first questions they will ask me. And it is certainly a fair question. It's not as if one day one wakes up and is or is no longer a young adult. And further, what defines an activity that is specifically young adult? Again, another question for which there is no cut and dry answer. I have found that each church is different. At Trinity, we define a young adult as aged 22-35, setting age limits so as to prevent the "slippery slope principle" (I'm looking at you, dude in your forties with three kids who thinks he's still "hip"). Also, we try to focus on and celebrate specific life events, such as weddings and births, and stratify our ministry according to the life stages that correspond to these events. The natural drawback here is that not everyone falls in one of these stages at the same age, level of emotional maturity, and knowledge of faith. Last week, I attended the General Board of Discipleship's Young Adult Summit in Austin, Texas. One of my colleagues in Arizona told me that she organizes young adult activities by meeting time and not age, i.e., one group meets at 9PM and another meets at 5PM, thus separating those who have children from those who do not. I thought it was a pretty creative idea!

- "Feed them and they will come." This was the mantra of the director of young adult ministries at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. And it stands universally true- especially for young singles. Providing free food is not only an attractive way to bring in a person who may have a small budget and a big stomach, but it is simply the way of Christ, who was not afraid to share table fellowship with anyone.

- Don't depend on Sundays. Whatever ecclesiological or theological issue we may have with it, as a general principle, we cannot count on young adults to be present for any weekend activity, including Sunday worship. The truth is that young adults are more mobile now than they have ever been, so it is nothing for them to travel back home or to see friends over a weekend. And, as is often the case at Trinity, there is another god to rival- SEC football. But it's not that young adults don't care. They just want it all- personal time, work time, and worship time. So the most effective models of young adult ministry I have seen involve at least one weeknight meeting.

- Social media may be over-hyped. This is one old man's opinion (mine). While I have found Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, etc. to be helpful in getting the word out about events and programs, nothing beats good, old-fashioned face-to-face ministry. In fact, I think one of the responses of the church to young adults these days can be that God and the church do not want to love you at a digital arm's length. We want to meet you with love where you are most real and most vulnerable- in person.

-No one is doing young adult ministry well. This tip is both comforting and unsettling. One of my assignments when I first arrived at Trinity was to speak with those who were doing young adult ministry well and incorporate some of their ideas here. As it turns out, no minister to young adults is remotely satisfied with the job that he or she is doing. It is inherently a challenge to minister to young adults. In fact, the most encouraging thing I have heard (for my sake) was when someone told me that Church of the Resurrection, a congregation of 18,000 members compared to our 3,100, has slightly less young singles at its weekly gathering that we do. Yet, I still feel that there is so much we could be doing to minister to young adults. I have a very optimistic hope that the United Methodist Church has a strong future with my generation and the generations to follow. Even though the times may change, God's grace (the central theological tenet of our denomination) will always be the source of all good and hope in this world.