Paradime - A Christian Witness Worth More Than Twenty Cents

Loose Change

If your life is anything like mine, there’s loose change all over the place. It’s in my wallet, the car, a mug in my office, in the bottom of storage boxes, a drawer in the kitchen, a container on an end table…it’s everywhere. We’ve even developed phrases that contain specific references to change like, “a penny for your thoughts, it’s not worth a plugged nickel, it’s your dime, and every time I turn around I’m being nickel and dimed me to death.”

Yet, what may have value in the U.S. may not be acceptable currency elsewhere. Imagine trying to pay a street merchant in Uzbekistan for an apple with five dimes, four nickels and three pennies? Language barrier aside, no matter how hard you try to convince the vendor that the coins you were offering had value, you would likely walk away with a pocket full of loose change and a huge hankering for an apple.

We take loose change for granted in the U.S. We use terms and phrases that include the words penny, nickel and dime throughout our lives, never giving much thought to who invented these terms, what they really mean, and whether or not they continue to serve their intended function in our society.

Christianity does the same thing. The Christian faith uses certain terms and phrases that are intended to be meaningful to all and convey value in the spiritual marketplace. The terminology that inhabits the dialogue within the Christian community is akin to loose change; everybody seems to have some but do we ever pause to examine it to determine whether or not the sum of it all adds up to the value it was originally intended to convey? Far too often I overhear a dialogue between an evangelical Christian and a spiritual seeker that sounds like the interaction between the Uzbekistani apple vendor and an American tourist. For the Christian, maybe it’s time to empty our pockets and examine the loose change we seem to be carrying around. Let me explain.

Spare Change

I saw Batman Begins recently. There is a line in the movie that continues to inhabit my head. “What chance does Gotham have when the good people do nothing?” This basic, simple question got me thinking about Christianity. I started asking questions like: I wonder if you can hold a biblical worldview, be considered a good person and do nothing to positively impact your world for Christ? What’s more important, beliefs, belonging or behaving? Maybe it’s time to take a look at the biblical worldview mantra and see how things are going?

From what I can discern, the term worldview is as old as the first communication between two people, sharing their respective views on life. The word was formed in Europe and was minted in the U.S. in the early 1900’s. For evangelical Protestants, it appears that guys like John Calvin, James Orr and Abraham Kuyper were the one’s who were primarily responsible for getting this spiritual currency into wide circulation. Originally constructed primarily as a defense to Christianity, it has morphed into a systemic, holistic, framework within which our central beliefs and the Christian definition of reality could be articulated.[i] Orr published his “Christian View of God and the World in the Incarnation” in 1893. Carl F. Henry, Francis Schaeffer, and a few others became the primary advocates for a complete biblical vision of life during the 20^th century. Most recently, Henry Blackaby, Charles Colson, George Barna and a whole purse full of others have safeguarded this asset.

It seems to me that this biblical worldview stuff is a lot like spare change; it’s passed from one generation to the next with nary a thought about whether the sum of it all has maintained the value it was originally intended to possess. For the body of Christ, we have invested heavily in the biblical worldview fund. Our investment decision was based upon the prognostication of a substantial return on investment by presenting biblical truth as a mosaic of belief that is clear, simple, compelling, and well-packaged.[ii] Yet, we Christians seem to have gone well beyond this. As Brian McLaren says, we attempted to achieve “a bombproof certainty, a state of faith where all our beliefs are at rest, where everything is proven logically, where there is no dynamic tension, where everything is clear and clean and unwrinkled and in its place, like pressed shirts in a suitcase.”[iii] The problem is that beliefs are like essential, spare change; they have different shapes, sizes and values. When they arrive in the spiritual beliefs safe deposit box of your life, you will rarely find them in the same position when you attempt to locate them the next time you need them. They’re fluid, in motion, varying in intensity and your awareness of their presence or absence. They’re alive…nothing like pressed shirts in a suitcase.

At this juncture, it’s important to make a few things clear. I have no problem with the component beliefs identified as comprising a biblical worldview. They are unequivocally our priceless, irrefutable, irreplaceable treasure. I am most certainly not implying that we should re-examine the veracity of the fundamental biblical truths. I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with possessing or desiring to possess a biblical worldview. I am not saying that a Christian definition of reality is not healthy and essential for a disciple of Jesus Christ today (although that reality may differ, depending upon who you speak to and exactly how they define that reality). I am taking the position that it’s time to look at the returns produced by this particular investment within Christian economy by we who both claim to possess a biblical worldview and champion it’s adoption by others.

I guess my concern adds up to this; if your worldview claim is that you are a dime, does that mean that you are actually composed of either two nickels, ten pennies or a nickel and five pennies? Maybe you’re just another dime. From a Christian standpoint, if you refer to yourself as a Christian, does that mean that you hold all the sum of all the beliefs comprising a biblical worldview? As Philip Jenkins writes, “Christianity is flourishing wonderfully among the poor and the persecuted, while it atrophies among the rich and secure.”[iv] Maybe this is all simply a function of socio-economic status? Could it be that it’s just spare change?

Make cents?

Short Changed

Have you ever been short-changed at the store? There’s that essential moment when you realize, “Hey, wait a minute! Something’s not right here.” You immediately examine your receipt (the record of the results of the transaction), and begin counting your change. If there is a discrepancy between the results and what you received in return, well, you’ve been had. From a Christian perspective, let’s take a look at the receipt, the record of our results from exchanging the currency of a biblical worldview in today’s spiritual marketplace.

According to Charles Colson, “Genuine Christianity is a way of seeing and comprehending all reality. It is a worldview.”[v] He goes on to say, “Understanding Christianity as a total life system is absolutely essential for two reasons. First it enables us to make sense of the world we live in and thus order our lives more rationally. Second, it enables us to understand forces hostile to our faith, equipping us to evangelize and defend Christian truth as God’s instruments for transforming culture.”[vi] Translation: “You’re nuts! So is the world! We’re under attack and we’re going to war! Fall in Soldier!” Could this be part of the explanation why we have so many among us who had enlisted and are now AWOL? Do you see anything in the above that talks about feeding the hungry, loving outcasts, alleviating global poverty, developing a personal, intimate relationship with the Creator of the Universe, mercy, love, forgiveness or a spiritual journey? Sounds like enlistment to me?

Colson says that the scandal in the Church is that we have failed to articulate, defend, and advance an intelligent and coherent Christian world-view.[vii] Translation: The results are in. Take a look at the receipt, the record of our results. We’ve failed. Yep. We’ve short-changed Christ. Our ability to trade the biblical worldview currency among ourselves, and in the global, spiritual marketplace around us has come up short…way short.

George Barna characterizes this short-changed conundrum in the following: “American Christianity has largely failed since the middle of the twentieth century because Jesus’ modern-day disciples do not act like Jesus. They fail to represent Him well not because they are incapable of Christlike behavior or out of an absence of good intentions but because they do not think like Him.”[viii] According to Barna’s research in the U.S., only 2% of born again teens and 9% of born again adults possess a biblical worldview.[ix]

Perhaps the following from Leonard Sweet explains the difference between what the receipt says and the change we have received from the cashier buying into the biblical worldview transaction: “With Christians now largely indistinguishable from non-Christians in how they live and think, there is no longer a startling freshness to the proclamation of biblical truth when it is presented as principles and propositions. How a person lives speaks much more loudly than what he or she asserts, now as always.”[x]

We’ve been had.

Foreign Exchange

At present, the Chinese government will not let their currency float. This means that the yuan remains artificially valued on world currency markets. This keeps the cost of Chinese exports artificially low. Translation: Lower costs of goods, labor and production result in a burgeoning Chinese economy as global consumers buy more Chinese manufactured goods. Should China decide to float their currency (bowing to existing pressure from the G-8 to do so), the global marketplace will establish it’s real value, over time. Here’s where it gets tricky. The question becomes, what’s it really worth? What will the intrinsic value of the yuan be when it is allowed to float and is exchanged for one euro, U.S. Dollar or British pound? Answer: Nobody knows for certain. This could be either genius or economic heresy.

What’s the point? What we believe about the value of the various currencies we Christians exchange in the spiritual marketplace have real consequences. Maybe we have already let the currency of the biblical worldview float. Perhaps the spiritual marketplace has established a value for this currency that is a fraction of the value we had anticipated. Certainly, in the Christian marketplace in the U.S., the production of new disciples is not booming. Maybe it’s time to embrace some holy doubt. As one author says, “sometimes doubt is actually holy — when it reveals a desire to pursue the truth, even when doing so means revising one’s current beliefs?”[xi]

Maybe merchants and consumers just aren’t accepting what we’re selling in exchange for this biblical worldview product anymore. Does the possibility exist that there has been inflation that has impacted the value of the biblical worldview currency in the global, spiritual marketplace? Has the nature of competition to purvey truth to consumers changed or intensified? Perhaps, we just need more and better sales training? Those darn consumers must be the problem! Could it be that the currency of a biblical worldview can only be possessed by a select few? Maybe Christianity was never intended to be minted, circulated and exchanged as a biblical worldview currency? Has a biblical worldview become like one of those offshore tax shelters I’ve read about in FORTUNE magazine? You read about this stuff in the crumpled publication stuffed in the seat pocket in front of you before takeoff, having forgotten your book in the overhead bin and climbed across folks to your window seat and buckled up. After takeoff, it dawns on you that the essential asset you’ve just read about, well, you’ve never met anybody in your circle of friends who actually has one, or at least they’re not talking about it. Maybe the value of a biblical worldview is something only the experts and professionals discuss amongst themselves in lofty theological discourse that never really filters down to us common folk? When’s the last time you asked a friend, how’s your biblical worldview portfolio performing lately?

It’s just foreign exchange anyway, isn’t it?

A New Currency:

Who would have thunk it? The formation of the European Union came before a common currency was introduced. I can recall reading the hysteria-enraged forecasts of economists and public policy pundits (the experts) predicting the utter certainty of catastrophic socio-economic consequences, if the Euro was authorized to replace the currency of each member nation in the EU. To do so, each nation had to disband their deep, heartfelt attachment to the franc, lira, deutschemark etc… What happened? The Euro is presently worth more than the U.S. dollar. What’s the point? The scenario above is a current day example that we can belong before we issue a common currency. Is there a central issue contained within this scenario that we Christians have been banking on that now emerges as a legitimate subject for debate? Answer: Yes!

The purveyors of the biblical worldview currency have based its valuation on the gold standard that you must believe before you belong. You must buy into a certain number of component beliefs before you are really one of us. If you actually possess a nickels worth of these beliefs and claim to be a dime like the rest of us, you’re five pennies short of where you need to be. We’ve even developed some nice names for you like notional, nominal, church hopping commie, seeker or just plain lost. If you don’t say that you buy into all of the life changing tenets of our faith that make up our biblical worldview, well, we’ll pray for you. Maybe you’ve memorized the ideas that comprise a biblical worldview. Well, more bad news, as Donald Miller says, “I don’t think memorizing ideas helps anybody understand the meaning inferred in the expression of those ideas. I think ideas have to sink very deeply into a person’s soul, into their being, before they can effect change, and lists rarely sink deeply into a person’s soul.”[xii]

Hmmm…As I considered this belief before belong precept inherent within the biblical worldview, my mind quickly went to Matthew 4:19, the calling of Peter and Andrew, “Come, follow Me.” In Matthew 8:9 Jesus calls Matthew, “Follow Me.” In other words, “Hang out with Me.” Jesus knew that through relationship with Peter, Andrew and Matthew, they would come to believe. Sounds, like an invitation to a journey, a friendship, an adventure… a process. Maybe Dallas Willard is correct when he writes, “To belong is a vital need based in the spiritual nature of the human being.”[xiii]

Frankly, the biblical worldview currency has not bought Christ much of anything constructive from an evangelism standpoint. Our primary use for the concept of a biblical worldview has been to reduce the component beliefs to questions in social research and then trumpet the results that hardly anyone possesses one…that’s encouraging. The biblical worldview stuff has also fed “justifiable” militancy within Christianity’s evangelical economy that has contributed to the marginalization of Christianity, particularly in the U.S. Finally, the biblical worldview has been at the forefront of the morphing of Christianity in the U.S. into some sort of civil religion where one must be a member of a particular partisan, political party to be considered “one of Christ’s.” This final unanticipated consequence has cast a dark shadow over Christendom in the U.S. as those who are against an agenda of socio-political issues versus those who are sold out to attracting others by virtue of living lives as loving disciples of Jesus Christ. As Francis Schaeffer wrote, “But even orthodox doctrine can become merely intellectual, a final integration point and can actually shut us off from God rather than opening the doors to Him, which it is meant to do.”[xiv]

At this juncture, I am reminded of a few pertinent Scriptures from Romans. In Romans 14:1, Paul says, “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.” In the same Chapter, he writes I verse 13, “Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brothers way.” Perhaps, we should consider the relevance of this wisdom in regard to the biblical worldview issue, as framed in the paragraph above.

I think Tony Campolo had the combination to the vault that leads to the discovery of the potential for a new currency within the Christian economy when he wrote, “The Greeks taught us that what people think and feel determines what they do. These ancient philosophers who have contributed significantly to our thinking were only partly right. While it is true that what we think and feel influences what we do it is also true that what we do influences what we think. Very often, our actions condition our thought patterns and determine our feelings more than we are willing to admit.”[xv]As one author suggests, “Right relationships are not produced by right thoughts or right actions. Just the opposite. Right thoughts and right actions are produced by right relationships”[xvi] Maybe there’s some pertinent wisdom in a phrase from Brian McLaren that says, “Sometimes belonging must precede believing.”[xvii]

Perhaps it’s time to reflect upon the fact that our collective poverty is the currency that we must cherish, versus basing the value of one’s Christian witness to the world on the gold standard of a biblical worldview. As Robert Bellah wrote, “We have imagined ourselves a special creation, set apart from other humans. In the late twentieth century, we see that our poverty is as absolute as that of the poorest of nations. We have attempted to deny the human condition in our quest for power after power. It would be well for to rejoin the human race, to accept our essential poverty as a gift, and share our material wealth with those in need.”[xviii] Perhaps it’s time to move toward a new currency whose value is a reflection of Christ to the world that says, “what I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do.”[xix] In this sense, we come to accept that through His power, our lives become the magnetic mystery, awe and wonder of living for what we believe, for His glory.

Perhaps becoming what you believe is a process that necessarily involves shedding beliefs that are no longer becoming. A new currency appears to be emerging within Christendom. I refer to it as embedded Christianity. This is a witness to the world that is minted on the face of the actions of our everyday lives, a reflection of the loving embrace of Christ to this, His world. Does this sound like the biblical attributes of a new currency that Christendom requires to transact His business in today’s global, spiritual marketplace?

Chump Change:

Jesus was the witness to those in the world considered chump change, the expendables. Now we are to be His witnesses. Yet, we Christians have an indefatigable propensity to complicate the simplicity of our faith to such a degree you require an interpreter to communicate with us. Some of the elements of the Christianese vocabulary, the currency of our dialogue we exchange with one another and the world around us need to be reevaluated. They are expendable, like chump change. They really serve very little useful purpose.

When I am in the Las Vegas airport departure lounge awaiting my flight, I am constantly amazed at the people who continue to plunk their coins into the slot machines that litter the area. They’re trying to recoup their losses by one last gasp opportunity to do the same thing over again that got them into the misery they cannot accept in the first place…nobody wants to go home a loser. If you talk to people who live in Las Vegas, they will tell you that those airport slot machines are simply “receptacles for chump change.” Maybe we need to revisit the second step in one of those 12 step recovery programs that says, Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. One of the objectives of this article is to cause us to pause, step back and take a look at our stuff. It’s not the machine that’s the problem. It’s us.

Remember: You and I are the chumps that He lived, died, rose and reigns to change.

Counting The Cost

“Show me the money. Show me the money!” Nobody can forget those lines from Cuba Gooding Jr. in the film Jerry McGuire. Guess what? They’re as applicable to the Christian life as they are to the expectations in the fictional portrayal of Cuba Gooding Jr. toward his agent, Jerry McGuire. We are His agents. “We will stand before God one day and give an account for our lives. And this generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of non-Christians. God will ask, ‘Did you do all that you could? Did you match the intensity and fervor I brought to the cross?’ People must be brought to the point of understanding that it would be a tragedy if change didn’t happen. They must not simply embrace change, but cry out for it”.[xx]

This is why the paradime matters. Let’s face it. The biblical worldview currency we are transacting is simply not producing the righteousness He desires. Yes, our God expects results, righteous results, as defined by Him. “Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar! All for a paradigm shift stand up and holler!” My intention has not been to devalue the currency of the biblical worldview. Yet, I do believe that it is time to reconsider the wisdom to continue supporting the widespread circulation of this coinage, as the gold standard upon which we witness to one another, and those around us. Do I sound conflicted? I am! Guess what? I’m not alone.

Perhaps it’s time to exchange the paradime of the biblical worldview for a paradigm of deliberate, active faith. As Brian McLaren writes, “Faith involves admitting with humility and boldness that we need to change, to go against the flow, to be different, to face and shine the light on our cherished illusions and prejudices, and to discover new truths that can be liberating even though they may be difficult for the ego, painful to the pride.”[xxi] The words of Jesus challenge us today, as the same words challenged Martha: “Do you believe this?”[xxii] OK. Well, now what? As Barna says, “You and I may profess to be followers, but remember, the most significant evidence of our loyalty is not what we say but what we do.”[xxiii]

As I departed the theater after watching Batman Begins, a rephrasing of the line, “What chance does Christendom have if the good people do nothing?” continued to inhabit my head. Then, it dawned on me, “Where’s Robin?” I wonder if Jesus feels the same way about us, His disciples.

It might be time for some uncommon sense…and a paradime that produces a Christian witness worth more than twenty cents.

God Bless you,

NOTES:

[vii] Colson, Charles and Vaughn, Ellen Being the Body – A New Call for the Church to be Light in Darkness, W Publishing Group, A Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville, TN. © Copyright 2003 by Charles Colson and Ellen Vaughn, p. 210.

[xii] Miller, Donald Searching For God Knows What, Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville, TN,

[xviii] Bellah, Robert N et al. Habits of The Heart- Individualism and Commitment in American Life, University of California Press Berkeley, CA © 1985 and 1996 by The Regents of The University of California p. 296.

[xxii] Matthew 11:26 – New International Version

Bill Dahl

Paradime — A Christian Witness Worth More Than Twenty Cents

Loose Change

Spare Change

Counting The Cost

NOTES:

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