Internet Predators

Last night during the big storm in northern Indiana, our internet connection went out for a while. So, to track the progress of the tornado warning we had to break our weekday TV fast. Once the sensationalized weather coverage finally went back to network programming, I found myself watching this show called something like, Dateline--Predator.

The whole thing was a sting operation to catch guys chat with 13 year old girls on the internet and make arrangements to come have some sexual liaison with them. There are hidden cameras and microphones so we get to watch as some fifty year old guy comes to rendezvous with the girl (who is played by a very girlish, petite 18 year old). Then the Dateline host comes waltzing into the scene and springs the trap. Policemen come jumping out of the bushes and handcuff the guy while holding him facedown on the ground. It's quite gripping television (and another reason to keep the TV fast going!).

I haven't been able to sort out my thoughts on this yet. I guess I'm not surprised to know that there are otherwise fairly normal guys trying to do this sort of thing. I was pretty surprised to see it in action. I'm a bit repulsed by the slick, holier-than-thou host of the TV show (I wonder what his private life is like?), and it almost feels like entrapment. It is probably a healthy accountability mechanism for what people do on the internet. What was hidden and secret is laid bare for the world to see.

Oh, that we would have the character to be able to do the right thing even when no one is looking!!

Is the Church Held Accountable for its Mission?

I spent the whole day at work schlogging through our institution's self-study. Once every ten years (if all goes well) the regional accrediting agency comes around to check to see whether we're doing what we say we're doing. In advance of this we have to prepare several hundred pages of documentation and reflection on how well we're doing. It's really a pain in the posterior, because tending to your mission is different than documenting or proving that you're tending to your mission. However, there is something about having someone check up on you that makes you do things better and more responsibly.

I got thinking, "What if churches had accrediting agencies?" I guess those that are part of denominations in some sense do have a regulatory body, but I'd bet that there is not a lot of rigor with regard to the expectations.

What if Jesus showed up occasionally to see how we're doing with regard to the mission he left us? The Great Commission in Matthew has four components to it as normally translated:

1. Go into the whole world;
2. Make disciples of everybody;
3. Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;
4. Teach them to obey all that I have commanded.

When people talk about the Great Commission, they rarely make it to #4. What if the accrediting agency came around to our churches to check up on this one? Disregarding for the moment all of those people who aren't in the church (whom we're supposed to be going to, discipling, and baptizing), could we demonstrate that those who are in our churches have been taught to obey all that Jesus commanded? Notice that this is not just teaching them what the commands of Jesus are (though we might not do so well on this easier task either). Rather, we have been charged to teach people to obey.

I'd even like to claim that it is not just declaring to people that they ought to obey the commandments. If I were writing a Message-esque paraphrase, this passage would be rendered, "Teach them how to obey all that I have commanded." For that is the sense of what Jesus is expecting. And these were pretty tough commandments: Love your neighbor, love your enemy, bless those who curse you, turn the other cheek, be perfect, etc. Have we been teaching people how to do this stuff? This is the beginning of spiritual formation.