The following is a paper on life philosophy and ethics from Pastor Kris Freeman of Revolution Church for Trevecca Nazarene University.
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The philosophy of my life is easy to write, simple to explain and short to remember, yet the ethical framework which makes it up and describes it is extensive and foundational. What sounds like a motto and rather is a mantra, the phrase Live.Love.Serve. is the foundation of Revolution Church in White House, Tenn. In reality, it's bigger and deeper than that. It's a lifestyle which carried over into the reach of the local church.
My wife, Jennifer, and I were sitting at a table with a room full of potential church-planting pastors when the instructor asked each couple to write down the potential core values of our new church. The paper contained an acronym, spelling out “HE CALLS” (Hear, Evangelize, Care, Activate, Live, Love, Serve), but when the pastor walked around the room to examine the work, another item on my table was covering the top half of the paper and the only visible portion contained the final three. He spoke out loud to the room and stated: “Live? Love? Serve? These are great. Folks, this is exactly what I am looking for.” I marked out the first four not realizing how right he was, for the entire future of our church and in hindsight the development of my life philosophy was indeed based in those three words.
Fast forward a year and we stood on the stage of our church and launched this mission with an impromptu statement: “we are here to celebrate life change, love God and love others, and serve our community and around the world.” This expanded version of Live.Love.Serve. is now the church mission statement, vision-casting foundation and frame for every ministry in our church and community. We are in our eighth year.
The reason it was so easy to state the explanation of those values on the first day was because what I wrote on the paper that random Thursday in October, 2009, was actually an overflow of the margin of my own life. Though the use of ambiguous wording sounds similar to a virtue ethic like Plato’s courage or justice (Wilkens, 2011, p. 138), or Augustine’s faith, hope and love (Wilkens, 2011, p. 138), it’s deeper defined than a virtue ethic. It’s not just an ideal or a moral code, but an action step. This philosophy is a triple verb, has a narrative, is based in Christian values and is characterized by action and application, both inside and outside the corporate setting. Over the remainder of this writing, I plan to break down the background of the framework for the actions represented in this phrase, its foundational principles and even potential issues with such a simple statement that leaves so much room for ambiguity in interpretation.
Before I continue, the most important portion of the life philosophy is its continuity and reliance upon each element. From a marketing and branding standpoint, we collectively chose to place the words together, capitalized, with no space and a period to separate them. A similar branding is used for dates (04.12.18) or series titles (Through.The.Eyes.) Good branding does not build vision, it reflects it. Nike is not a superstar of the athletic apparel world because of the “swoosh,” but the symbol of the company embodies the visual example of “Just Do It” (Cooke, 2008). The vision of Live.Love.Serve. is reflected in those three words, but builds upon itself. A life of transformational change then teaches us to love God for what He has done for us, and then because of God’s nature then love others as ourselves, and then serve one another and make a difference in the world.
If you experience life change through a salvation experience with Jesus Christ, then next logical step is to grow closer to God, which is represented by love and discipleship, and serving is a natural extension of Christ-like principles to our neighbor. One part of the philosophy leads to the other and cycles back to begin the same work in others as you minister to them.
Digging deeper than just a church mission statement, the ethical framework and foundation for these principles in my life return to my childhood. I grew up in a Christian home, but it was divided. I am the grandson of a deacon and the son of a mom who worked at the Baptist Sunday Board (now Lifeway Christian Stores). In contrast, my father left my home and my parents divorced in 1983, and he has not attended church since. My influences leaned to my mother’s side.
The emphasis on life change began during my time in church. The biggest influence was my pastor of 22 years, Rev. Clayton Hall. He emphasized that everything in life was about salvation. Every message, song, prayer and serving experience should point someone to a relationship with Jesus Christ. In Christian tradition, this is the foundation of evangelism, rooted in The Great Commission. It is my job, and all our job, to tell others about Jesus. In the direct application of his teaching, Rev. Hall sounds like a divine command theorist, which sounds like “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it” (Wilkens, 2011, p. 197). How he - and the church - learned to apply these principles of evangelism were often dependent upon the moment, which would lean to situational ethics (Wilkens, 2011, p. 164).
This is where the life portion of the philosophy can break down with additional elements. Life change without growth is tempted to become a fleeting moment, which doesn’t stick, or what a Christian might refer to as a “false conversion” (Calvinist) or “backsliding” (Arminian) (Fairchild, 2018, p. 1). Life change needs discipleship, love and growth. All my influences until age 22 were based in a traditional church and pushed salvation and on paper, this seems like the most important focus of any Christian. It is the way we get to Heaven, through our relationship with Jesus (John 14:6, NLT).
As Wilkins describes in Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics, by breaking down each type of ethical foundation (2011), this has both a positive and negative. The potential good is a relationship with Jesus Christ - there should be nothing wrong with this! The potential trouble spots are like a conflicting ethic. Life change needs a second step, or a conflict arises within it. Is it possible to truly experience life change in Jesus Christ and not fully understand repentance? Is redemption the goal, or do we further explore the ultimate goal of The Great Commission to be a disciple (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT)? My influences in a traditional Baptist church and surrounding community did not explore the second steps because so much emphasis was placed on “getting people saved.” I did not know how to live a life of worship, or surrender every struggle in life to the lordship of Jesus, nor was I taught to read the Bible on my own and explore the Holy Spirit and gifts and fruit of the Spirit.
Life change is not complete without true love and growth, and is dangerously balanced on a foundation that has little substance. Jesus is able to forgive us of our sins, but in echoing the words of James in the New Testament, we must be sure to take next steps so that “So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless” (James 2:17, NLT).
The second step of the philosophy, love God, love others is based on my Christian tradition as well, but this is where I will take a pause from Christian tradition and admit it took much more life experience and cultural relevance to understand what it truly means later in life. I love my home church, but they did not teach me how to love God and love others, it was as though it was understood or expected.
Unfortunately, I was taught to love people who looked like me, dressed like me, listened to the same music like me and talked in Biblical language from the King’s English like me. The example of my grandmother who lived a life of humility and honor drove the principle of loving God and loving others when I finally reached college and began to explore this on my own for the first time. She always said “you must love everybody.” To understand it, though, I have to know the source of why she did it, and accomplished it so successfully. She didn’t learn this from a Christian tradition, per se. She needed a deeper truth rooted in the Bible. I believe my grandmother was a situational ethicist, because just as Jesus acted in the new commandment of love (John 13:34, NLT), she believed “we do the right thing when we act in a loving manner” (Wilkens, 2011, p. 164).
The Gospel writer Luke, who penned both the book of his name in the New Testament and the Book of Acts (Bible Study Tools, n.d.), was a physician. As I began to study Luke, I listened through the words of the page to the compassion of a physician who was not an original disciple, but became a follower of Jesus and chronicled details of his life even though he likely never met him. Luke brings stories and teachings found nowhere else in the synoptic Gospels and his compassion for others jumps off the page in a writing style that is indicative of a doctor who loves his patients.
Then in Luke, I read the story of Jesus encountering a religious law expert found in the 10th chapter. When asked, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25, NLT), Jesus answers causing the man to cite Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. This states “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus then gives the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan, during which a man helps another person who is different from him.
I have always interpreted this statement, “if we love God, then we should love others.” How do we accomplish such a charge if our circle of evangelism is limited to those like us, and who we deem can become like us?
In college, I encountered cultural hot buttons for the first time which evangelism could not answer. I made friends with those of a different faith, and experienced first hand what racism looked like, both targeted at me, and aimed at my friends. I considered dating a young lady from Saudi Arabia and listened in horror as someone in my family stated I could not bring home a Muslim believer to meet the Christians close to me. I wanted to know why! Who was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and why did he have a dream, and what was this dream? How do I accept those with challenges and special needs into my world instead of making fun of them until they exit it?
These thoughts challenged my Christian tradition and my foundation but I realized Luke’s stories, and others like it in the New Testament, gave us a clue to the answer. Loving God is much deeper than a relationship with him, it’s understand that if God doesn’t just love, but “is love” (1 John 4:8-9 NLT), then we too must exhibit this love in our actions toward others.
Dr. King did not advocate for civil rights because he was an African-American, he marched and took action for civil rights because he understood love needed action, and life needed change (King, 1963). All people are deserving of a chance to know the same Gospel as I experienced with my salvation at age 11, but I must love my neighbor (and even my enemies) or evangelism is never possible. To share Christ with a Muslim means I first must build a bridge, not destroy it. This was the earthly work of Jesus. He taught, loved, served, helped, went, led and instructed. His love was evident in his actions, and then he charged his inner core of disciples to do the same.
A disciple is a learner, but an apostle is an ambassador. The transition of the disciples in the Bible from their personal relationship with Jesus on earth to their work through the Holy Spirit after he is gone is the framework for their mission. They began as learners, but they were sent to change the world.
I cannot expect life change, nor even grow closer to Christ without one final step of the life philosophy and that is through transformation and learning to love my neighbor, I will then be motivated and compelled to serve. Many who hear the vision of Live.Love.Serve. quickly understand its method of operation. It is not enough just to experience change. Change must push you to grow, and growth will push you to take action with your hands and feet. Two of the three isn’t acceptable. At least, it was never acceptable for me.
The influences which taught me to serve include a former coach, whom I have now worked together with for the last 24 years as a volunteer. While he is a teacher and a paid athletic representative, I watched all the hours he sat voluntarily upon a mower in the offseason when other teachers were taking summer breaks. I saw him make appearances for family members at a hospital room, or attend the baptism, weddings and even funerals of his former players. This example of service is inspiring. We should all work a profession that supports our family, but then we should then serve in a capacity where no reward is enough for the satisfaction received for knowing you are helping others.
I was influenced by a another pastor, Rev. Rudy Braswell, who was supposed to officiate my wedding only to lose his life on his ninth mission trip to Honduras in 1998. It was because of him I have taken six mission trips. I watched servants like Austin Hendrix, who well beyond retirement years, bricked the exterior of a brand new worship facility - for free - after a contractor left a bulging wall which had to be torn down. I paid attention to baseball superstar Albert Pujols, a man whom I have never met, who married a woman who was already a mother to a special needs child. He then adopted her as his daughter and started a foundation for Down Syndrome which first impacted his home country of the Dominican Republic and then expanded to the United States of America.
Coming full circle, I sit writing this paper looking at an autographed baseball from this same player after he visited and met a family in our church who adopted a daughter with Down Syndrome, and they brought the gift to me, to which I exchanged for a charitable contribution to the Pujols Family Foundation.
This is the basis of “serve” - to give to someone which may not be able to do for themselves, and expect nothing in return. At times, this creates an ethical conflict within my own life, but perhaps it’s a situational ethical foundation, but I have chosen that serve comes first as long as I can still represent Christ.
Serve is a core value because its a core lifestyle. I believe it is impossible to truly “teach” how to serve. While I may instruct another person on the ways to serve, the value itself is produced when we disciple others in Jesus Christ and his mission comes to life in theirs.
It is hard to summarize in a short time the principles found by Cantrell and Lucas in High Performance Ethics, but with a life slogan which works for my family, my faith and my career and my community, it’s easy to see why their ethical framework works in a business culture. “Part of the reason we don’t always value ethics is we aren’t sure what they are where they originate” (Cantrell and Lucas, 2007, p. 3). Through the class in the MHR program at Trevecca Nazarene University, I have learned to point where my ethical framework originates. As a combination of Christian ethics, divine command, narrative, virtue and situational ethics, my foundation looks messy. But for me, this is stable, diverse and builds a solid ground to move forward.
I know this is more than a church motto or slogan when I see my wife and my children live this out and echo it when they speak to and serve with others. I realize the legacy it leaves when I see former baseball players now serving others, or friends sacrificing time and money to work and even live in another country in poorer conditions for the benefit of reaching, teaching and helping people they did not know.
The greatest conflict of my life mission may come when one day, what if I am no longer a part of the church by which this mission takes definition and hold. To adhere to a life philosophy that looks like a branding bumper sticker would seem impossible when disconnected from that organization.
It was my life philosophy before, later and will continue to be not because I say it, write it, or stick it on a coffee cup and T-shirt. The foundation of Live.Love.Serve. is my mission and vision because I am it, and it is me. Without the meaning of those three words, the slogan is empty, and without the meaning of those three words, my life was never full.
References
Cantrell, W., & Lucas, J. R. (2007). High-Performance Ethics. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House.
Cooke, P. (2008). Branding faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don’t. Ventura, CA: Regal Books.
Holy Bible: New Living Translation. (2013). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House.
King, Dr. ML. (1963, April 16). Letter From a Birmingham Jail. Retrieved from
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
Wilkens, S. (2011). Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics. Dreamers Grove, IL. Intervarsity Press.
