That time I kicked Michael Hidalgo out of Cedarville for telling the truth about drinking a beer.

That may be one of the longest titles for a blog post ever.

I spent over 30 years of my life at Cedarville University, and most of it was wonderful.  It’s where I learned to study scripture and think critically and it’s where I met many of my most important life-long friends. I will be forever grateful for that experience.
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It’s also where I contributed to an approach to spiritual development  that I have now rejected. One assumption of some fundamentalists or conservative evangelicals is that you can discipline people into becoming like Jesus. I rose to a position of authority in that culture and became the chief disciplinarian for a student body of over 3,000 evangelical college students. 

That’s when I kicked Michael Hidalgo out of college a week or so before his graduation for telling the truth about drinking a beer. Michael was in a group of guys who got together for a few drinks the week before their graduation. Their gathering came to the attention of the Dean’s office and Michael was the only one who admitted to drinking a beer while his buddies all denied it. His buddies all graduated and shared the special occasion of commencement with their families, but Michael chose to tell the truth even though he knew it would come at great personal cost. Upon receiving Michael’s confession we dismissed him from the university. As I said, it was one week before his graduation.

Looking back I believe the greater evil was perpetuating a system so unlike the grace that is on full display in the New Testament. I often joked that I was glad that Jesus didn’t attend the university because I am sure that I would have had to dismiss him.  That isn’t a slam on Cedarville, it’s a slam on a much broader culture of self-righteousness and legalism that defined fundamentalism and much of evangelicalism. All these years later I am proud of Michael’s actions and ashamed of my own.

Now, about 15 years later I consider Michael both a friend and mentor.  Michael is a gracious guy who readily forgave me for doing him harm. While passing through Denver this fall I did my best to make amends by taking him out for dinner and buying him a beer.
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Today I was looking for something interesting to listen to while on the treadmill and I came across an interview with Michael on a podcast called Space for Faith: Re-imaging the Church for Our Current Moment. I highly recommend that you take an hour or so and listen to the podcast. In this space, I just want to highlight a few phrases or sentences near the beginning of the interview that resonated with me.

First of all, in a world of constant and dramatic change he talked about the importance of being “tethered to Jesus.”  I love that image as a metaphor for finding our way through cultural and ecclesiastical fog. For many, who like myself, consider ourselves post-evangelicals it is critical that we practice and teach others to tether ourselves to the person, teaching, and example of Jesus. I grew up in a church where we understood Jesus through Paul, and now I find it more important to understand Paul through Jesus.  Instead of using the word tethered we tend to talk about being Jesus-centered.  No person or organization is truly Jesus-centered. It is an aspiration rather than an accomplishment. The best we can do is to be Jesus-centerting, constantly keeping an eye on Jesus and making the necessary adjustments to become more like him, or as Michael might say, tightening the tether.

The second phase that stood out was “proximity to the vulnerable” to describe the space where the most spiritual growth takes place. If you want to feel closer to Jesus, spend time with people who live on the margins, the poor, the displaced, the addicted, the imprisoned, and others who are undervalued and under-resourced in our world. When I was a child my parents used to provide a meal for homeless people at a rescue mission in Pontiac, Michigan. In order to get a meal folks had to sit through a service of preaching and hymns. My dad would preach and I would sit there with people off the streets feeling as though I was in heaven. I still get the feeling of being closer to heaven, and closer to Jesus when I’m with vulnerable people. 

The final phase that I wish to highlight is “give people a compass not a roadmap.”  I find this to be true. Constantly pointing people in the right direction is better than trying to list each specific spiritual turn and stop. I think the roadmap approach creates dependency while the compass approach fosters discernment. It may be true that spiritual beginners need a roadmap to get started but as people mature I think a compass better equips them for the real life decisions that they will need to make.

Michael is now the Pastor of Denver Community Church and a leader in post-evangelicalism. Post-evangelicals are people who love Christ, the gospel, and the Bible but who have rejected overly politicized, and I would say wrongly politicized culture that evangelicalism has become. 
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If you are passing through Denver check out Denver Community Church, and if you have time, buy Michael a beer.