DownshoreDrift

Review of Ed Stetzer's The Subversive Kingdom

Back in 2009, I read something by Eugene Peterson in his book, The Contemplative Pastor, that really changed my perspective on pastoring. He called for the pastor, and by extension, all Christians, to consider a subversive approach to their ministry as agents of God's Kingdom.  After explaining the frustration that he sometimes felt because his parishioners often did not understand the gravity of what he was promoting and that he wishes that he could just clearly get them all to fall in line with his spiritual authority, Peterson said,

Then I remember that I am a subversive. My long-term effectiveness depends on my not being recognized for who I really am. If he realized that I actually believe the American way of life is doomed to destruction, and that another kingdom is right now being formed in secret to take its place, he would be at all pleased. If he knew what I was really doing and the difference it was making, he would fire me.

Yes, I believe that. I believe that the kingdoms of this world, American and Venezuelan and Chinese, will become the kingdom of our God and Christ, and I believe this new kingdom is already among us. That is why I'm a pastor, to introduce people to the real world and train them to live in it. I learned early that the methods of my work must correspond to the realities of the kingdom. The methods that make the kingdom of America strong - economic, military, technological, informational - are not suited to making the kingdom of God strong. I have had to learn a new methodology: truth-telling and love-making, prayer and parable. These are not methods very well adapted to raising the standard of living in suburbia or massaging the ego into a fashionable shape.

But America and suburbia and the ego compose my parish. Most of the individuals in this amalgam suppose that the goals they have for themselves and the goals God has for them are the same. It is the oldest religious mistake: refusing to countenance any real difference between God and us, iimagining God to be a vague extrapolation of our own desires, and then hiring a priest to manage the affairs between self and the extrapolation. And I, one of the priests they hired, am having none of it.

But if I'm not willing to help them become what they want to be, what am I doing taking their pay? I am being subversive. I am undermining the kingdom of self and establishing the kingdom of God. I am helping them to become what God wants them to be, using the methods of subversion.

It is in this spirit and context that Ed Stetzer writes The Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation. This is an excellent book that I really enjoyed reading and it would make a great small group study for churches and groups of Christians contemplating how to faithfully live out the implications of Jesus' Gospel of the Kingdom in a hostile world.

Stetzer says that the world system is in rebellion against God's Kingdom, but he calls us to "rebel against the rebellion."

We live among a world system that, even though ultimately under the reign of a sovereign God, temporarily exerts a competing authority that seeks to enforce an unjust, unrighteous order on those it claims to rule . . . The world's illegal rebellion is illegitimate. It certainly feels real, of course - IS real - but it doesn't change the reality that God is still the ruler of everything. Though people may think they have rebelled, they have not - and cannot - ultimately escape the fact at King Jesus is still sovereign.

And though we feel outnumbered and highly unpopular at times by clinging to our Christian ideals, though we make ourselves subject to all kinds of criticism and misunderstanding by resisting the widely held opinions of our friends and neighbors, we can't help but recognize a tension that keeps us from followoing where the leader of this rebellion wants to take us. As much as we may feel obligated by our family histories, or as willing as we may be to at least consider the validity of these differing viewpoints, there's no common ground for us to stand on. Our aims are incompatible. As Christians, we don't join an illegitimate rebellion. Instead, we live for King Jesus in contrast to the world around us. We live in loyalty to the very One the world rebels against.

We're in rebellion against the rebellion.

Stetzer goes on to explain what the Kingdom of God is (the reign and rule of Christ in all of life in complete contrast to the ways of the world led by Satan) and our call to participate in it as a way of life. He says,

Being a Kingdom agent means becoming one who "loses his life" from a worldly point of view (Mark 8:35) in order to find true life for ourselves and to help rescue others who are chained in darkness, doubt, and cleverly disguised despair. It means representing God through his body on earth - the church - as he uses us to advance and expand his kingdom through Spirit-led, subversive ways.

Stetzer calls Christians to be "subversive" in the sense that we are not to grasp after power or control to force upon people the truth of God, but rather, we are to show up in people's lives and in the structures and assumptions of the world with truth, justice, mercy, and humility as we represent Christ by living out the gospel in all its precepts.

Stetzer calls us to 5 positions in a hostile world.

1. We live in rebellion against the rebellion. We rebel against the world system that is rebelling against God. We recognize that what the world is rejecting is actually the truth and we live in accordance with the truth by not accepting the world's assumptions.

2. We deconstruct our false view of the Kingdom. God has not called us to safety or to religion or to embrace the status quo of the ways of the world. We are not called to be consumers of religion but co-laborers with Christ in advancing His reign and rule in the world.

3. We live as agents and ambassadors of God's kingdom in small, subversive ways.  The Kingdom of God is not some big, shiny thing that takes over the world by force, but rather, it advances in small ways among small groups of believers that are living out the Christ life through daily acts of obedience and mercy as they tell God's Story through their lives.

4. We show and share the love of Christ. We are to both proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel of the Kingdom. Proclamation and Demonstration are not several things but they show that the Gospel is not a matter of word only, but also of deed. And, that when we do good works we do them because of the life and message of Jesus.  It is ONE thing, the Gospel of the Kingdom. To this, I say, "Amen."

5. We live our lives in a manner directed by (and empowered by) our King. All of life is to be lived in relationship to Christ with Jesus as Lord.

6. We wait for this lost, broken world to be completely fixed and reconciled to God. Things are not as they should be but Jesus is going to make the world right. We live with that hope and we bring that hope into our everyday lives by representing the ultimate reality of Christ's victory.

In this book, Stetzer has hit on most of the major themes of the ministry that I have engaged in for the past 15 years. This is not a scholarly book (though Stetzer is more than capable of that), but it is a treatment of how we should live out the Gospel of the Kingdom in common ways. Anyone could read this book and understand what Stetzer is saying and it is applicable to every Christian.

I don't want to necessarily pit one book/author against another, but if you read and enjoyed David Platt's excellent and incredibly popular Radical, you will find this book to touch on the same subject but in a more practical, doable way.  Stetzer here answers all of the questions that I had from reading Radical regarding the "What next?"  I liked this book much better.

Also, at different times in my blogging journey, I have reviewed books here and after reading Subversive Kingdom and writing this review, I am reminded of the benefit of that exercise. Hopefully, this will be the first book review of many in 2013 and it was a good way to start this feature up again.   

 

    

Does Spirituality/Religion Prove the Existence of God? (NT Wright)

One might ask if it is reasonable to have faith in God or the supernatural.  Many of the new atheists and secularists say that faith is an utterly unreasonable assertion that cannot be proven in any regard. They say that we should only trust what can be proven and observed and since God cannot be proven and "faith" cannot be verified, it is therefore unreasonable - or, it is something apart from reason that moves into what Francis Schaeffer called the "Upper Story" of the mystical and mythical as opposed to the "Lower Story" of the logical and reasonable.

In the book, belief: readings on the reason for faith edited by Francis S. Collins, NT Wright develops what I believe to be a compelling argument regarding the existence of faith, religion, and spirituality.  It is not conclusive, but it is compelling, in my opinion, and should be considered.  Wright says,

The Christian explanation of the renewed interest in spirituality is quite straightforward. If anything like the Christian story is in fact true (in other words, if there is a God whom we can know most clearly in Jesus), this interest is exactly what we should expect; because in Jesus we glimpse a God who loves people and wants them to know and respond to that love. In fact, this is what we should expect if any of the stories told by religious people - that is, the great majority of people who have ever lived - are true: if there is any kind of divine force or being, it is at least thinkable that humans would find some kind of engagement with this being or power to be an attractive or at least interesting phenomenon.

This is precisely why there are such things as religions in the first place. When the astronomers see that a planet is behaving in a way they can't explain by reference to other already known planets, or to the sun itself, they postulate a further planet of a sort, size, and location that will explain the strange behavior. That's actually how the remoter planets were discovered. When physicists discover phenomena they can explain by no other means, they postulate new entities, not themselves capable of being directly observed, that explain them. That's how quarks and similar strange things have entered our language and understanding.

On the other hand, part of the Christian story (and for that matter, the Jewish and Muslim stories) is that human beings have been so seriously damaged by evil that what they need isn't simply better self-knowledge, or better social conditions, but help, and indeed rescue, from outside themselves. We should expect that in the quest for spiritual life many people will embrace options that are, to put it no more strongly for the moment, less than what would actually be best for them. People who have been starved of water for a long time will drink anything, even if it is polluted. People kept without food for long periods will eat anything they can find, from grass to uncooked meat. Thus, by itself, 'spirituality' may appear to be part of the problem as well as part of the solution.

Wright is saying that our quest for spirituality through religion and mystical experiences and encounters with the Divine is, in itself, a form of proof that there is something out there that we cannot quite grasp or explain - but, it is there nonetheless. Instead of assuming that almost the entire human race is deluded (and even atheists define themselves over and against the idea of religion and a quest for God, thus, even as unbelievers they are dominated by the thought of it), we might rather agree with Ecclesiastes 3:11 that says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men.

Wright goes on to say,

...we return to the possibility that the widespread hunger for spirituality, which has been reported in various ways across the whole of human experience, is a genuine signpost to something that remains just around the corner, out of sight. It may be the echo of a voice - a voice that is calling, not so loudly as to compel us to listen whether we choose to or not, but not so quietly as to be drowned out altogether by the noises going on in our heads and our world. If it were to join itself up with the passion for justice, some might conclude that it would at least be worth listening for further echoes of the same voice.

Perhaps, the echoes that we hear of a Voice that we hope and even know to the be there are actually coming from a hill in Galilee 2000 years ago where a Jewish Messiah was crucified and, as his followers claim, was raised from the dead. That is quite a jump, I know, but if true, it changes everything.

Steinbeck's Rules for Writers and Creatives

I am back to studying the writing process and engaging in actually trying to be productive again in that area. Atlantic Monthly as an article out that lists Pulitzer Prize winning author John Steinbeck's 6 rules for writers:

1. Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

2. Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

3. Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn't exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

4. If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn't belong there.

5. Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.

6. If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

Steinbeck goes on to say this about the writing process:

"If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it. You must perceive the excellence that makes a good story good or the errors that makes a bad story. For a bad story is only an ineffective story."

I think that this applies to all creatives, not just writers. Keep going. Just write. Don't get bogged down in analysis. Produce something each day. Persevere. I am wanting to learn these lessons.

Link: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/6-writing-tips-from-john-steinbeck/254351/

The Five Books In My Bag This Week

Some pertinent quotes from the five books that are in my bag this week. This might become a regular feature on Downshoredrift. I read a lot and I tend to study in according to themes and movements. This is what I've been reading and working through this week, personally and for our church. Maybe you will find this helpful.  

Eugene Peterson on our need for diversity in the church in Practice Resurrection, pp. 35-36: "The Ephesian letter shapes our imaginations to an awareness not only of ourselves but of all the other pilgrims on the road in simultaneous diversity and unity. This company of called fellow-travelers, all different and all one, is the church. Paul's metaphor for it is a human body to which Christ is the head, "the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12). Everybody different, everybody organically connected. Shimmering diversity and harmonic unity - "joined and knit together by every ligament" is Paul's vivid metaphor (4:16). "Christ and the church" (5:32) is the paradigmatic form for this multitudinous and yet improbably unified company . . . Maturity develops in worship as we develop in friendship with the friends of God, not just our preferred friends. Worship shapes us not only individually but as a community, a church. If we are going to grow up in Christ we have to do it in the company of everyone who is responding to the call of God. Whether we happen to like them or not has nothing to do with it." 

Dallas Willard on Our God Bathed World in The Divine Conspiracy, pp. 61-62: "Jesus' good news about the kingdom can be an effective guide for our lives only if we share his view of the world in which we live. To his eyes this is a God-bathed and God-permeated world. It is a world filled with a glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God's direct knowledge and control - though he obviously permits some of it, for good reasons, to be for a while otherwise than as he wishes. It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he constantly rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us."

 

Michael Wells in Heavenly Discipleship, pp. 79-80: "The point is that the source of your anxiety and fear is that you trust a weak self. Do you see why you need Jesus? You were not created to carry all the concerns of life; you were created to be dependent. You cannot fly, and neither can you carry anxiety. The only One who can, Jesus, must carry the anxiety of every person. But how can He carry what He has not been given? Psalm 46:10 is clear: "Cease striving," or literally, get your hands off! Why do you keep your hands on? There is only one reason, and that is unbelief. You cling to belief in your own ability to do a better job than He would. Pride upholds trust in the slightest bit of self's strength. Humily lays aside all perceived strengths, embraces weakness, and abandons itself to God."

Kenneth Boa in Conformed to His Image, p. 280: “One of the great enemies of process spirituality is the craving to control our environment and the desire to determine the results of our endeavors. Many of us have a natural inclination to be manipulators, grabbers, owners, and controllers. The more we seek to rule our world, the more we will resist the rule of Christ; those who grasp are afraid of being grasped by God. But until we relinquish ownership of our lives, we will not experience the holy relief of surrender to God’s good and loving purposes . . . Our resistance to God’s rule extends to our prayerful attempts to persuade the Lord to bless our plans and to meet our needs in the ways we deem best.  Instead of seeking God’s will in prayer, we hope to induce him to accomplish our will. Thus even in our prayers we can adopt the mentality of a consumer rather than a servant.”

Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken in The Renovation of the Church, p. 79: "I am convinced that personal pastoral ambition, and a pastoral ethic centered around productivity and success, is brutal to our souls and destructive to the souls of the people we lead. We must become skilled at detecting the odor of personal ambition and then flee from it as if the church's future depends on it. I believe it does. . . . Personal ambition has a symbiotic relationship with consumerism. The two go hand in hand. They feed off each other. As a Christian leader who is motivated by personal ambition, I can appeal to the basic consumer tendencies of teh people I desire to be a part of my church or ministry. If I do this well, I will be rewarded by their attendance, their support and their allegiance, and my church or ministry will grow. Everybody is satisfied. Everybody gets what they want. The lighted match of my ambition ignites the dry timber of consumerism, and we have a raging fire that is very difficult to put out. While I suspect that there is not much that I can do about the cultural force of consumerism in our country, I believe I can do much abou the forces that drive me as a Christian leader."

 

 

Is Our Christianity Actually Christless?

I was rereading some of Michael Horton's Christless Christianity the other day and I ran across this passage where Horton talks about some of George Barna's research on the current state of the church and Christians and what they believe. It was interesting to me and the implications are pretty huge. I will reprint it here, but know that this is Horton quoting and interacting with Barna. Until I pick up again at the end, this is not mine.
 It comes from pages 30-32.

_________________

Based on numerous studies conducted by his research group, George Barna concludes, "To increasing millions of Americans, God - if we even believe in a supernatural deity - exists for the pleasure of humankind. He resides in the heavenly realm solely for our utility and benefit. Although we are too clever to voice it, we live by the notion that true power is accessed not by looking upward but by turning inward."

Unless something changes, Barna thinks,

It will be every man for himself, with no second thoughts or regrets about the personal or societal implications of this incredibly selfish, nihilistic, narcissistic way of life . . .

Most Americans have at least an intellectual assent when it comes to God, Jesus Christ, and angels. They believe that the Bible is a good book filled with important stories and lessons. And they believe that religion is very important in their lives. But this same group of people, including many professing Christians, also believe that people are inherently good; that our primary purpose is to enjoy life as much as possible.

Eighty-two percent of Americans (and a majority of evangelicals) believe that Benjamin Franklin's aphorism, "God helps those who help themselves," is a biblical quotation. A majority believe that "all people pray to the same god or spirit, no matter what name they use for that spiritual being" and that "if a person is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in heaven." It should not surprise us, then, when President Bush says, "I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God. That's what I believe."

After citing a series of reports, Barna concludes,

In short, the spirituality of America is Christian in name only . . . We desire experience more than knowledge. We prefer choices to absolutes. We embrace preferences rather than truths. We seek comfort rather than growth. Faith must come on our terms or we reject it. We have enthroned ourselves as the final arbiters of righteousness, the ultimate rulers of our own experience and destiny. We are the Pharisees of the new millennium.

... Barna's studies suggest that most Americans value time and efficiency over everything else, minimizing long-term commitments, maintaining "independence and individuality at all costs," even to the point of being skeptical of institutions, people, and authorities. After all, people are being told every day, "You are unique" and you shouldn't submit to the expectations of others. Above all, "Trust your feelings to guide you. Relying upon absolute principles places unrealistic limitations on you. Only you know what's right or best for you at any given moment, in those circumstances."  Finally, "Set goals and achieve them . . . Have fun . . . Stay in good health . . . . Discover and revel in the purpose of your life." These are the principal values according to Barna's survey of American adults today...

...The challenge before us as Christian witnesses is whether we will offer Jesus Christ as the key to fulfilling our narcissistic preoccupation or as the Redeemer who liberates us from its guilt and power. Does Christ come to boost our ego or to crucify our ego and raise us up as new creatures withour identity in Him? According to the Apostle Paul, there is a glory awaiting us, to be sure, but it is the glory that comes to us by virtue of our being in Christ: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him n glory" (Col. 3:3-4). Our righteousness before a holy God is not inheient; it is a gift to those who are in themselves unrighteous."

__________________________

Me again: So, the question is, "Are we trying to find self-fulfillment, or fulfillment in God alone?" Reading the above, I can hear the hiss of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden as he tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  He questioned what God really said. He questioned God's goodness. He told them that God was holding something out on them, that He didn't want them to be like Him (even though God had made them in His likeness).  So, He tempted Eve to grasp for life outside of what God had provided - to grasp for what she could get for herself. Adam went right along with her. The result was shame and blame and running from God and trying to cover ourselves with fig leaves, which are just the ways that we try to improve ourselves and cover our shame on our own. Spiritual and physical death resulted and Adam and Eve were banished from God's presence. But, God covered them with the skin of animals, which required the shedding of blood, foreshadowing that the only way that we could be covered is through the sacrfice of Christ on our behalf - only God could heal us (see Genesis 3).

Since then, we have set out on a quest for self-fulfillment and personal improvement projects. We have even tried to use God (religion?) to have our best life now so that could gain more prosperity and self-esteem. But, all the while, the Cross of Christ stands on a lonely hill beckoning us to come to Him for life. We must die to self and embrace Christ and who He is and what He has done. He is our only hope - not gaining happiness for ourselves in this world.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  Jesus alone makes this possible. We need Jesus.    

Short, Incomplete Review of Rob Bell's "Love Wins" - Do People Go To Hell?

I wanted to avoid this. Back in March, word hit that Michigan megachurch pastor, Rob Bell, was releasing a book about heaven, hell, and eternity. The blogosphere/twittersphere/facebook was filled with discussion, commentary, anger, personal assaults, snarky comments, and a good old-fashioned theological throwdown. I was actually in Guatemala with our church and read a little of it, but ignored most of it and was glad to do so.

Then, some folks from our church started asking about it and our youth minister started to teach the youth about the subject in response to some questions and I thought it might be good to preach on the topic this summer, which I had never done. So, two weeks ago I taught on God's righteousness, last week I taught on God's wrath, and this week, I'm preaching on hell. So, I broke down and read Bell's book.

Bad theology. That is what comes to mind. There are good things about Bell's book in his descriptions of the kind of lives that God wants us to live. But, how we get there is another issue altogether. We don't really need Jesus. I mean, we do, but we don't. Jesus did it all, and we just need to live good lives and not really come to know Him by faith. To say that he is playing fast and loose with the text is to compliment his approach. I want to stay away from personally attacking Bell (I don't know him), but I have no problem engaging the arguments in his book. Basically, he says that Jesus' death/resurrection was sufficient to save everyone, whether they know Him or not. That all that you need to experience salvation is to be a positive person, embrace the light, love people, be peaceful, joyful, etc. Even if you reject the name of Jesus, you can still know Him because you embrace those virtues. Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists - anyone who embraces the light is ultimately embracing Jesus, because all of that is him, no matter what form it comes in. Everyone will be reconciled to God because of the work of Jesus, either in this life or in eternity.

To make this argument, he takes Scriptures out of context, completely misses the point of others, and ignores many others. His view of God is as loving, tolerant, benevolent, and kind always, without any hint of wrath or punishment. The Cross really happened, but you don't need to really believe in Jesus or what He did for you to be saved - you will be saved anyway. Faith is not necessary on your part - just keep the commandments as best you can and live in the light that is Jesus, whether you know him or not. Hell, for what it is, is our own tragic life here on earth when we decide to live selfishly. Bell redefines the gospel, Jesus, and God Himself to make his point.

Here are a few quotes:

A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided, toxic, and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness and joy that our world desperately needs to hear. (viii)

“There are all kinds of hell because there are all kinds of ways to reject the good and the true and the beautiful and the human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next” (79).

As soon as the door is opened to Muslims. Hindus, Buddhists, and Baptists from Cleveland, many Christians become very uneasy, saying that then Jesus doesn’t matter anymore, the cross is  irrelevant, it doesn’t matter what you believe, and so forth.

Not true.
Absolutely, unequivocally, unalterably not true.

What Jesus does is declare that he,
and he alone,
is saving everybody.

And then he leaves the door way, way open. Creating all sorts of possibilities. He is as narrow as himself and as wide as the universe.

…People come to Jesus in all sorts of ways.

…Sometimes people use his name;
other times they don’t.

…Some people have so much baggage with regard to the name “Jesus” that when they encounter the mystery present in all of creation—grace, peace, love, acceptance, healing, forgiveness—the last thing they are inclined to name it is “Jesus.”

…What we see Jesus doing again and again—in the midst of constant reminders about the seriousness of following him living like him, and trusting him—is widening the scope and expanse of his saving work.

I could go on and on. I read the book in one sitting, but made notes on every page, answering his questions one after another. I honestly don't have the time or energy to do a detailed analysis of this book, but I wanted to link to a few here that I read that do a good job of tackling the pertinent issues.

Kevin deYoung has a good review. At one point, he says,

So why do I say Bell is a universalist if he believes in hell? Because he does not believe hell lasts forever. It is a temporary “period of pruning” and “an intense experience of correction” (91). Bell’s hell is like purgatory except his “period of pruning” is for anyone, not just for Christians who die in a state of grace as Catholicism teaches. For Bell, this life is about getting ourselves fitted for the good life to come. Some of us die ready to experience God’s love. Others need more time to sort things out. Luckily, in Bell’s scheme, there is always more time. “No one can resist God’s pursuit forever because God’s love will eventually melt even the hardest hearts” (108). Bell does not believe every road leads to God. He is not a moral relativist. You can get your life and theology wrong. Heaven is a kind of starting over, a time to relearn what it means to be human.

For some this process may take a while, and during the process their heaven may feel more like hell. But even those who get everything wrong in this life, will eventually get it right over time in the next life. In Bell’s theology, ultimately, everyone will be saved. If he’s right, most of church history has been wrong. If he’s wrong, a staggering number of people are hearing “peace, peace” where there is no peace.

Also, Tim Challies and Justin Taylor have good reviews up. All of these guys are Reformed and are looking at this from a certain theological perspective. When I read their reviews, I agreed with all that they said and thought the same thing. Bell diminishes Christ, the Cross, the gospel, and the holiness AND grace of God down to and understandable approach.

No one wins when we do theology this way.

The Role of the Prophet in a Society Organized Against History

Walter Bruggemann, in his seminal work, The Prophetic Imagination writes about the work of the prophet to reclaim the imagination of the church in a society that has given away its past in search of the "urgent now or an eternal now."  He calls us to be prophetic and counter-cultural instead of a people who exist to affirm the culture's status quo. This is important, I think, and it is the role that we all play, as people of faith in a world gone mad.

The contemporary American church is so largely enculterated to the American ethos of consumerism that it has little power to believe or to act. This enculterartion is in some way true across the spectrum of church life, both liberal and conservative. It may not be a new situation, but it is one that seems especially urgent and pressing at the present time. That enculteration is true not only of the institution of the church but also of us as persons. Our consciousness has been claimed by false fields of perception and idolatrous systems of language and rhetoric.

The internal cause of such enculturation is our loss of identity through the abandonment of the faith tradition. Our consumer culture is organized against history. There is a depreciation of memory and a ridicule of hope, which means everything must be held in the now, either an urgent now or an eternal now. Either way, a community rooted in energizing memories and summoned by radical hopes is a curiosity and a threat in such a culture. When we suffer from amnesia, every form of serious authority for faith is in question, and we live unauthorized lives of faith and practice unauthorized ministries.

The church will not have power to act or believe until it recovers its tradition of faith and permits that tradition to be the primal way out of enculturation. This is not a cry for traditionalism but rather a judgment that the church has no business more pressing than the reappropriation of its memory in its full power and authenticity. And that is true among liberals who are too chic to remember and conservatives who have overlaid the faith memory with all kinds of hedges that smack of scientism and Enlightenment.

It is the task of prophetic ministry to bring the claims of the tradition and the situation of encultruration into an effective interface. That is, the prophet is called to be a child of the tradition, one who has taken it seriously in the shaping of his or her own field of perception and system of language, who is so at home in that memory that the points of contact and incongruity with the situation of the church in culture can be discerned and articulated with proper urgency.

Basically, we are to be rooted in something more than "the now" that our culture has lashed itself to. The church, following the culture as if often does, has done the same. What I think Bruggemann means by this is not some type of harkening back to the "good old days," or an abandonment of culture, technology, or the world in which we live. But rather, he is calling for an affirmation of an alternative perspective in the community of faith that finds itself rooted in the vision of God revealed in His Word and in His dealings with His people.  That affirmation requires a new way of imagining things that is not captive to the urgency of "the now" or the base desires of our consumer culture. It calls for a reimagining of what is in light of what God has done, is doing, and is going to do. Basically, we are to see life according to God's Story and not the stories that the world tells and we need people to artistically, creatively, and prophetically help us do that.

Where are the prophets that can call us to see this world and our experience in light of God's Kingdom vision of the renewal of all things?   

Notes, Quotes, and Links: SBC 2011, Leadership, and Big View of God

Last week, I put together a post on Pentecost that offered a reading list of links. This week, I do the same around the topic of church leadership, the Southern Baptist Convention meeting this week in Phoenix, and our view of God. All of these things are related.            

"My goal each Sunday is to blow people away with the greatness of God." - @JohnPiper #SBC2011  Check out the transcript of Piper's sermon at the SBC on "Hallowed Be Your Name."  (HT: Denny Burk) It is life changing.

                   

Regarding the SBC in Phoenix this year, from all accounts, it seems that it was very much a Christ-centered, gospel focused convention that put the right emphasis on the right things. If this continues, I am encouraged for where the national thrust of the SBC might be headed. Now, if we could get this into our churches. I am also glad that Kevin Ezell, the new head of NAMB, began to address accuracy in reporting numbers.  Now, if we could get the IMB to do the same thing, we would be really getting somewhere. The inaccuracy of the IMB's numbers is appalling.

                     

Have SBC leaders ever considered having local meetings with pastors/church leaders and state convention missionaries to consider how they can take these points of emphasis and actually apply them to their context? Or, how we can work together in true collaboration that goes beyond sending money to a far away organization? That would be helpful, I think.

                   

In light of a recent controversy at Elevation Church in North Carolina, Andrew Jones shares some wise words about the need to include special needs children in our worship services and not remove them to another place so that they will not distract others. I understand that there might be a part of the room that would be better if there is a need to get to the bathroom, or things like that, but that speaks more to accomodation than it does removal. When worship becomes entertainment and presentation instead of the gathering of the people of God, all kinds of crazy things ensue.

                   

Five Statements that Summarize Christian Hedonism by John Piper. I am not big on labels like "Christian Hedonism" because I find that they often get misunderstood, but I do like the emphasis on giving glory to God above all things. That is what Piper is talking about here and it is needed.

                

The Ten Commandments Are About God by Trevin Wax.  Christians who live under the New Covenant often shy away from the 10 Commandments or discussions on the Law of God, thinking that the Law is the antithesis of Grace. But, if we see that the Law displays God's character and Grace enables us to know God, then why would we not want to meditate on the Law? If we know God, then we must know His character. When the Law says, "Do not steal, kill, commit adultery, covet, etc. . ." it is telling us that God does not kill, steal, commit adultery, covet, etc. It is telling us something of what God is like. So, if Grace brings us to God based on the merit of Christ alone, then the Law tells us what it looks like to live in relationship with God. It is not a means to justify yourself before God, but rather, it is the character of God displayed for us.

               

The Gospel and 'It-ness' by Jared Wilson.  Along the lines of the "Christian Hedonism" link above, Jared Wilson tells us that the Gospel frees us to relish in what something actually is and what God made it to be instead of us being in a position where we take the things of this world and try to make them ultimate things - things that can never really satisfy. Wilson says,

The first step to real gospel joy is real gospel brokenness. We cannot get to real happiness in God until we get to real despair of our sin. "Til sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet," Thomas Watson tells us.

But once we have despaired of all sin and the gods at their genesis, we are free. Really, truly free. To eat fat juicy steaks and drink rich red wine.

In fact, we cannot really enjoy the good gifts God gives us until he as their Giver is our greatest joy. Until he as their Giver is our greatest joy, we will left trying to enjoy his gifts for things they are not, rather than the things they are.

A post from last year by Bill Kinnon about how we need more disciples and fewer leaders. He takes on the leadership cult that has emerged in Evangelical life and that finds its home so well in megachurches. He asks if the CEO, top-down managerial leadership approach is the way of Jesus or the way of the world, and then tells us that if we are going to follow Christ, our "leadership" will look very different from what is being promoted.

Book Review of Marty Duren's "The Generous Soul"

My friend, Marty Duren, has written a book on missional giving called The Generous Soul: An Introduction to Missional Giving. In it, he makes the case for a reorientation of how we see the blessings that God has given us. Marty is coming to speak at Gateway this Sunday, so I thought it would be good to interact with this concept a bit. It really is connected to much of what we've been talking about regarding Advent/Christmas and reorienting our lives toward God's missional purposes.

Here are some excerpts:

"Missional giving makes a financial priority of those things that are priorities in the kingdom of God: evangelism, justice, helping the poor, showing mercy, meeting needs, providing a cup of cold water in Jesus' name. Or some cash. Or cash from selling a car. Or a jet ski. Missional giving recognizes that all possessions entrusted to God's children are entrusted for the singular purpose of fulfilling God's plan."

If we are all characters in God's story instead of Him being a character in our story, then this makes sense. It makes sense that the resources that He has given us should be used for His purposes. "The earth is the Lord's and eveyrthing in it." Psalm 24:1.

 

"The proper understanding of finances means that the priorities of God's people related to money and possessions should be the same priorities that God has for the Kingdom. The use of money is not a separate reality from the Gospel. On the contrary, our use of money and possessions is a direct reflection of our understanding of and love for the gospel and the Savior it reveals. If the gospel ("the Good News") is the story of God's redemptive activity through Jesus Christ of all things lost in the Fall, then everything under our management is usable for the embodiment and expansion of the gospel. If we keep money and possessions under a separate section of our lives it is tantamount to lording over that area ourselves rather than yielding lordship to Christ. To maintain this control of our finances is like divorcing ourselves from God. We cannot, no matter how much we try, serve both God and mammon."

It is amazing how much the modern distortion of the gospel as simply a way to Heaven has affected how we see just about everything. We have no problem with "accepting Christ as Savior" while we continue to use our time, energy, and resources on ourselves as we see fit. Jesus said something about dying to self and taking up our Cross and following Him. That message has been replaced with "God as a means to an end of a happy and prosperous life."  Perhaps, the life that God calls us to in Christ is actually BETTER than what we can hope to attain by holding on to stuff, but we don't seem to have the imagination or faith to conceive of that, so we just keep spending on ourselves and justifying by saying that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Marty also gives a definition of MIssional Giving. He says, "Missional giving is the financial strategy of the missionary manager, purposefully utilizing all the money and possessions God has entrusted to him or her according to His priorities and viewing all financial activity as integral with God's Kingdom."

Marty will be with us at Gateway this Sunday at 10:30am to talk with us about this. I'm excited to hear from him. I hope you'll be there. If not, we'll have the audio up on our website after the service.

What Are Christians to Do to Help the Poor?

Our church is sending a team to Haiti next Spring and a lot of our youth are going. We have also been very active in India over the past few years and have also done a good deal in our own community to try and alleviate poverty and give aid to the poor. Jesus commands us to do this (Matt. 25).  Still, it is good to think through how we are to really help the poor and not make things worse. Lots of times, our best efforts can be things that we do to make us feel better instead of things that really provide long-term solutions for long-term problems. Plus, we need to consider what our view of "poor" is.  Economic inequality does not necessarily mean that someone is poor. Compared to Bill Gates, I am very poor. But, my basic needs are met, my quality of life is good, and I do not consider myself to be poor, even though I can in no way match his lifestyle. The presence of wealty people in the world does not mean that everyone else is poor by comparison.

At the same time, if basic needs are not met related to food, water, health, housing, clothing, etc., then we have issues. Becoming a real source of help for the poor in these situations means that we need to think through things and provide real solutions that make a real difference. More money, education, and services can be helpful, but if a dependency mentality is created, it does little long term good. At the same time, if someone is sick, hungry, thirsty, or dying, you don't stand over them and preach about long-term solutions. This is what Jesus was getting at in his parable of the Good Samaritan. You help right then.

I am reading a book called "When Helping Hurts:  How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . And Yourself."  You can join me in reading it if you like.  Here is the website for the book that expands the discussion. I think it might have some good insight on how Christians are to really be involved with the poor and help bring transformation. At least it will initiate some good thoughts and discussion.  Along with Tim Keller's Generous Justice that I am also reading, this focus might be a good way to discipline our minds during the Christmas season, where so much buying/spending/feasting seems to be focused on ourselves.

Another great resource is Walking With the Poor by Bryant Myers.

 

Deacon Ministry, Generous Justice, and Caring for the Poor (Tim Keller)

I just got Tim Keller's latest book, Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just. If it is like the rest of his writings, I am sure that I am going to learn a lot. At the beginning of the book, he talks about his motivation to consider the Biblical view of justice. He recalls how he was greatly affected by the hypocrisy of white Christians in the 1960's when they defended segregation instead of siding with those fighting for justice. He thought that "justice" was a secular concern until he was taught more fully on what the Bible taught about justice and God's concern for the oppressed.

While getting a Doctor of Ministry degree, he was challenged to write his thesis on deacon ministry in the church.  His concept of the role of deacons, God's concern for justice and the poor, and the role of the church in all of this was radically changed.  He says,

Deacons had historically been designated to work with the poor and needy in the community, but over the years this legacy had been lost, and instead they had evolved into janitors and treasurers . . . I did historical research on how church deacons served as the first public social service structure in European cities such as Geneva, Amsterdam, and Glasgow. 

What if deacons in our churches revived the role of being ministers of justice and mercy to the poor and needy in their community?  This happens in some churches, and to a great degree it happens in our church. But, I didn't know that this had been a formal approach to how deacons functioned. Keller is right. In many churches, deacons serve as an administrative council for the church and primarily function as custodians of the church building and grounds. But, what if they led us out in mercy ministry to those in need all over our community?

Gateway has a very vibrant benevolence ministry. We have been privileged to help people in all walks of life, from the sick, to stranded travelers, to those needing food, shelter, and basic provisions. We have helped lift people up from the clutches of poverty and have seen them regain a place in society where they are able to take care of themselves and begin to help others. Our deacons have led this ministry and have prayerfully administered the gifts of God's people to the poor and needy.  In December, our deacons will lead our entire church in our annual multi-event outreach effort called, "A Time to Serve."  We will have 6 or so service oriented, outreach events that enable us to give to others during the holiday season instead of just focusing on ourselves. 

I am really excited to read more of this book. I just wanted to stop and acknowledge the ministry that our deacons do concerning the poor and needy in our community as well as those who are in our church.  It is good to know that they serve in a long, historical tradition of deacons who have been a blessng to others as they reflect the heart of God for the poor. 

Anne Rice Rejects Christianity: What Can We Learn?

A couple of years ago, I was in an airport and I saw a book by Anne Rice about Jesus. I assumed that it was just another gnostic take on the life of Christ, considering that she had written all of those vampire novels. Later, I found out that she actually had become a Christian and had developed a sincere relationship with Jesus.

Today, I have learned that Anne Rice has rejected Christianity.  She maintains that she has not rejected Christ, but she is leaving the church behind because she refuses to be "anti-gay ... anti-feminist," and "anti-artificial birth birth control."

She also said that "In the name of ... Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen." You can read the article here.

Dr. Russell Moore from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has some great things to say about this. He says that even though Anne Rice is rejecting the church, the church should not reject her. He says that she might just be going through a dark night of the soul and that she needs our love and compassion as she wrestles with the complexities of her faith. I agree with what he says 100% and I recommend his perspective.

What Anne Rice is going through is a common thing. It is very difficult to look at the beauty of Christ and then turn and look at the failures and hypocrisy of the church and want to be involved with the church for very long. People keep looking for the perfect church and they become disappointed when they can't find it. It isn't there. The church is so messy. It is full of people who sin, fall short of God's glory, become judgmental, and wrap their own insecurities in a form of self-righteousness that is repulsive. But, the church is real because the church is us. It reflects our own very human struggle with self-righteousness, judgmentalism, hypocrisy, jealousy, and vindictiveness. I am not saying that any of that is right, but it is what it is. And, it is in that place that God chooses to reveal Himself through the suffering Savior.

The church, on its best day, is a group of people who are trying seriously to follow the commands of Christ and be the people that He wants us to be. You can't divorce the person and teachings of Jesus from the church. You can't say that you want to follow Jesus but have nothing to do with the church. The church is a mess. I get that. I am not defending its problems. But, unless we see the problems of the church as our own problems - yours and mine, then we will never understand what it is that God is doing in the world. He is taking a bunch of messed up, sinful, judgmental, broken people, and He is showing them grace and mercy and redemption and is forming them into a community of people who reflect His character and love in a broken world - falling down and getting back up again. 

There are days when I want to be done with the church. I get frustrated and critical and wish that everyone would do what they are supposed to do. But, then I look at my own heart and see that in those moments, I am being judgmental and harsh. I am not reflecting the love of Christ. To denounce the Church, the ones that Christ died for, does not make you loving to homosexuals, or women, or the oppressed. It is to divorce yourself from the heart of God because the religious need a Savior just as much as the irreligious do and to judge them is to do the same as what you are denouncing.

I have a lot of compassion for Anne Rice. She is me, so to speak. I am just as capable of throwing up my hands and walking away from the whole thing because the church does not fit my view of what it should be. But, if God is sticking with His people, warts and all, who am I to set myself up as judge over the very people that Christ died for. Maybe this mess of people trying to follow God and live life together, maybe this is exactly what we need to meet with Jesus and grow in Him. Eugene Peterson says that and I have come to think that he is right.

I get what Anne Rice is saying. I really do. It is not just the homosexual that needs to change. We all do. We are all sinful and in desperate need of a Savior. When the people who make up the church realizes that and runs to Jesus, it is what it is supposed to be. But, we must remember that God is merciful enough to love the church, and because of that, so should we.  

Book Review: Church Turned Inside Out By Linda Bergquist and Allan Karr

In 1997, my wife and I had just arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area for me to attend Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. We moved onto campus in Mill Valley (North Bay) and I quickly got a job and started attending classes. I was pretty busy, but knew that I wanted to do ministry in the City during my time in seminary. In March, I was invited to a church planting party at a home near Golden Gate Park. It was a really interesting night where Erika and I met people that would challenge us and shape us for the years to come. One of those people was Andrew Jones (TallSkinnyKiwi) whose storefront church on Haight Street we would start attending a few months later. But, the party was hosted by Linda Bergquist and her husband Eric.  Linda was the church planter strategist for Baptists in the Bay Area and Eric ran the Page Street Baptist Center near the Haight-Ashbury District. This couple would eventually have a profound influence on the way that I thought about church and people who were far away from God.

I worked with Linda and Eric on many different occasions while I was in SF and have continued to keep in touch with them over the years.  My daughter, Ashtyn, and I even stayed in their home for 5 days this past March while we enjoyed a Daddy-Daughter visit to the city of her birth. They are wonderful people. So, I am really excited to begin reviewing Linda's first book that she has co-authored with Allan Karr, the associate professor of missional/church planting at Golden Gate. The book is entitled The Church Turned Inside Out. I am still reading it and plan to start reviewing it in full next week, but until then, here is the description from the back cover to get started:

There are no sacred models of church, no specific molds into which God pours blessings, and no special leadership styles that are holier than others. Too often, though, church leaders attempt to pattern their ministries after either tradition or the successes of a few prominent trendsetting congregations.

In Church Turned Inside Out, Linda Bergquist and Allan Karr push back on the one-size-fits-all approach. They invite leaders of all kinds of churches—new and existing, megachurches and microchurches—to walk through an inside-out design process. Instead of starting with models and methods, they insist that every sphere of church life resonates with and communicates what you really believe.

As the book unfolds, it moves from abstract concepts toward concrete suggestions. It considers the uniqueness of individual leaders, their teams, and their particular communities, cultures, and contexts while taking seriously both spiritual and practical dimensions. This process results in more potent and effectively organized churches. Perhaps more important, it helps church leaders discover ways to live and work more wholly and faithfully, according to how God created them. It really is possible for a church to be so beautifully designed that every structure, program, and relationship reflects what it intends. Sometimes this requires a whole new design, and other times it only takes re-aligning or refining what already exists. This thoughtful and systemic approach opens a wider array of possible church paradigms than most people ever imagine, but the real goal is not innovation but transformation.

Using a blend of theology, biblical imagery, and metaphors from culture and creation, Church Turned Inside Out provides respectful ways to consider adaptation and change. It offers a hopeful vision of what the church can and must become. It not only positions the church for its future mission to the twenty-first century but offers timeless principles for the church of today.

Linda is absolutely brilliant, by the way, and thinks on more levels than I can keep up with. One of my favorite parts about my trip to SF back in the Spring was sitting at Linda and Eric's kitchen table at night and talking with them until we could not keep our eyes open anymore. Like a fascinating kitchen table conversation, this book is opening me up to her (and Allan's) experiences and insight. It is especially helpful for church leaders in the South who have not yet experienced the full weight of the cultural change that is coming, but will very soon. More on that later . . .

Full review coming next week.

The Subversive Pastor

I picked up Eugene Peterson's, The Contemplative Pastor the other day and ran across his chapter on "The Subversive Pastor." He says, "I am undermining the kingdom of self and establishing the kingdom of God. I am being subversive." He says that he does not often engage in a frontal assault on the kingdom of self, but he works around the edges, so to speak. I am often a frontal assault kind of guy and it tends to be less effective than I hope for, just arousing people's defenses. Petereson's words here are encouraging and wise:

As a pastor, I don't like being viewed as nice but insignificant. I bristle when a high-energy executive leaves the place of worship with the comment, "This was wonderful, Pastor, but now we have to get back to the real world, don't we?" I had thougt we were in the most-real world, the world revealed as God's, a world believed to be invaded by God's grace and turning on the pivot of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. The executive's comment brings me up short: he isn't taking this seriously. Worshiping God is marginal to making money. Prayer is marginal to the bottom line. Christian salvation is a brand preference.

I bristle and want to assert my importance. I want to force the recognition of the key position I hold in the economy of God and in his economy if only he knew it.

Then I remember that I am a subversive. My long-term effectiveness depends on my not being recognized for who I really am. If he realized that I actually believe the American way of life is doomed to destruction, and that another kingdom is right now being formed in secret to take its place, he would be at all pleased. If he knew what I was really doing and the difference it was making, he would fire me.

Sunday Worship: Busyness as Spiritual Idolatry

"How are you doing?"

"Good. Busy, but good . . . Actually, I am soooo busy."

"I know. Me too. I'm really busy."

This is a normal exchange between two Americans in 2009. Whether they are in high school, college, single and working, newly married, have children, or are retired, the constant refrain from most people is . . .

I'm busy.

I said it myself in a tweet earlier today without even thinking about it. It just rolls off the tongue (or the fingers on the keyboard) so easily. I'm busy. It is the explanation for everything. Saying that today reminded me that that is not how I want to see life.  When I say, "I'm busy," I'm saying that I'm doing stuff that I don't want to be doing and I'm running around like crazy trying to get stuff done because I have to. I am describing a state of physical, emotional, and spiritual unrest that leaves me worn out and depleted.  It is not healthy and it is usually unnecessary, for the most part.  So, I'm speaking to myself here.

Consumer Christianity and Its Discontents

Over the past year or so, I have become convinced that the greatest enemy to the Christian faith and biblical Christianity in the West, and especially America, is the philosophy of consumerism, which basically states that personal happiness can be attained through the acquisition of goods, experiences, or a particular lifestyle.  Bombarded by goods, services, brands, commercials, and incessant advertising, we believe ignorance like "you are what you wear," "clothes make the man," that there is a "right" side of the tracks, and that our identity can be purchased by acquiring items of status based on a particular brand name or celebrity endorsement. This philosophy has crept into every area of life as we have succumbed to the idea of commodification of relationships and even religious experiences in that we use people and even God to satisfy our personal desires. When we no longer find immediate gratification, we move on to something else that promises to satisfy. Everything in our life (even God) becomes a means to an end of our own personal pursuit of happiness and self-fulfillment). Of course, these views have always been present in the human condition (i.e., selfishness and sin), but only recently have we built an entire economy and way of life on the proliferation of consumption. Only recently have Evangelical churches grown based on the whims of the consumer class and their preference and choice for religious goods and services that meet their "felt needs."

The Full Meaning of Holiness - It Might Be Different From What You Think

What do you think about when you hear the word, holiness? Obviously, it means to be separate; to be set apart. But, when I think about holiness, invariably, I think about it from a religious perspective. In other words, I think about holiness as the characteristic that I am to achieve if God is going to be pleased with me. I think about what I need to put on if I am to enter into God’s presence, since God is holy. My religious upbringing has taught me to think about what I am to abstain from and what my life is supposed to look like. The whole, “don’t drink, chew, or go with girls that do,” perspective creeps in.  Often, when I hear about holiness, I look for a rock to crawl under because my first thoughts, if I am honest, point out how I am not holy.  The word itself condemns me and I am undone. Attempts at holiness, however successful I might be in overcoming sin, putting off old behavior, or acting a certain way, always fall short because there is always a new definition of holiness that I am not living up to. I am always falling short of what someone proclaims as “holy.”

                                                       

I think that we have done the word a great disservice, however. We know that God is holy and we declare Him as such. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty” we sing along with the angels and the multitude from Revelation. God is holy. We know that much. But, what does it mean?  Then, you add in that we are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:47) and without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14), and we are all undone.

                                                       

So, what do we do to reconcile all of this?  How are we to be holy?  Some, have retreated to the monastery.  They have built walls around themselves and have completely withdrawn from the world. Their view of holiness is shown by what they are against and by what they disagree with. They focus on the “putting off” of Ephesians 4:22-24 and show their holiness through outward things. Others, focus on justification and God’s grace and the imputed righteousness that comes from faith in Christ.  They often do not make it around to actually living like Christ, but that is okay. They aren’t perfect, just forgiven. Both of these views miss the bigger picture of what God’s holiness really is.

                                                                     

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship tells Martin Luther’s journey to true holiness, and I think that it is a story that bears repeating.  He says,

                                                       

When the Reformation came, the providence of God raised Martin Luther to restore the gospel of pure, costly grace. Luther passed through the cloister; he was a monk, and all this was part of the divine plan. Luther had left all to follow Christ on the path of absolute obedience. He had renounced the world in order to live the Christian life. He had learnt obedience to Christ and to his Church, because only he who is obedient can believe. The call to the cloister demanded of Luther the complete surrender of his life. But God shattered all his hopes. He showed him through the Scriptures that the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few, but the divine command to all Christians without distinction. Monasticism had transformed the humble work of discipleship into the meritorious activity of the saints, and the self-renunciation of discipleship into the flagrant spiritual self-assertion of the “religious.”  The world had crept into the very heart of the monastic life, and was once more making havoc. The monk’s attempt to flee from the world turned out to be a subtle form of love for the world. The bottom having thus been knocked out of the religious life, Luther laid hold upon grace. Just as the whole world of monasticism was crashing about him in ruins, he saw God in Christ stretching forth his hand to save. He grasped that hand in faith, believing that “after all, nothing we can do is of any avail, however good a life we live.” The grace which gave itself to him was a costly grace, and it shattered his whole existence. Once more he must leave his nets and follow. The first time was when he entered the monastery, when he had left everything behind except his pious self. This time even that was taken from him. He obeyed the call, not through any merit of his own, but simply through the grace of God. Luther did not hear the word: “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness.” No, Luther had to leave the cloister and go back to the world, not because the world in itself was good and holy, but because even the cloister was only a part of the world.

                                                                              

Luther’s return from the cloister to the world was the worst blow the world had suffered since the days of early Christianity. The renunciation he made when he became a monk was child’s play compared with that which he had to make when he returned to the world. Now came the frontal assault. The only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world. Hitherto the Christian life had been the achievement of a few choice spirits under the exceptionally favourable conditions of monasticism; now it is a duty laid on every Christian living in the world. The commandment of Jesus must be accorded perfect obedience in one’s daily vocation of life. The conflict between the life of the Christian and the life of the world was thus thrown into the sharpest possible relief. It was a hand-to-hand conflict between the Christian and the world.

                                                                    

Because the monastery was a place that Luther had retreated to justify himself and protect himself from the contaminating evils of the world, it actually became a part of the world system. Everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God is a part of the world system, even if it looks really good on the outside. Luther could only be justified through faith in what Christ had already done for him and he only came to a point of faith in Christ when he quit believing in himself.

                                                                                  

But, here is what really strikes me about all of this:  For Luther, and for us as well, holiness was not found in the monastery. It was found in engaging the world as an emissary of Christ. When he tried to separate himself from the world through withdrawing, he just demonstrated the world’s ways of self-justification. But, when he died to himself, renounced the world’s ways, and engaged the world for the sake of Christ, he was acting in accordance with holiness. It is all upside down from what we thought, isn’t it?  The reason for this is because Christ is holy.  Only Christ makes us holy and we are declared righteous only by faith in Jesus. But, that righteousness plays out in and transforms our lives when we are conformed to the image of Christ in our thinking and our behavior. We reflect the image of Christ when we become like Him.  What did Jesus do?  How did he act?  Who did he care about? What moved him with compassion?  Holiness is not just a state of declared righteousness that comes from faith, but the outworking of that holiness involves doing what Jesus did.  Caring for the sick, the leper, the persecuted, and the downtrodden is holy. Rescuing the sinner is holy.  Proclaiming justice to the nations is holy. Dining with tax collectors and prostitutes to show them the Kingdom of God is holy. Forgiving others is holy. Loving your enemies is holy.  Everything that looks like Jesus is holy.  Holiness is not just putting off certain behaviors.  It is that, depending on what those behaviors are, but more than that, it is thinking about things differently and putting on the character of Christ. Humbling yourself before others and serving them is a holy act.  We could go on and on. Holiness is not just a state of denial of certain things, it is action that demonstrates the in-breaking Kingdom of God.  Holiness means that we live according to the "Otherness" of God apart and separate from this world system.  It is a positive action, not just a negative renunciation.

                                                                                                                               

We need more holiness in our churches.  We need to put off the old life and see the world differently.  Correspondingly, we need to put on the new life, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:22-24).  Our evangelicalism became destructive when it promoted a life that affirmed withdrawal from the world for the sake of its truncated conception of holiness. Jesus did not withdraw from the world. He engaged the world and brought healing and redemption as He did the will of the Father in all respects. THAT is holiness and that is what God wants from us.

                                                                                   

Instead of feeling condemned by the concept of holiness because I know that I do not measure up to someone’s artificial standard, I now see holiness as being the outworking of God’s character and life in every area.  To see the beauty of holiness in a primarily negative (i.e. what we put off) sense is surely an abomination and it is entirely incomplete.  But, to see holiness the way that Jesus demonstrates and to know that we have been called to be like Him is amazing, creative, beautiful, and life affirming!  It is something that causes me to want to be holy and to violently pursue Christ and lose myself in obedience to Him as He brings restoration to the world!

The Weakness of a Privatized, Individualistic Gospel: Moving Toward a Southern Missiology , Part 2

In my last post, I asked readers what they thought a missiology for the South might look like.  I appreciate the comments, Mike, Bob, Les, and Rick. I was hoping for a little more discussion, but, let's face it, I'm not talking about the latest political brouhaha amongst Southern Baptists or anything exciting like that. I'm just talking about the future of the church in the South over the next generation. Relatively meaningless, I know.  :)

At any rate, as I have been researching the theological weaknesses behind the evils of racism and segregation in the Southern Baptist South of the 1950's and 60's and how those weaknesses continue to affect us today (all for a book that I am trying to write), I have stumbled across an unexpected culprit that has caused me to raise my eyebrows a bit. In my reading, interviewing, studying, and praying, I have come to believe that a major reason that people could fill churches all across the South on Sunday and then treat others horribly just because of the color of their skin without feeling conviction was because of the gospel that was preached and believed. If your view of the "gospel" is that it is mostly a set of propositions that you agree with so that you can go to heaven when you die (i.e., eternal life) and salvation cannot be lost no matter what you do, then the commands of Scripture about loving others will be ignored when they bump up against a culture that ultimately gives you your identity, especially when that culture tells you that the "other" is inferior to you. What is there to fear? You're going to heaven. Of course, fear came in when you committed really bad sins like drinking alcohol, dancing, or broke any sexual taboos. So, belief and lifestyle were connected on some issues but not others, even though those other issues were just as biblical, if not moreso in some cases. This hypocrisy became a major theological problem and it is still embedded in the "gospel" we preach and the theology that we believe. We've never dealt with it adequately. We still face a theological separation between belief and behavior because we desire and offer heaven without the cross. Unfortunately, this separation has weakened our churches to the point of impotence when it comes to standing against the world. This weak, cheap gospel of personal, individualistic salvation without discipleship is what allowed Southerners to be racists while they filled Southern Baptist churches.  It is what allowed the Lutheran church in Germany to turn away from the Nazi brutalities toward the Jews and even accept them as necessary. It is also what allows us today to say that we believe one thing and live a completely different way and feel no shame or conviction.  Isn't hypocrisy a great part of what the baby boomers rebelled against in the 60's? Didn't the church have a stake in that regarding how we treated others while claiming to follow Christ?  

David Fitch in The Great Giveaway says, 

In our doctrine of salvation then, evangelicals must avoid commoditizing salvation into an individualist consumerist transaction, something we have been prone to. There is a reason why it sounds intrusive to ask a stranger the question "Do you know Jesus as personal savior?" We have privatized the relationship with Jesus so as to make him into a gnosticized faith that seems isolated from everyday life. We must un-privatize our faith in Christ and reconnect our relationship with God through Christ to a way of life that we can invite people into and a movement of God in history. Then we can ask, "Do you have a place where you can ask questions about life?" "Do you know a story that can make sense of your life?" When we do this, we focus away from scaring people out of hell to inviting people into a compelling way of life. We realize that making salvation about being saved from hell irrespective of being saved to new life cheapens it into a piece of individualist knowledge, bordering on Gnositicism, that does not take root in embodied lives.

In postmodernity, truth is about character. Religious truth can no longer be relegated to the realm of private feeling or preference. This is because modern science, which pushed it there originally, no longer reigns supreme. Truth is in the living. Any evangelism therefore that separates one's renewed legal status before God from the new life we have in Christ strips the gospel of its power for a postmodern evangelism. For the postmodern world, justification cannot be separated from sanctification and sanctification cannot be separated from a living people of God. The basis for a compelling Christian account of salvation in postmodernity is a changed life among a living community of Christ. (58-59).

Random Thinking

Last night, I couldn't get to sleep. My mind was racing. Finally, I drifted off, but not before I ran through a dozen different subjects. I've been told by friends that I have adult ADD. Maybe so. It would explain a lot. Normally, I write essays for this blog because it is really rewarding for me to lock in on one topic and explore it and I use it as a teaching platform for my church. Today, I'll take you on a random tour of what I'm thinking about in classic, stream-of-consciousness form. Each of these thoughts could be a blogpost all their own and they have been building up in my head. So, I think I'll clean out my brain a little so that I can think more clearly and start over.

I'm going back to India at the end of next month. Around midnight last night, I called Thom Wolf in India and talked with him for awhile. It was almost noon there. He was my professor and intellectual mentor in school back when I lived in San Francisco and he lives in New Delhi. We will go north to the Himalayas and do our normal thing with the ministries there, and then possibly travel with him for a couple of days to the south of India to meet some people doing very interesting things.

I am working through Paul's letter to the Philippians right now in my Bible study and my preaching. I am also writing essays to go along with each topic. Philippians is a great letter to address the "God as a means to an end" syndrome that plagues contemporary Christianity. I am thinking of releasing the essays after I am through with this. It has been really interesting. Today, I am working on one called "Chains" about how Paul volunteered to put himself in less than ideal situations so that the gospel would be spread to others through his life and suffering. Check out Philippians 1:7-14. Am I willing to do the same? 

"According to some estimates, Christians in developed Western countries now represent only 37 percent of believers worldwide. As I travel and also read chruch history, I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God 'moving' geographically from place to place: from the Middle East to Europe to North America to the developing world. My theory is this: God goes where He's wanted." ~ Philip Yancey, Finding God in Unexpected Places. 

I ran across a fascinating article today on urban development in post-Katrina New Orleans on Newgeography.com by Andres Duany.  Duany, of Cuban descent, says that "New Orleans is not among the most haphazard, poorest or misgoverned American cities, but rather the most organized, wealthiest, cleanest, and competently governed of the Caribbean cities."  He says that New Orleans is not really an American city at all. Rather, it is a Caribbean city.  Jimmy Buffett, after Katrina hit, said that the northern Gulf of Mexico is actually the northern part of the Caribbean, not the Southern part of the U.S.  I agree. Being from there, it is different that the rest of the country, and I love it. Totally different way of thinking, worldview, and lifestyle. Maybe this is why Baptists have had so much trouble reaching the Gulf Coast?  Hmmm. 

My two favorite songs on my ipod right now are "Rocket Man" by Angie Aparo and "A Change is Gonna Come" by Ben Sollee. They are both cover songs, but the music and vocals are really intriguing. If you haven't heard either of these guys, check them out.  Here's a live version of "Rocket Man." I think about this when I am travelling too much.

And, Ben Sollee on the cello.  Yes, the cello.  This is amazing.

This week marks the 3 year anniversary of us finding a lump on Caelan's chest that was a cancerous tumor. It has been a hard three years, but I praise God everyday for His faithfulness. Last night, Erika told me that the little 3 year old girl that my family has been praying for since we saw her at Caelan's last scans died last week. Her name was Cassie. My heart was broken over that. Maybe that is why I keep singing "A Change is Gonna Come." Ben Sollee, covering Sam Cooke, says he doesn't know what's beyond the sky. I do, and more and more each day I pray that God's Kingdom come.

"As heretical as it sounds today, it is probably worth telling Americans that you don't need Jesus to have better families, finances, health, or even morality. Coming to the cross means repentance - not adding Jesus as a supporting character for an otherwise decent script but throwing away the script in order to be written into God's drama. It is death and resurrection, not coaching and makovers." Michael Horton, Christless Christianity.

Baseball season is about to start. I really don't like baseball. Too slow for my taste. During the dead of summer, it is almost like there are no sports going on. I'm just waiting for football. Although, our church has formed THREE softball teams with about 50 players and they'll be playing mostly on Monday nights, so I am glad for the fact that a lot of people from our church will be hanging out together and building relationships. Being blind in my right eye caused me to never play baseball because I have no depth perception, so maybe that is why I don't like it. I do plan to play summer league basketball, though. 

The groundbreaking for our church's new building is April 5, right before we have a huge neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. We've been reaching a lot of teenagers in our community lately, and God really moved in their lives at a youth retreat that we had this past weekend. Several came to Christ and many more opened their hearts to Jesus. We have also started tutoring, GED classes, and are helping with job placement.  God is doing some amazing things. The building is just a tool to help us with this, and it should be finished by October. I'll be very happy.

I keep watching Jon & Kate plus Eight. I don't know why. Erika keeps asking why I stop there when we are watching TV and I have the remote and I told her that I really can't believe how mean Kate is to Jon and I can't fathom how they manage eight kids like that. Wow. It's like a car wreck. I have four kids of my own. Do I really need to watch someone else's stress? Strangely, I'm drawn to it. That, and Clean House, which is about people who live in an unfathomable mess.  I guess that it is cathartic to see other people's stress and mess instead of my own.  Normally, these shows come on right after we put the kids to bed. Hmmm.

I turned in my taxes yesterday and I'm trying to get some insurance stuff taken care of. It's a pain and seems to be taking forever. Car tags have to be paid on Monday and I'm doing a TV interview tomorrow for a local religious broadcasting station about our work in India. I lump all of that together because it all feels about the same to me - stuff I have to do that I don't like doing. I'm not just trying to be humble about the TV thing either. I HATE stuff like that. Communication should be two-way and interactive with feedback, not captured on a television for people to pick over and misinterpret as they wish. Maybe I'm just insecure. 

Books I'm reading right now (they happen to all be "Christian" books, which is not good - I need to vary things up a bit and learn from some other disciplines):

• Finding God in Unexpected Places by Philip Yancey - picked it up in the airport last week. Yancey writes essays about where he sees God working in the world. Excellent.
• Christless Christianity by Michael Horton - states that the American church has given itself over to an alternative gospel that he calls, therapuetic moralistic deism.
• No Place for Truth - Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology by David Wells. This came out about 15 years ago, but it was recommended to me by a friend of mine. It is pretty dense, but a good read. Makes some of the same claims as Horton, but from a historical perspective.
• People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States by Michael O. Emerson. Just picked this one up.

My church is always heavy on my mind and my heart. I graduated from seminary over 9 years ago. I've been the lead pastor of our church for 3 1/2 years. I'm realizing more and more each day that I am not smart enough, talented enough, entertaining enough, or gifted enough to do what needs to be done, no matter how many books I read. God has to work through me. I need Him. I carry the weight of people's struggles pretty intensely. I greatly desire for people to walk with the Lord and to glorify Him and I want our church to hunger after Christ with their whole lives and to reach people who do not know Jesus. But, I am really having to pray about this and release it to the Lord. I can't make anyone do anything. I am completely powerless to make anything happen. God has to do it.  I have always known that intellectually. I am learning that emotionally and spiritually and it isn't easy, believe it or not.

Ashtyn has started soccer.

I have great kids and an amazing wife who listens to me go on and on about everything that I am thinking about. She is really patient and she always gives me great feedback. I do not deserve her, and I'm not just saying that because it is what I am expected to say. She's really something. She texted me two days ago and said that we should go on the mission trip with the youth group this summer. I told her that I agreed. Not many mother's of four kids would do that. 

My city, Montgomery, just elected a new mayor in a special election a couple of weeks ago. In his election night interview, he said that he hoped that he would "rule" well.  Rule #1 in American politics: Never tell the people that you plan to "rule" them. It doesn't sit well in a democracy. Then, he said that he was pushing the inauguration back a week because he was taking his family to the beach. Rule #2:  When we are in a severe recession, don't tell the people that just elected you that you would begin to rule, er, serve them, but first, you have to go to the beach.  Go to the beach in a few months AFTER you have worked for them for a little while. Wow.

Look, a BUTTERFLY!!!! Sorry, had to get that out. Does anyone ever feel that way? Random as can be.

I've lost 10 pounds in the past two weeks and I don't know how. I guess that I haven't been eating as much. Duh. Stress? Busyness? I don't know, but I'll take it. I could stand to lose a lot more.

____________________________________________________

Well, that's about it. Not really, but I figure that no one is still reading at this point, so I might as well stop. Believe it or not, engaging in an exercise in complete randomness actually made me feel better. So, I leave you with a picture of my kids that I really love. 

God is good, by the way.  And, He's always working in every thing. Big, little, important, mundane. God is always at work.

 

Consuming Jesus

I have been reading Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church by Paul Louis Metzger. It is a very provocative read.  Metzger's premise is that white, middle-class, Evangelicals, especially in our pursuit of church growth, have capitulated to consumerism, individualism, and preference and have reinforced the divisions of racialization and classism that the Gospel seeks to tear down. In that, we are actually working against Jesus and the effects of His Gospel by perpetuating walls of division between believers. Instead of making things better, our systems actually make things worse. He takes a specific aim at the Homogenous Unit Principle (HUP), which states that churches grow fastest when they are focused on one specific subculture so that those who are targeted will not have to deal with any prejudice. They can come to church and be with people just like them, not upsetting any of their preconceived ideas. This view states that the gospel is the main thing and that we should not deal with social issues. Metzger says that the gospel does deal with social issues however (see Eph. 2:11-18), and that it tears down dividing walls between groups that have been historically divided for one reason or another.

Metzger addresses the preponderance of small groups among contemporary evangelical churches and says that these small groups only make things worse because they are almost solely focused on the personal preference of those attending:

Homogenous churches and care groups can easily - even though inadvertently - promote and preserve middle-class conservative values. Confronting race and class divisions lacks importance when this value and motivation is present implicitly or explicitly; and confronting the problems becomes counterproductive to the main goal of catering to a middle-or upper-middle-class target audience for Christ. Those targeted would quickly lose interest in Christ and that particular church if it were to suddenly gain interest in addressing these issues. However, while the church may gain that group in the short term, it may be found guilty of blaspheming God's name among the gentiles in the long term, as one lay leader said of his own successful church's homgenous ways when awakened to these issues. 

I think that Metzger makes some good points and they are points that I have made before. I am much more hopeful than he is, though. I think that many Evangelicals really do want to follow God and to obey Him. Yes, we are selfish and stubborn. We want comfort and what we think is best for us. But, for a very long time, we have also been told that that is what Christianity is ultimately about - us following God to have a good life, a good marriage, a good family, a good job, prosperity, health, and inner peace. Who would not want all of that? The problem is that those things, while good, have replaced Jesus as our goal and source of life. I think that things are changing, however. I think that many Evangelicals are tired of just getting their needs met. They are seeing that there is more to the Christian life than their own satisfaction or spiritual success as it has been defined by the "teachers." At least I think that they are. I am seeing that transformation occur in our church.

The Gospel tears down dividing walls between believers. It does not just get us into heaven. It is the Gospel of the Kingdom and it announces the reign and rule of God. It is good news and it changes things - turning the world upside down. We have to begin to articulate the message that our salvation is not just about "me and Jesus," but rather, it is so much more. We are saved to be ambassadors for Christ - His representatives in a fallen world. 

I like Metzger's book. It will shake you up on multiple levels. I hope to review more of it as time goes by. This call against consumerism, personal preference, and individualism in the church is getting louder and louder and it is one that we need to heed.