Our last session for this conference is with Brian McLaren…he just put up a slide that I thought I’d share:

our contemporary gospel is primarily:

information on how to go to heaven after you die

with a large footnote about increasing your personal happiness and success through God

with a small footnote about character development

with a smaller footnote about spiritual experience

and with an almost unreadable footnote about social global transformation

Here’s a quotation from Henri Nouwen, written in the 1970’s about the modern pastorate.  Do you think he was right?

The first and most basic ask required of the minister of tomorrow therefore is to clarify the immense confusion which can arise when people enter this new internal world.  it is a painful fact indeed to realize how poorly prepared most Christian leaders prove to be when they are invited to be spiritual leaders in the true sense.  Most of them are used to thinking in terms of large-scale organizations, getting people together in churches, schools and hospitals, and running the show as a circus director.  they have become unfamiliar with, and even somewhat afraid of, the deep and significant movements of the Spirit.  i am afraid that in a few decades the Church will be accused of having failed in its most basic task: to offer men and women creative ways to communicate with the source of human life.

So I was reading 1 Corinthians 10 this morning and a question jumped into my head as I read this passage. And I wondered this: based upon what Paul says here, if you happen to be a Christian who believes that drinking alcohol is wrong, then what do you do if a neighbor offers you a beer?

My thinking is that the apostle Paul would say, “you drink it.”

What say ye?

Here’s a quote from a post on the Out of Ur blog, reporting on the National Pastors Convention in San Diego this week.  The author is reporting on a pre-conference session called “Emerging Critical Issues Facing the Churches.”  Anyway…without going into the whole article too much, I thought this quotation from Andy Crouch was “spot on.” (Yes, you should say “spot on” with an English accent.)

“Reading from an article he wrote in 2003, Andy Crouch introduced the third critical issue facing the church: homosexuality. According to Andy, ‘Humankind is not divided into homosexual or heterosexual categories. We are all sexual beings who tend towards self-satisfaction.’ Additionally, many churches rally around these categories, ‘which leads to a double standard: chastity for those who are gay and a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy regarding sexuality for the rest of us.’”

Particularly when reading the epistles I find that in my head I assign the writer a “voice.”  I do this with other literature as well.  So when I read Velvet Elvis for example, I “hear” Rob Bell in my head.  However, when thinking about the Bible, this is difficult since there are no podcasts from the that time period.  So the “voice” that I “hear” really is arbitrarily assigned by me.

Which brings us back to the epistles.  For most of my life, when I’ve read Paul’s epistles, the “voice” in my head could best be described by the following list of words: irritated, self-righteous, intense, serious, angry, stern…you get the idea.   But the voice is changing.

Our leadership team is working our way through 1 Corinthians and it’s been remarkable to me how Paul’s voice is changing.  I don’t want to get into all the ways here, or this post will get too long, but seeing Paul’s use of sarcasm (4:8ff) and the way he taunts the Corinthians at times (6:5), makes Paul more human too me.  It’s quite refreshing.

Sometimes, I think that some theologies are built on exceptions rather than the norm.  For example, one might say, “God still speaks audibly today.”  Which I think can be true.  But it’s also true that most of history is filled with God’s silence.  For every burning bush there are 400 years of slavery in which faith is worked out against the backdrop of silence.

Eugene Peterson hits this idea with this quotation in his book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places:

Any understanding of God that doesn’t take into account God’s silence is a half truth — in effect, a cruel distortion — and leaves us vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by leaders who are quite willing to fill in the biblical blanks with what the Holy Spirit never tells us. (p. 156)

Some may get depressed by this idea of working out faith against the backdrop of silence, but personally, this excites me because this is where things like the community of faith and the revelation of Scripture are so significant and meaningful.

Dear Leslie,

I know you asked this question on your blog, but instead of leaving a long comment I thought I’d just write a response here.  (I’m not sure that you read this…so if you’re Leslie’s friend point here this way!)

If I understood you correctly, your second question had to do with discerning the will of God.  As I frequently, in my line of work, facing big life decisions, this comes up all the time!  I was driving home from a meeting late last night and for some reason your post came to mind and I was thinking about how I’d answer…

So, want them or not, here are some of my thoughts:

• I think when we reduce God’s will to a specific action, we misunderstand what it is God wants from us.  What I’m saying is this.  I’m not sure that God is so much concerned with whether you choose this car or that car.  I think what God is more interested in is your character, your values, you motivation.  What may be the right action for you might not be the right action for another person.  I’m pretty sure this is what Paul is talking about in a passage like 1 Corinthians 8 where he’s saying some people choose one thing for one reason and some people choose another for other reasons.  What’s most important is what’s going on inside you as you’re making the decision.
• Another thought.  It seems like there’s a lot of talk about “hearing God’s voice” these days.  I really do believe that sometimes God speaks so clearly that it’s almost an audible voice.  But most of the time I rely on the mind God created in me, the communities of faith that surround me (small group, mentors, etc.), and the character of God as revealed in Scripture.  I think that sometimes people want a “quick fix” God.
• I depend on peace.  This is a bit fuzzy, but there are times where I just haven’t felt okay inside about a decision.  I can’t explain it…I just know that there is something that I should/shouldn’t do.  I’m pretty sure that this is Holy Spirit inside me, serving as my “conscience.”

anyway…sorry for the long post…hope you enjoy the new car!

• Well, it’s happened.  Predictably Westboro Baptist Church showcases their hatred of people and pronounces judgement on Heath Ledger  (ht: Tim)
• My friend Seth, who lived directly across from us in our seminary apartments and who proudly displayed his Nebraska flag, despite living in Buffalo country, is doing a series of posts that are written in a letter format to yours truly.  I can’t wait for the next installment…I’ll probably try to respond soon…he’s saying some good stuff that we need to hear. (his first post, the 2nd post)
• I’m super-excited.  I think there will be a few of us from Imago going to this conference & this conference.  (Talk about different ends of the spectrum!)
• Can I just say that God continues, almost daily, to show his faithfulness to us as we begin this adventure of churh planting?  It’s pretty amazing!

The manager was really just a barn.

And the shepherds probably smelled like sheep and swore a lot.

At this time of year in churches and on television and in nativity scenes across the country we are treated to a version of the Christmas story that is so sanitized and idealized.  And in doing so, I wonder if we miss the point.

I recently saw on a news piece this church in Florida, where they spend $1.3 million on their Christmas production (live animals, pyrotechnics &  professional actors & actresses) and when they interviewed the pastor, asking him what he thought Jesus might think if he attended, he said something like, “I think Jesus would applaud our efforts, but tell us that it wasn’t even close to the show that was put on that night.”

I’m pretty sure he misses the point.

My friend Brandon is a middle school pastor and they shot a video using Jr. High students, asking themselves what it might have been like.

I’m pretty sure Brandon is right on point.

The point of the Christmas story is not that God came down and there was an extraordinary birth.  The point was that it was incredibly ordinary.  Actually, it was probably low-class by 1st century standards.  He was born in a barn.  Attended to by the most unlikely midwife in all of Judea.  Witnessed by low-life, sticky shepherds.

For me.

Merry Christmas!

It’s so sad what happened in Colorado Springs last weekend, and yet was anyone else troubled when they read or heard that volunteers in the church pack heat?  I know someone’s going to come down on me for this, but it just struck me as so odd that a church would think that they need to arm themselves.

I guess there’s this dichotomy I see.  On one hand you have churches that seem to be all about safety…keeping bad people out, thinking, strategizing and planning for “crowd control,” and then I’m reading about The Simple Way, and they’ve chosen to forego “safety” so they can be with people — even if it means going to jail.

I would guess that Shane Claibourne would probably say that there is no “balance,” and yet I’m not so sure.  If I knew that a gunman could enter Northwoods, would I allow my children to be here?  And yet, I want my children to know, that maybe saddest of all last weekend, was that there was this person, that so hated Christians that he would kill.  Maybe that’s the greatest tragedy.

Honestly…I’m just not sure how to put this all together in my head.

Okay…I wrote this post yesterday afternoon and set it to publish in the middle of the night…and was telling some friends about it and they informed me that volunteers don’t regularly carry guns…they only did so this weekend because of a potential threat.  But still, my bigger concerns remain.