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Category: Christianity

  • Sincere but Unfortunate

    by Dr. Robert LaRochelle
    Earlier this week, a piece of writing was brought to my attention which has caused considerable reaction out there in the blogosphere. In his Parchment and Pen blog, C. Michael Patton published an entry under the rather intriguing title of ‘Embracing Doubt’ or Why ‘Roman Catholic scholarship‘ is an Oxymoron.’ Mr. Patton’s position, developed and corroborated in numerous other entries, is that one cannot be a real theological scholar and also be truly Roman Catholic because Catholics must always yield to the authoritative teaching of the church, a teaching which can be invoked as ‘infallible.’
    To be honest, I consider this entry to be highly sincere but most unfortunate. In my view, it is important for Roman Catholics and Protestants to engage in respectful, ecumenical dialogue and to look for ways in which we can learn together, pray together and serve together, in Jesus’ name. It is also my conviction that we must search for an ‘ecumenical center’ while recognizing that individuals, in conscience, will make their own individual decisions regarding their own church affiliation. It is my preference that both Catholic and Protestant theologians, educators, and writers look for ways to focus on what we share in common, even to the point of making clear that what we have thought really must divide us, under the scrutiny of closer examination, in fact, actually need not!
    The issues Mr. Patton raises are personal ones for me. I am an ordained clergyperson and have served as a pastor for over ten years in the United Church of Christ. For the first forty five years of my life, I was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Over the course of my professional life, I worked in Catholic parishes and a diocese in such capacities as Theology instructor, Youth Minister and Director of Religious Education. For nine years, I served as a Permanent Deacon, a member of the Roman Catholic clergy, and in that capacity baptized nearly three hundred individuals and officiated at a rather large number of weddings and funerals as well.
    My wife, with whom I will be celebrating our thirty first anniversary in just a few days, remains a member of the Roman Catholic Church, as do our three children, one of whom works at a college as a Catholic campus minister. I am the beneficiary of a wonderful education in Catholic schools which includes exposure to magnificent Catholic teaching and scholarship in two excellent Jesuit institutions, Holy Cross and Boston College.
    My eventual decision to leave the Catholic Church and my service in a Protestant denomination has really deepened my passion for that ecumenical center I have mentioned. As a matter of fact, I explore this in detail in my forthcoming book Crossing The Street, which will be released this coming Spring by Energion Publications. In my book, I explain my own decision to leave Catholicism, one that did, for me, center on the issue of authority. After much struggling with the multiplicity of issues involved, I made the decision that I am really a Protestant and thus felt deeply that it was time for me to move.
    Yet, having said this, I also realize that other people who struggle with some of the same issues I did have decided to remain within the Catholic Church. Where I differ with Mr. Patton is in my strong belief that one can harbor doubt and question authority within Catholicism and yet remain a Catholic. Some of the Catholics whom I most admire are those who either have or do!
    In his sweeping assertion that one cannot be scholarly and a faithful Catholic, Mr. Patton, in my view, misses three very important realities:

    1. Many changes in the Catholic Church were as the result of theologians questioning what was current and historic church teaching. The major changes in worship, ecumenism, Biblical understanding, the priesthood of those other than the ordained, the church’s understanding of the relationship between religion and science, among many others, teachings promulgated at Vatican II and in the workings of the church in subsequent years, came as the result of ‘cutting edge’ work by theologians within the church, individuals such as Teilhard de Chardin, Yves Congar, Karl Rahner and others whose theological positions truly ‘pushed the envelope’ of Roman Catholic convention.
    2. Even in some traditional ‘authoritative’ documents, the influence of dissenting Catholic theologians is clear. The great church authority test in the late twentieth century was the reaction of Catholic theologians and ordinary Catholics to the church’s teaching on birth control as expressed in the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. It should be noted that prior to writing the encyclical, the Pope appointed a commission to study the question. One could argue that, though Pope Paul VI reiterated the traditional position in this Papal decree, the document also included a theological perspective expressed by those ‘ on the other side’ of the Pope’s conclusion. This same dichotomy is notable in the 1976 Vatican Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics. Even more telling, this ‘dissent’ on these questions and others is operative in both the behavior and attitudes of Catholics today who remain members of the church while holding positions different from the ‘magisterium’ on such issues as well as on others, including, yet not limited to, women’s ordination.
    3. Most importantly, in the personal sense, Catholic teaching has clearly held to the concept of the primacy of the INDIVIDUAL CONSCIENCE in decision making. Church documents, including those of Vatican II, speak eloquently of this reality. I think it is fair to say that there are Catholic theologians who would see their dissent on particular teachings and interpretations as an exercise of their consciences.

    So, in summary, as one whose movement into Protestantism and practice of my faith has been deeply enriched and enhanced by bold and exciting Catholic scholarship, I find Mr. Patton’s argument unconvincing. I do admire, however, his strong advocacy of the importance of theology within the Christian community of faith. It is my firm belief that true ecumenical dialogue between Protestants and Catholics really suffers when theological ‘indifferentism’ is seen as the norm. The idea that ‘it makes no difference’ and that all belief systems are ‘really the same’ is both inaccurate and does no justice to the cause of deeper understanding and shared contribution to both Christ’s church and to God’s world.
    While I applaud Mr. Patton for his passion for theology, so obviously born of a love of God and a passion for truth, I see this blog entry as both falling short and also doing unnecessary collateral harm to the necessary cause of Christian unity!

    Rev. Dr. Robert R. LaRochelle holds a Doctor of Ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary. He is pastor of the Congregational Church of Union, Connecticut, UCC, and is the author of Part-Time Pastor, Full-Time Church (Pilgrim Press, 2010) and the forthcoming book Crossing The Street (Energion, 2012). He writes a blog at http://wwwpastorbob.blogspot.com

  • Hallelujah: The Soundtrack of Life

    We are in the process of releasing a new book under our EnerPower Press imprint, which will be available at First United Methodist Church of Pensacola starting August 21, and should soon be available in major online retailers. It is edited by Rev. Geoffrey Lentz, and includes contributions by many members of First United Methodist Church of Pensacola.
    At the same time the church is holding a Summer in the Psalms series. The embedded video is Geoffrey’s first sermon in that series. It begins with the 9th grade male chorus singing.
     

  • What Does a New Testament Church Look Like?

    We get this question frequently from readers of The Jesus Paradigm by David Alan Black. The easiest answer is to link to his essay with the same title.
     

  • What Oppression Looks Like

    (The following post is cross-posted from CPR – FIERCE CHRISTIAN LIVING, and was written by Renee Crosby. Renee is author of Energion title Soup Kitchen for the Soul. The post is copyright and is used here by permission.)
    Foreclosure scene
    That is a picture of a home in my neighborhood in Denver, CO. where an eviction notice was executed May 10, 2011. Ever really thought about what oppression is? Well, the Webster definition of oppression is listed as, “Unjust or cruel exercise of authority of power.” But have you ever really wondered what oppression looks like? Well the above picture is worth a thousand words. One key word comes to my mind, oppression.
    I offer my opinion on a relevant and sensitive topic regarding the state of our afflictions. These afflictions are part of our American culture and trends that require us to take a stand and take action. I am reminded of the quote we used to use in typing class in high school, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” Forget about the government aiding the people of our country. We need to rise up as the people of this country and aid the government. So what exactly am I rambling about? That picture is the picture of a person’s former home, now under eviction- executed. This picture is not staged. It is real. If that isn’t an unjust or cruel exercise of authority of power, I don’t know what is.
    OK, so your counterpoint on the topic may be that they deserved it, they defaulted on their loan. Or, they had plenty of time to get their things out for they knew it was coming. All I’m asking is for a moment to put that aside, especially if you have never been close to anyone who has gone through this process. If you have never known anyone to go through this, let me paint a picture of their lives. As a culmination of people I have met along the way, a summary of their story and their state of economy might look something like this; a single mom with at least one child, no spousal support, no job, or a job, but with the cost of day care, not making enough to make ends meet. I have met people who have lost both parents and fallen into depression, lost jobs, and can’t function because of their illness, and can’t obtain adequate resources for even medicine. I have met a couple that work in construction and one broke her ankle, so they both are now homeless as they cannot maintain a residence with one income.
    These are just everyday people struggling to make ends meet. Upon eviction, many often secure smaller housing, or secure shelter housing in which they have to place belongings in storage. They often live precariously with another family or extended family till they get back on their feet, again, placing belongings in storage. Or, they become homeless, living in a hotel, again, with no place to put any belongings. These families are challenged in securing food, heat, hot water and other basic necessities. Their choices center on paying for a truck rental, gas, and storage rental or buying basic needs like food. The choices center on taking time off of work to move their own belongings because they can’t pay movers. Many have only part time jobs that offer no benefits of paid days off from work. So, the end result is they either leave their belongings in the evicted house, or put some or all of their things in storage.
    So, what exactly is my issue with this cruel use of power when executing eviction notices of emptying the house of all belongings? Let’s be clear here, it is shameful, strips all dignity, humiliates, degrades, pours salt on wounds, kicks them when they are down, embarrasses, and oppresses. It also is a safety issue for the neighborhood and children playing. It is also a property value issue for the neighborhoods vying for new buyers or renters.  NO ONE deserves this kind of treatment. No one should be so stripped of their dignity. No one should have to have this happen in their neighborhood. No parent should be at risk of a child getting hurt or injured from curiosity playing in a mound of belongings. It is unethical. It is not a liberal or conservative problem. It’s a social justice problem. It has to be stopped.
    We have to rise up and take action now because this epidemic of evictions is not even close to being over. “Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that about 3.7 million properties are in this seriously delinquent stage.” This stage refers to home loans that are in foreclosure, pending some action like loan modifications, short sales and possibly other disposition alternatives. That is only the current properties on a list that may well end up in eviction. That doesn’t include the mass numbers of evictions already executed since the mortgage crash, and future homes entering the foreclosure process. And, I might add these figures don’t capture the number of people who don’t own homes, but rent and have been evicted or will be evicted in the near future.
    However, the up side of the story about this oppressive action is that we can do something about it! I was always taught that if you identify a problem, also offer a solution. So, what do we do? I believe there are many transitional solutions to alleviate the problem that can be done, such as one sheriff in Hamilton, OH is doing. It is reported that he ordered deputies to ignore eviction orders when people have nowhere else to live. Or find support money to locally fund vouchers for assisting with truck rentals, gas and storage units. But in the long-term, the solution perhaps is to push for a law to forbid such oppressive action. The law might even look like stating that all processing evictions must safely and responsibly remove belongings by securing items in a dumpster. That seems reasonable to me. Or, perhaps the belongings could stay in the facility until a new owner is secured, and the new owners are somehow compensated for the cost of removing the belonging (again safely and responsibly removing).
    FIERCE topic- well that goes without saying. But how about some FIERCE action? I implore you, please don’t just read this and do nothing. But, you ask, “What can you do?” Well, right now like me, you can raise awareness of this issue and talk about it. Share this article. I will be contacting the Metro Organizations for People, the Denver Homeless Coalition and others to see how I can help change this. When I get some activity on a resolution, I will let you know, and hope the media will as well.
    Be FIERCE ya’ll. Be FIERCE.  Help pass the blog on…email friends, “like on facebook.

  • Missions – What about It?

    (Today’s post is from Pastor D. Kevin Brown. Pastor Brown is author of the book Rite of Passage, forthcoming from Energion Publications. He blogs at, you guessed it,  D Kevin Brown’s Blog.)
    Last year in the association in which the church I pastor is a member, there was reported 200 people baptized with total receipts of almost $8 million. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me we as an association spent almost $40,000 per person to get them baptized and brought to Jesus. This is well above the per capita family income of a typical family in our county! That’s an amazing statistic! If you think we spent $40,000 on evangelism and missions per person to reach them, you would be mistaken. We spend our money tithing to ourselves. We spend money on our “fun.” Most churches (and ours is no different and we’re working on it), spend as much money on literature, supplies and utilities as we do on missions. God help us for our misplaced priorities!
    The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 7:14:

    If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

    It’s up to us, the Church, to start reaching this nation again. I read recently in the NC Baptist “Connect” magazine that a church that has been around for 10-15 years or more gains nearly 80% of their new members by transfer growth (that’s swapping members), while a church that is a new church plant will gain nearly 60-80% of their new members from folks that have never attended church anywhere and are most likely lost. Why? Because the older churches get lazy!
    You see, we have to pay off our buildings, in which we see less than a couple handfuls of people saved each year. We have to pay for our buses and our vans, as they cart us to and fro from activity to activity that reaches few if any with the gospel. We must pay for our burgeoning staffs (because the lay people don’t want to do much of anything anymore.) It seems we’d rather pay to have it done than get our hands dirty. It’s almost like people are saying: “Don’t try this at home—let the professionals do it, because it may be dangerous for our health.”
    We continue to fund a myriad of programs (of which, many are so ineffective for reaching people with the gospel that we’re afraid to ask why we still have them), yet we hang on to these sacred cows because we’re afraid of a little blood just so we can keep the flock happy. And all the while, the new church plant is nimble enough and may I say hungry enough to “seek and save that which is lost,” because they “don’t know any better.” They aren’t burdened down yet with all the stuff that a “good” church is supposed to have.
    We are involved in a war—a war for the hearts, souls, and minds of our children and our families. The Church in the last 50 years has failed to transmit its religious heritage to the next generation. Sermons, in many of our churches across America, are now more “therapeutic” than instructional; our worship services have become grounded more in what we “feel” than in what we think and know about Scripture.
    Why is it that the Church, by and large, no longer represents the power of the “action” of God in the world?” I’ll tell you why. Because we have compromised the gospel. The Church has quit training and evangelizing. The church is literally dying a slow death in America; that is imperceptible to most, but nonetheless is happening simply because we are not reproducing ourselves. Church attendance continues to drop in America and we’re down now to around 30% of Americans attending services on a given Sunday. You see, the goal of Christianity must be to advance God’s kingdom on earth. Let me be very clear. The purpose of the Church is to be God’s “missionary people” in the world. We are to be adding to the flock…not just fattening those that are already in the flock, those who are already safe and sound.
    Isn’t it time to seriously look at all of our programs and ministries and ask if they are effective and if they’re not…then, let’s pull out the butcher knife. I am firmly convinced there is no partnership in Christ without partnership in missions. Are we mission-minded? Is it really our TOP priority or just “one” of many priorities in our churches?
    Oh have we forgotten our mission? If we are going to be relevant to this “lost and dying” world, we are going to have to remember what our purpose is and what our mission is to be. We’ve got to care about and love what Jesus loved. What did He love? Not a “what,” but a “who.” People, people, people! He said, “I have come to seek and to save that which is lost.” That’s our mission! As congregations, we must intentionally live as God’s missionary people. It’s only then that the church will emerge to become what Christ created it to be and it’s only then that we will truly be salt and light and see dramatic changes within the cultural fabric of our churches and thus, this nation. The purpose of the body of Christ is to make Jesus visible to the world Monday through Saturday…not just to ourselves on Sunday. Are we on mission at our jobs in our schools on the ball fields and dance studios? You don’t have to be a preacher or missionary to be in the “ministry.” We are all ambassadors of the Gospel…remember?
    But, if we’re going to be on mission then we must overcome a significant hurdle. What is that? The great American Dream? Has the Church in this nation become like the church of Laodicea. Rev. 3:17 shows us this type of church: “We are rich, having acquired great wealth and are in need of nothing? But we don’t realize that we are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Jesus called that church lukewarm and it makes Him sick to His stomach to the point of vomiting. Is that what He sees when He looks at us? Oh, please forgive us Lord!
    You know when you boil it down; it all comes down to priorities doesn’t it? We must remember who we are and what we are to be about as the Church. After all, aren’t we the body of Christ? We must remember we are to be His hands and feet. The Apostle Paul tells us so in Ephesians 3:11-12:

    It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…

    So, it’s my job as a pastor to equip. Right? That’s what we just read…yet…churches expect the pastors to do everything in many cases. And do you know what else? People like me, (pastors and preachers), have made things this way. We’ve spoiled our people. Think about it. The average pastor puts in around 15-20 hours a week in message preparation. He gets paid on average a salary of around $45,000 a year, (I’m estimating here), and there are somewhere around 310,000 churches in the U.S. Add all that up, and you’ll see that every week American churches invest right at $140 million in preaching. That’s a major investment, and what’s the return on that investment? Church attendance is on the decline. The percentage of people claiming to know Christ is plummeting, and the moral fiber of our culture is ripping apart. Can’t we see that we’re missing the boat as Christians and as churches?
    Preaching alone is good, but it won’t save the masses. We must personally be ambassadors for Christ as we daily “take up our crosses and follow Jesus and bear fruit for Him.” We must be paramedics with the Gospel (take it to them), not just ambulances (trying to get them to a building). Once we lead them to Jesus, we must disciple them. But, discipling is hard. It’s time-consuming and not easy because we have to roll up our sleeves and invest in other’s lives.
    So, will we do it? Will we do the hard things and make our churches mission-minded? Will we brandish the knife and slaughter some sacred cows and stop tithing to ourselves? Will we become more concerned about what is happening outside the walls of our churches instead of paying for our own comforts inside those walls? I pray we will. And I pray that missions will once again become our top priority just as it was our Savior’s.

  • The Word on the Street – Is It the Bible?

    (Energion author Nick May (Megabelt) posted the following on Facebook, and it is reproduced here with his permission. For his Facebook friends, the post is here.)
    Several years ago, I learned about something called “The Word on the Street” which is a take on the Bible whose modernized terms make The Message read like T.S. Elliot. This is how the author, Rob Lacey, tells the story of Peter walking on water (in beautiful, scripturally appropriate italics):
    Sometime, three maybe four in the morning, Jesus walks out to them across the waves. Freaked out, they scream, “Ghost!” as one man. Before they’ve time to scream again Jesus shouts, “Whoa! Don’t panic! It’s me.” “If it’s you, Boss,” shouts Pete. “give me a go?!” “Come on, then,” says Jesus. So Pete swings his leg over the boat and tests out the water – and his foot doesn’t go under! The other leg joins it. It takes his weight. Seconds later he’s walking across the lake towards Jesus – on the water! He’s doing fine till a face full of wind slaps him back to normality. He freezes, loses focus and starts going under, screaming, “Grab me, Jesus!” Jesus does and holds Pete there saying, “Chicken! Why’d you bottle it?”
    Lacey refers to his own rendition of the story as a paraphrase–saying on the back cover, “This is not THE Bible.” I can appreciate that (though I think it’s a bit of a cop-out). Whereas Lacey takes all kinds of liberties with chopping things up, cutting things out and mixing things around, he never attempts to do anything it shouldn’t by claiming it is something it isn’t. Listen, it’s okay if you were thinking, “Dang, it’s too bad the Bible can’t speak to me the way a friend would at a urinal.” That’s a normal reaction to experiencing something simple; however, despite the striking resemblance the story bares to it’s more widely accepted translations, you’re probably still a little apprehensive about some of the language. What if a chunk of divinity got left out when Lacey switched some of the adverbs around?! Give me a break. If it’s root words you’re worried about, get a Strong’s Concordance or a Greek & Hebrew Bible and go nuts just like you have to do with all the other translations which don’t include any words ending in the suffix, -os.
    I’m sure I’m just now joining a debate that’s nearly a decade old, and this isn’t me arguing for The Word on the Street’s inclusion into The Family Christian Bookstore’s Biblical canon (not yet anyway). I just have a hard time believing that a translation like The Message deserves to be treated any differently than ones like the NIV or NASV did when they first came on the scene. It both sickens and comforts me to think there are probably still those who believe the New International Version is merely a paraphrase of the almighty King James Version–commissioned under and named for King James I who was a real tool (in case my holiness audience didn’t know). There’s not an inch of me that believes I’m only getting an abbreviated dose of inspiration when I read The Message. The story is what it is. We’re all kidding ourselves if we think anything we read that doesn’t come in a scroll is anywhere close to accurate. That doesn’t worry me. The Council of Nicaea worries me. If Rob Lacey decided to ever write a Street version that didn’t leave anything out or include personal commentary, I’d read that thing like it was infallible too, and I wouldn’t apologize for it.
    My musical friends always rag me for not accepting the gospel of Jack White. They say the guy is worthy of being counted among the ranks of guitar greats despite his age and length of time spent in the sphere. I say different. I say old Jacko hasn’t paid his dues, and therefore, doesn’t deserve to be showered with praise and glory just yet (regardless of his undeniable skill)–sharing DVD features with dudes like Kieth Richards and “The Edge” (that pompous tool). It’s this way of thinking that leads people to believe that a translation like The Message hasn’t earned it’s place amongst the pews. Anyone still go to a church with pews? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Sorry for the outdated imagery. It hasn’t paid it’s dues yet, so it doesn’t deserve to be counted with the rest, right?. It’s like that pocket New Testament Message came dribbling along back in ’93 or whenever, and all the other Bibles were like, “Woah there, LeBron! Not so fast. We know you’re a star, but we’re still going to bench you for a few seasons, just so you know your place.”
    I think we’re all just being a little too nice and a little too respectful of some elusive crowd of traditionalists that we abdicated from a long time ago. Jesus spoke in simple terms–teaching through the vehicles of farming and fishing because of the application value. I don’t think there’s a diagram that shows acceptable Bibles and unacceptable Bibles. It’s more like a gradual time-line where the difference is never the content but the context. It would be one thing if Rob Bell came out with a version where Mary wasn’t a virgin or eternal Hell wasn’t a circumstance…oh wait.

  • Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?

    (This question was brought to me recently, and I asked Energion author Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. to write a short response. Elgin is author of Evidence for the Bible, Christianity and Secularism, and Preserving Democracy. — Henry Neufeld)
    Some Christians believe that Baptism is necessary for one to be saved. Supporters point to Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever doesn’t believe will be condemned” (ISV). Here, they claim, Jesus commands that we be baptized. As one supporter put it,

    How much clearer must we have it said by the Lord Himself than this… Why would Jesus tell His disciples to baptize if it were not necessary? Don’t you think that if the Lord had intended baptism to be optional that He would not have made such a strict command out of it here.

    The problem, however, is that it could have been clearer. Notice that only belief is mentioned in both parts of statement. Thus to be clearer Mark could have written the second half as “but whoever doesn’t believe or is not baptized will be condemned.” That would have been very clear. It would also be clearer if baptism was consistently mentioned as a requirement for salvation, but it isn’t. There are many passages which discuss what must be done to be saved that do not mention baptism.
    When Jesus was directly asked in John 6:28-9, “‘What must we do to perform the actions of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the action of God: to believe in the one whom he has sent’” (ISV). If baptism were required, why didn’t he mention it? If baptism were required for salvation, how could Paul say that Christ did not send him to baptize (1 Cor 1:17)?
    But there is a deeper issue here, one that goes to the core of how we are saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by such grace you have been saved through faith. This does not come from you; it is the gift of God and not the result of actions, to put a stop to all boasting” (ISV).
    Salvation is God’s work in us. We can accept it or we can reject it, but we cannot earn it. The real problem with saying that baptism, or any other work, is required for salvation is that it means that Christ’s death on the Cross is insufficient; that something else is needed. It would hold, contrary to Ephesians 2:8-9, that salvation is not completely a gift but something that must be earned, at least in part, as the result of the action of being baptized. One can believe that baptism is necessary, or one can believe Ephesians 2:8-9. It is not possible to hold both and remain consistent.
    Does this mean that we don’t need to be baptized? As the supporter above asked, “Why would Jesus tell His disciples to baptize if it were not necessary?” Jesus commanded a lot of things. If took all of them as requirements for salvation, we truly would be putting ourselves back under the law. Fundamentally this confuses what is important with what is required.
    But if they are not required for salvation, why do we follow them? John 14:21-24 lays this out. As verse 23 says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.” We are not baptized to be saved. We do not avoid sin to be saved. We do not serve others to be saved. If we do any of this to earn salvation, our works will be as filthy rags. Rather, we should do all of this and more, out of love. We serve our Lord and Savior because we love him. A gift offered to earn something will be judged based on it merit, a gift offered in love, will be judge based on the love in which it was offered.
    I have a painted rock sitting on my desk. It has sat there for over two decades now. It is not some expensive piece of abstract art. And for many people, it is just a rock with sort of face on it. But for me it is very valuable. This is because it was given to me by my daughter, and it was given in love.
    That is how God looks at our works as well. Not for their intrinsic merit, but for the love in which they are offered.

  • WAS THE CROSS A FOREGONE CONCLUSION?

    Finding My Way in Christianityby Herold Weiss
    It would seem that in the gospel accounts of the crucifixion a scene is missing. None of them tells us that when the disciples saw Jesus being crucified, one of them (we would think that it should have been Peter) said, “Everything is going ahead according to plan. Let’s go home and wait for Sunday.” On the contrary, all the gospels tell us that at the crucifixion the disciples were all disoriented, and that on Sunday, confronted with the fact that Jesus was alive, they were greatly surprised. We have been left to choose from among unsavory explanations. Either the disciples were really dumb and did not get what Jesus was plainly telling them all along, or the presentation of the life of Jesus as a pre-established march to the cross is the product of theological reflection. Mark’s Gospel is obviously aware of the problem and goes out of its way to paint the disciples as really dumb. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which were written using Mark as a source, take pains to make the disciples look a bit more attractive.
    Undoubtedly, for the early disciples who went out to proclaim the salvation brought about by the cross and the resurrection, the crucifixion was very problematic from a public relations standpoint. Paul admits it was a curse to the Jews and nonsensical to the Greeks.
    In Christian theological reflection, however, it was essential to the salvation of humankind. It had been determined before the foundation of the world. When Jesus was born, he was destined to die on a cross. We have all seen marvelous paintings from the Renaissance onward of the Madonna and Child with baby John the Baptist beside them holding a miniature cross for Jesus’ benefit. In other words, it had been preordained that Jesus would die on a cross. In the gospels Jesus says, “It is necessary that the Son of Man” or “The Son of Man must suffer many things . . . and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
    Philosophically, things may be classified as either contingent or necessary. What made the death of Christ on the cross necessary? Was there no other way for the Almighty to save humanity? I would think that if God is Almighty God could have saved the world in thousands of other ways. Some would argue that all things in this world are contingent on other things.
    What made the cross of Christ necessary, it would seem, was theological reflection on the fact that the Risen One had died on a cross. For the first disciples to understand this unforeseeable, disqualifying, horrendous, dishonorable death as part of the life of the Risen Lord was to conceive it as willed by an Almighty God who knows and controls everything in the universe. For Jesus’ contemporaries it would have been impossible to worship a God in whose universe the agent of salvation suffers crucifixion against God’s will. For the disciples the Roman execution needed to be imagined theologically. In this process conflicting metaphors became useful. His cross was a sacrifice, the ransom payment, the down payment, the lifting up of the serpent in the desert, the glorification (talk about an oxymoron!), the harrowing of hell, etc. All this made perfect sense to ancients who lived in a traditional culture where security was dependent on things being set firmly on what God wills.
    For us moderns, or post-moderns, however, this is not very comforting. We find it difficult to worship a God who is not just, and in our vision of justice the freedom of individuals is essential to our humanity. This means that a Jesus who lacks freedom is not quite a human being. If he was born with everything predetermined –born to die on a cross– we find him rather less than a full human confronted with the pressure of making choices facing an open future. To face a closed future in which the only way out is a cross is not just. It dehumanizes the person required to live under such conditions. While for Jesus’ contemporaries the human ideal was to live life as it had been fated, the Stoics would say “according to nature,” for us it is to exercise freedom. For them freedom was limited to specific relationships. For us freedom is an inalienable right. We find it hard to think of Jesus without it. Did Jesus go through life having to make only one choice which, once he made it correctly, left him in a state of static perfection? Did he not have to go through the normal human stages of development facing the choices appropriate to them? Did he end up on a cross because it had been determined from before the foundation of the world that he must? Or because, on account of the choices he made as a full human, he developed a character and determined for himself the highest standard of integrity? How these questions are answered depends on whether one thinks of them historically or theologically. Thinking theologically, like the evangelists do in their gospels, the answers to these questions are not necessarily historically precise. But here we are not in search of an explanation. What we wish for is understanding of the ways of God, and that can be obtained only imaginatively, creatively, metaphorically. That is what is really marvelous about the cross. The cross is the ultimate symbol because no one is tempted to think that it accomplished our salvation on account of its actuality (unless, of course, you are Mel Gibson). As a Roman execution it was just one more historical event. As the death that was determined before the foundation of the world, it destroyed the power of death over humanity for the believers of the first century. For those of us who think that Jesus used his freedom to discover his vocation and to chose his future, because otherwise he would not have been a human like us, his crucifixion confronts us with the need to reformulate creatively, imaginatively and metaphorically the meaning of this most central of symbols.
    (Herold Weiss is author of Energion title Finding My Way in Christianity: Recollections of a Journey.)

  • Does it Really Matter?

    Note: This is cross-posted from the Energion Publications Announcements blog.  Only the first and fourth part of the series were corss-posted here.  Links to all four parts of the series are given in the introduction below.
    Pastor Patrick Badstibner is founder of World Prayr (on Twitter). Pat has been providing us with a monthly blog post, but I’m pleased to be able to present this blog post, the second in a series of four weekly posts by Pat, to our Energion Publications family.
    Check the World Prayr organization and the World Prayr devotional blog as well. You’ll find a dynamic and growing group of Christians who are practicing the second great command, to love their neighbors as themselves, and thereby practicing the first command as well.
    In the first part of this series we mentioned that we would be looking at three different sayings pastors today seem to be making. We also mentioned we would be visiting with my friends Dave and Paula. In the second part we talked about how to go deeper without making clones. The third part was Unmilitary people are not asking what methods you are using in basic training.

    This is the final installment to this four part series. Part one we looked at “multiplication or addition which do you prefer?” In part two we looked at “can you really go deeper without making clones” Part three we covered what “unmilitary people are not asking what methods, techniques are you using in basic training?????” With this post we wrap up and prayerfully bring some clarity to this series if you have not caught on yet, as well as provide some challenges for to grab hold of.
    First let’s visit with my friends Dave and Paula one last time. This time though let’s skip ahead a few years and see how the advice and leadership encouragement, that Dave gave to his management team, of not worrying so much about losing repeat customers and keeping on concentrating on adding numbers has worked out.
    Today Dave and Paula’s head of operations is bringing him a report on the current state of affairs for the business. Let’s listen in as Robert, Dave’s operation manager, brings him the report.
    “Hi Robert, I am excited about getting that report today.”
    “Well Dave, as you know we had to close one of our stores at the end of last year.”
    “Yes, Robert but that was so we can streamline operations as our competition has really been increasing on us with their aggressive training programs”
    “You’re right Dave, however our competition’s training programs and their well trained sales force are really hurting us. Our numbers are down Dave, and our sales force is without a lot of answers, and they don’t have the ability to really share why our company is the right way to go. Dave, are you still sure that concentrating on being radical on getting new numbers, while not being as radical training our sales people how to build and concentrate on developing and maintaining relationships with our existing customers is the way to go?”
    As Dave ponders this question and wonders if what he has been concentrating on has been effective in producing results. Let us walk away and look at we have learned and discovered along the way in this series by looking at some challenges and asking ourselves some questions.

    “Unchurched” and Discipleship

    In the last post we looked at what “unchurched” people are not asking. They are not asking what disciple program you are using. So how do you feel now? Is this the right question? Should we be worrying about what unchurched are not asking???
    After all one would not expect or even give thought to what someone who has never served in the military had to say about what basic training is like. Why should those who are to be leading, guiding, protecting, and bringing the flock God has placed under them home be giving thought, credence, or consideration to how ones who do not even understand the purpose of that meeting on Sunday and how it should be conducted, much less what questions they should be asking about that church? That is not to say we should not be taking radical steps to reach those who are not part of the church, but to say we should not be lending an ear to what they think it should be doing and how they feel it should be conducted. That is unless on Sunday morning you are actually not going to church but rather instead going to an evangelistic meeting.
    Remember the Word of God is not written to those who do not know him but rather it is the love letter to believers from God. Shoot, they cannot even walk in the door, get on their knees and expect God to hear their prayers unless they first come asking for forgiveness and acknowledging a need to do it his way.
    In fact if you are a church leader reading this and you are catering your service to the “unchurched,” let me plead with you please begin your service by giving the gospel so that those who accept will receive something from the rest of your message. Otherwise you will have lost the purpose of your service when you consider all things.
    If one does know Christ and one is still asking those type of questions, you’re calling oneself “unchurhed” because you’re anti-establishment or you have not found that perfect church. Perhaps it would be more appropriate for the Pastor now to be asking “what type of discipleship program are you involved in? If none, why don’t you come try our church?” That would be better than than worrying about what they are not asking.
    I am going to make some more bold and radical statements specifically directed at pastors, ministry leaders and anyone else God has led to a place of leadership in his kingdom.

    Radical Statements

    Ninety percent of Christians today fall into two categories for going or choosing the church they choose. First category, they are going for entertainment, to feel good. These are usually those who are choosing the mega church, the church that has set itself up for entertainment with loud contemporary music and the mega superstar leader. The second category is those who are still going to the same style church their parents went to or those where they feel they have a grown up daddy.
    Here is a tip, the music; video usage, lack of media or too much media has no bearing on the discipleship program of the church. In fact one of the common issues of churches today, whether they use traditional hymns and no video media, or they use contemporary style worship and lots of media, is a lack of a discipleship program that is taking believers in Christ, as the writer of Hebrews said, past the point of needing to be taught, to the point of being able to teach.
    In fact here are the bold statements: If you are going to a church because you’re comfortable, but you are still at the same point years later where you still need to be taught, it may just be time to move onward and stretch you.
    Church leaders, pastors, ministry leaders: If any of the above can be said of your leadership perhaps it is time to stop and ask ourselves if we are really doing what God called or led us to do.
    You have great programs, entertaining uplifting music, radical media and you have no programs that are helping those underneath your leadership become craftsmen of the Word of God or have answers in order to defend their faith.
    You are still using the same ole, same ole methods you used, or have been using for the last fifty years.
    One can walk into what you are leading and as a friend of mine said today, they can immediately tell who is leading it.

    Important Note Here:

    Our job is to lead in such a way that what you are leading comes to the point it no longer needs you. If those you are leading are still coming to you looking for answers or still directing others to you for answers (Example: I am not sure let me ask my pastor?), you may be missing something here.
    You want to really lead, develop an intensive discipling, training program that enables those who are sitting under it to have answers as to why they believe what they believe. Be as radical in your discipleship as you are in your outreach programs.

    Some Direct Challenges

    Pastor, let me challenge you to remember the purpose of gathering together.
    Church member, let me encourage you by asking you to pray that you will grow in understanding and spiritual insight.
    Pastors, don’t try to make your church the happening place. Teach less on leadership and more on the basic doctrinal tenets of the faith and along the way you may just discover you have built and developed some leaders.
    Church attendees, stop looking for the happening place, the place that charges your emotional batteries, the place you leave feeling good, and start looking for a body of believers who are supporting, loving, pushing, encouraging, changing, and motivating each other to greater works and love.
    Perhaps ask of that church “what type of discipleship programs are you using?”
    Here’s another question right now. If a Jehovah’s Witness asked you “why do you believe in the trinity?” could you provide an answer? Is your church teaching you how to answer? If not, what are they teaching you if they are not teaching you how to defend your faith?
    Church ministry leader, if the majority of those God has given you cannot answer the above question, stop patting yourself on the back as though you’re doing a good job because you’re counting your conversions. Stop justifying your lack of doing your job with the same excuses that have been given in this series. If you are in leadership in God’s kingdom and you are not mentoring, discipling and encouraging those you are leading to the point they are able to teach, you are failing.
    Pastors please consider using not only radical steps in reaching the “unchurched”; trust me, the same ole, same ole is not getting it done, but also using the same radical efforts in building and developing systems to push, pull, challenge, motivate, and encourage those God has put in your charge.
    World Prayr family member, World Prayr leadership believes so strongly in that part of World Prayr’s mission it is aggressively doing and taking steps to be in the business of making true disciples; not counting conversions . That not only have we created a page for discipleship resources here:
    http://worldprayr.org/page/resources
    We are also building a pastoral team for that purpose and we will be working with other ministries toward that purpose. Let me also challenge you to take this series of posts to your pastor or whoever you turn to for leadership and to remember these lessons yourself.
    I pray this series has challenged you to understand the need for responsible grace, discipleship, personal responsibility and the role of a church in the growth of the believers life.
    Thanks for taking the time to read, and reflect on a message that is and has always been very deep to my heart.

  • Multiplication or Addition – What is Your Choice?

    Pastor Patrick Badstibner is founder of World Prayr (on Twitter).  Pat has been providing us with a monthly blog post, but I’m pleased to be able to present this blog post, the first in a series of four weekly posts by Pat, to our Energion Publications family.
    Check the World Prayr organization and the World Prayr devotional blog as well.  You’ll find a dynamic and growing group of Christians who are practicing the second great command, to love their neighbors as themselves, and thereby practicing the first command as well.

    First you should know this is a four part series and I pray you will take the time to follow along and keep up. With each part I promise to bring home a point and prayerfully lead into the next part of the series. For those who take the time to read any part, let me thank you ahead of time. For those souls who are brave enough to follow all four parts, I shall pray God gives you an extra blessing covering your eyes.
    [The series will be published here weekly, with each part appearing on a Monday. – ed] I want to take a look at three different sayings that seem to be popular among those that refer to themselves as pastors today, while at the same time visiting with some friends named Dave and Paula (well the names have been changed to protect the innocent but the situations are true) and how those sayings might play out in other scenarios of life. While also looking at maybe some erroneous teachings or views as it comes to the subject of discipleship in the church.
    Let me tell you just a bit about my friends, Dave and Paula. Dave and Paula own a business in which they own three paint stores in a very busy metropolitan area. Their stores are surrounded by old standards doing business in the same old way with the same methods and techniques that have been used for over thirty years or longer. Dave and Paula have done quite well, obviously since they have three stores now– in spite of being surrounded by these large well supported corporate retail giants. They have used updated methods and techniques to reach, build, and sustain their customer base.
    We are not going to look at just their business though; we are also going to look and see if their obvious business savvy has translated into personal wisdom. Then as I said we are going to take a minute and look at some popular sayings we may find being said by pastors today.

    Recently with Dave and Paula

    Recently Dave and Paula had a meeting with some of their store managers and it was brought to their attention that customer referral sales were down twenty-five percent. This was not good news to Dave and Paula as they had built, and still believed that their business was built, on referrals and they had no desire to be in the addition business but rather wanted to be in the multiplication business. However, Dave’s answer shocked their managers as he said, “We have the systems, market studies, everything in place and the numbers show that we are growing by leaps and bounds. Perhaps we cannot help it if our numbers are down for repeat business and customer referral. Let’s keep adding numbers and we will not have to worry about the rest. After all it is not our fault if we have the systems in place and people are not coming back as often. Let’s just keep creating radical methods of getting new customers in and stay on a steady course with an occasional twitch here and there. Sound Good!” Funny though, it left all Dave’s managers going “hmmmmm!” Does it really sound good?
    Now what do you think? Is Dave’s advice sound to his management team?

    Funny Thing

    I read recently where a pastor said “We have the systems in place, it is not our fault if they are not growing.”
    “Ah! Pat you say this is a church not a business.”
    How right you are! Only two issues:

    1. The great commandment found in Matthew 28:

    18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

    is not telling others how to be saved, or just bring others to Christ or go grab those who aren’t buying yet. It is, however, “go make disciples.”
    *A disciple is someone buying hook, line, and sicker and whose life is being immersed in the truth of the Word of God; such that they in turn are producing additional disciples.

    1. A pastor’s main focus and main task is not to reach those who are not part of his flock.

    Ah! Heresy, Heresy, that’s it! I am not going to read any more how Pat gets off with such nonsense. I did not say it, God did, several times in His word; let me show you a couple of instances:

    1. 1. In 1 Thessalonians 5:12, we see Paul speaking to believers, encouraging them to not make it difficult for those who labor for them. Key word and point Paul is speaking to believers.

    2. Wherever scripture refers to the office of pastor, or title, it refers to words like shepherd, overseer, and elder.
    Now, a question: Is a shepherd’s first job is to concentrate by getting more sheep or to concentrate on protecting, guiding, and helping grow to maturity the sheep he already has?
    If we define an organization, ministry, or church that focuses heavily on adding numbers and reaching those that are not in their organization, ministry, or church as being in the addition business, then we may define and state that one whose leadership focuses heavily on impacting and changing the lives, or on building its current base as being in the multiplication business. We state they are in the multiplication business because they are building those currently involved in order that they may reach those who are not.
    So having looked at what a Shepherd’s main job is do you see any similarities between Dave’s advice to his team and what a lot of pastors today are saying? Do you feel Dave is in the addition business or the multiplication business as it pertains to building and growing his business?
    Is the church you’re leading or going to in the multiplication business or in the addition business? Are you going to church just because you like the music, you come out emotionally feeling good, or are you going to a church that is radically taking the same steps to bring to maturity those who are currently in church as they are those who are not in church.
    If part one made no sense to you wait for part two I promise as we move forward in this series the message of the series and the points of the message will become clearer and make more sense if they do not as of yet.
    Or did you expect me to reveal all the points in part one?
    Part two: Can we really go deeper without making clones (coming July 5).

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