Sojourn into Exile

Every Body Matters Review

2012-02-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

I had the privelage of receiving a free copy of Every Body Matters by Gary Thomas from Zondervan. Thomas has written books on spiritual classics and spiritual disciplines. I loved Sacred Marriage and Sacred Pathways, and this is probably one of the best books he's ever written.

There is a lot of great stuff in this book. But I think by far, my favorite chapter was, "The Silent Murderer." This chapter he takes aim at laziness. I have to really think hard about all the times I've heard sermons on laziness. I don't think I've heard very many, or any that really go after the heart verses the "you don't do enough" guit trip. He says:

"When we are negelectful with our physical bodies, part of us dies. We can avoid the wisdom of excercise and respnosible eating, but we do so at our peril and accordingly will miss many opportunities to do good works. An out-of-shape Christian loses the will, inclination, and ability to enjoy much of life because physical activity becomes too taxing. He or she wants to sleep more, eat more, and lie around more rather than be truly engaged in life."

With every word written I felt more and more convicted. I just turned 30 this past year, work in an intense ministry environment and have a beautiful wife and precious 17 month old daughter. If I want to truly engage my family and my ministry my body will need to be disciplined and shaped for that purpose. Laziness is a constant enemy. If we are lazy in physical things, we'll also be lazy when we try to engage with spiritual things.

As soon as I started reading this book I began moving. I started with push ups, sit-ups, now I'm doing cardio and I will buy a pair of running shoes to start disciplining my body so that I can be useful for every good work for God's kingdom. I don't excercise to look good, but to make a difference in the world.

The world we live in is a hard place, so we need to be ready for the challenges that come our way. Not just mentally, not just spiritually, but our bodies as well. This book isn't a book on the how to's of physical fitness, but challenges the current mindset's we've let control our hearts and minds and help us engage so that we would live out the words of 2 Timothy 2: 20-21:

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

This is a fantastic book. I hope you pick it up. Check out the trailer here:

Does Jesus Hate Religion?

2012-01-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

Yes, no, sort of, depends who you ask. If you ask Jefferson Bethke he says yes. Maybe you've seen the video on facebook where in a beautiful spoken word poem he expresses his thoughts artistically.

I don't want to go into a line by line analysis. If you want, check out Kevin de Young's blog here. His young, restless and reformed enough to give his perspective. I read another article written by a Catholic writer critiquing the video; which I thought was pretty good. I can't find it or else I would post a link to it here. Another, great blog was written by Tony Jones.

A lot of the discussion revolves around what you define as religion. Tony Jones's definition is a bit more constructive. He writes here:

"It’s cool to be pissed at “religion” when you’re 20. I get it (though I can’t say I ever went through this phase). And then, as you age, you realize something: Religion is simply the social and psychological framework by which human beings organize their experience of the Divine."

If that is the simple definition of religion, an ordering of our experiences than I don't have a problem with religion; however, I do think that the risen Christ constantly refines and reworks our frameworks of our expereince of the Divine. Whenever we absolutize those frameworks and place our salvation in them rather than Jesus; religion needs to be blown out of the water. Maybe Jesus doesn't hate religion; but He works with it until we can eventually see Him face to face.

Remembering Don Bubna

2012-01-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

Last week I learned that Don Bubna had passed away. Most of you probably don't know who Don Bubna but you can learn more here. Don is a man of wisdom and a pastor of pastors. When I was 21 I had the privelage of preaching a sermon on post-modernism at Alliance Theological Seminary. I was nervous, scared and didn't think I had any business preaching to seminarians. Yet, after I was finished Don came up to me and asked for a copy of my sermon because he thought I had some relevant things to say on the subject. I was thrilled, here was this great man of wisdom, a higher up in our denomination, looking to get insight from me!

Periodically, I would see him over the years and grab a lunch with him and it was fantastic. He was always encouraging, always fantastic to be around. In one of my brief meetings with him he spoke a word that literally changed the direction of my life. I was about to do an internship with a non-profit; and Don was sharing with me his love for the church, and encouraged me to serve the church because the local church is the hope of the world. Those words stuck with me, and after my internship was over, it made me realize that I need to serve in a church.

Don is gone now. He is with the Lord and He finished well. If I could distill some of the things I learned from him so that I could do the same:

1. Keep on learning. Don was always learning, he always growing in that way.

2. Keep on encouraging. Don always had an encouraging word. He couldn't stop being a source of encouragment.

3. Love the church. Don loved the church. My goal in life is to love the church and serve the church. The local church is the hope of the world!

Looking forward to catching up with Don in eternity some day.

Stop what your doing and read this!

2012-01-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

Seth Godwin has a great post that really speaks for itself. I thought I would share it with you guys:

Let me guess: check the incoming. Check email or traffic stats or messages from your boss. Check the tweets you follow or the FB status of friends.
You've just surrendered not only a block of time but your freshest, best chance to start something new.
If you're a tech company or a marketer, your goal is to be the first thing people do when they start their day. If you're an artist, a leader or someone seeking to make a difference, the first thing you do should be to lay tracks to accomplish your goals, not to hear how others have reacted/responded/insisted to what happened yesterday.

Do we let our priorities dictate our day, or the techno traffic that comes our way set the pace. This is a great reminder, now that you've read this; stop reading and get out there and accomplish your goals and dreams!

Learning from everyone; Christopher Hitchens

2012-01-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

Albert Mohler just wrote a fantastic blog post about the late author and atheist Christopher Hitchens. While I may not always agree with Mohler, I was really encouraged by his post. Read it here.

His lessons are distilled as:

1. Hitchens understood the power of ideas, and he never left a field of intellectual combat without giving his best.

2. Hitchens committed his life to the production of words, believing that the printed and spoken word can change the world.

3. Hitchens was a man of passion and personal intensity, and he made friends across ideological boundaries.

4. Hitchens did not hide behind intellectual scorn and he did not fear the open exchange of ideas.

5. Hitchens revealed the danger of cultural Christianity and exposure to tepid, lifeless, superficial Christian teaching.

As a person whose profession is for the most part to speak with Christians and Christianity, these lessons are a powerful reminder to not be afraid of intellectual debate, reaching beyond ideological circles and to continue to read widely and write more.

I have reflected often that since my high school days and college my circles of influence have become quite limited. In adolescence I rubbed shoulders with atheists, agnostics, buddhists, hindu's and everyone in between. These days those interactions seem fewer and far between. I think its time to start building bridges into other circles. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?

Character vs. Reputation

2012-01-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

The other day Donald Miller wrote a great blog post on character vs. reputation. I wrote on character a few months ago on this blog. You can read it here. Don quoted John Wooden who say, "Your reputation is who people think you are, your character is who you really are."

He then talks about a relationship he had where the person spent most of their time, effort and energy working on there reputation rather than their character. But in intimacy, the lack of character was revealed and the relationship was destroyed. He goes on to write:

"What I took from that relationship was difficult, but it’s something we have to face in our early twenties, usually, and that’s there’s a difference between our reputation and our character. Since then, I’ve decided not to work very hard on my reputation. Or at least I hope that’s true. I air most of my dirty laundry, so nobody will judge me. People only judge those who claim to be better than others, more holy, more righteous more moral. When I’m ethical, I just look good. When somebody who works on their reputation isn’t ethical, they find themselves in social court. Working on our reputation is just a dumb move."

I applaud Don's honesty in all of his writings. And I think this is an important reminder to all of us that character will outlast our reputation. Reputation can function like a veneer. It's cheaper, saves wood, easier to work with, and covers up cheap wood. That cheap wood is often neglected character. Don ends his post with an important question:

"What would your life look like if you stopped working on your reputation and started working on your character?"

This can be a difficult question. For many of us, it would mean we would have to stop pretending, stop playing the game, stop focusing on image and start working on our content. The past few months I've been challened to write a personal vision statement for my life. In this area I wrote: Strive for congruence in my public image, self image, and faith image. The gist of this is that when you see me, interact with me, and connect with me what you see is what you get. I'm pretty happy to say that from my perspective (as flawed as it is), I think that is true, but I'm not always as forthcoming with my dirty laundry as Don is. I know that there are areas in my life that I have written off, habits and sin issues that I ignore rather than confront and crucify.

But I hope this year to identify more of those places and bring them into submission to the risen Lord that takes up residence in my life and in whom I want to find life and peace in. If you read this, please pray for me that I can live out this vision statement for 2012 and beyond.

Moving On....

2012-01-03T13:51:00.000-08:00

It's has been way to long between posts. So I would like to apologize for that.

Second, I know I promised a chapter by chapter review of Brian McLaren's book, A New Kind of Christianity, I'm not going to be able to deliver on that. At least not right now. I read the book a few months ago and what I should have done if I was smart was review it while I read it. But now I've already moved on in what I'm reading and also in the things that have been provoking my thinking. I think it may be best to revisit McLaren's book as thoughts drift back to it, but in the meantime; I want to get back to sharing my thoughts as they come rather than forcing them out.

So in the next few days and weeks, expect new content, that will be a little more fresh and a little more fun.

The Authority Question

2011-12-29T20:12:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make. Really, it’s not something I’m proud of. But like a fish on a hook it reels me in? It’s like a terrible addiction that overwhelms all common sense. What is it? Two Words:

South Park.

In reality, its more of a guilty pleasure. I find that through the words of Eric, Kyle, and Stan (Kenny doesn’t say much), creators Trey and Matt make some insightful social commentary. Other times it’s gross and I can’t bear it and change the channel. But maybe many of you remember Eric Cartman’s famous words, “Respect my Authoritaa!” Of course, when Cartman says it, that is the last thing you do, you don’t respect his authority.

I think that what McLaren is trying to say is that the way we (western evangelicals?) read the Bible is a lot like Eric Cartman. We expect people to take it seriously, however people do not, mostly because we’ve put the wrong narrative upon it (Greco-Roman) therefore we read the Bible like a constitution rather than a inspired library. That is why we have the problems with science, politics, and pluralism.

Like everything in this book, I agree with parts of this assessment. I think instead of reading the Bible like it’s a science textbook we have to take the Scriptures as they weren’t meant to be taken. I like the inspired library analogy, and I would even use that as a better description of the Bible.

In fact, there is a lot I agree with McLaren in this chapter. Here he says:

We human beings can interpret the Bible to say and mean an awful lot of different things. We can very easily confuse “The Bible says” with “I say the Bible says,” which we can then equate with “God says.”

The issue here is hermeneutics. How we interpret the Bible. In Bible interpretation there is a lot of our own influences we read into the text. Our social status, our assumptions, our grid of interpretation all go into what the Bible means to us. There is very little that we can have objective understanding about because we are not objective beings, rather we are persons. So when we come to Scripture we read all those things into the text. It doesn’t mean the text is meaningless, rather it means that we have to approach Scripture with humility and with the Spirit. McLaren goes on to say:

Ever since the leaders of the Reformation claimed sola scriptura—“Scripture alone is enough!”—we’ve had an avalanche of evidence that reasonably bright, sincere, and well-meaning people can find just about anything in the Bible, not to mention what the less bright, sincere, or well-meaning can find.

People read into the text whatever they want and we’ve had thousands upon thousands of new readings, misunderstandings and other folly’s in trying to understand what the Bible is trying to say. While I still affirm sola Scriptura, we don’t read Scripture in a vacuum. We read into it our own stuff. This is where I think Wesley’s Quadrilateral comes into play. When we read Scripture along with reason, experience and the Holy Spirit they help us to understand the Bible said (past tense) but also what it is saying.

Constitution of inspired cultural library? Why not both? When Scripture is held in tension to Church history, our best exegesis, experience/reason and the Holy Spirit we won’t be led astray, but it will require humility, repentance and reorientation. There will be times when we get it wrong and have gotten it wrong (slavery and segregation that are viewed as biblical in some parts of the world and country) and will get it wrong. Maybe that’s why I’m a little less trigger happy with my heretic gun, because I may have it wrong, but then again, you may have it wrong too.

What is the overarching narrative of Scripture?

2011-12-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

Knowing what story we are in is incredibly important. The story shapes our values, perceptions and expectations. For Brian McLaren, he seems tired of the storyline that we have all called the narrative of Scripture. He calls it the Greco-roman narrative and he illustrates it in the following way:

McLaren says that, “To be a Christian—in the West at least, since the fifth or sixth century or so has required one to believe that the Bible presents one very specific story line, a story line by which we assess all of history, all of human experience, all of our own experience.” He says that we questions the way the storyline is organized, but we’ve never thought to actually question th storyline itself. He says:

…We suggest that this line should be a little longer, that one a little shorter. But seldom do we question whether this shape as a whole is morally believable and whether it can be found in the Bible itself. Did Abraham hold it, or Moses, or Jeremiah, or Jesus, Paul, or James? Is it ever explicitly taught in Scripture? Was it held in the first three centuries of Christian history? Does it help make sense of the Bible—revealing more than it conceals? Does it contribute to a higher vision of God, a deeper engagement with Christ, a more profound experience of the Holy Spirit? Does it motivate us to love God, neighbor, stranger, and enemy more wholeheartedly?

We are in the problem that we are because we look at Scripture through the eyes of the theologians of the past. We’ve hung our understanding of scripture based on men like Billy Graham, John Calvin, Martin Luther and Augustine. We’ve interpreted the gospels based on the writings of Paul instead of Jesus. Looking at Scripture from this perspective gives us the Greco-roman narrative.

McLaren then asks the question, what if we looked at this from the other direction. What if we interpreted Scripture by looking at it through Adam, Abraham, Moses, and then Jesus? This would start us off from the perspective and worldview of the Hebrew people rather than the Greco-roman theologians of the time. This would give us a new narrative. A new way to organize the data we have in the scriptures, and perhaps a new hermeneutic by which to interpret. This new narrative gives us a better way to engage the Scriptures.

If the Genesis story sets the stage by giving us a sacred vision of the past, and if the Exodus story situates us in the sacred present on a pilgrimage toward external and internal liberation, then the story of the peace-making kingdom ignites our faith with a sacred vision of the future, a vision of hope, a vision of love. It represents a new creation, and a new exodus—a new promised land that isn’t one patch of ground held by one elite group, but that encompasses the whole earth. It acknowledges that whatever we have become or ruined, there is hope for a better tomorrow; whatever we have achieved or destroyed, new possibilities await us; no matter how far we have come or backslidden, there are new and more glorious adventures ahead. And, the prophets aver, this is not just a human pipe dream, wishful thinking, whistling in the dark; this hope is the very word of the Lord, the firm promise of the living God.

I know that in this recap I’m butchering some things. But my take on McLaren’s analogy of a new narrative is mixed. I agree with him that Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy has shaped much of western Christianity. However, I don’t think that the narrative of Scripture has been so marred and changed by Greco-Roman thought that it throws into question the big themes of Scripture: Creation, Fall, Exile and Redemption. Certainly how those themes have been articulated are marred and distorted through Greco-Roman thought, but I think the themes remain in place.

I am not as well read as McLaren, or as smart as he is. So my agreement or disagreement could be based on the fact that I have been so bathed in what he calls the “Greco-Roman” narrative that I can only see in terms of that narrative. Which is some ways would make his argument unbeatable, because any and all critique is based on faulty presuppositions and assumptions.

So I turn to another theological hero of mine (and McLaren’s); NT Wright. Wright has written some fantastic book on the topic of Christian origins. His book New Testament and the people of God lays out the same premise as Brian (that is seeing the Bible from the Hebrew perspective) but still uses the same narrative. His is (1) Creation (2) Fall (3) Israel (4) Jesus. Wright’s book lays out why he looks at the Scripture from this perspective in the book.

I don’t think the problem is the narrative in itself, but rather how it has been interpreted over the years. McLaren raises some great points. We need to read the Scriptures on its own terms rather than the baggage we’ve overlaid upon it. This can be difficult since many of our time honored interpretations may not be true, but are based more on our traditions and presuppositions than on Scripture itself. However, there is enough consensus throughout church history and New Testament scholars that the big picture is intact.

A New Kind of Christianity? New Way or dead end

2011-11-30T20:22:00.000-08:00

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.”

Galadrial (from Lord of the Rings)

This may be the only thing that we all agree upon. The world has changed. We are living in a postmodern, post-colonial, post-9-11 world. So how then shall we live? What is the course the church is to take into the future? Who will lead the way?

I began reading McLaren in college. A New Kind of Christian had just come out and was one of the books that changed my paradigm. Pastors who were grappling postmodernism were all resonating with McLaren’s insights. Even postmodern college students like me were getting excited about the possibility of dreaming of the next BIG thing the Spirit of God was doing.

For almost ten years we no one was really sure where McLaren stood on things. He asked lot’s of questions, promoted a lot of great discussion, and got lots of people mad at him. Now, his newest book, A New Kind of Christianity has come out. This is a more complete picture of where he thinks the church should move toward.

10 Questions that could unravel everything.

Brian asks ten questions and proposes answers that become the book we are reading now. They are as follows:

1. What is the overarching storyline of the Bible?
2. How Should the Bible be understood?
3. Is God Violent?
4. Who is Jesus and why is He important?
5. What is the gospel?
6. What do we do about the Church?
7. Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it?
8. Can we Find a better way of viewing the future?
9. How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions?
10. How can we translate our quest into actions?

My goal over the next few weeks is to take one question at a time and evaluate them. I think these are important questions that followers of Jesus will need to think and pray through as we navigate an uncertain future in our nation and our world. But first, I thought I’d put down a couple thoughts on Brian McLaren and the books he writes.

A Generous Orthodoxy?

Early on, one of the things that attracted me to McLaren’s thinking was this concept of a generous orthodoxy. The book of the same name is a great introduction to a positive way forward as the church. I’ve read most of everything Brian has written and this is by far my favorite book that he has written. However, every book he has written has stretched my thinking and challenged the way I see the world. Brian is a great thinker and I like the way he writes because it challenges me to stretch and grow. The church needs men like Brian, or else we get stuck in the status quo. Which, for the church, is like sitting in a soiled diaper.

That being said, I also disagree with a lot of what McLaren says. I like his questions, I like the path he takes, but then all of a sudden he takes a radical turn that leaves me wondering how he got there. This newest book in my opinion moves away from the trajectory of a generous orthodoxy, maybe to even throwing out orthodoxy completely. He says some bold things in it, which I do empathize with, but I can’t completely buy into. Yet, this is part of the journey, and we need to go forward with faith not with fear. Many react to McLaren with fear rather than courage.

The Way Forward

McLaren is advocating in this book a radical paradigm shift. And there may be a need for one, but is this the direction to move forward? I don’t know, such questions are too lofty for me, but I think we need to listen to all the voices that are out there. This is one voice, and one that is gaining momentum. So let’s look with faith rather than fear at a possible emerging New Kind of Christianity.

Heretic?

2011-11-29T20:11:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of working on writing my thoughts for McLaren's Book, "A New Kind of Christianity." I hope to the first up this week, but I found a great video dialogue between Scot McKnight (a friend and critic of McLaren) and Brian McLaren. The exchange is great, but I love Scot's question at the end of the video. To me, that really hits it on the head and McLaren is unable to really give a satisfactory answer. He may be able to one day, but for now that is the pressing question for me. Let me know what you think.

A New Kind of Christianity--Brian McLaren

2011-11-22T22:23:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. I'm late to this book, but I am finally carving some time to read through McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity. I read through half of it, but I had so much fun blogging through Maxwell's stuff, that I thought I would do the same with McLaren's book.

I think I've read pretty much everything he has written. I missed a few, but the main ones I've definitely hit. He is probably one of the most challenging authors I read because there is so much I agree and disagree with. I leave his books thinking differently, if not completely on the same page as him. So after thanksgiving expect some posts on A New Kind of Christianity.

"I have fully lost faith in the leadership of my parents’ generation."

2011-11-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is how the article written by Thomas L. Day began in his reflection of what happened at Penn State. It is a fantastic article so please read it here. But his reflection holds the generation above my own as the reason why our country has lost it's way. Day's voice is one among many in my generations' (20's and 30's) that are looking for someone to blame in regards to where our country is today. He writes:
Think of the world our parents’ generation inherited. They inherited a country of boundless economic prosperity and the highest admiration overseas, produced by the hands of their mothers and fathers. They were safe. For most, they were endowed opportunities to succeed, to prosper, and build on their parents’ work. For those of us in our 20s and early 30s, this is not the world we are inheriting.

I think this is a pretty broad, but interesting insight. Ten years ago, it seemed like things were growing brighter. Yet, September 11 and the leadership decisions that were made seemed to take this to a more negative place. while I think history has not yet weighed in fully on whether the past generations decisions were good or bad, I think that Penn state brings to light a very interesting tension.

The generation before ours was loyal to institutions. And it seems like institutions have failed us. The generations before us trusted government, trusted church, trusted our leaders. Yet, over and over the perception is leaders have failed us, our elders have failed us and Penn State is another glaring example of leaders failing, institution failing, and left in the wake is a fatherless generation looking for someone to fill the gap (Occupy wall street?).

We are not loyal to institutions, but we are loyal to those we are in relationship with. That is the biggest difference between my generation and my parents. Our generation believes in relational loyalty and because of that, we will live and die for those that we are in relationship with more fully than God or country. Relationships seem to have more integrity and character than institutions and organizations.

Now I am very much aware that I am part of an institution (the church) and I am expected to have some loyalty to it. I do, I'm proud of the work my church is doing, but I am also painfully aware that the church as an social and cultural institutions has its limits and drawbacks, especially with being seen as relevant to my generation. As an institution we have done some horrible things, have had abuses and scandals that would rival anything going on at Penn State.

But there is also an inner church, one that is not institutional but relational. We tap into this reality when we use words like community, missional or family. As a church moving into the future, we may need to go through some painful metamorphisis to become a relational community, verses social institution. That would involve some changes that may be difficult to tolerate, but the end product would become more meaningful and connect better to the brave new world that is emerging.

There is a lot to be said about what happened at penn state. Issues like character, safety, etc. But institutions will still be around for a long time, but I'm not sure how many people of my generation will put their trust in them. Your thoughts?

SMACKDOWN! John Maxwell vs. Aristotle or Philosophy's place in leadership

2011-11-10T19:34:00.000-08:00

In Markus Zusak's book, The Book Thief, the mayor of the town has just finished a speech. In his speech he exemplifies Maxwell's laws of leadership and displays that qualities of a leader. He tells his people to prepare for hard times, he cuts back on all his luxuries showing that he not only is leading through his words, but is also leading by his actions. He looks like a great leadership model. Only one problem...he is a Nazi. The Book Thief takes place in Nazi Germany before the allies invade. While this was only a brief sketch in Zusak's novel, it had me thinking about leadership and the place of philosophy.

Aristotle and Plato asked the big questions. What is truth, what is right and what is wrong. Leadership isn't concerned as mucn in asking those questions. Leadership is about influencing people. But if the one who influences is not asking those questions, or engages in the dialogue, she leads her followers over a cliff like Lemings. Our perceptions of reality are just that, perceptions that may or may not be what is real. The process of refining our perceptions is essential to making sure that the direction we lead people is toward the true and beautiful.

A great analogy for this is that leadership is getting up the ladder, but the philosophical piece is knowing what wall to put the ladder on. While Maxwell's leadership works help leaders climb the ladder faster, do they necessarily make sure the leader is climbing up the right wall? I'm not sure, I'm sure Maxwell would disagree with me, but I think a 22 quality is needed. The Quality of healthy skepticism. What do you think?

Quality # 21 Vision

2011-11-08T06:14:00.000-08:00

We made it! The last quality of a leader. Vision.

The past few months, I've really been working on honing a vision for every aspect of my life. The purpose of this is so that I just don't life happen to me, but rather I can be intentional in living the life I feel God is calling me to live. This has and is a process, one in which listening has never been so key.

Listen to the inner voice. Stopping to pause and really think, pray and feel the things that stir my heart and make me come alive has been fun, but difficult as well. This is a difficult process because the things that I think give me life may not really, but there is something underlying them taht I have to get to, the root of it all, so that I can begin to dream bigger in that direction.

Listen to unhappy voices. This is tricky. If I listen to these voices too much I can become pessimistic and skeptical about everything around me. Yet, if I see what doesn't work, I can also start to dream of ways in which I can see things begin to come together. And be part of a working solution, not just another critical voice.

The Successful Voice. Looking to mentors and those further on the journey than I helps to clarify and sharpen whether or not the direction I've chosen is really where I want to go. Mentors have always been indispensible to my life.

The Higher Voice. Listening to the whispers of God, how He directs the circumstances and areas of my life has been both a pleasant experience but also challenging. Yet, without God's input on my vision, I don't have much to go on.

If you are a leader, are you listening to these voices? Are they helping you grow in vision? What is it that you need to birth vision in your life?

Quality #20 Teachability

2011-11-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

We are a culture of specialists. We focus in more and more until we can no longer see the trees for the forest. We see the tree but not the complex web of relationships that it is a part of in ecology. It's easy in leadership to get tunnel vision. To see things the way that we have always seen them and then we miss the important things all around us. Eventually, we miss out on life. I think being teachable keeps us from missing out on things.

Teachable people find lessons to learn everywhere. They are able to read widely, listen deeply, and are constantly learning, growing and expanding. There is always something new to learn, and you can always learn whether you are 8 or 88. I had a Sunday school teacher named mrs. STANSBURY and she was in her sixties but always learning. She would be taking classes in the local college and always having new things to teach us. I hope that I can be just as teachable as she was all throughout life.

I think for leaders to lead they need to constantly be looking for new ideas in all sorts of places. In all sorts of fields. Whether it is in business, medicine, history, etc. the more you learn, the more effective you become I your ability to lead and inspire others. Are you teachable?

Quality #19 Servanthood

2011-11-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

Servanthood seems like a contradiction in the context of leadership. Leaders take charge, make decisions, and people do what they say. However, the idea that a leader would be a servant seems like it dosnt fit. Now, in Christian leadership we are all about Servanthood. Yet, in reality, do we really care about putting people first?

Often, leaders think about moving the vision forward. What are the steps that we can take, how can we leverage relationships, resources and budgets to accomplish our goals, etc. These skills are sometimes given more emphasis than caring for the hearts of others. People are seen as a means to an end rather than the end goal. Servanthood is about helping people accomplish the mission God has entrusted with their life.

As leaders, God does entrust us with a vision. And it is a joy to bring people along in the vision. Yet, the vision has to give way to the people. We are called to serve people, love people and put them first. If we do not do that, then we have missed out on our true purpose as leaders. Do people come first?or does the machine, mechanisms, and programs of ministry come first? How can you get better at putting others first?

Quality #18 Self-Discipline

2011-11-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

This year I'm focusing on developing vision statements for every area of my life. I've spent a lot of time thinking, writing, journaling and praying through what my priotiries for life are. It has been an incredible process, but difficult. I feel like there is so much I would like to do, and put my time and energy into, but I'm learning that God has placed limitations in my life. Limitations to embrace. As I've turned thirty last month I'm making some important realizations. I can't keep eating the way I'm eating, spending my money the way I'm spending it, and waste my time on television and technology the way I've been.

The biggest reason is because I know that the choices I make today will determine the kind of person I will become tomorrow. So the choice of self-discipline is become more and more important. The key to this quality is knowing what your priorities are, making a plan and dismantle the excuses we make. We make all sorts of excuses for not taking care of ourselves, not getting out of the situation we are in. Often, we blame God, when really He given us everything we need, including a spirit of power, love and self-discipline (some translate this as sound mind, but I like this better).

What are your priorities? How are you planning to put the majority of your time and energy into them? What excuses do you make that are getting in the way of those priorities? You only have one life. Use it wisely and invest it in the things that will matter for eternity and for generations to come.

Quality #17 Security

2011-11-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

In the movie One Day Anne Hathaway plays a writer named Emma. Emma, in the beginning of the movie is a very insecure person. As Hathaway reflects on her role, she talks about her own struggle with insecurity.

"Emma is a terrifically insecure person at the beginning of the story. It takes her a long time to understand and define who she is, and I can really relate to that part of her character."

The key with insecurity is to realize that you don't have to stay insecure. You can grow out of it through self-understanding. When a person figures out their temperment, their gifts, talents and passions their confidence grows and they become more secure in who they are. As you begin to define yourself, you will be able to rest in who you are and become comfortable in your own skin. When you are comfortable in who you are, others will also see it and be able to be at ease. People look to leaders to be secure in themselves and be able to lead out of that confidence. Are you secure in who you are? The more secure you are in who you are, then you will be able to lead out of security, rather than fear.

Quality # 16 Responsibility

2011-11-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

The documentary The Other F-Word asks the question, what happens when punk rockers, who's entire identity depends on questioning authority and shirking responsibility take on the ultimate responsibility: Fatherhood. Ron 'Chavo' Reyes, the former singer of Black Flag (made famous by Henry Rollins) shares that when he and his wife began to have kids the punk rock lifestyle wasn't deemed livable. The great attraction and contridiction in punk rock is that by rebelling against authority, one day you will become an authority. You can watch the clip here on the official website.

Like in fatherhood, leadership demands responsibility that calls for leaders to come through no matter the cost. Excuses are not tolerated, rather what is valued are leaders that take the ball and run with it. They keep the standards high and don't compromise. They don't take short cuts. In those ways, punk rockers and leaders have that in common. They keep the standards high (in music and in leadership) and refuse to take short cuts.

How are you in taking responsibility? Do you echo the MXPX refrain, "Responsibiilty, what's that? responsibility not quite yet." Or will you stand up for your rights for excellence in everything you do or say? The choice is yours, also the punk rawk way!

Quality # 15 Relationships

2011-10-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

My pastor is fond of saying another Maxwellism, "If people get along, they will move along." My personality loves people. When I'm feeling drained, I need to be around people. While I can also be insensitive, task-oriented and rude at time, I love people. And that is one of the things I love about ministry. Being with people. However, ministry is more than just being with people, but helping people see the vision God has for their lives and cooperating with God's spirit in moving them in that direction. Not always easy, but fulfilling when people get it!

I found affirming in this chapter is that Maxwell isn't all about manipulating people to do your will, rather, when you choose to build into people, to encourage them, to help them accomplish what God has for their lives, then you are being a good leader. The sweet spot is when you helping them can also help you as well. Most people like win-win! I like the caution/challenge that Maxwell gives that before you ask someone to do something, aim for their heart. Find out what makes them feel alive and help them achieve it. How are you with people? If you want some ideas for improving your people skills he gives a couple:

1. Improve your mind. Read up on how to understand people.

2. Strengthen your heart. Make a list of things you could do to add value to friends and colleagues.

3. Repair a hurting relationship. Try to reconnect with with people that you've had a fading relationship with.

Those seem like a good place to start. I hope to keep getting better with people. I hope you do to!

Quality # 14 Problem Solving

2011-10-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Before Mel Gibson went crazy and anti-semetic he used to be a really good actor and director. One of my favorite movies that he made was called Braveheart. One of my favorite parts in the movie is where William Wallace (played by Gibson) finishes giving a inspiring and motivational speech, and looks to his leaders and says to them, "I'm going to go pick a fight." One of the things that my pastor would say (which I learned was from Maxwell) is that you can tell the size of the leader by the size of the problem he attacks. If you want to grow in leadership, pick a fight!

Maxwell has a method to help people start problem solving. A process called TEACH. TEACH stands for:

Time--spend time to discover the real issue.
Exposure--find out what others have done.
Assistance--have your team study all angles.
Creativity--brainstorm multiple solutions.
Hit It--Implemet the best solution.

What was inspiring about this chapter is that we don't have to let our problems keep us from our dreams. Rather, we will always have problems. And with every solution we come up with, we get one step closer to achieving our dream. Want to get better at problem solving? Pick a problem, apply teach, and let me know how it goes!

Quality # 13 Positivity

2011-10-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

Great athletes are conditioned to perform well. That's why they take time to practice and prepare their bodies so when game day comes, it becomes instinct and they don't even have to put any thought into. I think that positivity is the same way for a leader. It is the mental conditioning that is needed to push through the negativity and criticism that comes with leadership. Failure is also a part of leadership, and having the positivity to go forth keeps the leader taking risks and attempting great things. Positivity is the mental strength that leaders need to keep fighting.

Positive leaders will also attract positive people. When positive people are on your team, they make the entire environment an exciting place to be. If you want your organization to thrive and to have a strong leadership culture, it's important to the kind of leader that has a positive outlook on life. It doesn't mean that we are to pretend that nothing is wrong and everything is going great. Rather, positive leaders see the good and the bad, but choose to have an attitude that is uplifting. How positive are you?

Quality # 12 Passion

2011-10-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

In my line of work I wake up 75% of the time excited about my day. I look forward to meeting with people, writing sermons, praying, preaching, teaching and dreaming and planning with people about how to move the kingdom forward. I would say that I'm pretty fortunate to be in my position. While there are some things I would change, I do love what I do. I love being in ministry. It fills me with passion. Even my bad days are few and far between and I have hope.

In whatever you do, there better be passion. Even if you do your day job so that you can accomplish your passion is infinitely better then just existing in life. I realize that when I am fully engaged in my passions I love life more, find my place and my mission in it. Even when things aren't going the way that I want them to. I love the quote that is attributed to John Wesley where he supposedly said, "I set myself on fire with passion and people come from miles to watch me burn." Are you on fire? Does your passion set yourself and others on fire?

Quality # 11 Listening

2011-10-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

I've always been a huge fan of rock music. The first rock band I ever heard that changed the way I listened to music was Aerosmith. Before that, I was listening to Michael Jackson because at the tender age of 4 my parents bought me a mircophone with the king of pop's picture. However, when I got ears of my own, Steven Tyler was ringing in them. I can't really explain what it was, the combination of the music mixed with Tyler's scruffy vocals spoke deeply into my pre-pubescent being.

Aerosmith caught my ear, for others it was Tupac, biggie or some other pop icon. When the right sound hits our ear, we are able to listen better and longer. Just as a singer needs to have a good ear to pick up the melody, a leader needs to be able to hear the melody of their organization and help everyone else harmonize. If the leader can't listen, then the people suffer.

As I reflect on my leadership journey, whenever I've entered into times of conflict or critical situations, often when I simply stop and listen that does more good than having the right solution or making the chages that people often complain about. More than anything, they just want to someone to listen to them and help them know that they were heard. Often, I don't listen deeply or often enough. I enjoyed Maxwell's suggestions to listen better.

How intentional are we in stopping to listen to what our followers, colleauge's and mentor's are saying? When we listen, do we give them the proper credit or make the appropriate changes? And if we don't do we take the time to really explain the why behind our decsion? Being a listener doesn't mean that we do whatever we hear, but it does mean that we start where people are at and do our best to listen and listen well.

Sojourn into Exile: Earl Hickey and character development

2011-10-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

Sojourn into Exile: Earl Hickey and character development: I want to pause from my normal reflection on the 21 qualities of leadership to write out some thoughts I have from a show that I've recentl...

Earl Hickey and character development

2011-10-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

I want to pause from my normal reflection on the 21 qualities of leadership to write out some
thoughts I have from a show that I've recently been watching on net flix. The show stars Jason Lee who plays a guy that has been doing nothing but bad things for years until an accident made him discover karma. He then made list of all the bad things he had done and worked on crossing each one off of his list. The more he crosses of his list, the better his character becomes. While I don't believe in karma, I do believe that our decisions will impact how our character is created. To me it's a great example that character is something that can be improved on, and it isn't static. It all depends on the decisions we make on daily basis. We either choose to develop our character, or choose to let it falter. But to me, if earl hickey can make decisions to improve his character we can do the same.

Quality #10--Initiative

2011-10-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading about the concept of initiative. Leaders see opportunities and capitalize
on them. As I analyze my leadership in different areas, I see that this is in an area of a lot of growth in my life. Initiators take risks. As I look at the areas of leadership in my life, I need to take some more risks. Not the kind of risks where I just do something random and hope it works out, but in prayer, taking into account my gifts, passions and personality go out of my comfort zone and make something happen. There are opportunities everywhere, and they are chances to grow in leadership, even if I fail. Failure is a part of leadership that I think I need to push through. There are a lot of things I could do, it's time to pick one things go for it and see what happens.

Quality #9--Generosity

2011-10-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Generosity is more than just money. There is a Scripture that I treasure that speaks into this; it's 1 Thessalonians 2:8, "Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well." I love this verse, because more than money, the true mark of a generous man or woman is whether or not they share their very lives with others. By sharing their lives, I mean their time, their food, their space, their resources and their money. Money can be a hard thing to part with, but an even more difficult think to part with is the privacy in which we live our lives. As Americans, we prize our personal space. When we invite someone into our home, to a meal, and into our very hearts, we allow people to enter into a vulnerable space in our lives. We share a part of ourselves and invite people to take up space in our affection, our care and our help. This is more powerful then money. In your generosity, is money easier to give up then your space? Your resources? Your very life? When you share yourself with people, what kind of people are they? The good, the great, the glamourous, the ones that can give it back to you? Or is it the poor, the broken, and the downtrodden? Great leaders model and live out generosity.

Quality #8- Focus

2011-10-12T06:19:00.000-07:00

Today's Quality is focus. In our culture, having a.d.d and multitasking are the norms, so focus is really beginning to set apart leaders that are good vs. leaders that are great. Maxwell describes focus as priorities and concentration. Most people spend more time working on their weaknesses then on their strengths, however, there is a school of thought that says we are to do the opposite. By spending more time on our strengths, staffing our weaknesses and go to the next level in our areas of strengths we can accomplish more and better.

I love the Andy Stanley quote, "Your Weakness is someone else's opportunity." There are things I am weak in such as handling details for events, putting together and maintaining processes for the ministry, and other administrative tasks. Yet, there are people in my organization that LOVE all of the things I just mentioned as despising. They will jump up and down and say that they would be all over that. The challenge is, how do I identify those areas and then put the right people in the right place? It sounds like it could be trial and error, but if I want to grow in focus, that may be what needs to be done. How do you focus?

Quality #7-Discernment

2011-10-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

This is a quality that I think I always need more of, but I think the biggest issue is that I don't really stop and just listen to my gut. It's easy to assume that just because I don't understand why I feel a certain way that it may be even more accurate then the most detailed analysis. Malcolm Gladwell writes about this in his book Blink! The concept that through a snap judgment we can come to accurate and better decision than by simply taking our time. Scientists don't exactly know how this works, but leaders use this all the time. Whether they call it intuition or just going with your gut, it's the same phenomenon.

Discernment often escapes me because I gloss over it so quickly. When I am getting a gut feeling, I often ignore it. Usually because I'm engaging my mind rather than my entire being. Leadership isn't just being logical, but it's also being able to take in all the little things, the intangibles, the noetic and ineffable pieces that we normally take for granted and paste them together into a fuller picture of what is going on. Maxwell has some suggestion on how to develop this quality:

1. Analyze past successes.

Look back at problems you solved. What was the root issue? If you know the heart of it from the past, you can learn to do the same in future situations.

2. Learn how others think.

By studying leaders that you admire in your field and what led them to success will help you be able to grow in your ability to discern.

3. Listen to your gut.

I know that when I look back I can remember times when my gut told me one thing but because i didn't listen I missed out. I can be more aware of what's going on in situations to be able to go with my gut in making decision.

4. Ask God for discernment.

This is my own addition. In the Scriputures, we are encouraged to ask God for discernment. So ask, ask a lot, keep on asking until you are able to flow in discernment with great ease.

Quality #6-Courage

2011-10-04T06:27:00.001-07:00

"Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."à Eddie Rickenbacker (World War I aviator, VP of Eastern Airlines, race car driver)

This has always been a trait I have admired in leaders. The courage to make a stand, to make hard decisions, to come through when it matters most. But before there can be an outward expression of courage, there must be an inward resolve. The battle, it starts in your mind and your heart. If you can win the internal battle, then courage will manifest. If I take a hard look at my life, I see times in my life where I could literally have done anything. I could have moved to another country, planted a church (attempted anyway), or done something wild and crazy that would have been worth remembering. It was a lack of taking the time to fight the inward battle. When a man (or woman) fights the internal battle, the battle over his imagination, the battle over his will and emotion, the other stuff comes together. It is no guarantee that everything will turn out the way it's supposed to or that we'll have great success. But it will mean that we attempted something great, something worth doing, a cause worth fighting for. Courage, best summed up, is when we can look our fear into the eye and still move forward, not left or right, but right through it.

Quality #5-Competence "Is your head in the game or somewhere else?"

2011-10-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

For this one, I'll turn to John Maxwell's definition of competence:

"It's the leader's ability to say it, plan it, and do it in such a way that others know that you know how--and know that they want to follow you."

Usually this one follows character. If a person doesn't have competence to go along with character then the leader usually is a nice guy that doesn't get much done. But we all admire leaders who seem to always be on top of things, get things done and motivate others to do the same. I like how Maxwell breaks down the pieces that make competence. To cultivate competence he says it looks like this:

Show up Every Day

Not just physically, but with your mind and heart engaged in the work of the day.

Keep Improving

There will always be ways to learn, grow and improve. The more competent among us are always looking for those ways. They are always asking the why behind everything that is done.

Follow Through with Excellence.

These leaders don't just talk about it, they be about it. If I hand off the ball to others to accomplish tasks, they expect that much from me and more.

Accomplish More than expected

This is more than just "getting through the day," but they look for ways in which they can go above and beyond. I see this consistently in my friend Jimmy. He is a youth pastor, but doesn't just look at doing what should be done, he always looks beyond it, to the why so that he can go above and beyond. He's a great leader to be able to learn from and follow what He models.

Inspire Others.

Performing at a high level is not enough unless we are also helping other people perform at that level as well.

Competence, like anything isn't developed in a day. But through daily decisions, day in and day out. When we choose to get our head in the game, keep improving, follow through with excellence, accomplish more than expected and inspire others, we are moving in the direction of becoming more and more competent.

Quality #4-Communication

2011-09-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

As a preacher, I'm pretty good at talking real purty. But in other ways I lack the ability to consistly communicate in ways that are clear and simple. As a verbal processors, I often answer questions by going around and around and around until I finally get to my point. I often do that on the phone or in one on one conversations.

Clarity, simplicity, focus on people and incarnational are all elements of good communications. Shortening my words, choosing them wisely may take some practice for a verbal processor like myself who prefers verbally vomiting before I even get to my actual point. Yet, I do believe that the pay off will be better in the end. As I process through communication, I realize that it will take time for me to be able to really think through what needs to be said, how it needs to be said. The actual saying it goes along better once the first 2 have been addressed.

The reality is, even if you message is amazing, life changing and transformative; if people can understand it, decode it for their own benefit it will be useless. Leadership is a people business. Knowing how people will receive what you say is critical in accomplishing any goals, dreams, or vision. Simple and clear will always be heard over complex and murky. While some ideas will always be nuanced and complex; a good leader knows how to simplify and clarify the way those ideas are communicated but not the ideas or issues in themselves.

To steal a line from Maxwell: "Forget about impressing people with big words or complex sentences. If you want to connect with people, keep it simple."

Quality # 3--Committment

2011-09-27T04:37:00.000-07:00

Today the quality I'm looking at is the one of commitment. In our "fear of commitment" culture this one is harder and harder to come by. But we still see it in the lives of great athletes, entertainers, politicians, and other leaders. This really does separate the best from the mediocre.

In my mind I have some major commitments. I'm committed to being a follower of Jesus first, a husband who wants to love His wife like Christ loves the church second, a father who desires to train up my children in the way of Christ third, and a pastor that desires to equip the saints of God to do the work of ministry fourth. These four priorities all require a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of sacrifice and I often feel unable to follow through on all of these commitments.

I am realizing more and more that as I work through these ideas, the one piece that comes up over and over again is follow-through. If you have character, you say what you intend to do and follow through. If you have charisma, you help others feel good about who they are bring out there best, and if you have committment it is measured by execution.

Good leaders dream, great leaders bring their dreams to life. Dreaming is the easy part, having a prefered future that gets people excited and passionate about what could be is a great thing. However, if you can't lead people into that future, if you aren't willing to lead yourself, your family, or others its just a wish.

For me, ideas and dreams are easy. Commiting to an idea long enough for it to become something we see is more difficult. The details, getting people to buy-in, putting in the time, the energy and the money all seem to take away the dreaming aspects. And when you start thinking about the nuts and bolts of a vision or a dream it is no longer a dream, but a possible reality. Which means that if it stands or fails, if it brings about great good or great harm, it has the potential to become your legacy and what you are known for.

I am cautious about what I want to leave behind. I've committed to things in the short run. Education, jobs, some friendships, but to commit to an idea that would become a reality that if I sacrificed for, and I would call others to sacrifice for scares me. The questions that fill my mine are, what if I am wrong? What if I make a mistake? What if the prefered future isn't something I prefer anymore?

When I look at my life, there are some things that have been easy to commit to. Marrying my wife was an easy commitment because I was in love with her and with the idea that we could create a prefered future together. Preaching is an easy commitment because I love God's word and how it changes me and how it changes other people. But the long term commitment of giving my life, moving my family around, for the greater cause of something, I'm not sure if I have found that yet. But when I do, and I buy in, the world will never be the same.

Quality #2 Charisma

2011-09-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

I usually like to focus on current events or theology on this blog. But I'm turning a little out of my regular sphere to look into some of the concepts in John Maxwell's The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. Leadership is a subject I'm learning a lot about and wanted to reflect on this new quality called charisma.

Charisma

In the past, when I thought of charisma, I usually think of some slimy salesman that is attempting to manipulate me into doing what they want me to do. However, I really like Maxwell's definition of charisma. "Leaders who think about others and their concerns before thinking of themselves exhibit charisma." The concept here is thinking the best of others, bringing out the best in others, and helping them be the best. I'm drawn to this definition because this is what I aspire to be in all my interactions with people. This is also what I admire most and I am drawn to in leaders.

I saw this quality strongly exhibited in a friend of mine from Seminary named Tim Meier, who is now working at a church in Paris. Whenever I would sit down with Tim, he would make me feel like I was a great leader. I always respected Tim's opinions, so whenever he would make statements like, "Leaders like us would..." it would make me feel like I had what it took to be a leader. He was sincere because he didn't have any reason to make me feel good to accomplish something on his agenda. He simply saw everyone like the were a 10.

Today, I have the challenge of seeing everyone as a 10. I may have to push through insecurity and my own cynicism to do it. But I hope that I can bring out the best in people in wherever I go and whatever I do.

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader #1 Character

2011-09-26T05:53:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a class on leadership. One of the books that they have us reading is written by John Maxwell called The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. While I've never been the biggest fan of John Maxwell (I'm always weary of dudes with too many pithy sayings:) I figured I owed to myself to write a reflection on every quality in the book. So the first one in there is the Quality of Character.

Character

One of the quotes I like that Maxwell writes is that: "Your character determines who you are. Who you are determines what you see. What you see determines what you do." As I reflect on character, I always thougth you either have it or you don't. But Maxwell writes that character is a choice. When we choose to either cop out on a decision or dig out of a hard situation, "bend the truth, or stand under the weight of it" we make character. The choices I made today will determine the kind of person I will become.

I think the biggest area that I struggle in terms of character is follow through. I so want to please other people that I over-promise and under-deliver. When I do that, I don't choose character, I choose something else. I know that I am quick to make decisions because I don't want to disappoint others, but when I don't stop stand by a decision it can show a lack of character.

In my leadership, I just instituted a pretty big change. Although, I didn't realize that it was big at the time, but there is push back. Already, I find myself wanting to say whatever I need to say to ease the tension. But, I know that right now character is being forged. Many people may not always like my decisions, and I know that I will make mistakes; but as a leader I have to lead. However, if I lead without character then my decisions cannot fully and trully be trusted.

More than talent, more than anything else. Character is what counts. For me, having character in my follow through will be important in the next coming months and years.

Saints of Suffering

2011-08-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm reading through Brennan Manning's book the Signature of Jesus. I love Manning, and I think everyone should read everything he has ever written. Manning writes not as a learned scholar (though I believe he is), but from experiencing the best and the worst of life. He know's suffering as one who has struggled with alcoholism, lost his marriage and has faced harsh criticism for his insights. Yet, His insights that are able to change the lives of so many people were the fruit from the tree of suffering and pain. It would not have come about from easy living. Many times we wonder how do great people have these great insights from God. Some of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen, Mother Theresa and Manning all seem to have this deeper understanding, that goes beyond surface of things and into what is real. I think it's because suffering is the fire that purifies and purges our character and builds integrity in us. Suffering, can be the gift that enables us to look past superfiscial answers and actually connect to the God of the universe. And if we let suffering do the work it is intended to do, our souls become enlarged and the purposes of God are unfolded to us in our lives.

Who Does God Belong to?

2011-08-24T20:08:00.001-07:00

Tony Jones posted a blog post that jolted my thinking on this topic. The post was called, "God is not a Christian." I was thinking that if we (cult of personality, church, denomination, religion, or organization) own God by putting a label on Him, then we can speak for Him, but in reality those of us that speak for God are in a real danger of muzzling Him. I think that this is the battle that is taking place in evangelicalism. We are battling for who really owns God. Is it the cool Calvinists, the emergent folks, the mainline folks, the Catholics or the Orthodox and everyone in between; who owns God? Who speaks for God? I'll be honest; I'm in this mix as well, as a guy working at a church who preaches regularly, I make a claim on God since I claim to speak for Him as well.

I know how ridiculous it sounds to claim to own God, yet I do it all the time, in fact, I think this is what everyone does. I try to manipulate YHWH (Israel's God, and the God of the Scriptures) to fulfill my own life goals, make me feel good and to give me certainty, safety and clarity about my life. I live as if God is my own, but the reality is I don't own God. None of us do, and that scares me. It scares me because God won't let me or anyone direct Him to do what we want.

Liberals, conservatives, evangelicals, post-moderns, Charismatics, and everyone else can't own God. Just when we think we can define, categorize, predict and domesticate Him, He escapes again. He is a Holy God. Holy not only means perfect, sinless, but it also means that there is no one or anything that is like YHWH. It makes things difficult because it is easier to manipulate god I own than worship a God that owns me. I don't want to be owned by anyone including God, and that may be the first step to being able to speak for Him, to realize that YHWH is elusive and to speak for Him is to also acknowledge that you are owned by Him.

As a Christian I claim that God has revealed Himself to the church through Jesus. And we know the story of Jesus through the Scriptures. By making that claim, I hope I don't claim that God belongs to me, like a book or some object. Rather the opposite, if God is revealing Himself to me, then all I am passively responding to what God has already done. Other religions will have to contend with the question of what to do with Jesus, is He or is He not God. If He is, could that mean that in their religious traditions God has revealed Himself to them, though imperfectly? But with Jesus, the transformer of culture, they can now view their traditions through the eyes of Christ? What do you think?

Thoughts on Osama Bin Laden

2011-05-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

I was in the office of one of my favorite professors when we got the news a plane had hit one of the twin towers. I didn’t think much of it, assuming some small by-plane went out of control and accidently clipped it. Then as I walked from his office to another building, passed the soccer field and saw students gathered there in prayer, and as I met my roommate he told me that the towers fell. I remember where I was, in Nyack, New York. 30 minutes from where it all went down.

I also will remember where I was when I heard that the mastermind of it all, Osama Ben Laden had been killed. On the couch, with my wife, almost 10 years later. I felt a mixture of relief but also a sense of loss and tragedy. As with most Americans, this has been a really long journey.

I was a youth pastor at a small church in Northern New Jersey on September 11. Some in our congregation had been in the city that very day, fighter jets had flown overhead on American soil. We were all shell shocked. Our church was packed that Sunday from people that were just trying to figure out why?

My middle school kids had a different way of expressing theodicy. They went into great detail about how they would go and get Ben Ladin themselves and kill him in all sorts of gruesome ways. A bunch of those kids actually ended up in the military, trying to make good on their threats I’m sure. For those kids, and everyone that was really young during the event of September 11, this was a welcome release. I definitely felt that release, but then the question of loving our enemies came up.

I’ve taken my time on writing something because I’m still thinking and praying through this whole thing. The questions that have come to mind are: is this an incident where we apply love our enemies? What about justice? Was the way it was done just? Where does this leave the war on terror? I’ve been reading some great blogs to help guide me in the process. N.T. Wright has some strong statements on what he calls American Exceptionalism. Rob Schwinge another youth pastor in the greater New Jersey area had an interesting take on Bin Laden’s death.

I’ll go back to my feelings of relief and sadness that I felt at the same time in the same sense. I felt relief because as an American, knowing that the leader of a major terrorist organization that had killed millions of people, Christian and Muslim helped me breathe a sigh of relief. However, I also felt sadness because this man never came to repentance and follow Christ. I don’t think this was an event worth celebrating. I don’t think this is something we should revel in. I know that some of my fellow believers celebrated at this man’s demise, while others have been making comments to forgive him and love our enemy, but I sometime feel that the spirit those comments are said in does not take in the full amount of hurt and pain that was caused, that many are still dealing with and experiencing.

The Scriptures that have come to mind to challenge my thinking are Matthew 5: 43-48.

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸ You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

I preached on this passage and applied it to the death penalty. You can watch the sermon and read my follow up comments here. These verses are all about how we are to live by a different set of rules in God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is coming to earth, and we might as well start living like we are part of that kingdom now. In that way, we bring God’s rule and reign to earth in the here and now, as well as the hereafter.

Another passage that came to mind was found in Romans 12: 14-21.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.^{^[1]}

This brings up the question of how we killed Ben Ladin. As followers of Jesus we aren’t in the vengeance business thats God’s job. Rather, we are called to love our enemies, care for them and do good to them. That is a difficult passage to wrestle with especially in light of the current events. Sometimes it’s easier to be an American first, than a follower of Jesus. I wrestle with that. I don’t know if it will ever be resolved, but I do believe that as followers of Jesus, we live by a different set of values, different set of assumptions, and a different way of seeing reality. And when we don’t wrestle with how our government conducts itself, or how we respond, there is a danger that we are living for the wrong kingdom.

^{^[1]} The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001, S. Ro 12:14-21

My Review of Stories that Feed the Soul by Tony Campolo

2011-04-22T05:26:00.000-07:00

Tony Campolo is an author, speaker and professor of sociology over at Eastern University. I haven’t read a lot of his books, but his reputation precedes him. I’ve heard him speak a couple times and have always enjoyed hearing him. I was excited about getting this book in the mail, "Stories That Feed the Soul". This is a collection of stories that Tony has used for preaching or other stories that are now in this compilation. What I found interesting that he ordered them along the lines of Romans 8. There are 8 parts to this book:

Part 1: Freedom from Condemnation

Part 2: The New Life in Christ

Part 3: Intimacy with God

Part 4: The Call to Rescue Creation

Part 5: Living with Hope

Part 6: Praying in the Spirit

Part 7: God’s Plan for us

Part 8: The Assurance we need

These are a great collection of stories. Some are better than others. As a preacher myself, I’m always on the lookout for stories that I can use to explain biblical truth. In fact, the importance of this book is the stories that we tell. Stories reveal our deepest held beliefs. It’s how Jesus shared the Kingdom of God with the world. It couldn’t strictly be revealed through propositional truth, but through narrative.

At first I thought that this would be like a chicken soup for the soul kind of book. A bunch of heart warming stories that would be mushy. But the stories in this book, following the line in Romans 8 were powerful retelling of the story. I loved that part. It will be great to use many of these stories to illustrate Scripture as I preach and teach in the coming weeks and months.

First, you gotta die....

2011-04-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

Holy Week is upon us. As a young guy in ministry, this is a very busy time, almost as busy as Christmas. But it has also been very significant for me and our church. We have been practicing the spiritual rhythm of fasting. Not a full on no food fast, but a variation known as the Daniel fast. Really its eating like a vegan for a couple weeks. While I am enjoying all the weight I’m losing I’ve also enjoyed being able to stop and remember why I’m doing this (usually every time I ignore pizza, burgers or meat) and my thoughts have drifted more towards Easter and what it means.

But before we get to Easter, we have to go through Good Friday. Where we remember and experience the torture and murder of the Son of God. I’ve had the privilege of processing this time by preparing to preach this Friday at The New Jersey Asian Indian Ministries Good Friday Service. This will be a time where 7 preachers reflect on the 7 last words of Jesus. It is truly a cultural experience (among other things). But I thought I would include a couple thoughts that I’m working on now.

There is a great book I’ve been reading by William H. Willimon called Thank God It’s Friday, which are his reflections on the 7 last words that Jesus spoke. There was one theme in which we both picked up on, but I found really challenging. It’s in how we handle Jesus.

In Luke 23, Jesus is no longer handling His own life. Its in the hands of politicians (Pontius Pilate and Herod), corrupt religious leaders (Pharisee’s and Sanhedrin) and people that don’t understand who He is (easy to sway crowd). And they mishandle Jesus, they abuse Jesus, they mock and humiliate Him. Jesus was mishandled, so He take the initiative to hand His life off to the one who would do what was best and right with His life…to God.

“Father, into Your Hands I commit my Spirit.” This has prompted me to reflect on the question how do I handle Jesus. Is Jesus a pussy cat or the lion of Judah? A personal Advisor or Lord of my life? Does He have full access to my entire life or only to the parts I let Him have? In asking these questions I find that I fall short of living a totally, 100% life of surrender. In fact, I still handle my life the way I always have. Even as a pastor and teacher, I haven’t fully and completely let my life fall into the capable hands of the Father. I like being in control to much. This has been my task for Holy Week, see in what ways I can hand off more of my life to the Father. This is difficult because this will result in a death. Death of my will, my direction for my life and even some of my dreams. Death, in the way Jesus had died, but after death there is and will always be Resurrection. Easter is coming, but Friday is here today.

Death, tragedy and loss

2011-04-12T04:51:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, one of our former students passed away under some tragic circumstances. Our students were in a state of shock, feeling everything from anger, sadness, and wondering where God was in all of this. Since we had youth group that night, I felt lead to change direction of youth group a bit. And wrote down some thoughts on death, evil, and where God is in all of this, some guiding thoughts as your students are processing this. I felt compelled to share this with the blog-o-sphere.

Whenever tragedy or difficulty enter our lives it’s helpful to remember the story that we find ourselves in. The beginning of our story is that God created the world. And after God created the world, He called everything in it good. God placed man in this good world, part of the order of the universe. Man was told to be fruitful and multiply to grow things, build, create, and oversee the good world that God created.

Yet sin entered into God’s good world. Man decided that they did not like their place in God’s order. And as we rebelled and ripped ourselves from it we unleashed a whirlwind of evil, death, suffering and the like. The good world that God created had become corrupted. Heaven and earth, which at one time were one, were now separated.

And in this mess was the deceiver. Satan. He is our enemy and has three objectives: steal, kill and destroy. Through the use of deception and manipulation he tries to steal us away from God’s dream for our lives, in hopes of destroying us.

However, the mission and heart of Jesus is different. In John 10 we see that Jesus is the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives life abundantly, and lays down his life for the sheep, while the thief (Satan) exists to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus laid down his life; God let His son suffer a slow, agonizing death so that we could experience life. I don’t think I could ever offer up my child to die such a horrible death so that people that hated him would escape death and torment.

The end of the story is important to remember. In Revelation 21, there will be a time when heaven and earth will be one again. The creation will be restored and we will be resurrected. Our tears will be dried, our hearts will be cleansed, and death will be erased, suffering will be snuffed out, and New Creation exists in there place.

We live in a world where God has plans and purposes for the lives of every human being on it. Yet, our world is not neutral. There is an enemy that seeks to deceive us, for the purpose of stealing God’s plans, killing our bodies and destroying our minds. Often, we place the blame of many of life’s tragedies on God, and while some seem out of our control (the earthquakes in Japan); many others are at the hands and decisions of other people.

When loved ones are suffering and dying and we pray yet they aren’t healed the way we want them to be we look to God and wonder why. We know that God can heal people completely. Some of us have seen it, heard stories or read about such miracles in the Scriptures. Yet, some people God takes into His presence. In Mark 1:29-39, Jesus heals many, but not all people. In another story Jesus walks into a temple, heals one guy and the Scriptures don’t say that He healed anyone else. Jesus’ ways are mysterious, because He is God.

God’s thoughts, ways and purposes are higher than our own (Isaiah 55:9), I don’t know why God takes some and heals others. Why God allows suffering and evil to persist. But there will come a time when God says, “ENOUGH.” And Jesus will return, but until that day we weep with those who weep, we mourn with those who mourn.

Vote for Gandi

2011-04-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

All my life I’ve been surrounded by the ghost of one man. Gandhi. My father is obsessed with Mohandas Gandhi. In fact, for one Halloween he dressed me up as the man (I’ll have to find the picture). Every year after the Thanksgiving meal my dad would have us watch the Gandhi movie starring Ben Kingsley (though my favorite cinematic portrayal of Gandhi has to be "Weird"Al Yankovic). Heck, I even owned the Gandhi comic book. So I think that I have a pretty good idea about the guy.

There is a new book out on the life of Mohandas Gandhi called Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India. The author, Joseph Lelyveld, writes about how Gandhi’s time in South Africa shaped him. To steal a quote from the Leonard Lopate show’s description, “[the book] shows how Gandhi’s sense of mission, social values, and philosophy of nonviolent resistance were shaped in South Africa.”

The interview with the author was great; you can listen to it here. I found it fascinating that Gandhi never had a desire to get into politics. In fact, Gandhi was more interested in religion and spirituality, even contemplating becoming a Christian.

I haven’t read the book, and I’m not sure if I’m going to, but one of the famous quotes I read from Gandhi was the reason why he eventually decided not to be a Christian. He is quoted as saying, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

South Africa was considered a “Christian” nation. This “Christian” nation was known less for Christ and more for their policies that enforced segregation. From the interview, Gandhi, as a young lawyer, represented Indians as they were fighting some of the first of many repressive and restrictive laws based on race that were being put into place. Probably a forerunner of apartheid. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think “Christian” nations should be putting into practice segregation. I can sympathize with Gandhi’s above quote. I like your Christ, but not your Christians.

Gandhi was in no way a perfect man. But to me there is a bigger issue is the relationship of "christian" politics and christian witness. There are times when this comes together nicely (William Wilberforce's successful crusade to end the slave trade), but then there are examples like South Africa where the opposite is true. A deeper issue in this is the quest for power. The power to rule nations, legislate behavior and preserve control. When power becomes our God instead of Jesus, terrible, terrible, terrible things are done in the name of Christ. Apartheid is one of many examples (for more on this discussion check out Myth of a Christian Nation by Greg Boyd). And such poor demonstrations of christian witness beg the question, how do followers of Jesus handle power? How do we engage in the political sphere in such a way that it does not compromise our christian witness? There are all sorts of responses to this question.

Gandhi I think can serve as an example to us. Through His influence, he was able to liberate an entire nation without using violence. Power was wielded through humility and compassion. And in this, the same results through a different method came about. There is a way to yield power, where power does not corrupt, nor does it rob us of our witness. It will often take great sacrifice and creativity. A great example of this is found in the organization Bound4Life. The most powerful thing they do to represent their pro-life position is pray. They aren't out there protesting, blowing up abortion clinics, or arguing. They have found a creative way to represent their position, without seeking solely political power to get there way. They are seeking God, as King of the Universe to prepare the way for them.

I've noticed that with this generation, we share our beliefs as with the older, yet we hold them differently. Gandhi's example could be a new (or not so new) approach to dealing with power and christian witness. Hopefully we can find another option going forward to represent Jesus in the political sphere.

Snow Drifts and Paradigm Shifts: My Review of Love Wins by Rob Bell

2011-03-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

I finished the “controversial” new book by Rob Love Wins. Like all of Bell’s books I found it engaging, informative and challenging. Since there are so many others who have blogged about this book I wonder if I have anything new to add. While I’m not looking to add anything new, I hope to set out my perspective and some thoughts.

Love Wins?

The first chapter brings up many and all the questions we ask about heaven, hell, evangelism, witnessing and the like. Some of these questions I found myself resonating with because they were questions I asked at one time, or I’m asking now but put on the back burner. From the questions, Rob moves to talking about heaven.

It is helpful to realize that just because we see the word “heaven” in the Scriptures they do not always refer to the place, space or dimension heaven. Sometimes when Jesus refers to heaven he is referring to God, referring to the future coming together of heaven and earth in the age to come, or the present eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life this side of death and the age to come (p. 58). Where does Rob get these understandings of heaven? Two sources, the first is that the hermeneutic (grid of interpretation) that Rob uses begins by looking at the Scriptures from the perspective of 1^st century Jews, the original audience. And the second is a word study of the word eternal or aion, which can also mean age. We can’t understand heaven in a vacuum. There was an understanding of this concept before the Hellenistic Christians got a hold of it. Once Rob talk about heaven, he moves into talking about hell.

Rob sets out the Scriptures in which we get our concept for hell. From there he says that yes, hell is an actual place, but we can also create hell here on earth, where we rub up against this present reality called hell. Here Rob brings in a language study on the word for eternal punishment “aion of kolazo.” If aion is age (as was cited above), then kolazo, according to Rob, is a term for horticulture. If refers to pruning. Basically, Rob sounds to me like he is saying that those who go to eternal punishment are going to an age or season of pruning. On the one hand, I applaud that Rob is going to the original categories of the first century readers, but I’m a bit bothered that there are no citations on this word study. Where is he getting this information from? Has this been the historical reading in the various streams? Or should I buy into this because Rob Bell says so? I think it has some interesting implications, but I’d like to see for myself what is going on here.

Then Rob asks the question if God is all powerful, and desires all people to come into reconciliation with Him, does God not get what He wants? This is where Rob’s most controversial piece is, like a calm piece of music, this is the loud part that wakes us into thinking in a new or different way. What if God never stops pursuing people? Even those that are in hell? Using Scripture, reason, and some writing of the church father’s Rob makes a compelling, challenging, and even hopeful case for this concept. I have to admit, I felt a new hope swell within me. Then he asks an even more compelling question. How much of these concepts does one have to believe to be reunited with Christ? Do we lose our salvation if no longer believe in a hell? How much are we allowed to believe and still be called followers of Jesus?

I’m skipping over some details, but basically, Rob goes into the atonement and how exactly Jesus is the only way (which He affirms) but includes all people in this. Here is a great quote that Rob uses to define this concept:

What [Jesus] doesn’t say [referring to John 14] is how, or when, or in what manner the mechanism functions that gets people to God through Him. He doesn’t even state that those coming to the Father through him will even know that they are coming exclusively through him. He simply claims that whatever God is doing in the world to know and redeem and love and restore the world is happening through him (p. 154).

Jesus is the only way, but some may be coming into the Kingdom embracing Jesus as Lord without even knowing it. As a mission student in seminary, we would discuss what was called people movements. These were people groups who when the missionaries finally got there had already heard about Jesus and were attempting to walk in His ways the best that they could. They had embraced Jesus as Lord, without knowing His name. I believe that this may be what Bell is touching on.

Ultimately, Rob sums up Hell as refusing to trust in God’s retelling of the story of your life, the world we live in, and reality in itself. Here is another quote from the book:

Witnessing, evangelizing, sharing your faith-when you realize that God has retold your story, you are free to passionately, urgently, compelling tell the story because you’ve stepped into a whole new life and you’re moved and inspired to share it. What your God is love, and you have experienced this love in flesh and blood, here and now, then you are free from guilt and fear and the terrifying, haunting, ominous voice that whispers over your shoulder… (p.181).

For Rob, love wins, God will endlessly pursue the lost even in the depths of hell. Sounds pretty. Here are a couple reactions to the book from bloggers all across the board on Scott Mcknight’s blog Jesus Creed. For another great blog on Rob and other such things check out An Every Day Theology by Bo Sanders.

My Thoughts

This book is controversial. There are aspects of the book that I really like. Rob’s treatment of heaven as a present reality and our responsibility in that is crucial to a biblical understanding of the world. Even the understanding that hell is a present reality and there are people that make decisions that put them in hell while they are on earth is a great motivation to retell the story.

The biggest shift in this book to me is that because Rob is asking these questions in the manner that he is, he has unearthed the worldview foundation of his own as well as his critic’s theology. A theological shift that has been the works for quite a number of years. Rob is a postmodern, writing and preaching to postmodern people, and I would argue, contextualizing truths to a postmodern worldview. I take my definition of worldview from Charles Kraft as the assumptions, values and allegiances people have. Rob’s allegiance is to Jesus, and His story. However, his assumptions about epistemology, hermeneutics, culture and the like are so different than what most western theology addresses it sounds and feels heretical. Rob is using different categories of thinking and understanding. This book isn’t about universalism, or even the character of God, this book is a theological project on creating a contextual theology for the west that has an evangelical bent to it. The reason why I think so many followers of Jesus feel threatened by this is because Rob isn’t sticking to normal western categories of thinking. Because of this, it strikes a nerve for many people. Some good and some bad.

The biggest concern many have, including me, is what this worldview perspective will do to missions. Some feel that Rob’s approach will kill the motivation to go on mission. However, hell should never motivate us for mission, rather the glory of God should. I don’t even think that Paul uses hell in any of his writings or sermons as a motivator in his preaching (if I’m wrong on this, please show me). In every culture, we need to share the gospel in ways that will speak to hearers where they are at. Without compromising truth, but often contextual theology overseas and here on the surface may look more dangerous than it actually is and that may be the case with Rob’s book.

I for one do believe in an actual place called hell. We do bump up against that reality in our daily lives around the world. I believe that it is important, because while it’s not the reason why I share my faith, I do want as many people to escape that fate as possible. However, would I be upset if I find out that God has been pursuing people in hell? Nope. God can do whatever He wants, and He often does. There will probably be more people in heaven that I didn’t expect to be up there, but I don’t have a problem with that.

In any case, I think Love Wins will be a challenging read. Something worth diving into for a postmodern understanding of some of these eternal issues. If Rob’s purpose for writing this book was to move the conversation forward I would say mission accomplished, but I don’t believe this is the last word on this matter.

Hell’s Bell: Rob Bell, Universalism, and the fate of heaven and hell.

2011-03-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I went into New York City to hear Rob Bell speak. Rob Bell is a popular evangelical author, preacher and provocateur (or dude that pisses lots of people off). Last week his name trended world wide on twitter after the preview for his new book came out. You can watch the video here. This set out a storm or criticism, blogs and rumors of blogs both defending and demonizing Bell. I wanted to wait until I heard him speak before I weighed into this. I’ve only read half of the book, a handful of blogs conservative, progressive and emerging. I can’t say that I am the most informed on this topic, but I’m putting it all out there.

Rob Bell

Rob Bell is very tall, lanky, winsome and an incredible communicator. I’ve heard him speak twice before, and this was a different format. More of an interview than a straight sermon. Lisa Miller, a reporter from Newsweek, interviewed him. Many found Rob to be slippery and answered every question with a question or another qualifier. To me, he seemed the quintessential postmodern answer indirectly trying to get at something else from another angle.

Rob Bell Universalist?

This was his first question, and he answered with a no. Since Rob is a postmodern, you didn’t get a direct answer, rather an indirect, circular, vague one. This was frustrating to many people and I can understand why, but I think Rob was trying to get to the issue behind that question. I don’t think Rob believes from reading the first half of the book “Love Wins” and hearing him that everyone goes to heaven no matter what. The sense I get is that he sees a tension between Christ asserting He is the only way, and the tension that there is opportunity for all people to be reconciled with God. When I hear Rob or read him I hear echo’s of C.S. Lewis. Lewis embraced a type of universalism where everyone goes to heaven but what is heaven for believers is hell for the unbeliever. I don’t think Rob believes that, but it seems similar.

Rob also spoke about heaven and hell being dimension not somewhere out there after we die, but right here and now. We have all heard stories of those we love and care about that suffer addiction and refuse to get help. They have created a hell for themselves; I think Rob would say that they are in a hell of sorts right now. Or those of us who are doing what we believe God has made us to do, or see the Kingdom of God in action, we’ve rubbed up against the reality called heaven. I don’t believe that he leaves it at that, I do think also holds that hell is an actual dimension and heaven is an actual dimension. But as NT Wright asserts, in Revelation 21 heaven comes down to earth. Heaven and earth are united and all things are restored.

Bell’s contribution to Theology

I believe that Bell is evangelical through and through. But I also think he is challenging how we talk about heaven and hell, as well as framing the issues in questions that all people, Christians and non-Christians can engage them. These aren’t issues just for Christians, but for all people and they affect us and our worldview in important and profound ways. And I do believe that we need to listen to fresh perspectives on heaven and hell. Theology is not static but dynamic, to keep us from a dead orthodoxy we need people to ask difficult questions that will force us back to the Scriptures to take a good, hard and long look at the character of God and how that must be lived out. Bell raises a lot of questions. He doesn’t give a lot of answers, rather each question takes us deeper and deeper into the root of the whole issue. The character of God. What we believe about hell will ultimately reflect what we believe about God.

Rob Bell and contextualization

Ultimately I don’t see Rob Bell doing away with hell. Rather, I see him putting fresh language to a doctrine that is in urgent need of being communicated to the next generation. In my opinion, I believe we are in a shift from the modernity to post-modernity (this should be another blog post in itself), and because of this the western church needs her thinkers and theologians to provoke thought, reflection and articulation of her teachings in a way that people can hear them clearly. Rob Bell is doing this, from my take; he is helping us contextualize the Scriptures’ teaching on the afterlife in a world that is moving more post-modern, post-colonial, pluralistic, and consumerist. Contextualization is not perfect, there is debate constantly on how we are to do it, and I don’t think Bell sees that as a bad thing. Rather, that is what he is trying to accomplish with this book. He wants to get you talking about heaven and hell, thinking about it in other ways, and articulating these life and death issues in ways that will provoke, challenge, comfort and confront us.

Parting thoughts

I’m not a Universalist. I don’t think you can read the Scriptures faithfully and hold to any other view. However, I have to admit I don’t have 100% certainty on who goes to heaven and who doesn’t. When I’ve spoken with people that have asked me if they have loved ones who are going to heaven even though they aren’t sure if they ever made a commitment to Christ, I say I don’t know. Because…I don’t. I don’t know what happens in the transition from life to death. I don’t know how God has been pursuing them throughout their lives and if or how they have or have not responded. I think there is still a lot of mystery and when people ask Christians these questions we need humility, courage, and grace. If anything, I’d say Rob Bell brings a lot of grace to the conversation. I don’t think there is anything unique in Rob’s book. But I think it’s imperative to go after the issue behind the issue, which is what I see him doing. Or the question behind the question. Jesus wants to transform hearts, and that always involves going deeper and beyond the surface. I still have the other half of the book to read, I’ll put up another post when I finish it.

The Death Penalty and the Kingdom of God

2011-02-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

The past couple weeks our church has been doing a series called "Controversial Conversations." It's a bit of a twist from a similar series that a pastor named Adam Hamilton did. Overall, I have to say that this is a series that I'm proud to be a part of! Our Pastor, Brent Haggerty, did a great job laying out both sides for such difficult issues as the separation of church and state, abortion and homosexuality. I was really proud of how fair he handled everything with class and a pastor's heart.

Yesterday it was my turn to deliver. My topic was the death penalty. So I did what I normally do to prepare. I went to a local theological library. Got out a bunch of books on the death penalty and started to study, research and pray. Out of that time, I realized that there is something much deeper going on here than simply should we put criminals to death or not. The issues of evil, God's justice, forgiveness and reconciliation were going on at a deeper level. The only way to get to the deeper level is by viewing this issue as a citizen of the kingdom of God.

I challenged the premise of the topic with another question. What if we are asking the wrong questions? What if the issue really isn't the death penalty, but how do we deal with evil? Or how we bring about the Kingdom of God life into our reality. So I used Matthew 5: 38-48 which is about the new ethics of the Kingdom of God, and the big idea I articulated was Love with relentless imagination. I knew this message wouldn't be what people expected, and was both delighted and challenged by the variety of responses after the service. If you want to see the message for yourself you can find it here:

While some grasped the third alternative approach I was taking, some understandingly were frustrated and unsatisfied with the response. Normally, I usually get the "Oh I loved your sermon it was so nice...." response that I appreciate but wonder if it really makes people think. But some of the comments I received were, "Why didn't you answer the question." "Why does God seem vengeful in the Hebrew Bible but full of grace and mercy in the New Testament?" "What about soldiers, is what they are doing sinful?" I thought I would take some time to address a few of these questions now. If you want a detailed analysis of the issue from a "top level" perspectice, I did do some research in that direction. Click on this link for that so you know the background of what I am sharing.

Why didn't you answer the question?

I can relate to some people's frustration with this. With a series like controversial conversations you come with a certain expectation. The past three weeks Brent's format was 1. the issue. 2. for it. 3. against it. 4. His opinion. So it is natural to conclude this would be the same format I would take.

The reason why I took this topic in the direction that I did was because the death penalty is not the main issue. When a person asks is the bible for or against the death penalty, what they are really asking is should we handle evil the way the world handle's evil? It fails to take into account the lives that suffer on both sides of this. And even more so, it limits the Christian's imagination on how to bring about true creative, healing and restorative justice to our world.

So I started with what the Kingdom of God is. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a member of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, you operate from a different paradigm, point of view or frame of reference. A citizen of God's Kingdom asks different questions. They look past the surface and right into the spiritual realm. We know that evil exists. People can be overtaken by the demonic and their sin and that becomes a force of such great evil and destruction. How do we deal with evil day in and day out on a practical level? from a geopolitical level? from a penal level? From the perspective of the Kingdom.

This was the same perspective that Jesus handled issues, and would often frustrate those who would ask their questions of Him. In Luke 12, a man asks Jesus a question about inheritance and law. Jesus refuses to answer the question, but goes after the question behind the question. Which was covetousness and greed. I used this passage as a model for engaging the topic and the passage. While I knew some would clearly be frustrated by the approach, I think that this way really went straight to the heart of the matter and challenged believers to repent of unforgiveness and seek reconciliation. If you are for the death penalty you must still wrestle with how to love your enemy (those on death row), if you are against the death penalty you must wrestle with the realities and engage the Christian imagination to find solutions that are based on the ethic of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5-7).

Why does God seem vengeful in the Hebrew Bible but full of grace and mercy in the New Testament?

This too is a question with a bigger question behind it. The question behind this is, what is God really like? Are there two god's that each testament portrays? The long and short of this issue is this. In the Ancient world, justice came about in one way, blood vengeance. If I kill you, your relative would kill me and then someone would kill your relative and so on and so forth. The death penalty in the Old Testament functioned as a creative alternative, if only a temporary alternative to keep evil at bay. The basis for the death penalty was to deter criminals from violence and terror. In the New Testament, according to Romans 13 it seems that God has delegated His authority to take life to the state. Followers of Jesus are to live in compliance to the state as best as they can and they will be rewarded, but if not they will suffer the sword. Romans 12 talks about not resisting evil that is done to you. Since the state is in charge of keeping order the state is responsible to bring death or not to criminals.

The mission of the church to be the visible representation of Christ to the world. As instruments of forgiveness and reconciliation. And engaging the Christian imagination in situations of evil to find other alternatives to dealing with evil and injustice beyond pacifism or violent retaliation. In the Hebrew Bible, God is limiting violence and delegates the authority to take life to the state. But, for the church we are called to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and seek to live out the kingdom ethic in private and public life.

What about soldiers, is what they are doing sinful?

This is another difficult question which would make a different blog post. But I can say this, in the first century when Christianity became legal in Rome. Soldiers were not allowed to be soldiers because of their stance against war and violence which was complete pacifism. In the church today there are two options in war (as of now). Just war theory and pacifism. These two alternatives that are the two competing narratives in how Christians should take part in public service. There is more information in my extended outline in the above link.

The best part of this entire enterprise has been the fact that people are thinking. They are debating issues, small group's have had fantastic discussions on issues that most times people in the church are afraid to tackle. I hope that we see more of that in the coming months by engaging Scripture and engaging culture.

New Genesis

2011-02-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

I've decided to revamp the blog a bit. I'm opening it up for more people to find and comment on. Hopefully you'll find this blog more informative and challenging. Thanks for being a part of the journey so far! Looking forward to see where we'll be going in the future.