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“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

Sharing Good News

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Prompted by a current class and some one on one discussion, I’m pondering evangelism, sharing the Gospel, seeking the lost, being missional, winning the lost, et al, In this post I want to share some observations and pose some questions, which will likely require additional posts. Here we go, in no particular order:

It is my perception there is very little disagreement among most Christians that sharing our faith is important, if not mandatory, as disciples of Christ. Assuming I am correct, why then, does the subject elicit personal resistance? (I am no exception).

Very few people I know are reluctant to share good news , experiences or products in their lives. We often do so spontaneously, even to strangers on occasion. That being the case, why then, if the Gospel is really good news in our lives, don’t we share that news? ( I can feel the guilt creeping in)

I am under the impression that, generally, evangelistic efforts are not highly successful. (Please don’t ask how much one soul is worth) I do believe, in the past decade or so, there has been a resurgence of emphasis on evangelism, particularly in church plants and para-church ministries.

I wonder how much our reluctance to evangelize is related to the current polarized and divisive culture where disagreement often devolves into angry conflict? THe old adage “you don’t talk about religion and politics” has become an inviolable rule.

Similarly, to what extent does the prevailing cultural ethos of tolerance, acceptance, individual rights, etc restrain our engagement with unbelievers?

Are progressive Christians the problem? “The progressive impulse toward tolerance and inclusion, along with a post-modern stance on truth, leaves progressive Christians in an awkward position in regards to evangelism, sharing the gospel with non-believers. Evangelism smacks of judgementalism, I’m right and you are wrong. Worse, evangelism can tend toward colonialism, the history of white missionaries being sent to save dark pagan savages.” (Beck)

Could uncompromising, evangelism zealots be the problem? “ Compelled by an urgency of doom and gloom… turn or burn.. fear, fueled by “you can”t go to heaven alone”; sharing the Gospel becomes an ultimatum to the human will. Choose Christ and live or deny Christ and go to hell.

How important is our motivation for sharing the Gospel? Does it really matter why if souls are being saved?

Do church growth strategies foster the idea that evangelism is the responsibility of staff, primarily the preaching pastor?

You have probably have had other thoughts and/or questions. My list is not intended to be exhaustive. I am certain that sharing the Gospel should be a priority for all believers. I am equally sure that current efforts are not yielding abundant fruit.

What I believe is critically important is that we understand the reality we face and re-examine our theological, ecclesiastical, spiritual and culture assumptions to begin transformational change. Hopefully, this conversation can move us in that direction.

Questions and comments are welcome.

Spirituality of the River (2008)

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Dr. Erland Waltner at age eighty quoted in Dissent Discipleship:

During the last decade of my life … I have sensed I am in transition on my experience of God …For many years my time with God was something like a quick stop while driving on a long and sometimes rough road … a pit stop in the Indianapolis 500 when drivers stop to refuel, to check tires, to watch for possible trouble ahead before hurrying back to fast lane as quickly as possible. I called mine a “spirituality of the road.”

Now I am beginning to see my relationship with God as being like a river which helps me get from here to there, to carry me along from day to day, from task to task, from one experience to the next. I am experiencing God as One who is not only daily present with me, but One who is in motion, bearing me up, sustaining, renewing, enabling me.

Spirituality of the river asks for a higher kind of trusting of in God, a deeper kind of love, a profound hope to be carried on by this river.

Pew Note Sept. 22, 2019

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Beginning with this post, I plan each week to share thoughts from sermons delivered at First Alliance Church where we attend.

This week Pastor Paul delivered the second lesson in his series on Colossians entitled “The Supremacy of Christ”. The BIG IDEA he builds upon is : “The gospel is the supremacy of Christ which absolutely changes everything.”

If you are interested you can listen at https://faclex.com/sermons/ . It is not my intention to critique or rehash his lessons (although I reserve that right) but to share thoughts and ideas that I found of interest as I listened and took notes.

This weeks lesson was “God’s Big Ideas for our lives” (Col 1: 9-14). As Pastor Paul emphasized the importance of keeping our eyes on Jesus, reminding us that the issue at Colossae was some were saying that Christ was not sufficient. That brought to mind an encounter many years ago with a publication whose tag line was “Christ + Nothing”. My first reaction was negative, largely due to the source of the publication and my biases and presuppositions. But when I began to ponder the idea, it became a significant turn in my spiritual journey. Wrestling with that idea is a worthy endeavor.

Pastor Paul later encouraged us to evaluate change in our lives as we move toward being more Christlike. He cautioned against expecting/demanding dramatic change but to think more in terms of improvement. That brought to mind the idea of approaching change as a 1 degree course change. If I can effect a permanent 1 degree change in my life, it will ultimately result in dramatic change. Ask any astronaut or ship’s captain what would happen if their calculations are wrong by 1 degree.

There was much valuable content in the lesson, but these are just two ideas that came to my mind.

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My Catholic Roots – Re-post 2008

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The Church written by Hans Kung has been an important influence in my understanding of the nature and character of the church. There is a great deal of irony in that. Kung is a radical Catholic theologian. I was introduced to the book as an assigned reading by Dr. Ferguson in his “Church of Christ” class at Abilene Christian College (1972). Kung’s criticism of the Catholic Church revealed surprising parallels and similarities between the Catholic Church and the Church of Christ. Reading Kung was eye-opening for me, not only in his views of the church but in the very fact that he was Catholic.

Could it be possible that a Catholic had truthful understandings, not only about the nature and character of the church but also God? A radical and challenging idea for a person who was raised to believe that Catholics and the Catholic church were about as far from truth as you could be and not be classified as non-Christian. It began to occur to me that perhaps I should begin to read outside of writings by “the brotherhood”.

The continuing relevancy of Kung’s writing for me is evidence in the following quote from an early chapter:

It seems to be far from straightforward or without dangers for the church to reflect seriously on the Gospel of Christ. Has it the right to appeal to the words of Jesus? Is it really founded on his Gospel? Or is it merely a substitute phenomenon, making do in place of something much greater which, despite Jesus’ proclamation, has yet to come into being? It would do nothing but harm to the Church if questions like these, which are admittedly awkward ones and have never been adequately aired, were to be dismissed as stemming from the ill-will of critical exegetes and historians, who challenge an uncritical and unhistorical ecclesiological dogmatism which naively defends the staus quo. Surely these questions indicate a fundamental longing for the origins of Christianity, for the discovery of what Jesus really intended? What did Jesus really intend? Did he simply intend the Church we have today? Is the Church we have really backed up – in its essentials, not in the inessentials – by the message of Christ? Or is it not proudly basing the justification for its existence on the words of someone who would have opposed it from the start, just as he opposed the Jewish temple clergy and the theology of the scribes? Many people today must have the impression that the Church is a prisoner, so to speak, of its own history and traditions, of its own ideas and laws. All too often it seems to be defending itself against the words of Jesus and the un-compromising challenge of his message. To many people the Church’s frequent talk of “tradition” merely suggests it is afraid to investigate boldly and radically its own origins and the original message which brought it into existence; it seems to be unwilling to take serious steps to clear out of the way all the barriers which separate it from the source of its own existence. Does the Church too ask the same question which the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoievski’s terrifying story puts to the returning Christ and to Christ’s message: “Why do you come to disturb us?” There is no doubt that the message of Jesus has had, if not a destructive, at least a disturbing effect on the Church in any age, challenging it, rousing it, goading it into new life; in short, it has always been a “stumbling-block”.

Unbalanced love (Re-post 2008)

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“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”  Mark 12:28-31

I have been thinking about this passage for some time. I have concluded that I have mostly failed to keep the most important command. Of course, everyone is imperfect and fails to keep the command flawlessly. That is not what I am talking about. There is another dimension of failure that has characterized my efforts to love God; it is a failure to love God completely. Completely meaning not perfection but wholly … heart, soul, mind and strength. It has been my consistent desire to love God. For many reasons, my efforts to satisfy that desire have concentrated on loving God with “all my mind”. I’m not sure what the “correct” understanding of “all my mind” is, but, for me it has meant diligently applying study, reason, logic, knowledge, correct understanding, et al to show God how much I really love Him. My love for God has not devoid of my heart, soul and strength, but has my default mode has been my mind. The impact of such an unbalanced love on my relationship with God is serious.

A simple analogy of an “all my mind” love for Ann illustrates the problem. I’m pretty sure that Ann would not feel very loved if my time and efforts to my love her were confined to study, analysis, interpretation of, and correct response to every communication and situation in our relationship. For example, she would find little consolation in the ritual of kissing her and telling her “I love you” each morning if she knew that I did it only because it is “a correct way to express my love”. She would soon reject my kiss and ignore my words if that were the case. Undertanding Ann’s expectations of my love for her, how could I be so foolish to not understand God’s expectations, especially when he speaks so clearly?

A continuing goal of my journey is to understand the full experience of loving God with all my heart and all my soul and all my strength, not just with all my mind. Of course, I need not to forget there is the second greatest command, “love your neighbor as yourself”.