spontaneous and set

A kind of curious thing has been going on in my thinking lately. On the one hand those of us in Jesus are led by the Spirit. As Jesus told us, we're not to think about what to say ahead of time in the event that we face an hour of persecution. The Spirit will give us words to say then. But also, of course, we have Scripture, the word of God given to us in many words.

Add to this the witness of the church. There is no faster growing segment of the church growing than the Pentecostal, charismatic side of it. There surely are some secondary factors, but I believe the primary reason is because of the power and working of the Holy Spirit. These churches are purposefully more open to the Spirit, whatever we might say about all their doctrine and theology and practice. At the same time we see a resurgence in the church for an appreciation of liturgy. The Book of Common Prayer from which I have been taking a prayer from weekly is one prime example.

I am becoming more and more convinced that we need both. We need the freedom, spontaneity and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I believe in all the gifts of the Spirit for today, though how they work out in local congregations will vary. And I believe everyone in Jesus strictly speaking is a charismatic Christian already, having the gift of the Spirit, whether or not they believe in or practice any of the gifts that are more common in Pentecostal, charismatic circles. We also need every word of Scripture to be received as God's word to us. And we need the witness of the church now and through the ages. What the church has said and written does matter, even though all must be critiqued in view of God's word. But the critique itself includes not just each one of us, but the church together, necessarily, and with the help of the Spirit. We can benefit much from written prayers and liturgy, helping us to pray, even as Jesus taught his disciples and us to learn to pray -through a set prayer.

The Spirit can work powerfully through both, and the best way for us to live in Jesus is to include both the spontaneous and the set. Of course the bottom line is learning to love God and love people through following Jesus. And sharing the gospel by living it out, as well as giving a verbal witness to it. In all of this God is at work in us through Jesus as the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

We know we woefully fall short, yet to recognize and acknowledge this can help us to look to our only Redeemer, Savior and Lord: God through Jesus by the Spirit. The work begins in us and then out from us to others.

What would you like to share about this, or any thoughts?

what is God doing?

Sometimes we reach stale places in our lives in which it may seem like there's a stalemate. We're doing good things, or maybe in a season of less work and more reflection and reading, but somehow there seems to be something lacking. I think it's good to pause and ask what God is doing, or where God is moving in reference to my life- which I need to plug into and become a part of.

This will take time. Of course the process is in no certain order. The question might come at the beginning of it, more likely into it, or towards the end. And we need to listen to what God may be saying through others, especially through his people, and especially the ones we have fellowship with regularly. Of course including our spouse or closest friends. And those from whom we seek spiritual counsel and prayer such as our pastor.

I am at this kind of place. I see God at work in my life, and moving in answer to prayers (Deb's and mine). But there just seems to be something missing, or lacking. Some work or direction I'm to find or go to. A key in this is to find what God is doing, or how he may be directing me.

We must beware of thinking that something "big" is out there. It's rather much more likely and usual for this to be part of our being directed along the path of good works and activities God has for us in our life and mission here in Jesus; something we must do in God and with others in Jesus. This becoming a part of who we are in the rhythm of our lives.

What might you like to add to this?

thinking critically

If there's one thing that stands out in my mind right now, that I would like to have done better with my mind, it is the art and practice of critical thinking. We actually do something of the sort all the time, as we sift through what we think is of value and what is of lesser or no value in what we hear and see, in the world.

Critical thinking wants to hear and understand, and then critiques everything. For us in Jesus this means evaluating everything in light of God's truth revealed to us in Jesus in accordance with Scripture. This is an ongoing task as we keep working on both our understanding of this revelation from God, as well as our understanding of the world in which we live. I am reminded of John R.W. Stott's fine and helpful book, Between Two Worlds.

I should add that we need to keep being informed and formed by good theology based on Scripture and on the understanding given to the Church. Scripture is our basis, but we need to read it, and seek to understand it along with tradition, or how the Spirit has helped the Church to understand it over the centuries. And with the view of ever reforming theologically on the basis of Scripture, avoiding both the full and uncritical acceptance of tradition, and the rejection of tradition. The entire Church is united together, even though we don't live that out on many levels here, so that we must take into account the tradition which has been passed down for generations, while continuing to work on clearer and more accurate ways of understanding the truth in Jesus. But as those within the one tradition of the one Church. Of course, again, tradition is not infallible, so that we ever have to apply critical thinking, yet to depart from it is to fall into the error of departing from a primary means and agent of how the Spirit reveals God's truth in Jesus to believers.

This is just a beginning and limited sketch on this. What from your perspective might you like to share on this?

true pastors needed

These days we hear talk about how terrible it is to make a divide between God's people as in clergy and laity. I agree with that in large part. We're all members of the same Body who need each other, and we all have the same Spirit who gives to all for the benefit of all.

Just the same, in needing each other we must not discount the important place and role that pastors occupy. We need those in the church who have a shepherd's heart for the sheep. As shepherds under the Good and Great Shepherd, Jesus, we need those who hear God's call to feed and take care of the Lord's sheep, his people.

Yesterday at church my heart was hard and fearful. I couldn't get into worship, though I tried. I tried to listen well to the good message. Toward the end I realized we do have a pastor (and pastors, actually), and that I need to share my over-burdens with them. As soon as I realized that, the burden lifted and I was able to weep and be open to the Spirit. So I did seek one out later, and they gave me a good word of counsel and prayed for me.

I know the shepherd analogy has no direct connection with most of us in our experience; we understand it only from what we read and hear from others. But it's a powerful analogy that remains apt for us today, I believe, in helping us understand at least in part what is at the heart of being a good and true pastor.

What do you think, or what would you like to add here?

Scot McKnight on what is coming next for the church

On these two videos, I found Scot McKnight's words quite interesting, and particularly toward the end of the last video. In answer to a question he mentioned how the trend in churches he guesses, will be a democratization, with "lay people" being much more involved in ministry and decision making. But then he added that after a time people will become burned out with all the responsibility and difficulties that come with that, and that there will be a return to trust in church leadership, as the people continue to focus on the callings they have within that. He also mentioned that the church has worked in much the same way over the centuries, with trust in their leadership.

I found that helpful, and even refreshing. Maybe it's partly my age, but I am content to let the leaders lead, and especially those in pastor/elder positions. We each have our work to do. While it's good for all to have their say, I don't think a church should be led by a strict congregational democratic process. Of course wise leadership will want to take into account what the congregation thinks, or where they are in their faith and understanding. I am leary, however, of a one man (or woman, for that matter) pastoral rule. So that what one leader says, goes. There ought to be a multiplicity of leaders, at least two or three elders.

What do you think?

quote of the week: Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the prevailing unity of the Church

The spiritual unity of the Church is a primal synthesis willed by God. It is not a relationship that has to be established, but one that is already posited (iustitia passiva), and remains invisible. It is not made possible by concord, similarity or affinity between souls, nor should it be confused with unity of mood. Instead it is real just where seemingly the most intractable outward oppositions prevail, where each man leads his quite individual life, and it is perhaps absent where it seems to prevail most. It can shine more brightly in the conflict between wills than in concord.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Communion of Saints, 137 from Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, 186.

God's kingdom now

Saturday's post on violence is a simple reminder that whether or not we agree on Christian pacifism, we are different in this world, as the people of God following Jesus.

Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom did not come from this world, though it most certainly had invaded this world. The kingdom of God came in the person of Jesus the Messiah and King. And it remains here, not only in the words of Jesus we have from the gospels, such as in The Sermon on the Mount. Living words to be sure, that can come home to the heart and begin to be at work in our lives, by the Spirit. But this kingdom is also present and living through the Spirit in the church. Though since this is a half way kind of station and place, in which we sinners are forgiven and being healed and transformed over time, it's not like the world is going to see a picture of exactly how the kingdom of God will have transformed all things in the end. Instead what is seen is the kingdom of God at work in and through the church. That is the way it's supposed to be.

Jesus said to his followers that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. They most certainly had not "arrived," but grace was at work in their lives, and they were to both live out and tell others of this good news of God's salvation having come in Jesus. Of course that is a message of repentance and faith involving commitment. And being taken up by God into a new reality in Jesus by the Spirit. One that we should not underestimate, humble though it may seem.

What would you like to add to this?

tradition and interpretation

In Christian Protestant circles we are familiar with the term Sola scriptura, which simply means the one source from which we draw from for our faith and practice as Christians is Scripture. Of course not all Christians agree, both Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox putting tradition in a place either almost or completely parallel with Scripture. Often in a kind of reciprocal relationship. While I believe Scripture must be our ground for faith and practice, we Protestants often little realize just how important tradition is.

Scripture itself promises that the Spirit will guide Christ's disciples into all truth. And that the church itself is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Of course Christ is the Cornerstone, the one on whom our faith is founded. The church was involved in that founding from Christ by the Spirit. The apostles and prophets receiving from God for us this faith that is ours in Jesus. And the church continues to be the entity/body in which we are to learn and grow in the Lord.

When I hear someone say tradition and interpretation don't matter; it's the Bible that is the word of God, I wince a bit. Whenever we read any of Scripture there is always a combination of interpretation and tradition occuring. Unless we're just doing so as an individual with our own interpretation. But that is not God's intention.

We can think we're reading the Bible for ourselves, and that is important. But we little realize just how much tradition and interpretation are present in our reading of it. Even in the translation of Scripture from the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, there is invariably interpretation going on. True in the most "literal" translation, if it really is a translation. Because the translator is trying to get to the meaning of a manuscript in one language and put it in the closest parallel meaning of another language.

We all need to read the Bible, God's word for ourselves. The Spirit can help us in our own private reading if we do so prayerfully with the desire to know God more and God's will for us in Jesus. But we must not imagine that tradition either should not or does not impact us. It does. Nor should we think we're not interpreting as we read. Indeed we are. To think otherwise has resulted in people promoting errors from not reading Scripture well, and in context. And it has also resulted in unnecessary divisions among us Christians. That is not to say there aren't divisions that had a good reason for occuring at their start. But properly speaking such divisions must not cause us to be aloof from other true Christian churches and people. There is, after all only one body along with our one faith.

With our inevitable differences in interpreting matters that while important are not crucial for us being in the faith, let us seek to emphasize what is essential. In that we need unity in the faith. In nonessentials liberty. And in all things, love (from the words of Augustine).

What might you like to add to this a bit heavy theological post?

quote of the week: Martin Luther King, Jr. on the responsibility of the church to the state

The church...is not the master or servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, quoted by Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?, 238

what is this world coming to?

I grew up in a Christian setting influenced by the belief that the world would become worse and worse, then the Antichrist would come, God would judge- with the belief that the church is gone in all of this through the rapture (now I believe the church is present through that time of tribulation)- and then Jesus would return to set up the Millennial Kingdom.

I now hold to a more complicated view. The light in Jesus becomes brighter through the church, and this shows sin all the more for what it is. The Spirit of God being at work through the church, and perhaps in some way, in other ways throughout the world in reaching out to people. But God being at work in the new creation already present in Jesus, but not yet completed.

In that I see potential for the world to be better at certain times and places, maybe even overall with exceptions to that rule, but the need for final judgment against those opposed to God and God's will, as some in their quest for power continue to wreak havoc on people and on God's creation. As well, the need for both the redemption of Jesus accomplished at the cross and it fruit or result in the resurrection, to be completed in the reconciliation of all things to God and in that, the renewing, or new creation in Jesus.

This has to be worked out more in my theological thinking, but this is kind of where I'm at now, in a few as well as hurried words.

I wonder if any of you out there has any thoughts on this in reference to how you may have it worked out. Or anything to add.

the Body

I think many of us tend to underrate and underestimate the importance of the Body of Christ in our lives. I think this plays out in our practice, individually and corporately. People might "go to church," but not really much to interact, though thankfully the church we're a part of is very strong in interacting.

For any who know me, they'll know I've struggled off and on with depression, most all my life. I have steered clear of meds, because the one I took wore off, and the other gave me splitting headaches at times. Recently, for some time now, I've struggled again with depression.

Sunday I went forward to get prayer from one of our pastors- Sharon (her husband, Jack, is our other pastor). She has a gift for praying and encouraging as well as counseling others. And she preaches quite well. Jack and her are a wonderful team at our church! Anyhow after she prayed for me I soon felt the urge for the first time in many days to pray. And I did. And since then my depression has lifted and has gradually gone away. So that now, I feel okay, and ready for more life.

The Body of Christ. Just how important are our brothers and sisters in our lives? Do we have a reciprocal relationship of receiving from them, and giving back from what God gives us through them? Little do we know the blessing in Jesus we can be to each other. And the blessing we can receive from others. I received a good reminder firsthand of the truth and power of this on Sunday.

What thoughts would you like to add on this?

tomorrow: "Forest Star - humility" from L.L. Barkat, Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places

Scripture- then tradition, reason and experience

Over at Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight has been going through John Stackhouse's book, Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World. In this book Stackhouse talks about how Christians think through issues: Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. In the end, Christians sometimes come to different conclusions on how best to address a problem of society or who to vote for, etc. This is inevitable as we all vary with reference to all four entities. I need to add to this that the prerequisite to Stackhouse is the commitment to follow Jesus in discipleship.

Scripture involves interpretation, and though we have the Spirit to guide us, why is it that we Christians do have different interpretations and think differently on how to tackle the problems of this world? I think it involves in part the nature of our existence here. We know only in part and we see through a glass darkly. This makes us more dependent on God, and it should make us more humble about what we think with reference to everything, while not watering down at all our commitment to the Triune God and to the faith once for all entrusted to us, God's people in Jesus.

The realism Stackhouse seems to be advocating (I haven't read the book) is in light of the idealism we find in Scripture, but an idealism that does not deny the existence we live in here. So that God's will worked out in us in Jesus does involve experience, but an experience that is always being brought back to the touchstone of Scripture and then to our church tradition and various church traditions, as well as to the tradition of the Church at large. Then to our reason, and finally back to our experience.

We live out God's will mediated to us in Christ and from Scripture in a real world together as God's people with the gift of our reason. But oftentimes we're better off to acknowledge that we simply don't know what the best course is in a given situation. And in prayer along with fellowship with other Christians, we seek to make the best decision we can, and keep learning. All four of these are important, and probably in that order: Scripture certainly first always having priority- then tradition, reason and experience.

This is not a denial that Scripture is our basis for faith and practice. But how that is worked out, I believe, is through the church as best we understand it in real life. With an ever ready desire to change where need be and keep growing in our understanding of God's will, and in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What do you think about factoring in, along with Scripture: tradition, reason and experience?