The Future of the Pulpit…

I’m a teacher, and perhaps not surprisingly, I enjoy nothing more than teaching the word of God. For many years I hoped to find a teaching post in a bible college, seminary, or ministry training center. Unfortunately, in most of the world today, one needs a PhD to even apply to those institutions. Somewhere along the line, we decided that that was an objective I was not called to pursue.

In truth, while that decision complicated my employment prospects, I do not regret having made it. I love to study, but as a confessional protestant, who embraces certain historic, orthodox theological concepts about the Word and the Spirit, I find myself uncomfortable in “the academy.” A friend once suggested that I avoid the PhD; he feared it could crush my spirit. The academy is not overtly hostile to believers, but neither is it openly supportive of trusting faith. The problem is not that the academy suspects the church’s intelligence; rather it is more that the academy is hostile to the tenets of traditional Christian belief.

Nonetheless, I sometimes look over my shoulder and dream of pursuing a degree and making my way back to the academy. But then I receive a theological journal that interrupts my reverie. This one contained a book review that killed that dream forever. Lest I unfairly prejudice you against the author or her work, I will refrain from sharing any references. But listen to what a reviewer wrote:

“While this study, through the use of post-colonial theory, poststructuralist psychoanalysis, and political-liberationist-feminist hermeneutics, provides insight into the theology of the cross, it achieves its distinctiveness as a narrative theology by its appeal to an Asian/Korean American experience. … This creative scholarship provides a Christology especially relevant to a world in which oppressed and oppressor, love and hate, self and other, are interpreted in oppositional categories that privilege patriarchal dominance in its various forms….”

I’m not necessarily proud of the fact that I understand most of that theological gobbledy-gook. Yet what really concerns me is that this is just the kind of biblical scholarship that generates excitement amongst seminary faculty and at Society of Biblical Literature meetings. Might I be forgiven for asking what “insight into the theology of the cross” will possibly be gleaned from this work? How will it contribute to people coming to the Cross and placing their trust in God through Christ? Sadly, it is the scholars who produce works of this nature that receive appointments to posts in seminaries and bible schools, where they become responsible for training our next generation of pastors and leaders. What effect do you think they will have on the church of tomorrow?

I worry about the church, for I fear many of its leaders today are not feeding the sheep. They are not nourishing God’s people on words of faith and the doctrines of God. Truthfully, I find an anger percolating up within me toward these shepherds who allow the sheep to be scattered and become prey for the enemy. But then I must ask myself—are these “pastors” (I use the scare quotes intentionally; the title no longer fits them), are they really at fault? Do they even know what it means to shepherd the flock of God? After all, they are products of a ministry education in which teachers who are embarrassed by faith train them for ministry. They graduate having spent more time reading post-colonial, post-structural, political-liberationist-feminist hermeneutical theory than they do the Bible. They are shaped by constant interactions with faculty, an increasing number of whom are not believers in any traditional sense of the word. Is it surprising then that they arrive in our pulpits absolutely clueless about the real Christian life? Should we be shocked to find that they preach pop-psychology and self-actualization rather than Scripture? And should we be astonished that they rely more on church marketing consultants than the Holy Spirit?

After reading a review like this I am grateful that God has separated me from work in the academy. I am thankful that I need not interact with an academic culture that celebrates perversion over holiness, and for whom such things as belief in the full, plenary, verbal inspiration of Scripture are antiquated, meaningless shibboleths. Yet I grieve for the church when I consider the future of the pulpit. We need to pray and ask God for shepherds after His heart, who will nourish His people with the warm milk and strong meat of the Word and the Spirit! We need to petition the Lord for a revolution within this enterprise of church, ministry and academy. May God have mercy on His Church. And may God have mercy on us all!

A Time for Judgment…

If you are like me, your inbox has been flooded recently with emails like this one: “There’s still time for us to turn these elections! God is plenty powerful enough to do so. The real question is: Will we rise to the level of prayer and spiritual warfare necessary to release that power? And remember, we don’t need a majority of Christians who are willing and able to do this—only a praying remnant. We can do it!”

American Christians are becoming agitated as November 4^th approaches, and perhaps with good reason. Yet I am troubled by these e-mails, because they seem to reflect a profound lack of trust in the sovereignty of God. Obviously, the writer has enough faith to call for a nationwide prayer meeting and enough confidence to believe that praying could change history. Yet fear percolates through his syllables and his plea reflects a disturbing level of unbelief. Won’t God still be God on November 5^th? Will America’s choice of president diminish God’s power? Or is it something else? Is it fear that at long last American Christians might have to genuinely exercise faith in God rather than trust in their culture?

Few today have heard of the doctrine of the providence of God; it is rarely spoken in today’s seeker-sensitive, culturally relevant churches. The Westminster Confession describes God’s providence this way: “God, the great Creator of all things, does uphold, directly dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy” (V.1).

Admittedly, some of those words are antiquated and would benefit from definition. To “directly dispose” is to arrange or position something for a particular purpose. “Providence” has to do with the management of affairs or resources. And “immutable counsel” is unchallengeable, absolute, unchangeable advice.

Using those definitions we might define providence as God arranging the activities and affairs of all of creation (including humans and nations) according His own knowledge of the future, by His own unassailable counsel, and for His own glory. In other words, the doctrine of providence reminds us that everything that happens in life is divinely ordered. All things happen for a purpose; the world is being led to a place of glorifying God.

Now more than ever, we need to foster an awareness that God is entirely sovereign and in control of all that is happening, even in—or, especially in—this election cycle. We rejoice at the words of Jesus when He said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matt. 10:29). Shouldn’t we have as much confidence that America’s civil leadership is also under the care of God?

Please do not misunderstand me; I do not for a moment wish to discourage Christians from praying for this election. We must pray, because this time the hype just might be true—this just might be the most important election we will have in my lifetime. Neither option seems entirely satisfactory, yet I fear that one side could release things that will destroy the very fabric upon which this nation is still, albeit loosely, knit. So we must pray. But prayer alone—especially at this late hour—may not be all that’s needed.

At times like these the well-known scripture from 2 Chronicles is used to prompt us to pray. But even there God revealed that prayer alone would not heal the land: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7:14). It is time for more than prayer; it is time that we repent.

Let us be honest; have we, like God’s people of old, allowed ourselves to slip into the lifestyle of the world around us? Have we lost the commitment to holiness and righteousness? Haven’t we just become like everyone else? Hasn’t our nation become drunk with debt; engorged with material consumption and polluted by immorality? Don’t the streets run red with the blood of millions and millions of murdered unborn infants? Do we not treat the weak, the elderly, the poor and the stranger with contempt? Surely it is not a surprise that the heathen participate in these horrors; but have we, with our silence, for reasons of our own sufficiency, been complicit in all the evil? Indeed, it is time for repentance, and perhaps this election is designed for that purpose. Perhaps it is a sign that this is a time of judgment.

As Election Day nears and anxieties heighten, let us come before God and make some quality decisions. Let us commit to keeping our eyes fixed upon God. Let us return to His Word. Let us decide to live holy and upright before Him, by the power of His Holy Spirit. Let us reject those “churches” and “pastors” who call us to be like the world, who value being culturally relevant more than committed to the Truth. Let us remember that genuine love for God is expressed by obedience to His commands—not by the doing of deeds no matter how good or noble. Let us live worthy of our calling to be people of God, and rekindle our desire for the things of God.

No matter what happens on November 4^th, let us face it with faith and confidence in God. Remember, the American government is not the source of our peace or prosperity; they are fruits of the Spirit. This nation will only prosper when we return to the Lord whole-heartedly. Let us therefore keep our eyes fixed on God. Let us immerse ourselves in His word. And let us pray. May God have mercy upon the United States of America! And may God have mercy upon us all.  

Our Number One Need…

No sooner had I posted my first reflection on what a church should be than I received a comment that powerfully reveals our need for systematic and faithful teaching of Scripture. Somewhere out there is a soul possessed of a hundred questions, who apparently thinks that s/he knows Christ. And yet they appear clueless about the reasons for His coming and the purpose of His life on earth. From the sound of it, s/he might be a refugee from the contemporary church; at the least they harbor a great deal of cynicism towards it.

The possibility that this possessor of questions might well have been in regular attendance at a church is a powerful indictment against contemporary protestantism. The fact that someone could think that they know Christ and yet be so pointedly ignorant of the reasons for redemption demonstrates that the church has abdicated her responsibilities to teach the Word. This commentator apparently envisions Christ as a Robert Heinlein character, some powerful, mystical embodiment of human divinity, calling out the goodness lying dormant within human consciousness. No doubt s/he believes that humanity suffers under an accretion of layers of toxic sediment disgorged by the machinery of western, capitalistic culture, which has buried the divinity within our hearts. For this possessor of questions, humanity is in a state of unconscious ignorance, imprisoned to materialistic desires and awaiting a cryptic key to release our hidden potential.

Make no mistake: in the beginning Almighty God created humanity good and declared him very good indeed (Gen 1:31). Humanity at the first walked in fellowship with God (Gen 3:8). Now imagine that for a moment: what kind of being must Adam have been before the fall, that he had the faculties to fellowship with the Creator of the Universe? I love my children, and there was nothing like coming home when they were young and walking with them in the late afternoon light. They might tell me a story or share a dream, but more often than not, their attention would wander after a bug or a rock or a swing set. It was a joyous connection for me, but it was not fellowship. For fellowship, I needed someone who could converse with me with a measure of comprehension, understanding and empathy. Think of it… what kind of man was man before the Fall?

But Adam sinned: he rejected God by disobeying His commands. The devil said that God didn’t want Adam and Eve to be “like God” (Gen. 3:5), but that was a lie, because they already were like God! God had invested them with the authority to rule over all the works of His hands (Gen. 1:28; Ps. 8:5–7). All Adam needed to do in order to exercise that lordship was to submit himself to God, and allow God to rule through him. But Adam—like the devil himself—rejected this place of submission and dependency. He wanted to be like God on his own, without having to bow his knee to God. And so he fell. And great was the fall of human kind.

Humanity repeats this fall again and again, and those today who seek to fan the flames of some so-called divine spark inside of us, who see in Christ Jesus a mystical purveyor of esoteric knowledge that will enable humanity to reach its full potential, fall in the same fashion as Adam again. Man is not God and never can be nor will be God. But my question is, how could someone hold such beliefs in a church? That could only be because the church has abandoned the teaching of the Word.

Sadly, what my commentator accurately divines is that the church too often is about the inappropriate exercise of power. Much of the contemporary church is nothing more than a business enterprise marketing compassion and religion. Their focus is on their income statement; they keep score by the square footage of their “campuses” and the numbers of their outreaches. They design ministry in response to consumer surveys in the hope that they will increase their market share and proportionately raise their income. However, where my commentator misses the mark is in accusing those who accurately teach the Scripture of an abuse of power. Those who hold to Scripture are not building an enterprise based on guilt or fear, but instead are leading people to God by teaching them the Truth.

If anyone wishes to see religious abuse, to witness church malpractice, they need only look to the seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, or emergent church paradigms. Leaders in those ecclesiologies gather disciples after themselves; they abandon Scripture and preach whatever their people want to hear. These are the ultimate abusers, for they willingly allow people to slip into an eternal destiny in hell, all so that they may build a bigger church, elevate their personal profile, and obtain a seat at the place of power in the community. They choose to dispense comfort for the here and now, rather than point to our need of redemption, holiness and sacrifice. They reject Scripture as the source of authority for all things concerning life and faith and instead turn to human wisdom and the literature of human potential and pop-psychology. They corrupt the worship of God in spirit and truth with a panoply of neo-pagan emotional, inarticulate, and irrational rituals.

If humanity is ever to achieve its design as capable of fellowship with God; if we are ever to regain the good, divine aspects of our original being, it will only be as we fully and completely surrender ourselves to God in absolute dependence upon Him and His teaching. His ways of redemption are articulated by Christ in the Word. Therefore we must commit to immerse ourselves in the Word, and to allow His Word and Spirit to completely inhabit, indwell, and impel us. If there is, or ever was, a divine aspect to humanity, it was the presence of God within us. There is nothing divine in us alone. Once, long ago, human beings bore the imago dei—the image of God—without measure. But that was lost and marred through the fall. Jesus Christ came to restore that image. And when we receive the Word and are born again from above; when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell our hearts anew, then God begins the process of restoring His unblemished image in us. It is through the Word and the Spirit that humanity can be transformed and conformed to the image of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore be a church that elevates the teaching of the Word and the doctrines of the faith. Let us so love the world that we refuse to allow them to live with fatal misconceptions of God, Christ and humanity, and instead be willing to proclaim the Truth, even if it makes us unpopular. Let us be passionately hungry for God’s Word, esteeming the words of His mouth more than our necessary food. And let us cry out to God to be a church—and for all our churches to be—a place where the Word is faithfully proclaimed and taught. May God have mercy on us all.

A Vision of the church—part 1

If you have listened to many of my teachings or read any of my rants, you will note with, I hope, a bemused smile, that I am something of a critic of the contemporary church. However, recently I have sensed a prompting to do more than just offer criticism, but to put forth an alternative. And it seems good to me to share these thoughts with you. So in what I believe is an act of obedience, let me begin to outline a vision for a local community of believers. What is its primary work? How should it be described?

Three characteristics come immediately to my mind in thinking of what a local church should be. First and foremost, the church must be a learning community. Second, it must be a compassionate community, attentively seeing to the needs of its own members. Then—and only then—it must lift its vision upward to become a serving community—ministering to the needs of its surrounding community.

I will explore each of these characteristics of a local church on its own. Let us begin then with a consideration of what I believe is a church’s first call—to be a learning community.

A Learning Community

From the beginning, the church of Jesus Christ was a learning community:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  —Acts 2:42

The church is based on God’s self-revelation. We would not know God had He not revealed Himself to us. As fallen beings, under the authority of sin and separated from God, our hearts and minds are darkened and we are unable to know or even recognize God. Thankfully, the Almighty chose to reveal Himself to us through the Word—both the written word (Scripture) and the living word, Jesus Christ. To know God requires that we know His Word. Therefore the people of God are—and have always been—a people of the Word. To know God involves applying one’s self to the study of His ways revealed through His Word.

This is particularly true for Christians. Christianity is not simply an emotional experience or a system of ethical behavior. It is a committed embrace of a rich theological tradition. We begin the Christian life with an experience: a personal encounter with the resurrected Christ. But thereafter, we are called to follow Him, to become His disciple. Jesus revealed that a disciple’s life is a life of learning when He left these instructions:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  —Matt. 28:19,20

Disciples study the teachings of Christ in order to learn to observe and to do all that He commanded. Christianity is not an emotional experience devoid of theological content. Christianity is a conversion of both the heart and the mind. Christians commit to knowing God, because to know God is to experience eternal life:

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  —John 17:3

Christians have always been attentive to the “apostles’ doctrine.” Church history reveals the high value placed upon personal access to the Scripture and the teachings of Jesus. The church encourages believers to immerse themselves in Scripture, because the Holy Spirit uses the Word to effect a transformation of the believer’s life:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed….  —Rom. 6:17

Every human being has a world-view (epistemology) shaped by this fallen world system. A world-view is simply a mental framework through which we interpret reality; it is the means by which we understand life and define what is right and wrong, good and evil. That world-view shapes our ethics and morals; it governs our behavior and it moulds the decisions we make in every area of life. However, that world-view, it should go without saying, is from the world, and the world’s view of reality, right, wrong, good, and evil, is not God’s view:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  —Is. 55:9

God’s ways stand high above the world’s ways. The world is ignorant of God’s righteousness and opposes His revelation (Jn. 1:5). Each of us who comes to God comes with a defective and corrupt worldview, formulated by a world ignorant of ultimate Truth. Therefore the first work of a church must be to teach God’s word and His ways. Surely this is why Paul encouraged an early pastor he trained to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2).

The first work of a church—its primary purpose—is to teach and preach the Word of God. Obviously, this is not its only work, but apart from this, the church has no voice or power in this world. The world already has its hospitals, food banks, psychologists, entertainment centers and social clubs. Over time a church may absorb some of the tasks of those enterprises as it ministers to its members and their community. Yet none of these works is a church’s first mission. Its mission is to preach the Word and teach the doctrines of the faith. For it is the Word that is the source of Christian life, strength, healing, sustenance and fellowship. It is my firm conviction that a local church must be a place where the word of God is systematically and faithfully expounded week by week. It is the mission of God that holds out the Word of God and shows the world the ways of God.

This then is the first characteristic that makes a local church recognizable as an authentic church of Jesus Christ—it is a learning community.