A Puppet on a String
Arthur at “the voice of one crying out in suburbia” has written another excellent post called “Faith, religion, control, power, money.” His first sentence spells out his point:
There is ample evidence throughout history that when you have people with strong faith under the influence of people with control you get a combustible mix.
He continues by pointing to examples in history where people are led to do things that they would not normally do because of the way they are controlled by those in authority. Historically, the church has succumbed to this as well.
What’s the antidote? Well, Arthur spells that out in his conclusion:
The church of Jesus Christ has its genesis in the submission of Christ to the cross, of Him condescending to take on a tabernacle of flesh, of emptying Himself for the sake of poor, miserable sinners. It has for its example the God of the universe washing the feet of His disciples, of a King with no place to lay His head, of God coming in the flesh as a helpless infant born of a peasant. We as His people exhibit strength in our weakness, claim foolishness as our source of wisdom and find our greatest power in powerlessness. The greatest among us are not the scholars or the mighty orators but instead are the servants (Matthew 20:25-28). Everything about the church of Christ and the Gospel of Christ is counter-intuitive to the world and its love of control. There is no place for those who seek control or hunger for power in His church.
Thank you, Arthur, for reminding us that a kingdom citizen will always seek to submit him or herself, and never seek to control another person.
Problems with Questions
So, my friend Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” says we should “Keep Asking Questions.” (And, I can talk about him now, because according to his blog he’s out of town.)
But, I’ve found that it’s difficult to ask questions. I mean, it’s not difficult for me to ask question. But, sometimes, it’s difficult to ask questions to other people without them creating false dichotomies.
Let me give you some examples.
When I ask if the church should meet for worship or for edification, it’s sometimes assumed that I don’t think Christians should worship. Why is that?
When I question the validity of the modern day office of pastor, people often ask me why I don’t like leaders. Why?
When I ask why we put so much emphasis on the sermon (i.e., a unidirectional monologue), I’m occasionally asked why I don’t appreciate Scripture. Are they the same?
So, I think asking questions is very good. But, when you’re asking questions, sometimes your questions are misunderstood.
Ethics are for living
Ethics are for living, not for study. At least, that is the claim of Ben at “Casting Out Callicles” in his article “Against Armchair Ethicists.” Concerning the study of ethics, Ben concludes:
There is something higher to which those of us who study ethics should aspire. We should hope not only to discover and explain what is good, but to love it, and to inspire the same love in our readers.
Interesting. If this applies to ethics, does it also apply to theology? What about ecclesiology? You mean, we’re supposed to live this stuff and not just study and write about it?
How weird.
(ht: adam)
A Clear Pattern of Commissioning
My friend, Maël, at “The Adventures of Maël and Cindy,” is continuing to publish his paper on the subject of ordination. His last few posts deal with the idea of commissioning:
Ordination – Analysis – A Clear Pattern of Commissioning – Part 1 of 3
Ordination – Analysis – A Clear Pattern of Commissioning – Part 2 of 3
Ordination – Analysis – A Clear Pattern of Commissioning – Part 3 of 3
He also included an excursus:
The NT Concept of Ministry – a small excursus
What is Maël’s conclusion?
To summarize, the commissioning pattern is the appointing of someone, who is gifted, to a specific task. It should happen through the laying on of hands, motivated by the call of God, and imbibed in prayer. S/he is to be from within a congregation and will be a representative of the congregation doing the commissioning. This does not imply an impartation of authority on the individual being commissioned.
Maël clarifies in the comments that he is not talking about pastors or elders only. Instead, the church can “commission” anyone to any task. Of course, this type of formal commissioning is not necessary, but can be helpful to those commissioned and to the church.
What do you think?
New Blog to Watch: “learning…”
My friend Danny recently told us that he’s moving to Virginia. We’re disappointed to see him move, but we’re also excited about God has planned for him in Virginia.
And, he’s leaving us something by which we can remember him and continue interacting with him: a blog! He calls his blog “learning…” and his first post is called “Origin of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.”
Danny may be new to blogging, but he is definitely not a newbie when it comes to thinking through difficult concepts, discussing and interacting about those concepts, and then (get this) putting the concepts into action!
Trust me, this is a blog that you want to bookmark and read.
Thirty Years of Learning
On his blog this morning, Dave Black remembered and meditated on his last 30 years of learning (30 years since he graduated from seminary). He says (Thursday, June 10 at 7:41 a.m.):
There is pain in these reflections. The past 30 years have not, for the most part, been lived for others. Not, at least, in any sacrificial sense. Nor has love been my constant priority. To fail in love is to fail completely in our witness to Christ. I have grown, perhaps, in my theological grasp, my teaching ability, my leadership qualities, my publishing record, my loyalty to the local church. The fact remains, however, that all of these things are irrelevant in the eyes of a lost world. My academic attainments, my scholarly reputation, my list of publications — these are purely secondary when it comes to my witness to others. What the world knows, and sees, and recognizes, and values, and needs is love. As Francis Schaeffer once put it, love is the distinguishing mark of the Christian and the greatest apologetic for Christianity. Has love been my constant priority these past 30 years? Hardly. But gradually, year by year, I’ve begun to realize that the great blows of God are designed to awaken me from the slumber of my tiny humanity and make a Christian out of me. My trials have produced spiritual muscles even as my body grows feeble and flabby. I have been forced — yes, trials push one towards the love of God! — forced, I say, to stop trusting in my own looks, eloquence, power, or ability and to trust instead in the incredible grace of God in Christ. 30 years ago I had the world wrapped around my little finger. Christianity was easy. Today I gladly admit: There is no such thing as easy Christianity. As never before, Christ’s love has gripped me, propelled me, and impelled me along one magnificent obsession: To know Him and to make Him known. I am rich in Christ, and these riches have nothing to do with diplomas or degrees. That sounds too simple, perhaps, but it is the voice of 30 years of experience speaking. If you are a Christian, you are rich too. I hope that you too will find true riches, know them, claim them, and live in the proved experience of them.
I was headed in the same direction that Dave Black was headed 30 years ago. I think I’m learning a little sooner thanks to his example and the example of other brothers and sisters that God has brought into my life.
Keep Asking Questions
I think I should stop writing blog posts and just link to Eric’s posts at “A Pilgrim’s Progress.” His latest post is called “Some Questions to Ask About Your Church Gatherings.” Here are his first few questions:
Why do we gather together? What is the purpose?
What am I doing to live out the purpose of our gatherings?
What am I doing to prepare for our gatherings?
If I am generally passive during our gatherings, why is this the case? What can I do to change it? Should I change it?
As we gather, am I using my spiritual gifts to build up the body?
He has several more thought provoking questions. Jump over to his post and read them all… and think about them all… and maybe even answer them.
The Whole Church
This is from Dave Black’s blog (yesterday, June 3, 2010 at 8:05 p.m.):
La totalité de l’église c’est pour saint Paul le fait primaire, sa localisation en est seulement un corallarie. [My translation: “The whole church is for St. Paul the primary thing, its locality is only a corollary.”]
This is still exactly how I feel and think about the church today! For Paul, every local church is nothing more than the representation of the one universal church. This is why I do not think of “my” church as Bethel Hill Baptist Church only. “My” church is also your church, and the church in Ethiopia, and the church in China. Thus if one church suffers, I must suffer with it; I have no choice because Christ does not have “bodies,” He has one Body. In the words of Reicke (from the same essay):
En effet, Paul est enclin à regarder chaque église locale, non seulement comme une copie de léglise universelle, mais comme étant l’église univiverselle elle-même, réalisée dans ce monde. [My translation: “Indeed, Paul was inclined to lood at each local church not only as a copy of the universal church, but as the universal church itself realized in this world.”]
I’ve often wondered, is the “universal” and “local” distinction in the church a man-made distinction?
Translating the LXX of Ruth
In a post published last Saturday, I finished translating Philippians. I’ve been trying to decide what to do next.
Dave Black keeps talking about his LXX class this fall, so I was thinking about translating something from the LXX… perhaps a few Psalms. But, today, he inspired me again.
It seems that the LXX class at SEBTS taught by Dave Black and Bob Cole will be translating Ruth from the LXX. So, that’s what I’m going to do next. I’m not taking the class, but I love the book and have never studied the LXX text of that book.
So, beginning this Saturday, I’ll publish posts of my translations from the LXX of Ruth. I’ll still try to translate paragraph by paragraph. (Anyone want to join me?)
Change? Who? Me?
My friend Eric at “A Pilgrim’s Progress” continues to write thought provoking posts. His latest, “Ready to Change at Any Time,” is no exception. He says:
I agree with Jeff [about being ready to change at any time]. I just don’t know if I put this into practice. It is somewhat scary and challenging to commit to changing what we believe any time the bible says to do so. This is challenging because the bible has a way of making frontal assaults on our comfortable traditions. Think for just a minute of a tradition you hold dear. Would you be willing to immediately jettison that tradition if you find that it conflicts with scripture?
Most of us fall into the trap of thinking that we have the Christian life all figured out. We can go on a sort of “Christian autopilot” for days if we are not careful. This can happen if we are not consistently reading scripture. However, if we read the bible regularly, it will have a way of knocking our traditions down to the ground.
The life of following Jesus Christ is a life of change. Read through the pages of Scripture, and you’ll quickly see that Jesus would change people’s addresses, their ways of thinking about God, the way their interacted with others, their way of thinking about themselves.
It doesn’t matter how educated we are or how long we’ve been following Jesus or how successful we have been serving or discipling others or proclaiming the gospel or leading people or teaching Scripture… something (ok… more than one something) about our beliefs and way of life is wrong and needs to change.
Are we willing to change?