Christmas Kindness

I have been accused of being a bit of a Scrooge at Christmas. I assure you I am not. However, I am tired of the selfishness that surrounds what has simply become a gift-receiving occasion for so many. I love to hear of heartwarming stories of people giving back and doing good things for others. Check out this video from WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is the kind of things churches and individual believers should be doing. What a great outreach opportunity!

http://www.woodtv.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=null

Secret Santa picks up 3 layaway bills: woodtv.com

Weekend Reading: The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight

There is a bit of a disagreement among Christians, or at least leading Christian thinkers, regarding the gospel. Is it Jesus’ gospel (kingdom) or Paul’s gospel (justification by faith)? Scot McKnight wrote the cover story for the December 2010 issue of Christianity Today titled “Jesus vs. Paul”, in which he lays out a new proposal. So which is it? Jesus’ gospel or Paul’s gospel? Yes.

In McKnight’s newest book, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (2011, Zondervan), he more fully answers the gospel question by trying to rise above the tired arguments that seem to be never-ending. And he does it well.

There is no argument that the church is suffering a bit of a crisis. We are seeing people make a decision to accept Christ, but overall, churches are not growing. I have read a number of interesting theories, but I think I like Scot’s hypothesis the best. He thinks we are focusing on the wrong thing, and we need to return to a robust teaching and preaching of the gospel. The gospel? We are evangelicals; we live and breathe the gospel! Or do we?

McKnight observes we have reduced the gospel to the plan of salvation. We are not truly evangelicals; we are soterians, or salvationists. When evangelicals talk about the gospel, we typically thing immediately of the plan of salvation. I have talked to a number of my friends about this and they agree; the gospel is equivalent with the plan of salvation. McKnight appears to argue the plan of salvation is part of the gospel and come out of the gospel. Salvation is a result of the gospel.

McKnight believes that if we want to be more effective at building the kingdom and changing live, we need to quit just teaching the plan of salvation and start teaching the gospel. The whole gospel. We need to return to the gospel the apostles preached and taught. “Most of evangelism today is obsessed with getting someone to make a decision; the apostles, however, were obsessed with making disciples.” (page 18, emphasis his)

When defining the gospel, he appeals not to the Gospels but to Paul. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul defines the gospel. In the first part of the chapter, he give the short version; it is the story of Jesus. Jesus died for our sins, was buried, raised to life, and appeared publicly. On a side note, one of the key things we often leave out of the story—or at least minimize—is the resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection is key and is the hope of our resurrection.

Later in the same chapter, Paul does something else that evangelicals rarely do. He roots the story of Jesus in the story of Israel. McKnight argues that for the plan of salvation to really make sense it must come out of the story of Jesus and for the story of Jesus to really make sense it must be seen as the completion of the story of Israel. While I had never previously never really thought about it from that perspective, I don’t disagree.

McKnight has received some criticism for focusing on the corporate nature of the kingdom and minimizing the role of personal salvation. As I read the book, I did not see that at all. In fact, just the opposite is true. His understanding of the gospel and where the plan of salvation fits into it is much more robust than that. He begins at the beginning and gives the plan of salvation roots. This is how he orders it: Story of Israel/Story of the Bible –> Story of Jesus –> Plan of Salvation –> Method of Persuasion.

If The King Jesus Gospel lacks in any area, it is that it causes the reader to ask questions it does not answer. It does provide some answers, but it does so without a lot of specifics. An important point is made that the evangelical church has a salvation culture but needs a gospel culture. How do we accomplish that? How do we build a gospel culture? Maybe it is better not to answer the questions too specifically. Maybe it is better to figure it out ourselves. To help with this, McKnight offers a list of six comparisons between the gospeling, or evangelizing, in the book of Acts and our gospeling today. He compares:

1. What gospeling seeks to accomplish

2. What frames gospeling

3. Gospeling, wrath, and judgment

4. The problem gospeling resolves

5. Gospel and empire

6. Talk about Jesus

Since McKnight defines the gospel as the story of Jesus, he is basically advocating a story approach to gospeling as opposed to a soterian approach. To do this we must create a gospel culture. He closes the book by telling us that a gospel culture emerges from a soterian culture in these ways:

• We have to become People of the Story.

• we need to immerse ourselves even more into the Story of Jesus.

• We need to see how the apostles’ writings take the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus into the next generation and into a different culture, and how this generation led all the way to our generation.

• We need to counter the stories that bracket our story and that reframe our story.

• We need to embrace this story so that we are saved and can be transformed by the gospel story.

One of the most powerful aspects of The King Jesus Gospel is just how rooted in scripture it is. McKnight makes no claims without drawing them back to the Bible. He sums this up by providing an appendix with the gospel sermons in the book of Acts. This does an excellent job of demonstrating what first generation Christian preaching looked like and what ours can be.

While I do not endorse every aspect of any book, The King Jesus Gospel offers great insight into current evangelical church culture and a framework for changing that culture. There is much for church leaders and Christian thinkers to gain and learn from in this work. Whether or not you agree with McKnight, this book is definitely worth reading and thinking through.

Thoughts?

Be Transformed

The December 17, 2011 issue of World magazine has a profile of Alan Chambers. Chambers is president of Exodus International – a Christian ministry that helps people struggling with homosexuality. While it is a good article, that is not what I want to focus on, but I do want to make a few comments based on a paragraph in the article.

Alan Chambers is in denial. It’s a charge his critics level against him on a regular basis. They as that chambers – a former homosexual who helps others struggling with same-sex attraction – is denying what comes naturally to him. Chambers wholeheartedly agrees.

I have never had any kind of same-sex attraction, so I find it difficult to relate to his personal history. But like all of us, I have a great amount of experience with natural temptations that must be denied. But we – as the evangelical church – have raised sexual sin to its own separate level of iniquity. This is especially true of homosexuality. This leaves those struggling with this temptation with the impression that the church offers grace for people struggling with most temptations, but not theirs.

The reality is that we all are denying what comes naturally to us. Or at least we should be. That is because sin, of all stripes, comes naturally to us. All of us. That is the essence of what Romans 12:1-2 is about. We are called to give everything, including our bodies and the temptations that attack them, to God. When we do this, he begins to transform us and change the way we think. This means he will change way we respond to temptation – whether it is sexual or a prideful attitude about how you don’t struggle with sexual temptation.

Calvinist Santa (Satire)

I have friends who are Calvinist. Ihave friends who are Arminian. I have friends who hold to elements of each. This is satire. It is intended to be humorous. I hope you enjoy it!

We enter Santa’s workshop. Over by the desk we see two elves talking. One is Legolass, who has been Santa’s secratary for the past 200 years, and is moving on to new work. The other is Qeebler, who is taking over the secretary resposibilities. As the scene opens, Legolass is pulling out a large scroll from his desk drawer. Let’s listen:

[Click through for the story.]

 

Weekend Reading: Weird by Craig Groeschel

Most people may be normal, but their lives seem to be quietly spiraling out of control. They have scheduled themselves into extreme fatigue, often leading to additional stress and even depression. They never have enough money because they have to have the normal possessions. Because they are so focused on money and their schedule is so crowded, their relationships – including their spouse and children – are unhealthy and more of a personal drain than fulfillment. The quest to be normal has people damaging and destroying their current and future relationships by engaging in inappropriate sexual behaviors. Normal has led us down a road to discounting the more important things in life and elevating the less important. Normal clearly isn’t working. What do we do about it? This is the question Craig Groeschel tries to answer in Weird (2011, Zondervan).

The theme of Weird is pretty simple: “…the way normal people live today is miles away from what God intended.” (page 20) Later in the Introduction, he adds this thought:

Instead of living stressed, overwhelmed, and exhausted, you can live a life of meaningful relationships, intentional scheduling, and deep, fulfilling rest for your soul. Instead of choking with constant financial fear and tension, you can let God’s Word lead you along a path to financial peace, margin, and eternal investments. Instead of allowing your marriage to drift into parallel lives or divorce by default, you can experience true intimacy with your spouse. Rather than continuing on the normal sexual path toward pain, emptiness, and idolatry, you can allow God to heal you, change the way you think, and place deliberate safeguards in your life to protect you. God wants you to know him and love him – not just acknowledge him or consider him a cosmic sugar daddy. (page 20)

In examining how we can live better than normal lives, Groeschel lays out five areas where we are called to be a God kind of weird:

• Time

• Money

• Relationships

• Sex

• Values

There is a section of the book devoted to each of the five themes. Each section is broken down into three chapters. In these chapters, Groeschel examines the problem with the normal life (as it relates to the theme), the way the scriptures call us to conduct ourselves, and some very practical suggestions for overcoming normal experiencing fulfillment.

I like Groeschel. He is a fairly engaging preacher and a solid communicator, but I think he shines most brightly as an author. He fills a void in the Christian Living and Spiritual Growth segments of the Christian publishing market. He speaks forcefully, but not with his own authority. His propositions are thoroughly grounded in God’s Word and common sense. He writes with clarity and humor, which makes him interesting to read. Like his last book, The Christian Athiest, Weird has a great hook. Called to be weird? I wanted to check this book out; and I am glad I did.

Clocking in at under 250 pages and written in a simple, readable style, Weird is a fairly quick, easy read. But be careful not to read it too quickly. Take your time and think about what you are reading. Let the words speak to you. Let the Holy Spirit use this book to convict you to be weird, the God kind of weird.

I heartily recommend this book. I would rate it 5 out of 5 stars. This is a book that is appropriate for any believer, or even an unbeliever. The themes and format of the book would lend themselves easily for small group discussion, or for a pastor or teacher to build a teaching series around.

Thoughts?

Weekend Reading: Jesus Loves You

Jesus Loves You…This I Know (2009, Baker Books) is a great title and concept for a book. The authors, Craig Gross and Jason Harper, are doing ministry for people most of us refuse to dirty our hands with. Gross is founder of XXXchurch.com which reaches out primarily to those involved in the pornography business and those addicted to its use. Harper is Director of Community Outreach for Capital Christian Center in Sacramento, California. I’ll give these guys credit for putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak.

Jesus Loves You is well-written and easy to read. The authors focus on ten types of lifestyles or people and shares the fact that Jesus loves them. They emphasize that Jesus loves the:

• Bitter and Betrayed

• Disconnected

• Broken

• Forgotten

• Skeptic

• Glutton

• Crook

• Outcast

• Porn Star

• Religious

The problem is that is just about all they tell them. Apparently, all you need is love. Don’t get me wrong, genuine love is possibly the only way into the lives of these individuals. But the message cannot stop there. Jesus’ love is definitely an important part of the Gospel message, but it is incomplete. Recognizing Jesus’ love is not enough; and only sharing the message of love cheapens the Gospel.

The other problem I have with the book is that the authors spend a great deal of time speaking poorly of the church. Every church I have been part of has had its problems. Doubtless, some of that is my fault. Where the church is wrong, it needs to confess. Where it has failed to bear the image of Christ, it needs to repent and change. But the church is the institution established by God to build his kingdom in this age. I appreciate para-church ministries, but they are not established by God to be his witness. They are to come along side the church, not replace it. This ill will toward the church is a big trend among some evangelicals. The church is the bride of Christ. Don’t stand outside throwing stones; come inside and be a prophetic voice.

Most of the time, this volume appears to be written to unbelievers. On that count, I think it fails by not really sharing the Gospel. Sometimes it appears to be written to believers. There it fails by being mean-spirited. Either way, I don’t find it particularly helpful and would not recommend it.

Thoughts?

Weekend Reading: The Spirit of Texas by Winston Menzies

The Book: Is The Spirit of Texas (2011, Creative Publishing Co.) the story of Texas told in the history of one family or the story of one family told in the context of Texas’ history? Actually, it’s a little of both. Several years ago author Winston Menzies received in the mail a copy of a relative’s obituary clipped from a local newspaper. He realized that his family’s story was being lost with the passing of each aging relative and he decided to begin collecting his family’s history. What began as a collection of random facts about the family turned into a book that took about four years to write.

William Menzies, Sr. was born in 1855 in Scotland. He moved with his parents to Canada then to New York. At age 21, Menzies caught a boat to Galveston. He had learned the carpentry trade from his father but had a hard time finding work, and moved on to Karnes County and took up ranching. In July 1887, he came to Ballinger by train and took the stage coach to Menard and purchased his first land, about 1,280 acres. He settled there, married, and raised a family on the ranch that is still in the family today.

But The Spirit of Texas is not just the story of the Menzies family. It is the story of those who pioneered Texas. It is the story of those resourceful Texans who came from all over the country and even around the world to establish this great state.

The Point: Menzies repeatedly makes the point that these were strong, hearty individuals who teamed this part of Texas. He also says there are still strong, hearty individuals and they should use that strength to tame America’s future like they did its past. His own family certainly fits that description. He describes his forebears as balancing a rugged individualism and a faith in and reliance on God. He also wants to give the reader a picture of what it took to establish the frontier areas of this country, especially west Texas.

The Result: I am a Texan. I am proud to be a Texan. This is true of most Texans that I know. That is what made this book so interesting to me. An added bonus is the vast collection of photographs. I really enjoyed this book. I do have a few critical remarks:

• My overall impression is that Menzies longs for “days gone by”. He laments the shortage of hard working individualists from the days his family settled west Texas. I don’t disagree that those individuals seem harder to find. I think there has always been a shortage of those individuals. We are just aware of the ones who made their mark and unaware of those who didn’t. I think future generations will see us that way.

• The author spends several pages being critical of the current political situation in the United States. In fact, he seem very Tea Party-like in his criticisms. I am not saying I disagree or agree with him. It just seemed very out of place in this book.

• Menzies is clearly not a professional writer. The book is does not simply follow a pattern of starting with the subject’s birth and ending with his death. It meanders quite a bit. It is more like a collection of stories. This is not necessarily bad. In many ways, it almost made it endearing.

I would generally recommend this book for Texans and those who are interested in Texas’ history and culture. It was a good break from the topics I generally read. Let me know what you think!

What is the Gospel?

Each week here at the Life and Ministry blog I try post a book review. I have just started reading The King Jesus Gospel (2011, Zondervan) by Scot McKnight. In the introduction he recounts the story of, along with a deacon from his church, visiting a prospect who had visited their church. They used a popular evangelism program to share the gospel with this man and he prayed to accept Christ. McKnight left with the impression he only prayed with them so they would leave his house. He was never seen at that church again. He writes:

Because of that singular event, I’ve looked ever since with a cynical eye at evangelistic strategies. Not because I’m not an evangelist but because I believe we are focused on the wrong thing. Most of evangelism today is obsessed with getting someone to make a decision; the apostles, however, were obsessed with making disciples. Those two words—decision and disciples—are behind this entire book. evangelism that focuses on decisions short circuits and—yes, the word is appropriate—aborts the design of the gospel, while evangelism that aims at disciples slows down to offer the full gospel of Jesus and the apostles. (page 18, emphasis his)

On the second page of the first chapter (page 24), he suggests stopping and answering one question. What is the gospel? Reserving my right to change my answer at a later date, here is my attempt to answer the question:

The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ that informs individuals of their need for a savior and leads them into a reconciled relationship with God through that savior, Jesus Christ. The gospel also informs the life of the individual to lead them to grow in that relationship with God and to become conformed to the image of Christ. This includes the capacity and desire to share the gospel with others.

I think McKnight may be right. The gospel of the evangelical church—the salvation message—may be accurate, but it is also incomplete. Perhaps this is why we have so many converts and so few disciples.

How would you answer the question: What is the gospel? Please share!

Weekend Reading: For Parents Only by Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa A. Rice

The Book: This is the third installment in a three-part series. Last week I took a look at Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn’s For Men Only. Today I will offer a few thoughts on another book in this series. For Parents Only (2007, Multnomah Books) aims to help parents, especially of teenagers, to get “inside the head of your kid”. As a parent of three sons, one of which is a teenager and the others zeroing in on that age, I found this to be the most realistic and helpful of the three books in the series that I have read.

Like the other two books, this one relied heavily on professional research. There was a professionally conducted survey of fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen year-olds. These teens included all major racial groups, belief systems, and socioeconomic strata. This is in addition to multiple personal and group interviews. All told, more than twelve hundred young people were involved in this research.

The authors’ (Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa A. Rice) research revealed six major findings. Like the other books in this series, the research and its results determine the direction of the book.

The Point: As they start the book, the authors take the time to emphasize a few points that should be taken into consideration as you read the book. This was helpful and likely prevented some of the findings from being misunderstood. This is a brief summary of those points:

1. We are not endorsing the behavior or excusing the poor choices described by some kids in these pages. They are simply reporting the results of the research. This does not mean they condone it.

2. Our findings are nationally representative, but we personally approach parenting from a Christian worldview.

3. This book is not just for parents of teenagers. While most of the data is reflective of the teen years, the information should be helpful for parents of younger children as well.

4. There are exceptions to every rule. When they say that most kids appear to think a certain way, realize that most means exactly that—most, not all.

5. This book is not intended as a comprehensive overview of parenting principles. The goal is to make blissfully unaware parents more aware of what is likely going on inside their child.  (List summarized from pages 9-11.)

The book is organized around six major findings (outlined below) from the research. The findings are not particularly surprising at first glance. It is when they moved past what we think is happening to what is really happening inside our kids that some surprises surface. After listing these in the first chapter, they write a chapter for each of the findings to further unpack the meaning and help us apply the truth.

When They Hit the Teen Years
Here’s What We Think Is Happening	Here’s What’s Really Happening
Peer pressure pushes kids to rebel and behave in reckless ways without thinking through the consequences.	The intoxicating nature of freedom—and the fear of losing it—can lead even good kids to make choices that look like recklessness and rebellion, but directly addressing their craving for independence will help them build responsibility.
Teens seem to reject parents and their values, no longer caring much what their parents think.	Separating themselves from their parents’ identity is one of the only ways healthy teenagers can develop their own; but even as they seem to push us away, our children still secretly want to know our values and need our affirmation of who they are becoming.
Teens don’t want rules or discipline.	Although our teens test our authority and argue with rules, they secretly want us to stand firm as parents and will lose respect for us if we don’t.
When kids make mistakes, they disregard their parents’ opinions or criticism.	Although they may not look like it, kids want the security of knowing we are making the effort to understand them and will be there for them regardless of their mistakes—but kids will emotionally shut out a parent they see as judgmental.
Kids say parents don’t listen.	Kids tend to stop talking because they perceive parents as rotten listeners but will open up when we prove we’re safe and calmly acknowledge their feelings before addressing a problem.
Teens give in easily to negative attitudes—afflicting their families with sullenness, anger, or back talk—over what seem to be minor issues.	What looks like an attitude problem may actually be a sign of insecurity, but actively countering our children’s fears can build their confidence and help them become more respectful of parents and others.

(Information in table taken from pages 6-7.)

The Result: Of the three For (Whoever) Only books I have read in this series, this one appeared to be the most helpful for me. While no marriage is perfect, I generally feel pretty good about the relationship between She Who Must Be Obeyed and me. I feel far more inadequate as a father. This book holds some potential to help me with that.

One of my biggest critiques of this book as well as the others is that they are very formulaic. Of course, this is the danger of any series of non-fiction books designed to help improve a particular area of our lives. This happens regularly. An author writes a good book that many people find helpful. They have established their brand. Then they build on that brand, and there is no more originality. This brand includes:

• For Women Only

• For Men Only

• For Parents Only

• For Women Only in the Workplace

• For Young Women Only

• For Young Men Only

• For Couples Only (this is a re-packaging of For Men Only and For Women Only into a boxed set)

There may be more, but I became bored with searching.

The authors maintain a website related to the book (forparentsonlybook.com). There are also a number of associated products such as a members only area, a copy of the survey they conducted, and responses from teenagers.

I would generally recommend For Parents Only for most parents and church leaders, especially those who work with pre-teens or teenagers.

Thoughts?

Weekend Reading: For Men Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn

The Book: This is the second installment in a three-part series. Last week I took a look at Shaunti Feldhahn’s For Women Only. Today I will offer a few thoughts on the follow-up written with her husband, Jeff. For Men Only (2006, Multnomah Books) claims to offer a guide to the inner lives of women. It largely lives up to that claim. The target reader is men who are married or in a relationship leading toward marriage. Unlike last week, this book was written for me, and I must add that I was much more comfortable reading it.

Like the companion book for women, the research that went into the book was pretty extensive. There was a professionally conducted survey of women. There was a follow-up survey of more women, specifically church-goers. There were numerous focus groups. There were scores of individual interviews. There were easily well over a thousand women who participated in the research for the book.

Again, the Feldhahns do a good job of letting the research guide the book instead of the other way around. It would be easy to start with their own preconceived notions and let that form the basis of the findings, but they avoid this.

The Point: One of the first things the authors do is lay out the ground rules for the work. I appreciate this. The reader knows from the beginning why they address some things and leaves others alone. While there is some similarity to the ground rule in For Women Only, there are differences as well. The ground rules could be summarized as:

1. This book holds to a biblical world view. They do not quote heavily from Scripture, but their starting point and the lens they view everything through is decidedly Christian.

2. This is not a comprehensive marriage book. There are plenty of those already on the market (and more being written on a regular basis). They recommend some on their website.

3. This is not an equal treatment. It is intentionally one-sided. It is written for men to better understand and relate to the women in their lives.

4. There are exceptions to every rule. When they say “most women” they mean “most” not all. They use generalizations and there will be exceptions.

5. The findings may not be politically correct, but they try to be true to the evidence. They do not intend to be offensive; they are speaking frankly to men, from a man’s viewpoint, about women. The goal is to help men understand their wives and better love them. (List summarized from pages 19-22.)

The book is organized around six major findings (outlined below) from the research. They then used the research to move beyond a surface understanding to what they mean in practice. After listing these in the first chapter, they write a chapter for each of the findings to further unpack the meaning and application of the truth.

Surface Understanding	What That Means in Practice
Women need to feel loved.	Even if your relationship is great, your mate likely has a fundamental insecurity about your love—and when that insecurity is triggered, she may respond in ways that confuse or dismay you until she feels reassured.
Women are emotional.	Women deal with multiple thoughts and emotions from their past and present all the time, at the same time—and these can’t be easily dismissed.
Women want security—in other words, financial security.	Your woman needs emotional security and closeness with you so much that she will endure financial insecurity to get it.
She doesn’t want you to fix it; she just wants you to listen.	When she is sharing an emotional problem, her feelings and her desire to be heard are much more important than the problem itself.
She doesn’t want much sex; she must not want me.	Physically, women tend to crave sex less often than men do—and it is usually not related to your desirability.
She wants to look attractive.	Inside your smart, secure wife lives a little girl who deeply needs to know that you find her beautiful—and that you only have eyes for her.

(Information in table taken from page 17.)

The Result: While I suspect the Feldhahns’ research findings are generally true, I am not sure they are a totally true reflection of She Who Must Be Obeyed. As I think about it, the fact that I call her that may have something to do with that. I will not go into any detail about that; it is a little too personal. I’m sure you understand. There are definitely some insights in the book that will be helpful in understanding SWMBO and improving our relationship. As a preacher and teacher, and doing a little pastoral counseling in the process, the research is helpful in further understanding the differences between men and women.

The author maintains a website related to the book (http://formenonlybook.com). There are also a number of associated products such as a discussion guide, a copy of the survey they conducted, and responses from women.

I would generally recommend For Men Only for women who are married or in relationships that are leading toward marriage. I would also recommend it for individuals who, like me, are preachers and teachers who might do a little pastoral counseling.

Thoughts?