Fear Based Thinking vs. Faith Based Thinking
A culture of fear leads to paranoia and mistrust of almost everything— the church, the government, those immigrants, your neighbors, your employees, the manufacturers of cars, drug manufacturers, doctors, lawyers, and the beat goes on. One of the effects of this whole climate change in America is that church people too have been bitten by the lust for absolutely certainty. So Gospels that guarantee ‘eternal security’ when it comes to salvation play well. Gospels that suggest that if you just know how to ask Jesus, health and wealth will be yours for sure play well (and of course if it doesn’t happen, ironically it is said to be because you lacked sufficient faith, but the message had spoken of a guaranteed outcome after praying to the right deity in the right way, not of faith).
The Progressive Churches of Christ: A Little Hauerwas, Part 1
He’s right, isn’t he? Don’t we see our personal relationship with God as much more important than our relationship through the church. We shop for congregations, hoping to find one that suits our personal needs. The needs of the church therefore must bend to the needs of the individual. The church is there to support the individual in his personal relationship with God.
And he’s right that the result is a lack of discipline. That is, church leaders have little real authority because the members see themselves as consumers of religious services, and if the leaders make them unhappy, they’ll just buy their religious services from another congregation down the road. There is little real commitment to the congregation, and hence community formation is very often imaginary.
The Progressive Churches of Christ: A Little Hauerwas, Part 2
Hmm … In other words, we’re forgiven so that we can live in a new and better way as new creations of God built into the temple called the church (or maybe I’m reading N.T. Wright into Hauerwas; he can be frustratingly vague). Forgiveness is not the end but the means. The goal isn’t forgiveness. Forgiveness is the beginning.
But, as Robert Putnam reminds us, the demographic that is the most unchurched is the working class, the lower income non-college-educated folks. A big segment of these blue-collar workers has just stopped going to church. They are also, with the personal and family problems that Putnam documents, arguably, most in need of ministry. This is ironic, since the working class used to be the biggest supporters of conservative Christianity. And yet, I’m unaware of any concerted effort to reach them, other than individual pastors in these communities doing what they can.
The Spiritual Stages of a Believer’s Life
Many years ago I happened across the idea that John was using these titles as shorthand for the different spiritual stages in which believers are at different times in their Christian life. In his experientially rich little book The Path of True Godliness, William Teellinck unpacked each of the three designations from the “spiritual stages” angle
My Dad, Corporate Worship and Two Kinds of Bad Singers
This Sunday, if you find yourself standing next to someone who is not a perfect singer but is still entering into worship, do this: Smile, sing with him or her, and thank God for that person’s courage and love of their Creator. And if you’re a less than ideal singer, sing loud, do your best to glorify God and thank him for the way He accepts imperfect gifts.
Can Canada teach the rest of us to be nicer?
Life is hard enough, with plenty of jagged edges and pointy bits. Why not coat it with a glaze of politeness and humility? Politeness, at its best, is a way of honoring others, especially strangers. Politeness is the lubricant that makes social interactions run smoothly and reduces the risk of conflagrations. The world, I think, would be a better place if we were all a bit more Canadian.