Where is our faith heading...

More and more I find in my pastoral work as minister of the church that I am involved in, that people are believing a more diverse set of ‘truths’ than ever before. There are all sorts of influences to this style of belief:

• The pluralistic values that most people buy into (all roads lead to Rome, all religions are equal)
• Political correctness (that we are unable to judge other beliefs)
• The church of Oprah (see below for a previous post)
• A lack of basic doctrinal training and teaching in the church (Doctrine is irrelevant and experience is everything)

But what I see is Christians believing a very alternative set of truths and spiritual ideals that fall far outside the realm of orthodox Christian doctrine. Whilst I am all for a diversity of opinions and a tolerance towards other beliefs I do find some of this hard to stomach in so far that it really takes liberty of opinion further than I believe Jesus or the scriptures would allow us. For those outside the church: believe whatever makes you happy to believe. But my concern lies with those in the church. I am not a wildly charismatic believer where anything not directly approved by the Bible is evil, but I do have my deep reservations about the spiritual origins and influences that some of these beliefs have, and particularly that many who call themselves followers of Christ believe these things. The problem for me is a dumbing down of Christian belief to a set of universally accepted principals that other religions might also believe. And as long as these basic ideals are the same another religious belief will be compatible with Christian faith: For example many Reiki masters abide by five principals:

• Do not be angry
• Do not worry
• Be grateful
• Work with integrity
• Be kind to others

These are great principals that any Christian would be happy to live by, but to contend that because these ideals are compatible with some of the ideals of Christianity that Christianity should accept Reiki (or any other similar new age religion or teaching) is a stretch that I am not prepared to make.

Almost all new age teachings or spiritualities speak of an unseen "life force energy" that flows through us. And what happens is most people say “wow that kind of makes sense – they must be talking about the Holy Spirit” – well I am convinced that this is not the Holy Spirit. A spiritual force that all people are able to access is not the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is given only to believers in Jesus and to equate the third person of the trinity with some universal and impersonal force (I have visions here of Darth Vader “The force is strong with you young Skywalker!” ) is erroneous at best – blasphemous at worst. The Holy Spirit is God, and he is the one who guarantees those who belong to Jesus a hope for eternity (Eph 1) and empowers us to be Jesus agents in this world, to bring truth, justice and reconciliation in Jesus’ name (1 Thess 1). Finally the Holy Spirit will always testify to Jesus work ministry and truth (1 John 5).

This is not the same spirit that is proposed by a myriad of New Age religions that are punted by Oprah and the likes. Not everyone has the Holy Spirit and to suggest that they do is to misunderstand the New Testament witness at a substantial level. The abundance of teachings like The Secret, A New Earth, Reiki, Body Talk and a countless host of other influences are infecting the church and eroding the truth that the early church fought and died to pass on to the next generation.

So I find myself asking myself the question: How do we as leaders in the church deal with this?

Do we simply clamp our eyes and ears shut and see no evil, hear no evil? Do we pretend this is not an issue and hope it goes away (I am pretty certain it won’t)

Or do we speak strongly against this? ( possibly undoing the work of the grace of Jesus or chasing some away from the church)

Or is there a middle path?

I am still not sure of my answer.

Where is our faith heading...

More and more I find in my pastoral work as minister of the church that I am involved in, that people are believing a more diverse set of ‘truths’ than ever before. There are all sorts of influences to this style of belief:

• The pluralistic values that most people buy into (all roads lead to Rome, all religions are equal)
• Political correctness (that we are unable to judge other beliefs)
• The church of Oprah (see below for a previous post)
• A lack of basic doctrinal training and teaching in the church (Doctrine is irrelevant and experience is everything)

But what I see is Christians believing a very alternative set of truths and spiritual ideals that
fall far outside the realm of orthodox Christian doctrine. Whilst I am all for a diversity of
opinions and a tolerance towards other beliefs I do find some of this hard to stomach in so far that it really takes liberty of opinion further than I believe Jesus or the scriptures would allow us. For those outside teh church: believe whatever makes you happy to believe. But my concern lies with those in the church. I am not a wildly charismatic believer where anything not directly approved by the Bible is evil, but I do have my deep reservations about the spiritual origins and influences that some of these beliefs have, and particularly that many who call themselves followers of Christ believe these things.

The problem for me is a dumbing down of Christian belief to a set of universally accepted principals that other religions might also believe. And as long as these basic ideals are the same another religious belief will be compatible with Christian faith: For example many Reiki masters abide by five principals:

• Do not be angry
• Do not worry
• Be grateful
• Work with integrity
• Be kind to others

These are great principals that any Christian would be happy to live by, but to contend that because these ideals are compatible with some of the ideals of Christianity that Christianity should accept Reiki (or any other similar new age religion or teaching) is a stretch that I am not prepared to make. Almost all new age teachings or spiritualities speak of an unseen "life force energy" that flows through us. And what happens is most people say “wow that kind of makes sense – they must be talking about the Holy Spirit” – well I am convinced that this is not the Holy Spirit. A spiritual force that all people are able to access is not the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is given only to believers in Jesus and to equate the third person of the trinity with some universal and impersonal force (I have visions here of Darth Vader “The force is strong with you young Skywalker!” ) is erroneous at best – blasphemous at worst.

The Holy Spirit is God, and he is the one who guarantees those who belong to Jesus a hope for eternity (Eph 1) and empowers us to be Jesus agents in this world, to bring truth, justice and reconciliation in Jesus’ name (1 Thess 1). Finally the Holy Spirit will always testify to Jesus work ministry and truth (1 John 5). This is not the same spirit that is proposed by a myriad of New Age religions that are punted by Oprah and the likes. Not everyone has the Holy Spirit and to suggest that they do is to misunderstand the New Testament witness at a substantial level. The abundance of teachings like The Secret, A New Earth, Reiki, Body Talk and a countless host of other influences are infecting the church and eroding the truth that the early church fought and died to pass on to the next generation.

So I find myself asking myself the question: How do we as leaders in the church deal with this?

Do we simply clamp our eyes and ears shut and see no evil, hear no evil? Do we pretend this is not an issue and hope it goes away (I am pretty certain it won’t)

Or do we speak strongly against this? ( possibly undoing the work of the grace of Jesus or chasing some away from the church)

Or is there a middle path? I am still not sure of my answer.

Jacob

OK so last Sunday I preached on Jacob wrestling with the angel at the Jabbok river. A fascinating passage and I spent a lot of time reading and researching to make sense of it. I though I gave the message a good run.

I write this blog four days later lying in hospital recovering from a broken hip after crashing my mountain bike. One of my elders who was unable to make worship called to say that on wednesday shortly after hearing about my accident opened his daily devotional to find the Genesis 32 passage on Jacob having his disclocated whilst wrestling the angel.

Rather strange?

Of course if we beleive there are no coincedences then the question must be asked...what exactly IS God trying to say to me?

Small or Big

No I am not talking about waist lines, but about church size.

There seem to be two movements in the church these days. On the one hand are the mega-churches, sometime meeting in multiple locations with one minister doing all the preaching and teaching, othertimes holding many services at different times in one large venue.

The second movement is characteristic of the emerging church movement. These churches meet in small informal and intimate environments and many of the people will be participative in the worship. There is a belief that these churches are more "biblical" than mega churches.

Let me make some comments and open it up to some discussion. It is clear that the early church met in both homes and at temple worship and so there seems to be some biblical model for both styles. Secondly Jesus spoke to large crowds, sometimes significantly bigger than some mega churches. Peter too at Pentecost preaches to thousands of people. There is clear evidence of both styles of meeting.

The move towards smaller churches is caused by a number of factors and I dont want to enter into all of them here. Some are around accontability and community which I value very highly and agree with completely.

But one of the issues is the centrality of the preacher. Whilst I firmly belive in conciliar leadership (leadership by a council of leaders) and that the only person the church should be build around is Jesus, there are gifted men and women who are called to preach and others who whilst called to lead should not be allowed near a pulpit :) In many of these post-modern smaller churches there is no specific preacher and the baton of bringing the message is passed around from one Sunday to the next. And I just don't agree with that. Not all elders are teachers/preachers, they may have wisdom, integrity and maturity of faith, but some really should not be allowed to teach up front.

Personally I do not like being the center of attention and get annoyed when people focus on me rather than the subject of my message, Jesus. but I also realize that by God's grace I do have the ability to expplain the scriptures in an engaging way. Not all the elders I have served with have that ability.

So there is my opinion (for what it is worth being a precher :) )

Comments...?

God's grace

Recently new life church (of Ted Haggard infamy) had a terribly tragic shooting. But it is in traumatic moments that God works his power int eh most amazing ways. Read the following excerpt from a LeadershipJournal article, it is a powerful testimony of what the grace of God is able to do with our brokenness.

 

FYI:  The Murrays son had shot and killed four people at the church, two of whom are the daughters of the Works family.

 

A few days after this interview, Pastor Boyd quietly contacted the family of Matthew Murray, "Would you like to come to the New Life campus … to see the place where your son passed away?" Overwhelmed with gratitude, Ron and Loretta Murray admitted they had longed for this very thing, but they'd felt they would be invading what they knew had been a tragic and difficult situation for the church. So they had stayed away.

Now they agreed to come. Boyd then asked them if they'd be willing to meet with the Works family. They said they would. He asked the Works, in turn, if they'd be willing to meet with the Murrays. Surprisingly, they also agreed.

Before the meeting, Boyd spent some time alone with the Murray family, retracing the steps of Matthew Murray on the church grounds, up until the place in the hallway where their son passed away. Many tears and hugs were shared as they grieved and prayed together over the tragedy.

Later, in Pastor Boyd's office, David and Marie Works joined the Murrays. "What happened there in the two hours in my office … was the most significant ministry moment I've experienced, maybe in all of my life," Boyd said. When they first entered the office, the two families embraced. They sat, wept, and cried together, Boyd said, for "I don't know how long."

Then they prayed together. Later Jeanne Assam was invited to join them. When Jeanne, who had undoubtedly saved many lives but had been forced to shoot the Murray's son, walked into the room, "the Murrays embraced her and hugged her and released her from any guilt and remorse. The dad looked at Jeanne and said, 'Please know we're so sorry that you had to do what you did. We're so sorry.'"

We are reminded in the Bible not to repay evil with evil—not to be overcome by evil but to overcome it instead with good. The families involved in these tragic events are showing how to live out their faith by clinging to what is good in the face of unimaginable pain.

"We can talk philosophically about repentance and redemption and going forward with God," Boyd said, "but what I saw in that room in my office was the greatest testimony of forgiveness and redemption that I have ever seen. It was a testimony that God really can restore and redeem."

 

Last Sunday

I helped out at our Durbanvile church and did a panel discussion with two elders and a colleague minister. The congregation had submitted questions prior to the service for us to answer. Some really good ones (although old and unanswerable :) ) came in:

Slavation of children or those who have not heard the Gospel.
Literal vs metaphorical rading of scripture (in particular relation to the two genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke)
And then suffering related particularly to Zim and in light of Luke 12:22-34 ("Do not worry...")

It was great fun and we really did some good work. My colleague Douglas ended with a quote from "Night" by Elie Wiesel and spoke about God being real in that suffering...he spoke immensly powerfully. In Elie's book a young child is being hanged in Auschwitz and someone asks "where is God?" and the answer comes back "There on the gallows..." very powerful message that we know God through the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

I read the book yesterday morning. It is an outstnding if harrowing read about the horror of the German concentration and extermination camps. I find myself fascinated by these places and would love to go to Auschwitz. Marisa nd I went to Dachau when on holiday in Europe in 2000 and it was a truly fascinating and moving experience.

All this pain and suffering around us raises deep questions about God, his goodness and power. They are the same qustions that have been asked since the very beginning and the same questions to which there are still no answers. all we can do is to wrestle with God as we seek to find understanding and hope in Jesus who is alive!

Back from leave and into the swing of things...

Great to be back from leave and hopefully a new season of blogging.

Watched some of Oprah yesterday. I used to like her show but the last months I find myself getting more and more uncomfortable with what she is focusing on. Whilst she calls herself a Christian I find that very hard to believe, when her show focuses on new age thinking, reincarnation and the such like. Each to his own I guess...

But what frustrates me is that so many Christians, young in their faith and lacking discernment get so easily confused about what is truth and somehow we also think that what is on TV is true...the world is a crazy place and it would be great if those who are the church could see the truth and also the lies paraded as truth...