Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Christianity

  • How to Die – How to Live

    I learned from my wife, a 12 year veteran as a hospice nurse, that it’s important to think and talk about end of life care and dying. We tend to avoid it, especially when we’re younger. First, it’s because death seems so far away. Surely we have 50, 60, or 70 years, at least, to go! Then we avoid it because it seems that talking about it makes it come nearer. Fear of death impacts our lives in so many ways.

    Over the last couple of weeks, several families close to us have experienced the death of a loved one. Yesterday, Jody’s uncle and godfather passed away. When so many deaths in your immediate circle of friends and family come so close together, it tends to make you think.

    I suspect that’s why Jody reposted something I wrote for her devotional list back in 2010 this morning, titled Life and Death. I might retitle it, as I have here, How to Die – How to Live. The “How-To’s” are amazingly similar, I believe.

     

  • Of Fog and Decisions

    My friend and Energion author Greg May writes about navigating in the fog today on Greg’s Waterin’ Hole. The post brought back a memory from the 60s, traveling with my family in Chiapas, Mexico, way off the main roads. We were in the mountains on a gravel road, with a cliff on either side, and we drove up into the fog at night. We were nearly at our destination and I guess my dad didn’t want to hang out where there was nowhere even to park. So my mom had her head out one window and one of my older sisters (I suspect Patty, as she was more likely to be navigating) had her head out the other. They’d yell if the car got too close to either side. We didn’t go over the edge, nor did we try to climb the mountain the most direct way, but it seemed to be a close run thing.

    I think that the image of waiting for the fog to lift that Greg uses is a good one, whether we’re thinking spiritually or just plain logically. (We often assume there’s a great gulf fixed between those two viewpoints, but I think not.) There’s the overconfident person, arrogant in his or her own knowledge and wisdom, who takes off before the fog has lifted, often blundering into ruin. On the other hand, there’s the fatally indecisive person, who waits for the last cloud to disappear from the sky before becoming certain that a decision is possible.

    I tend toward the second. Jody balances me. I think it often works that way if we learn to listen to the people around us.

    When there is no guidance a nation falls, but there is success in the abundance of counselors (Proverbs 11:14, NET).

    12 The words of a wise person win him favor,
    but the words of a fool are self-destructive.

    13 At the beginning his words are foolish
    and at the end his talk is wicked madness,
    yet a fool keeps on babbling.

    No one knows what will happen;
    who can tell him what will happen in the future? (Ecclesiastes 10:12-14, NET)

     

  • Two Old Testament Books (or Preach More from the Old Testament)

    My company is offering special prices on all our books related to the Old Testament. I decided to blog a bit about the books we’re offering. So if you don’t want to hear about books that are for sale, this one isn’t for you. On the other hand, I promise to be wordy, tell stories, and fail to get to the point for paragraphs at a time. As usual! And by the way, this got started because we’ve put Ecclesiastes: A Participatory Study Guide, the first in the series on an Old Testament book, on pre-order. Look for it in mid-November. I’ll talk about it later in the week.

    This morning I was thinking about two books, because they relate so closely to my own Christian experience and to a weakness I see in the church and the way we teach the Bible. The first is by one of my college professors, Dr. Alden Thompson. He guided me through my second and third year of Hebrew as well as any number of questions that arose. I never did take an introduction to the Old Testament, though I took several Old Testament courses other than Hebrew, but I did dig into the theology enough to keep the discussion lively.

    Alden is primarily concerned with getting Christians to study the Old Testament more, and with letting people know that you can find God’s story of grace there as well as in the New Testament. His book, Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God?, was released after I graduated, but I read it with great interest, and when I was invited to teach later in a Methodist church, I found it was no longer in print. I got some remaindered copies from him, and then later got permission to issue two different comb bound editions. These got me through a number of classes, but we referred to one of them as the “unfortunate edition.” This was also before Energion Publications had come into existence.

    We issued a fourth edition, properly printed and bound, though the printer did not produce the best quality work. I purchased several thousand of those books from another organization I’d been working with and used that as the starting point for Energion Publications. So Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God? (now in its fifth edition) is a key part of the history of the company.

    Alden’s focus can be found in two stories, I think. When I first contacted him about his book, some 20 years after we had last talked, his first question, before he wanted to talk about books, was this: “How are things with your soul?” Authors tend to care about their books, especially if there’s an opportunity to get them reprinted. But that was his first thought. Later, when he came to teach at Pine Forest United Methodist Church here in Pensacola, he told the group that the measure of his success as a teacher would be whether he left them loving God and one another more than when he came. I like that.

    The book itself can be mildly (or more than mildly) controversial, as one would expect of a book that has chapters covering Judges 19-21 (read it if you don’t understand why), and another on the Messianic prophecies. It’s easy to generate an argument on those topics. But I’ve seen a lot of people spending more time with their Old Testaments after hearing Alden speak about it. If nothing else, his enthusiasm for the topic draws people in.

    The second book is related, though it comes more from my present than my past. It’s written by Methodist pastor and seminary professor Allan R. Bevere. It’s based on sermons he preached from the Old Testament. Now there are those who are turned off by collections of sermons. I like them, provided they are good sermons that serve a purpose, and that they apply to a broad audience. The book is The Character of Our Discontent, I think this book has not gotten the attention it deserves. The vast majority of times that I hear sermons from the lectionary, the text is from the gospel lesson. Now I don’t have any problem preaching from the gospels. But I don’t think people will understand the whole story if they don’t get the background to the gospels by learning from the Bible Jesus used.

    So I’d see two purposes to this book. First, it can be read for devotional reading. I’d take an essay at a time. You’ll find your spiritual life growing when your devotionals don’t just come from the Sermon on the Mount, but also take in characters like Samson and texts from books such as Leviticus or Ezekiel. But second, if you’re a pastor, consider looking at this pattern of presenting material from the Old Testament.

    And unlike Alden Thompson, Allan Bevere is a New Testament scholar. Just because you specialize in the New Testament doesn’t mean you can’t include preaching from the Old. You may even have some special perspective.

     

     

  • Value of Long and Short Term Missions

    Eddie Arthur comments with a link and provides some valuable advice. I grew up with my parents on long term missions, and have been on a number of short term missions myself, and this resonates.

  • A Comment on Criticism

    I wanted to promote a comment from Chris Heard: (who blogs at Higgaion)

    Sadly, when I clicked through to the article on Charisma News, one of the sidebars pointed to another Charisma News article entitled “This Is What Heretical, Counterfeit Christianity in Action Looks Like.” That article condemned an Anglican preacher as “sinning” and practicing “heretical, counterfeit Christianity” for speaking out against homophobia and heterosexism. Commenters piled on to aver that the preacher in question is “not a Christian.” Sad that one columnist on the site faults MacArthur for using techniques that another columnist on the same site employs against a liberal Anglican. Broadsides against liberal or progressive Christians are no better than broadsides against charismatic Christians. To clarify, I am not tarring you with that brush, Henry, just noting that there’s plenty of incivility to go around.

    I definitely appreciate his not tarring me with the same brush, but I think this is an experience that needs to be emphasized.

    In this case, it was two different people in the same magazine, but often it’s one and the same person. We object to the way we are criticized while speaking harshly of others. I want to emphasize that I’m not talking here about upholding what you believe to be the truth, nor of compromise, or of approval. I’m talking about both civility and effectiveness. Obviously I’ve been speaking with some vigor about the way certain people are speaking. What I do not think you have heard me do, though I have been guilty of it at various times in the past, is condemning a whole group of people.

    Inevitably someone will say that certain doctrinal beliefs, such as whether one accepts gay marriage or not, is simply outside the bounds. Be very careful who you place outside the bounds of civil discourse. Are there cases where someone is that far out? Yes. I would say so. But there are many less, I think, than we so categorize. I think I would summarize my approach by saying it’s best to talk about what is right more than who is right.

    I’ve made a mission of conversation, and while I spoke under the current circumstances of charismatic and evangelical, I am committed to having this conversation include Christian liberals as well. You can hear my approach in the video I’ll embed below. It’s a simple home video which I made early in the process of forming my company, Energion Publications. I’ve heard many times that my plan is not viable, either for a publishing company (too much variety, too little focus) or for any ministry. I think there are good things that happen when we listen to one another, and I’m going to make that effort.

    I make some (but not many) apologies for the (sort of) commercial. After all, publishing is what I do. I’m bound to talk about it.

  • John Byron on O’Reilly’s Killing Jesus

    Finally there is a review of Killing Jesus from someone I trust. John Byron pretty much tells the story. You’ve gotta love this:

    On a recent 60 Minutes interview Bill claims that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the book (see below). If this is true, it’s too bad the Holy Spirit didn’t help him to do a better job of it.

    Ouch!

    Now I can not read the book with a clear conscience.

  • Open Communion

    I’ve always believe in open communion in the sense that any Christian should be permitted to participate. Over the last few years I’ve attended a church where truly open communion is practiced, because the pastors believe, with John Wesley, that this is a converting sacrament. So they state each time communion is offered that you don’t have to be a member of the church, or even a Christian, to participate. Jesus invites everyone.

    I’m not at all prepared to debate the issue; I simply haven’t studied the theology enough. But I do have a couple of authors who are quite involved in it. One is Dr. Bob Cornwall, who will be writing a book on the Lord’s Supper for the Topical Line Drives series. (The book itself hasn’t yet been announced, but the contract is signed.)

    In the meantime another author, Dr. Bob LaRochelle (I’d be in trouble without authors named Bob), who has a special perspective as a former Roman Catholic who is now a Protestant clergyman, is beginning a series of columns for Energion.net on ecumenical issues, and his first column deals with communion.

    I’m putting this on my personal blog because I’d like to see comments from some of my readers on this particular topic.

  • Speaking of How Not to Criticize

    John MacArthur has a conference starting tomorrow. Here’s how he talks about the charismatic movement:

    http://youtu.be/vWp-rLTPQYE

    I recently wrote an article titled Nobody Is above Question. Now I’m questioning Dr. John MacArthur in the way he is challenging others.

    This is precisely the opposite of the philosophy I have for my company, Energion Publications (mission statement here). I believe we must all be prepared to learn from one another. I do think much charismatic Bible study is much too shallow. Those of us who are charismatic (and I count myself in that number), should be ready to learn from our Baptist brethren to spend more time, and more serious time, in the word. But there are so many more things we can learn from one another if we spend less time condemning and more time listening.

    In a comment I suggested that we need to learn to show grace while still upholding truth. Neither element can be lost.

    PS: Michael Brown has responded in Charisma Magazine.

  • Soup Kitchen for the Soul or How I Learn from Authors

    9781893729797I am frequently amazed by our authors at Energion Publications. I suppose that other editors and owners are likewise amazed, but I think we have a very special group. Just the other day I received notice from an author that he had signed his contract, but that he wanted to donate his royalties to our literature fund, a fund we use to send books overseas or to people who can’t afford them. I hadn’t asked. In fact, I don’t ask for funds to support that project. We’re not a non-profit. It’s just one of the ways we try to give back.

    The thing that impresses me most about our authors, however, is the way they live what they believe. I don’t know of any of our authors who doesn’t in some way embody the books they have written. When I hear what they are actually doing, it’s what I would expect based on what they wrote in their books. And that’s a great thing.

    Way back when … well, actually in 2010 … we were contacted by a potential new author who had a story to tell. I like books that tell a story, particularly when that story is a testimony. This was Renee Crosby and her life and vision had been changed by a seminary assignment. She had been asked to serve a certain number of hours in the community as part of an assignment. She spent that time in a soup kitchen. Now as the book will tell you, Renee had become extremely busy in church. She was an active Christian. But that activity was generally in church. When she reluctantly went out to complete her assignment, she encountered Jesus in a new way, right there in the soup kitchen.

    So she wrote her book Soup Kitchen for the Soul to invite other people to this same discovery. I was hooked immediately. I have frequently visited churches that are busy, filled with active members. But if you review their church bulletin or newsletter, the vast majority of what they do is designed to serve the members. It’s people in the church doing things for people in the church. Now there’s nothing wrong with that. People in the church should be doing things for one another, caring for one another, building one another up. But we should also be “provoking one another to love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24), and those good deeds should serve those outside the church as well.

    This is a book with a great message. It deserves to be read much more than it has. It deserves to be studied.

    But Renee is now experiencing the next phase of her testimony. As she explains in the video below, she is in treatment for breast cancer. But she’s not taking it lying down. Instead, she’s trying even more to provoke others to love and good deeds.

    We’re also going to donate 5% of our proceeds in addition to what Renee donates as our way of supporting her in this endeavor. In addition, the book is now 30% off with the use of the pink30 coupon. To use that coupon, you need to enter the coupon code on your shopping cart on checkout from Energion Direct. If you need some more help with the coupon, you’ll find it here.

  • Nobody is above Question

    There are two dangerous attitudes in the church, and I suspect in any human endeavor. One is the idea that certain leaders are above question. In the church the words “touch not mine anointed” (going back to the KJV, Psalm 105:15, and we could discuss the context) are often used to express this idea. This line can be used to shut down any questioning of one who is called a pastor, teacher, prophet, apostle, evangelist, bishop, or whatever other title people have chosen. On the other hand, there is the hypercritical attitude, in which no leader can possibly be good enough, doctrinally correct enough, educated enough, or whatever enough to suit.

    Unfortunately, rather than seeking balance in our own lives we tend to go to one or the other extreme, and then yell at each other for our failures to meet the standards of the other camp, whichever that is. If it were not tragic, it would be hilarious to observe the criticism heaped on one church leader for questioning another, when both the questioner and the questioned have some sort of claim to this “God’s anointed” status.

    Over-critical attitudes, backbiting, and unwillingness to work with a team have led many church leaders to discouragement and even out of the ministry. Lack of healthy questioning allows problems to grow until they’re out of hand. Right now, however, I want to address this reluctance to question people in leadership, and then give some suggestions as to how we can question without being destructive.

    I’ve been on the destructive end. In seminary I became so bright (in my own mind) that nobody could preach a sermon good enough for me. This critical attitude was one of the factors that led me out the doors of the church shortly after I was done at the seminary. So I can speak from experience. At the same time, I have observed destructive behavior in leaders, behavior that should have been corrected by others, but because the leader was so respected, and people didn’t want to question them, their behavior went unchecked, and they were able to harm more and more people.

    We’ve seen an example of this in the Roman Catholic church with the sexual abuse scandal. A tendency not to question leadership at all levels of the hierarchy allowed the church to cover up its problems for decades. Eventually, the problems came to light, at which point the church had to face repeated issues, dealing with decades of abuse in a few years. And dealing with it is hardly complete.

    But protestants should not have any illusions that we have less problems. We have a hierarchy that is less efficient at covering up, so we have dealt with these problems over a longer period of time. That gives us the illusion that we’re doing much better. We still run into similar problems. The person who is above reproach, who cannot be questioned, is in a position of great temptation, whether that temptation is moral, doctrinal, or financial.

    In a church that is divided into hundreds of denominations, we have to make determinations. Will I become a member of this church or that? To what extent is my loyalty to my local church or denomination, as opposed to the broader body of Christ in the local community. Is Pastor X someone I should follow, or are his teachings a danger to me and to the church?

    I have illustrated a case recently in which I felt something was far enough off the mark that it was appropriate to speak out, with some comments by Pat Robertson on tithing. I have seen discussions of Bishop John Shelby Spong and of Joel Osteen. These latter two provide a good illustration of my point. There are those who would regard Bishop Spong as outside the bounds of Christianity, while they defend Joel Osteen against any sort of criticism. Why? Both have been ordained by Christian organizations. Both have said things that many Christians question. Why should someone consider one or the other above criticism?

    The difference, of course, is in which doctrines each espouses. What is important to you? But by making that very decision, you are deciding, for yourself, which leader to follow. Good! That’s what you should do. Test it. Hold what’s good. Turn away from evil. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22, making sure to emphasize verse 17.)

    But then why would you deny that same privilege, no, duty, to another Christian?

    And make no mistake. I am definitely saying that my duty to discern also often comes with a duty to speak up and discuss that decision with others. Just because someone is famous, well-loved, called “anointed,” helpful to some people, wonderfully charismatic, extraordinarily well-educated, or just plain special doesn’t mean that person is always right.

    My tendency is to try to keep quiet in many cases. My wife often pushes me to speak up. That is a matter of personality. But for each of us, hopefully guided by prayer (go read 1 Thessalonians 5:17 again), there is a duty to uphold the right and speak out against what is not right.

    So how can we do this without becoming hypercritical?

    Well, for me, simply realizing how fallible I am has been very helpful. I now have had too many occasions when I’ve been reading the Bible and suddenly thought, “Wow! I’ve been wrong about that for years!” I’m going to post something on my Participatory Bible Study blog, hopefully later today, about an issue on which I’ve been wrong for at least 15 years. And my wrongness on this issue does not exist in isolation. Once I have written about how I changed my mind, there will be people who will think I was right and am now very wrong. I hope they’ll speak up. They should!

    So here are my ideas:

    1. Address behavior or teaching, not personality or the person. For example, “I think Joel Osteen is a false teacher” is judging the man and his ministry as a whole. Unless you’re one of the elders of his church (or the equivalent), that’s generally not your business or probably even competence. “Joel Osteen said _____ and I believe that’s wrong” is a much better approach. Even better, “Here’s what I believe about _____ and here’s my scriptural and theological basis for believing it.” People can figure out the personalities for themselves if necessary. Sometimes, however, it’s a good idea to identify a person who has made a public statement, if that statement is widely known.
    2. Be sure you have actually understood what a person is saying. For example, “Bishop Spong doesn’t believe in the resurrection” and “Bishop Spong does not believe resurrection involves resuscitation of a physical corpse” are two different statements. Be sure you’re responding to what the person actually said.
    3. Realize that everyone is fallible, especially you. There is an expression derived from French, “de haut en bas” it refers to speaking from above someone, from a position of superiority. You are not the judge of Bishop Spong or Joel Osteen or of me. That doesn’t mean you cannot question each of us. Do your best to speak from a position of humility. When something really stirs you up (as Pat Robertson’s statement did the other day), this may be more difficult. But don’t just be prepared to be questioned. Welcome questioning. Invite questioning. Be open. Listen to the questions. Re-examine your own beliefs. If you come to the same conclusion, fine. But you’ll be stronger for it.
    4. Don’t be narrow. Sometimes we have such a narrow range of beliefs we find acceptable that nobody can possibly live up to our expectations. For me, the problem was technical accuracy. A pastor might preach a sermon that was really great, but use a verse that I didn’t think was handled properly. The whole sermon would become chaff in my mind, and the sorry individual who was careless enough to misuse scripture (or other sources) in that way would be struck off my list–until I no longer had a list. Humorously enough, others were busy striking me off their lists. When we do this, the body of Christ becomes one finger, or one nose, or some less honorable part (read 1 Corinthians 12-14 several times, OK?) and there we go. I had to do a great deal of repenting and “list restoration” to get back into action with the body.
    5. Don’t be afraid. People will get annoyed whether you are questioning a popular leader or defending him or her. Don’t let fear, whether the fear of what people will think, or the fear of being wrong, stop you. Wrongness is an easily correctable problem!
    6. Moral standards are more important than errors in teaching. Depending on the teaching, it’s possible that it could lead to bad moral standards. I know of a pastor who came up with a new doctrine of divorce after he–you guessed it–wanted to get divorced. Sexual abuse of minors, sexual misconduct, financial misconduct, and actions that are hurting members of the body need to be dealt with. That isn’t a matter of judging the person. It’s a matter of protecting people who need it.

    I hope that these few ideas will be helpful. I know there are those who would prefer that we simply let those known by great titles or popular as leaders slide. They may be doing great good. But they may also be doing harm in the background. I know there are those who are afraid of excessive criticism. What I’m suggesting is a broad-based openness to questioning, both of ourselves and of others. But let it all be done as gently as possible.