evangelical debate

It's pretty fair to say that people don't really care about denominations anymore. Definitely the vast majority of the world doesn't. They hardly notice the difference between a Christian and another religeon let alone all the differences BETWEEN Christians. But even among the church leadership, the divisions between denominations is shrinking. The ministerial here has some good collegiality between the Baptists, Alliance, Anglicans, Pentacostals and us. Needless to say, I'm thankful for that. But there is a divide within our church that seems to be growing - almost as quick as the denominational one is shrinking. The evangelicals or conservatives vs the liberals.

To define it isn't that simple but basically, the evangelicals/conservatives would hold to a traditional, orthodox theology and they would believe that the world needs to be saved through accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. Liberals have a much more social action oriented faith rather than a "accept Jesus in your heart" one and hold Scripture as allegorical and metaphorical rather than God's inspired word. Within the Presbyterian Church (and all the other mainline denominations), there's a wide diversity along the spectrum.

To survive within our denomination, you need to learn to be politically correct in certain situations. Sometimes that is very difficult - particularly when the pervading theology is vastly different from your own. What makes it harder though is how quickly our church likes to label and dismiss others as useless because of their theology. It's probably fair to say that we treat people that are on the opposite theological viewpoint much worse than those from other faiths or no faith at all. In many cases, it crosses from prejudicial into hatred.

Make no mistake - I'm an evangelical. The longer I'm in this denomination, the more I'm comfortable with that. But that's not to say that us evangelicals have it all right. Most evangelicals talk too much and live too little. We're overly judgemental and too rigid. Both liberals and evangelicals need to learn from each other and just for once, live in humility under God to trust that God will judge as God judges. Let's just let each other be who we are - standing up for the things we're passionate about WITHOUT putting the other person down for having a point of view different than our own.

Keeping it real

It's been a long time since I've blogged here because...well....i got blogged out from the summer. Random thoughts cross my head all the time but one of the tougher parts of being a pastor is that there are few things that really 'belong' to you. I'll read something and my first thought is, "how can I incorporate that into the ministry at St. A's?" God will teach me something and before I know it, it's off my tongue in a sermon. So part of my discipline this fall was to try and keep some stuff between God and I - to develop some depth to my walk with God. Church ministry is unique in that the work I'm called to do there is directly related to my personal relationship to God. If I'm not growing and staying close, the work suffers. Item 1 on my job description as a pastor is to continue cultivating my personal relationship with God. If I stop growing and sincerely TRYING to live what I'm saying, I hope I quit before I get fired.

But here's the irony. My relationship with God isn't a job. It's a marriage relationship that needs to be as personal and intimate as my relationship with Kathleen. Some things in my Christian life need to be kept between God and I. Maybe at some point, it'll be a sermon illustration, but for now, it's just for us to share. In order for me to reach maturity in Christ, I need to let God's word seep deeply into my heart - not so I can be a better pastor - but so I can be a better disciple, a better person, a better child of God.

Our measure in God's eyes isn't dependent on how well we measure on our job evaluations but how we measure on our faithfulness evaluation. My 'job' is no different. To borrow language from 1 Cor 13....If I preach a thousand great sermons and build a ministry with millions in it but haven't a relationship with God, I'm nothing.

retreats

I think if Jesus were here today, he would be a camp person. He loved crowds sometimes, a certain few more often and sometimes, he would just go away by himself. That's camp. A bit of everything. It's been special this week being up there doing what we feel to be God's work in presenting the gospel in worship. I've been moved to tears almost everytime I sing "how can i keep from singing" because it is just so much how i feel being up there.

Does your life have the same balance? Time with others - including believers and unbelievers? With the intimate few you truly INVEST yourself with? Do you have time by yourself to nurture your own listening prayer life with God? Sometimes the noise has to stop in order for our spiritual lives to start.

Blog about blogging

It's hard to blog about the news when I have no idea what is happening in the news. Being at camp all week this week (with exception to Thursday night which I'll be coming back for the last one!), I've been out of the loop. The year that Wayne Gretzky got traded from Edmonton, I was at camp and didn't even hear about that until a week later! I could blog all about stuff at camp but the connection point for you wouldn't be the same.

That 'disconnect' I'm describing is one of the biggest issues that I think faces Christians today. We're out of the loop. Somewhere, we've interpreted being of the world but not in the world as taking a critical backseat to everything that the world offers - and maybe more importantly, a criticism of the people within it. Healthy criticism is a good thing - as in just being reflective and analytical about what we're taking in and being a part of. But when we just make running commentary on the world and people while having no connection - no relationship - with them, we've immediately lost our audience.

Imagine if Paris Hilton decided to write a book criticizing the inner workings of the church. We'd be in a rage because she couldn't possibly know anything about what us Christians believe! Let alone her lifestyle! It's NOTHING like it should be. She hasn't earned the right to say anything!

That's kinda how those in the world feel about us I think. I know that we live by the truth and we can't possibly adopt the lifestyle of the world just to communicate to it. But we can't hide behind that either. Jesus diedto save the world. Maybe it's time we start to love it the same.

Healthy wealthy and wise gospel

The 'prosperity gospel' is what we call the teaching that God wants us to be healthy, wealthy and wise - AND that our ability to attain these things depends on how we pray or the measure of our faith and spiritual growth. This teaching has been around for a long time but has found new legs in recent days. The Secret (which I wrote about a couple days ago) is the most popular mainstream version of it. Perhaps The Prayer of Jabez could be considered the most common Christian version of it.

Often quoted with this is Jn 10:10, "I have come that you might have life and have it in abundance." While even a quick reading of John 10 will show that the 'prosperity gospel' is far from the context of this verse, it should be very true that God desires the best for us. What Father doesn't want the best for his kids? What does Christ's death and resurrection mean for us today? Doesn't it mean we'll have victory? Success? It seems to make sense.

But then Jesus teaches weird stuff. Luke 6:20 and following reads...

"Blessed are you who are poor for your is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude and insult you anhd reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man."

"But woe to you who are rich.....who are well fed now.....who laugh now...when all men speak well of you....."

Maybe our prayers are off base?

Catching up with Science

Almost everywhere these days, there are ads to correct, enhance or supplement the way we are. The vitamin supplement industry is a multi billion dollar enterprise. Almost everyone knows someone within their circle of friends that has had either some kind of 'enhancement' surgery - whether it is cosmetic or corrective (as with laser eyes).

So here's the question. Because we can. Is that a good reason for us to do something?

Is there a line to be drawn as far as what we are willing to do to 'improve' our lives? Most of the time, we leave it up to the individuals concerned. If it makes them feel better about themselves, then why not? But what about the way that God made us? Didn't God make us in His image? Did moles come out after the fall? Should convenience be a good reason for us to mess with something as delicate as our eyes? Do we medicate ourselves for everything just because it's out there and we can?

Those that know me will know that I'm all for the latest fad. I'm not proposing we go back to the Stone Ages. But maybe, we do need to slow down so our theology can catch up with our science.

The Secret

Back in February, Oprah featured a show about The Secret. What is The SecretÉ It is defined as the law of attraction that states that like attracts like. The concept says that the energy you put into the world - both good and bad - is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day. (from oprah.com)
Basically a spinoff idea from the concept of karma, The Secret has made itself popular by giving people the ultimate self-help formula. The better the energy you put into the universe, the better your circumstances.

It`s all fine and good for someone that is wealthy and rich to pat themselves on the back thinking that they somehow deserve their fortune because of their positive energy giving but I have a hard time imagining a rape victim reading this concept. Who`s going to tell them that they deserve what they gotÉ

It`s part of human nature to try to make life predictable. We want to stereotype people so we can somehow understand and predict what they might be like. We compartmentalize ourselves so that there`s order and predictability to our lives. Deep within us, we want to believe that if we do the right things, say the right things and avoid the wrong people, we`ll be successful, healthy and wise. Our concept of justice demands the opposite for those that do otherwise.

But the true secret isn`t a secret at all. It`s written in the only book the world wants to reject as old and antiquated. Humans, in the image of God, are given free choice. Because of the sin of one man passed down, we are all sinners. That sin perverts the free choice given by God so that some can use it for destruction and brokenness. There isn`t rhyme or reason to most of the anguish in the world. The reality is that it is just there. Waiting for Christ to come back and redeem it once and for all. It won`t happen because of anything we do with our energy or otherwise. It happens because God said it would.