Tag: Following Jesus

No. All Lives Don’t Matter, Not in America

Hardly a week goes by without another story appearing about a black citizen, often unarmed, who is killed by the police.

Botham Jean

The latest story concerns the death of Botham Jean.  Mr. Jean was shot in his own apartment by an off-duty police officer, Amber Guyer.

Amber Guyger

According to officer Guyger, who lived in the same apartment complex, she mistakenly entered the Mr. Jean’s apartment after dark.  Seeing a menacing black man standing in what she believed was the front room of her apartment, she shot him.

Pause for a moment and see how many obvious questions that very odd scenario raises in your mind.

A neighbor, however, reports that he heard banging on Mr. Jean’s door and then a conversation between Jean and Guyger.  Ms. Guyger is alleged to have yelled, “let me in.”

The Texas rangers are investigating.

Call me kooky, but forgive me for not trusting the police to police themselves.

Mr. Jean’s mother.

Mr. Jean’s family describes him as a Christian man, active in his local church. He had never been arrested, nor had he ever had a run-in with the police, that is until officer Guyger shot him dead.

Ms. Guyger was arrested briefly and released on her own recognizance after only a few hours.  She seems to have used some of that time to scrub her computer.  I wonder why.  Oddly, she forgot to erase her Pinterest page which contains a good deal of hateful, violent and racist material.

Mr. Jean, on the other hand, has suffered from post-mortem character assassination.  The police quickly obtained a warrant to search his apartment.  Apparently, in Dallas, Texas being the unarmed, black victim of a police shooting — in your own home, no less — is reason enough to be suspected of criminal activity.

The police didn’t discover any weapons but reportedly uncovered a bag of marijuana.

Excuse me again if I take another moment to pause and wonder if that bag was planted by the officers conducting the search.  After all, for some police departments, planting evidence is more common than shooting unarmed people in their homes (see here and here).

Only in the twisted world of Fox News is the ex post facto discovery of a bag of marijuana relevant to the killing of an unarmed man with no criminal record.

But, of course, we can’t forget that Mr. Jean was black.  Neither can we

NYC action in solidarity with Ferguson. Mo, encouraging a boycott of Black Friday Consumerism.

forget that this happened in America.

Several recent studies reveal that black Americans are 2.5 to 2.7 times more likely to be shot by police than are white people. The disparity becomes even more striking when we turn to the shooting of unarmed people.

People of color compose about 37% of the US population, yet they make up 62.7% of the unarmed victims shot by police.

Another study investigating police killings from 2014 to 2015 concluded that:

“The disproportionate killing of black men occurs…because of the institutional and organizational racism in police departments and the criminal justice system’s targeting minority communities with policies—like stop and frisk and the war on drugs—that have more destructive effects.”

Demonstrators march in protest against a grand jury’s decision on Monday not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014, in New York. The grand jury’s decision has inflamed racial tensions across the U.S. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Obviously, something has gone dangerously wrong in the way America’s police officers are being trained and the atmosphere in which they do their jobs.

All lives do not matter in America today.  All lives are not equal here.  Some lives count more than others.  Mr. Jean’s death and the behavior of the Dallas police department is only the latest evidence.

Many who sneer at the Black Lives Matter movement are moral posers, pretending to a superior moral judgment by pasting “All Lives Matter” (the moral universalists) or “Blue Lives Matter” (the ethical particularists) bumper stickers on their cars. Tragically, such protests simply reveal how very, very deep are the wells of ignorance and incipient racism in white America.

To insist that “all lives matter” is to fain innocence while whispering behind a raised hand that “black lives don’t matter.”

Such reactionary slogans are rhetorically camouflaged “f**k you” bombs, equivalent to the old segregationist signs directing “Negroes to the Back of the Bus.”

Honestly, to insist that “all lives matter” in response to a movement led by African-Americans working to change a society where people who look like them are shot, killed, and arrested by police at wildly disproportionate rates is a stunning display of white privilege in and of itself.

It is a bold-faced lie to say that all lives matter in the United States.

That is why, as a Christian, an evangelical, a disciple of Jesus Christ, a citizen of God’s kingdom on earth, and the grandfather of a precious little black girl, I believe that every follower of Jesus must stand up and say, YES, BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Kierkegaard on Reading Scripture

Had I ever become a seminary professor, I would have made all my students read For Self-Examination and Judge for Yourself! by Sǿren Kierkegaard.  Either book is a good place to begin for anyone who is unfamiliar with my favorite “melancholy Dane” and wants to start reading Kierkegaard on their own.

Both books, published in 1851, only 4 years before his death at age 42, are a clarion call to genuine Christian living.  Kierkegaard particularly focuses on the centrality of Scripture, not simply as a book to be read or studied, nor as a source for Sunday sermons, but as a compelling Word from God that must be obeyed.

The only sufficient goal of all Bible-reading is personal transformation, and transformation only happens for those who surrender to God’s instructions by DOING what scripture says.  Reading without response is like a single person pretending to be married while eating alone every night.

Here is Kierkegaard’s advice (from For Self-Examination) for anyone whose Bible-reading has stalled because of its many difficult, hard to understand passages:

“…perhaps you say, ‘there are so many obscure passages in the Bible, whole books that are practically riddles.’ To that I would answer: Before I have anything to do with this objection, it must be made by someone whose life manifests that he/she has scrupulously complied with all the passages that are easy to understand; is this the case with you?…

 “In other words, when you are reading God’s Word, it is not the obscure passages that bind you but what you understand, and with that you are to comply at once.  If you understood only one single passage in all of Holy Scripture, well, then you must do that first of all, but you do not first have to sit down and ponder the obscure passages.  God’s Word is given in order that you shall act according to it, not that you shall practice interpreting obscure passages.  If you do not read God’s Word in such a way that you consider that the least little bit you do understand instantly binds you to do accordingly, then you are reading God’s Word.”

What Readers are Saying about My Book I Pledge Allegiance

Not long ago a good friend and former colleague sent me a message with encouraging words about my new book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans, 2018). 

She unexpectedly bumped into another friend while they both were marching in a local protest demonstrating against president Trump’s immigration policies.

She passed along these kind remarks:

“…(my friend) mentioned that the men’s book club had finished reading I Pledge Allegiance this morning, and found it really good and deeply challenging in all the right ways – and also that he had been in touch with you to say how superb he finds the book. I’m really glad that he took the initiative to contact you!! He and I have been talking a lot about it recently, and how we need to keep it close by to help us to navigate the insanity.”

I could not be more pleased.  She describes everything I hope would happen when disciples wrestle with God’s word while considering the arguments found in my book.

I am pleased as punch.

If you haven’t yet read I Pledge Allegiance, please join the crowd of those who have and ask the Holy Spirit what He wants you to be doing for the kingdom of God in this world right now.

If Your Pastor is Packing Heat, You Need to Stop Listening to Him

Recently a good friend sent me a selection of articles from past issues of the Christian Century.   They all deal with Christianity and gun control.  More specifically, they contain stories about the ways various churches are dealing with concealed carry laws in their states and whether they allow guns in church. (You can read my previous posts about gun control and guns in church here, and here.)

I may revisit other articles in the future, but for now, I was especially struck by an article from pastor Kyle Childress entitled, “In Texas, Even the Pastors are Carrying Guns in the Pulpit” (3/7/16 in print, 3/16/16 online).

Several years ago I attended a public meeting sponsored by a cadre of local churches.  Several hundred people showed up at the local Hilton Hotel conference room.  At the end of his anti-Muslim rant, the visiting pastor/speaker boasted about the fact that he and all  his church elders carried their guns to every church activity, both inside and out of the church building, in order “to protect their flock.”

Contrast that man’s view of Christian faith with the following story excerpted from pastor Childress’s article:

“The rationale of gun-carrying church members is that they want to be ready to protect themselves and their families if an armed intruder enters the church.  But with the new [concealed carry] law in place, who will know if the person is an armed intruder or an armed visitor?…All visitors are now scrutinized, with every visitor being a potential threat.  At the same time, to demonstrate their enthusiasm for the new law, some churches are posting signs that say — as an act of outreach — ‘Guns Welcome Here.’

“I’ve been astonished at the level of fear associated with perceived threats that are just outside our doors ready to get us…I keep asking myself where the witness of Christ is in all of this. Many of the pastors who are carrying guns teach and preach a version of the gospel that’s different from what I know.  It is a gospel of everyone looking out for himself or herself, a gospel that says, ‘It’s a dangerous world, so get them before they get you…’

“One of my deacons, the dean of a nearby college, was in a faculty meeting listening to faculty members discuss how they were all getting guns.  The dean said she refused to carry a gun.  It got quiet in the room, then someone asked why.  She said she was not prepared to shoot and perhaps kill someone.  There

Jesus arrested on trumped up charges. Maybe if he had carried a gun…?

was a long pause and then ‘What would you do if someone threatening came into the classroom?’  The dean said, ‘I’d tell them about Jesus and try to show them the love of Jesus.’

“‘You could hear a pin drop,’ she told me later. ‘Everyone looked at the floor, and someone changed the subject.’

“During a sermon on baptism a few weeks ago, I explained why I would not be carrying a gun in the pulpit or anywhere else. ‘It has to do with baptism,’ I said.  ‘When I went down into the waters of baptism, I did not come out to strap on a gun.  I came out entering into the life of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ.’  I went on, ‘In baptism our lives are no longer our own.  We belong to Christ.’  I could see and hear some crying in the congregation…”

Our lives are no longer our own.

We belong wholly and completely belong to Jesus Christ to do with as He pleases.

If your pastor is packing heat, I am afraid that he doesn’t have wisdom enough to lead a conga line, much less the people of God.

Stories of Self-Denial, 3

I believe in miracles.  More precisely, I believe that God works miracles today because I have experienced them in my life.

Peter follows Jesus onto the water

Miracles pose a problem for comfortable Christianity.  They require faith.  Faith in the sense of taking a risk.  Faith in the sense of pushing off into the unknown, realizing that if God does not come through for you, then you are sunk, done, in trouble.

Those who have seen God perform such miracles know two things.

First, you venture out in faith because you know it is the only way for you to obey Jesus, not because it sounds cool or would give you a neat story to tell others.  Rather, you are convinced that not venturing out into the unknown would be disobedient.  Somehow or another you simply know that the Lord has told you, “Get going.”

Second, since faith is always a risk – if nothing is ever put at risk, then I am not living by faith – miracles arise from acts of self-denial.  The faithful disciple walks a sometimes crazy-looking path that frequently turns us

Jesus heals a man in the synagogue on the Sabbath

away from security, away from safety, away from comfort, away from things we have always wanted.  Miracles can only happen for those willing to embrace insecurity, discomfort, loss, and sometimes danger in the cause of following Jesus.

So, I have decided to continue my autobiographical account of self-denial by sharing a few miracle stories.  By sharing these stories, I hope to praise God for the great things He has done in my life.  I also hope to enlist my readers in praising the Lord by venturing out yourselves, taking faithful risks through your own obedient acts of self-denial, acts that will demonstrate God’s faithfulness in your lives, too.

Towards the end of my studies at Regent College (check out my earlier posts here and here that bring us to this point) I arrived at the conviction that

King’s College, University of Aberdeen

Jesus was calling me to study for my Ph.D. at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.  (I will tell that story another day.)

The main obstacle to this plan was our complete lack of money.  Graduate studies overseas would be expensive.  What to do?  Reason told us drop the idea like a hot potato because it was simply ridiculous.  You can’t shove a square peg into a round hole, and you can’t do expensive things without money.

Fortunately, I have never been particularly fond of the idea of limiting myself to a “realistic life.”  In fact, for many years I have regularly recited to myself a little mantra that I came up with – I will only deal with what is real in order to strive for God’s ideal.  (Yes, I wish I had more opportunities to preach in African-American churches.)

King’s College interior courtyard

So, Terry and I began to pray, asking for guidance in two areas.  One, did the Lord really want us to go to Scotland, or was it just my own idea?  Two, if we were supposed to go to Scotland, how would we get there?  We didn’t have any savings and getting enough money in loans was impossible for us back then.  What were we to do?

Terry and I decided to set out a “fleece,” not unlike the Old Testament story of Gideon in Judges 6:36-40.  (Whenever I tell this story to young people, I always insist that they not make this a common practice.  It is not a normative way to pray, but it worked for me, so it is part of my Christian story.)

We began to pray for the money we needed.  Except, we were always praying for money, money to pay the bills, to buy groceries, you name it.  How would Scotland money look any different from our regular money miracles?  We finally decided to pray for lots of money in a short period of time.  We looked into the cost of airline tickets for our family of 4 and decided to ask God for enough cash to buy them.  That would get the ball rolling.  As I recall, 4 tickets were about $2,000 in those days.

We further decided that we would not share this particular prayer request with anybody, not with friends, our Bible study group or church.  It was between us and the Lord.  So, we prayed daily that if this cockamamie idea was, in fact, God’s will for our lives, then He would give us $2,000 dollars in big donations within 4 weeks.  If this didn’t happen, then we knew it was not God’s plan for us, and we would pursue something else.

Before the first week was over, I opened our post office box in downtown Blaine, Washington one afternoon and saw a large, white envelope looking as pregnant as a white envelope could possibly look.  I opened it up to find $1,000 in cash.  To this day, we do not know the identity of our generous benefactor.  But that’s OK because the Lord Jesus knows exactly who it is, and their reward is waiting from them in heaven.

I ran home, showed the envelope to Terry, and we thanked the Lord for His wonderful generosity.  It was a large donation in a short period of time, no doubt.  But I also reminded Jesus that if he wanted us to go to Aberdeen, he had only answered half our prayer.  We still needed an additional $1,000 within the next 3 weeks.

We continued to pray for guidance.

To make a long story short, before the month was over we received 2 additional, large gifts from out-of-state friends that brought the total amount to $2,500.  It certainly appeared to be a clear answer to our prayers.  So, the decision was made.  We were moving to Scotland!

But we only had enough money to buy the airline tickets, which we promptly did.  We also needed money for tuition, living expenses once we arrived and, first of all, a student visa.

If there is one thing I have learned about following the Lord, it is to take the journey one step at a time.  Rather than worry about tuition and living expenses, I tackled the visa issue first.

I sent a letter to the British embassy applying for my student visa.  At that time, student visa applications required documentary proof of adequate funds for at least one year’s living expenses and tuition.  We had no money at all.  We hadn’t prayed for that much money yet.  But, I figured since God was leading me to Scotland that I would mail in my application anyway.

Imagine my disappointment when my visa application was denied.  How could that be?

There was only one thing to do.  I needed to explain to the ambassador what was at stake.  So, I sat down and wrote a letter to the embassy.  I wish I had kept a copy for myself.  Let me give you the gist of what I said.  It went something like this: “Dear Mr. Ambassador, I am a Christian.  I believe that Jesus is calling me to study in Scotland.  I may not have all the necessary funds now, but I know that the Lord will not ask me to do something that He will not also finance.  Don’t worry, the money will come as needed.  If you continue to deny me the visa that I require, you will be standing in the way of God’s will for my life.  I don’t think you want to do that.  It never turns out well.  Sincerely, David Crump”

Voila.  Guess what.  My next letter from the British embassy contained a student visa!  Don’t tell me God doesn’t work miracles.

I could go on and on.  For the next 3+ years we watched God perform one big miracle extravaganza.  There are too many stories to tell here.  I will only say that I was annually required to meet with British immigration officials when I applied for next year’s visa.  I never had sufficient funds to meet their requirements.  I never had a year’s worth of living expenses to prove that I would not be working illegally.  With the exception of one year when I was awarded a national fellowship, I never possessed a year’s worth of tuition.  All I could do was enter every interview believing that Jesus was giving me another opportunity to share the gospel with someone in the British immigration service.  I would praise my Savior by sharing the latest miracle stories describing how the Lord Jesus continued to meet our needs.

For the next 3 years my interviews all went something like this:

Agent:  Show me your papers, bank statements, etc. please.

Me: I put my papers on the table, such as they were.

Agent:  Is this all?

Me:  Yes. That’s all.

Agent:  You don’t have enough money to live here for another year.  What are you doing?  What’s your plan?  How will you survive?

Me: I am a Christian, and the Lord Jesus takes care of my family.  We pray for what we need, and he gives it to us.  I would then tell him a few of our most recent miracle stories to illustrate my case – and to praise the Lord.

At this point, the agent had every reason to withhold my visa, tell me that my time of study was over and then evict us from the country.  But that never happened.  Year after year I listened to an immigration official say something like this: “I have never heard anything like this before.  But whatever you are doing seems to be working for you.”

He would then hand me my new visa and call for the next student.

Yes, I earned my Ph.D. from King’s College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.  We enjoyed life in Scotland for slightly more than 3 years.  The Lord kept all of his promises to us.  I wish I could say that Terry and I floated from one miracle cloud to the next while living carefree, blissful lives. But I would be lying.

At times, those years also felt like God was putting us through a faith-meat-grinder.  I am not a perfectly faithful person.  We experienced some of the most stressful, worrying, difficult periods of our lives, times where we lived with tears, anxiety and headaches (literally).  Our faith was tested in ways we never anticipated.

We learned firsthand that hardship is also a common feature of miracle stories.  Since tests are an essential ingredient of God’s strategy for strengthening faith (James 1:2-8; Hebrews 12:7-11), and faithful risk-taking is essential to the appearance of miracles, few if any miracles will ever occur that fail to stretch our faith, seemingly to the breaking point.

Praying for miracles is not for the faint of heart.  Obedient discipleship is not always a bed of roses.  But oh, my goodness…nothing in this world could ever tempt me to trade in my front row seat to witnessing the awesome, unbelievable work of God, the overwhelming measure of His loving kindness, and His perfect faithfulness to someone like me.

 

P.S.  Which also reminds me of this important lesson:  faith has more to do with the decisions we make and how we act than it does with the way we feel.

Following Jesus with Kierkegaard: The Best Apologetics is a Genuine Christian Life

Certain sectors of American evangelicalism are devoted to the study of  apologetics, that is the defense of the Christian faith and the relieving of  doubts.  Some seminaries even offer doctoral programs in apologetics, as if an advanced degree will make anyone a better evangelist, or a more successful resolver of doubts.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I am not opposed to advanced education.  But I am leery of the American penchant for professionalizing normal aspects of the Christian life with advanced degrees and curriculae.

What’s next?  A Ph.D. in spiritual direction?  I am afraid to look, but I fear that somewhere, someplace, someone is already offering degrees in spirituality.

Alas…

In 1851 Sǿren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) published For Self-Examination: Recommended to the Present Age and Judge for Yourself!: For Self-ExaminationRecommended to the Present Age.  These books continue his investigations into genuine Christian discipleship and what true believers must look like in a society where Christianity has degenerated into either a passé, cultural artifact, a mere act of mental assent or an emotional high.

Is the problem that such cultures need more or better apologists to alleviate people’s doubts about Christ?

In Judge for Yourself!, Kierkegaard insists that the best answer to anyone’s doubts about Christianity is an authentic Christian life lived in front of them, a life of obedient discipleship devoted to the imitation of Christ.

He writes:

“Imitation, which corresponds to Christ as the prototype, must…be affirmed again…Without introducing imitation it is impossible to gain mastery over doubts.  Therefore, the state of things in Christendom is such that doubt has replaced faith. And then they want to stop doubt with — reasons…They still have not learned that it is wasted effort — indeed, that it feeds doubt, gives it a basis for continuing. They are still not aware that imitation is the only force that can break up the mob of doubts and clear the area and compel one, if one does not want to be an imitator, at least to go home and hold one’s tongue.

“Imitation, which corresponds to Christ as prototype, must be advanced, be affirmed, be called to our attention.

“…The Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, did not come to the world in order to bring a doctrine…he did not try by way of reasons to prevail upon anyone…His teaching was really his life, his existence.  If someone wanted to be his follower, his approach, as seen in the Gospel, was different from lecturing.  To such a person he said something like this: Venture a decisive act; then we can begin.

“Venture a decisive act [Jesus says to us]; the proof does not precede but follows, is in and with the imitation that follows Christ.  That is, when you have ventured the decisive act, you become heterogeneous with [i.e. contrary to, standing against] the life of this world, cannot have your life in it, come into collision with it.  Then you will gradually be brought into such tension that you will be able to become aware of what I am talking about. The tension will also have the effect upon you that you understand that you cannot endure it without having recourse to me [Jesus] — then we can begin.  Could one expect anything else from the truth?“

Faith in Jesus is the decisive venture, the ultimate risk, the act of obedience compelling us to live an upside-down, counter-cultural life in a fallen world simply because our Savior tells us to.

A Review of “From Here to Maturity” by Thomas Bergler, With Commentary on the National Disaster that is American Evangelicalism

From Here to Maturity: Overcoming the Juvenilization of American Christianity (Eerdmans, 2014) is the sequel to Thomas Bergler’s acclaimed book, The Juvenilization of American Christianity.  (See my review).  In his second book, Bergler offers practical advice for church leaders searching for remedies to the problems of perpetually juvenile congregations.  The goal is to grow churches of maturing disciples not content with permanent states of spiritual adolescence.

Chapter 1, “We’re All Adolescents Now,” briefly reviews the conclusions of Bergler’s extensive historical survey in The Juvenilization of American Christianity.  Once again, he defines juvenilization as “the process by which the religious beliefs, practices, and developmental characteristics of adolescents become accepted – or even celebrated – as appropriate for Christians of all ages” (2).  We should probably add the word indefinitely or forever to this definition.  Everyone is a juvenile at some point, but it should be short-lived, not a permanent condition.

The congregational expression of adolescent faith is a strong preference for “emotionally comforting, self-focused, and intellectually shallow” church services and worship experiences where a person’s connection to Christ is typically described as “falling in love with Jesus.”  The vocabulary of teenage romance becomes normative for all Christian faith among all ages, all the time.

After diagnosing these problems, Bergler provides a good, if brief, survey of maturity vocabulary in the New Testament, highlighting passages that distinguish mature from immature faith and the essential characteristics of mature Christianity (for example, see Hebrews 5:11 – 6:12).  Chapter 2 then elaborates on the New Testament descriptions of how this spiritual growth can be nurtured, including the fact that such development is not optional.  It is not ok to remain content with a juvenile faith.  Mature Christians are described as:

  • knowing “foundational Christian teachings well enough to explain them to others” (38)
  • able to discern the differences between sound and unsound teaching, encouraging the one and opposing the other while putting it into practice
  • embracing suffering and trials, especially for the sake of the gospel, as essential aspects of maturation
  • understanding that they are “being conformed to the death and resurrection of Christ,” especially by their sacrificial service to others (39)
  • devoted to the unity and development of the church, rejecting unloving actions intended to cause division (41)
  • actively “putting off the old self and putting on the new self” while displaying Godly character (42).

The process of spiritual growth requires (1) sound teaching on the importance of Christian maturity and what it looks like within the context of (2) personal relationships where mature believers can serve as “spiritual parents” to newer believers, modeling the maturation process in community.

The remainder of the book explores specific ways for church leaders to become intentional and specific in their promotion of congregational maturity across all age groups.  Chapter 3, “Helping Adults Mature,” grapples with motivating and instructing the current generation of juvenilized adults who have never known anything other than “youth group” Christianity.

One of the greatest challenges to this demographic is the development of mature emotional patterns.  Bergler says, “Among contemporary American Christians, it seems that feelings are too often obstacles rather than resources for spiritual growth…They think that the way to grow closer to God is to seek new and better emotional experiences” (72).  Bergler encourages leaders to adopt Dallas Willard’s useful model of VIM, referring to a strategy for implementing Vision, Intention, and Means.

Chapter 4 elaborates on the need for congregational-wide planning by refocusing on healthy youth group strategies.  Juvenilization is the result of adolescent ministry strategies expanding throughout congregational life and becoming normative for all age levels.  Bergler’s maturation strategy encourages youth ministries to adopt processes of spiritual growth that are transferable throughout the entire congregation.  The road of spiritual influences would be a two-way street, from youth to adults as well as from adults to youth.

This chapter is the lengthiest and most elaborate section of Bergler’s book.  I suspect that many readers will find his suggestions too programmatic and complex for their liking.  It certainly appears overwhelming, at least it did to me.  But Bergler offers a number of practical suggestions for modifying, adapting and customizing this material in ways that keep the Biblical essentials while allowing for flexible implementation.  It is well worth studying the results of his research and then brainstorming with others about the best ways to implement processes for congregational maturity in your church.

Living in a culture that can be very anti-intellectual – within the church, this attitude typically expresses itself in “anti-theological” language; we have all heard it – Bergler emphasizes the importance of leaders teaching sound theology to their congregations.  Good teachers figure out ways to make Christian theology accessible and practical while highlighting its importance.

Allow me to quote at length from Bergler’s conclusions on the centrality of theology:

“First, theology provides the basic truths and principles of discernment that every mature Christian must embrace…Both the biblical and sociological evidence confirm that churches that help people learn, love, and live theology (as opposed to just having uninformed good feelings about God) tend to produce more spiritually mature Christians…

“Second, theological reflection can help church leaders identify the barriers to spiritual maturity in their congregations.  Often it is not the official theology of the church that hinders spiritual maturity; rather, it is the lived theology of the congregation that gets in the way…When churches find it hard to get adults to care about the youth ministry or to get young people to care about the rest of the church, a lived theology of the church that does not challenge American individualism and age segregation may be one of the causes” (112).

Amen.

Bergler’s final chapter, “From Here to Maturity,” links to several diagnostic indices offering tools for congregational assessment.  Understanding a congregation’s current maturity level is a preliminary step in determining the right strategy for moving forward.  Again, some readers will find this chapter too programmatic for their liking.  Leaders who ignore his advice, however, do so at their own peril.  Remember James’ warning that “teachers will be judged more strictly” (3:1).

To illustrate his analysis for the need of remedial leadership, Bergler focuses on congregational worship and the importance of changing the style of music to which so many American church-goers have become accustomed – though he does touch on other issues as well.

Bergler is particularly concerned about “the ways that certain contemporary worship practices mimic pop culture” (127).  And, No, he is not a fighting-fundi condemning rock-and-roll in church.  He is analyzing musical content and the patterns of thought and expression embedded in the lyrics.  A brief but important discussion of research in cognitive psychology explains how musical preferences can “hard-wire” our neural circuitry into “schemas” or mental, neural patterns that “reinforce patterns of thinking and behaving” without our ever realizing the ways in which our brains are being programmed (130).

Bergler focuses on two problems in contemporary worship:

First, a great many contemporary worship songs are me-focused rather than God-focused.  A congregation can easily spend more time referring to themselves, singing about things they are going to do, rather than focusing on our Triune God, declaring the things that He has done.  There is a proper time and place for talking about ourselves – especially as we confess our guilt and sin, repent and ask for forgiveness; rarely performed acts of worship in non-liturgical churches nowadays – but for many congregations singing about oneself is the main course all the time.

Second, a great deal of contemporary church music “draws from the North American culture of romantic love” (126).  The result is that “falling in love” or “being in love” with Jesus becomes the central image of Christian living.  True love becomes the agent of salvation (131), despite the fact that New Testament passages using marriage or marriage feasts as metaphors for Christ’s relationship to the church never tell believers that they should be in love with Jesus (check out the passages listed on page 133).

Allow me to quote Bergler at length one last time:

“Slow dance worship songs are drawing on American cultural scripts about romantic relationships for their emotional impact. Those exposed to a steady diet of this music will be tempted to embrace the Christian life as a kind of romantic infatuation…such Christians may develop a self-centered relationship with Jesus…They will value the way Jesus makes them feel and will be much less concerned about the theological content of the faith.  Too many slow dances with Jesus may reinforce immature forms of the Christian life (132).

“A relationship with Jesus the master involves training and submission, not just emotional comfort…Followers of Jesus give up all claims to their own life and devote themselves to joining him in his kingdom mission…Slow dance worship music does little to grow mature Christian communities.  With its emphasis on the one-on-one relationship between Jesus and the believer (“Jesus I am so in love with you”) it does nothing to counteract the rampant individualism in American society. The particular brand of individualism found in this music emphasizes how God fits into my life and provides me what I need, not how I need to fit into God’s kingdom.  In other words, it reinforces the therapeutic or even narcissistic religion that is rampant in contemporary America” (134-135).

Bergler offers some excellent advice on how to sensibly address these issues and implement much needed changes in church life.  I recommend reading his book for yourself to discover the details of what he suggests.

As I conclude this review, I find myself meditating on the abysmal spiritual condition of American evangelicalism in this era of Trump and wondering to what extent Bergler’s diagnosis of juvenilized Christianity helps to explain the many current, evangelical political behaviors that I find utterly abhorrent, even down-right pagan.  Remember, 81% of self-identified evangelicals voted for this man.  White evangelical support for Trump remains at an all-time high despite his noxious behavior, war-mongering, flagrant disregard for common decency, dehumanizing of others — especially women — immigrants and people of color, pathological lies, misrepresentations and stunning political ineptitude.

It makes perfect sense to me that our malignantly narcissistic, petulant man-child of a president continues to ride the wave of support given to him by equally self-centered, childish, anti-intellectual, evangelical “Christians” who have never learned the value of spiritual discernment, theological acumen, self-denial, or obedience to the kingdom mission of Jesus Christ before every other distraction.

In the book of Revelation, John the Seer warns the church about their need for spiritual maturity if they hope to stand firm until the very End.

“This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints” (Rev. 13:10).

“This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).

Another of history’s many antichrists (see 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 1:7) now sits in the oval office.  Thus far, America’s juvenilized evangelicals remain Trump’s staunchest supporters.  The devotees most lacking in conscience impute to him an almost messianic status as The One sent to us by God.  What further proof is needed of the destructive social consequences born of wholesale, unapologetic childishness among God’s people?

The shepherds who failed to instill maturity throughout their flocks, who never even thought to ask the right questions, will one day be held accountable for their neglect of God’s children.  They will “weep and wail” because of their faithlessness (Jeremiah 25:34-35).

The church is not exempt from divine judgment.  We dare not forget Israel’s own pitiful example:

“Like a woman unfaithful to her husband,

so, you have been unfaithful to me,

O house of Israel,” declares the LORD…

A cry is heard on the barren heights,

the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel,

because they have perverted their ways

and have forgotten the LORD their God.

“Return, faithless people;

I will cure you of your backsliding.”…

Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills [e.g. Capitol Hill]

and the mountains is a deception;

surely in the LORD our God

is the salvation of Israel.  (Jeremiah 3:20-23)

Am I suggesting that there is a straight line from slow-dancing with Jesus to embracing Donald Trump?  No.  But circuitous, evasive lines full of detours, while trickier to trace out, are no less significant.

And we all know that subtle, hidden connections can be more dangerous than obvious straight lines.

Stories of Self-Denial, 2

Having confronted my earlier failure to ask Jesus what he wanted to do with my life, I completed my undergraduate degree in wildlife biology and did something I would have never thought possible – I stepped into Christian ministry.  (Check out part 1 of this story here).

My friend, Marv Anderson, convinced me to join the staff of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  Terry and I moved to Salt Lake City, UT where I worked on the campus of the University of Utah.  Four years of campus ministry with university students convinced me that I had to pursue graduate work in theology and Biblical studies, but that pastoral, parish work was the last thing I would ever consider.

Jesus had certainly been answering my daily prayer that he teach me to love people, but he hadn’t altered my basic makeup as an introvert.  Yes, I was learning to care deeply about others, but they still exhausted me.  I couldn’t imagine becoming a pastor, dealing with the messiness and conflicts of congregational life day after exhausting day.  So, I searched for a graduate school offering advanced degrees in Christian theology without directing students into the pastorate.

I enrolled in Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.

My first year at Regent blew my mind.  I absolutely loved studying theology, church history, Biblical studies and languages.  Perhaps I will share more miraculous stories from my time at Regent in future posts.  Terry and I were the beneficiaries of many, many miracles during those years.  We also made a number of life-long friends.  Those years living in Blaine, Washington were foundational in making us the people we are today.

But, alas, in my second year of study, the leadership at Regent College double-crossed me!  The powers-that-be decided to add a Masters of Divinity program to their catalogue.  An M.Div. degree is the standard gateway course of study for would be pastors.  To make matters worse, I began to sense that God was calling me to switch programs and enter the M.Div. program.  Yikes!

Following Jesus is a mysterious way to live.  For instance, how do you know when an invisible God, whom you have never seen, who does not speak in an audible voice (at least, not to me) is “telling” you to do something?  And not something in general, like “be a nice person,” but something very specific, like “change your major and enter the M.Div. program you have been running away from”?

Well, you just do.

Following the Holy Spirit is one of those things a person has to experience for themselves in order to understand it – and here I am using the word “understand” very flexibly.  Some would say I am stretching it beyond recognition.  Real Christianity is always mystical at its core.  If a person says they follow Jesus but has never experienced the ineffable compulsion to do this, go there, start that, move over here – especially when those urges direct you in ways that run contrary to your personal preferences – then I would suggest that person is only pretending to follow Jesus.

Remember, the way of Jesus is a way of self-denial.

I pushed back against God’s mystical shove towards the M.Div. program for weeks.  Yet, try as I might, I could not shake the sense that Jesus was telling me to sign up.  My early morning devotional times became lengthy wrestling matches where I worked hard at convincing God that he was making a terrible mistake.  If he had wanted me to become a church pastor, he should have made me a different person.  I simply did not have the proper personality to become a successful church minister.  Why had He made me this way if that was His design for my future?

I still remember the moment of my surrender, actually if was more like a collapse, as if it were yesterday.  I was spiritually and emotionally exhausted.  It is not easy to fight against your Creator.  At least, not if you are trying to love Him at the same time.  In the early morning darkness, sitting in my Blaine living room, I prayed this prayer:

“Ok Lord.  I think that you are making a big mistake.  You made me in such a way that I can never be anything more than a second-rate pastor.  But if that is what you want me to do, then I will try to become the best second-rate pastor I can be.”

That morning I went to the Regent registrar’s office and switched my course of studies to the M.Div. program.  I did not know where or how I could become a minister, since I had no denominational ties or support.  But when Jesus tells you to do something, it’s best to leave the future necessities to Him.  He knows how to work out the details.

I did eventually become the pastor of a church in Salt Lake City.  I was there for 9 years.  When people ask me about it, I sometimes quote a line from the opening of Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities:  it was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

The Lord and I continued to have regular wrestling matches.  Many were the prayers that repeated my fears: “I told you, Lord!  Why am I here?  I am in over my head. I feel like I am drowning. You should have made me a different kind of person.”  And then the prayers would resolve themselves in a new moment of surrender: “But I know you brought me here, Jesus.  It’s up to you to make this work.  I’ll continue to try my best, but I need all the help you can give me.”

During those 9 years of pastoral ministry, I also experienced more of the grace, mercy and the power of God than I had ever dreamed possible.  All together our church body grew in maturity as we shared in more miracles, saw more lives changed, helped more new people enter into the kingdom of God and witnessed more genuine discipleship than I had ever seen before.  I experienced genuine Christian community in very profound ways through the love and support of church members who helped carry me through some of the hardest times of my young life.

I miss those 9 years even as I never want to relive them.  All I can tell you is that, in every way at all times, our God is always good.

We rarely, if ever, know what is best for us.  Heck, we don’t even know what is mediocre.  But Jesus does, and he wants to guide us into a peculiar way of fulfillment through self-sacrificial service because sacrifice is the way of fulfillment – at least, it is for people who follow Jesus.

Jesus says, “Everyone who wants to come after me must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.  Anyone trying to save their life will lose it.  But whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will find it.”

Stories of Self-Denial, 1

With the encouragement of some close friends, I have decided to share a few stories with you from my life.  I have been following Jesus – not always with perfect faithfulness, but those are a different set of stories; I mention that fact here to clarify that I am not making any claims to an exceptional Christian life, only a Christian life – for some 45+ years.

I don’t have as many years ahead of me as I have trailing behind me.  Lately, I have felt the Holy Spirit’s prompting, I suspect (I am not certain; that’s why I asked my friends’ advice), to share these experiences for the encouragement of others.  The memory of God’s good work should not die with the individual.  And God has been very good to me over the years.  These stories are told here in order to praise God by letting you know how good He has been to me.  (Check out my post about the Biblical meaning of “praise.”)

I firmly believe that self-denial is at the heart of obedient Christian discipleship.  Jesus could not speak any more clearly.  He says:

“If anyone wants to follow me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

Self-denial is the heart of the good news.  Self-denial defined every day of Jesus’ life on earth.  The crucifixion was Jesus’ ultimate act of self-denial.  Now he says to us, “Follow me.  Be like me. Live like me.  Be willing to die like me.  Say ‘No’ to your own selfish interests and submit entirely to the Father in heaven like me.”

It is impossible to be a disciple of Jesus Christ without learning to recognize those forks in the road where God tells us to abandon our own plans and walk in a different direction.  I am blessed in that the Holy Spirit has allowed me to recognize a few of those forks over the years.

Denying yourself is not easy.  In fact, it can be painful.

It’s not something we can do expecting immediate “blessings.”  Sometimes the rewards for obedience don’t appear for years.  Maybe they won’t appear until eternity.  At other times, the benefits become obvious in the moment.  In any case, we don’t follow Jesus because he is a cosmic gumball machine dispensing instant, observable blessings for our every action.

Sometimes self-denial entails immediate suffering.  But we do it anyway, gladly, willingly and repeatedly simply because we need to be with Jesus.  We love him, and we know that life does not make sense for us anywhere else but at his side.  As Kierkegaard wisely observed:

“If you will believe, then you will…accept Christianity on any terms…then you will say: Whether it is a help or a torment, I want only one thing, I want to belong to Christ, I want to be a Christian.”

For as long as I could remember, I had always wanted to be a wildlife biologist.  Trekking through the wildness, studying wild animals, learning their hidden secrets and behaviors that no one else had yet to witness, this was my lifelong dream as a child.

I chose my university accordingly.  The University of Montana was the only place for me.  Between its department of Wildlife Biology and the presence of Dr. John Craighead, my childhood hero and an American pioneer in modern ecology and wildlife studies, moving into the university dormitory made me as happy as a 17-year-old pig in slop.

I had qualified for the on-campus work study program so I hightailed it over to the office of the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unity, founded by Dr. Craighead, and I asked for a job.  Over the next several years my dreams started to come true.  I became an assistant to several doctoral students, helping them in their field research.  I was living my dream and the signs all seemed to say, ‘Full steam ahead.’

But I also hooked up with another group in my freshman year:  Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.  I attended their Large Group meetings.  I joined a Small Group Bible study, and I became friends with the local IV staff-worker, Marv Anderson.  (Marv and his wife Doreen are dear friends to this day.  I consider him to be one of my spiritual fathers.  Every believer needs someone like Marv in their life.)

Believe it or not, I had been born and raised in the church, but I had always thought very independently about my life.  At the university I began to rub shoulders with young people who talked openly about God’s will for their lives.

What?!  You mean following Jesus meant that I couldn’t just chase after any career I wanted?  I was supposed to pray, listen for answers, ask others for advice and do the things God wanted me to do????  Yikes!  Admittedly, I may have been sleeping during those particular lessons at church, but this was a brand-new attitude for my teenage, embryonic Christian faith.

But, with lots of helpful encouragement and advice from Marv and others, that’s exactly what I began to do.  And I started to realize new things about myself.

First, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see that, in large part, my career choice was driven by a major problem in my character.  I have always been an introvert.  Not that there is anything wrong with being an introvert.  I am quite happy with myself in that regard.  But this young man had gone much further into himself and become a good old-fashioned misanthrope.

I did not like people very much.  I was angry and antisocial – yeah, why in the world had I sought out Inter-Varsity?  It must have been the Holy Spirit again.  And I came so see that my desire to live alone in the wildness had as much to do with my dislike for the rest of the human race as it did with my love for animal life.  Yet, I was increasingly impressed by the fact that Jesus loved people.  And if I wanted to follow him, then he wanted me to love people too.

That realization caused me to seriously question whether I could continue calling myself a Christian.  I knew in my guts that no one could say they believed in Jesus while hating other people.  Yet, the last thing I was interested in was learning to love others.  Heck, I didn’t even like myself most of the time!

After a period of great internal wrestling, I concluded that I couldn’t walk away from Jesus.  I knew that I was lost without Him.  It was up to me to change, whether I liked it or not.  So, I added two new requests to my time of daily prayer.

First, I asked Jesus to teach me how to love people as he loved them, to give me his heart for others.

Second, I confessed that my plans for wildlife biology were my own.  I had never before asked the Lord what he wanted to do with my life.  So, I started asking, ‘Jesus, what are your plans for my life?  What did you make me to do?  If you want me to be a biologist, great.  But if you want to take me somewhere else, I will give up biology and do whatever you want.’

If you have checked out the biography on my blog, you will know that I have never worked as a biologist.  After graduation I followed a path into Christian ministry.  Something I never imagined I would do.  I said ‘No’ to my life-long plan – in the middle of seeing it all come true! –  because it had always been my plan.

It turned out that Jesus had a better idea for an introverted misanthrope who had also been given some unexplored gifts in communication and public speaking.

I have never regretted my decision to walk away from biology.  God’s plans for me have meant considerable hardship, at times.  The journey hasn’t always been easy.  There are more stories yet to be told.  But I have never been sorry for the choices I made, because I believe there was no other way for me to keep following after my precious Savior, Jesus Christ.

I thought I was going to the University of Montana to work with John Craighead.  Actually, I went there to meet Marv Anderson…and, of course, my wife Terry.  I had never heard of Marv before, but his model of faithful discipleship changed my life forever.

Learning “to deny myself” ended up saving me from deep personality flaws that were steering me into a life of isolation and loneliness.  Had I stubbornly held on to the person I was at the time, I would have eventually been lost.

Believe me.  Jesus always knows best.  Even when his direction is hard.

Kierkegaard’s Depression and Service in God’s Kingdom

1836 February

The melancholy Dane.

“People understand me so little that they do not even understand when I complain of being misunderstood…I have just returned from a party of which I was the life and soul; wit poured from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me – but I went away – and the dash should have been as long as the earth’s orbit —————- and wanted to shoot myself.”

1847 August

“I must come to closer grips with my melancholy. It has until now lain deep down and the tremendous intellectual strain has helped to keep it down.  That my work has profited others, that God has approved it and helped me in every way is sure enough.  Again and again I thank him for having done infinitely more for me than I ever expected…I shall therefore remain quiet…and try to understand myself, and really think out the idea of my melancholy together with God here and now.  That is how I must get rid of my melancholy and bring Christianity closer to me.”

1848 May

“My life began with a terrible melancholy, in its earliest youth deranged in its very deepest foundations, a melancholy which threw me for a time into sin and debauchery and yet (humanly speaking) almost more insane than guilty…so I grasped eternity with the blessed assurance that God is love, even though I was to suffer thus all my life; yes, with that blessed assurance.  That is how I looked upon my life.”

These are only a few of the numerous references to depression and suicidal impulses that Sǿren Kierkegaard discloses in his journals.  There are many more.  They are one of the reasons that I feel an affinity for this 19th century Christian brother.

Of course, Kierkegaard lived long before any medical treatments, or even talk therapy, were available for people suffering with depression.  Which makes it all the more amazing (to me, anyway) that he not only managed to withstand his periodic suicidal impulses – I am oh so happy that he never shot himself! – but that his chronic depression eventually played an important role in the circumstances that drew him to faith in Christ.

The Christian Kierkegaard’s openness about his depression and its interactions with his trust in Jesus teach me a number of valuable lessons:

Even when Sǿren was twisted into knots by the darkest, psychic oppression, he continued to search for life’s answers in relationship with his heavenly Father.  If there is any meaning to be found in life, he knew that it appears as we surrender ourselves more and more completely to the Father of Jesus Christ.  He never gave up on faith in Jesus, though I am sure that he felt like it many times.  That persistent faith assured him that we are deeply, deeply loved by God whatever else our terrors, sadness, or emotional despair may try to insinuate in moments weakness and vulnerability.

Though Kierkegaard struggled with temptation, he never surrendered himself to believing that his depression was a divine punishment or judgment.  He did not allow the experience of depression to determine his faith in the Lord.  Just the opposite.  He knew that he had been forgiven and accepted by God.  Even though it must have created a torturous, existential contradiction, Sǿren found a way (just like the psalmist) to live by faith even as he “walked through the valley of the shadow of death.”  Kierkegaard was often a depressed believer, but he was a believer nonetheless.  And he held to the truth that God always loved His children, even when they were depressed children.  The adjective (depressed) didn’t matter.  Faith clung to the noun (child of God).

Rather than blame God for his suffering and angrily pull away from the Father, Kierkegaard used his suffering as a vehicle for reflection and self-understanding.  There are things that even the depressed person must choose by force of will.  Kierkegaard eventually saw his depression as a gift from God, for he was convinced that melancholy (as he put it) was essential to his psychological insights and productivity as a religious author.  A lifetime of struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide molded him into the man God wanted to use.

In a sense, then, depression became the cross that Kierkegaard carried throughout his life of Christian discipleship.  His writings were intended to help the Danish national church open its eyes to the true gospel of Jesus Christ.   Sǿren was, in effect, an evangelist to all the people of Denmark.  Depression became his tutor directing him into the various avenues he explored for communicating the real Christian gospel to a nation of people who already thought they knew it all.  As he neared the end of his life, Kierkegaard acknowledged the privilege of being used by God in this way and genuinely expressed his gratitude for the “life of melancholy” that kept him praying, seeking, thinking, studying, writing, believing and hoping.

For Jesus said, “If anyone wants to come after me, you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

I pray that I will imitate Kierkegaard in the way that he took up his cross for Jesus.