:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

Over the past weekend I had a chance to hear a variety of Christians speak about writing and our call to be ambassadors for Christ. For the most part I was encouraged by the sincerity, kindness, and insight shared among these believers.

However, at certain key points I heard speakers, some who spoke to large crowds, sharing a kind of counterfeit version of the Gospel that almost left me in tears. I’d like to address this matter, but I want to avoid words like “danger” or “threat” that just inject venom and anger into these discussions. I’d rather just say that I heard some sincere followers of Jesus clouding and possibly distorting the Gospel and particularly our motivations for sharing it.

I’ll spend the majority of my time focusing on my understanding of the biblical witness concerning what the Gospel does and why we should share it. I’ll end with a few words of caution about ways Christians have distorted these ideas.

What Does the Gospel Do?

The Gospel reconciles us with God. I think we can all agree on that. As we join others who share the same Spirit and relationship with God, we form the people known as the church. We have all been saved and sustained in the same way.

The Gospel makes us citizens of God’s Kingdom, which is the other worldly and this worldly place where his will is done. When we pray, “Your will be done, your Kingdom come,” we are asking God’s Kingdom to expand on earth as his will is done.

Why Should We Share It?

We share the Gospel because Jesus asked us to do so, because it is the way others can be saved, and because God intensely loves his creation and longs that all would come to know him. We don’t share the Gospel to preserve our churches, to ease our egos, or to give a soul fire insurance. We want others to know the joy and freedom that comes from knowing Jesus today, sharing in his sufferings, and moving toward eternal life with him.

What’s at Stake

In getting back to our problem of a distorted Gospel. I heard several speakers challenge the Christians present to preach the Gospel in order to preserve America’s Christian character and to prevent God’s judgment from falling upon us. One speaker made it clear that Democrats were to blame. Such teachings cloud the real reasons why we should share the Gospel and what it accomplishes.

I used to think that America was a Christian nation, so when I speak of Christians who operate from this assumption, I can identify as a former insider. The trouble is that the Kingdom of God cannot be affiliated with the agenda of any one nation since the Gospel is Good News for “all people” and “all nations” are blessed through Abraham.

In addition, classifying America as Christian at its founding raises serious historical questions since many founders were deists, slave owners, and generally greedy and corrupt. While some may have resembled evangelicals today, crediting good fortune to Providence—a common practice among the founders—did not make someone a Christian.

Christian sociologist Bradley Wright has also found that there is a much higher proportion of Christians in America today than during the Revolution. We could point at some places where Christianity impacted the founding of America, but calling America a Christian or godly nation from the start is a mistake that only white Americans could make. Our African American friends have much to teach us in this regard. America’s history is not a fall from grace spurred on by Democratic politicians. It’s more realistically a mix of high and low points.

Having said that, we should not ignore the possibility of God’s judgment. The Old Testament shows that time and time again God will judge a nation that neglects the poor, allows corruption, attacks its enemies without mercy, and concentrates wealth among the few to the detriment of the many. These are real, bi-partisan problems to consider in America.

Nevertheless, we should seek righteousness and preach the Gospel not as a means to preserve America or to keep America as a Christian nation. That turns the Gospel into a self-serving, political tool that unintentionally brands unbelievers and sometimes Democrats into religious terrorists who are calling down God’s judgment on America and only the true patriots will hold off destruction through their preaching.

In a sense, this kind of thinking turns the objects of God’s desire, those who do not know him, into enemies who are ruining our country and our place as the keepers of our country. Christians are servants who are called to follow Jesus and Jesus alone. Even allegiance to one’s country cannot be allowed to cloud the goals and motivations behind our calling.

I won’t say that such teachers are ruining Christianity or America, but they are distorting their Christian practice with political agendas and suspect history. As I stated in Coffeehouse Theology, an unexamined context can influence our theology and fool us into thinking that we are free from its influence.

Sadly, there are still some evangelicals who are failing to consider how American culture and particularly conservative politics are skewing their understanding of the Gospel and our mission as believers. They can be Christians who happen to be American patriots. That’s a different conversation. Our problems come when they create a Christian patriotism that uses the Gospel as a means of preserving America.

America is not the light on a hill. The light is Jesus shining through his people—a people that is not limited to those found in America.

So, the bookish seminary student takes his leap into ministry, and he learns an important lesson. The kind of lesson he couldn’t have truly learned by just reading the Bible.

You need to go. Ministry requires going. Even going when you don’t have all of the pieces in place.

This does not mean reckless going, but rather, taking steps forward to do what you know needs to happen and trusting in God’s leading and provision.

It’s kind of wild, freeing, and terrifying all at once.

It’s wild because I never would have thought that God could work like this… calling me to take a step in faith so that he could provide what I needed at the last second.

It’s freeing because I don’t have to figure everything out. He has the control. It’s his work.

It’s terrifying because he’ll keep doing things this way, and who knows what he’ll ask me to do next!

Last week I had a very difficult time discerning God’s will. We had a big decision to make, and it’s hard to say what exactly happened. However, by the time the smoke cleared, my understanding of prayer changed in a significant way.

Prayer usually works for me like this: I need X, and so I pray about X. I surrender X to God, and ask God to take care of X for me.

I think I’m right about trying to hold loosely to whatever my prayer requests are. While I bring my needs to God and try to remain open to however he may lead, I’m learning that prayer isn’t all about arriving at an answer or solution.

I thought I had a sense of God’s direction for my own X last week, but then circumstances threw me for a loop. I realized that the solution for X, the solution that I thought I held loosely, was not going to work. Confused, I didn’t quite know what to do next.

At some point in the next 24 hours, my X was solved in an unexpected way, and I had peace about it. But what exactly happened?

I’m not quite sure, but I think God is still teaching me to seek him and not just solutions to my problems. This has been a common thread for me in the past year. I was so focused on a solution and the peace that I didn’t give too much thought to the state of my relationship with God throughout the week.

In fact, I measured my connection with God based on his reply to X. In the grand scheme of things, my problems should not determine how I relate to God. They are important, but my primary goal in prayer is to meet with the Lord, not to make my life neat and tidy.

That’s a tough lesson to learn when you have the ear of the Creator of the Universe.

“I like a lot of the emerging church stuff, but man, it’s just so… white.”

An Asian friend in seminary said that to me back in the fall of 2004, long before Sojourners ran an article in Spring 2010 about the overwhelming whiteness of the emerging church. At the time my friend made this observation, I had just completed the first draft of Coffeehouse Theology, an introduction to theology that included diverse/global Christian perspectives in its method.

I think his comment was pretty much right on, but not necessarily indicative of where Christianity, emerging or not, need stay. I think he would agree.

White Dudes Realize We’re Missing It

If there’s one good thing that’s come out of the emerging conversations, it’s a great deal of humility that is paired with charitable dialogue with fellow believers. What I saw developing throughout the 00’s in my seminary and online is basically a bunch of white theologians realizing they’d been marginalizing other perspectives, whether or not that has been intentional.

Now, think about this. Our seminaries, at least the conservative-ish ones, are filled with lots of white dudes and also some Koreans. So, the white dudes realized we’d been missing out on some important perspectives, and that is a wonderful and commendable thing. We should not minimize or overlook things.

However, the conversations at that point primarily consisted of white dudes talking about the need to be more diverse. That’s certainly where many of us were back in 2004. I know that’s where I was.

White Dudes Will Fix Things

Unfortunately, when those in the majority realize there’s a problem, they may try to solve it on their own and even dictate the terms of the solution without considering the contributions of the minorities involved.

My former professor John Franke gave a wonderfully humble account of this at an event a few years ago. He entered dialogue with an African American pastor and proposed a number of solutions to our white dude problem. In the process he realized that he’d been dictating the terms of the solution, confessed his error, and worked with this pastor on some great ideas that rose from their conversations.

White Dudes Will Give Up Control

The future of all this emerging, missional, and just plain Christian stuff does not rely on white dudes figuring out ways to be diverse, and I think a lot of white dudes know that. Some are more proactive than others to this end, but if we ask ourselves who’s leading and only come up with a list of white dudes, then we’ll know we’re not there yet.

The trouble with this conversation is that white dudes have been in control for so long, that I’m sure those in the non-white dude camp feel like enough is enough: “Just give up control already white dudes!” And then the white dudes who are trying to make things better feel like they’re doing the best they can and just need more time.

My hope is that we can move beyond white dude theology, and I think we are well on our way in many circles. We can start today be asking who we look to as guides for our theology and practice, and if our guides are only white dudes, then we have some searching to do.

I remember the diversity group that the lone east Indian student started at my predominantly white high school in the Philly burbs: CAFE. It stood for Cultural Awareness For Everyone.

I was like, PHHHBBB! What’s there to know? I was shocked to see a friend of mine start attending the meetings, and just didn’t get it. I KNEW there were other cultures in the world. They just weren’t around me. What’s the big deal?

Thankfully I’ve left the foolishness of my youth behind, though I’m not always as proactive about correcting my diversity deficiency as I should.

A revelation came rocketing down on me while, if I may name drop a little bit since all Christian bloggers name drop—say if NT Wright sneezes on us or whatever, chatting with Christine Sine in New Haven, CT. I heard the words come out of my mouth, but didn’t realize how true and challenging they were until later that night.

While discussing the diversity of the Christian faith, I said, “All of my significant moments of spiritual growth resulted from interacting with a different Christian tradition.”

My trajectory is something like this:

Bored Catholic.

Jumpy Fundamentalist.

Saved but uptight evangelical.

Saved but relaxed evangelical.

Saved evangelical with spiritual gifts.

As I look back at my growth and how my life as a Christian changed, I can see that interactions with Christians from diverse denominations, backgrounds, and countries opened fresh experiences of God in my life.

Next week I’ll talk about why we need diversity and take a couple swings at what diversity can look like in our church today. If you want to take this a step further, check out my book Coffeehouse Theology, as I get into the place of Christian tradition and the global church in the development of our beliefs and practice.

Writers can rarely resist weighing in on contemporary issues, and it’s often a good thing that they offer insight and perspective in their commentaries on what’s important in our world. Christians today need solid thinking and constructive debate when it comes to complex matters such as war, immigration, social justice, the environment, and theology.

The Wrong Kind of Commentary

I don’t know about you, but I’ve shared a few rants of my own that did little to help anyone. I hammered out a self-righteous post that blasted a particular perspective or person, and then patted myself on the back for being all progressive and smart.

In addition, by focusing on writing sharp replies, I often failed to think of ways to, you know, actually do something.

A wise administrator at my seminary once said, “When seminary students read a book, they think they’ve done it.” I think we could say the same for blogging on particular issues: we run the risk of confusing commentary with action, especially if our commentaries are strident and provocative.

I have been repenting of my self-righteous and combative posts that have done little to advance conversation, thought, or action. Those are the wrong kinds of commentaries for writers who hope to minister to others. I hope I don’t make those mistakes again.

Constructive Commentary

Christians need to address the issues of today both for the sake of fellow believers and for the sake of those who are not Christians.

Christianity thrives on application and action, but we need writers to help us on our way with this. Writers can meditate on scripture, examine the issues of our times, and help fellow Christians apply their beliefs in today’s context. I see this kind of writing ministry as pastoral in many ways.

However, Christian writers should also remember that their work is out there for all to see, and that some readers outside of the Christian community may be reading their words. This is very  important to me. I hope that my writing is representative of the ministry of Jesus and gives them a better picture of what it means to be a disciple today.

There are plenty of destructive things being said by Christians or controversies over issues that are peripheral to the Gospel that turn folks off to the Gospel. We need to think about the ramifications of our writing for the spread of the Gospel.

Are readers meeting Jesus and learning about the Gospel of the Kingdom in our writing? I pray that they will.

Readers are attracted to writers who can tell a good story. I mean, who isn’t?  Personal stories are the very life-blood of blogs, with the best story tellers rising to the top with their tales of raising children, suffering impossible colleagues, and overcoming struggles.

For many Christian writers, their blogs are places to share what they are learning, how they have seen God at work, and what they believe. From blogs to books on Christian living to spiritual memoirs, the personal angle is important with Christianity because our faith is based on the incarnation of Jesus and the Spirit-empowered embodiment of his life among us.

If we aren’t living the truth, then the game is over for Christianity.

The Pitfalls of Personal Stories

Unfortunately, personal stories of faith can lead to the drawback of becoming too, well, personal. While we may aim to share how God is working in our lives, our stories can turn into trite little triumphs of our cleverness or insight.

I often feel this tension when sharing anything personal.  I don’t want to slip into a celebration of my perceived virtues.

Personal stories also fall short when we use excessive private details to draw in readers who are curious to learn more about our lives. In other words, we can encourage voyeurism, rather than sharing what God is doing in us. The former prompts readers to desire information about us, and the latter prompts readers to desire what God is up to, with our lives as more of side detail.

Perhaps we can ask ourselves, “Are readers walking away from this piece impressed with me or with what God is doing?”

The Benefits of Personal Stories

Besides keeping us focused on living the truth we profess, personal stories serve an important role as written testimonies that can encourage fellow readers. In fact, as a seminary student who has posted his fair share of abstract and generally useless posts on theology, philosophy, and Christianity, I think personal stories are more important than ever.

As we pray, study scripture, and live out of God’s empowering Spirit, we should have stories to share. That’s part of the fun of being a Christian—God works and we get to share that with others as witnesses. Do a search of the word “witnesses” in the book of Acts sometime. It’s startling to see how often that comes up.

We are witnesses, which is another way to say, we share personal stories of our faith. That’s how this is supposed to work.

When We Don’t Have Stories to Tell

Lately I was in the midst of a dry spell where I could hardly sit still to pray or read scripture for about a week or two. It was tough. I tried, but I couldn’t focus. If I had any stories to tell, they were in the past tense.

Finally, one morning I put off everything else I planned to do, and kneeled down to pray. In a rush God broke through, teaching me that I’d been too driven by lists and schedules, and that these means of organizing my career had taken over my spiritual life.

If you’re at a place where Christianity isn’t all that exciting or you don’t feel like you have anything to share, I encourage you to stop, relax a bit, and sit before God. Don’t expect anything. Just worship him for who he is, accept that he loves you, and ask him, “Now what?”

I can’t guarantee anything about what will happen next, but we were created to live in relationship with him. He will meet with us if we seek him. And when he meets with us, stories will soon follow.

While I approach my writing as a ministry, I need to keep in mind that writing does not equal action. An opinion on a matter does not automatically lead to its resolution. We need to think and to form opinions, but if I stop there, I run the risk of doing nothing, if not becoming a hypocrite.

Writing is not an end in and of itself, even if it is a ministry. A good writing ministry should help people see the world differently, take action, and understand God and one another better. 

I know that many of us want to change things in the world such as ending the modern slave trade, telling the Good News of Jesus, bringing justice to our communities, waging peace, and healing those who are wounded. Writing is a part of that process. If we accept the status quo uncritically, we have a huge problem.

We could become like the people in Fahrenheit 451 who watch TV, believe everything they see, and become passive receivers. Writing is for those of us who want to take responsibility for our relationships with God, one another, and our neighbors.

However, writing in and of itself is not the solution. Writing is not the action that will help us move closer to God or become a redemptive influence in our communities. Writing as a ministry is a catalyst that helps us take the first step.

As we move toward a more functional vocabulary of the Holy Spirit, the first concept I’d like to tackle is that of being “filled” with the Holy Spirit. It is a rather broad concept that is assumed throughout the New Testament when speaking of more specific manifestations and works of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

There’s almost too much material to cover in this topic, but the filling of the Holy Spirit is a particularly important topic that comes up throughout the New Testament. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit the book of Acts would be a rather short read.

While I’d like to spend some time on all of the various ways we can speak of the Holy Spirit in our Christian lives, I’d like to begin with this very general idea of the Spirit’s filling our lives or the state of being Spirit-filled. What does it look like? How should we speak of it?

Christians as Naturally Spirit-Filled

Acts 8:16-18 tells of an unusual group of Christians in the region of Samaria—possibly the believers who resulted from the ministry of Jesus in John chapter 4. These Christians were not filled with the Spirit, and it was strange.

Think about that. Is it possible that the majority of the Christians in the world today would have been anomalies in the early church? It’s a chilling thought. That’s purely speculation on my part since we’ll never know in a definitive way, but keep that thought in the back of your mind as we continue with this study. If being Spirit-filled is something that is obvious and well-known, what can we say for ourselves today?

The Moment of Filling

There seemed to be moments of being filled with the Holy Spirit both at the moment of salvation, as in when Peter preached to the Roman soldier in Acts, and other times, such as Acts 8, when believers are filled with the Spirit on a separate occasion from their profession of faith.

Christians who are already Spirit-filled are sometimes filled again, as in Acts 4:31. This means we can speak of being filled with the Spirit in both an initial sense and in an ongoing sense. We should not be satisfied with the initial filling of the Spirit. Becoming a “Spirit-filled” believer is an ongoing process that requires prayer, devotion, and the initiative of God.

The Results of Filling

Spirit-filled Christians took on several noticeable characteristics that generally served the work of spreading the Gospel and made them particularly bold for the cause of Christ. The Apostles and Deacons of the church are regularly designated as filled with the Spirit throughout Acts.

Whether giving confidence, wisdom, or the right words to say, the Holy Spirit makes the church happen. In fact, each step forward for the church in Acts is a result of the Holy Spirit. If we read a Gospel such as Matthew or Luke we’ll also notice the initiative of the Spirit.

If we are reading the book of Acts and we envy the results of the early church, then we have one central question to answer, “How do we become Spirit-filled.” Being Spirit-filled did not mean out of control, manipulative, or divorced from the truth of the Gospel.

No one could lead or effectively minister in the book of Acts without being Spirit-filled. The action recorded in Acts is regularly linked with the indwelling of the Spirit among the Christian community.

Therefore, I’m convinced from this brief study that we should hope to regularly speak of our leaders and one another as “Spirit-filled.” As we continue our look at the Holy Spirit this week, I pray that we’ll experience this filling in new and refreshing ways.

Sadly, the Charismatic renewal of the church may be fading.

When I speak of developing a vocabulary of the Holy Spirit, I’m referring to the practice of regularly speaking of the various ways that God’s Spirit works among us. Theologically speaking the Holy Spirit plays an absolutely essential role int he Christian life, but the language of most evangelicals lacks references to the third member of the Trinity.

Today I’d like to identify a few reasons why many Christians, especially my own evangelical tribe, have a hard time speaking of the Holy Spirit.

We Fear We’ll Sound Like Pentecostals

Most Christians are familiar with emotional and dramatic Pentecostal preachers who dance around their pulpits, strike people on the head, and send them flopping onto the floor. Whether or not all such preachers are to be trusted, they generally speak regularly of the power of the Holy Spirit in their ministries.

Perhaps there are some who are genuinely moving with the Spirit, while others are invoking the Spirit’s influence to validate a suspect ministry. That’s not for us to decide. However, Christians who associate such ministries with fraud can run the risk of throwing the baby out with the bath water when it comes to the Spirit.

In the broadest sense, Christians will err by either favoring Spirit or truth. Some will focus on manifestations of the Spirit, but fail to work at the truth of scripture and the guidance of their traditions. Others will focus on truth, but neglect the direct influence of the Spirit. Both groups would acknowledge they depend on Spirit and truth, but their language, among other marks, suggests otherwise.

I’ve tended to belong to the side of truth over Spirit throughout most of my Christian life. It has taken me years to learn that God’s Spirit can work in very real and present ways among his people without making the mistakes of showmanship and manipulation that are often associated with the dark side of Pentecostalism.

We Fear We’ll Get It Wrong

Even if we are open to the Spirit working among us, Christians tend to fear speaking of the Spirit’s work because they don’t want to get it wrong.

We wonder things such as: Was that prompting I sensed really a work of God, or was it just my mind or emotions? Will I use that prompting to manipulate someone? Could I lead my family into trouble by mishearing the Spirit?

I’ve seen some terrible situations unfold because Christians were convinced they heard from the Holy Spirit, though every other Christian involved sensed they were wrong. Matters of pride and control often come up. In addition we have our limitations and fallibility to consider.

When I think of all the times I’ve misinterpreted the Bible, it’s a wonder that I’m still willing to read it and to reach conclusions that I’ll share in public. I spent several years listening to some pretty wacky fundamentalist doctrines. However, I’m still game for reading the Bible after all of my mistakes. Why should listening to and speaking of the Holy Spirit be any different?

Listening for the Spirit and moving according to the Spirit’s lead is a fallible, imperfect process. Get used to it. You’ll get better at it given some practice, and all of those Christians in your church are there to help you sort through things when you aren’t sure.

God Transcends Our Language

Even if we are open and willing to work with the Holy Spirit, many don’t know what it looks like for the Spirit to genuinely work among us. We aren’t sure how to apply the scriptures or how to speak of the Spirit’s work.

For instance, I know some folks think I’m positively out to lunch when I try to relate what I’ve learned over the past few years about spiritual warfare and the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. It sounds a bit far-fetched, and I struggle to put my experiences into terms that they’ll believe. Perhaps there are no terms that will resonate with those unfamiliar with the hands-on work of the Spirit.

Other times the Spirit sneaks up on me in ways that I can only describe in emotive terms. I once prayed over a youth pastor and his wife, and the presence of God just crashed onto all of us. I knew we needed to pray, but then God took over.

Something happened that day. I’m almost brought to tears whenever I think of that day, and I sense something stir within me. What is that all about? We don’t even know what God did, and we lack the ability to quantify it for others.

Tomorrow

Now that we know about the obstacles that stand in the way of speaking of the Holy Spirit, I’ll spend the rest of the discussing ways we can speak of the Spirit’s work among us, including the saving work of the Spirit, listening to the Spirit, receiving guidance from the Spirit, living in obedience, and a few other topics that will carry over into next week.