Wednesday, August 31, 2022

"Structured Terror" As a Marketing Campaign?

 


                                                        (Underside of our deck umbrella)

When you publish a book, get ready to receive emails and phone calls from people who say they love your book, and find it awesome. They want to market your book, promising sales like you've never seen before. You have to pay them to do this. I get calls from these people every day.

Here's a call that came today. The person left this message, which converted the voice mail to written text. Sometimes this process is inaccurate.

"Hi I'd like to leave a message to John Pico author of the book praying this is published in 2016 and yeah this is John by the way a publishing consultant from Venus magnet and love to talk to you John about this book because I believe this book is a really good potential to to succeed in the literary literary industry and I wanna help you map out and organize structured terror for marketing campaign for it."

If you see me marketing my book through this agency, beware!

Our True Labor


(Monarch, in our front yard)

Labor Day is this coming Monday. A day to rest and recreate from work. 

For followers of Jesus, our true work is all that is done "in the Lord." This brings satisfaction, as we view ourselves working for God, and his greater purposes. 

God's greater purposes have to do with the redemption of his creation, to include persons. Our job may involve making things, selling things, cleaning, teaching, whatever. But our real job involves the bigger, redemptive picture of what God is doing. This is our true labor. 

We see this in 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. 

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord . 

"Labor" is "vain" if it has no meaningful purpose. "Vain  labor" is boring. "Boredom" is not having nothing to do, but finding no meaning in what one is doing.

A philosophical example of vain labor is Albert Camus's "Myth of Sisyphus." Sisyphus, according to the Greek myth, was punished for all eternity, condemned to roll a boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back down to the bottom when he reaches the top. This happens over and over again and again, everlastingly. 

Camus claimed Sisyphus represents the human condition. Sisyphus struggles perpetually, without hope of completion. Such laboring is absurd. Camus thinks if Sisyphus can accept his absurd labor, then he can find happiness in it.


Many experience their labor as absurd. They find no happiness in it. Their work lack telos (purpose), and is in vain. 

But, from the Jesus-perspective, all labor "in the Lord" is redemptive and meaningful. When what we do emerges out of who we are in relationship with Christ, our lives become purposeful. Purposeful, *telic" living, brings satisfaction.

We are to view God as our Employer. From this God-relational perspective, redemptive activity is seen and experienced everywhere. What seem to be vain, meaningless tasks, take on eternal, missional qualities. This happens, not because of any intrinsic majesty of the task, but as a function of who we are under

Labor under the Lordship of Jesus, and abound in the work you are doing under God.

Know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.



***
*telic - a purposeful or defined action; from the Greek word telos, meaning "end," or "goal"; such as teloscope, literally "to see to the end."

***

In my book I talk about prayer as purposeful activity - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Deconstructing Progressive Christianity - My 6-Session Zoom Course Begins Sept. 16

 

 


Renewal School of Ministry 

Term Offered: Fall 2022 

Course Name: Deconstructing Progressive Christianity 

Course Times/Dates: 1.5 hour Zoom meetings for six weeks, Begins September 19,2022 and meets on six consecutive Monday nights. 

The classes will be live via zoom. 

Course Content

Progressive Christianity is an ethos, a mind set, more than a movement. It is indebted to political progressivism and postmodern philosophy. It has a trajectory, which is secularism. In this course John Piippo explains this ethos, with its corresponding trajectory. He explains the differences between historic Christianity and progressive Christianity, and finds the latter to be a different kind of religion. In the process of deconstruction we see key missing elements, such as atonement theory, the resurrection of Christ, and non-natural realities. The idea of moral and spiritual human progress is seen as a myth, and progressive beliefs about love are examined. In this course you will come to better understand the progressive ethos as it relates to religion, and why progressive Christianity is best understood as distant from historic Christianity. 

Requirements for Credit: To receive credit for the course students will need to: 

• Attend every live Zoom session 

• Participate in the class discussions 

• One absence is permitted as long as the student makes arrangements to watch the Zoom replay. 

Book Requirements: The course will utilize the book Deconstructing Progressive Christianity, by John Piippo, available on Amazon. 

Costs: There is $10 fee to cover costs for taking this course in the Renewal School of Ministry. 

Please enroll for the course/s on our website: www.hsrm.org . 

Instructor: Dr. John Piippo 

John is a national co-director of HSRM and a pastor at Redeemer Fellowship Church in Monroe, Michigan. He has a M.Div. degree from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a PhD in philosophical theology from Northwestern University. John has taught this material around the world in seminaries and conferences. John Piippo, PhD (Northwestern University) 

johnpiippo@msn.com 

johnpiippo.com (blog)

Prayer and Purpose



(Linda, at Maracas Bay in Trinidad)


I have a friend who loves to work in his large vegetable and flower garden. He talks about needing "garden time." I say to him, "That's your therapy."

Working and laboring for a purpose brings satisfaction. (For example of working for no purpose, read atheist Albert Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus.)

In praying, God gives me work orders. In the praying room with God I receive his kingdom plans and purposes. Purpose grows as I pray in the garden of God's presence.

Presence is prior to purpose. Purpose comes out of prayerful presence. In praying, I hear the call of God to "Go," or "Do." Famously, my doing emerges out of my being.

From God's POV there's no such thing as a small call. To work at a task God has for me results in his plans accomplished, and my emotional and spiritual needs fulfilled. This even applies to seemingly insignificant tasks. For example, I come home and see dishes that need to be done, so I wash them. I love doing dishes. The telos or purpose for me is: it pleases my wife Linda. When she gets home, she notices. I like the thought of freeing up her life. I love Linda, and love sets people free. This is laboring with a greater purpose.

To co-labor with God and his intentions is to work with purpose in life is . This is the heart of true prayer, which is: talking with God about what God and I are thinking and doing together. I want to come to the end of my life knowing God has worked through me to accomplish his desires. That is good. It is a way of loving God, and is therapy for my soul.

Laboring with no sense of purpose is a kind of hell.[1] It is boredom. "Boredom" is not having nothing to do; boredom is finding no meaning in what you are doing. Purposeless work produces inner agitation. It is useless and ill-directed action of the body. As a pastor I am always meeting people who live purposeless lives, and experience constant back-and-forth spiritual agitation.

Jesus told his disciples, “Let not your hearts be agitated[2].” A washing machine has an “agitator.” It thrusts the clothes back and forth, over and over again and again. Spiritually, “agitation is the useless and ill-directed action of the body. It expresses the inner confusion of a soul without peace… All this is the death of the interior life.”[3] 

To work for the goals of money, pleasure, or power is to construct an agitator in the heart. It brings "the death of the interior life." The antidote to this is: dwell, now, in Christ.[4]

In the praying relationship I discover my work. This discovery arises out of a Christ-abiding relationship. This is where the fruit grows and the tasks are delegated. One’s laboring becomes relevant, bringing peace and fulfillment to the soul.

Follow Jesus’ command to abide in him. Allow him to shepherd your soul. A little bit of churchgoing won't help. A few mc-prayers won’t either. Constant abiding will. Out of this Christ-dwelling comes not only his peace and joy but life purpose.

I pray because my work will be purposeful.



[1] On the hellishness of purposeless work see Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus.
[2] ταράσσω,v  \{tar-as'-so} - to agitate, trouble (a thing, by the movement of its parts to and fro); to cause one inward commotion, take away his calmness of  mind, disturb his equanimity. Greekbible.com.
[3] Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, 114-115. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, 1983.
[4] See John chapters 14-16.

Monday, August 29, 2022

Pastors Are Burning Out

 


Pastors are burning out at unprecedented levels.

The Barna Report is here.

The New York Times article is here.


Saturday, August 27, 2022

God Desires Participants, not Admirers


(Some of our Redeemer kids)

Criticism is the opposite side of the same coin, 
which is admiration. Both concern evaluation.

Soren Kierkegaard writes:

"Is God's meaning, in Christianity, simply to humble man through the model (that is to say putting before us the ideal) and to console him with 'Grace,' but in such a way that through Christianity there is expressed the fact that between God and man there is no relationship, that man must express his thankfulness like a dog to man, so that adoration becomes more and more true, and more and more pleasing to God, as it becomes less and less possible for man to imagine that he could be like the model? ... Is that the meaning of Christianity? Or is it the very reverse, that God's will is to express that he desires to be in relation with man, and therefore desires the thanks and the adoration which is in spirit and in truth: imitation? The latter is certainly the meaning of Christianity. But the former is a cunning invention of us men (although it may have its better side) in order to escape from the real relation to God." (In David Augsburger, 
Dissident Discipleship: A Spirituality of Self-Surrender, Love of God, and Love of Neighbor, 28)

Real Jesus-following is a following-after Jesus, joining in rather than spectating. It's not pew-sitting and being entertained, but "following the footsteps of ChrIst in imitation" (St Francis of Assisi, in Ib., 27). In the early church no one asked, "Did you like the worship?" This is because they were the worshipers. The people were part of the Jesus Movement, not apart from it.


Real Church was never meant to be an entertainment center. David Augsburger says that authentic Jesus-spirituality "accepts no substitute for actual participation." (Ib.) He writes: 

"We are not observers, not spectators, not admirers, not onlookers, not conceptualizers, but participants. Participation is the central theological framework of all careful thought-about spirituality...

...The ideal of discipleship as participation through the imitation of Christ is a recurring theme, reemerging wherever the practice of following Jesus in life is given priority." (Ib.)

Anyone who claims to belong to Jesus must follow the path taken by Jesus. 
Jesus is looking for disciples, for participants, not an audience of admirers or critics. (

Thursday, August 25, 2022

The Church of Michael Jordan, By Brandon Robinson

 

[Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The real, flesh-and-blood Michael Jordan, who demonstrated great success at the game of basketball, is NOT “starting a church,” as I describe in this work of fiction. I use his name and personality in this story because he, in his life and person, provides an example of someone who represents a high standard.] 


The Church of Michael Jordan

By Brandon Robinson

One day Michael Jordan, the greatest person to ever play basketball, out of the love and grace of his heart, decided to start a church.

For basketball.

It would be his church. He would be the honored, worshipped, central figure. He would bring into his presence starving masses and rookies who hungered to play basketball as Michael did. He would show them the way.

First, he had to get the word out: “Michael Jordan will show you what basketball is.” He appealed far and wide, on billboards, on television, and on social media. “Join my church and spend time with me.” He added a promise: “Join the Church of Michael Jordan, and you, too, will be able to play basketball like Mike.”

His efforts were successful. On the first day of services, his facility was packed, standing room only. Many rookies came from far and wide to know the wisdom and truth about this sport. The service was stirring. But how would such a transformation in character and ability happen?

Then Jordan announced, from the pulpit, “Abide in me, and you will grow into great basketball athletes. Spend time with me. My love, wisdom, and ability will be given to you, and you shall do the things that I have been doing. Perhaps, even greater things."

The audience of rookies, who had gathered from playgrounds, schools, and broken homes, with dead dreams, wounded hearts, and messed up perceptions of what basketball actually was, cheered energetically.

Over the following weeks and months, Michael Jordan and his followers played many games of basketball together. He got to know the rookies who believed in him and loved him. He took the game off the court, and started meeting and coaching his followers, one on one.

To one follower he said, “Your free throws are sloppy. You need to improve.”

To another follower he said, “What you’re doing on defense, isn’t actually defense. Do it this way.”

To another follower he said, “You are a lazy player and my pet dog could run circles around you. Get your heart in the game.”

To another he said, “You are playing recklessly, without respecting your teammates. You have to cooperate.”

And so it went, on and on. His followers loved him for the wise words, corrections, wisdom, and even his rebukes. With this tenacious love of Michael Jordan, they were growing closer and closer to playing real basketball, to becoming real basketball players. 

One day, he was speaking with a follower. He said, “I see in you a heart for basketball. You could be one of the greatest the world has ever seen. You have the talent. You have the heart.  But, you must change your entire understanding and approach to the game.”

The follower looked at Michael Jordan and said, “I am going to play basketball the way I want to play it. There is nothing wrong with me. Thank you for welcoming me into your fellowship. But stop being so critical and holding up such a high standard of basketball. There is nothing about me that I or you need to change.”

Michael Jordan looked at the follower with tear filled eyes. “My love changes you,” he said. “But maybe you’re not interested in changing. I release you to play the game on your own terms. But it will be fake, and, while gratifying at times, unfulfilling compared to the truth I offer you. If you don’t want to change, then you are not my disciple. All who love what I do keep my commands." 

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Letter to My Church on the Book of Galatians

 


                                                     (Art, by my friend Gary Wilson)

(At Redeemer we are now preaching through the book of Galatians. It's beautiful, and deep! I just sent this letter to my Redeemer family.)

Good morning Redeemer family!
This coming Sunday I am preaching on Galatians 3:23-4:7. In this section there are some big ideas, and beautiful verses. For example, Galatians 3:26-28:
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
I hope you see how 3:28 fits in with the entire Letter to the Galatians.  Let me remind you.
  • There were some Jewish Christians who were saying and teaching that, to be "justified" (made right with God), a person had to also become a Jew (keep the Mosaics laws - dietary, circumcision, etc.).
  • Paul calls that teaching "another gospel." (Gal. 1:6-9)
  • The true good news (gospel) is that what Christ has accomplished on the cross is enough to justify a person.
  • So, a person's justification is by faith, in what Christ has done. Paul pleads wit4h the Galatian Christians - Don't add anything to this, like to be made right with God you also have to be a Jew, or to be made right with God you also have to be a male, or to be made right wit4h God you also have to be a free person.
Here is the theme in Galatians:
Paul, a Jewish believer in Jesus, writes to counter the claims of some other Judeans who were telling the Galatian Gentile believers that they must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses in order to truly belong to God’s people.
That's it.
Please prepare for this Sunday by reading Galatians 3:23-4:7.
Blessings!
PJ

Monday, August 22, 2022

DECLARATIONS OF HOPE




This past Sunday morning we called the kids to come forward, and sit on the steps facing the congregation. When I asked the kids to share what God has been doing in them, one of our little boys spoke into the microphone and said, "This is the greatest day of my life!"
Please click HERE.

This child's statement is still with me today. It reminded me of a card I often carry with me. The words apply to you, too. It is no accident that you are alive, in this time, in this place, "for such a time as this."



***
DECLARATIONS of HOPE (adapted from Steve Backlund)

  • Today is the day that God is going to show off His favor on me.
  • I speak to any worry, stress, or anxiety, and I say you cannot stay. Peace reigns in this temple.
  • There is nothing I am facing that Scripture cannot speak into.
  • I am not who my past experience says I am; I am who God says I am.
  • Today is the day of my breakthrough — I am free!
  • Because I trust in God, I am kept in perfect peace.
  • My hope, my finances, my strategies, and my partnerships with others are causing great positive change in lives and nations.
  • Tomorrow is going to be one of the best days of my life.
  • I will wake up with strong faith, strong love, and strong hope in my heart.
  • My past prayers will be working mightily today in every situation that concerns me.
  • As I attach faith to what I am hearing, He will do far more than I could ever hope or imagine.

Deconstructing Progressive Christianity - Course Syllabus

 


Renewal School of Ministry 

Term Offered: Fall 2022 

Course Name: Deconstructing Progressive Christianity 

Course Times/Dates: 1.5 hour Zoom meetings for six weeks, Begins September 19,2022 and meets on six consecutive Monday nights. 

The classes will be live via zoom. 

Course Content

Progressive Christianity is an ethos, a mind set, more than a movement. It is indebted to political progressivism and postmodern philosophy. It has a trajectory, which is secularism. In this course John Piippo explains this ethos, with its corresponding trajectory. He explains the differences between historic Christianity and progressive Christianity, and finds the latter to be a different kind of religion. In the process of deconstruction we see key missing elements, such as atonement theory, the resurrection of Christ, and non-natural realities. The idea of moral and spiritual human progress is seen as a myth, and progressive beliefs about love are examined. In this course you will come to better understand the progressive ethos as it relates to religion, and why progressive Christianity is best understood as distant from historic Christianity. 

Requirements for Credit: To receive credit for the course students will need to: 

• Attend every live Zoom session 

• Participate in the class discussions 

• One absence is permitted as long as the student makes arrangements to watch the Zoom replay. 

Book Requirements: The course will utilize the book Deconstructing Progressive Christianity, by John Piippo, available on Amazon. 

Costs: There is $10 fee to cover costs for taking this course in the Renewal School of Ministry. 

Please enroll for the course/s on our website: www.hsrm.org

Instructor: Dr. John Piippo 

John is a national co-director of HSRM and a pastor at Redeemer Fellowship Church in Monroe, Michigan. He has a M.Div. degree from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a PhD in philosophical theology from Northwestern University. John has taught this material around the world in seminaries and conferences. John Piippo, PhD (Northwestern University) 

johnpiippo@msn.com 

johnpiippo.com (blog)

Our Concept of God Makes a Praying Difference

 


                                           (Riding on The Badger, across Lake Michigan.)

(This is from my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.)

Several years ago, at Redeemer, we preached through the biblical book of 1 John. At the heart of John’s letter is his concern that some of his readers are walking in darkness, saying they have no sin when they really do, and thus deceiving themselves. John’s redemptive strategy is to bring the concept of God’s character as light, purity, and righteousness, to center stage. This makes all the difference in our struggle against our inner corruption. 

Recent empirical research supports this. (1)  Prayer seems effective in combating psychological challenges, such as relieving anxiety. The level of effectiveness is connected with the person’s concept of God. 

Baylor University sociologist Matt Bradshaw received a Templeton Grant to study this, and published his findings in the journal Sociology of Religion - “Prayer, Attachment to God, and Anxiety-Related Disorders Among U.S. Adults.” (2) Bradshaw found that people who viewed God as loving and supportive, and prayed with this idea of God in mind, displayed fewer symptoms of anxiety-related disorders — such as irrational worry, fear, self-consciousness, dread in social situations and obsessive-compulsive behavior — than those who prayed but did not expect God to comfort or protect them.

 Perceived characteristics of God - such as loving, remote, or judgmental - affect the relationship between prayer and mental health. 

For the praying person, what we think of God makes a difference.



Sunday, August 21, 2022

Renewal School of Ministry Online Courses - Fall 2022

 



RENEWAL SCHOOL OF MINISTRY COURSE OFFERINGS

THE FALL TERM WILL START SEPTEMBER 18 ,2022


YOU CAN REGISTER HERE.

The following courses will be offered.


The Class Syllabuses can be found here or click on the course name

The Class Times are 8 PM EDT, 7 PM CDT, 6 PM MDT, 5 PM PDT.

  

1. Old Testament Survey - Pastor Peter Colins

  Sunday night @ 8 PM ET Starting September 18 - October 23, 2022


2. Deconstructing Progressive Christianity - Dr John Piippo

  Monday night @ 8 PM ET Starting September 19 - October 24, 2022


3. Introduction to Theology 1 - Pastor Ed Owens

 Tuesday night @ 8 PM ET Starting September 20 - October 25, 2022 


4. Foundations for Biblical Worship - Pastor Norelle Lutke

  Thursday night @ 8 PM ET Starting September 22 - October 27, 2022


2 Hour Seminar

Philippians -Pastor Ross Lieuallen

Date and Time to be determined