Thank You to Pastors Who Chaplained Me

La Jolla, California

Anyone want to be a pastor? If so, begin by reading Eugene Peterson's The Pastor. It will knock the "mega" right out of you.

I've been in many mega-meetings, and heard inspiring preaching and teaching. These speakers, in my life, have come and gone. If I've been influenced or affected,  it's more by their ideas and, of course, God speaking through them, to me. 

Far more significant in my life are the handful of pastors who flesh-and-blood-and-spirit flat-out shepherded me. If you are reading this now, you know who you are. You met with me, counseled me, prayed for me, prayed with me, one-on-one mentored me, put up with me, saw something in me, invested in me, performed my wedding, dialogued with me, argued with me, reasoned with me, entrusted me with responsibility, taught me, spoke into my life, had time for me, allowed me to call you at any time, interrupted your life for me, had me often in your home, guided me, influenced me, and loved me.

To the few of you: you are the only real pastors that I've known.

I thank God for you, and that you chaplained me.

See Mark Galli's excellent "Why We Need More 'Chaplains' and Fewer Leaders." I loved it. Here are some highlights.

• "The chaplain prays for people in distress, administers sacraments to those in need, leads worship for those desperate for God."
• The pastor-as-chaplain is at the beck and call of those who are hurting for God. He's not his own man. She is not her own woman.
• You won't mistake a pastor-chaplain for an entrepreneurial leader or a catalyst for growth. "No, the chaplain is unmistakably a servant."
• Our secular, capitalistic culture has seduced pastors into wanting to be mega-leaders and entrepreneurs. This is the pastor as successful business leader.
• Contrary to the successful business leader, Our Lord, Jesus, the Original Pastor, spent time and energy on healing hurting souls.
• At one point in Pastor Jesus's ministry he actually lost disciples. (See John 6:66)
• In Mark 10:42-45 we read: "Jesus called them to him and said to them, 'You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles like to be seen as "leaders," "entrepreneurs," "catalysts for growth," and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many'." (With slight paraphrase)
• So where in the world did we get the idea of "pastor" as anything but a "curer of souls?"
• Pastoral soul-healing has many dimensions.
• A pastor is "first and foremost a chaplain - [which] is fundamentally about the healing of souls—helping men and women, boys and girls, to become right with God, and therefore, right with others."

Conspiracy Theories Fail the Criterion of Simplicity

(Car destroyed as the Twin Towers fell - picture in NYC at the site.)

(I'm re-posting this to keep it in play.)

Whenever I hear "conspiracy theory" I doubt it.

In logic classes (like the one I taught for seventeen years) students are taught to reject conspiracy theorizing. It exemplifies irrational thinking.

For example, NBA basketball star Steph Curry once denied that the US landed on the moon. It was all a conspiracy! That loony claim got him lots of push-back. Then, he denied that he meant anything about it - it was a joke. 

Yes, there are true conspiracies. But, in general, pay no attention to conspiracy theorists. Here's why.

Several years ago, after the tragedy of 9-1-1, a handful of Monroe-area skeptics stood on a street corner holding signs that said, "Impeach Bush." Why? Because, they "reasoned," what happened on 9-1-1 was a conspiracy. 

They were quoted in our local newspaper: “It was probably a cruise missile that went off [launched by the U.S.!], and they didn’t want anyone to see that. They did it so they could justify attacking Iraq. Probably, that happened?” 

It didn't. 

Here’s the “thinking”:

1.A cruise missile sent by the U.S. hit the Pentagon.

2.The U.S. government didn’t want people to see that.

3.So, they suppressed the videos, which actually showed a cruise missile hitting the Pentagon. (That’s why we have not seen any more videos of the incident.)

4.The motive: The U.S. did this deliberately to justify attacking Iraq!

Right. (Conspiracy theories are wastelands of innuendo and suspicion.)

What's wrong with conspiracy theories like this? Let's look to logic (actual reasoning) for an answer.

In my Intro to Logic class I used Lewis Vaughn's The Power of Critical Thinking. Chapter 9 is called "Inference to the Best Explanation" (also called abductive reasoning; or the likelihood principle). This is about theories, and how to evaluate them. 

In theory-evaluation there are "criteria of adequacy." Vaughn writes:

"Applying the criteria of adequacy to a set of theories constitutes the ultimate test of a theory's value, for the best theory is the eligible theory that meets the criteria of adequacy better than any of its competitors." (356-357)  

For Vaughn these are:

1. Testability - there is some way to determine whether the theories are true or false.
2. Fruitfulness - the yielding of new insights that can open up whole new areas of research and discovery.
3. Scope - it explains more diverse phenomena.
4. Simplicity - a theory that makes fewer assumptions is less likely to be false because there are fewer ways for it to be wrong.
5. Conservatism - other things being equal, the best theory is the one that fits best with established beliefs.

Vaughn shows how conspiracy theories usually fail the criterion of simplicity because they...

..."try to explain events by positing the secret participation of numerous conspirators.... Some conspiracy theories, of course, have been found to be true. But most of them are implausible... They would have us raise numerous assumptions that raise more questions than they answer: How do the conspirators manage to keep their activities secret? How do they control all the players? Where is the evidence that all the parts of the conspiracy have come together just so?" (365)

Vaughn calls the United States "Conspiracy Central." In America, conspiracy theories abound. Here are some of the things we are told are the center of a massive conspiracy:

• Elvis's death
• Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, assassination
• The Oklahoma City bombing
• Princess Diana's death
• The earth is really flat
• Bill Gates is behind the coronavirus, wanting to use a vaccination program to implant digital microchips that will somehow track and control people (No Christian leader or thinker that I admire promoted this.)
• The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001

Re. the latter: 

1) How did Pres. Bush and his numerous supposed cohorts keep their activities secret?; 

2) How did Bush and his partners control all the players involved?; and 

3) Where is the evidence that this massive, complicated plan came together just so? 

The answer: it didn't happen that way.

I'm challenging you to think clearly, and critically.

One more thought. When these conspiracy theories prove to be false, those who have spread them and injected fear into people rarely, if ever, go public and apologize.

It Is Irrational and Unloving to Affirm All Beliefs

Ann Arbor

(I'm reposting this for someone.)

I was asked the question, "Would a Muslim be welcome in your church?"

My answer was, "Yes!"

And Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists are welcome, too.

I welcome all of them, as Jesus does the same. I would love to have them come. (I have had atheists come to Redeemer, who are mostly students who have been in my MCCC philosophy classes. A few of them have converted from atheism to theism, and then to Christianity.)

I say yes and amen to loving and welcoming all kinds of people.

Does this mean I affirm all the beliefs of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists? Of course not. No one can logically (coherently) affirm contradictory beliefs. Consider, for example, the following three mutually exclusive beliefs.

1) God does not exist (atheism, and Buddhism)
2) There are 330,000,000 gods (Hinduism).
3) There is only one God (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

It is not possible to say "true" to these three beliefs, held simultaneously.

What about John Lennon's song "Imagine?" It's one of the more non-affirming, exclusionary songs I've heard. "I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will be as one." But..   this imaginary "oneness" involves the eradication of religion - "and no religion too." Am I just imagining, or am I being marginalized? (Ask four billion religious people.)

 To believe something is, ipso facto, to deny many things. Beliefs, by nature, embrace and exclude. No one can affirm all the various beliefs [truth-claims] of the world's religions.

Going further, No one person affirms all the beliefs of any other person. The fact that I, or you, do not affirm the beliefs of someone else should not be shocking. Anyone who claims to affirm someone else's entire belief system is to be dismissed as unbelievable.

I had a philosophy student who believed The earth is flat. I liked him, but did not affirm his belief. Because his belief was wrong. ("Right and wrong" lies outside science, and falls in the arenas of philosophy and religion. See, e.g., atheist Stephen Jay Gould's "NOMA" principle.)

In the Jesus worldview, I welcome and love all people. I do not (because it cannot be done, epistemically) affirm all the beliefs of people. It is irrational to expect that I should do so. 

It is not unloving to say, "I think you are wrong about that." It is unloving, because untruthful, to treat people as if our different beliefs are harmonious.

(See "Welcoming and Sometimes Disaffirming." I just want to keep this ball in play.)

Why Doesn't God Heal Everybody? Some Thoughts.

(Green Lake Christian Conference Center, Wisconsin)

(I'm re-posting this for a friend.)

My grandmother was healed of cancer. 

She lived with us six months out of every year when we were growing up. When she was in her mid-80s Grandma was diagnosed with breast cancer. She decided not to have it medically treated. The cancerous tumors in her breasts grew. My mother used to bathe her, and visually saw and physically felt the hard tumors growing.

Grandma knew she was going to die. She had lived a long life, and was ready to leave this world for another one. She even bought the dress she wanted to be buried in.

When Grandma had spent what we assumed would be her last six months in our home, she went to live with my aunt and uncle in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. One day my aunt called. She told my mother that, while bathing Grandma, she noticed that the tumors did not appear to be there. My mother could not believe this, yet wanted to believe it. Mom traveled 400 miles to visually inspect Grandma and confirm this.

Grandma lived for twelve more years. She bought two or three more dresses to be buried in. She died at age ninety-seven. 

What happened? How can we explain this? I, and my mother, concluded two things:

- Grandma once was cancer-filled, and then one day the cancer was gone.
- God healed Grandma.

I’ve heard of and personally seen other things like this. (For some really good, current, encouraging stuff see Eric Metaxas's book Miracles, and Craig Keener's magisterial Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, and Keener's Miracles Today.) 

I’ve also been part of praying for people with illnesses whose illnesses have not gone away. Which raises the question: Why? Why do we not see everyone healed when we pray for them? I’ve thought long and hard about this over the years. I not only don’t have all the answers, I don’t think I can, given my quite-limited point of view, expect to have all the answers. Nonetheless, when I am asked this question, here’s how I respond.

1. Sickness and disease are not caused by God. God hates sickness and disease.
2. Sickness and disease are in this world because we live in, as Jesus referred to it, “this present evil age.” We live in a fallen world that’s ruled by Satan, who is called “the prince of this world.”
3. Some diseases are part of living in this fallen world. The entire world is crying out for redemption (release) from this bondage.
4. Some diseases are caused by demonic forces. For example, Jesus sometimes heals a person by casting out a demon that is the cause of a person’s illness.
5. Some diseases are caused by our own choices. For example, the chain smoker who contracts lung cancer.

Why did God create a world like this? Why a world where such suffering was even allowed? For me the answer is this:

- God is love. That is, God, in His essence, IS love. God cannot not-love.
- Therefore, love is the highest value for God.
- God created persons (and spiritual beings) out of love.
- Genuine love is only possible if created agents have free will.
- Therefore, God gave created agents free will.
- This is risky, since free will implies that one can choose to not love God. When people choose against God this results in suffering, even illness. (This is called the Free Will Defense. See, e.g., Alvin Plantinga.)

From God’s perspective, giving created agents free will is worth it, since God is love, and love is the highest value for God. Hence, much of this world’s suffering happens because of this.

As a pastor I’ve been around a lot of death and dying, to include my own family, even my baby son David. How do I continue to find hope in all of this? Here are some thoughts.

1. Understand what Jesus taught about the kingdom of God. Jesus talked about “the age to come,” where will be no sickness, no struggle, no tears. When God invaded earth in the form of a Person, the “age to come” invaded this present evil age. Jesus once said that, “If you see me cast out demons by the finger of God, you can know that the kingdom of God is in your midst.” That is why I pray for the sick to be healed today, and will continue to do so. (See esp. George Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament; Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom; and John Wimber, Power Healing )

2. Be part of a faith community. This makes a huge difference for me. I know people (even Christians) who would never pray for someone to be healed. In a faithless community one should not be shocked that healings are not seen. 

3. Discern. Sometimes a deeper spiritual healing is needed. Some illnesses are, at root, spiritual and emotional. I have found that, for example, a person who lives for years with bitterness towards others and refuses to forgive can be subject to physical illnesses. The account of Jesus' healing the lame man let down through the roof (Mark 2:1-12) implies that the forgiveness of the man's sins had some connection with his ability to pick up his mat and walk.

4. Don't blame the person who is sick. When Jesus prayed for sick people he never blamed them for their sickness. For example, Jesus rejects his disciples’ assumption that the blind man in John 10 was blind because either he or his parents must have sinned.

5. Persist in prayer. When some sick people are not healed through prayer, it may simply be because we haven't prayed long enough to bring the healing to completion. If you are my friend and you are sick I will never stop praying for your healing.

6. Live a Christ-abiding life. As James writes, "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." (James 5:6)

7. Be a skeptical theist. This does not mean be skeptical of God. It means: be skeptical of your own cognitive abilities to understand what God is doing. It is irrational to reason as follows:
1) I saw nothing happening when I prayed for someone.
2) Therefore, nothing happened. 

You can only go from 1 to 2 if you have epistemic (knowledge) access to the mind of our all-knowing God. (As an analogy: 1) I see no germs on this hypodermic needle. 2) Therefore, there are no germs on this hypodermic needle. We can all affirm the truth of 1. But none of us can see germs. Thus, we cannot go from 1 to 2. See "Skeptical Theism.")

Here are some resources I am draw on.

BOOKS

John Wimber, Power Healing

Francis MacNutt, Healing

MacNutt, The Healing Reawakening

Charles Kraft, Christianity with Power: Your Worldview and Your Experience of the Supernatural

Kraft, I Give You Authority

Kraft, Deep Wounds, Deep Healing

Kraft, Confronting Powerless Christianity

David Seamands, Healing for Damaged Emotions

Randy Clark, Authority to Heal

Candy Gunther Brown, Testing Prayer

Candy Brown, Global Pentecostal and Healing Prayer

Craig Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

Michael Brown, Authentic Fire

Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God 

SOME BLOG POSTS

N.T. Wright on Jesus, Healing, and Miracles: Getting Skeptical about Skepticism

The Healing Waters of Redemptive Prayer

Prayer & Divine Healing

I Am a Continuationist (Not a Calvinist Cessationist)

Where Prayer Focuses Power Falls

Praying for the Sick Is One Sign of a Normal Church

Craig Evans on Jesus' Miracles

(On my blog use the search engine for more.)

SEE ALSO:

Randy Clark, "Creating an Atmosphere for Healing."

In Francis MacNutt’s classic book Healing he is gives 11 reasons why people may not be healed:

1. Lack of faith
2. Redemptive suffering
3. False value attached to suffering
4. Sin
5. Not praying specifically
6. Faulty diagnosis (is it inner healing/ physical healing/ deliverance that is needed)
7. Refusal to see medicine as a way God heals
8. Not using natural means of preserving health
9. Now is not the time
10. Different person is to be instrument of healing
11. Social environment prevents healing taking place

J. Lee Grady, "When Christians Die of Cancer"

John Wimber, Power Healing. Chapter 8, "Not Everyone Is Healed."

Charles Kraft, Defeating Dark Angels: Breaking Demonic Oppression In the Believer's Life.

***

My six books are:

Deconstructing Progressive Christianity

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Encounters with the Holy Spirit (co-edited with Janice Trigg)

31 Letters to the Church on Discipleship

31 Letters to the Church on Praying 

The Cure for Entitlement and Victimization

 

Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan

I recommend John Townsend's book The Entitlement Cure: Finding Success in Doing Hard Things the Right Way.

One of the bitter fruits of entitlement is externalization. Townsend writes: "People with an attitude of entitlement often project the responsibility of their choices on the outside, not the inside. The fault lies with other people, circumstances, or events. They blame others for every problem." (p. 61)

The worship songs of externalization are...

"It's Them, It's Them, It's Them, O Lord, Standin' in the Need of Prayer," and...

"Change Their Hearts, O God." 

Externalization-people fail to look at their part in their problems. "Instead, they default to answers outside their skin. The result? They tend to be powerless and unhappy. They tend to see life through the eyes of a victim. And their suffering is unproductive — it doesn’t get them anywhere." (Ib.)

The classic victim mentality is:

"Yes, I did what was wrong. But you forced me to do it." The "victim" persists in recruiting other people for the self-justification of evil. In this they destroy others, along with own soul.

Entitled people rarely say "thank you." Because they are deserving. Instead, they blame

"Blame," writes Townsend, "is a first cousin to entitlement." The constant blamer is the perpetual victim. 

The antidote to this bondage is to take responsibility for your own choices and attitudes. Be open to seeing yourself as the problem. Reject a global victimization that views yourself as someone who is always being "done to," and own your own part in your problems. 

Forgive those who have trespassed on your heart. 

Take responsibility for your own trespassing.

The Cure for the Entitlement Disease: The Hard Way Principles

Bald eagle in a tree near our house

Psychologist John Townsend's The Entitlement Cure is very good. It's helping me look more closely at areas of pocket entitlement I have. It's giving me insights to help others who have pocket entitlement, and even global entitlement.

Here are some things about the entitlement disease.

"Entitlement directs us to judge God for how the world works, for the bad things that happen to us that we don’t understand, and for things that didn’t happen that we desired. Entitlement says, “My way of looking at life is beyond his,” because entitlement creates a deep sense of being special and above it all." (50)


"Entitlement goes deeper than a person thinking, It’s okay if I want to be lazy because someone else will bear my burdens, or I’m so special that the rules don’t apply to me. In fact, entitlement goes so deep that it rejects the very foundations on which God constructed the universe. At its heart, entitlement is a rejection of reality itself." (51)

"Ever since Eden, we humans want to be like God, with all his privileges and power, and — the very definition of entitlement — we feel it is our right. Entitlement infects our brains with the notion, I have a right to more and better; in fact, I am owed that." (52)

All this is unreality. Townsend says that God's principles lie at the core of reality. The more you experience and follow them, the better life becomes for you and those in your life. Townsend calls this "the hard way."

The "Hard Way" Principles are:

1. Humility and Dependence - We Are Completely Dependent on God.

"Humility is simply accepting the reality of who God is and who you are. When you see the reality of his power, his love, and his care, you more easily see yourself as who you are: a loved creature, a special creature, an important creature, but a creature nonetheless. 

Dependence means you look to him for your sustenance, for every breath you take." (54)

Entitlement, however "tells you to be your own boss and determine your own destiny. Entitlement teaches you to say, "You're not the boss of me!" It implies that you can be and do anything you want, demand of the others around you anything you want, and that it’s lame to depend on anyone." (55) 

2. Connectedness - We Are Designed to Live in Connectedness with Each Other.

"We live in a relational world and a relational culture, summarized by Jesus’ teaching: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15: 12). Love comes from him, and we are to love not only him but each other." (56)

The entitlement mentality subverts healthy relationships and community in two ways. 

First, entitlement objectifies. "When one person treats another as a need-meeting object or as a dispenser of some desired commodity, that is objectification. People objectify each other sexually. A good listener may be sought out for her ability, but who remembers to ask how she’s doing?" (56)

"The self-absorbed attitude of entitlement makes it difficult to see people as having needs, feelings, and lives of their own. Forget “walk a mile in my shoes” — entitled individuals can only envision the lives of others as an extension of their own. They can’t enter fully into the experience of the other individual." (58) 

Second, entitlement creates unhealthy self-sufficiency. This is the idea that I don't need others to sustain and support me. "Entitlement is anti-need; it will cut you off from the supplies that your life requires to carry on." (59)

"If connectedness is the fuel of life, then entitlement results in an empty tank for the entitled person. And that causes breakdowns in relationships, love, career, self-care, and spirituality." (59)

3. Ownership - We Have to Take Responsibility for Our Own Choices.

Entitlement builds a huge obstacle to healthy ownership, in two ways: low ownership and externalization.

"Low ownership: Individuals who don’t take ownership of their lives sometimes live as if their actions have no consequences. They tend not to see beyond the present; their concern is for what they need and desire right now. They’re surprised when they lose jobs or relationships. Most of us are aware of the basic principle that “If you sow X, then X is what you will reap,” but not the entitled person." (60)

"Externalization: People with an attitude of entitlement often project the responsibility of their choices on the outside, not the inside. The fault lies with other people, circumstances, or events. They blame others for every problem. Their entitlement prohibits them from taking the beam out of their eye and asking the all-important question: How did I contribute to this latest problem? Instead, they default to answers outside their skin. The result? They tend to be powerless and unhappy. They tend to see life through the eyes of a victim. And their suffering is unproductive — it doesn’t get them anywhere." (61) 

"Blame," writes Townsend, "is a first cousin to entitlement." Blame is a life-killer.

4. Accepting the Negative - Your Flaws Can't Be Forgiven and Healed Until You Admit Them.

"God made a way through Christ so that we could live with the negative as it truly is, without denying it or minimizing it. In a relationship with Christ, we feel permission to be who we truly are, warts and all. We don’t have to hide, pretend, or put our best face forward. We are known and loved just as we are by the one who matters most. This enables us to love others the same way. 

The result of acknowledging and accepting the negative is that the negative then can be transformed. When you are okay knowing your failings, you can face them, bring them to God and to the people with whom you feel safe being vulnerable, and heal whatever is driving those feelings. This is the key to great growth. It’s a paradox, but the ones who run from the negative will suffer from it, while the ones who accept the negative will find the power to change it." (63)

Entitlement drives you away from admitting your flaws. The entitled attitude has three directions that destroy the "It Is Well With My Soul" life. They are:

• Denial. "The person in denial simply turns her back on reality. She refuses to admit her flaws to herself or anyone else, which eliminates any possibility of deep and satisfying relationships."
• Perfectionism. "The person caught in perfectionism beats himself up for failures, minor or major. His standard for performance is perfection, and he offers himself little grace when he stumbles. He constantly scrutinizes and condemns himself, and never makes it to a point of self-acceptance."
• Narcissism. "The narcissistic person adopts a grandiose view of himself that hides his flaws, which usually lie buried under deep shame and envy. He is so afraid to see himself as he really is that he reacts in the opposite direction, toward the “I’m special” stance, in which he becomes arrogant and selfish and has difficulty feeling empathy for others."

5. Finding Our Role - To Live Long and Contentedly Find Your Purpose in Life and Fulfill It. 

"Finding your role means that you are giving back to the world over time in a sustained and steady way, and this attitude actually contributes to your living longer. Research indicates that the number one factor in longevity is not social relationships or happiness, but conscientiousness, described as persistence, dependability, and organization." (66)

Entitlement block this in two ways.

• Entitlement limits the person's goals. "One of the most limiting ideas of entitlement thinking is that the end goal of life is happiness: “I just want to be happy, that’s all.” Entitlement says that the highest good is to be a happy person — but in fact, that is one of the worst endgame goals we can have. People who have happiness as their goal get locked into the pain/ pleasure motivation cycle. They never do what causes them pain, but always do what brings them pleasure. This puts us on the same thinking level as a child..." (66)
• Entitlement limits the individual's growth. Entitlement freezes development. "It keeps us from growing, learning, challenging ourselves, or trying new things. It whispers to us, “That sounds really hard and it doesn’t look like it’s worth it.” When we listen to this voice, something inside us goes to sleep. We might become couch potatoes, video addicts, chronic partiers, or simply get in a rut and routine that becomes boring and deadening." 

Better Is One Experience Than a Thousand Theories

(Art Arfons and his "Green Monster")

When I was a teen, my father took me to watch fast cars race a quarter mile at the Rockford Dragway. The steward of the dragway was a friend of dad. We were given pit passes to see the cars and drivers up close. 

That night was special. A drag racer named Art Arfons was there, with his famous “Green Monster.” This vehicle was a jet engine fastened to the frame of a car. As we entered the pit we were handed ear plugs. The Green Monster held the world land speed record of 576 mph. It went from 0-60 in three seconds. It was loud! At the time, my mode of transportation was a red Nash Rambler. It accelerated from 0-60 in three minutes. It, too, was loud, but for different reasons. 

That was an exciting night! It was made even better when dad’s friend showed me his car. It was a 1963 Ford Shelby Cobra. Just the name “Cobra” exudes danger, in a way “Rambler” does not. I have an image of my Rambler sauntering, strolling, and meandering down the quarter mile strip on its way to a picnic. 

The Cobra went 0-60 in five seconds. Dad’s friend looked at me and asked, “Would you like to ride with me to open up the evening?” Yes (power!). And no (danger!).

I said yes.

I sat in the passenger’s seat, and went for the fastest quarter mile I had ever experienced. What teenaged boy didn’t like fast cars? That night I grew in knowledge of power and speed. I had seen magazines and television shows on drag racing. I loved looking at cool cars. But all the reading in the world did not compare with experiencing the Shelby Cobra for myself. 

In this book I am arguing that churches must be presence-driven, because experience gives knowledge that theory cannot. Better is one quarter mile raced, than a thousand automotive theories read. 

It is the same with God.

- From John Piippo, Leading the Presence-Driven Church, Kindle Locations 132-147

A. W. Tozer on the "Entertainment Church"

A. W. Tozer, writing in the middle of the 20th century, was way ahead of his time, and his faith was rooted in something way before his time.

Scientists Who Believe in God

(Our back yard, a few years ago)

It is claimed by Richard Dawkins and other evangelistic atheists that, if one is a scientist, then one will tend less to believe in God. I think this claim is misleading. (For recent data see Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think, which will surely disappoint many Facebook atheists.) 

When I went to college as an undergraduate I was a math-science type of person majoring in metallurgical engineering. I did well in math and science in high school and tested out of some college math. In my first semester in college I had chemistry, some kind of advanced math course (I can't remember which one!), another science course, and so on.

When I became a follower of Jesus I changed my major  to philosophy. That, for me, was where the big questions were. I had thought I would be an engineer, but all that changed upon my conversion from a weak atheism to Christian theism.

When I went to seminary I discovered other seminary students who, like me, did Bachelor's and sometimes even Master's and Doctoral work in one of the sciences, only to change and devote their studies to pastoral ministry and theology. Sometimes I wonder how many of us there are? When I read Dawkins's claims that really "bright" people (like himself) tend to disbelieve in God, I think of many pastors and theologians and biblical scholars who gave up potential and even actual scientific careers for the sake of studying their newfound love.

And, BTW, when I was a pastor at Michigan State University, the Christian churches, including mine, were filled with science professors and Ph.D students in all the sciences. (See Ecklund - 50% of scientists at elite universities believe in God.)

And, BTW once more, I have met a fair share of scientists who are not so "bright" but exemplify what Jose Ortega y Gasset once described as "learned ignoramuses"; that is, learned about one very small part of life and ignorant about the rest of life.

See also - "Study: 2 Million U.S. Scientists Identify as Evangelical."

Logic and Truth

I'm re-posting this for my postmodern readers.

DECLARATIONS OF THE GOSPEL AND WORSHIP

 

                                                         (Maumee Bay State Park - Ohio)

(Thanks again to Steve Backlund for coming to our church and teach8ing us abou4t biblical declarations. Most of the declarations below are from Steve. I've added a few, to sync with wat God is now doing at Redeemer.)

DECLARATIONS OF THE GOSPEL AND WORSHIP

 

•         When I think about how God sent His Son to atone for my sins, my soul sings “My God, how great Thou art!”

•         When I think of how the Good News of Jesus has transformed my life, worship breaks out in my heart.

•         Everywhere I go I am overwhelmed by the love of God for people and am highly motivated to share the gospel.

•         It is easy and normal for me to articulate the gospel.

•         It is easy and normal for me to share my testimony with others.

•         I have an anointing for evangelism.

•         I have a burning heart for people who don’t know Christ.

•         Today my mind and spirit will tune into the people around me and find those who desire to be saved. I will lead those people to Jesus.

•         I am fearless, courageous, and live with an understanding that people are hungry for Jesus.

•         I am creative in my evangelism, and adapt well to bring powerful God-encounters to different kinds of people.

•         I LOVE evangelizing.

•         My family respects me and wants to hear from me because my Christian life is attractive to them. It is easy to share the gospel with them because they want to know the God that is inside of me.

•         My reputation for leading people to Jesus is so widely known in my town that when people want to get saved, they find me.

•         When I feel afraid to share the gospel with someone, I will remind myself that on the other side of fear is a testimony.

•         As much as ever, people need the Lord. 

•       When I think, that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in.