Using Reduction ad Absurdum to Argue for the Presence-Driven Church

Sunday morning in Monroe (11/6/16)

In a Presence-Driven Church (P-DC) there's no brainstorming. Brainstorming leads to a lot of ideas, and a lot of bad ideas. In the P-DC the only idea that counts belongs to God. (Remember how Jesus embraced the idea of going to the cross, while his disciples would have liked some more discussion.)

The P-DC concept is that God is our Shepherd, and God is building His Kingdom. God knows what we are to do and where and when we are to go. If we fail to submit to God's leading, we are brainstorming in vain.

This is a core biblical theme. We also see it, e.g., in a book like Henri Nouwen's In the Name of Jesus. The idea is:

1. God is our Leader.
2. We are to discern how God is leading us (God's directives for us).
3. Upon discernment, we are to follow after God.

Note that, if these three statements are true, it follows that the P-DC is not about leaders generating ideas. The entire thing is about how God is leading us. God shares His ideas with us.

Is 1 true? To deny it leads to the absurd situation that we are on our own, without God, and leading our own selves. Using reductio ad absurdum, 1 is the only option.

This is great news for the Church. It truly is God's Church, with God guiding us. This common biblical idea (e.g., Ps. 23) feels revolutionary, since many pastors have been trained in church growth strategies more than they have had training in listening to the voice of God. As one pastor told me when I presented this in a conference in New York City, "This will change the way we do church."

***
My new book is Praying: Reflection on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

I am currently writing my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

"For Such a Time as This" - Women's Conference

REGISTER NOW  for the HSRM Women's Conference ~ 

"FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS!" - a special Thursday evening, 

all-day Friday & Saturday event that will change everything!
 Come and immerse yourself in the empowering presence  of the 

Holy Spirit, understand and embrace your identity in Christ,

 and impact your world.

Intimacy ~ Destiny ~ Courage! 

 

Click here for schedule & info about group rate lodging available until 10/27.

Don't Consent to the Illusion

Ann Arbor

Most people, especially in America, define themselves in terms of their material possessions, their personal appearance, and their accomplishments. These evaluations are all comparative. They function on the punishing honor/shame hierarchy. The hierarchy is brutal because it requires constant striving in the creation of one's false identity.

For such persons, this is all they are. They are nothing more or less than what they own, how they look to others, and what they have done. They create themselves in the image they think others will adore. They are a function of what other people think, puppets controlled by ever-changing public opinion.

Thomas Merton knew this and wrote:

"There are many respectable and even conventionally moral people for whom there is no other reality in life than their body and its relationship with “things.” They have reduced themselves to a life lived within the limits of their five senses. Their self is consequently an illusion based on sense experience and nothing else. For these the body becomes a source of falsity and deception: but that is not the body’s fault. It is the fault of the person himself, who consents to the illusion, who finds security in self-deception and will not answer the secret voice of God calling him to take a risk and venture by faith outside the reassuring and protective limits of his five senses."
Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation (pp. 27-28)

***
My first book is published - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

I'm in process of writing my second book, Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

To Understand Miraculous Healings Expand the Horizons of Your Experience

This cottonwood leaf attached itself to one of our window screens as I was writing this post.

I am slowly reading through Craig Keener's brilliant Spirit Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture in Light of Pentecost. For all of us who are Pentecostals, and non-Pentecostals, this is essential reading. I have never read anything quite like it, and am consistently deeply moved, inspired, and educated.

Craig uses footnotes, lots of them. He is cautious and hyper-meticulous in documentation. In the section "Reading [Scripture] from within Spirit-filled Experience," he writes that having experiences of the kind we read in Scripture affects how we read Scripture. He writes: "A more liberal or radical scholar who then experiences the activity of the Spirit will find it more difficult to dismiss reports in Scripture of supernatural activity." (45)

At the end of this sentence was a footnote. I turned to the end notes and read, "See, for example, how witnessing miracles changed much of the worldview of Walter Wink, a member of the Jesus Seminar." (318, fn. 30) Really? (You'll know what I mean if you know what the very radical Jesus Seminar was.)

Craig cites Wink's essay "Write What You See: An Odyssey by Walter Wink." Wink describes a number of supernatural phenomena, such as praying for a woman who had a tumor in her uterus the size of an orange. He writes:

"The Friday before our first healing service I received a call from a woman in our church who had just been told by her doctor that she had a tumor in her uterus the size of an orange. I cheerfully told her that would be nothing for God to heal, and to show up Sunday night. (I have never done that since!) Being of a literal cast of mind, she believed me. We laid on hands and prayed, and the next week she went back to her doctor. "I have the biopsy report here on my desk," he said, "but first let's have a look at you." Then, "Who's been messing with you!?" "Why?" she asked. "It's gone. Your tumor's gone!""

Because of this, and many similar experiences with healing, Wink says he has no trouble believing that Jesus actually healed people. And, as the great scholar that he is, he understands that some colleagues have trouble with this. The trouble, reasons Wink, has a lot to do with one's experiences or lack thereof. He writes:

"Historical discussion is often made to bear the weight of what are essentially differences of worldview, which cannot in principle be settled by historical method. Worldviews are constituted by what one believes about the nature of reality, and therefore by what one conceives to be possible. People with an attenuated sense of what is possible will bring that conviction to the Bible and diminish it by the poverty of their own experience. Consequently, one of the best preparations for historical work on the Bible is continually to expand the horizons of our experience, especially our experience of spiritual reality."

The Birth of the American Jesus

Every Jesus isn't the Real Jesus.

In spite of the number of Americans who refer to themselves as "Christians" there is, by observation and evidential literature, big-time Jesus-illiteracy everywhere. For example, when I poll my college philosophy students and ask them if they know the main message of Jesus, not one can say "the kingdom of God."

At Redeemer, we preach and teach about Jesus. Yes, I am familiar with historical Christological studies. One of my doctoral qualifying exams was on early Christology (the study of Christ). I've studied Christology for decades. I am aware of the possible arrogance of claiming to know the Real Jesus. People tend to make Jesus into their own self. This era's historical Jesus scholars understand this, and do what they need to do to avoid making Jesus into their own image.

At least, I have been purged of the American Jesus. Where did the Unreal American Jesus come from?

Boston University religious scholar Stephen Prothero says the American Jesus was born "as Thomas Jefferson sat down in the White House, razor in hand, and began to cut and paste his own Bible." (Prothero, American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, 13) The famous "Jefferson Bible," now located in the Smithsonian, can be read in its entirety here. Notice that the very last verses in Jefferson' preferred version is:

There they laid Jesus. And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.

That's it. End of story.

Jefferson cut out the resurrection of Jesus. Plus, he extricated all supernatural verses and miraculous stories. Prothero writes: "Soon Christians too were emphasizing Jesus' humanity over his divinity." The American Jesus was born... in the White House!

Loving the Unseen God (This Coming Sunday, Nov. 6, at Redeemer)

This coming Sunday at Redeemer I'm going to preach on 1 Peter 3:8 - "Though you have not seen him, you love him; even though you do not see him now you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."

I look forward to explaining this to our people.

As you look at this verse, do you have any questions or concerns you feel I should respond to in this sermon? If so, send them to me by email or post it on my Facebook page.  johnpiippo@msn.com

Thanks!

***
Resources I am using as I preach through the letter of 1 Peter, and for this particular message:

Joel Green, I Peter.

Wayne Grudem, 1 Peter.

Karen Jobes, 1 Peter.

Scot McKnight, 1 Peter.

N. T. Wright, The Early Christian Letters for Everyone: James, Peter, John, and Judah.

Daniel Howard-Snyder and Paul Moser, Divine Hiddenness: New Essays. This is the book to read on the philosophical question: Why does not God show himself to us more?

"A Challenge to the Praying Life" - Champaign-Urbana, Nov. 10-11

SAVE-THE-DATE

Thursday morning November 10 & Friday morning November 11

Pastor-to-Pastor Initiatives and Stone Creek Church are very pleased to welcome back Dr. John Piippo to Champaign-Urbana to speak and lead area pastors and leaders in 

"A challenge to the Praying life"

-----

A pastor at Redeemer Fellowship Church in Monroe, Michigan since 1992, for 40 years John has spent a half-a-day each week in silence and meditation. He has filled more than 3,000 pages in his journals and in recent years he has posted nearly 5,000 times, mostly on prayer, to his popular blog. 

Westbrow Press recently published John's Praying -- Reflections on 40 years of Solitary Conversations with God.  

DETAILS

Thursday November 10 --  8:45am-12noon @ Stone Creek Church in Urbana, IL, 2502 S. Race St.  ... John will discuss his own life of prayer while challenging us to make prayer, meditation and silence a crucial part of the rhythm of our life and ministry. 

Doors open for coffee @ 8:15am. 

Friday November 11 -- 8:45am-through lunch @ the Izaak Walton Cabin at the Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve, Mahomet, IL (a 20-minute drive from Champaign-Urbana).  John will lead pastors and leaders sharing ideas on spiritual formation, and guiding participants through a series of exercises centered on the disciplines of listening and silence. (The morning ends with a lunch @ noon; $7 cash per person).

REGISTRATION

Please register here for one or both days. (While there is no registration fee for the this event, we will take up an offering to cover our expenses and give John a generous gift.)

PLEASE FORWARD THIS INVITATION: This event is open to pastors, leaders and anyone you believe could benefit from hearing John's thoughts, ideas and practices about prayer. 

ABOUT JOHN PIIPPO

John received his Master's of Divinity degree from Northern Seminary in Oakbrook, IL, and his Ph.D. in Religious and Theological Studies [Philosophical Theology] from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.  In addition to serving as pastor for nearly 25 years at Redeemer Fellowship Church in Monroe, Michigan, John teaches Spiritual Formation at Payne Theological Seminary [African Methodist Episcopal], is a visiting professor at Faith Bible Seminary in New York City, and serves as Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Monroe Country Community College in Monroe, Michigan. Prior to becoming the pastor at Redeemer Fellowship Church, John was a long-time campus pastor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

Register today, friends!

We would love to have you join us ...

Don Follis, Director

Pastor-to-Pastor Initiatives

605 E. Dodson Drive

Urbana, IL 61802

donfollis@gmail.com

Gary Grogan, Pastor

Stone Creek Church

2501 So. Race Street

Urbana, IL 61801

gwgrogan@stonecreekwired.com

The Presence-less Church (The Presence-Driven Church)

“We can’t dispense with the formalities, George—there’d be nothing left.”

From the New Yorker, 10/31/16

A month ago Linda and I went to P.F. Chang's in Ann Arbor. I ordered a meal that I mostly get when I'm at this restaurant. After completing my order the waiter said, "I am sorry, sir. We are out of rice."

I was stunned. I thought of logical impossibilities like square circles and married bachelors. An Asian restaurant with no rice? 

I saw the manager walking from table to table, confessing ricelessness to the patrons. When he got to us I had to ask, "How is this possible?" He said, "They are having trouble in the kitchen."

My thought was, "Then you had better get in that kitchen and fix this barren situation!"

On a sunny morning in the 1980s, when Linda and I lived in East Lansing, we went to breakfast at International House of Pancakes. I ordered pancakes. There was no maple syrup on the table.

When it comes to pancakes I am a purist. I don't want the strawberry syrup or the blueberry syrup or the fruity syrup. So, desiring maple syrup, I asked:

"May I have some maple syrup please?"

"Sorry," said the waitress. "We're out of maple syrup."

My response was:

The Big Absence happened two summer ago.

Linda and I were driving from Monroe to Chicago. We were on the Indiana Tollway, and stopped at one of the rest areas for lunch. Linda went to one of the fast food places and got a burger. I got in line at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I can see the scene as if it were happening now. Three of us were in line. There was a man in front of me at the counter, I was behind him, with a third man behind me.

"I want a three piece chicken dinner," said the first man.

Often, in life, we view events through the framework of what we are currently immersed in. At Redeemer I was in the thick of preaching through the book of Revelation. I was thinking about Revelation all the time! I was reading and re-reading the text, looking at it in the Greek language, and studying the very best commentaries on the subject. The Greek title of this book is The Apocalypse. Apocalypto means "an uncovering," an "unveiling." Like someone who lifts the lid on a simmering pot of stew to see and smell the ingredients, in The Apocalypse God lifts the lid of what is to happen, and John the Apostle is allowed to look inside.

"I am sorry, sir," said the hostess at the KFC on the Indiana Tollway in the summer of 2015. "But we are out of chicken."

With those words the lid was lifted, and a fiery abyss appeared to my right. I heard the hoofbeats of Four Horsemen thundering to my left. The man at the counter did respond. He just walked away, like a floating, drifting planet that just lost its sun, or perhaps his faith.

Then I felt a tap on my shoulder, and a voice spoke to me. I did not turn around as the voice said, "Did you hear what I heard?" Speechless, I nodded my head up and down.

My expectation, when going to Kentucky Fried Chicken, is to be served chicken. Anything less than this is unacceptable. It is the same with God's presence.

When I am with the Church I need to encounter God. I need to experience God's presence. I am like Moses, who despaired at the thought of God withdrawing His presence from the people. Moses pleaded with God, saying,

“If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.  How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16)

Every Sunday morning at Redeemer people are there who are desperate for God. They long and hunger and pant, like deer in the Judean wilderness thirst for water, for an experiential encounter with God. Anything less than this is unacceptable. 

Philosophy of Religion - Oral Exam #2

To: My MCCC Philosophy of Religion Students:

Last evening I passed around the sign-up sheet for the second oral exam.

The exam review is this coming Tuesday, Nov. 1. Students who have missed no more than once may attend the exam review.

The oral exams will be on Thursday, Nov. 3, and Tuesday, Nov. 8.

The exam questions are:

Mackie's Logical Argument from Evil Against the Existence of God

Buddhism's Idea that Evil Is an Illusion

Plantinga's Refutation of Mackie's Argument

Rowe's Evidential Argument from Evil Against the Existence of God

Wyckstra's Critique of Rowe's Argument

A Consumer Church Is an Antichrist Church

I was a Eugene Peterson fan before he translated the Bible into The Message. In his book The Jesus Way: Conversations on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way Peterson writes about the Real Jesus, and the distinction between the Real Jesus and the American Jesus. Peterson is correct about this. He is one of God's prophets for such a time as this. 

• “The ways Jesus goes about loving and saving the world are personal…; …The ways employed in our North American culture are conspicuously impersonal.”
• In churches today “the vocabulary of numbers is preferred over names…” A "number" is an impersonal abstract object; a person is flesh-blood-and spirit real.
• “Jesus is an alternative to the dominant ways of the world, not a supplement to them.” The Real Jesus cannot and will not be used to build kingdoms alternative to his kingdom.
• “The North American church at present is conspicuous for replacing the Jesus way with the American way.” Which is the Consumer Church.
• In America “we are the world’s champion consumers, so why shouldn’t we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?… [T]his is the best and most effective way for gathering large and prosperous congregations. Americans lead the world in showing how to do it. There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which… we become less and Jesus becomes more.” The American consumer mentality runs so deep that many churches unreflectively replicate it.
• Is this bad? Yes. How bad? Peterson writes: “A consumer church is an antichrist church.... We can’t gather a God-fearing, God-worshiping congregation by cultivating a consumer-pleasing, commodity-oriented congregation.”
• “North American Christians are conspicuous for going along with whatever culture decides is charismatic, successful, influential - whatever gets things done, whatever can gather a crowd of followers - hardly noticing that these ways and means are at odds with the clearly marked way that Jesus walked and called us to follow.” To verify this simply read the four Gospels and use them as a lens through which to evaluate American churches. American churches are largely dictated to by American culture. Here is where "relevant" becomes a bad idea.
• “Jesus’ metaphor, kingdom of God, defines the world in which we live. We live in a world where Christ is King. If Christ is King, everything, quite literally, everything, every thing and every one, has to be re-imagined, re-configured, re-oriented to a way of life that consists in an obedient following of Jesus.” (To re-orient our people at Redeemer I preached through the four Gospels, chronologically. This took us seven years.)
• “The ways and means promoted and practiced in the world are a systematic attempt to substitute human sovereignty for God’s rule. The world as such has no interest in following the crucified King.”
• “Once we start paying attention to Jesus’ ways, it doesn’t take us long to realize that following Jesus is radically different from following anyone else.” 

Follow Jesus, not our schizophrenic culture. Influence culture, via Jesus.