You Don't Need to Know Where You are Going (The Presence-Driven Church)

The River Raisin, in our backyard

(I further develop this idea in my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.)

Step 1 in leading the Presence-Driven Church is: abide in Christ, dwell in God's presence, and be led by God. 

Abide and obey. Beyond that there are no more steps.

Follow. When you follow, you don't need to know where you are going, or what God is up to with you. That's the need to be in control. You just need to trust where he is going. Following is an act of faith and trust. The Shepherd knows. That is enough.

In the last months of his life my friend Jim Devries talked with me about his experience of losing, incrementally, control of things in his life. A few days before he died, he said, "I like the way this is unfolding." Jim had placed his entire being into the shepherding hands of God. 

Thomas Merton expresses it this way.

"The wonder of being brought, by God, around a corner and to realize a new road is opening up, perhaps—which He alone knows. And that there is no way of traveling it but in Christ and with Him. This is joy and peace—whatever happens. The result does not matter. I have something to do for Him and, if I do that, everything else will follow."

- Merton, Thomas. A Year with Thomas Merton, Kindle Locations 1209-1211)

First: Know God; Next: Work for God

Bozeman, Montana

When Jesus, in John fourteen and fifteen, instructs his disciples to attach themselves to him like a branch connects with a vine, he intends this to be our first priority in the spiritual life.

This is a way of saying that our doing must emerge from our being. Do not do things, unattached. Do not assume your tasking is pleasing to God if you do not have much time with him.

Oswald Chambers wrote that we "slander God by our very eagerness to work for Him without knowing Him." Stephen Seamands says, "That is always a temptation in ministry-to want to do things for God without cultivating our relationship with God." (Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service, Kindle Locations 207-208)

First, be with God, in relationship, continuously. Learn how to dwell with God.

Second, hear from God. Learn how to discern his voice, to you.

Third, when God tells you what to do, obey. Remember that obdience is ob - audio, listening followed by following.

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

I am now writing How God Changes the Human Heart, plus editing a book on the Holy Spirit which should be out in late Spring 2019.

I'm getting my act together to write Technology and Spiritual formation.

Then, the Lord willing, Linda and I will write our book on Relationships.

Potato Chips and Thankfulness

Bozeman Pass, the Montana Rockies

There was a man in our church named Floyd. Floyd died several years ago. It was my privilege to do his funeral.

When I met with Floyd’s wife, Grace, she shared something I had never heard before. “Floyd,” she said, “was a thankful person who was always thanking God for what he had been given.” 

Floyd had not come from a wealthy family. As I heard about him and his thankful heart, it reminded me of my mother who, as a young girl, sometimes received only an orange for a Christmas present, and cherished and savored it, and was thankful. 

How deep did Floyd’s heart of thanks run? 

“Whenever we had snacks, like potato chips,” said Grace, “Floyd would stop, bow his head, and thank God as the bag of chips was passed to him.” 

“You’re kidding me, right?” I said. “Floyd would give thanks, in front of everyone, for potato chips?!!” 

“Yes. He was grateful to God for anything that came his way.” 

I thought: I’m not that thankful. I take too many things for granted. 

“For granted” - to expect someone, or something, to be always available to serve you in some way without thanks or recognition; to value someone, or something, too lightly. To “take something for granted” - to expect something to be available all the time, and forget that you have not earned it. 

A “for granted” attitude presumes. A “for granted” attitude has a sense of entitlement. Like: “I am entitled to these potato chips.”

“For granted” - to fail to appreciate the value of something. 

“Entitlement” - the belief that one is deserving of certain privileges. Like: “I deserve these potato chips.” 

Floyd, it seems, had no sense of entitlement, as if God owed him something. He didn’t take provision, in any form, for granted. From that framework, giving thanks logically follows. And, in yet another “great reversal,” God is deserving of, and entitled to, our praise and thanksgiving. God, for Floyd, was not some cosmic butler whose task was to wait on him, and make sure he was satisfied with the service. 

The apostle Paul instructed us to “always give thanks for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “For everything” is all-inclusive. Nothing exists outside the realm of “for everything.” Everything is a gift from God, even my very life, even my eyes as I read this, and my breath as I inhale. If I gave thanks for everything, my gratitude would be unceasing. 

If I realized how God-dependent I actually am, I would stop now and say, “Thank you.” And then, in my next breath, I would say it again.

- From John Piippo, Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God, Kindle Locations 3590-3612)

When Giving Thanks Becomes Instinctual

The River Raisin in my back yard

When giving thanks to God descends from your mind into your heart it has become instinctual. Throughout the day you find yourself saying, "Thank you, God." 

It happened this morning. I found myself taking a deep breath, and then - instinctively - saying "Thank you, God, for life."

I don't take this for granted. Many of my journal entries over the years record "Thank you, God" moments.

Psalm 9:1-2 reads:

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;

    I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

2 

I will be glad and rejoice in you;

    I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

Here David the song-ist is oppressed by enemy forces, but God shows up to defeat them. This causes David to give thanks, with all his heart. His thanksgiving goes public as David openly testifies to God's "wonderful deeds." All this happens in an atmosphere of gladness and praise.

I make lists of God's wonderful acts and deeds, done to me and Linda. I have written them down in an email, and sent the email to myself. It's not that I'm so e-barren that I need more emails. It's just that I don't want to forget the many things God has done for me, for which I am deeply grateful. 

I have an ever-looping email I call THANKFULNESS. I keep adding to the list of things I am thankful for, only to reply to myself with these things again and again.

When I re-read my thanks-list it gives birth to more thanksgiving "with all my heart."

As you pray, enumerate things you are thankful for.

Then, thank God for them.

*****
DATE _______________________

God, I thank you for...

1. ______________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________

6. ______________________________________________

7. ______________________________________________

8. ______________________________________________

9. ______________________________________________

10. _____________________________________________

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

REVIVAL CHURCH CONFERENCE CALL FOR PASTORS - TONIGHT, NOV. 19

TO PASTORS WHO WANT TO DISCUSS REVIVAL IN OUR CHURCHES, AND PRAY TOGETHER:

I and my associate Tim continue to preach on revival at Redeemer. God has called us to prepare the hearts of the people for revival and awakening.

I invite you to join me on a conference call TONIGHT, Nov. 19, 9 PM EST.

Some of you have already indicated you will be joining this call.

My idea is:

• Look together at Michael Brown's definition of "revival."
• Discuss: America needs help. The real problem is spiritual and moral, not political or even economic. (A spiritual outpouring will affect politics and economics.) See, e.g., New York Times columnist David Brooks, who recently wrote: "The chief struggle of the day is sociological and psychological, not ideological or economic. The substrate layer of American society — the network of relationships and connection and trust that everything else relies upon — is failing. And the results are as bloody as any war."
• Discuss: the problem is not with the great amount of darkness, it's with the small amount of light. I am praying for revival and awakening to come to churches in America.
• The Church is to be salt and light in our secular world. Following Romans 12:1-2, one indicator of our saltiness and luminosity will be cultural change. I see precious little systemic cultural change in America. Is it because Church needs reformation?
• Discuss: Revival begins with individual Jesus-followers.
• Discuss: Why not you? Why not your church? Why not now?
• Pray together.

If this is for you please email me and I'll add you to my Revival Church Group, and send you the conference call information.

johnpiippo@msn.com

Blessings!

John

The Strategy for Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Montana, between Bozeman and Livingston

The strategy for leading the Presence-Driven Church has nothing, initially, to do with strategizing. It's more radical than that. Here is how to lead and grow a Presence-Driven Church.

1. Abide in Christ. Dwell in God's presence. Have a praying life. Connect with God, like a branch attached to a tree. Become familiar with God. Teach your people to do the same.

2. Listen for the voice of God. Discern. Discernment is in direct proportion to familiarity. Teach your people to do the same.

3. When God calls you to do something, obey. Follow the Shepherd. Here is where strategizing can come in. 

That's it. 

There are no more steps along the way.

Teach your people to do likewise, following your example.

***
For more detail, biblical and theological  support, see my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

FOR PASTORS - An Invitation to Join Me on a Conference Call - Nov. 19, 9 PM (EST)

Good morning Revival colleagues!

At Redeemer I and my associate Tim Curry continue to preach on revival at Redeemer. God has called us to prepare the hearts of the people for revival and awakening.

Pastors - I invite you to join me on a conference call next Monday, Nov. 19, 9 PM EST.

Some of you have already indicated you will be joining this call - thank you!

My idea is:

• Look together at Michael Brown's definition of "revival."
• Discuss: America needs help. The real problem is spiritual, not political or even economic. (A spiritual outpouring will affect politics and economics.)
• Discuss: the problem is not with the great amount of darkness, it's with the small amount of light. I am praying for revival and awakening to come to churches in America.
• Discuss: Revival begins with individual Jesus-followers.
• Discuss: Why not you? Why not your church? Why not now?
• Pray together.

TO JOIN THE CONFERENCE CALL send me an email and I'll add you to my Revival Church Network, and send you the call-in information.

johnpiippo@msn.com

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Pastors: Understand WHOSE Ministry This Is

Frost on my car window (11/14/18)

Christian leaders: You can...

A) Decide what you are going to do, and then ask God to partner with you.

B) Discern what God is doing, and partner with him.

The correct answer is B. Discern, rather than decide. What a relief!

God is up to something. God is moving. What God is up to is far more effective than what we could figure out.

Stephen Seamands writes:

"All authentic Christian ministry participates in Christ's ongoing ministry. Ministry is essentially about our joining Christ in his ministry, not his joining us in ours." (Seamands,  Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service, Kindle Locations 160-161)

To discern what God is up to, we must have an abiding life, to include a praying life. We must be in constant communication with God. If we don't do this we will burn out trying to figure things out.

"So much of our stress and burnout is the direct result of our failure to grasp this basic truth about ministry. We are carrying burdens that we were never designed to carry-burdens that Christ never intended tended for us to carry. Instead of following Christ the Leader, we wrongly assume the burden of leadership ourselves. No wonder we collapse under its weight." (Ib., Kindle Locations 162-163)

Seamands writes:

"Understanding whose ministry it is can be tremendously liberating. Jesus' words "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30) apply to ministry too!...

However, most of us find it difficult to live according to this truth. We are often tempted to take the burden of ministry on ourselves." (Ib., Kindle Locations 163-166)

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

RESOLVE TO KNOW ONE THING - DECLARATIONS

Yesterday morning when we assembled together I spoke about the simplifying focus revival brings. All hearts and minds are on One Thing.

The apostle Paul expresses his desire this way, in 1 Corinthians 2:2.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (NIV)

I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified. (Message)

For while I was with you I was determined to be consumed with one topic—Jesus, the crucified Messiah. (Passion)

I handed out these Jesus-centered declarations, and we read them together. (From Steve Backlund, with minor editing.)

Blessings today as you focus on Jesus!

I DECLARE THAT JESUS IS LORD OF ALL, AND LORD OF MY LIFE.
I BELIEVE JESUS HAS BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD.

1. God made Christ who knew no sin to be sin for me that I might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
2. I have redemption through Jesus Christ’s blood and the forgiveness of sins. Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14.
3. I am saved by grace through faith. I am not saved by my own works. Ephesians 2:8-9.
4. I have been brought to Father by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:13.
5. I have obtained an inheritance in Christ. Ephesians 1:11.
6. The Father has accepted me into His forever family. Ephesians 1:6.
7. God my Father has delivered me from the power of darkness and transferred me into the kingdom of His beloved Son. Colossians 1:13. 
8. I am in Christ Jesus and therefore I am a new creation. Old things have passed away and all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
9. I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 1:3.
10. I am God’s masterpiece. He created me anew in Christ Jesus, so I can do the good things He planned for me long ago. Ephesians 2:10 NLT.
11. Christ dwells in my heart by faith. I am rooted and grounded in love. Ephesians 3:17.
12. God gives me the victory through Jesus Christ my Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
13. If I sin, I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1 (ESV).
14. All of God’s promises are yes and amen for me because I am in Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:20.
15. I am qualified in Christ to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints. Colossians 1:12.

The Principle of Sufficient Reason and a Rationalist Proof of God's Existence

At Starbucks in Istanbul

Stephen Hawking, in his final book (published post mortem), agrees that our universe began to exist (hence, it is not eternal), but that it could have just popped into existence out of nothing. (See here.) 

William Lane Craig, in his defense of the Kalam Cosmological Argument for God's existence, finds the idea that anything could pop into existence uncaused out of nothing absurd. (See here.) 

In presenting the Kalam argument to my philosophy of religion students I utilize the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR). 

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Once we agree that the universe has a cause, and did not pop into existence out of nothing, we reason that whatever caused the universe to begin to exist must be sufficient to explain how the universe began to exist. That is, by the Principle of Sufficient Reason, we can infer an adequate cause of the universe. 

What about the PSR? Are we rational in accepting it? Edward Feser, in Five Proofs of the Existence of God, beautifully argues for the PSR. 

The PSR states that “there is a sufficient reason or adequate necessary objective explanation for the being of whatever is and for all attributes of any being.” (Feser, p. 148) PSR entails that everything has a sufficient reason. 

This does not mean that everything has a cause. Not all reasons are causes. Something which does not have a cause would need to have its sufficient reason in itself (such as, e.g., God). But if something does not have its sufficient reason in itself, then it exists contingently, and has a cause outside itself. Such as the universe.

Feser asks, why should we believe the PSR?

"Considered as an inductive generalization, PSR is as well supported as any other. For one thing (and as noted already) we do in fact tend to find explanations when we look for them, and even when we don’t, we tend to have reason to think there is an explanation but just one to which, for whatever reason (e.g., missing evidence), we don’t have access. 

For another thing, the world simply doesn’t behave the way we would expect it to if PSR were false. Events without any evident explanation would surely be occurring constantly, and the world would simply not have the intelligibility that makes science and everyday common sense as successful as they are. That the world is as orderly and intelligible as it is would be a miracle if PSR were not true." (Ib., pp. 148-149)

The PSR is far more certain than an empirical hypothesis can be. It is more obviously true than anything that can be said against it. “Though it cannot be directly demonstrated, it can be indirectly demonstrated by the indirect method of proof known as reductio ad absurdum.” (Ib., p. 149, quoting Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange)

To doubt PSR is to claim there is no sufficient reason to affirm PSR. But this is to assume PSR. Feser explains:

"Hence, to doubt or deny PSR undercuts any grounds we could have for doubting or denying PSR. The rejection of PSR is therefore self-undermining. Even the critic of PSR willing to embrace perceptual skepticism and retreat into a redoubt of a priori knowledge will find no shelter there. To reject PSR is to undermine the possibility of any rational inquiry." (Ib., p. 150)

Feser is far more thorough than what I have presented. He handles all objections to PSR and respond to them.

Part of the appeal of PSR is that it seems counter-intuitive to believe that some things exist without explanation. 

The Rationalist Proof of God's Existence looks like this (Go slowly, see Feser's book for explanatory detail, take a deep breath!).

1. The principle of sufficient reason (PSR) holds that there is an explanation for the existence of anything that does exist and for its having the attributes it has. 
2. If PSR were not true, then things and events without evident explanation or intelligibility would be extremely common. 
3. But this is the opposite of what common sense and science alike find to be the case. 
4. If PSR were not true, then we would be unable to trust our own cognitive faculties. 
5. But in fact we are able to trust those faculties.
6. Furthermore, there is no principled way to deny the truth of PSR while generally accepting that there are genuine explanations in science and philosophy. 
7. But there are many genuine explanations to be found in science and philosophy. 
8. So, PSR is true. 
9. The explanation of the existence of anything is to be found either in some other thing which causes it, in which case it is contingent, or in its own nature, in which case it is necessary; PSR rules out any purported third alternative on which a thing’s existence is explained by nothing. 
10. There are contingent things. 
11. Even if the existence of an individual contingent thing could be explained by reference to some previously existing contingent thing, which in turn could be explained by a previous member, and so on to infinity, that the infinite series as a whole exists at all would remain to be explained. 
12. To explain this series by reference to some further contingent cause outside the series, and then explain this cause in terms of some yet further contingent thing, and so on to infinity, would merely yield another series whose existence would remain to be explained; and to posit yet another contingent thing outside this second series would merely generate the same problem yet again. 
13. So, no contingent thing or series of contingent things can explain why there are any contingent things at all. 
14. But that there are any contingent things at all must have some explanation, given PSR; and the only remaining explanation is in terms of a necessary being as cause. 
15. Furthermore, that an individual contingent thing persists in existence at any moment requires an explanation; and since it is contingent, that explanation must lie in some simultaneous cause distinct from it. 
16. If this cause is itself contingent, then even if it has yet another contingent thing as its own simultaneous cause, and that cause yet another contingent thing as its simultaneous cause, and so on to infinity, then once again we have an infinite series of contingent things the existence of which has yet to be explained. 
17. So, no contingent thing or series of contingent things can explain why any particular contingent thing persists in existence at any moment; and the only remaining explanation is in terms of a necessary being as its simultaneous cause. 18. So, there must be at least one necessary being, to explain why any contingent things exist at all and how any particular contingent thing persists in existence at any moment. 1
9. A necessary being would have to be purely actual, absolutely simple or noncomposite, and something which just is subsistent existence itself. 
20. But there can in principle be only one thing which is purely actual, absolutely simple or noncomposite, and something which just is subsistent existence itself.
 21. So, there is only one necessary being. 
22. So, it is this same one necessary being which is the explanation of why any contingent things exist at all and which is the cause of every particular contingent thing’s existing at any moment. 
23. So, this necessary being is the cause of everything other than itself. 
24. Something which is purely actual, absolutely simple or non-composite, and something which just is subsistent existence itself must also be immutable, eternal, immaterial, incorporeal, perfect, omnipotent, fully good, intelligent, and omniscient. 
25. So, there is a necessary being which is one, purely actual, absolutely simple, subsistent existence itself, cause of everything other than itself, immutable, eternal, immaterial, incorporeal, perfect, omnipotent, fully good, intelligent, and omniscient. 
26. But for there to be such a thing is for God to exist. 
27. So, God exists.

(Ib., 161-163)