LeadershipConneXtions

Theology: Lots (and lots, I mean really lots) of Views

One thing that Christianity focused on in the world of modernity and Christendom was to sharpen its theological understanding of every issue you can imagine. Whether it was the subject of predestination, women in leadership, the end times, the right way for political engagement, ad infinitum... one thing was very obvious.

And that is devout and sincere followers of Christ, who are very learned individuals, with deep commitment to the Scriptures and the best interpretation of those Scriptures came to very different conclusions.

I think that one thing I appreciated about my education at Gordon-Conwell is that it had faculty from a wide variety of theological positions. There were charismatics, evangelicals, Arminians, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Social Justice evangelicals, and even some Liturgical/High Church folks all teaching there. (Although they weren't fully consistent on this. I think I remember David Wells commenting that NO ONE on staff at GCTS at the time was a dispensationalist! I guess they felt they had to draw the line somewhere!). 

The practical upshot of this was that one prof could not get away with attacking a "straw man" theological position because that view had other very capable and competent faculty representing that view with substance and integrity. It did lead to some lively debates in the early 1980's as the "hot potato" topics were women's ordination, the interpretation of Scripture (and its inerrancy) which caused some of the professors to lose their teaching positions, the Reformed in-house debates on theonomy (yawn) and social justice issues.

Well...the Christian book industry has seen a market in all this and there have been many "Views" books put out where different authors collaborate to present their view on a topic and then to critique the other authors of the book. I've read a bunch of them.

For fun (and I originally found this somewhere else, but no longer remember the source) here is a list of some of the "Views" books that are available, especially on Zondervan and Inter-Varsity. It is a PDF.

Download ListOfViewsBooks.pdf

By the way... this is one of the issue where emerging leaders say - these debates were the "stuff" of the church of modernity and post-modernity is moving beyond those hard and fast categories. Thus, Brian McLaren writes of a Generous Orthodoxy where he (and many other PoMos) want to sample themes and beliefs from many different Christian traditions.

Emergent leadership also raises questions of epistemology (how one knows what is true) and hermenteutics (how one interprets texts, i.e. The Bible) in the process of making theological statements. They are suspicious of how evangelicals did this and had endless debates with one another on who was the better interpreter of the Bible.

Tim Keel (Intuitive Leadership) refers to the postmodern ecclectic approach as the sampled, remixed and blended way of emergent faith.

Brian Rice

On Dualisms and Polarities

Well, this one could be a "yawner" for some of you, but it is a crucial issue that is seen everywhere in our Christian faith. (It's also a little longer than I normally post in the blog itself, vs. attaching as a pdf.)

Dualism is a way of viewing and understanding the world and our Christian faith in that world.

Dualism means we see life as "divided" into opposites. And these opposites are everywhere.

Dualism means we have a sharp divide between the SACRED and the SECULAR.

Dualism means we believe Christ and culture have little in common.

Dualism is a fact of life for the church and it is deeply embedded in modern evangelicalism.

Here is a list of the dualisms we have created. And when I use the word - polarity, it just means the opposites within the dualism.  Many of these are mentioned by Robert McAfee Brown (pictured) in his book - Spirituality and Liberation (a book I read many years ago when I did my thesis on Epistemology in Liberation Theology - speaking of yawning....).

• sacred - secular
• faith - works
• church - world
• eternity - time
• theory - practice
• soul - body
• heaven - earth
• divine - human
• spiritual - material
• contemplation - action
• inner world - outer world
• love - justice
• ministry - work
• evangelism - social action
• creed (beliefs) - deeds (action)
• vertical - horizontal
• transcendence - immanence
• Son of God - Son of Man
• the human Jesus - the divine Christ
• sovereignty of God - free will of man
• and the list could go on for a very long time

In his book, Not the Way It Suppose to Be: A Breviary of Sin, Cornelius Plantinga makes the point that sin "divides and separates what God has joined together." I take this understanding and apply it to this problem of dualism.

God plans for all these to be joined together. How they are joined together is, of course, mystery, paradox and messy to boot (where in the world did I dig up that old colloquialism?). Holding these things together creates tension and discomfort. Which is one of the reasons why we so quickly separate them into understandable and manageable boxes.

And yet, every time we separate what God has joined together - we then live a truncated, reductionistic Christianity.

One of the themes of the postmodern, emergent Christianity is the exposure of these dualities (although certain groups within Reformational, worldviewish Calvinism has been doing this for a long time) and the rejoining of what has been torn asunder. And it is certainly a point of tension that will be part of the dialogue for the foreseeable future.

Graham Buxton points out the flawed results of dualism.

1. It leads to a fragmentation that dismisses what is happening in the world as unrelated to God and his kingdom.
2. It leads to a triumphalism which ignores what is happening in the world.
3. It creates an 'attractional' approach to mission which seeks to bring people out of the flawed world into the safe harbor of the church.
4. It has the impression that the church is where the light is and the world is where the darkness is (when in fact, there is a great deal of darkness within the church and there is a great deal of light in the world since the Spirit is at work through endlessly creative ways).
5. It fails to appreciate the goodness of all that God has created.
6. It creates a siege mentality where we withdraw into protected fortresses and fail to engage the world in ongoing forums of dialog.

A new kind of theology, spirituality and leadership is needed to navigate and mend this divide.

Brian Rice

Tozer on the Problem With Many Bible Teachers

Here is a quote from The Pursuit of God by Tozer, being critical of the bible information mentality that exists in so many of our conservative churches. This is in Intuitive Leadership by Tim Keel, page 125.

There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the docrtines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest presence, not anything unusual in their personal lives. . . .

Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to other effective angencies for the dissemination of the Word of God, there are today many millions of peole who hold "right opinions" probably more than ever before in the history of the church.

Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb?

When Leadership ConneXtions works overseas with leaders, one of our core methodologies we like to talk about is a process of transformation through incubation of the right information.

Like James says (to paraphrase him)... The word heard does not save, but the  word received and integrated into one's life does save.

If you have never read this short classic, The Pursuit of God, it is well worth the read. I think I've worked through it 7 or 8 times. I'm probabl due to work through it again.

Brian Rice

Evangelical Manifesto

 

My friend Lanny Kilgore (and pastor of New Covenant Community Church) sent me the link to  Evangelical Manifesto documents.  Timothy George, Os Guinness, Jesse Miranda, Dallas Willard and Richard Mouw are among the leaders of this group.

It is a group of evangelicals who would like to bring some clarity to the term "evangelical."

The main thing is to see the two pdfs on the website that are their articulation of the issues.

You can either go there to access the documents, but I have also provided them below.

Download Evangelical_Manifesto.pdf    (This is the longer one.)

Download Evangelical_Manifesto_Summary.pdf

The word "manifesto" sounds pretty modern and imposing.

Let us know what you think about the "manifesto" and if you think they are on track or stuck in a world that doesn't exist or somewhere inbetween.

Brian Rice

Rapture Ready (A Review by Ben Michael)

Ben Michael is a young, thoughtful leader who I have known for several years.  Ben was a part of the Leading Edge Community this past year.

I recently received a short book review from Ben. I appreciated the review, and even more, I appreciated the leadership development process going on in Ben's life.

(1) Leaders are those who are committed to life-long learning.

(2) Leaders are those who understand the importance of ideas.

(3) Leaders are those who are engaging the culture in thoughtful ways, to understand it and to then dialogue with it.

(4) Leaders are those who seek to imprint and influence others to do the same.

Ben did all of that in his email (which he sent out to a number of people) and review.

And since this blogsite is interested in culture, I asked Ben if I could post his review. He said yes, so just download the pdf.

Download RaptureReadReviewByBen.pdf

Thanks Ben. This book is on my list to get.

Brian Rice

A Stingy God or a Generous God? (Richard Mouw)

The April 2008 Christianity Today edition has a wonderful article by Richard Mouw who is the president of Fuller Theological Seminary.

You can read that article by clicking here.

Mouw is asking whether the God we evangelicals love and serve is a stingy God or a generous God when it comes to salvation. That is the theological issue.

But there is also an attitudinal issue and that is - how will we act toward those who believe very differently than we believe. Referring to Martin Marty, Mouw says, "People today who are civil often don't have any strong convictions. And people who have strong convictions often are not very civil."

Mouw is trying to navigate how we (evangelicals) can meaningfully convey our most cherished beliefs (convictions) while still displaying a spirit of generous civility toward others..

Helping us learn how to do this will depend on how well we understand "the mystery of our own inner lives."

"A failure to acknowledge the complexity of our inner workings, inevitably leads to a failure to acknowledge the mystery of God's dealings with others."

The article is very good, just a few pages in length, but loaded with wisdom and story.

If you'd like to read more thoughts by Mouw, check out Mouw's Musings. He only posts a few times a month, but if you search through his archives, you will find some real gems.

Brian Rice