Inner Compass is a program produced by Calvin College that features interviews with leading thinkers and writers. In this interview, author, scholar and speaker N.T. Wright speaks about the traditional Christian views of heaven and hell, resurrection, and new creation and his book "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking heaven, the resurrection, and the mission of the church."
Monday, July 28, 2014
Inner Compass: Tom Wright on rethinking life after death
Inner Compass is a program produced by Calvin College that features interviews with leading thinkers and writers. In this interview, author, scholar and speaker N.T. Wright speaks about the traditional Christian views of heaven and hell, resurrection, and new creation and his book "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking heaven, the resurrection, and the mission of the church."
Book Recommendation: Surprised by Hope, N.T.Wright
In a much needed book, author and scholar N.T. Wright (also known as Tom Wright) former bishop and currently a professor of New Testament and Church history, reframes the concept of the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven. Recovering a more accurate image of the Kingdom idea proclaimed by Jesus, the gospels, and in the Pauline epistles, he brings Christians back from simply thinking about the kingdom of heaven as some future disembodied existence that we look forward to when we die. This view tends to diminish the relevancy of life on this earth. In the lectionary readings for the month of July, the concept of the Kingdom of God is primary, and this book is an excellent read to help us understand a more robust concept of what God is doing in this world and how we participate in it. Very readable, it is the kind of book every Christian should pick up and study. What is the significance of the teaching of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus? How should we understand the idea of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven? What is new creation? This book is significantly thought provoking and a very important corrective to many Christians current thinking on heaven in what Wright has comes to term "life after life after death".
Proper 12 "Kingdom Postcards" Matt 13:31-33, 44-52
To obtain the kingdom of heaven is the supreme concern for humanity, St. Paul said that he counted all things a loss to gain Christ. In this week's lectionary reading, the gospel of Matthew presents five pictures of what the kingdom of God is like. Each picture gives us an image and a promise that the kingdom of God holds, a promise for the present, not just the future. Biblical scholar N.T.Wright does a masterful job in his book "Surprised by Hope" reframing the concept of the Kingdom of God.
He writes, "what you do in the present-by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself–will last into God's future." The hope of the kingdom of God is not something for some after-life, it is both a hope for the future, but also a living hope for the church today. Is this something that we pursue? Do we hunger and thirst after being kingdom people, to be transformed by the Holy Spirit so that we can embody the kingdom of God? These parables encourage us to be like the person who finds a pearl and sells all to possess it, or rather to be possessed by God.
This portion of scripture encourages us to value this above all else, because in giving up everything else we find that we have indeed come to possess what matters most and what places everything else into a divine perspective.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Book recommendation: Christian Doctrine, revised edition by Shirley C Guthrie Jr.
It is an easy to read text, laid out in the traditional format of the apostle creed. The book does not examine doctrine as a static systematic mental exercise but ties doctrine directly to the reality of life as lived in our society, our church, our homes, our places of work and worship. It connects theology with the deeper questions that we seek in life lending to chapter titles such as "What are we doing here? The doctrine of creation", "Why doesn't God do something about It (the problem of evil)","Who are we? The doctrine of human beings", "Is God against us? The doctrine of the atonement","Living or dead, the doctrine of the church." Guthrie presents options, laying out how the church historically has approached different doctrine and does not push one particular view on his reader. Guthrie invites the reader to engage the different issues and problems raised by each doctrinal loci, while at the same time, addressing areas where Christians have in the past gone down theological paths that should be avoided.
There are study questions after each chapter that encourage groups to delve into deeper engagement. What makes this book of Christian doctrine stand out is a particular perspective, the wisdom by which Guthrie approaches the entire matter of Christian doctrine, the respect for the historical ecumenical catholicity of the church, and Jesus as the center of all Christian theology.
Friday, July 4, 2014
Why Millennials are Leaving the Church
traditional church in the United States
Why Millennials are
Leaving the Church
By Rachel Held Evans,
At
32, I barely qualify as a millennial.
I wrote my first essay with a pen
and paper, but by the time I graduated from college, I owned a cell phone and
used Google as a verb.
I still remember the home phone
numbers of my old high school friends, but don’t ask me to recite my husband’s
without checking my contacts first.
I own mix tapes that include
selections from Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but I’ve never planned a trip without
Travelocity.
Despite having one foot in
Generation X, I tend to identify most strongly with the attitudes and the ethos
of the millennial generation, and because of this, I’m often asked to speak to
my fellow evangelical leaders about why millennials are leaving the church.
Armed with the latest surveys, along with personal testimonies
from friends and readers, I explain how young adults perceive evangelical
Christianity to be too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned
with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
people.
I point to research that shows
young evangelicals often feel they have to choose between their intellectual
integrity and their faith, between science and Christianity, between compassion
and holiness.
I talk about how the evangelical
obsession with sex can make Christian living seem like little more than
sticking to a list of rules, and how millennials long for faith communities in
which they are safe asking tough questions and wrestling with doubt.
Invariably, after I’ve finished my
presentation and opened the floor to questions, a pastor raises his hand and
says, “So what you’re saying is we need hipper worship bands. …”
And I proceed to bang my head
against the podium.
Time and again, the assumption among Christian
leaders, and evangelical leaders in particular, is that the key to drawing
twenty-somethings back to church is simply to make a few style updates – edgier music, more casual
services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny
jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving.
But here’s the thing: Having been
advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters,
and we’re not easily impressed with consumerism or performances.
In fact, I would argue that
church-as-performance is just one more thing driving us away from the church,
and evangelicalism in particular.
Many of us, myself included, are finding
ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions – Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy,
the Episcopal Church, etc. –precisely
because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with
being “cool,” and we find that refreshingly authentic.
What millennials really want from
the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.
We want an end to the culture wars.
We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we
stand for, not what we are against.
We want to ask questions that don’t
have predetermined answers.
We want churches that emphasize an
allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party
or a single nation.
We want our LGBT friends to feel
truly welcome in our faith communities.
We want to be challenged to live
lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to
living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation,
engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.
You can’t hand us a latte and then
go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the
church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church
because we don’t find Jesus there.
Like every generation before ours
and every generation after, deep down, we long for Jesus.
Now these trends are obviously true
not only for millennials but also for many folks from other generations.
Whenever I write about this topic, I hear from forty-somethings and
grandmothers, Generation Xers and retirees, who send me messages in all caps
that read “ME TOO!” So I don’t want to portray the divide as wider than it
is.
But I would encourage church
leaders eager to win millennials back to sit down and really talk with them
about what they’re looking for and what they would like to contribute to a
faith community.
Their answers might surprise you.
Rachel Held Evans is the author of
"Evolving in Monkey Town" and "A Year of Biblical
Womanhood." She blogs at rachelheldevans.com. The views expressed in
this column belong to Rachel Held Evans.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Too often the we do not see worship as being something that we participate in. It is easy to become a spectator at worship thinking that the minister, or the priest, the choir, are the actors performing for our benefit. Christian worship rather is a collective worship in which all participate, having been called by God. Together we sit in silence and praise, together we pray, listen, read, respond, confess, rejoice, cry, and wait. Together we are refreshed, renewed, forgiven, empowered, and sent to live in the love and grace of God to share the love that we have so freely received. We connect not only with believers living today, but with the church of the past, the Communion of the Saints. We cannot make the mistake to think of worship in terms of "contemporary" or "traditional", one form that is liturgical, and one form that is not. It is usually best to avoid the terms "contemporary", "blended" and "traditional" as all worship has elements that are both ancient and modern. All worship that is God centered worship is liturgical, sacramental, and confessional whether it utilizes harp, organ, strings, or drums, guitars, brass, or synthesizer.
Below is an article written by professor Rev. Dr. Michael Van Horn that is a very well written description of worship in the Christian tradition, it describes the various aspects of the reformed worship service and how those components connect with our theology and life. I post this as it is an excellent guide for us to read as we prepare for worship.
What is Worship?
By: ~ The Rev. Michael Van Horn, Ph.D.
Human beings were created for worship. The triune God has invited us to
share in His life, and Jesus, our High Priest, leads us into the presence of
God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our celebration of worship is the central
way we make ourselves present to what God has done and is doing through Jesus
Christ.
Worship should never be a spectator sport. We are invited to engage as
whole people in the public service of remembering God's covenants with His
people. The liturgy is not our words, but the Church's words, given to us by a
gracious, self-revealing God. We need worship, as one writer says, because we
need the "weekly practice at not being God" and discovering just who
the one true God is. It is only with this vision clarified that we can ever
discover who we are, and flourish as human creatures. A service of worship
church contains four basic elements: The Gathering, the Word, the Table, and
the Sending. Each of these elements intentionally forms us into the people of
God, mindful of God's gift of Himself:
1. Gathering as the People of God –
We come together, out of our various and distinct places of service in
the world, to be joined together as one people with one purpose; to be
re-oriented to God's life and God's world.
Silence
- We pause briefly to hush the "noise" of our lives, recalling that,
left to ourselves, we have nothing to say to God.
Call to Worship and Invocation - Here we recite our purpose for gathering and are
reminded that we come only at God's gracious invitation. For this gift, we can
only respond by saying "thank You."
Confession of Sin and Words of Pardon - We do not come before a holy God on
our own terms. We have sinned. We have hurt others and ourselves. Confession is
honesty about who we are in the light of who God is. We confess our sins
together, with the whole Church, because we do not stand alone in our
brokenness. Yet, we come to confession not to grovel in anxiety, but to empty
our hands of our own "solutions" so that we can receive God's gift of
promised forgiveness in Christ.
Peace
- As forgiven and reconciled people, we have been called to a ministry of
reconciliation in the world. Since God has forgiven us, we can forgive others
and live at peace with them. We start with the family of God, speaking words of
peace in Christ, and continue by extending that peace in all our relationships
and choices.
Praise
- Learning again that God has met us in our need, and has abundantly forgiven
us, we celebrate in songs of gratitude and joy. Once again, these are not
merely our words, but words given to us by God in His Church.
2. Listening to God's Word
The center of our worship is the revealed speech of God. God has spoken
to His people "words of eternal life," and we take time to simply,
reverently, and humbly listen to what God is saying. The Scriptural story is
our story, as the people of God. This is a story of people caught up in God's
grace, human faithfulness and failure, and God's constant loving kindness
toward us.
Scripture – There can be as many as four passages from Scripture read, (Old Testament, a Psalm response, New
Testament Epistle, and a Gospel reading). These texts, often taken from a
three-year lectionary cycle, are shared in common by Christians from many
denominations around the world. Here we remember that God is speaking to all of
us, the whole people of God, and our response at this Word is one of gratitude:
"Thanks be to God!"
Sermon
- The sermon is a prayerful attempt to proclaim the Word of God within our
lives together as followers of Jesus Christ. God's Spirit continues to speak to
us, and we are compelled to hear the daily call to faithful discipleship.
Creed
- Biblical worship always includes response. In our affirmation of faith, we
are invited to corporately affirm what the Church proclaims. With this
confession, we join our voices to the Church around the world and throughout
time, saying, "Yes Lord, we believe, and will obey."
3. Gathering at the Lord's Table
Here we begin to act as obedient disciples, through giving of our lives,
interceding in prayer for others, and sharing in the meal that identifies us as
people of the kingdom - the body of Christ for the world.
Offering - Like the rest of the worship service, the offering is a meaningful
symbol. By giving to the ministries of the Church as an act of worship, we are
acknowledging a deeper, larger reality: All of life is a gift from God. What we
joyfully give in worship should keep us mindful that everything we have is a
gift of God and should be used for His glory.
Prayers of the People - God has ordained us to be priests. Part of that
priesthood is the work of intercession. In the prayers of the people we begin
the lifelong task of bringing before God - through the ministry of Jesus, in
the power of the Spirit - the needs of the world, the church, our communities
and families, and ourselves.
The Eucharist - Communion is the reality of participating in the life of God through
the gift of Jesus Christ to us. Here we give thanks to the Father for His work
of creation and redemption; we remember the Son, Jesus, for His life-giving
life, death, and resurrection even as we await His coming; and we ask for the
presence of the Spirit to join us to the life of Christ and to transform us
into kingdom people, who seek to live lives of justice and peace in the world,
until the day the Kingdom of God fully arrives.
4. Going out into God's World
Worship makes "sense" of the world, inviting us to see and do
the world God's way. The end of the service is really a beginning: the
beginning of a life of worship in which we love God and neighbor, seeking to
"do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God."
Sending
- Having heard God speak, having learned the Good News, having been nourished
at the Lord's Table, we have been commissioned for the work of Jesus in our
homes, places of work and play, in the whole creation. The "sending"
offers words of direction - marching orders - for the people of God: "Go
in peace to love and serve God and neighbor." We have work to do.
Benediction - Yet we must always remember that the work that must be done is really
God's work. We need God's grace and blessing to fulfill our calling as the
Church in the world. The final words should ring in our ears, and burn in our hearts
every day of life as our primary identity: "The blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you and remain with you
always."
EVANGELII GAUDIUM: Evangelism marked by Joy
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
EVANGELII GAUDIUM
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN TODAY’S WORLD
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN TODAY’S WORLD
In a 2013 apostolic exhortation titled Evangelii Gaudium “the
Joy of the Gospel” Pope Francis presents to the church a kind of evangelism that promotes a "a sound decentralization", it recognizes both the need to contextualize evangelism as well as the true scope of the topic. He writes, "I have chosen not to explore these many questions which call for further study. Nor do I believe that the papal magisterium should be expected to offer a definitive or complete word on every questions which affects the church and the world It is not advisable for the Pope to take the place of local Bishops in the discernment of every issue which arises in their territories."
What Pope Francis does offer however are guidelines and direction on a wide ranging scale dealing with evangelism, mission and the gospel in the context of the church in the world. In the United States it is my opinion that evangelism, especially in evangelical protestant denominations, has suffered from a narrow, individualistic, and personal approach. Often characterized by asking new converts to "pray the sinners prayer" and ask Jesus into their hearts. Separated from baptism or discipleship in the church, this kind of evangelism is plagued by a kind of reductionism that leads both to spiritual disillusionment and false teaching. This document offers a much needed corrective. Acknowledging the need for a renewed personal encounter with Jesus, the Pope frames this within a greater context. Pope Francis begins by noting that in a culture of consumerism and self interest, people tend to dismiss both the poor and God. The result of living in a consumer driven culture is a self interest that runs counter to the love of God. Yet evangelism holds out the hope of forgiveness and restoration in God, taking us away from our self centeredness and to a God-centeredness. This has implications for the church as much as for those outside the church. Furthermore, this evangelism should flow out of the joy of the gospel. On this invitation the Pope invites the faithful to embark on a new chapter of evangelism marked by joy.
Quoting Benedict XVI he also notes that, "Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction." Our joy stems from the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ (Introduction I:7). Evangelism is also anchored in God's covenant, God's initiative in loving us first, and the Eucharist in "grateful remembrance." It encompasses the call for both the believer and the unbeliever, for the converted and unconverted. What protestants tend to call "discipleship", Francis refers to the demands of baptism. Quoting the Second Vatican council, "Christ summons the church as she goes on her pilgrim way…to that continued reformation of which she always has need in so far as she is a human institution here on earth." The Pope focuses on reform in the church, pastoral ministry, homilies, the poor, peace and dialogue, and spiritual motivations in mission. This is a document that Christians interested in evangelism, mission and the church should carefully read and studied. When too often evangelism in the popular culture of the United States has reduced it to simply praying a "sinner's prayer" or focusing on the afterlife, this documents reflects the historical emphasis of the church in a salvation that is both corporate and personal, that has an impact both in this life and the next.
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