Dangerous Preaching

What is the greatest danger in preaching? Most Christians would answer that it is substituting anything for the Word of God. And of course, the best way to avoid this is through expository preaching. This idea is so widely accepted, that to question it causes heresy detectors to go off all over the blogosphere.

A group of theologians recently addressed this and other issues at a conference they called Together for the Gospel. They published a declaration of 18 articles. Here’s article 4:

We affirm the centrality of expository preaching in the church and the urgent need for a recovery of biblical exposition and the public reading of Scripture in worship.

We deny that God-honoring worship can marginalize or
neglect the ministry of the Word as manifested through exposition and public reading. We further deny that a church devoid of true biblical preaching can survive as a Gospel church.

On guy expressed the appeal expository preaching had for him this way, “What I like is that he sticks to the Bible verses, their meaning, and nothing else.” What could be better than that?

Albert Mohler says, “Expository preaching is authoritative because it stands upon the very authority of the Bible as the Word of God.”

Controversial material follows!

But could it be that “expository preaching” is the problem rather than the solution?

David Fitch in The Great Giveaway warns, “Many evangelicals take comfort in the fact that their church preaches the Word because they have expository preaching. Because their preaching follows the text sentence for sentence, this somehow ensures them of a more faithful interpretation of the text.... Verse for verse, sentence by sentence, preachers read their own agenda into the text unaware that they even have an agenda, or worse, believing their personal agenda is directly from God” (p. 139).

Expository preaching actually robs the Bible of its authority. It is dominated by the subjectivity of the preacher or by the subjectivity of the hearer, often by both. The preacher dissects the text according to his hidden or “God-given” agenda. The hearer analyses the message according to her theological and philosophical grid.

“Expository preaching relies on the assumption that meaning is self-evident to every individual. Many times in evangelical churches, therefore, disagreement over Scripture automatically signifies, to one side or the other, the other’s ignorance or even heresy” (p. 137).

The result is that there can be no discussion about the meaning of the text. It is self-evident after all. And humility becomes a scarce quality in most churches (and blogs).

“The text becomes an object in the hands of the preacher as it is broken down into three points to be given out as something the listener can use. Once the sermon is given, the text becomes an object to be consumed by the parishioner, who in turn listens, analyzes, takes notes, and goes out to be a doer of the information just heard, which consequently distances the listener from the text” (p. 137).

“Ironically, as expository preachers carefully follow the text in their preaching, the center of control for the meaning of Scripture has shifted from Scripture to the autonomous minds of the listening parishioners. The parishioners’ egos remain firmly intact, governing their consumption of the Word as they return home with what they think they heard or wanted to hear” (p. 133).

So is this just another one of those post-modern problems with no solution?

Hardly. The solution is that biblical interpretation must take place within the context of the Body of Christ. “It takes a community of Christ to faithfully interpret the Scriptures” (p. 138).

“Expository preaching therefore alters the hearing of the Word from being a gift we respond to and obey to being another lecture from which we seek some ‘take-home points’ or a motivational speech from which we seek some inspiration. It ‘gives away’ Scripture’s transforming power to be replaced as another form of self-help” (pp. 140-141).

Let him who has ears hear!

(I have added some bold text in the quotations to make them easier to process.)

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Church CEO

The world is obsessed with leadership. And so is the church.

Unfortunately, the church often adopts the values and methods of leadership from Donald Trump rather than from Jesus.

After James and John try to secure the most important positions for themselves, Jesus calls all the disciples together and tells them, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45).

But how well are we implementing this command of Jesus? Do we really follow Jesus’ example? Or do we read into the narrative a modern view of leadership?

David Fitch in The Great Giveaway explains, “Christians have a different purpose for and a different understanding about the way the world works, which fundamentally alters our understanding of what it means to be a leader” (p. 79).

Not only does this cause unnecessary strife within the church, but it also sets up the pastor for moral failure. “Pastors fail because they have character molded for success more than character for following Christ in marriage, work, ministry, and every other calling in life. And because their character is trained toward effectiveness, effective pastor-leaders are prone to deep emotional lows and emotional egotistical ecstasies with each failure or success because their emotions are formed in relation to success not faithfulness” (p. 83).

But there is enormous pressure on pastors to produce. “We should seek to structure pastoral ministry so that it is not just one more entrepreneurial occupation” (p. 90).

The leader who truly follows the example of Jesus will not look like, Donald Trump, Ken Lay or J. P. Morgan. “This leader acts out of obedience to Christ not personal gain, in servanthood to his church not vocational success, and in submission to God’s sovereignty over his people, not personal goals and visions” (p. 94).

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Balance

On my other blog, Behind the Scenes, in the post on Calvinism and Choice, Jim argued that the Greek text of John 6:44 allows for only a strictly Calvinist interpretation. He came here as a result of a comment I posted on his site where he argues that there is no middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism.

(Of course, what he means is that everyone who departs in any degree from a strict Calvinism is to that degree guilty of heresy.)

He accuses me of dismissing his “grammatical proof” with nothing more than a childish reply of, “Not so.” For those of you who are keeping score at home (and who are in possession of an open mind) I offer the following extended quotation from The New American Commentary by Gerald L. Borchert:

Debates have raged in theology concerning the significance of the “drawing” power of God and the “learning” from God in this text. Those who are persuaded of an Augustinian/Calvinistic interpretation emphasize the force of God’s supreme power in drawing persons to Jesus. Those who are committed to an Arminian interpretation emphasize that the drawing power of God is on individual persons and that persons need to believe (cf. 6:47)…. The force of these texts, therefore, is really neither an affirmation of strict Arminianism nor Calvinism. The Calvinists attach this discussion to texts such as 10:25–29 whereas the Arminians unite this passage with other texts such as 12:32; 15:5–6. The solution to such problems normally is best found in a modified Arminian-Calvinistic position that maintains the biblical tension of the divine and human aspects of salvation found in this text. Salvation is never achieved apart from the drawing power of God, and it is never consummated apart from the willingness of humans to hear and learn from God. To choose one or the other will ultimately end in unbalanced, unbiblical theology. Such a solution will generally not please either doctrinaire Calvinists nor Arminians, both of whom will seek to emphasize certain words or texts and exclude from consideration other texts and words. But my sense of the biblical materials is that in spite of all our arguments to the contrary, the tension cannot finally be resolved by our theological gymnastics. Rather than resolving the tension, the best resolution is learning to live with the tension and accepting those whose theological commitments differ from ours.

This is a solid voice of reason that we all would be wise to hear.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Confessions of a Failure

In high school I was voted “most likely to succeed.”

I am intelligent, gifted and confident. So when I discerned God’s call into ministry, there was little doubt that I would eventually find myself leading a large church wielding significant influence within my denomination and the kingdom at large.

But things did not work out that way.

I am completing my 27th year of fulltime pastoral ministry. And “success” seems further away than ever. Many positive things have happened over those 27 years. I’ve had the opportunity to be used by God to influence several individuals toward becoming the people God created them to be. I’ve grown personally and “professionally.” But few would label me a “success.”

I’ve lost parishioners because there were not more visible signs of success. I am a pariah in my own denomination because of the lack of “success.” My family has suffered because I have never been able to “escape” from the small, struggling church environment.

And for many years I was angry with God over this. For some time we were not even on speaking terms. I felt betrayed. He had called me to this particular ministry. He had filled my heart with passion and dreams. But it seemed that every time that “success” was just within reach it would be snatched away.

I’ve put this in the past tense as if it is no longer an issue. This is not quite true. It still hurts when I see inexperienced, less-gifted individuals tapped for leadership roles within the denomination while my name is not even mentioned. It still hurts when I hear once again, “It’s not about you, Pastor. We just need to find a church that has more to offer our kids.” It still hurts when I have to fill out the annual reports that reflect little or no quantifiable “success.”

I’ve questioned my calling. I’ve questioned my abilities. I’ve questioned my faith.

But I have no doubt that this is what God is calling me to do and be and that this is where he is calling me to do it and be it. Unfortunately, he forgot to tell very many others.

What keeps me going is knowing that Jesus was considered a failure by his contemporaries. Paul reminds me that in my weakness God is able to accomplish more than he could in my strength. I do have a commitment to brokenness and surrender that I would have only paid lip service to had I been a great success “out of the gate.”

Yet I still find myself giving God advice, telling him how much more I could do for him and the kingdom if he would only allow me a little “success.” I guess I still have more to learn about brokenness and surrender.

Pastor Rod

“Struggling to allow God to make me into the person God created me to be”

The Deeper Journey

As I look over this list of quotations from The Deeper Journey, I wonder why I felt disappointed by this book. I’ll have more to say about this later. But first, the quotations:

We attempt to integrate our experience with God into the structures of our life in ways that are minimally disruptive to our status quo.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 49

Whenever we attempt to have God in our life on our terms, we are a religious false self.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 49

So we continually tinker with the idol we call “God” in futile efforts to upgrade the idol and make it more suitable for us and more under our control. Some of us do this by education, learning more about God, believing that if only we can get our minds around God and understand God better we will be better able to have God in our life on our terms. Others of us do this by shopping from church to church attempting to find a “god” that is suitable for us.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 49

Any God we can have in our life on our terms is an idol.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 49

A greater fear of our religious false self is that the idol we call “God” may be revealed as false. We fear that the box may be empty! This fear is well grounded. The constructs we call “God” are false; the boxes of dogma, theology, liturgy and doctrine within which we attempt to contain and control God are empty.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, pp. 49–50

We may seek a community of faith whose idol is very much the same as ours and whose box has much of the same character and adornment as ours. By this means, our religious false self not only protects our frail idol in its fragile box but finds support and encouragement in a community of “faith” for maintaining that idol in that box.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, pp. 50–51

Our religious false selves can be as frenetic in our religiosity as secular false selves are in their performance-oriented attempts to authenticate their identity and value.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 51

Our religious false self is often an angry self. We are angry at anyone or anything perceived to be threatening our “God” and the structures of perception and ritual in which our “God” is contained and controlled.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 51

Whenever our identity is rooted in an idol we call “God,” we become very protective of that “God.”
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 52

Whenever anyone even suggests an alternative theology, a different doctrine, an opposing dogma, a variant liturgy, our religious false self rises up to defend the truth against these “heresies.”
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 52

Our dying with Christ is, ultimately, the loss of everything that has defined us. It is our utter rejection of all that falsely determined our identity, value, meaning and purpose.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 62

How often do we find persons and churches who
define the Christian life by abstinence from certain practices and behaviors. Detachment from these practices and behaviors becomes the primary focus of their life rather than an ever deepening attachment to God in love. If detachment is not the consequence of loving attachment to God, then our religiosity is shaped by our detachment, and we have become religious false selves.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 65

Forgiveness is a death to your false self and its righteous indignation, its justified rationale for revenge, its fondling of the resentment.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 81

Detachment is the ongoing process of disconnecting our false self from all our life-support systems (or, in reality, our death-support systems). Our false self will resist such detachment with unbelievable power. We will become fanatically religious as long as we don’t have to lose our self.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 111

We will never experience life in loving union with God as long as the roots of our identity, meaning and purpose are grounded in something other than God.
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., The Deeper Journey, p. 112

He gets so much right, and he makes so many significant points. Yet I think what disappointed me was that this book could have been so much more. Mulholland seems to have trouble deciding whether to write as a scholar or as a popular writer. When he communicates as a popular writer, he is excellent. When he slips into the scholarly jargon, he is obscure and fuzzy.

I wish he would rewrite this book and refine those fuzzy sections and make them as penetrating as the rest of this excellent book.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Good Business

Charles E. Wilson has been quoted (incorrectly) as saying, “What is good for General Motors is good for America.” For the past few decades, many have assumed that “what is good for General Motors is good for the church.”

But the church is not a business.

Yes, there are some aspects of church life that resemble business. And we can learn principles from business that we might choose to apply in the church. But to run the church as if it were a business is somewhere between dangerous and blasphemous.

David Fitch in The Great Giveaway explains, “Effectiveness and efficiency draw their agendas from American cultural forces that define success in terms of numbers, size, and capital. This kind of effectiveness may be alien to Christ’s church” (p. 28).

Here is another powerful statement, “The church is much more than the machinery that produces decisions for Christ” (p. 39).

He suggests some ways to measure “faithfulness to God’s call to be the church.”

He suggests that we count baptisms rather than decisions, that we develop qualitative measures of community, and that we focus on planting new churches rather than on growing big churches.

I find his identification of the problem spot on. However, I find his answer sketchy at best.

This is an issue that has concerned me for some time. I admit that I have no easy answers. But I do know that much of the church is headed down the wrong road using the wrong roadmap and is keeping track of how many miles it has gone as a measure of success.

What do you think?

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Embracing Grace

Here’s my promised “review” of Scot McKnight’s Embracing Grace.

The first thing I want to say is that Scot is an excellent writer. He writes in a style that reminds me of C. S. Lewis. He says some rather profound things in very simple language.

I also like what he says. This book has much to say to the church. I wish more pastors and church leaders would read it.

Here are a few of my favorite quotations with a few of my comments.

The gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of community, for the good of others and the world.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. xiii

This is a good summary of the gospel which Scot expands upon in the book.

A come-as-you-are culture is not indiscriminate, but it creates a church where grace is the ruling paradigm.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 7
This come-as-you-are generation wants to see if the Church really does love them.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 8

This is a good analysis of the challenge the church faces in reaching the post-modern culture. This is something humans have a hard time getting right. Grace is often misunderstood as moral relativism.

Love carries a lot of pain in its chest.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 30

Yes. Grace is never cheap.

Sin is a relational issue and as such transcends the legal issue.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 49

This is one of the reasons so many people get off track when they think about sin. They treat it as a legal issue. But the primary component of sin is relational. When we think of sin this way, it protects us from many ugly mistakes.

The thickest barrier to the gospel is Individualism...
Individualism is an intentional march away from Eden, away from God and away from others...
The gospel is designed to create community out of individualists.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 66

Scot nails it. What more can I add?

You tear the heart out of God’s work on earth if you skip from the Fall to the Cross.
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 71

This is a striking part of God’s work of redemption that is often overlooked. God took thousands of years to unfold the story of deliverance from mankind's slavery to sin. Just the part from Abraham to Jesus took 2000 years. The details between Eden and Gethsemane appear to be important to God. They should be important to us. God was not just “clearing his throat” before he told the “really important part” of the story.

The so-called “theories of the Atonement” are actually “stories of the Atonement.”
Scot McKnight, Embracing Grace, p. 93

I found this perspective especially helpful. I have never been able to find an atonement theory that I could embrace without reservation. Scot’s suggestion makes a lot of sense.

This is a must buy.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Back Home

I’m back from my short trip to Italy. I am eager to get back to my regular schedule of posting. Here’s a group of middle school students I met at a restaurant. I had taught them English when I was there last fall.

I met many old friends. This experience reminded me all the more of the importance of relationships and community. Friendship is highly valued in Italian culture.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Fairy Tale Version

I’ve been reading the Gospel according to Mark in New King James Version. I should say that I’ve been trying to read Mark. I was raised on the KJV and resisted the move to modern versions until the late 70s. But I have two practical problems with the New KJV.

(I have other textual and philosophical problems, but I don’t want to address them now.)

The first problem is that the NKJV is very difficult to read as a continuous narrative. One can read a verse or two and understand easily what is being said. But it is virtually impossible to get the sense of a story by reading the NKJV. It doesn’t “flow” as good English should.

I think there might be two reasons for this. One is the philosophy of “literal” translation, of trying to follow the word order and sentence structure of the Greek as closely as possible. The second is the attempt to keep the “look and feel” of the KJV. The edition I am using also treats verses as paragraphs.

The second problem I have with the NKJV is that it reads more like a fairy tale than a newspaper account. One of my pet peeves is when people interpret the Bible as if it were a fairy tale where “anything” can happen. Because of the odd language and archaic word order, it is very difficult to read this version in any other way.

It is easy to see why people who read the KJV or the NKJV have difficulty seeing the big picture and appreciating the grand narrative from Genesis to Revelation.

I’ve left out much technical detail to keep this short. But I would be glad to expand on my position in the comments if you have questions.

Pastor Rod

“Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be”

Sono Arrivato

I made it to Italy. Sicily is nice, but the people are even nicer. I've met many old friends. I'm staying at the home of the local police chief. His wife must be the best cook in all of Italy. Today is her birthday.

Yesterday we went to the local catholic church to deliver a letter to the priest. (This is not the main church for the town. This is a little church at the edge of the city.) Several people were waiting to meet with the priest. The people really believe that he controls their access to God.

I read Scot McKnight's book, Embracing Grace, on the flight over. It’s an excellent book. When I return to the States, I’ll do a proper review. Scot’s got the right idea. I can’t wait to start quoting his book in my sermons and in this blog.

Today I met with several school officials to set up a time for me to return to teach English.

Right now I’m posting this from the office of the police chief. He’s off today, but he brought me by his office to use the Internet. He just left me here and told me to take as long as I like.

I’m teaching two Internet classes for IWU while I’m here. I did a lot of the work before I left. I mostly just need to check in every day to make sure there are no problems.

I’ll give another update when I can.

Pastor Rod

“Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be”

Another Prayer

Father, we celebrate the stunning variety of your creation which is populated with creatures

• as enormous as the humpback whale,


• as swift as the humming bird,


• as delicate as the seahorse,


• as majestic as the Bengal tiger, and


• as unusual as the three-toed sloth.

We also celebrate the various cultures, customs and civilizations of those special human creatures which you have made in your own image.

We thank you for your unconditional love that does not consider the shape of our body, the balance of our bank account, the color of our skin, the extent of our education, or the degree of our fame.

May we experience your love and grace so completely that we may be graceful and loving to others as your image becomes more noticeable in our own words and in our own actions.

Amen.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Ciao

Tuesday I will be leaving for a short trip to Italy. I hope to make some posts while I am there. I should have some pictures to show when I get back.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Prayer for Health

Father, we thank you for the life we enjoy in your good creation as your image bearers. Even though we live in a sin-damaged world with sin-damaged bodies, that image still shines through.

We know that you are a God who values health and wholeness.

You gave your Chosen People the Law thousands of years ago as a gift of life and health, to protect them from disease and contamination.

And your Son summarized his ministry with these words:
The blind receive sight,
the lame walk,
those who have leprosy are cured,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised, and
the good news is preached to the poor.

We look forward to the day when the perishable will clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality.

We look forward to the day when there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.

We look forward to the day when creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

In the meantime, as participants in your kingdom, we stand against evil in whatever form it takes.

And so we invest our time, our money and our prayers in pursuing healing for those who are sick and in pursuing cures and improved treatment for those diseases that rob your people of life and health.

May your kingdom be fulfilled among us. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Ministry in the Image of God

I highly recommend this book by Stephen Seamands a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary. He defines Christian ministry as the ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son, to the Father, through the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the church and the world.

Instead of providing a summary, I’d like to give some of my favorite quotations from the book:

Our diversity in unity mirrors the diversity in unity of the Trinity. Equality, intimacy, submission and deference ought to characterize relationships in the Christian community as well.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 39

Living in the fallen world we inherited from [Adam and Eve] means living in a world of broken relationships. No matter, then, how much our parents and caregivers did right, especially during our years of infancy and childhood when our personhood was being shaped and established, all of us exhibit brokenness and unhealthiness in interpersonal relationships to one degree or another.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 40

Our most consequential failures in ministry are often failures in relationships. Who we are in our relationships with people generally trumps what we do for people.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, pp. 40–41

Maturity comes as we cast out fear and learn to live out relationships dominated by love.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 42

There is no substitute for time alone with God, when we attune ourselves to God’s voice reminding us once again of how beloved we are.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 68

When surrender fails to arise out of love, it is of the letter that kills rather than the Spirit that brings life.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 90

There is a world of difference between being productive and being fruitful, between striving to build Christ’s church and allowing Christ to build his church through you.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 92

We often find it much easier to extend grace to others than to ourselves.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 126

Gracious self-acceptance, delighting in ourselves because God loves and delights in us, is an essential aspect of spiritual and emotional maturity.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 127

Our self-worth is not based on what we do or on what others think of us. It has nothing to do with how large our congregation is, how well we preach, lead or counsel, how many books we write or how famous we are. It is simply a gift from God.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 132

Mission, then, is not essentially a human activity undertaken by the church and its leaders out of obligation to the Great Commission, gratitude for what God has done for us, and the desperate plight of the world. It is God’s own mission in which we are invited to participate.
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God, p. 161

Buy the book.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

A Prayer for Today

Father,
We thank you for the beautiful world you’ve created for us to enjoy:

the kaleidoscope of a rising sun,
the harmony of sparrows, cardinals and robins in concert,
the soul-cleansing fragrance of a gentle spring shower.

We thank you for the people who add joy and depth to our lives:

our families who share our celebrations and our tragedies,
our friends who choose us for who we are and not for what we can do for them,
our neighbors who work with us to make our community secure, peaceful and welcoming.

May we be found worthy of the responsibility you’ve entrusted us with to tend your creation.

May we also fulfill the obligation you’ve called us to as people who do justice and love mercy.

We make this petition to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

(Originally given at a community event.)

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Picture=1000 words

If a picture is worth 1000 words, how many is a video worth? (HT: Jason Blair @ BHT)

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”