Territorial Bloggings

Per this blog & this article at Christianity Today, Bill Hybels over at Willow Creek states “We made a mistake.”

Wow.

I’ve long thought the theology of pop-American Evangelicalism (as defined by the “seeker sensitive” mantra of Church-Growthers like Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek & Rick Warren’s Saddleback churches) to be deficient, dangerous, and outright wrong. Thus, it’s interesting to read the article at CT & some of the comments at the other blog linked to above, wherein Hybels forthrightly admits that they’ve made some mistakes wrt their programmatic emphases. To wit:

“Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.”

“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

Read that second paragraph again. Legalistic/Law-driven “participation” & emphasis on programs didn’t work. Catechesis, teaching, & training in the Word is what should’ve been done.

Amen.

Church ought not to be primarily a social club. It’s where we get fed through Word & Sacrament. That’s how we get equipped to exercise our various God-given vocations, through which God ensures that His children are cared for. Socialization is important, for we most certainly do need to support & “build each other up” (1 Thess 5:11) in the body of Christ. It’s just that it is not the end in and of itself, and neither will it suffice as the sole/primary means for helping folks grow in their walk with God.

That some are being led to this realization is, as the saying goes, a good thing.

-ghp

For some reason, I’m still receiving Christian News. I expected to receive it in the weeks leading up to the convention, but I figured that it would stop showing up shortly thereafter. I subscribed to CN for several years, but grew weary of it.

Theologically speaking, it’s quite good; however, it is a bit repetitive, sort of like a blunt force assault. Rev. Otten knows a few notes, and while many are quite good, he just plays them over and over and over and over and over. And when some of those notes are more political & less theological… well, it makes sifting through the wheat & chaff even more laborious a task.

Anyhoo, I’m still getting CN, and in the most recent (Oct 01, 2007) issue there was a book review that was really quite good. In particular, at least for the purposes of this posting, the review of Rev. Siegbert Becker’s Revelation — The Distant Triumph Song yielded this nugget:

“The basic doctrine of the devil is salvation by works.”

That quote just jumped out at me & made me think. And after thinking on it for a bit, I realized just how accurate it is.

Satan is far too wily & crafty to lead folks astray by boldface lies & statements that are clearly in opposition to Scriptural Truth. No, he is far more effective when he just twists the truth ever so slightly. By doing so in a way that appeals to our sinful, fallen intellect, he can lead us away from God’s Truth. Even as we might think that we are following that truth, we are instead following the idol of our own thinking & making.

We want nothing more than to think we can fulfill the Law. Man has always wanted to be complicit in his own salvation. Sin has corrupted us such that we would, however subtly, reject that which God has freely given us as the only source of salvation — Jesus on the cross.

This is why Martin Luther was correct in identifying Justification as the doctrine on which the Church stands or falls. If Justification by faith alone is not true, then the devi’s basic doctrine is correct and all is lost.

Thanks be to God that such is not the case!

-ghp

While the waiting might very well be the hardest part, I can now say that the finding out isn’t all that easy, either.

As might have been easily discerned, I was waiting on the results of a job search. More specifically on the results of being a finalist for a position that would’ve been a significant progression in my career trajectory (from the assistant director-level I’m currently at, to a director-level position).

I didn’t get it.

Which has been quite a difficult pill to swallow. Not (necessarily) because I’m unhappy where I am currently, but more because I believe that I’m ready to take the next step, career-wise, while also being at a point where it makes sense wrt family commitments to make a change, and because I really did like & want the position that I didn’t get.

That all said, I’ve been trying to take a more thoughtful & measured approach to my current situation, at least as it pertains to the doctrine of vocation. There is still work to be done where I’m at, and I need to remember that I’m here for a reason, and that I can very much serve my neighbor in positive, God-pleasing ways. It isn’t always easy or pleasant, but then I guess those were never really promised, were they?

I’m still going to keep my eyes & ears open for other positions, as I believe that doing so is a responsible thing to do, in terms of faithfully executing my vocations as husband, father, & head-of-household. I’m just going to have to try and avoid being too manic about it, so that I don’t make myself crazy.

-ghp

As Tom Petty once wrote, “the waiting is the hardest part”.

I know the feeling…

Patience is not one of my strong suits. Unfortunately, I’m having to be very, very patient these days. I haven’t written about it before now, frankly because I’ve been worried about the effect that blogging could have on the outcome of something.

As I’m still not completely comfortable with the likely fact that my silly little blogging habit wouldn’t cause me any problems outside the blogosphere, I’m going to stay purposefully vague at this point. Suffice it to say this: waiting to hear about the status of something to which you aspire is not the most pleasant thing in the world.

Staying patient in the face of anticipation & uncertainty is difficult. I guess a/the good thing is that it’s causing me to pray like I’m voting in Chicago — early & often. Pray that God’s will be done. Pray that I be given the comfort & assurance that such is always the case. Pray that what I want is what God’s will for me is/will be. Pray to be spared from worry & anxiety. Pray. Pray. Pray.

-ghp

Well, now, isn’t this — Letters Reveal Mother Teresa’s Secret — interesting?

A quote: “…it has emerged that Mother Teresa was so doubtful of her own faith that she feared being a hypocrite…”

It strikes me as fascinating both because it reveals the ways in which individual faith truly is a battleground for the forces of light and dark, and because it’s going to be used & misused by folks to make points, counter-points, and a whole lot of outrageous assertions.

I also find it interesting as (potentially) an illustration of Rome’s problem wrt Grace & the role that good works play. If Mother Teresa was a good Roman Catholic, then she most likely took quite seriously the teaching that her works, while not earning her salvation per se, were certainly necessary in order to augment the Grace that was infused at baptism.

That’s not a comforting teaching at heart, for it replaces the Gospel with the Law, and the Law breaks us down, stripping us of any/all hope.

Even in the depths of our despair — and we will be faced with despair & dark times, for this world and its prince will assault us in the effort to “win” us — if we stay focused on the cross & Christ crucified, God will comfort us & salve our wounds with that Balm of Gilead. And thus bound up & transformed, He will work through us to produce good works. Works that represent the fruits of being saved, not tokens that can be redeemed for getting saved.

It strikes some as a distinction without a difference, but it’s not. It can be the very difference between comfort and torment, between Heaven and Hell…

-ghp

[tags]

christianity, religion, faith

[/tags]

BOOK REVIEW:

Me, Myself, & Bob
by Phil Vischer
2006 – Nelson Books
ISBN: 0785222073

I am a Veggie Tales fan, and have been for darned near a decade. My kids were born & hit the video-watching phase right about the time that VT exploded in the late 1990s. VT were well-written, had a good message, great humor, and appealed to both kids and adults, much like the classic Looney Tunes and Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons. I bought the videos, the books, and the CDs… for my kids, of course. I happily admired the seemingly meteoric rise that Big Idea Productions (BIP) enjoyed. I also noted the oddity of the emergence of the 2-D Larry-Boy videos, when I took my son to the viewing party at the local Evangelical Bookstore. I noted it in passing when I read something in the mainstream press about some problems that BIP was having. I then noted with sadness what had really happened, when I came across Phil Vischer’s blog, in which he laid out the story of The Fall of Big Idea Productions. Most recently, I read Vischer’s book, Me, Myself, & Bob.

Me, Myself, & Bob works on several levels. It’s an autobiography by someone in my age cohort. It’s a business/management book. It’s a cautionary tale. It’s one man’s search for the theological meaning in day-to-day life. And it works on all of those levels. It really is a fine book.

As a “baby-buster” autobiography, I found the book to be quite entertaining, as I personally identified with much of what Vischer described about his interactions & experiences with 1970s & 1980s era pop-culture. As he vividly recalls his earliest exposure to MTV videos, so do I (Chris Ebert’s house during JV basketball tryouts in 1982, the video was Men At Work’s Down Under…). And, while my formative religious experiences were orthodox Lutheran, rather than revivalistic/proto-American Evangelical, it’s still something with which I can easily identify. Over the course of the book, Vischer revealed himself to be someone that I really think I could be friends with (and that doesn’t happen too often…).

The book also works, at least on a certain level, as a cautionary management tale, as well as a pop-history, insider’s view of the rise & fall of a unique & well-loved business. Even knowing the ultimate outcome, it’s exhilarating to watch BIP thrive & grow. Vischer also does a great job of letting us all see just what it was like from his seat at the helm of BIP. He enables us to thrill along with him, as the gambles pay off & the dream becomes reality. We begin to feel uneasy right along with him, as generally-accepted business “reality” begins to intrude & demand that compromises be made. And, finally, we share in his despair as BIP crumbles & is rent asunder by a baseless lawsuit & verdict. Vischer then summarizes some important business lessons that he learned as a result of the whole saga — lessons that are simple in nature, but insightful & useful nonetheless.

Most interesting, however, is the thread that holds the whole book together — Phil Vischer’s quest to understand the theological implications of day-to-day life. In the end, I would posit that Vischer arrives at a very Lutheran understanding of this topic as it is outlined in the Doctrine of Vocation. Specifically, the stuff that we do as we normally go about our daily lives is important because it is how we serve our neighbors. God uses even the most mundane (from our point of view) of our tasks for His good will. We need not have a job or task that is specifically linked to a “ministry” in order for that job/task to have merit & God-pleasing meaning.

Another important part of understanding vocation is to understand that we are called to be faithful, not to be “successful”. Vischer nicely sums this up in the following passage from the book’s penultimate chapter:

“So what’s the point?What should you take away from my first attempt at adult nonfiction, other than, perhaps an inkling that I should return to my day job?

Simple. First, God loves you. Not because of what you can do, or even because of what you can become if you work really, really hard. He loves you because he made you. He loves you just the way you are. He loves you even when you aren’t doing anything at all. We really shouldn’t attempt to do anything for God until we have learned to find our worth in him alone.

Second, when it is time to do something for God, and that time will come quickly if you’re listening, don’t worry about the outcome. Don’t worry about “10 percent more” or “30 percent less.” That’s his job. Your responsibility is simply to do what he asks.”

Vischer isn’t always 100% correct in his doctrinal underpinnings, but he does get a lot of core stuff right. And that’s more than can be said for a lot of the folks out there in the contemporary American Christian landscape.

This is a good book — well crafted, with a good message. Check it out at your local public library, or just pick up a copy at your favorite bookseller. You’ll be glad you did.

-ghp

[Note: This review will be cross-posted over at the Luther Library, as soon as I can get my posting process over there squared away. You'll want to check out the Luther Library, as many good, cogent reviews can be found there.]

Sure, all the blogging guides say you shouldn’t post something just to say that you haven’t been posting anything, but what’s the fun in running your own blog if you can’t do whatever you want whenever you want why-ever you want? I’m just saying…

Some more questions & answers…

Still watching TAR:AS? Yup. I’m rooting for Cha3 (aka Danny & Oswald) & my Blondes. I’m shocked & appalled that Schmirna is still in the race & prospering, as I would’ve much preferred my “villains” to be the Guidos or Teri & Ian. Cha3 & my Blondes more than make up for that, however, as they are both teams that are entertaining to watch & easy to root for, ’cause they are such strong racers with good personalities.

Still watching The Apprentice? Sure, although I really think that the show’s concept is played out. The changes made by The Donald for this go-around (LA, tent city, no Carolyn or George, winning PM as 2nd boardroom viceroy…) have not panned out. The showmance between Tim & Nicole was only vaguely interesting. And The Donald’s penchant for bending his own rules (ala this past week’s change from firing a team of 2 to firing 1 from each of the 2 bottom teams) is just annoying. After 6 seasons, The Donald’s oft capricious actions are not as entertainingly endearing as they once were.

Still watching Survivor? Of course. The current installment is certainly not the best/most interesting that they’ve ever broadcast, but it’s still fun to watch. I think they’d be better off if they stopped stunt-casting for some preconceived notions of “diversity” and focused on getting folks who love & want to play the game, though…

Still depressed? Eh. It’s up & down. It’s downright bizarre at times to be aware on a logical plane that I’m mired in a dysfunctional mindset, and to know that I should do something about it (even what I should do to fight/stop it…), but to be ultimately unable to just, you know, do it. It really adds to the whole mix & makes it snowball even more. As pretentious as it sounds, sometimes being too aware is just flat out worse than not being aware at all.

Surely church helps, no? Well, yes, ultimately. I do, however, feel very aware of Satan’s influence in trying to get me to dwell too much on the fact that I’m a hopeless sinner. I.e., focus on the fact that I cannot effect my own salvation, so why even try. The good thing is that, even at the worst, God is gracious enough to never leave me to my own devices – He always keeps that seed of faith alive in me so that I don’t totally succumb to the despair sowed by the enemy. So, even as it’s always a struggle, I’m fully safe & comforted in the knowledge that God will allow me to prevail through His grace.

How are the wife/kids? Good. A sizable part of what keeps me going is that I know that I have vocational responsibilities as husband/father. Even as I might despair at my ability to successfully execute those vocations, I know that I must keep trying, and that God will use even my feeble efforts for the good of my beloved family. I thank God every day for the blessing of my family and the fact that they love me even though I so often feel like a failure.

Getting things done? I’m trying to still get that properly systematized & implemented. I can see that the structure that GTD affords/encourages is something that will benefit me in the hopefully not-so-distant future. It’s tough, though, because keeping track of things doesn’t equal actually doing them. And there’s an awful lot that I don’t necessarily want/like to do. It sucks how life is like that…

Gonna keep blogging? Certainly. Even when I’m in a phase right now of wondering why I keep such close tabs on traffic/hits/readership stats. It’s a useful outlet for me, even though I can’t be quite as forthright as I sometimes want to be (for example, I try not to blog about work, because I’m a bit paranoid about there somehow being negative blowback from entries dealing with how I feel about work…). I struggle with the “why” of doing this sometimes, particularly WRT theology. I want to be useful/helpful, even as I also want to selfishly show how obviously smart & learned I am. The thing is, when I get too far into the selfish motivational side of things, I tend to worry about stats & I get easily frustrated. I don’t ever want to write something just because I think it’ll somehow get more people to read. Ultimately, I just want to write what interests me, and what I feel like writing, and then just be satisfied with what happens in terms of stats/traffic/readership. Oh yeah, and make big sis giggle…

That’s enough for now. Time to start preparing for tonight’s AI presentation of “Sanjy on the block”…

-ghp

I really need to start posting more about theology, if for no other reason than to focus on something that can help me keep an even keel amongst all the mental/emotional funks that I get into from time to time (and which I’m deep into right now).

FatherDMJ passes along some very good stuff from Rev. Fr. Peter Berg, in his recent entry Everything is About Jesus — a sample:

“Some (many?) of our people think that church is all about them. Therefore they need to be recatechized in the truth that nothing will be about them until everything is about Jesus. And it’s not only about Jesus but about all the things that are about Jesus. You see, if it’s all about Jesus, then it will be about his sacraments, and if it’s about the sacraments, then it’s about the liturgy (for you can’t have sacraments without liturgy), and if it’s about liturgy, then it’s about music (for you can’t have a decent liturgy without music), and if it’s about music, then you need to learn Gregorian chant, and if ti’s about your chanting, then it’s about the Office of the Holy Ministry, which, of course, is all about Jesus (that’s why you’ve got to get a chasuble).”

Yup, that’s the good stuff…

-ghp

Days like today make me yearn for the days when I was blissfully ignorant enough to avoid getting entangled in Church/Congregational politics.

We had a voter’s meeting today, and it’s bothering me way too much. I guess I just have a hard time with having to face non-theological (much less illogical) arguments & appeals. I’ve been replaying some of the events, statements, and positions over & over in my mind most of the afternoon, just trying to process it. And I’m still having trouble. I think it’s largely because many of the arguments were couched in non-theological terms. Emotionalism was a significant component, one that was driving some perspectives that (I think) were too tactical & narrow in their foci.

One of the problems that I have with what Waltherian Lutheranism (as practiced in the LCMS) has (de)evolved into over the past 150 or so years (especially in the past 50), is that so many things of a theolocial/doctrinal nature are being decided via majority vote. Theology is not determined by getting the most votes, or at least it shouldn’t be. Doctrine is not to be decided by who can sway the most folks to their side. Far too many things & decisions are mis-identified (purposefully or not) as not really being doctrinal or theological. The Kingdoms of the Left & Right get mixed-up, rather than being properly identified & separated. Who leads an adult Bible class is a matter of doctrine/theology. Whether or not to put on a new roof is not.

It is truly amazing to see just how many factions, undercurrents, and (un/ill-informed) points of view can exist in a relatively small congregation. I could live with being disproven by clear examples from Scripture & Confessions (despite my oftentimes arrogant & know-it-all demeanor, I am quite open to correction…), but I can’t quite be winsome when confronted with illogical and/or emotionalistic appeals.

Right now, I’m wondering why I try to be involved, when it seems quite obvious that I’m out of step with prevailing currents. Especially when existing LCMS bylaws & practices could be so easily leveled against the Scripture & Confessions-based stances that I endeavor to hold & espouse.

I’m still trying to process all this. And, fortunately for me (mayhaps not so much for you), I can use this blog as a place to try and put some shape & form to my thoughts.

More (maybe) later…

-ghp

I know that we’ve been in the end times since the Ascension, and that no one knows the exact time of Christ’s Second Coming, but stories like this just make me sit up, scratch my head, and say to myself, “Self, I think we might be just about there. And not a minute too soon…”

The mind boggles, the soul searches, and the conscience is seared.

Come, dear Lord Jesus, come!

-ghp