How Do You Be A Neighbor?

Again, the Wall Street Journal comes through with a fascinating article. On today's (10/31/06) front page, the Halloween-themed feature is about Rev. Phil Wyman, a minister in Salem, Mass -- yes, of witch fame. Salem, of course is a large wiccan-New Age hotspot, and Wyman set out to engage in "friendship evangelism" with this community, who seemed to respect and appreciate his approach, which included a confession of the church's past sins and a tongue-in-cheek "Psalm Reading" booth at a local Halloween gathering.

The response from the community was positive, including on e wiccan who is quoted as saying, "Sure, he wants to convert you. But he does it in a way that respects you." That seems a powerful testimony to me.

Unfortunately, his denomination did not see things that way. One is quoted as saying that Wyman was "too familiar, too cozy, too amicable with that community." He was brought up on charges on being "abberant," and was removed from his pastorate.

We need to engage culture, and not in a "we versus them" mentality. There are probably details I don't know, but the handling of this case disappoints me.

Giving Wisely

To those who are not readers of the Wall Street Journal, it may be surprising to learn that they are a great source for feature articles on things of faith. Today (10/30/06) they had an article on Wall Watchers, a small organization that investigates how ministries and churches handle their money. The guts of the article addressed Wall Watcher's concerns with a specific national ministry, which changed their structure a little bit after being made aware of Wall Watcher's concerns about the handling of a property-tax issue. Anyway, I have a financial background, so issues of handling money rightly speak to me, and this organization seemed very sound.

What The Church Does

I found this in the notes for a theology class a friend of mine is taking. It is a memory device for recalling the historical ministries of the church. I thought it was pretty clever, as well as interesting.

"The SS Witness and the 4 Ships:"

Sacraments
Serving
Witness
Worship
Discipleship
Fellowship
Stewardship

Music

The Call
My personal top 10 album list would have 2 by The Call. Both "Reconciled" and "Let The Day Begin" are classic albums that combine an astute and intelligent spirituality with driving, straight-ahead rock and roll. Michael Been, the frontman for the band, is a Christian and has always written his songs from the perspective of a believer dealing with the realities of living in the modern world. They never appeared on "Christian radio" because they were actually on real labels, Elektra and MCA, and never positioned themselves as a "Christian band." But I encourage you to check them out if you never have.

Our Messy Lord

We can not expect God to fit into our boxes, or to meet our standards. God is the great paradigm-breaker, but we can only experience that characteristic of Him if we are open to changing our own paradigm. This is a definite situation where we can only recieve from God when we are ready to recieve from God. The encouragement is to let Him out of whatever box you have Him in, whatever pretty decorative frame you are holding Him in, whatever human standard you are Holding him to. Set Him free, let Him out, release Him. Let Him be God.

Book Review

Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell (Zondervan, 2006). This book recounts the spiritual journey of Rob Bell, founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan. His take is that a post-modern world requires a post-modern approach to faith, perhaps more open and flexible than we were taught was appropriate.

Bell is an advocate of taking faith seriously nd saking difficult questions. The book explains his desire for this church to live with passion and conviction, and he seems to have cobbled together of life of awe, honesty, passion, and an appreciation for the mystery of the Christian faith.

Bell and Mars Hill are similar to (and may choose to identify with) the Emerging Church movement, as described in many books, including Barna's Revolution. I have Barna on my bookshelf, and plan to get to it within the month, so my comments are based not on actually reading that book, but by reading a lot about it.

Back to Velvet Elvis. I appreciate Bell's vulnerability, and his struggles with doubt and understanding Scripture -- I resonate with anyone who has "worked out their salvation with fear and trembling." The weakness in the book is in taking what he has found valuable in his own and his church's walk, and assuming that all (American, at least) beleivers and churches need to make the same changes he has. It is a very American Christian attitude to believe that works for you and your church have to be applied to everyone and every church -- and I have found that that just isn't the case.

Community

The church is the earthly community of God, built by Christ and dwelling under his headship. Christ selected 12 followers, building a community in parallel to Israel. This community offered healing, which built a community of hope, and in some cases, a restoration to societal acceptance.

We are described as light, which is a communal element. We are described in terms of communal imagery, vine and branch, sheep and shepherd.

And when this veil of tears is cast away once and for all, we enter into the ultimate communal relationship with Christ, that of bride and groom.

The Kingdom Is Us

This sounds like it comes from the Vineyard, perhaps John Wimber or Bert Waggoner:

We are the People and Sign of the Kingdom,
the Agent and Instrument of the Kingdom.
We are Witnesses to and Custodians of the Kingdom.
We were Created by the Kingdom,
and we are the eschatological Goal of the Kingdom.
It is God;s design that a Church of the Kingdom,
by the Kingdom, and for the Kingdom
shall not perish from the earth.

(more) Theologizing

Continuing to ponder the theological intricacies of salvation and the atonement, as per the previous post:

On grace: As a natural implication of the doctrines of unconditional election and limited atonement, Calvinists also teach that the elect cannot resist His call, and that the Call can only be responded to with repentance and faith. As an implication of their theology, Arminians teach that grace may be made ineffectual by our lack of response. Again the notion of "wasted" grace pops up.

On perseverance: The Calvinist belief in eternal security makes sense given their belief presented above that grace cannot be resisted. Arminians belief that God provides grace for any emergency of faith, though it can be neglected by some to their eternal peril.

I confess that I love thinking about this stuff, and how one doctrinal point has to lead to another. At this point in my theological development, I lean a little bit toward the Arminian view of the world. I tend to have a "free will" bias in my thinking, a view that Jacob Arminius evidently shared.

Theologizing

I have been studying some works of systematic theology, and am attempting to process it. Thus, here is a little soteriology -- or theology of the atonement and salvation. Although there is massive agreement among Christians about soteriology, there are intricacies I enjoy pondering. These are my current understandings of the 17th Century debate between Reformed (Calvinist) and Remonstrant (Arminian) theology.

On the depravity of man: These seem pretty similar to me, so I'm sure I'm missing some subtlety. Reformed theology teaches that every aspect of human nature has been affected to some degree, so that we are totally dependent on Grace to seek God or do good. Remonstrant theology proposes that we posess a natural inability to do good apart from God's grace.

On election: Here is where the theology of free will starts to differentiate between the two "sides." Reformed theology teaches that God in His sovereignty predestines some fallen people to be saved, while Arminians believe that election is conditional, based on God's foreknowledge (but not His causing of us to act one way or another) of who would continue to believe in Christ.

On atonement: This is a big one. Calvinist theology proposes a limited atonement, in which the work of the cross was performed noly for those he elects/predestines, so none of the blood is "wasted" on others. Arminians beleive in universal atonement, limited only by the number of people who put their faith in Christ.

This is enough for now: I need to really ponder on whether there was any "wasted" blood at Calvary. That is heavy.