The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan
Hey guys, I'm out on vacation this week and staying away from the computer a bit. I'll be back soon and reply to your comments then. Hopefully I will have a review brewing for Frank Tipler's The Physics of Christianity. I brought it along for a pleasure read this week.
Blessings
Reid
Apparently MI6 or the CIA has unleashed rodentia upon the Iranians. According to several reliable sources, some spy squirrels recently got busted for espionage in Iran. Rocky, you were not supposed to get caught!
(HT - Daily Wireless)
Introduction
It only takes a moment in a bookstore to see that leadership and success literature abounds in our country. Leadership is an entire industry in America spawning seminars, DVDs, personal training and the ever present stacks of books. The church is also in love with the leadership genre, with all of the above offered for both ministers and lay people alike. Human beings universally recognize something very insightful in this. God has designed human beings with a need for leadership, some of which he delegates to us, without which our world would decay into chaos. There is much to learn from many disciplines regarding leadership. The social sciences and business schools offer profound insights that believers may find helpful in their efforts to lead people in the mission of the gospel. Yet many times we can place things in an order which is foreign to our worldview. Instead of searching for the voice of scripture on our manner of leadership, we can adapt a completely secular view of leadership and then graft this on to the Kingdom of God. Gary Bredfeldt, in his recent book Great Leader, Great Teacher – Recovering the Biblical Vision for Leadership, calls the church to a different paradigm. Instead of beginning with the avalanche of schemas from other points of view, he challenges us to do the work to recover a uniquely scriptural view of leadership. From this point of view, what he calls the biblical vision for leadership, we might then walk faithfully in our leadership, even when plundering theories from other places. The following is a review of his work to recover the biblical vision and offer this to the church. A brief summary of the work will be given, strengths and weaknesses discussed, and personal ministry insights and applications will be drawn in closing.
Brief Summary
The thesis for the book is stated clearly in chapter one of the book: “The most powerful means of leading the people of God is by teaching them the Word of God” (Bredfeldt 2006, 18). The first half of the book endeavors to unpack and demonstrate this, to show where the church has lost it leadership moorings having adopted its models from the world rather than biblical foundations. In this half of the book a high commitment to the primacy and priority of the word of God was the main focus. Building upon this ground, the second half of the book begins with robust discussions of the virtues (qualities) and competencies (skills) required for the task of biblical leadership. From there the book examines the challenge of leading change, the contexts of the churches to which leaders are called, and closes with a chapter focused on persevering amidst the many challenges a biblical leader faces in the twenty-first century.
Strengths
Bredfeldt’s book has many strengths and insights for those who desire to lead in a biblical fashion. First and most outstanding is the book’s laser clear focus on the importance of Scripture in leading the people of God. Second, a strong a critique of leadership tendencies in the local church today was a welcomed asset. Third, the book focuses on Jesus as modeling a different sort of leadership than the success paradigms of the world. Jesus led differently, so much so that many might call him a failure. Fourth, the relationship between the virtues of a Christian leader and his competencies was very helpful. Finally, an unexpected engagement with contemporary philosophical and cultural shifts was a welcomed addition at several junctures in the book. Though at times it seemed the author incorrectly categorized some people within some movements, a reflection on the many problems in the philosophies of our day was very enjoyable. These five strengths will be covered in turn.
Strong Emphasis on the Bible
Right from the beginning Bredfeldt makes it very clear what his primary concern is for contemporary Christian leaders. Bredfeldt states very early in the book that ideas and the modeling of them so powerfully move the world (19). This has been and will continue to be reality on the earth. This being true, our ideas and our lives must originate and be modeled upon the Word of God. Today God’s people live in a shocking ignorance of God’s Word (38) and many lives display a corresponding anemic condition. Leaders must preach God’s Word and personally live in light of its teaching (44). The focus on the Bible as a map for understanding life (42) a revealer of our sin (44) and a director to God’s will (48) was refreshing. It would have been good to see the Bible’s primary focus, the revelation of the person and work of Jesus Christ for our treasuring, adoration and exaltation, included in the work, but the purposes for Scripture mentioned were helpful. Overall there is no better ground upon which to base Christian leadership, than Bredfeldt’s focus on the Scriptures. In the Bible, God reveals truth which must be taught to God’s people, lest they be led astray into heresy (49) with their joy and freedom swept away in the process. This is a tragedy taking place in far too many corners of the church. Finally, his use of many biblical persons like Ezra, Paul and Jesus illustrated his point from within the pages of the Bible he exhorts others to teach.
Critique of the CEO/Manager Model
Bredfeldt spent quite a few words in critique of certain models of leadership absorbed by the church in America today. Primarily in his crosshairs were the leader as a CEO or corporate manager (34). He leveled the critique at leadership which becomes far more concerned with mission statements, graphs, vision, projects, budgets, and statistics than bringing the meat of Scripture to God’s people. Though at times his tone may be construed as dismissive of all things managerial, Bredfeldt did not dismiss them. The managerial and executive functions of a leader are actually highlighted in the latter parts of the book. The point made is that these things cannot replace the centrality of the leader being a teacher of the people. If a Christian leader remakes himself in the mold of a CEO or manager, he just may lose his heart in the process. An excessive focus on growing the organization, seeking personal recognition, and the making of a ministry career can rob a leader of his true calling and joy (40). Bredfeldt’s concern is that leaders may focus their success criteria on the very same things upon which the American enterprise is obsessed. Many will measure a church by “size, rate of growth, and the number of square feet in the newly constructed facility” (78). Or as many insightful people have quipped there is more to leading the church than butts, budgets, and buildings. It is reiterated that planning, statistics, facilities, etc. are not to be dismissed, but the placing them as the pinnacle of success gives way to a managerial pragmatism which is found more on the pages of Forbes than in the Bible. A fine exhortation which is much needed in our day where copycat models and mega-churches do abound.
Jesus the Failure!
One of the more intriguing chapters of the book dealt with Jesus as a failed leader when judged by the worldly rubric of success, status, and political standing (50-52). Bredfeldt summarizes this with a pithy rhetorical question on page 50 “What leader wants to be crucified by those he seeks to lead?” In seeing Jesus as the failed leader there is a point to be made. After all, Jesus has spawned and inspired a movement that claims some 2 billion adherents today and has shaped the destinies of people and nations over the last 2000 years. What greater success story could there be? Yet in terms of immediate, temporal, worldly, business methods – Jesus would be a failure. Yet he is not. The reason being is that he taught, shepherded and inspired his followers with the truth of God. Such an impact is lasting, not flashy and fading. The
Marriage of Virtues and Competencies
Though perhaps not an original insight, it was good to see the book’s focus on the virtues and competencies of biblical leaders. A person must be a type of person that is trusted and exemplifies character if people are going to follow. A competent jerk, no one shall follow. On the other hand a person can be a great guy and exhibit the highest levels of incompetency. Being and doing must flow together in effective leadership. A book on leadership which does not see this is deficient. Though virtue is making a comeback, much of the world is satisfied with results at any cost. A biblical leader must never tread such ground.
Assessment of Contemporary Culture
Finally, the book provided an enjoyable treatment of prevailing contemporary philosophies. There were two primary critiques offered in relating to today’s cultural moods; Bredfeldt presented these as ditches that we ought to avoid (70). The first dealt primarily with accommodating the edges of postmodern thought while the latter dealt with that of isolation from the culture. He critiqued the postmodern views of truth as relative and truth as that which is derived as useful to the community (74-75). It was expected that the author would rightly come down hard against the excessive accommodation to culture found in churches. The pragmatic cultural urge was critiqued in the mega sized, theology light churches found in increasing number today (76-79). In addition a strong critique of the existentialist urge of the Emergent strain of the church was also levied (79-80). Again, it was no surprise to read Bredfeldt’s critique of those who have rejected an objective revelation of truth from God in favor of the cultural winds of either pragmatism or existentialism. What was not expected was the equally strong warning against the fundamentalist urge to isolate the church from culture (80-82). It is often that the sin of cultural accommodation or worldliness is focused upon. While the sin of a separated church, disconnected with Non Christians, is sometimes overlooked. The inclusion of the warning to the isolated was refreshing indeed. Bredfeldt’s idealistic yet difficult exhortation was to lead from the center. The task we must lead towards is that of being relevant and biblical, biblical and culturally accessible (82). This was a joy to see in this volume.
Weaknesses
In confession, I must admit that I peaked at some content at the end of the book before taking up the read itself. What was read there was a weakness which almost biased me against the work. This would have been very unfortunate. Yet there were a few shortcomings found later in the volume mainly surrounding chapter 8 – Leadership in Context: Four Basic Types of Churches. We will briefly touch these below. Some Unnatural Classifications Though charts and graphs are helpful, the book intensified in fitting things into boxes, quadrants, diagrams and categories towards the end of the book. I did not find this to be helpful to the book’s over all theses particularly where the classification just seemed at best odd, at worst, flat out wrong. Chapter 8 showed a determination to describe every sort of church today within a grid of four categories (Power Church, Program Church, Pluralistic Church, Proclamation Church) built by the combination of four other categories (Spirit/Truth, Works/Faith). All of it was nice and tidy, but it seemed to fall short of really placing things in nice boxes. There was of course some truth in the categorizations, but also some clear errors. One of the most glaring was the classification of various scholars, pastors, and teachers which were placed in the pluralistic category of church. It appears that Bredfeldt lumped together a large amount of men who have associated with one another in some way in the past. For this reason they were categorized side by side. One quick example will illustrate. Under the pluralistic section pastor’s Mark Driscoll and Doug Padgett are lumped together (172). This is ironic because these two men might as well be from other planets in terms of ecclesiology, homiletics, and theological method. Driscoll advocates eldership and authority, preaching as preaching, and a reformed, biblical hermeneutic and method. Padgett advocates a flattened church polity, preaching as dialogue and a malleable, culturally dictated hermeneutic. Literally, a re-imagining of literally everything. One believes there is a faith once for all entrusted to the saints, the other believes the church should reimagine its doctrine in every age and cultural setting. These two men’s essays and responses in the recent book Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Church – Five Views (Weber 2007) makes this clear. There are other people listed together in this section that cause one to scratch his head, but it will be left at one example for the sake of brevity. At the conclusion of all the church categorizing, his exhortation was towards the center of the spirit, truth, faith, and works intersection. This was diagramed on page 174. The plea for balance is appreciated; it just seemed that such a plea could have been accomplished without most of this chapter; certainly without throwing some people under an Emergent bus in the process.
Application to Life and Ministry
There are many things in Great Leader, Great Teacher which are of great benefit to my ministry responsibilities. First, the emphasis that Scripture must steer the direction of the leader is absolutely invaluable. It is so easy to give way to the lure of success, station, and status when it is peddled in the church by those who are “doing it right.” As I am working towards planting new churches, the reminder to keep teaching central is greatly appreciated. The pulpit, small groups, and ministries to the poor, all need to engage in teaching the biblical gospel. This was a great reminder of a value currently held dear. Second, the care not to capitulate to the world and give way to an impotent cultural captivity is needed in every era. Efforts in church planting should walk a balanced line of utter biblical and theological faithfulness, while faithfully contextualizing and incarnating the church in contemporary culture. Such a balanced approach to ministry in the twenty-first century will shape our desire to reach out to people in culture, but hold to a theologically driven paradigm. Bredfeldt’s book has encouraged us to avoid the ditches of excessive pragmatism and existentialism while living lives connected with unbelievers in culture.
Conclusion
Bredfeldt’s efforts to inspire Christian leaders to lead as teachers are timely yet not reactionary. There is no exhortation in this book to jettison leadership principles and only preach a sermon once a week. This is a book on leadership, but a book with a goal to ground all leadership with a biblical vision. The leader who does not teach the Word of God will run his own soul and life of his congregation aground upon the rocks of the world. Yet the faithful man who desires to lead by teaching charts a clear course from God’s Word into God’s Mission in the world. One could not help to hear Paul’s words to Timothy echo in this desire: Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Timothy 4:16 ESV I found the book well worth the time.
Reference List:
Weber, Robert, Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches – Five Views (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2007)
I was recently alerted to the story that Walmart will soon be selling "religious toys" in some 425 of its mega stores across these lands. The person who forwarded an e-mail to me about this seemed to think it a good thing for the kids. These are not any religious toys you see, they are best of breed Bible Action figures. Sort of like GI Joe's but with Bible characters. See the Nightline story television story here. Here is a brief excerpt from the story which ran in the USA Today:
For David Socha, CEO of One2believe, it's a dream come true. "Our goal is to give the faith-based community an alternative to Bratz dolls and Spider-Man," he says.
The toys are based on biblical stories. For example, there's a set of 3-inch figures based on Daniel in the lion's den for about $7. A 12-inch talking Jesus doll is about $15. And 14-inch Samson or Goliath action figures are about $20.
To be fair, Socha offers his reasons for what he calls "the Battle for the Toy Box" in his rallying cry for support of Bible action figures. Please don't think this is a joke either as Focus on the Family and Family Life seem to be standing with the project. Now, I believe this company to be sincere, concerned about kids and is generally trying to do something good for Christian parents whose kids and toy boxes swim in secular seas. Here are just a few reasons not to play with Jesus dolls and have Daniel replace the little people.
First, that which is on the lunch box, is usually something kids leave behind. Currently as an adult I do not play with GI Joe's and I do not define my life by the narrative of the 80s film Clash of the Titans. I did however have a Titan's lunch box at one time (I actually found a picture of it on the web - not mine, but just like it). My point is that kids move on from childhood toys and ideas and into life which ought to be more serious. Why would we want to put Jesus on our kids lunch box? My concern is that when the children properly give up childish ways (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).
Second, something that is a toy is not something upon which an adult bases their life. Quite simply, the gospel narrative, God's redeeming story in Scripture, is the story by which we define our lives as followers of Christ. The creation of all things, human beings made in God's image, our rebellion and sin, God's promises in the unfolding purpose of redemption, the inauguration of the Kingdom in the new covenant, and its coming reality when Jesus returns to rule and reign. This is not like the story of He man and The Master's of the Universe.
Third, it trivializes the characters of Scripture who were real people many of which faced great hardship in the service of God. Let me quote Rocha:
This is a chance to let our voices be heard. By supporting this program we can send a message to other retailers and toy makers letting them know that we, as a Christian community, are truly concerned about the toys that our children play with! We are aware of the influence that toys have on our young children’s impressionable minds, so we would like to see more God-honoring options available. It’s a “Battle for the Toy Box”!
http://store.messengersoffaith.net/ Emphasis in original
I love his zeal and desire no ill will towards his company, but do we really want Jesus and Spider-man battling for the toy box? Personally, I hope my kids see Jesus as the creator God, Lord of the universe, who spoke space-time into existence, died on an unjust executioner's cross for the sins of the world, rose from death and is coming again to judge the living and the dead. To have him battle with Spider-man and Barbie, seems to place him in a rather trivial fight. I just assume Jesus can whip GI Joe, I don't need to them to battle in the toy box to find this out.
Fourth, making our own Christian subcultural toys fosters a Christian sub culture which teaches kids to pull away from the world - thereby communicating that believers should not live in culture with "non Christian things." This leads us in square contradiction to the missional thrust of Scripture where God's people are called towards people and culture not away. Yes, we do not receive sinful aspects of culture, yes we do not want to "love the world" for this is indeed is enmity towards God (James 4:1-10). But we are not to carve out a hermetically sealed bubbles where by we live surrounded by Jesus dolls for our kids, goofy t-shirts for our teenagers and imagine sparkling grape juice for the wedding feast at Cana.
If you think this is a great thing, please feel no condemnation from me, after all Alistair Begg even endorsed them and I respect him quite a bit. I simply would rather my kids throw some other things around the house and learn to love Scripture as Scripture. But if someone buys our kids one of these, by all means we will not throw away Jesus. And the "little-people" looking nativity scene is kind of cute. Perhaps setting that out at Christmas would be a delightful exercise for my 3 year old.
Finally, do not read this as an endorsement for the ridiculous toy market which is out there for your kids, advertising furiously before their little eyes creating covetous eight year old monsters across these lands. Nor do I want you to hear any condemnation of Mr. Socha's company. Yet if you want to be a counter-cultural toy buyer, buy things that help them read, learn mathematics, think rigorously and tell them the high mountains of science, the Scriptures and theology await them. And don't freak out if your girls play with a non Bible character doll or your boys like transformers - they will one day grow up and leave behind a box full of childish things. By this time, our prayers would be that they have a solid foundation in Scripture, worldviews, a love for Jesus and a passion to be on mission with him in the world. This is much more radical than playing with a Sampson doll in the living room, or pulling a string to hear Jesus talk...and much less silly.
What do you think?
This morning I stumbled across some "interesting" views of the future written by lyricist Jonathan Coulton out of New York. This guys' music has inspired many amateur/professionals? to design music videos with various 3D, Flash and animation technologies. I always find people's view of the future reveals much about our worldview. As someone who likes technology, enjoys the sci-fi genre and somewhat reflective on shared ethics in society I found these to be very interesting and funny. There are different videos for most of these songs, so I picked the ones I liked the best. And of course, I don't agree with all of this jazz...but it did give me a chuckle...and helps to see how others see the world. I find the hope extended in the gospel and a future beatific vision to be a different sort of view...
Chiron Beta Prime
A joyful look at a futuristic Christmas celebration
I Feel Fantastic
Much akin to Huxley's vision in Brave New World, feeling fantastic in the future means popping lots of pills
The Future Soon
An ironic poke at futuristic optimism
iPods getting stolen? Get you a Hid-a-pod! Poor Microsoft...
For those who have followed the work of NT Wright on Paul and justification (covenental nomism, justification/vindication as confirmation of convenant membership, etc.) will find the following disucssion of NT Wright's Ordo Saludis - order of salvation, quite interesting.
I found this essay to be excellent and helpful in understanding Wright's departure from the Reformed view.
Bishop NT Wright's Ordo Saludis
Especially interesting to me was his mention of Wright's lack of engagement with the doctrine of sanctification - this is not surprising in light of the new perspectives views make justification very akin to some reformed sanctificational views.
Is the Pope Catholic?
It is somewhat of a colloquial phrase used to emphasize the certainty of ones a claim. A friend of mine recently used this in a message of was giving and then paused for a moment as if he was thinking...He restated his thought in the following manner...Is the Pope Catholic? Well, this one certainly is.
The current Pope certainly is Catholic. Pope Benedict, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, before ascending headed up the Catholic order known as the congregation for the defense of the faith. If I were Catholic, it would be a group I think I would like. It is sort of their apologetics and theological clarification ecclesiastical SWAT team.
This week there has been bit of a stir about a recent and brief doctrinal clarification posted by the congregation and affirmed for release by Pope Benedict. The document is entitled: RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH.
It has caused some "offense" among Protestants as it indicates that such congregations are not truly Christian churches. The offense has come mainly from those who do not think doctrine to be that important, who just think everyone who says the five letter word "J-E-S-U-S" is singing the same song. I offer the statement made by the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as a case in point. It seems his feelings have been hurt but he is not deterred in moving forward.
For more on the story see the following:
Catholics who hold to the long held dictum - There is no salvation outside of the Church (meaning the Catholic Church) see the document as reflecting nothing other than long standing Roman Catholicism. See Fr. Ray Ryland's article at Catholic answers for this view.
A survey of Catholic documents bears this out historically. Here are some historical remarks from various Popes:
Pope Innocent III: "There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved." (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.)
Pope Boniface VIII: "We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." (Unam Sanctam, 1302.)
Pope Eugene IV: "The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church." (Cantate Domino, 1441.)
Additionally, the catechism of the Catholic Church says the following in its article on the church. Article 9 - I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience—those too may achieve eternal salvation.337
848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."338
Note: thanks to A Catholic Life for the excellent summary of these documents.
Additionally, Vatican II's article Lumen Gentium also makes this clear in point 14:
Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved...
So when we read this "new" statement from the Congregation on the Defense of the Faith is it surprising when it says of Protestants that they are no church? Here are some of the final lines in the document:
According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called “Churches” in the proper sense.
So if you are following this, the church's position, is the same as it has always been. Protestants are no church and there is no salvation outside of the church. So Protestants' souls are in danger. Is this offensive to Protestants? Perhaps to those who do not reflect on doctrine, theology, and the teaching of holy Scripture. Perhaps to those who do not understand or do any reading in historical theology. But to those who know these matters, the recent proclamation is neither shocking nor offensive, yet we do realize what is at stake on both sides of the table.
This Pope is Catholic and I actually appreciate him for it - he is wrestling with theology not sentiment. He is honest and open about the churches position and has a backbone. I kind of like the guy to be honest. He even thinks Jesus is the Son of God - See Newsweek on this shocker.
Protestant theology however places salvation in the completed work of atonement on the cross by Jesus Christ for sinners which is applied to people through faith and repentance by the Spirit of God. His substitutionary death "for us", his resurrection for our justification (Romans 4:25) and his continued intercession are the foundations of our salvation. Those truly in Christ, by grace through faith in him are saved. Those who are trusting their own good works - either moral or ecclesiastical - are not trusting in the gospel. For us, there is simply no salvation without the gospel, the gospel is what places us in the church.
Whether Pope or Cardinal will accept us, blessed Peter would say to us "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved"
We stand on the confessions of Peter and the apostles in Holy Scripture, we can do no other.
Will it blend? That is the question...this is classic. That touch screen sure is tough!
New York Magazine has an interesting study on the effects of "over-praising" your kids to the point where they are afraid to try anything, work hard, take risks...you can read it here.
I agree with most of it. For instance, this type of stuff is ridiculous:
Since the 1969 publication of The Psychology of Self-Esteem, in which Nathaniel Branden opined that self-esteem was the single most important facet of a person, the belief that one must do whatever he can to achieve positive self-esteem has become a movement with broad societal effects. Anything potentially damaging to kids’ self-esteem was axed. Competitions were frowned upon. Soccer coaches stopped counting goals and handed out trophies to everyone. Teachers threw out their red pencils. Criticism was replaced with ubiquitous, even undeserved, praise.
We know that esteeming the self, self-exaltation, etc. is nothing more than veiled pride. The soul's gaze need be turned outward not upon itself in order to find life. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by John Piper:
We are all starved for the Glory of God, not self. No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self. Indeed, what could be more ludicrous in a vast and glorious universe like this than a human being, on the speck called earth, standing in front of the mirror trying to find significance in his own self-image? It is a great sadness that this is the gospel of the modern world.
John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, (Wheaton:IL, Crossway books 2001) 21.
Self obsession is a particularly terrible form of idolatry...for in trying to think so highly of ourselves, we realize that we fall so short. When you think you suck and are trying to find self-esteem the stifling prison that forms is unbearable. We need to gospel to escape such self-inflicted straight jackets.
The article is not completely down on praising your children, but reminds that all praise is not equal. Vain and empty praise stultifies.
But all praise is not equal—and, as Dweck demonstrated, the effects of praise can vary significantly depending on the praise given. To be effective, researchers have found, praise needs to be specific. (The hockey players were specifically complimented on the number of times they checked an opponent.) Sincerity of praise is also crucial. Just as we can sniff out the true meaning of a backhanded compliment or a disingenuous apology, children, too, scrutinize praise for hidden agendas. Only young children—under the age of 7—take praise at face value: Older children are just as suspicious of it as adults.
One last quote about the value of persistence and perseverance.
“A person who grows up getting too frequent rewards will not have persistence, because they’ll quit when the rewards disappear.”
Old School people simply called this “spoiling the kids”
From a worldview perspective the article falls way short of dealing with humans as humans. The worldview of the article is completely reductionistic when viewing people. It is almost like the parents view their kids as a computational, evolutionary pleasure seeking meat machines that you use different inputs in order to manipulate to the right outcomes. This is the overarching view of the article – whether to praise or not praise – their view of human beings is still pretty mechanistic.
Scripture teaches the value of perseverance, suffering, and challenge to the human soul. It teaches us to discipline kids, not spoil them. It teaches us to have them live for different treasure than the praise of men or the rewards they are given. A lot of my aversion to buying our kids so much stuff is that I fear them not seeing the struggle of life, not be broken and dependent on the gospel of grace and thereby losing their souls to this trivial American world of which we are a part.
OK, so this is further proof that I am a strange dude. Sometimes the things that connect in my skull are a bit disjointed.
This morning after going for an early morning jog, I was bumming out about having to cut my fingernails. Not whining, but thinking - it is a pain to cut these all the time. I then thought "if we could genetically engineer our fingernails to not grow, maintain health, and hardness...I would do it." I have no idea where that thought came from or why. I do have an interest in gene therapy, biomedical engineering - for ethical reasons in concern. There is so much potential for doing good and so much for evil doing as we learn more and more about our genes...anyway, that is another post. Yet when I thought about "monkeying" with the design of our finger nails, I thought, the fact that fingernails grow, exhibits their health and usefulness. Their growth shows they are connected to a growing body, getting proper nutrients.
Then I thought for a second about life in general...how much growing things need to be cut back, pruned, or disciplined to remain useful. For example we prune fruit trees so that they will produce more fruit of higher quality. Growth which is guided by purpose results in something much more beautiful that simple overgrown chaos.
The I though of a few passages of Scripture that speak to lives which are solid, grown on a good foundation, in good soil...and yes, pruned and cut for a purpose.
1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain
How do we become fruitful in our labors? We must be planted in good soil, and then pruned, cut back, and tested...
James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
1 Peter 1:3-9 - 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
And of course there is Jesus own teaching that our lives must remain connected to him, pruned by him when necessary (read John 15) so that we are established and fruitful. So life in Christ proceeds somewhat like fingernails -cut, grow, cut, grow, cut, grow, prune, grow, discipline, grow - and we become useful, hardened - not hard towards God, but for the battle of love waged in a broken, shipwrecked world. Comfort is found in the comforter (2 Corinthians 1:3-7), not the stuff of this life where we think comfort is found.
So, I'll go cut my finger nails, and nutrients from the body will flow and grow them again. Pride cut, humility growing, usefulness to God suited for each task to which he calls. I have no idea why these ideas connected in my head today - I think too much.
Kairos Journal has a troubling article on the health of homosexuality. The link has several footnotes which add to the main text of the article...
Here is the link: How Healthy Is Homosexuality?
I visited an AT&T store today to play around with the iPhone and get some first hand impressions. Though I had my two girls hangin on me saying "play the video again" I got to play with it for a good 15 minutes. Well, I can say it was an impressive little device.
Pros
Cons
Overall, for those who are looking for a consumer device, who want to unite phone, internet stuff and iPod, this is definitely the way to go. If I decide I do not want to do e-mail outside of my laptop (I have stayed away from e-mail in my hand on purpose so far) - I may look into getting iPhone (though I just hate the AT&T exclusive deal).
But if your main purpose is to combine a productivity tool with your phone expect to be hammering e-mail, heavy SMS (no MMS on iPhone btw), working with office stuff you will probably want to stay in the Treo, Windows Mobile, Blackberry world...
Finally, just to prove that Apple people are a member of a cult, see David Pogues iPhone vid - weird.
Engadget has the most ridiculous iPhone review out...ridiculously thorough. Enjoy, but don't worship a little handheld device...that would be evil.
The web site of some of our new labors and calling just went live this week. Jump on over to www.JacobsWellNJ.org - I would love get your feedback.
Many thanks to:
I wanted to ask those who read here and are the praying types to remember my family. I have a cousin who is really bad shape in the ICU from complications with an immune deficiency disease. He may not make it. Pray for him, his Mom and brothers, and our family during this time. He was the older cousin when we were growing up - always was very good to us (we call him "bo-bo" because one of us couldn't quite say Joe).
Thanks
I have been doing so many weddings this year and really enjoying the rich symbolism of Christian marriage. Then I thought to myself the other day: what could a thoroughly consistent, 100% naturalistic, Darwinian wedding service sound like? So I figured I would humor myself and have a little fun.
The high priest of unbelief, the Right Reverend Richard Dawkins presiding of course. You may be seated.
Specialized hominids, we are gathered here today to observe a socially evolved meme of pair bonding among of our species. The years of mutation and selection have given us the general wisdom that pair-bonded members of our clans represent a successful evolutionary social adaptation for the rearing of our progeny.
Our selfish genes move us to appreciate these occasions as we feel the safety coming from young offspring which will care for us and protect us from predators in our old age.
Even though we now deny the wisdom of eons of evolution that taught us that monogamous pair-bonding is the best way, we now know that we do not need such arrangements in our enlightened age. We should do away with this oppressive institution (which evolutionary ethics developed as good) and reinvent a better way with our own individual wisdom.
In fact, if mates of the same sex desire to pair-bond, we affirm this fully - for the evolved consensus of prior ethics must be wrong. A less adaptable meme which must die. We love to base our cherished institutions on evolutionary ethical theory - but then again we can reject them any time we want.
In fact, I'm not really sure what we are here for, but these two hominids desire to participate in this antiquated social arrangement. So we are happy and we celebrate this with them. May they be happy and be fruitful and multiply fit progeny - but only if they want to, and if it doesn't take too many resources from their lifestyle, and if we all agree we are not overpopulating the planet. On second thought, they better not breed.
So I suppose we have an occasion today to have a party and our genes desire it - perhaps it will lead to more pair-bonding - who knows why, but we can do this again until we lose the will to exist. Then we will allow the religious meme to dominant once again - for those mastered by this persistent idea have many more offspring than we.
What our genes have deemed for today, let no one separate - in the name of quantum fluctuations, spontaneous generation, and self-replicating systems, Amen.
The newly bonded couple now invites you to their open bar to get really drunk with them. Thank you for coming.
Personally, I still think the beauty of Christian marriage is much more inspiring...
I try to blog from time to time on Bible translations...mainly the TNIV and the ESV newer works that have taken different angles in translations. I am not a TNIV fan, but it is infinitely better the Good as New Retelling of Scripture coming out of the UK.
Phil Johnson has a sampling of its drool over at his Pyromaniacs site. Younger Christians out there, don't buy into this sort of crap.
Some of you may be wondering - why the slowdown on the POCBlog. To be honest, I really enjoy writing and being away from the blog here shows that to me quite a bit. Summer has been a bit of a full flow with some additional things hitting the plate.
First, I have enjoyed doing four weddings in recent months. It is a joy and pleasure to walk with God and young couples into the marriage covenant. Second, I am neck deep in seminary work. I just returned from a long week of classes - 8-6 every day. I am now working on a very large project to complete the class. Third, though I have not broke this publicly here on the site, I am working very hard on a future church plant in the Northeast. We are hoping to shove our ship off into that ocean in about a year. For now I can say a coming post here at POC is imminent outlining some of our plans. We have just finished a brochure (the designer did a sweet job), almost finished with a video (the video dudes, did a SWEET job), and web site (the web designers did great - one of them was me, but at least the other guy did a sweet job). Fourth, I continue to use some summer time to meet with some young dudes for whom I did their weddings last summer. I met with one yesterday who is doing well and see another friend tomorrow. Fifth, I have this wonderful family God has given me. I have spent some fun days at the pool with two little girls who are fast becoming mermaids and enjoyed a good date with Kasey on Saturday night. July will have us out on the road for some needed vacation and some more seminary for me. Then we'll exhale in August before launching our fall with all my friends at Inversion.
Speaking of which, we have been hard at work on shaping the vision for Inversion in the fall as God has placed us on a cool track for our teaching at our Thursday night gatherings...Oh yeah, I am cranking on a re-vamp of the Inversion Fellowship web site; and since I have already overused the word - I just have to say that it is sweet :). Props to the peoples at Church Plant Media with whom I am working on that project. By God's grace, keep your eye out for that in mid-July.
So if you were wondering - has Reid gone to sleep on the blog here? Well, I do need more sleep, but still love the POCBlog. I have a fun entry on weddings if they were done from a purely secular/naturalistic view - Richard Dawkins as the officiant. Should be fun.
Your prayers are appreciated. That I would rest, get good time in Scripture, not give way to fear, and press on in confident humility.
Blessings to all my POC friends out there.
