Writing Your Spiritual Biography

We have all been designed by God to make an impact – both on our community and the world around us. He has given each one of us specific gifts and life experiences that are unique to us. Nobody else has those same combinations of gifts that you do. Nobody else has ever had, nor will ever have, the same life experiences that you have had. Your design and your life story are unique. However, the truth is that we don’t often take time to reflect upon how God has uniquely designed us and orchestrated our life story. Sometimes its helpful to step back and prayerfully think through the things that have shaped us to become who we are today. In the following video we are going to see a Christian Rapper – Propaganda – reflect upon different circumstances in his life that have shaped him to be who he is, and have prepared him for the type of ministry that God has called him to.

I am Second® – Propaganda

 

In the video, the rapper Propaganda shared some of the experiences that shaped his life. He shared about what it was like growing up as the only African-American kid in a Mexican culture, what it was like feeling alone at church, as well as what it was like to be a male in his particular culture with artistic passions and desires. As he reflected upon these things he noticed that “all this was on purpose – everything you are – your whole goulash of experiences and gifts – all the scars, every hurt every failure…. Its on purpose, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, you are exactly who I want you to be.”

Exercise – Writing Your Spiritual Biography

Take 20 minutes to prayerfully reflect on how God has shaped you over the years through various means such as:

  1. Life experiences – Think about the various phases of your life: childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Which experiences during those years have shaped you the most to be who you are today?
  2. Spiritual experiences – i.e. experiences of God’s presence and guidance through Scripture, church, mission trips, camps, nature, or some spiritual experience. List out at least 3 experiences that have significantly shaped you.
  3. Spiritual mentors including historical figures.
  4. Your context—i.e. cultural, family, ethnic, socio-economic, geographical & historical factors.

After you have done this, take some time to craft a “spiritual biography” (using Propaganda’s testimony as an example) around these four categories. How might God want to use your experiences to make an impact for his Kingdom on this world?

Roman Catholic Contextualization

It has been said that up until recently western missions has been a process of cultural domination – i.e. westernization. Although there is a ring of truth to this, we know that the Vatican sent out instructions to its missionaries, through the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of Faith, in 1659 instructing it missionaries not to attempt to turn indigenous people into “western Christians” rather they ought to bring the gospel to bear upon those people’s manners, customs, and culture.

Do not regard it as your task, and do not bring any pressure to bear on peoples, to change their manner, customs, and uses, unless they are evidently contrary to religion and sound morals. What could be more absurd than to transport France, Spain, Italy, or some other European country to China? Do not introduce all that to them, but only the faith, which does not despise or destroy the manners and customs of any people, always supposing that they are not evil, but rather wishes to see them preserved unharmed…. Do not draw invidious contrasts between the customs of the people and those of Europe; to your utmost to adapt yourself to them.

Don’t destroy the manners and customs of any people… Don’t transport European culture into the faith. Allow the people to preserve their customs, do your most to adapt to their way of life. Our churches would do well to take heed of this 17th century document as we try to reach the post-Christian culture around us.

Book Review – Slow Church by Christopher Smith and John Pattison

Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus explores what it would look like for the church to embrace the “slow” way of life. The authors explore the possibility of doing slow church by focusing on three areas – ethics, ecology, and economy. By “ethics” they are referring to what it means to be the embodiment of Christ in a particular location. By “ecology” they are referring to their place within God’s mission of reconciliation. By “economy” they are referring to God’s provision to carry out his reconciling work. As the authors tackle each section they give us a sampling of what it looks like to live as a “slow church.” They do not provide “steps” or “instructions” or “how-to-lists” – because that would be characteristic of a “fast” way of doing church, rather they paint pictures with words, give plenty of examples of churches who practice “slow church,” and open up the reader’s imagination as to what God might want to do in each local church community.

Review

Efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control – are four words that nail down the essence of MacDonaldization. These are the same four words that nail down the essence of (many) Mega Churches. Working in a Mega Church I know that many see these four words as “good words” but Smith and Pattison see them as “bad words.” They aren’t qualities that we as a church should strive to achieve. Nevertheless I have seen ministries built around these four concepts. As I see churches strive to achieve these things I can’t help but think to myself – Is this the way that Jesus would have done things? Is this the way that Jesus built his “little flock?” Is a MacDonald-ized (Supersized) church the church that Jesus envisioned? I don’t know. Either way, I know that this is the Church that Jesus loved and died for. Whether it’s a “fast church” or a “slow church” Jesus loves his church. However because Jesus loves his church he desires to see his church flourish. I honestly (along with Smith and Pattison) think that the “fast church” isn’t flourishing. Humans can’t thrive and flourish on a fast food diet – neither can the church thrive and flourish with a “fast church” mentality. Change is needed – the church needs to slough off its industrialized and Macdonald-ized approach to church. It needs to embrace a holistic, interconnected, organic, and local way of life grounded in a grand gospel. Slow Church helps us imagine what it would look like if the church were to do that.

A Personal Note

I believe that I have embraced (or at least have tried to embrace) a holistic, interconnected, organic, and local way of living out the gospel. Of course, being a fallen human being, I am tempted to Macdonaldize my ministry. I am tempted to value efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control over and above relationship and God’s sovereignty. However Jesus helps me to recognize my sin and repent of such things. One area in which the Lord has been helping me to do that has been in the area of discipleship. I want people to grow in Christ, I desperately want that. I want the college students I work with to grow into a Christ-centered community of missional disciples. But my temptation has been to try to systematize that growth. However as I read this book I came to realize that much like a political revolutionary I wanted, no I demanded, instant change. However (as the authors say) “unlike human revolutionaries, who demand instant change, God is not impatient.” I am impatient – I want growth to happen now – on my time and my conditions. As this book has forced me to rethink how people grow I have come to realize that God’s primary means of growing people is through the slow process of intentional one on one and small group relationships. Spiritual Growth takes time and effort, it’s a slow process, it’s a messy process, its a relational process, and I am certainly not in control of it. Spiritual Growth cannot be “Macdonaldized” – it’s a slow and organic process.

(Note: I received this book courtesy of IVP in exchange for an impartial review.)

Urban Population

Over the past decade or so missiologists have increasingly noted how important urban centers will be (and to a huge extent already are) for mission. There are many factors as to why this is so – for instance the size, complexity, migration/immigration, ethnocentrism/ethnic diversity, and wealth/poverty that all exist in tension within cities. However one factor that has caught many missiologist’s eyes when it comes to mission to urban centers is the rapid population growth that cities have experienced over the last two hundred years. Note what Scott Sunquist has to say about population growth in cities:

In 1800, only 3 percent of the world’s people lived in urban areas; by 1900 the percentage had grown to 14 percent. Over the next fifty years the number grew to 30 percent. and today it is over 50 percent. Thus most of the people who are in need of Christian mission and ministry lie in urban areas. The growth of the cities, their global influence, and the growing problems these cities are experiencing make them the primary place of missionary outreach.

Book Review – Christianity on Trial by W. Mark Lanier

It seems like our culture is obsessed with the legal process – whether its Lindsay Lohan’s latest exploits, arrest, and trial; Oscar Pistorius trial for killing his girlfriend; Amanda Knox on trial in Italy; or the scandalous O.J. Simpson Trial. We Americans love trials (or maybe we just love seeing people get punished…), now W. Mark Lanier a world-class trial lawyers with many accolades capitalizes on our “enjoyment” of trials and the legal process and puts Christianity on trial.

W. Mark Lanier is a trial lawyer and founder of the Lanier Law Firm. U.S. News and World Reports’ Best Lawyers named him to its Best Lawyers list 9 years in a row and named him the Top Class Action Attorney in America in 2013. Lanier has handled major lawsuits against Toyota and Vioxx

What is this book about?

In Christianity on Trial, W. Mark Lanier follows the format of a legal trial, beginning the book with an “opening statement,” then calling witnesses like Albert Einstein, John Polkinghore, Charles Darwin, Noam Chomsky, and B.F. Skinner among others, and finishing up with a closing statement.

Throughout the book Lanier makes a case for the rationality and reasonableness of the Christian faith. He tackles difficult questions like:

  • Can God be infinite, personal, and moral?
  • Do people have an ability to make real choices, or are we simply products of our DNA in combination with out environment?
  • Is it intellectually honest to believe that the Bible is God’s revelation?
  • Does the physical resurrection of Jesus make sense?

He answers all of these questions and more, and comes to the conclusion that the biblical worldview makes sense of everyday life; in fact it makes more sense of everyday life than competing worldviews do.

Why Should You Get This Book?

W. Mark Lanier has written a persuasive and engaging account of why we ought to believe that Christianity makes sense. Its full of stories from major trials that Lanier has participated in, its full of fun historical anecdotes, and its full of thorough engagement with philosophical/theological sources. In other words, the book is comprehensive – Lanier leaves no stone unturned in his examination Christianity’s plausibility.

One aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was how nuanced his argument really was. His argument for the plausibility of Christianity relies upon the foundational distinction between direct evidence and circumstantial evidence. I appreciated the fact that Lanier plat out says that there is not much direct evidence for the truth of Christianity, most of the evidence is circumstantial. This distinction is important because many people have (rightly in my opinion) challenged the possibility of making a water tight-knock down flat out argument for the truth of Christianity. Christianity cannot be proved in the sense that the Pythagorean theorem can be proved. The “proof” of Christianity relies upon historical witnesses and the power of testimony. All this to say, I am glad that Lanier recognizes the fact that the case for Christianity cannot be made by purely philosophical arguments.

Who Should Get this Book?

If you are interested in apologetics, haven’t given much thought to why you believe what you believe about Christianity, or are a skeptic I recommend this book to you. If you are in an apologetics small group, or are looking for material to use in an apologetics Sunday School class this book is for you! Lanier’s writing is accessible and entertaining but more importantly his argument persuasive. So if you get a chance pick up this book!

(Note: I received this book free of charge from IVP in exchange for an impartial review.)

Contemplate God’s Fatherly Love

John Calvin on why we ought to study and then contemplate on God’s nature as our Father:

We ought in the very order of things [in creation] diligently to contemplate God’s fatherly love… [for as] a foreseeing and diligent father of the family he shows us his wonderful goodness toward us… To conclude once for all, whenever we call God the Creator of heaven and earth, let us at the same time bear in mind that…. we are indeed his children, whom he has received into his faithful protection to nourish and educate…. So, invited by the great sweetness of his beneficence and goodness let us study to love and serve him with all our heart. (Institutes of Christian Religion 1.14.2, 22)

N.T. Wright on the Church Shaped by Mission

Our mission has to be shaped by our ultimate vision of God’s future… that in turn should reshape how we do church.

When we announce Jesus as Lord of heaven and earth then a power is unleashed which does transform not only individuals but also communities.

 

Can the Church as We Know it Survive?

In a recent blogpost Neil Cole contrasts two (very different) Non-Western Churches:

When the communists took over the nation they arrested the church leaders (like Nee) and seized all church property. The indigenous expressions of simple churches meeting in homes not only survived…they thrived. The Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse-Tung sought to eliminate all religion from society in China but instead mobilized the church and it grew from about 2 million Christians in 1949 to over 60 million. It is estimated today that there may be upwards of 80 million Christians in China.

Contrast this with the church of Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church was dependent upon three things: holy buildings, holy men in robes, and holy services performed by those men in those buildings. When the communists took over in Russia they seized all the buildings and arrested or compromised all the leaders of the church. The church was devastated.

He goes on to ask the question – which structure most reflects the way we do church in America? Are we dependent on buildings, holy men, and holy services performed by those men? Could we survive the arrest of our church leaders and seizure of church property? Are we more like the Chinese church or the Russian Orthodox Church?

Cathedral Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow

Without a doubt the American church is going to face ongoing persecution in the future. However it wouldn’t even take any real persecution to dismantle most churches, just a few legal changes (especially to tax law) could cause the church as we know it to implode, or more likely to become unsustainable.

The problem is that the western church concentrated all our people, resources and ideas into a few large groups. This is bad investment 101 – don’t put all your eggs into one basket. Much like the Russian Orthodox church, who put all of their energy and resources into holy buildings, holy men in robes, and holy services performed in those building the western church is liable to experience real devastation if (when) persecution or legal action is taken against the church as we know it.

In the future, most churches will not be able to sustain the model we are running on. This will, lead many churches into times of intense suffering and hardship. There are only two types of churches that will be able to survive those times. The only churches that will survive are the churches that are large enough to sustain themselves without all the tax benefits that the government offers to non-profits and religious institutions and those churches that are small enough not to need those benefits. When clergy stop getting tax benefits, many pastors in small churches will not be able to get by economically. When churches lose tax benefits on their properties, many churches will no longer be able to afford their mortgages. Either you will have to be large enough to generate enough capital to pay your mortgage or you will need to be small enough not to require funds to pay a mortage (i.e. because you don’t own any property). Either way tt’s a bleak future for the church as we know it.

The church will need to learn to survive without the government’s help. The church will need to learn to survive under government opposition. Non-Western churches have much to offer us in learning how to do both of those things.

However we aren’t there yet. We aren’t facing those difficulties yet, and it may be many years before we get to that point. However, its my own personal belief, that the church needs to prepare itself for that day. One of the best ways to get ready for that time is to emphasize the importance of what some have called “cell communities” or “small groups” or “community groups.” These small communities seem to be the essential building block of the church in the non-west. We have much to learn from our non-western brothers and sisters. They are clued in to the many strength of these sorts of communities.

According to Scott Sunquist (Dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Seminary) these communities are the “strongest organizational unit in world history” – here are the reasons why this is so:

  1. It is a remorseless self-multiplier.
  2. It is exceptionally difficult to destroy.
  3. It can preserve its intensify of local life while vast organizations quickly wither when they are weakened at the center.
  4. It can defy the power of governments.
  5. It is the appropriate lever for praying open any status quo.

It really sounds to me as though “cell communities” (simple churches, small groups, community groups, missional communities, call it what you will) are going to be vital to the future of the church in the west, especially in the US. If this is true – are we preparing for the future?

The Church and Its Missionary Calling

What is the purpose of the church? What is its calling? Why does it exist? These are all questions that the Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia, Aram K’eshishea answers when he wrote about the nature of the church as a missional community…

The church is a community of faith. Under no circumstances should we lose this very concept of the church. Being a community of faith, the church is also a common mission. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not establish an institution that come to be called “church.” He gave a particular mission to his disciples: Go forth  into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 10:15). In fact the raison d’etre of our church, its true riches and real value is neither in its structure nor its hierarchy, neither in its theology nor is spirituality. Its true riches lies in its missionary engagement, evangelistic witness, and diakonal action.

We should remind ourselves that mission does not come from the from the church; the church acquires its real nature, unique identity and true vocation from mission. Hence a church becomes a church when it fulfills its missionary calling.

-Aram K’eshishean (HT: Scott Sunquist)

 

10 Statements About the Gospel

Gospel this, gospel that, gospel here, gospel there, gospel everywhere! Now a days it seems like everything is “gospel,” but if everything is the gospel then nothing is the gospel. However, this does not mean that the gospel does not have breadth, the gospel might be a lot more multifaceted than we think….

The word “gospel” or to “preach the good news” is used a total of 128 times in the New Testament. Its used in many context and in may ways, so naturally we should want to get a clear grasp on what this word means.

In his book Understanding Christian Mission: Participation in Suffering and Glory, Scott Sunquist list out ten statements about the gospel which he thinks should help us in thinking about how we proclaim the message of the Messiah:

  1. The Gospel is a summary of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
  2. The Gospel is what Jesus taught.
  3. The Gospel is the message from God to all people or, more precisely to all ethnic groups.
  4. The Gospel is the message preached by the apostles.
  5. The core message of the Gospel is about the grace of God offered for all of humanity.
  6. The Gospel of grace is centers on the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ.
  7. Because the Gospel is a Gospel of grace, it is also a gospel of judgement.
  8. The Gospel is to be preached in a manner that reveals its nature: The gospel is truth, and so it must be preached truthfully.
  9. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has supreme value.
  10. The Gospel has its own power to transform individuals.

So those are Sunquist’s 10 statements on the gospel. I would love to hear whether you would add any other statements or whether you would take away some of his. I would also love to hear the reasons behind your decision.

Which statements would you add? Subtract? Why?