Theology Blog

Submission is a very loaded word that has been very problematic in the world and in the church. The easy solution would be to abandon the word, all of its definitions, and its application. The truth is that submission is a Biblical concept and reality that must be embraced for a full and healthy life in Christ. Its a word amongst others that needs redeeming in our world. Whether in the context of marriage, work environments, other relationships or the church, we need to reclaim, redeem and embrace the concept of submission. Whether the blame for our unhealthy view of submission lies with Leave it to Beaver, sexism, media, Bill Gothard or others is irrelevant. Instead, we should focus on what it means to have a healthy view of submission, especially in the church. The church can be a model for submission that is rooted in accountability, humility, service, mutuality, and unity amongst other things. The first step is rejecting the current view of submission, the second is to look to the Scriptures to create a healthy theology of submission. Then we must apply what God has revealed to us together as we continue to learn and grow? What does a healthy theology of submission look like in your view?

In many ways I consider myself to be a visionary, but there are also ways in which I do not think that I am much of a visionary. I think about vision a lot, especially when I have been at a leadership conference like the one I was at recently. There is plenty of mandate for vision in the church, certainly in the scriptures and beyond. Much of the emphasis on vision in the church in the past couple decades seems to have come from the corporate or business world. That is not a bad thing necessarily as the church in North America at least had become to institutional, too internal, too focused on function. Every ministry I am a part of has a vision of some sorts, whether it is a good vision or even a vision that is well lived out is a matter of perspective. As of late, I have been pondering the theological nature of vision. What is a healthy theology of vision? What role does vision play in your theological understanding of life, of ministry or of the organizations/institutions that you are a part of? Without vision, the people will perish, but beyond that what is the nature of vision and how are we to understand it theologically?

The Bible is filled with references to unity with some amazing passages and imagery about the unity of believers and the unity of the church. It seems that unity is very hard to find in the American church today, whether in general, within a denomination, or even within a local church body. There is not at all a sense of the unity of believers that Paul talks about frequently. Of course, there are varying views on what unity means and looks like in our context today. I have been wrestling with what it really means to have unity as a follower of Jesus Christ. Certainly, the church would be a greater witness if there were more unity. It is likely that unity is not total agreement, but I also believe that it transcends the idea that we can ‘just agree to disagree.’ I suspect unity is so much more, and that the unity that the Bible talks about is challenging, sacrificial and impossible without Christ. As I continue to pray, read and ponder about what it means to have unity, I would certainly be interested in anyone else’s thoughts on the matter.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a verbal processor. Every once and a while, in response to a question or situation I say something and as I hear it, I think, ‘hey that was pretty good’ or ‘hey, that is a possible God thing.’ It is summer which means I have an intern that I work with. Interns are great and have a lot of energy, and while it is a lot of work for me, I do enjoy the process very much. In talking with my intern Tuesday, I made a comment about context. You see, in life and certainly in ministry, context is everything. Context really matters, although it should not dictate life or ministry. My comment was that you “need to master your context before it masters you.” I did not mean that in a manipulative kind of way (although I recognize it could sound manipulative & could be used in a manipulative way) instead, I was referring to the importance in ministry of knowing your context: to work within it, to honor it, to redeem it. In many cases, it is tempting in ministry to ignore all of or parts of your context and when that happens, you do not get to lead, instead the context eventually runs you over or you run away from it. In many ways this all seems very worldly and far too political and practical in nature, yet it also seems like this is something Jesus was aware of as well as He minister in context. The question I am now pondering is, ‘what is a healthy theology of context?’

If you read this and have any thoughts, I would love to have them!

Below is a devotion I wrote for our family devotion at church. I have pasted this into two of my blogs now for this week. While I do not like to be repetitious, it is something that impacted my personal life as well as my own understanding of theology. We need to carefully consider our theology of celebration!

Sunday night I turned on the television as I often do to unwind. The news had just come on citing a major announcement by the President. Over the next hour or so I found myself glued to the television like many others across the world. Osama Bin Laden had been killed. I listened as information was portrayed and thought back to September 11, 2001. I, like many others remember it well, I remember where I was. I remember how ministry changed that day, not only for the weeks and months to come, but long past the media coverage. I found myself glad that the hunt for this mass murder had ended. I found myself feeling good for the victims families who had been waiting for this kind of justice. I was happy that I am not the president and am not one of the leaders or military members of this country who have to make these hard decisions and deal with these difficult situations. For the most part it seemed like a good moment. I wrestled with forgiveness and found myself thinking about what it means to forgive a Bin Laden, a Hitler and others who have committed mass violence. Perhaps it is harder to forgive these kind of individuals, but I wondered if forgiveness and ‘justice’ could co-exist.

Later, the news flashed to celebrations in the streets of Washington D.C. and New York city. People were celebrating in the streets. My general state of reflection and happiness suddenly turned sour. While I understand the feeling that victims families must have at this news and the sense of justice they felt, I also found it hard to watch people celebrate. It seems odd as a follower of Jesus Christ to celebrate the death of anyone, no matter how terrible the person or how atrocious their actions, no matter how much the death might be deserved. In the end, I cannot bring myself to celebrate or watch celebrations about the death of BIn Laden, even though I am glad the situation is resolved.

This got me thinking about what it is we celebrate and do not celebrate as followers of Jesus Christ. When it comes to the celebrations of the world, (the death of Bin Laden, royal weddings, sports victories, celebrity news) I think we might be missing the point. I also realized that I am guilty of not celebrating the right things like holding onto my daughter as she feels traumatized by throwing up, hugging my son for no particular reason, a beautiful sunrise or sunset, the joy of Easter. There is so much to celebrate and as an Easter people, a people of the resurrection we must be a people that celebrate the big and little things, but above all else we must celebrate the things that show us life, that give us life, that reveal the nature of the God of the universe.

I find myself convicted in the midst of the death of Osama Bin Laden to consider carefully what it is that I celebrate.

I have always struggled with competition. Maybe its because I am not very competitive, maybe it is because I am not particularly good at anything. It might also be because I did not play any sports as a kid. I can see value in competition and I enjoy watching a good competition. March Madness in particular is an amazing show of competition. I love watching football and the olympics. I enjoy ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ as a reality show (if there is such a thing) and a competition. Other than being an observer, I cannot stand competition, especially in the context of churches and in ministry. There really is no place for competition in the church, in the kingdom of God (except perhaps for that church softball league), yet I see church after church competing for visitors for members. Almost all church growth comes from trades and not from brining new folks into the church. Early on in my own ministry I fell into the trap of competition which leads to comparison. Comparison is the basis of all unhappiness. Comparing numbers, benefits, members, resources and ministry. They may not be external competition like softball, but it is competition none the less. The disciples were competitive and it seems that Jesus mostly put up with it, but he also addressed it as well. Its good to compete against yourself, to be driven and to strive for all Christ has for you, but as churches, ministers and followers of Jesus, we must remember that competition is not a ministry or Kingdom value.

It might be impossible to say this word in any context (at least in North America) without eliciting a response. Generally the response is not positive as many seem to hate politics. There are probably many reasons for this, most of them having to do with personal pain of some sort. The root word of politics is polite and in most cases, especially the church, politics can be anything but polite. One of the frustrating realities of church life are the politics of the church. No matter where you go, when there is a group of people, there are politics. Schools, churches, work places, government, even families.

So, what are we to think, do or be theologically when it comes to politics. Here are some of my thoughts and suggestions, its a list that is a work in progress…

1. Understand that politics are a reality that probably will not go away.
2. Remind yourself that the root word of politics is polite. Set the example
3. Remember that while you may have to deal with politics and be political, you do not have to allow politics to rule your life. In fact, don’t ever do that.
4. Jesus is bigger than any politics, and can and will redeem all things.
5. Jesus calls us to a new way, a third way in many ways. See to bring about the way that Jesus has called us do while recognizing the reality of politics and honoring people.
6. We are all wrong, we are all imperfect and our world is flawed.
7. Some problems are too big to have a perfect solution.
8. Things are not as they should be, but we can work to embrace God’s Kingdom as it is happening in this world and help to point others to that Kingdom.
9. We should separate government politics from our faith, for the sake of our faith, Christianity, the church and the government.
10. Politics were far worse for Jesus than they are for us.

One of the things that I am noticing in Rob Bell’s book so far is his indirect attack on Calvanism. This is interesting, because he went to a seminary (the same one I went to) that is primarily Calvanist and he lives really in the center of Calvinism in the US, Grand Rapids. I suspect that many who struggle with his book and his theology really do come from a Calvinist perspective. Some of my closest friends are Calvanists and I have spent some time studying Calvinism.

Calvinism in its simplest form is expressed in five points. You can read more here. These five points form the word TULIP.

They are:

Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin)
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement)
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved)

Most of these are self-explanatory, but the link above provide a great explanation so that you can understand the true meaning of these phrases. I am not at all a Calvinist and will probably never be (I supposed I was not predestined for that! :)). My biggest concern with Calvinism is the double predestination view that God only chooses certain people to be saved and that is already determined. I agree that Salvation is the work of God and has nothing to do with what we do as human beings, but I do not accept this double predestination view. In many ways, I could be a Calvinist, but I would have to be TUIP Calvinist and not a TULIP Calvinist. It is the I in the TULIP that I have issues with, and that is the piece connected to double predestination. I do not believe in the limited atonement. The limited atonement says that Christ died only for some and not for all. I just cannot believe that. I am sure there are plenty of verses to justify it, particularly in Paul’s writings, but if we look at the whole message and theme of Scripture and the whole story of Christ, I find it hard to justify that Jesus Christ only died for some. Jesus Christ died for all.

I love my Calvinist brothers and sisters, and we are called to work together, but I simply cannot agree with these areas of thinking.

There is currently a lot of controversy about Rob Bell’s recent book lately and the words are flying on both sides of the coin as it relates to the book on heaven and hell. I have not read the book yet, it has shipped today and I look forward to reading it. No matter what I end up deciding about the book, I recognize that I could be wrong. I do not think that anyone can really speak about the content of the book or the theology of the author without reading it. Reading a review is not enough. I do not think anyone can speak to the character of the author, unless perhaps they are someone who is close to him.

In one way, its a bunch of controversy about nothing as God is not changed by what one person writes. On the other hand, it is a big deal because theology really matters. I wonder what will happen with the book. Either Rob Bell will challenge his readers and add thoughts to the dialogue within Christendom, or he will walk away from orthodox thought like many others (Brian McLaren). I have no assumption as to what he is going to do, and that is part of the problem with this controversy. Most are approaching this book with a decision already made, or at least a leaning as to whether or not Rob is going to be right. That is hard to do without actually reading the book. I like most of Rob’s work, but I am also feeling cautious about this one.

One of the things that I am realizing as a pastor however is that we must really wrestle with theology and look out for false teaching. I am not saying that Rob Bell is going to engage in false teaching, but this controversy reminds me that as pastors we must guard against, watch out for and speak out against false teaching. Something may sound and look good and may even seem scriptural and in the end it does not end up being scriptural at all. One of the great challenges of pastors of the present and the future is not just to preach and teach the word of God, but to teach and equip our people to think theologically. Our congregations need to be able to discern and think carefully about something that is being considered and be able to sort out the many ‘theologies’ that the world is offering up.

In months, this controversy will be over and we will move on to the next thing. Whether the book ends up being good or bad in my mind is not the most important issue. This controversy has reminded me of the great call of pastoral ministry to be sure that we are carefully thinking theologically and teaching our people to do the same.