“Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” (Nehemiah 1:11b, NIV)

As you’re probably aware, the Book of Nehemiah opens with a surprising revelation for Nehemiah.  Despite the return led by Zerubbabel and the decrees of Cyrus and Darius, the Jerusalem remains a city disgraced.  It’s wall lies in ruins, and it’s precincts are exposed and defenseless.

And as you’re probably also aware, when Nehemiah hears a report of this situation from his brother Hanani, his first response is one of prayer.  It’s a natural response for a man of faith, nothing surprising here.

But what is surprising is how, exactly, Nehemiah prays:

LORD, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,  but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. (Nehemiah 1:5-11, NIV)

Notice what Nehemiah says.

And notice what he doesn’t.

Nehemiah receives devastating news, yet when he prays, he’s far more interested in whom he prays to than what he is praying about.  His focus, first and foremost, is on God and his promises.  His problems aren’t even mentioned until the very last sentence of his prayer.

And when he finally does mention them, notice what he says: “Grant me favor in the presence of this man.”  You do remember who “this man” is, right?  This man is none other than Artaxerxes, self proclaimed king of kings, emperor of all Persia, hailed by his people as the god of heaven, the one who, at least according to his name, is the one true ruler.  He is the one who has the power to issue the incontrovertible decree.  He is the one who holds Nehemiah’s very life in his hands, who, with a word, can order him struck down for having the insolence to suggest he change his mind regarding Jerusalem.

Or at least, that’s how it looks to those who see with eyes of flesh.

Nehemiah, however, knows better.

YHWH, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and who through Nehemiah’s own name promises comfort, YHWH is the God of Heaven and Earth.  Despite claims to the contrary, YHWH is the King of Kings, and he alone holds life and death in his hands. No decree of man is ever incontrovertible when YHWH is involved.

And so in comparison to the greatness of his God, Nehemiah’s king is nothing but this man.

When Nehemiah prays, he keeps things in perspective.

How about you?

Is your focus on His power or your problems?

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What was the life-changing, career-saving information?  An announcement that a month ago we were going to have a sermon on the subject of Baptism at our church…

I never knew that my now-past preaching schedule had such far reaching effects.

The future God has planned for you is far better than any you could ever imagine for yourself.

In 15 and a half years of youth ministry, I’ve told my teens this truth countless times.  It is the thesis statement of my ministry, the one thing I hope they will take away from our time together.

Today, I’m being reminded of that truth myself.

Moments ago I tendered my resignation to the board of the Middletown Church of the Nazarene, my family’s church home for the last eight years. And while there was a little sadness in doing that, there was far more excitement, both for myself, and for our church.

It was exciting for me because, on Sunday, I accepted the call to pastor the Anderson Southdale Church of the Nazarene.  I am excited about the opportunity to lead these people of God in service to their community and world as together we share the good news about Jesus Christ.  I am excited about being able to continue to work closely with my friends and colleagues at the Middletown Church and the others on our zone so together our churches, as part of His Church, can take hold of God’s Kingdom and move it powerfully forward. I am excited because it is always exciting to follow faithfully after the call of God.

And I am excited for the Middletown Church.  Something that has come up frequently in the conversations between my Pastor and I as we moved toward this transition is that if it is God’s will for me to serve the people of Southdale, it’s also God’s will for the Middletown Church to make a transition as well.  His plans are perfect, and His plan for me doesn’t in any way jeopardize His plans for the church.

I can’t tell you how many times in my ministry I have come back to John 14:12. In it Jesus tells his disciples (who were themselves facing a significant transition):

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

When following God, the future is always brighter. Jesus repeatedly promises “greater things than these” to his people who do his work.  And despite how great these years in Middletown have been, there are greater things than these in store for me.  And there are greater things than these in store for the great people of the Middletown Church.

So to my friends and family who are the Middletown Church of the Nazarene, I want to say thank you.  Thank you for what has been 3213 of the best days of my life so far. Thank you for the opportunity and honor of being able to serve alongside you for these years.  Thank you for the love, encouragement and support you have given us and our ministry. Thank you for letting us become a part of your lives, and thank you for continuing to make room for us even after this transition.  We love you.

And to the people of both the Middletown and Southdale congregations, I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in the future, because His future is always better.

Yesterday we started looking at the five questions in which student’s responses diverged the most from my own.

Today I’d like to continue looking the results from our beliefs survey, continuing to move from the questions where student opinion diverged the most, to those in which they were most aligned with my own.

Care for some Ebionites to go with your Sabellius?

We asked students to choose the answer that best reflected what they belived about Jesus Christ, in particular who he was.  40% correctly identified orthodox Christology: “I believe that there really was a man named Jesus from Nazareth. He was the eternal God, made in human flesh. His miracles proved that he was God and he gave his life to save the world from their sins. After his resurrection, his disciples finally realized who he really was and begin spreading the word about what he had done.”

36% chose the option which read “I believe there really was a man named Jesus from Nazareth. When he was baptized God’s Spirit filled him, giving him special power and wisdom. He was a great prophet and teacher that reminded the people about the truth about God and the importance of loving each other. His teachings threatened the religious rulers of his day, so they killed him to try to shut him up, but his followers created a religion based on his teachings that changed the world.”

The options which suggested that Jesus was  a good teacher about whom his followers created exaggerated stories which hinted at divinity, or a construct created from the imaginations of early Christians to lend their personal beliefs credibility, or a gnostic savior disguised by gospel accounts and best understood in light of the non-biblical stories of him suppressed by the church each recieved 8 votes.

In retrospect, the difference between the top two vote getters was very subtle, and the distinction was more a matter of what one answser lacked (a reference to Christ’s divinity) than what it included. Yet it does serve as an important reminder that we are called to affirm and proclaim the confession of Thomas, that Jesus is our Lord and our God.

Missing the Mark with our Hamartology

Responses to our question about the nature of sin were divided almost the same way as our question about Christology. 40% recognized the classic definition of the twofold nature of sin, as both our specific acts of disobedience to God’s law, and also as the attitude of rebellion that insists we are not beholden to the law.

36% chose the more karmic definition of sin as the pollution on our soul from our bad acts, which if not washed away by the blood of Jesus, prevents us from entering heaven when we die.

12% argued that it was the difference between our understanding of God and the divine reality, 8% said it was an invention of the church to control people, and 4% said it was the unavoidable difference between finite humanity and the infinite God.

Again, this division between two very similar definitions is only slightly troubling. However, it does reflect the common physical rather than relational understanding of sin so prevalent in Western Christianity.  And a failure to recognize the twofold nature of sin can lead to confusion about our need for a twofold work of grace — our need for not only pardon but also healing.

The B-I-B-L-E, Yes, That’s the Book for Me!

When we asked students what they believed about the Bible, 46% responded that they believed in the divine and plenary inspiration of the Bible, though not in those exact words. “The Bible is a collection of writings, written and collected by human authors as God’s Holy Spirit directed them so that we would have everything we need to know about God,” is exactly how that response read.

31% specified a mechanical means to the divine and plenary inspiration of Scripture, noting their belief that God either handed a hard copy of his Word to his people (e.g., Moses handed the tablets of the law on Sinai) or dictated the message to his prophets who wrote it down word for word.

11.5% indicated they believed the Bible was a purely human creation which, if handled carefully, can point us in God’s direction, and another 11.5% argued that it was only one of many scriptures by which God attempted to convey his truth to humanity.

The fact of divine inspiration of Scripture is the essential in which we must be unified.  As problematic as the idea of mechanical inspiration is to me, the means of divine inspiration is one of the non-essentials in which we can be charitable.  And I’m not surprised the more humanistic philosophies about the Bible so prevalent in our culture are present within my youth group.

Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived

Our question about eschatology was the first time at least half of the responses to a question reflected by own opinion. 50% of my students acknowledged an expectation that in the future “Jesus will return, the dead will be resurrected, all humanity will be judged and the world will be transformed. Heaven will come to earth, and God will make his dwelling among the righteous, while the wicked will be cast into hell.”

Not surprisingly, the second most common response was an expectation that “Jesus Christ is going to come back to earth, gather up the souls of the Christians who are still living, and take them to heaven to live with God and all the souls of Christians who have already died. Then God will destroy the earth once and for all and will send the wicked to hell (23%).”

11% expect a future in heaven for the souls of all humanity after death, while the earth will continue on forever. The Buddhist ideal of absorption into the divine after death, and the Hindu notion of reincarnation according to karma each received 8% of the votes.

I am happy so many of my students understand the orthodox Christian teaching on eschatology, but the fact that 50% of my students expect something less than Biblical (no resurrection, nihilism or reincarnation) demonstrates a continued need for sound Biblical teaching on the subject.

The Scope of Christ’s Atonement

One question in the survey sought to explore students understanding of exactly whom Jesus Christ died for. 62% of them responded that they believed that Jesus Christ died for everyone in the world, so that whoever believes in him might find eternal life.

19% of them chose a more universalistic response, arguing that Jesus Christ died so that hell would be empty and everyone would go to heaven. 8% indicated they believed Jesus died only for the elect, chosen by a sovereign God for heaven. 8% thought he died for his message, unwilling to be silenced by the authorities. 4% said he died for nothing, the victim of a senseless act of state-sponsored violence.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this isn’t the fact that 62% understood that Christ gave his body for the life of the world. Rather, while 58% of students indicated that the penal satisfaction theory was the primary way in which they understood the means of the atonement, only 27% of them carried that through to the logical conclusion of either limited atonement or universal salvation which such a position would seem to suggest.

Would the One True God please stand up, please stand up?

The first question on our survey asked students what they believed about God.  66% of them believed that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the creator of the universe who became  flesh in Jesus Christ.

15% indicated a belief that the Judeo-Christian God is but one aspect of the Divine that is worshiped by different religions by different names.  Another 15% indicated a belief in an impersonal, panentheishtic God who is the force that connects all things in the universe. And 4% admitted to doubting the very existence of God.

Again, while it is reassuring that the majority of students believe in the God of Scripture, it is troubling that, if correct, that means one in every three of my students has an unscriptural understanding of God.

Why did Jesus die?

When we asked why Jesus died, 69% said “for the sins of the world.” 27% chose the more governmental understanding “to demonstrate the seriousness of sin.” And 4% said because the authorities didn’t like his message and tried to shut him up.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these responses is that while in the question on the scope of salvation, 19% said they believed Jesus died so that no one would go to hell and all would go to heaven, not a single person chose the answer “to destroy hell so no one will go there” on this question.

Hopeful, but not too surprised.

When we asked about Jesus’ ascension, 69% indicated a faith that Jesus returned bodily into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for believers. 19% answered that Jesus’ spirit returned to a non-material heaven. 8% opted for the more modalistic view that the God who left heaven to become Jesus went back to heaven where he came from, and 4% assumed that because Christians stopped imagining they saw the risen Christ, someone had to come up with a story to explain why.
I was surprised that so many students opted for a bodily ascension, especially given the apparent prevalence of the idea of a non-material heaven in a spiritual realm where the souls of Christians go to be with God when they die. I am also surprised that after a full 50% of students chose the modalistic option to explain the Trinity in question 2, by question 6 all but 8% had left modalism behind. More on that tomorrow.

An Easter Faith

When we asked students what we celebrate at Easter, 73% of them indicated a faith in a bodily resurrection. 15% indicated a preference for a more figurative resurrection, a celebration of the fact that while the authorities killed Jesus, they couldn’t kill his message.

8% apparently believe in a recovery, not a resurrection, indicating they believe that despite the Roman’s best efforts, Jesus didn’t die and after he recovered from his wounds met with his followers. And 4% believe in the Sanhedrin’s explanation, that the followers of Jesus managed to steal his body and perpetrate a lie.

Pneumatology Alive and Well

Who is the Holy Spirit?  According to 77% of them, he is “the real presence of God, active in the world, continuing to direct human beings to the truth.” 11% argued the Spirit is a personification of reason and wisdom. 8% believe the Spirit is the church’s way of explaining the force that binds all things together. (What happened to the other 7% who opted for the panentheistic/Lucasian understanding of God?) 4% opted for a gnostic spirit who represents the spark of divinity inside every human waiting to return to God.

Speaking of Lucas; Help Us Jesus Christ, You’re Our Only Hope

The question on which there was the greatest degree of agreement was the question about Jesus Christ as the Way.  When asked, 81% responded that without Jesus, “We have no hope. Only his death and resurrection makes it possible for us to be saved.” 9% indicated that without Jesus, living a life of goodness is possible, but much more difficult. 5% indicated a belief that there are other options for salvation, but Jesus is the one that makes the most sense in a Western context, and another 5% went so far as too suggest that given all the extra baggage that comes along with faith in Christ, we might be better off without him.

Those are the results of our basic belief survey, at least for our youth group here.  Tomorrow I will break down some lessons that I have taken away from this study.

Note: If you’re from MCON and have any interest in taking the survey yourself, please don’t read any farther until after you take the survey to avoid skewing your responses.

Yesterday I shared the Basic Beliefs survey that I asked students in our youth ministry to complete in order to investigate their understanding of some central tenets of Christianity.  The purpose was one part evaluative (has anything I’ve taught stuck?) and three parts prescriptive (going forward, what topics need special attention?).

Today I’d like to start looking at some of the results.

Methodological Concerns

Before diving into particular questions I would like to offer a couple of caveats.  First and foremost, let’s face it, taking tests isn’t most students’ idea of a fun night at youth group. Couple a students distaste for testing with the total lack of consequences for carelessness in taking this survey, and one must wonder “Did my students think through any of these questions carefully enough to answer what they really believe?”

Complicating that issue is the fact that in the interest of brevity, this survey lacks the kind of redundancy necessary to evaluate just how indicative of true beliefs the responses really are. I didn’t have time to ask each question three different ways so that I could compare how consistent any given respondent’s answers were.

And compounding all those concerns is the fact that I am by no means a trained pollster. I tried to be careful to make sure my responses did not reflect a bias one way or another, but the question remains just how effectively I accomplished that goal.

So, keeping in mind those weaknesses to this survey, let’s look at the results…

A Diversity of Opinions

The first thing I noticed is that my students do not simply reflect my view on matters.  In fact, on the whole their idea of the best answer matched my idea of the best answer only 50.2% of the time.

Some questions showed more unanimity (81% of my students responded “Without Jesus we have no hope. Only his death and resurrection makes it possible for us to be saved.”)

Others revealed a wide divergence of opinion.  Opinion on the question on the personal holiness was pretty evenly split between seeing the goal of holiness as impossible, helpful but unobtainable and wholly possible by the grace of Christ (36%, 24%,  24% respectively). With this question in particular I have to wonder how effectively it was worded, but the fact is we are not, as a youth group, of one mind regarding holiness — a frightening reality for this pastor from the Wesleyan tradition.

So, as a starting point, let’s look at some of the questions where my students diverged from my opinion on the questions.

Atonement How?

The question where the students’ responses were least in line with my own opinion was question 10: “Jesus’ death saves us because…” This isn’t surprising because this among the options given, this question in particular did not have any wrong answers.  The five options offered represent five of the primary theories of the atonement put forth by the Bible and theologians. My point in asking this question was not to see if my students could distinguish truth from error, but to see which approach to the atonement was most prominent in their minds.

A full 58% of my students identified with the penal satisfaction theory, that “On the cross, Jesus took the punishment for every sin ever committed. Jesus was convicted in God’s court and served our sentence so that we don’t have to.” 15% identified with the governmental/moral influence theory; (“Jesus death proves once and for all how bad sin is and also how much God loves us, inspiring us to turn from our wicked ways and to live differently from now on.”) 12% chose my summary of the ransom theory, (“In dying on the cross, Jesus came to where we are so that we might be united with him, and having been reunited with him, we might begin to live again”); 11% the divine satisfaction theory (Jesus death settled our debt with God and places a credit of righteousness on our account); and 4% the classic view of atonement in which God covers us with Jesus’ blood so that when he looks at us he sees his Son instead.

While obviously none of these understandings are necessarily wrong (although at least the final one may be oversimplified to the point of error), I am a little concerned with how prevalent the penal satisfaction theory is even among Wesleyans.  I’ve made no secret of the fact that while the Bible certainly speaks of the atonement in such a way in places, I believe having penal satisfaction as one’s primary way of understanding the atonement leads to some logical conclusions which are problematic for those of a Wesleyan perspective. I find the ransom theory far more helpful to a Wesleyan framework, and tend to teach the atonement primarily in those terms.

Of course, in the very next sentence, I must also acknowledge, that had John Wesley himself dropped by to fill out my survey last Wednesday night, he would have been in the 58%.  But that just means I’m more Wesleyan than John himself.

Sabellius Redivivus

I wasn’t surprised so much by the fact that opinion was divided over the various atonement theories.  I saw that one coming.  I was surprised by second question where opinion diverged from my own, the question about the Trinity.

When asked “When we talk about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…” a full 50% responded “We are describing the three ways that God throughout history has interacted with the world. In the Old Testament he was God the Father. In the New Testament the Father became the Son and we experienced him as a fellow human. And when Jesus ascended into heaven God chose to become a Spirit who could live inside each of his followers.”

19% correctly identified that this refers to “the mystery of the Trinity in which the three distinct persons of the Godhead (Father, Son and Spirit) share the same essence.” 16% sided with tritheism, assuming that we were “talking about the three Gods of Christianity. God the Father created the world. Jesus Christ is the son of God the Father. And the Holy Spirit is the God that the Father and Son send into the world to finish their work.” And an equal number (16%) went the other way toward adoptionism, indicating their believe that “There is only one God, the creator of the universe. Jesus Christ was a human being that God filled with his presence to teach the world about himself. And the Holy Spirit is our way of describing the power of God at work in the world.”

I’m not surprised that Sabellianism is alive and well in modern Christianity. I’ve discussed Trinitarian theology with enough laymen and theology students alike to realize how widely held this oversimplification really is.  It is tough to distinguish between three persona and three persons. And far too many resort to the easy analogy of the Trinity being like a human male who is at the same time a father, a son and a husband.

I was surprised such a view was so prevalent among my own students, given the fact that we have specifically sought to correct such errors and teach the truth of the Trinity.  Obviously, not well enough.

Are We a Holiness Church or Not?

If my students misunderstanding of the Trinity was disappointing to me, their view on personal holiness was devastating.  When asked “Living a life without sin from now on, but  in which we never again intentionally choose to do what we know is wrong (i.e., not to never have sinned, but to stop sinning with God’s help),” 60% responded they believed that kind of holiness was impossible, split between 34% who said to suggest such a thing was to overestimate our own ability and underestimate our need for God’s grace, and 24% who acknowledge it was a helpful, but ultimately unattainable goal to shoot for.  12% said it was a possibility which many fail to realize, but something available for those who “try really hard.” 24% recognized the Wesleyan belief that holiness is the birthright of the believer, made possible by the death of Christ and 4% responded that anything less than a holiness that does not sin is something less than Christian.

I will admit that in part the divergence between the Wesleyan message of holiness that we preach passionately and repeatedly and my students’ responses may in part be due to a lack of clarity in the question.  Despite my best effort to clarify that we are not talking about to live a life in which we have never sinned, but by God’s grace growing to the place in life where we no longer sin, I know from talking with students that they were less than clear about that distinction.  Add to that the distinction between a voluntary transgression of a known law and involuntary transgressions and/or areas of ignorance and you have a very nuanced question.

However, it is obvious that the notion that “no one is perfect” and “failure is inevitable” has been so ingrained into my students that despite my best efforts, their hearts have not yet been captured by the radical optimism of grace.  Quite honestly, if this doesn’t change, my ministry will have been a failure.

Let Us Not Give Up Meeting Together…Unless You Don’t Need To Any More

Fourth in our list of questions where students’ answers diverged from my own dealt with ecclesiology.  Opinion was fairly evenly divided between those who saw the Church as a “helpful option” good for supporting believers for those who need that kind of encouragement (38%) and those who felt that “between our need for the church to encourage and support us, and the way the church needs us to accomplish Christ’s work in the world, there is no excuse for not being a part of a church” (35%).

23% answered that the church “Is a risky business. Yes, you must be a part of a church, but you also need to make sure you are a part of the right one. There are a lot of people out there who think they are going to heaven because they are a part of a church, but they’re due for an unpleasant surprise when they discover their church wasn’t teaching the truth and they are left out.” 4% said the church was a human institution that because of it’s desire for power and influence is as apt to hinder as it is to help the work of God. And no one identified with a sacramentalism that understands without the approval of the church, one has no hope of finding approval in heaven.

This is not surprising, given the fact that teens for as long as I can remember (and probably longer) have been debating whether or not one can be a Christian without being a part of the visible body of Christ. Given Scriptures command to continue meeting together, however, I see church attendance as a vitally important part of our obedience.  While our obedience does not save us, it also is not optional.

What must we do to be saved?

Fifth is the question that asked students the same thing the crowd asked Peter that first Pentecost in the era of the church: “To Be Saved, I must…” Given the options it should not be surprising that opinion was divided.  It too was a fairly nuanced question with multiple possible options.

40% answered the question “Repent. I must be truly and deeply sorry for my sins, ask for God’s forgiveness and seek to live a different way.”  28% chose “Say the sinner’s prayer, asking Jesus to forgive me of my sins and come live in my heart.” 16% chose “Be baptized. By being baptized, I accept what Jesus did for me and his death satisfies my debt to God.”  And 8% each chose a path to salvation that either depended on proving our love for God by doing good works, or doing nothing, instead simply trusting Jesus to do everything we need.

Here, for the first time, the most common student response aligns with what I myself would have chosen.  I can understand choosing saying the sinner’s prayer, but that answer does not suggest any sort of ongoing responsibility to faithfully follow Jesus.  There is a reason the early church was called the Way. It is purely decisionistic, but I understand that recognizing that difference is probably difficult for a teenager.

However, given the fact that even when preaching explicitly evangelistic messages which call for students to make a decision to repent and believe, to my knowledge I have never used the term “sinners prayer” and every time specifically address the fact that the prayer of repentance is only the beginning of new life in Christ, a new life that must be nurtured and nourished by obedience, I was a little surprised by how many chose that answer.

Perhaps more disturbing is the fact that anyone familiar with the story from Acts 2 should recognize that “Repent” is only half an answer. While I myself would not have chosen it as the best answer, the fact that, judging by the marks on their papers, students were more inclined to debate between the sinner’s prayer and repentance than to question whether or not baptism should be included as well reveals a very poor understanding of the sacrament of baptism.

Tomorrow we’ll look at more of the survey results.

And that got me thinking…

Just how well do my students understand the basic tenets of Christianity?

And so the survey was born.

Last Wednesday night I asked the students at our midweek service to take our Basic Beliefs survey.  I explained up front that this wasn’t a test.  Unlike tests, this obviously wasn’t for a grade.  And unlike tests, it wasn’t as if every question only had one right answer. That’s not to suggest there are no wrong answers on the survey, but in cases where there were more than one answer that could be correct, they were to choose the answer that best matched their understanding. The point was to help me understand how they viewed various aspects of theology, not to see if they could find the one right answer.

20 questions total. 16 drawn from topics covered by the Articles of Faith and the Agreed Statement of Belief for the Church of the Nazarene. (Incidentally, this school year I taught on each and every one of these subjects at Water’s Edge. So for those who have been a part of our program throughout the school year, these should be familiar subjects.) Four are demographic, dealing with age group, length of time involved in Water’s Edge, frequency of attendance, and the involvement in other religious activities at the church.

Today I’ll share the survey with you. Tomorrow we’ll begin looking at some of the results from my group, Wednesday we’ll wrap up the review of the results, and Thursday we’ll see if there’s anything we can learn from all this.

You can download a pdf version of the survey here, or check out the questions and answers after the jump.

1. Speaking about God,

1. I believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the creator of the universe and became flesh in Jesus Christ.
2. I believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is one way of describing the one true God who is worshipped by different religions by different names and that this God is the source of all the world’s religions.
3. I believe that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob experienced the power that connects all the universe together and that is found in everything everywhere and they called this power God and worshipped it.
4. I’m not really sure that there even is a God.
5. The stories about God are ways the ancient people explained the things they couldn’t understand in the universe. What they called God, we call nature.

2. When we talk about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

1. We are describing the three ways that God throughout history has interacted with the world. In the Old Testament he was God the Father. In the New Testament the Father became the Son and we experienced him as a fellow human. And when Jesus ascended into heaven God chose to become a Spirit who could live inside each of his followers.
2. We are talking about the three Gods of Christianity. God the Father created the world. Jesus Christ is the son of God the Father. And the Holy Spirit is the God that the Father and Son send into the world to finish their work.
3. We’re talking about the mystery of the Trinity in which the three distinct persons of the Godhead (Father, Son and Spirit) share the same essence.
4. It’s easy to get confused. There is only one God, the creator of the universe. Jesus Christ was a human being that God filled with his presence to teach the world about himself. And the Holy Spirit is our way of describing the power of God at work in the world.
5. We’re dealing with the way the Church has traditionally attempted to explain the unexplainable reality of God. Other religions have tried to explain the reality of God in other ways, but this is the way that is most helpful to Christians.

3. When it comes to Jesus,

1. I believe there really was a man named Jesus from Nazareth. When he was baptized God’s Spirit filled him, giving him special power and wisdom. He was a great prophet and teacher that reminded the people about the truth about God and the importance of loving each other. His teachings threatened the religious rulers of his day, so they killed him to try to shut him up, but his followers created a religion based on his teachings that changed the world.
2. I believe that there really was a man named Jesus from Nazareth. He was the eternal God, made in human flesh. His miracles proved that he was God and he gave his life to save the world from their sins. After his resurrection, his disciples finally realized who he really was and begin spreading the word about what he had done.
3. I believe there really was a man named Jesus from Nazareth. His teachings hinted at a new way of living. His followers were so impressed by what he taught them that they began telling stories about him to make the truth he taught more believable. We can find hints of his original teachings in the Bible if we look carefully and get past the stories his followers added in.
4. I believe that a group of first century Jews wanted to get Judaism back on the right track, so they created stories about this man they called Jesus who was also, according to them, somehow God. They took the worldview they believed and put their words into Jesus’ mouth to give their viewpoint authority. And then they threatened everyone who didn’t believe with hell so they could force their views on everyone else.
5. I believe that there really was a man named Jesus of Nazareth, and he really was God in human flesh. He taught a radical new way of living that changed the world and many books were written about him and his teachings. In the Bible we find the official record, approved by the church that backs up their interpretation of Jesus. But to get the whole picture you also need to read the other books that the church took out of the Bible and tried to destroy.

4. I believe that Jesus Christ died,

1. To show the world how serious the consequences of sin really are.
2. To take away the sin of the world.
3. To destroy hell forever so that no one will go there.
4. Because the Jews didn’t like what he was saying and wanted to shut him up.
5. Because it made for a good story.

5. When we celebrate Easter, we are celebrating,

1. The fact that even though the Jews and the Romans killed Jesus, they couldn’t kill his message. Jesus lives on in the hearts and minds of his followers, and his spirit appeared to his followers to encourage them.
2. The fact that Jesus and his followers beat the authorities. They tried to kill Jesus, but failed, and after Jesus recovered from his injuries, he returned to his followers stronger than ever.
3. The fact that Jesus’ disciples fooled the world. They managed to sneak past the guards, steal Jesus’ dead body and convince the world that he came back from the dead.
4. The fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. The Romans killed and buried him, but God brought him back from the dead and this resurrected Jesus met with his disciples for 40 days.
5. The confusion of Jesus’ followers. The Jewish authorities moved Jesus’ body to keep them from stealing it, and when the disciples found the empty grave, they made up stories about him being raised from the dead, even convincing themselves that they saw him in person.

6. When Jesus ascended into heaven,

1. Jesus’ spirit went back into the spiritual realm where he lives with God in a non-material heaven.
2. God, who left heaven to become a human being, left earth and went back to being God in heaven.
3. The disciples stopped imagining that they saw Jesus and had to come up with a story to explain why their hallucinations stopped.
4. Nothing happened. The stories about Jesus’ death and resurrection were just stories written by his followers after their teacher’s death to make him seem more believable.
5. Jesus’ body left the earthly realm and entered the heavenly realm where Jesus, in his body, sits with God and prays for his followers.

7. The Holy Spirit,

1. Is the church’s way of explaining the spiritual force that binds everything in the universe together.
2. Is the church’s way of describing the spark of divinity that exists inside every human being, giving us life and waiting to be reunited to God.
3. Is the real presence of God, active in the world, continuing to direct human beings to the truth.
4. Is a personification of reason, the sense inside each and every one of us showing us what is right and wrong.
5. Is a convenient story, invented by the church to keep people under control.

8. The Bible,

1. Is a book, written by humans to put into words what they believe about God. If we are careful, we can find in it the truth about God, at least as much as human beings can understand him.
2. Is a collection of the stories, legends and poetry of Judeo-Christian civilization.
3. Is the word of God that he either delivered by hand to the leaders of his people (the ten commandments God handed Moses on the mountain) or dictated to his prophets who wrote down his message word for word as he spoke it to them.
4. Is one of many different books by which God tried to get his message through to the world.
5. Is a collection of writings, written and collected by human authors as God’s Holy Spirit directed them so that we would have everything we need to know about God.

9. What is sin?

1. Sin is both the ways in which we break God’s commands, and the attitude that says we are free to do our own thing rather than just do what God says.
2. Sin is the unavoidable difference between finite humanity and an infinite God.
3. Sin is a concept invented by the church to use guilt to control people.
4. Sin is our mistaken understanding of God, the ways what we think about God falls short of what God really is and what God really wants.
5. Sin is the pollution from the bad things that we do which, if we don’t wash from our souls in Jesus blood, will keep us from going to heaven when we die.

10. Jesus’ death saves us because,

1. When we ask, Jesus covers us with his blood so that when God looks at us, he sees Jesus and not us.
2. On the cross, Jesus took the punishment for every sin ever committed. Jesus was convicted in God’s court and served our sentence so that we don’t have to.
3. Jesus’ death is the payment that settles our debt with God and puts a credit of righteousness on our account.
4. In dying on the cross, Jesus came to where we are so that we might be united with him, and having been reunited with him, we might begin to live again.
5. Jesus death proves once and for all how bad sin is and also how much God loves us, inspiring us to turn from our wicked ways and to live differently from now on.

11. Jesus died…

1. For everyone in the world, so that no one will go to hell and that everyone will go to heaven.
2. For everyone in the world, so that whoever believes in him will escape hell and go to heaven.
3. For the elect, so that God, by his sovereign power and infinite wisdom could save those he chose to go to heaven.
4. For his message. The truth he taught was so radical the religious powers tried to silence him, but Jesus refused to be quiet and because of that they killed him.
5. For nothing. It was a senseless act of violence committed by a ruthless government power that couldn’t stand the way Jesus threatened their control on Judea.

12. To be saved, I must

1. Say the sinner’s prayer, asking Jesus to forgive me of my sins and come live in my heart.
2. Repent. I must be truly and deeply sorry for my sins, ask for God’s forgiveness and seek to live a different way.
3. Be baptized. By being baptized, I accept what Jesus did for me and his death satisfies my debt to God.
4. Do good. By doing good I can prove that I love Jesus and God will reward me for it.
5. Do nothing. If it depended on what I do, my salvation would be by my works, instead of just trusting what Jesus already did for me.

13. I believe that without Jesus

1. We have no hope. Only his death and resurrection makes it possible for us to be saved.
2. We have our work cut out for us. It is possible for us to do good and live right, but without Jesus’ help it’s almost impossible.
3. We have other options. Other religious teachers point the way to God, and it’s possible to find him these other ways. But living in Western civilization like we do, following Jesus is probably easiest.
4. We’re better off. We can focus on doing good and living right without all the extra baggage of guilt and religious rules.
5. Is the only way to go. The stories about Jesus are nothing but lies designed to distract us from the truth and trap us into serving the authorities in our world.

14. Living a life without sin from now on, but  in which we never again intentionally choose to do what we know is wrong (i.e., not to never have sinned, but to stop sinning with God’s help),

1. Is an impossible lie. To even suggest such a thing is possible is to overestimate our own goodness and underestimate our need for God’s grace.
2. Is a helpful goal. We will never achieve it, because we will always make mistakes, but as long as we are aiming high we will do better than if we aim low.
3. Is a possibility. There are certainly more Christians who fall short of this than who make it, but it is an option if we try really hard.
4. Is our birthright. Jesus Christ died to make this kind of life possible, and settling for anything less is to fall short of God’s best for our lives.
5. Is absolutely required. As long as we are constantly asking for forgiveness rather than obeying God to begin with, our life is something less than Christian.

15. The church

1. Is a human institution more concerned with its own power and influence than with the work of Jesus Christ, and as a result more often gets in the way of what God wants to do in the world than actually helps advance God’s cause.
2. Is a helpful option. Some people need the support that comes from being around other people who believe the same way and for them, the church is a helpful way to reinforce what the Bible teaches.
3. Is an absolute necessity. Between our need for the church to encourage and support us, and the way the church needs us to accomplish Christ’s work in the world, there is no excuse for not being a part of a church.
4. Is the way to heaven. Jesus told his apostles what they bind on earth will be bound in heaven, so if the church doesn’t approve of us, we will never find approval in heaven.
5. Is a risky business. Yes, you must be a part of a church, but you also need to make sure you are a part of the right one. There are a lot of people out there who think they are going to heaven because they are a part of a church, but they’re due for an unpleasant surprise when they discover their church wasn’t teaching the truth and they are left out.

16. At some point in the future,

1. Jesus Christ is going to come back to earth, gather up the souls of the Christians who are still living, and take them to heaven to live with God and all the souls of Christians who have already died. Then God will destroy the earth once and for all and will send the wicked to hell.
2. Jesus will return, the dead will be resurrected, all humanity will be judged and the world will be transformed. Heaven will come to earth, and God will make his dwelling among the righteous, while the wicked will be cast into hell.
3. God will take the souls of humans to live with him forever in heaven when they die, meanwhile, on earth things will go as they have been on pretty much forever with each new generation being given responsibility for the earth.
4. God will continue to guide the world and keep things running, while the souls of those who die are absorbed back into him and we lose our individual identity in him.
5. God will continue to make the world a better place by sending the souls of those who die back into the world in new bodies, punishing the wicked by giving them hard lives and rewarding the righteous by giving them lives of importance and influence.

PERSONAL QUESTIONS:

What age group are you in?

1. Junior High (Grades 6-8)
2. Senior High (Grades 9-12)

How long have you been coming to Water’s Edge?

1. I’m a visitor and can’t remember the last time I was here
2. Less than four months (in other words, since some time after Christmas break)
3. Less than a year (I started coming this school year)
4. More than a year
5. Since I was first allowed to come when I got into 6th or 7th grade

How often do you come to Water’s Edge?

1. Pretty much every week
2. As often as I can, but I have to miss as many services as I make
3. Every once in a while depending on what I’m doing or who I’m hanging out with
4. Almost never.

In what ways are you involved in the Middletown Church?

1. Water’s Edge is pretty much the only thing I ever do
2. I come to Sunday Worship most Sunday Mornings
3. I come to Sunday School most Sunday Mornings
4. Every once in a while I come to church on Sunday Morning for worship and/or Sunday School
5. I go to church camp most summers.

Here is the second set of 16 prayer cards: one daily prayer card and one weekly memory verse card for two weeks.

Welcome to envy.

So far in our series The Seven Deadly Sins of Youth Ministry we’ve looked at the ways gluttony and wrath can get in the way of our ministry.  By way of review, the traditional list of seven capital vices includes:

• superbia (pride)
• avaritia (greed)
• luxuria (lust)
• invidia (envy)
• gula (gluttony)
• ira (wrath)
• acedia (sloth?)

Today we’ll tackle invidia, also known as envy.

Beware the Evil Eye

The Latin list of seven capital vices includes invidia, often translated as “envy.” Literally invidia means “to look against” and refers to the resentful way in which the envious eye those they envy. It’s a reminder that envy is not so much about our attitude toward that which we wish was our own, as it is the resentment we feel toward those who have what we wish we had.  Greed is a warped attitude toward things. Envy is a warped attitude toward people that rises from our bad attitude toward things.

Different cultures around the world have long understood the danger of the evil eye, and have invented numerous ways to ward it off.  Superstition warns that when someone looks at you with invidia, misfortune often follows.  Sickness, calamity, droughts, floods, even death were attributed to receiving the evil eye.

Because of the dangers involved in being given the evil eye, a whole system of gestures, words and talismans have developed in different cultures to protect against misfortune.  In some cultures a dot is placed behind the ear of a beautiful person to ensure that the evil eye doesn’t bring misfortune.  In others a talisman shaped in the form of a blue hand with an eye painted in the center is warn as a ward against the danger of envy.

But in listing invidia among the seven capital vices, the church reminds us that the danger posed to the one envying is far greater than the danger to the one being envied.  Granted, envy frequently gives rise to all sorts of violence towards those who are envied, but not every time.  However, envy always does violence to the one doing the envying.

We spend so much time trying to protect ourselves from the envy outside, when the greatest danger comes from within.

Apt to Envy

For those of us involved in ministry that’s bad news. Let’s face it, we’re seldom on the receiving end of the evil eye. Frequently the rewards for which we labor aren’t things that can be seen, let alone envied. And that alone is enough to make us apt to envy.

I remember working at my first ministry position watching as friends from college moved on to lucrative positions and adventurous assignments while my wife and I struggled to make ends meet.  I know what it means to look at life through an evil eye.  Despite the fact that I was living my dream of ministry, despite the fact that I was making friendships that will last a lifetime, despite the fact that God was meeting our needs, it was far to easy to focus on what others had rather than recognizing my own blessings.

This kind of lopsided comparison often is as the root of envy.  We see only one aspect of the blessings that others enjoy and compare that to what we have or don’t have.  Seldom is envy the result of careful consideration of the big picture.  It’s an emotional reaction to imbalance.

So Many Things to Envy

When we think of envy, we frequently think of materialism.  Often our envy is inspired by the things, financial and material, that others enjoy and that we lack.  We judge the imbalance in light of what we feel we deserve, and resent the fact that they get what we don’t.  But not all envy is material.

It’s also very easy to envy prominence.  Whether it is the titles offered others or the recognition they receive, we frequently fall prey to the evil eye when we watch other rise to prominence while we remain in relative obscurity.  This is especially true when we begin to draw comparisons about how much such recognition is deserved.

Others envy influence. Despite Jesus’ admonition about the “rulers of the Gentiles” we have a tendency to gauge greatness in terms of our ability to bend others to our will.  Either by positional authority or persuasive power, “Does she get what she wants?” is the measure of influence.  And when others have more than us, invidia invades.

Still others envy ease. Leave the hard work and perseverance to others, give us the easy road. And when others stumble into the blessed life we’ve only dreamed of, sometimes it’s hard not to feel at least a little resentment.

The head from which other problems flow

We noted at the outset that these sins are called “capital” not because they are somehow more deserving of the ultimate human punishment, but because they stand at the head of so many other sins.  With envy, this description is apt.  Once our attention is turned from the way God has blessed us, to the blessings others enjoy, a slippery slide toward all kinds of evil begins, especially for those of us involved in minsitry.

Discontentment leads to disillusionment because as we chase after what we think we want and deserve, we frequently find that the proverbial grass is seldom greener on the other side.  We move to new roles and different ministry assignments, only to find that our problems seem to follow us.  Seldom do we realize the reason our problems come along for the ride is because we are the problem, and until the root of envy is dealt with in us well find the same discontent anywhere we go.

What’s more, bitterness and resentment poison our relationships. Where there should be cooperation and camaraderie, instead there is conflict and competition. If we’re not careful we can even find ourselves subtly sabotaging those who work alongside us. Much like Edison and Tesla our attempts to undermine each other frequently hurt our own chances for success.  And we can’t see past the stinking elephant carcass to our responsibility for our own downfall.

What’s more, frequently we allow our discontentment to keep us from every getting to the place we really qualify for success.  More often than not, real success in ministry comes as a result of longevity.  It takes time to build the kind of trust and relationships that can really make a difference in students.  But if we’re constantly moving on in search of the success we’re so certain we deserve instead of staying put and working for it, we leave before we ever even come close to what we’re looking for.

You’ve already received your reward in full.

Perhaps worst of all, though, is the warning that Jesus gives to those who engage in ministry in pursuit of public recognition. Whether it’s working for justice, sharing with the needy, praying or fasting, when we do what we so that others will notice and give us the money, prominence and influence we think we deserve, we may discover God let’s us have what we want.

We may impress someone with our hard work.

We may earn gratitude from those we help with our charity.

We very well may win accolades and gain influence with our personal piety.

And getting what we want may be the worst thing to ever happen to us.

Jesus says that those who engage in religion in order to be seen and praised by others, frequently receive their reward in full.  However that respect, gratitude and influence is only temporary. They are rewards grounded in this present age, and this age is destined soon to pass away.

It’s far better to be rewarded by the God who sees what is done in secret.

Envy, and you may get what you desire. But what God desires for you is far better…

Photo by Matt Reinbold on Flickr. Used under an Attribution-Share Alike Creative Commons License.

Having spent a decent amount of time the last two weeks doing those very things (especially eating…) I think I’m going to start here.

It’s probably an understatement to say that much of what Bell suggests run counter to the faith as it was handed down to me. While Bell isn’t the first to suggest things like the possibility of post-mortem repentance and the idea that maybe, just maybe, God is good enough to save all humanity through faith in Christ (not by at least 17 centuries), suffice it to say there haven’t been many voices in my ecclesial neck of the woods advocating such views.

And that’s what makes Bell’s book such a good thing.

Let me explain.

Tradition or Scripture?

The one thing I most appreciate, even if I don’t necessarily agree, is that Bell attempts to make a reasoned scriptural argument for his view on the afterlife.  Say what you want about Rob Bell (and trust me, people have been) he’s not some fly-by-the-seat-of-your-theological-pants liberal who simply disregards the Bible as a mere human invention and is thereby freed to believe and teach whatever sounds good and reasonable to him. Regardless of how his “LiveStream” discussion may have seemed, his book wrestles with the text and seeks to make sense of God’s Word.

On the other hand, in many ways my understanding of heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived doesn’t start with Scripture. My understanding of these things begins with the faith as it was handed down to me.  The pastors I listened to while growing up, Sunday School teachers, Mom, Dad, college professors and theology textbooks have all affected my understanding of the afterlife more that an in depth examination of what the Bible has to say about it.  I have a belief in the afterlife that is based on a tradition which is rooted in an interpretation of Scripture, but it’s not my interpretation.  At least not yet.

If it does nothing else, Love Wins, calls into question my traditional understanding of my eternal destiny.

And that’s a good thing.

Wesleyan Quadrilaterals and other Geometry

The question of Scripture or tradition brings up interesting questions about epistemology: specifically how do we know anything about God. Obviously everything we know about God, we know because he has revealed himself to us.

Revealing himself through creation, through the Incarnation, and through Scripture, God offers himself to us for contemplation and worship.  But even when considering Scripture, there is never a reading that does not involve interpretation.  Reading itself is an act of interpretation, so the question is how can we be sure we are correctly handling the Word of truth?

Here the teaching of John Wesley can be particularly helpful. Wesleyan scholars have long recognized in his theological activity a pattern of appealing four criteria for weighing various interpretations.  Albert Outler coined the term the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to refer to this pattern.

Every interpretation begins with Scripture.  God’s revelation of himself through the Word is the definitive source for Christian theology.  But not only is Scripture the source of our interpretations, it is one of the criteria by which our interpretations are judged.  We weigh our interpretation of any one passage by the teaching of Scripture as a whole.

Calling into question our interpretations of Scripture and driving us back to Scripture for reconsideration are tradition and experience.  After two millennia of Christian thought, chances are we are not the first to consider any aspect of theology, especially something like the afterlife, which has been a part of Christian thought from the beginning.  Tradition raises questions about our own private interpretations and helps us consider perspectives that on our own we may have overlooked.  Our own personal experience of God’s grace likewise challenges our assumptions and interpretations, especially when, as Mildred Bangs Wynkoop notes, we discover a credibility gap where our theology doesn’t work.

Helping us work through our interpretations of Scripture according to these three criteria is reason.  Unlike the other three, reason is a processor and not a source, but without reason we could not do the analysis and synthesis needed to logically evaluate our interpretations.

Interconnected, but Far From Equal

While Wesley understood that all four criteria have a role to play in evaluating our interpretations, they are not all sources for our theology.  It’s not a democratic process. It’s not as one unnamed theologian quoted by Scott Jones said “I ran the issue of Homosexuality through the quadrilateral and Scripture lost three to one.”

On the contrary, for Wesley and for us, Scripture is the whole and sole rule of faith. The four criteria help us to examine Scripture, and more importantly, they allow Scripture to examine us. If examination is only one-sided — our judging Scripture without, in turn, allowing Scripture to judge us –  it is not theology but abuse.

As much as we might like Bell’s interpretations, as helpful as they may prove in making logical sense of the paradoxes that seemingly exist between God’s wrath and love, we cannot simply accept them because they make reasonable sense.  As valuable as they may prove in reconciling the traditional view of eternity with our experience of a gracious, loving heavenly father, if they aren’t in keeping with Scripture, they are not to be enjoined as an article of faith.

The Hermeneutic Spiral

In his brilliant exploration of John Wesley’s theology, Responsible Grace, Randy Maddox recognizes a pattern in this interplay between Scripture, reason, tradition and experience, a pattern he calls the “hermeneutic spiral.” (Yes, I recognize that Grant Osborne has also used that phrase, or one quite like it, to describe the task of the theologian/preacher. But in this I am referring to Maddox’s work.)

He notices the way in which frequently Wesley begins, not with Scripture, but with a preconception based on his traditional context.  Working from a particular social, religious, cultural and familial context, Wesley’s preunderstandings reflect the tradition of which he was a part.

However, frequently throughout his life, Wesley’s experiences would call those preunderstandings into question.  Perhaps it was an academic experience, something he was reading.  Sometimes it was a pastoral experience, questions raised by parishioners and the situations they brought to him for guidance.  Perhaps most famously, it was a personal experience, like the anxiety he experienced during his Atlantic crossing, his angst over the breakdown of his relationship with Sophie Hopkey, or the strange heart-warming occasioned during his visit to the society meeting on Aldersgate Street.

Regardless of what kind of experience it was, one way or another Wesley’s experiences drove him back to Scripture so that he could examine his preunderstandings.  Once there, thinking through Scripture in light of tradition, reason and experience, Wesley would develop a new, deeper understanding of the question at hand.

Often this deeper understanding was a confirmation of the tradition handed down to him.  Sometimes he had to leave tradition behind and follow the lead of Scripture. Either way his new understanding became the new tradition from which he operated until new experiences drove him back into Scripture again.

However, this was not an endless cycle that merely repeated itself, getting him nowhere. He was not an hyperactive puppy chasing his own theological tail.  Instead of  a circle, this process became a spiral.  Every journey from understanding to Scripture to new understanding moved his knowledge of God and the Word forward.

The Experience that Drives Us To Scripture

That brings us back to Love Wins. Whether we agree with Bell’s understanding of the afterlife or not, the book presents an opportunity to revisit our understandings and dive back into Scripture.

Chances are, you’re much like me. Your expectations about what awaits for humanity beyond the frontier of death are likely largely shaped, not by a careful and reasoned examination of Scripture, but by the tradition of which you are a part. You believe what the Bible says about heaven, hell and the fate of every person that has ever lived. But your knowledge of what the Bible says is shaped by your tradition.

Bell’s book could be the experience that drives you back to Scripture, evaluating your preunderstandings, deepening and affirming those that reflect what the Bible teaches, and rejecting those that do not accurately represent a scriptural faith.

And that’s a good thing.