Okay… So, this might seem a little odd, but I just subscribed to the newsfeed for a website dedicated to Mississippi atheists. (The source of the quote in the title.) “Why?” you might ask. As a Christian and especially as a pastor, I need to know how others see us. What are their questions? What, about us, troubles them? Are there things that we say or do that keeps them from interacting with us? How have we hurt them? How have we helped them? Why can’t I stop referring to them as “them”? It sounds as if I am on some covert espionage mission, infiltrating the ranks of the enemy, in order to find their weaknesses and exploit them for our advantage. But really, that’s not it at all. I honestly want to know if there is anything I can do to help others experience God’s saving grace the way I have.

What are the barriers that we must dismantle if we are to reach our culture with the message of the Gospel? Maybe first, we should stop seeing “them” as the enemy and recognize that they are children of the living God, just as we are. We are no better and our being one of the insiders doesn’t make us any better, more intelligent, more spiritual, or anything else. It just means that we have more to thank God for and that recognition should humble us beyond words. At least they are being honest with their questions and doubts. We tend to hide them or sweep them under the rug. After all, to express doubt is surely a lack of faith, and we can’t have that, can we?  But to deny or repress our doubts is to admit that we don’t have faith that God can answer our questions and alleviate our fears. So which is worse? My suggestion is to admit our humanness and trust that God can and will prepare for us a way that will draw us closer to God than we could have possibly imagined. So maybe in the end this is as much about “us” as it is “them”.

1. Describe your personal experience of God and the understanding of God you derive from biblical, theological, and historical sources.

Augustine, in The Trinity, says, “it is difficult to contemplate and fully know the substance of God; who fashions things changeable, yet without any change in [Godself], and creates things temporal, yet without any temporal movement in [Godself].” I would go further and say that is impossible to “fully know the Substance of God.” However, it is in the journey – the questions, the searching, the quest to know the unknowable – that God makes Godself known to us. I heard someone say once that, “The nature of God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere, and the circumference is nowhere.” Incomprehensible – This is a good way for me to sum up my experience of God. God is beyond all that we as finite humans can possibly imagine, but is yet knowable in an intimate way that goes beyond any human relationship we can have. I, like other Christians, affirm the fundamental orthodox doctrines of the Christian church, but at the same time I recognize that these are limited ways of expressing what we as humans have come to understand as the nature of God. We move between the opposite extremes of mystery and knowability as we seek to live out a faith based upon the affirmation that “God is truth”; all the while knowing that our apprehension of that “Truth” is limited at best. But our faith also proclaims that God reveals Godself to us in God’s own good time.

So, I am left with an overriding need to find something that will guide me during the journey of discovery that ensures moving toward a meaningful relationship with God and God’s creation. I can find nothing better than the affirmation from First John chapter four that says, “God is love.” I understand that the love of God takes many forms and sometimes it may be a form I don’t like – judgment for example – but nevertheless, the pursuit of a life consumed by God’s love is, for me, the only answer to the often difficult question of “how should we then live.” In Abandonment to Divine Providence, Jean-Pierre de Caussade writes…

“For those who abandon themselves to it, God’s love contains every good thing, and if you long for it with all your heart and soul it will be yours. All God asks for is love, and if you search for this kingdom where God alone rules, you can be quite sure you will find it.”

An example of how this has proven to be true comes from an encounter I had shortly after joining the United Methodist Church. I have a very dear friend who believes "once-saved always-saved". I disagree. I met Bob in a UMC Sunday School class where every morning we would discuss various "theological" issues. Somehow we got on the subject of "once-saved always-saved" and Bob made the emphatic claim that he would question the salvation of anyone who didn’t believe it. We went back and forth for a few minutes and eventually agreed to "debate" the OSAS position the next Sunday. Some of the church leaders were absolutely terrified. All they could see was division, and they just knew that this was going to "tear the church apart.” That next Sunday, we had our debate and in the classroom were several people that hadn’t been there in quite some time. You see, the word had gotten out that Allen and Bob would be debating a very contentious subject and people wanted to be there to see what all the fuss was about. Maybe they came just to see a good fight, but the outcome was miraculous.

I didn’t change Bob’s mind, and he didn’t change mine. I’m not sure that anyone changed their mind concerning OSAS, but people were changed. Many people came up to me afterward to express their new found excitement. Apparently, our "questions" had prompted other "questions.” People who hadn’t seriously studied their Bibles in years we’re not just reading them, but studying them. Their questions were prompting them to learn more of who God is. The simple explanation for why this lead to growth instead of something ugly is because Bob and I were determined that regardless of what happened we would treat each other with love and respect. Because of that, God was present in our debate and continues to be with us in our friendship. So for me, as important as it may be to have a proper theological understanding of who God is, it is equally if not more important to love as God has loved me. My experience of God leads me to the conclusion that either through me or in-spite of me, God will be true to all that God has promised. My experience of God confirms one of my favorite quotes by Verna Dozier. She said…

“Faith always includes the possibility that we could at any given moment be wrong, and that is why it requires courage. Kingdom of God thinking calls us to risk. We always see through a glass darkly, and that is what faith is about. I will live by the best I can discern today. Tomorrow I may find out I was wrong. Since I do not live by being right, I am not destroyed by being wrong. The God revealed in Jesus whom I call the Christ is a God whose forgiveness goes ahead of me, and whose love sustains me and the whole created world.”

Some people find it easy to share their faith, even with strangers whom they have just met. The rest of us struggle to find the right words to say when we are talking about the weather, much less when we are talking about something of ultimate importance. Maybe it’s a lack of courage or conviction, but I think, more often than not, it is a sense of uncertainty that comes from a lack of preparation. That’s where a resource like the workbook Acts 29: The Mission Continues… by Chris Kovac can help to equip the believer with the tools needed to share their faith with confidence. The workbook includes Bible study materials, scripture memorization, essays, and discussion questions that together help to provide the foundation necessary to alleviate the awkwardness often experienced when sharing one’s faith. The confidence that comes from a sense of adequate preparation is indispensible when placing oneself in the often uncomfortable role of Christian witness. The one problem I have with the book is one of theology only. The author relies explicitly on the penal-satisfaction theory of the atonement and neglects others such as the ransom theory, the satisfaction theory, the moral theory, Christus Victor, etc. Penal satisfaction is a theory of the atonement, but not the only theory. It would be beneficial for those seeking to share their faith with people of diverse backgrounds to supplement this workbook with an additional study of the atonement. Overall, I would recommend this workbook for any small group study seeking to equip believers with faith-sharing tools and hope to use it soon in just such a small group setting.

I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

What does it take to reach people who just aren’t listening? Sometimes it takes something extreme to show people that you are sincere. For Francis of Assisi, that meant giving up his lavish lifestyle as the son of a wealthy merchant and embracing a life devoted to poverty. Not just assisting the poor, but literally giving up everything, owning nothing, begging for the barest of necessities, and calling others to do the same in an effort to live out the “literal Gospel” as he understood it.

The people of Francis’ day had become disillusioned with religion and found it hard to trust anyone who represented the church. This was due in large part to the opulence of the clergy, contrasted to the poverty of much the populace. Along comes Francis of Assisi and shatters this image of opulence and by so doing, gains access to the hearts of women and men. In Saint Francis by Robert West, we are given a glimpse into the life of one of history’s most influential, albeit odd, Catholic churchmen. As the originator of the Franciscan Order, Francis has left an indelible mark on the church as we know it and shows us that the key to reaching the world for the glory of God lies not in showmanship, but in sincerity.

This is a very well written book that is easy to read; with just enough history to be educational, but not at all “textbookish”. The life of Saint Francis is remarkable and this work is a great introduction that left me with a desire to know more about this amazing individual.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

In Azusa Street, Frank Bartleman, gives a detailed account of the beginning of the Pentecostal styled revival that occurred from 1906-1909. He gives significant details on the background events that led up to the revival and then follows the revival as it begins to spread across the United States. A significant key to the effectiveness of this account is the position within the movement of Frank Bartleman himself. He was not just a reporter of the events that took place or a passive bystander, but he was an actual participant and leader of this Pentecostal movement, thus, giving the reader the benefit of both the facts of the events and the personal effects that the revival had on this person’s life and on others that experienced it. It is however important to keep in mind that because of Bartleman’s position within the movement, his critique of the movement may be somewhat skewed.

The account by Frank Bartleman clearly shows the sacrifices that he and his family made because of his determination to have a deeper and richer relationship with God in his life. This new relationship that he developed not only impacted his own life, but compelled him to share his personal experience with others. The reader can easily visualize from the descriptions given, the trials that Frank Bartleman and his collegues went through, and at the same time, the strength of their faith in God th at grew through each trial they encountered. The willingness of Bartleman and others like him to suffer for their faith should force the Christian today to seriously question their own level of commitment and what it means to live as an authentic Christian in the world today.

The book points out that many of the difficulties that Frank Bartleman and other missionaries of his day encountered were actually attacks that originated from the organized churches of the day. Many evangelists and preachers confronted them as they sought to spread this new experience which they deemed as given from above. But yet, it also revealed that there were many people during Bartleman’s time who were searching for an experiential relationship with God that would go beyond the cerebral and fill an emotional void left by their present religious experience. Many “hungry souls” came there were who were desperately seeking this Pentecostal experience. Bartleman is quick to point out however that many came for selfish reasons. He said that, “Most were seeking selfish blessings. They rushed to meetings, like a big sponge to get more blessing. They needed stepping on.”

According to Bartleman, one of the primary characteristics of the early Pentecostal movement was the overwhelming sense of God’s immediate presence. Accounts like the following are common throughout the work. “Then suddenly, the Lord Jesus revealed Himself to us. He seemed to stand directly between us, so close we could have reached out our hands and touched Him” (17). It is this sense of God’s presence that allows Bartleman and his colleagues to boldly move in a direction of total self-denial that lifted God and community as the central theme around which the movement surged. The community came together and gave themselves completely to the task of “seeking the Lord.” They would saturate themselves in prayer; praying for hours, sometimes days at a time. They saw themselves as nothing, taking seriously Christ’s admonition to seek to be last. This self-denial and abasement left them open to what was, in there estimation, a movement of the Holy Spirit that took them beyond their own reasoning into the realm of the supernatural. This supernatural experience was accompanied by what they interpreted to be the sign gifts of the New Testament, including the most common sign, speaking in tongues. Whatever a person my believe concerning these charismatic gifts, it is obvious that the experiences of the early Pentecostal movement were significant enough to give the followers of the movement the courage to spread the movement in spite of constant opposition.

Any Christian who desires to give their entire life to the Lord Jesus Christ would greatly benefit from reading this book which depicts the trials and tribulations and at the same time, the tremendous blessings that these early Christians of the twentieth century experienced. This book has forced me to reflect on where we as Christians need to be today and ask serious questions regarding my own commitment as I seek to live as an authentic Christian in an often unwelcoming world.

d365.org has produced a great Back2School devotion. If you are a student, teacher, parent, or none of the above (that’s everyone else) I think you will be blessed by visiting the website. Just follow the link or go to http://www.d365.org and click on “Begin Today’s Devotion.”

Have you ever found yourself at a place in life where you could look back and see how, in some inexplicable way, circumstances seemingly worked together for your good, often in-spite of your best efforts to the contrary? In Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together, Ron Hall and Denver Moore tell the gripping story of how two men, with nothing in common except both of them being children of the deep-south, find themselves drawn together by forces unseen and, as a result, their future’s are forever altered. Denver is an African-American homeless man whose early life on a Louisiana plantation has left him bitter and guarded. Ron is the self-made millionaire art dealer who sees little beyond the next deal. Brought together by Ron’s wife, the two forge a deep and lasting friendship that will eventually impact not only their lives, but those around them as well. Surprisingly for Ron, it doesn’t take long for him to realize that he has more to learn from Denver than he could ever have imagined. And for Denver, finding someone that genuinely cares about him, with no strings attached, awakens him to a world that had been closed to him for a very long time.

This is a well written, deeply moving book that had me both laughing and crying as I followed Ron and Denver on their remarkable journey. Ron and Denver both take their turn telling the story from their own perspective, allowing you to see through their eyes and relate more easily to their experiences. On the very first page, Denver draws you into his world and doesn’t let go. Ron soon follows with what you might hope is a brief rest from the tortured life of Denver, but you soon find that all is not well in the polished world that we often present as our own. I highly recommend this book and hope that it touches you as deeply as it did me.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

One of the most perplexing theological dilemmas for me is the tension created between God’s sovereignty and human free-will. And on some level, it seems that most of our theological debates at least hint at this ever present tension. For me as a pastor, it is the underlying question in nearly every pastoral care issue. When faced with human crisis, God’s sovereignty is called into question. While Lewis may not offer us a solution to this dilemma created by the proposition of God’s sovereignty vs. human free-will, he does offer us some interesting points to ponder.

In Lewis’ conversion story, he would seem to suggest that his experience of conversion was anything but a free choice. He says that he was converted "kicking and screaming" (Surprised 229). From the human perspective, with all of the logical deductions that led Lewis to accept Christianity, it might seem like he made a “choice”. But when he uses language that makes it sound like he was simply overcome by a more powerful force, it leads me to wonder just how much of a “choice” he actually had. He said, “All over the board my pieces were in the most disadvantageous positions. . . . [Then] my Adversary began to make His final moves” (Surprised 216). In the conversion process, the only intelligent option for Lewis was to submit. He could argue or run, but the reality was that he was, as he described, in checkmate. It is interesting here for me to imagine two people actually playing chess. When a person is in checkmate, there are no more moves left. The only option is to reach out and topple your own king. I guess you could upset the entire board, and just refuse to play, but if Lewis, with a mind like his, did that, would he still be C.S. Lewis? I don’t think so. It was his only logical choice. So is that really a choice?

Lewis in no uncertain terms affirms his belief in human free-will. But is that free-will limited to moral choices only and not extended to that choice of choices, the choice to accept or reject God? He said in Mere Christianity that…

Much of the preceding quote seems to deal with moral choices, or the choice between good and bad, but the phrase “voluntarily united to Him” in the last sentence leads me to believe that Lewis did in fact extend human free-will to the process of salvation. And so, I think that Lewis would agree that any salvation worth having would be only salvation freely chosen, and for that, humans “must be free.” Just when I think I have Lewis figured out, I come across a statement like this from Mere Christianity: “Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God” (Mere, 143). So, if this is true, then why couldn’t God give the gift of belief to every human being? If all of our being is a gift from God, it would seem that a loving God would want each of God’s creatures to experience the ultimate joy – being joined eternally with God. But that would then render the ultimate joy “not worth having” because it had not been chosen freely. Maybe it is just a question that cannot be answered by our limited human understanding. Lewis said that, “In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself” (Mere, 124). In Lewis’ works, I see revealed this tension that we as Christians live within, that is God’s sovereignty vs. human free-will.

Maybe the question is being framed in the wrong way. Maybe it is not God’s sovereignty vs. human free-will, but God’s sovereignty and human free-will. Maybe in some way that only God can comprehend, it is a both/and condition and not either/or. To us as humans this may seem impossible. Lewis may have even referred to this as “nonsense”, but I am beginning to think that there is no other alternative. Lewis said that [God’s] “omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense” (Problem, 18). While I agree with Lewis’ basic premise, I think it is important to remember that what seems to us like “nonsense”, may be nothing other than the unfathomable depths of God which are beyond human comprehension. The Trinity on one hand seems like “nonsense” – one God, three persons; three equals one; one equals three; unity in diversity. It makes no sense yet we affirm it as one of the basic tenets of the Christian faith. To say that any being, even God, is above or outside time seems, from the human perspective, to be utter “nonsense”, but we accept it as a valid theory within the realm of orthodoxy.

Would Lewis see it the way I do, or would he place himself more firmly in one camp or the other?. Maybe this question has more to do with God’s underlying purpose in creating humans. Lewis, I think, sees God as intimately involved in the maintenance of creation. It becomes obvious then that an understanding of God’s sovereignty vs. human free-will is incomplete without an understanding of God’s creative intention. God is much more than a creator of all, but also the everlasting preserver and sustainer of all. Many Christians assert that in/among God’s creation there is nothing that happens by chance, fortune, or fate. You commonly hear people, even people who fully affirm the free-will of humanity, say something like, “all things happen for a reason”, appealing to God’s sovereignty as a way to explain the way things happen or the way things are. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain, said…

People seem to recognize that there are instruments/creatures of God that act according to their nature, good or bad, but only as God empowers them to do so. But if this nature is truly independent, then it would only seem logical that we would have to admit that maybe there are things that do not happen for a reason. If we see God as active in God’s creation and not merely directing or influencing outcomes by establishing universal laws that govern it, does that involvement override the free-will of God’s creatures?

Even after reading Lewis, I am no closer to answers to these questions, and honestly, the questions actually become much more difficult to answer. It is an age-old dilema that Lewis seems to struggle with as much as I do. So maybe in the end, it is all just a bunch of “nonsense”.

In “Belief Matters: United Methodism’s Doctrinal Standards”, Charles Yrigoyen, Jr. presents a broad overview of the historical documents that make up the doctrinal standards of the United Methodist Church. In the “Introduction”, Yrigoyen gives a brief explanation of the importance of doctrine. He says doctrine helps us understand the biblical message in a more clear and organized way; provides a basis for the way we live our lives; is necessary in articulating our faith; provides a foundation for the community of faith we participate in; and protects us from “false and subversive teachings.” (11)

Yrigoyen quickly moves to the doctrinal standards themselves. He begins with an overview of John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on the New Testament. After a brief look at the historical context that gave rise to the Notes, he then highlights many of notes themselves in an attempt to give the reader a glimpse of John Wesley’s theology that runs throughout. What emerges, for Yrigoyen, is a Bibliocentric theology that is concerned primarily with humanity’s estrangement from God, God’s saving work in Christ, and the fruit of Christian faith – holiness of heart and life. Also evident in the Notes is a well developed Christology that deals with who Jesus is and what his life, death, and resurrection mean.

Next, Yrigoyen deals with John Wesley’s standard sermons. Here he offers a cursory examination of the 151 sermons originally used as guidelines for those preaching in “Methodist buildings” during the early days of the Methodist movement. As with the Notes, Yrigoyen provides selected excerpts from the sermons to show the basic theological themes found throughout the entire collection. He highlights the central themes as original sin, prevenient grace, justification by faith, new birth, assurance (knowing we are children of God), and holiness of heart and life.

Yrigoyen treats the final two doctrinal standards, “The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church” and “The Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church”, in similar ways. He includes the entire text of each document with interspersed comments between sections of related material offering an explanation of the theological underpinnings that contributed to the development of the text itself. He groups “The Articles” into five major categories: The Triune God, Scripture, Sin and Salvation, Church and Sacraments, and the Christian in Society; and provides commentary between each section. While “The Confession” contains similar themes, Yrigoyen treats each numbered confession independently.

Yrigoyen concludes with a summary of the central doctrines found throughout the four doctrinal standards. He also urges us to read and consider carefully “Our Theological Task” as found in The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church.

Early on, in the preface of the book, Yrigoyen states that he had two purposes in mind when writing the book: first, “to remind us that what we believe does matter” and second, “to explain the doctrinal standards of The United Methodist Church.”(7) In a relatively short work, 128 pages, he has made an admirable attempt to do just that. While it would be impossible to do an in-depth study of the doctrinal standards in such a short work, he does however provide a solid foundation for further study and reflection. He spends just enough time covering the historical background of the standards to give the reader a sense of how the standards evolved, leaving the reader with a good starting point for further reading and study. Spending more time on the theological content of the standards, he allows the reader to fully appreciate the scope and breadth of John Wesley’s theology. With the lack of in-depth treatment of the standards however, the “Suggested Reading” sections at the end of each chapter were welcome additions.

This book is a good starting place for any United Methodist who has been confronted with the oft repeated statement that, “United Methodists can believe anything.” If we take seriously the “doctrinal standards”, this is easily seen as not being the case at all. After reading Yrigoyen’s work and becoming more familiar with our doctrinal distinctives, I am becoming increasingly aware of our failure as United Methodists to adequately equip our congregations.

It is difficult to understand how we could have let our congregations become so totally uninformed when it comes to our Wesleyan heritage. I have found that very few Methodists can even tell me where the name Methodist came from. Fewer still have any idea what “prevenient” means. This is an indictment, not of the laity, but of the leadership who have allowed “Methodist” to become little more than a name. Yrigoyen’s book will be an indispensible tool in equipping my congregation for their “theological task.”

I am reminded by Yrigoyen however, that teaching doctrine is only part of our task as pastors. If the connection isn’t made between head and heart, then we have missed the mark. He said…