Sunday, April 25, 2010

The Year Of Living Like Jesus.

Book Review.

Dobson, Ed. The Year Of Living Like Jesus. My journey of discovering what Jesus would really do. Zondervan. 2009
E.D.-pastor emeritus of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Comment. Henry.
Ed Dobson shares his experience of trying to live like Jesus for a year. To him this meant to eat like Jesus, pray like Jesus, observe the Sabbath like Jesus, and attend the Jewish festivals like Jesus did. Having to deal with a terminal disease (ALS) during this ‘project’ added a huge challenge for Ed. The example of A.J.Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically) was a motivator for Ed to undertake this project.
A major ‘rabbit trail’ for Ed was his involvement in Catholic and Orthodox liturgies, praying the rosary and the prayer rope, etc. He was being accepting of others as he felt Jesus would have been if he had lived in Ed’s culture.
Another departure from Ed’s evangelical (fundamentalist) life-style was his decision to spend time with ‘sinners’ as Jesus had done and this took him into bars where he joined in with drinking alcoholic beverages and interacting with ‘those in need of a physician’.
Part of his adherence to a Jewish life style was growing a full beard and eating kosher food. Keeping company with followers of the Jewish faith meant attendance at synagogues and important Jewish religious events.
This year long project totally changed Ed’s life-style. He does not say too much about the negative impact he suffered, i.e. loss of friends, how his wife was probably impacted, etc. The limitations that his illness brought to the project were a daily part of life.
Of the many things he learned during this special year he explains that he has grown in his appreciation for past experiences of life. He is thankful for his fundamentalist training at Bob Jones University. He describes Jerry Falwell, with whom he worked at Liberty University, as a mentor and ‘the kindest, most generous person I’ve ever met’. He has grown in his appreciation of the Roman Catholic faith and the Orthodox Church.
In this book Ed has simply shared his experience and he feels no need to be defensive about that experience even though critics have had been harsh. He has certainly demonstrated an unusual attitude of tolerance for others an attitude that is required to be part of our postmodern culture.
Ed’s experience is a striking example of one person’s attempt to live incarnationally (missionally).

Friday, April 23, 2010

Missional Map-Making

Book Review.
Roxburgh, Alan J. Missional Map-Making. Skills for leading in times of transition. Jossey-Bass. 2010
Comment. Henry.
Many years ago I came away from a ‘teacher’s convention’ with a very profound truth- Stop Doing Things That Don’t Work! That was a difficult thing for me to actually do. Even more difficult was to know what to do in place of what I was no longer doing. That is what this book is all about with reference to church work. When you don’t have something to replace what you are no longer doing you have created some kind of vacuum and left unfilled, vacuums can attract a whole lot of ‘crap’. I am sure there will be many more books written about “Missional”.
We see our world through the “cultural map of modernity” (6) and this map “assumes that all reality is made up of separate, distinct parts”. (10) Individualism is all over this map.
We are in an “in-between time” (28) of great uncertainty; in between modernity and whatever is next (postmodernity). This is a time when courageous decisions need to be made about ‘missional map-making’. This is a new world. Reality has changed. Effective map-making requires an understanding of modernity and Scripture, as applied to modernity.
“Common sense is no longer common.” (42) Equilibriums of all sorts are disappearing. E.g. N.C.D. evaluations don’t address the ‘in-between culture’. “Leading well in our environment of complex change depends on leading from a different place than management and control.” (53)
Sir Isaac Newton and the industrial revolution were key players in forming the map of modernity. Great value was given to control, predictability and strategic planning. “Strategic planning (where people are turned into objectives of goals and visions) cannot form mission-shaped communities”. (79)
There are eight forces of change that need to be reckoned with as new map-making is addressed. They are “globalization, pluralism, rapid technological change, postmodernism, staggering global need, the democratization of knowledge, and the return to romanticism”. (90-108) The development of the internet is an example of far reaching and unmanaged change.
Missional planning and map-making should follow these steps. “Assess how the environment has changed in your context.” (127) “Focus on redeveloping a core identity.” (134) “Create a parallel culture in our local church.” (143) “Form partnerships with the surrounding neighbourhoods and communities.” (164) Church leaders must shift their attention from “strategies and visions to becoming present with people”. (172) “Missional map-makers (must be) cultivators of environments” (182) in their neighbourhoods more than in their churches.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Fine Line.

Book Review.
Oberbrunner, Kary. The Fine Line. Re-envisioning the gap between Christ and culture. Zondervan. 2008.
K.O.-pastor of discipleship and leadership development at Grace Church in Powell, Ohio.
Comment. Henry.
Much has been said and written of late about how Christians (the church) can be more effective in these times. Missional, incarnational, relevant, have become buzz words. Kary is addressing the same issue(s) using a somewhat different approach. His concern is a scriptural exhortation that we are to be in the world but not of the world. This means ‘walking a fine line’ that will result in being relevant in our culture. One reason for irrelevance is an imbalance on the ‘in the world’ side of that fine line. Such people Kary calls ‘Conformists’. Those who err on the ‘not in the world’ side of the line he calls ‘Separatists. Those who walk that fine line he calls ‘Transformists’. These are the relevant ones who are impacting our culture. Kary is trying to explain in practical terms what it means to be in the world but not of it.
“Relevance is something others believe about us, not what we believe about others.” (41) The language of relevance is love. It is about loving God and loving people. “Separatists” (25) demonstrate their imbalance (irrelevance) by an inward focus that makes them ineffective in their culture. In an effort to avoid this problem, “Conformists” (25) abandon Separatist organizations (churches) and seek to be more relevant with culture by becoming like those of the culture. This is another form of imbalance that results in irrelevance. “Transformists” (27) have learned to live in that line of, being in the world but not of it.
Kary shares a number of very interesting, heart-touching stories of people whom he calls Transformists. Becoming Transformists has to become a movement which will bridge the gap between Christ and Culture.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Eternal Life

Book Review.
Spong, John Shelby. Eternal Life: A New Vision. Beyond religion, beyond theism, beyond heaven and hell. Harper One. 2009.
J.S.S.- is a leading spokesperson for liberal Christianity. A prolific writer and lecturer. Retired Epsicopalian bishop.
Comment. Henry.
My attention was drawn to this book by a very special person in my life. I had to find out for myself what this book was all about.
To describe this author as a rank liberal would be probably be viewed as a fundamentalist charge. He is a self-described product of the Enlightenment, modernity, and secularism. He is merciless in his attack on what he calls the literalists of biblical interpretations. He describes his own personal journey (evolvement) from a fundamentalist evangelical to an enlightened liberal. The thesis of his book is his personal vision of eternal life that he developed. That ‘vision’ was arrived at only after he declared the ‘death’ of religion, theism, heaven and hell. He questions all the basic beliefs of Christianity. Those who are the severest critics of ideologies are those who have at some time been part of that ideology. Spong’s conclusions are based on his interpretation of scripture, especially the Gospel of John.
I would be interested in responses from those who have read Spong and/or have an interest in his writings.

From the Preface.
“This book on life after death drove me deeply and in a new way into the Fourth Gospel. (John) described the purpose for which Jesus lived to be that of giving us life and giving it abundantly. I hope this book is in the service of that purpose.”
“Religious concepts become fragile indeed when education renders them no longer believable.” (2) The Bible and the church become “inadequate authorities”. (3) In religion the “need to believe is greater than the ability to believe”. (3) In a time of grieving the loss of a loved one people flee from “reality into religion”. (5) Religious traditions are designed to help people with death. This book is John’s personal story about life after death and he calls it his “spiritual autobiography”. (17) He does subscribe to the concept of life after death, as he understands it.
In his search for an explanation of life John concludes that “we are accidental creatures”. (24) All life is a result of evolution with man reaching a state that places him above other life, i.e. self-consciousness.
John’s personal experience with death and the explanations that were given to him as a child did not satisfy him. “Religious thinking seemed to me to be detached from reality.” (48) (This is not an unusual experience for children.)
As a twelve year old John became “an unquenchable religious seeker”. (56) As he pursued his desire to become a priest (Episcopalian) continued to have doubts about religion.
The certainty of death is strongly resisted by all forms of life as an effort of survival. For man, that desire and its accompanying anxieties, leads him to turn to religion. Religion is a human creation to fill a human need. Its ultimate goal is security not truth. This is confirmed by the changes that have happened in religion(s) over the years. The manipulating of deities is a religious practice. “Worship is simply an act of flattery by which we hope to gain God’s attention and force the deity to meet our needs.” (102)
Heaven and hell are concepts that are unacceptable (unreasonable) products of religion. “The heart, cannot accept what the mind rejects.” ((120) (Mind over heart.) This creates the option of a religion less world in which to seek after God. It is a turning “from the deity above to the deity within”. (144)
John is now ready to move ahead with his ‘new vision’ of God as he follows his own reasoning. He finds support for his vision in the mystics. He finds further support in his interpretation of the words of Christ in the Gospel of John which were never meant to be taken literally. He comes up with the conclusion that, “Because God is, I am. Because I am, God is.” (186) John has now progressed in his spiritual development through three stages, “hiding, thinking, and being”. (187)
He now is ready to present his conclusions that he has reached from his search for eternal life. He has dismissed religion and its premises that God is supernatural and man’s alienation from him requires atonement. He has transcended his religious convictions and sees God “as part of the universal consciousness in which I shared”. (206) He sees in Jesus the human, the example of becoming “one with God, transcending all human boundaries”. (208) In all his searching and discovering John considers himself to be “a disciple of Jesus”. (121)
I want to close this review with some of my own ‘conclusions’. John is being very honest in his presentations. His are conclusions of one totally committed to modernity at its best. I am open to help as to how to respond to the likes of John without getting into mind-boggling debates and dead-end arguments.
www.henrydirksen.blogspot.com

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Divine Embrace

Book Review.
Webber, Robert E. The Divine Embrace. Recovering the passionate life. Baker Books, 2006.
Comment. Henry.
There is quite a contrast of titles from McClaren’s “Everything Must Change”, to Webber’s “The Divine Embrace”. I appreciate both but confess that I resonate more with “The Divine Embrace”. Part of that response is probably generational. All ‘post-moderns’ are not the same. Emergent (emergence) has different phases and/or levels. In this book Webber addresses something that is basic to the Christian life (experience) that is timeless. Our spiritual life is part of our identity and is dependent on our understanding and involvement in ‘God’s story’. I found this book encouraging and informative.
All “spirituality has an experiential dimension, but the experience is always in keeping with the story from which it arises”. (15) This book focuses on the Christian story which Webber calls “the divine embrace”. It is God’s story which Paul calls “the mystery of Christ”. Our involvement in the story is through “contemplation and participation”. (20)
“God’s story and spirituality” (32) of the ancient church was challenged by the Gnostics. The Apostle’s Creed raised a standard against Gnosticism and dualism. The incarnation, explained in John 1:14, was being interpreted in ways that challenged ‘God’s story’. The Chalcedon Creed of AD 451 addressed this challenge. “Ancient spirituality is a theological spirituality,” (42) manifested in a life lived according to God’s design, represented by biblical teachings.
“Evangelicals, having separated spirituality from God’s vision, practice spiritualities of legalism, intellectualism, and experientialism.” (80) In these spiritualities the focus is on self. We live in a world where secularism and New Age are strong players. To be able to respond effectively to these challenges we must rediscover God’s story, i.e. “ancient spirituality”. (120)
God’s story is expressed in three typologies, “creation/recreation, the first Adam/second Adam, the Exodus event/Christ event”. (130) ‘Our story’ has three important ‘ingredients’, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. “Baptism in the Spirit seals and reveals”. (160) Baptism gives us our spiritual identity which is sealed by the Spirit.
“Baptismal spirituality” (180) is important in our participation in God’s story and gives us understanding about our part in God’s relationship with us. The “desert fathers” have given us helpful instructions regarding matters of the heart. The “Benedictine rule” (200) brings understanding about the disciplined Christian life. Brother Lawrence is a good example. Appreciating God’s creation is demonstrated by how we care for ‘material things’.
“The church is the family of God, called to live the baptized life.” (223) It is (should be) by nature a nurturing body, nurturing disciples. Worship should be situated in the story of God not in the (contemporary) culture. “Worship as a prayer shapes who we are.” (235)
“There is no story in this world that is more profound than the story of God’s embrace.”