What's been going on with me

Those who have been keeping up with this blog may have noticed that I haven't been keeping up with it very well as of late. The reason for this is because I've been busy looking for a pastoral position. I graduated seminary about a year ago, but at the end of August, my pastor told me that he thought I was ready to begin truly pastoring. So, from then on, I've been looking.

It has actually been rather difficult. It isn't like looking for other kinds of jobs. Number one, it isn't about going for the position you like the best. It is about finding the right fit. There is a relational aspect of pastoring that can't be ignored. So rather important factors, like money or location, can't be the primary qualifications. I have to primarily look at the people of the church.

Second, it is much more difficult to find a those looking for a pastor. It's all about networking rather than want ads.

Finally, there are papers, and sermons, and other such things that I've needed to prepare to include in my resume. So that it a bit of work to add.

All in all, I hope that you guys can pray for me. This is my launch into the rest of my life, and it is rather important that God stays at the steering wheel here. There is one church that I really pray for right now, but it is not about me, but God's will. So please pray that He will guide me, and prepare the way for me.

Thanks.

UnchristianPart VIII: Conclusion

• Introduction
• Hypocrisy
• Proselytizing
• Antihomosexual
• Sheltered
• Too Political
• Judgmental
• Conclusion

Quite frankly, I liked this book a lot. It was very fair and balanced in its approach. I was a little worried that it was just going to tell us Christians how we were doing everything wrong, but instead, it focused on saying, "Look, here is how we are being understood. Is this what we want?"

In that way, the book was very pragmatic. It isn't saying we are being immoral. Instead, it is saying that how we are doing things isn't working, and if it isn't working, we should try something else.

Now in many ways even the early church was misunderstood. Many thought they were cannibals (Eucharist language) and atheists (because they didn't worship idols). That's going to happen to us too as more and more of the culture becomes ignorant on what Christianity teaches. But instead of becoming upset at this, we should instead take it as an oppurtunity to get back to our roots, and focus on the heart of the message: Jesus Christ. We should focus on making sure that that message is communicated, and no others.

Therefore let us reach out to one another in love, and focus on the finisher of our faith, and put away the petty things that are dividing us. If Jesus is proclaimed, who cares about the rest?

Ephesians 2:4-5; A Devotional

But, being rich with mercy, God, through His great love with which He has loved us though we were dead in trespasses, has made us alive with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

The point of Paul telling us where we have come from in the past couple of verses is to make clear to us the boundless mercy and grace that has been giving to us. The point of the concepts of mercy and grace is that we do not deserve them.

And that is one of the principle differences between Christianity and any other faith (at least that I am aware of). In man-made religions, humans achieve a particular end, by some means. In Christianity, we are rescued from our own nature.

Lord, Thank you for the marvelous salvation that you have bestowed upon us! Thank You for Your unending grace to us. I can never fully understand it Lord. I can never fully grasp why You would sacrifice so much for us, who are so little. We praise Your name!

UnchristianPart VII: Judgmental

• Introduction
• Hypocrisy
• Proselytizing
• Antihomosexual
• Sheltered
• Too Political
• Judgmental
• Conclusion

Kinnaman's Thoughts

There are two points of Kinnaman's that I think are incredibly valuable. First he identifies 4 types of judgmental attitudes:

1. Wrong Verdict: Simply coming to an erroneous conclusion about a person or situation. This is usually what it is that we think of when we think of being judgmental.
2. Wrong Timing: This is when you come to an accurate conclusion about something, but express it at an inappropriate time. Why is this judgmental? Because , you are passing judgment on the person without thinking about communicating to them. Essentially, you are only passing judgment. You aren't trying to achieve anything with that judgment.
3. Wrong Motivation: I think this one is pretty obvious. It is when we are right about our judgment, but act out that judgment in an inappropriate fashion. Are we acting out of a sense of justice, or vindictiveness? Is it about doing the right thing, or about revenge?
4. Playing Favorites: This is the opposite. This is giving grace only to certain persons, while showing sternness to others (sound like any theology?).

All of these attitudes get in the way of reaching out to people. Being insensitive demonstrates to people that you don't really care about them. In the end, that's the biggest problem. If we are trying to reach out to people, then it has to be about them, not about us. If it isn't motivated by love and an honest desire to save them, than what is it?

That is the other thing that Kinnaman talked about: Pride. Often, instead of love, we are motivated by pride. We automatically think that we are better than the people around us. After all, we're saved and they aren't. However, we should never confuse being in a superior place with actually being superior. I found the translation of Romans 2:1,4 that he uses interesting:

You may be saying, "What terrible people you have been talking about!" (see Romans 1) But you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you do these very same things... Don't you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Or don't you care? Can't you see how kind he has been in giving you time to turn from you sin?

My Thoughts

I think the fundamental problem that much of evangelical Christianity has right now is realizing taht being correct isn't the same thing is being right. Often we think that the accuracy of our opinions justifies how we present these opinions.

Now is there a place and time for speaking harshly, and critically? Yes, there absolutely is. Being it is only within the context of a relationship that gives you the right to do so; a relationship that we currently do not have in the general population. A credible report needs to be established that lets a person know that what you say matter. This cannot be assumed simply because we had it in the past.

Now, I'm giving some Christians more credit than they deserve here. Let's face it, there are a lot of jerks in the church right now, many of them in leadership. But, I'm not speaking to those people here because they (A) would never read this blog anyway and (B) wouldn't recognize I was talking to them even if they did.

I think it is more important for us who honestly mean well to recognize that we need to be careful how we say things. Being correct isn't good enough. We need to stop and consider how a person will understand what it is that we are saying, and adjust how we say it accordingly. This means that we need to listen to them, and know where they are coming from before we speak.

UnchristianPart VI: Too Political

• Introduction
• Hypocrisy
• Proselytizing
• Antihomosexual
• Sheltered
• Too Political
• Judgmental
• Conclusion

Many view Christians purely in terms of the political right. To them, we are activists of a particular brand of politics and have nothing much to offer apart from that. This is a problem in that the Church should not be defined by politics, though we should engage in them.

Kinnaman's Thoughts

Kinnaman sees the problem, not in terms of what our politics are, but in terms of how we go about engaging poltics. At the end of the chapter, he makes a series of observations and solutions to this problem:

• unChristian: Christians rely too heavily on political
  Christlike: We are cautious not to place too much emphasis on politics
  
  
• unChristian: Christians get enamored with politics
  Christlike: There is nothing gained by winning elections if we lose our soul in the process
  
  
• unChristian: Christians drown out and demonize the voices of others
  Christlike: Respect our enemies and be aware of our capacity for myopia
  
  
• unChristian: Christians do not respect leaders whose political viewpoint is different from their own.
  Christlike: Respect and listen to our leaders and pray for them
  
  
• unChristian: Christians are hypocrites when it comes to politics
  Christlike: In trying to solve problems in society, be vigilant about our own capacity for hypocracy.

My Thoughts

Personally, I like Kinnaman's balance here. He is correct that Christians need to be engaged in politics because we want to make a positive difference in this world. I would add that Christians have a responsibility to be involved in politics because we are called to that positive difference.

But he is also right that politics should not be our focus. They are, by nature, complex, and any attempt to say that "such and such" is the clear Christian perspective on an issue usually fails to grasp the complexity.

For instance, let us take the issue of abortion. Now I'm against it because I believe it is completely Unchristian to allow millions of babies to die every year by government hands. This logic to be is unpenetrable. But I also realize that no pro-abortion person supports the killing of babies. What they reject is the notion that we are even dealing with a baby.

Another basic problem is that political agenda should not be the primary test for fellowship. Any church should be able to exist with different political views within it since the basis for fellowship is commitment to Jesus Christ. Yes, certain views should not be possible, but if we are focused on heavenly things, then we should not be as concerned with what happens in this world. If America falls, the kingdom of God will survive. We need to be OK with that.

Ephesians 2:3; A Devotional

Along with them, we all once lived by the passions of our flesh, doing the desires of the body and of the mind. Like the rest of them, we were children of wrath.

What do you think when you see a non-Christian? One of the problems of American Christianity is that most Christians do not understand the difference between the Church and America. This has caused a few problems. One, we don't tend to trust non-American Christian bodies. Two, we except someone to behave like a Christian simply because they are an American.

However, the world is worldly. We need to remember this. We do not look down at those in the world and see how far beneath us they are. We look at them and recognize that of ourselves, we are no better. We are the same. Any good aspect of ourselves comes strictly from God's grace!

Instead of seeing them simply of children of wrath, we need to seem them as potential children of grace. Just like we are no better than them, they are also no worse than us, and have just as much access to God's grace.

So I encourage you this week to reach out to those around you. Spread the grace around. Don't be like some that hoard God's grace for themselves and their cliches; distribute it to all. After all, it is the will of God that all be saved.

Ephesians 2:1-2; A Devotional

And you were dead because¹ of the transgressions² and sins in which you once walked, as the world has through the ages³ according to the ruler of domain⁴ of the air⁵ ; the spirit now working in the unyielding⁶ sons.

A major aspect of Christian life is remembering where you came from. Christianity is fundamentally a faith of redemption. Part of redemption is being redeemed from something.

There are two common problems we encounter when dealing with our sinful past:

1. Forgetting it completely: Many times we look at life from the vantage point of where we are now, a loose site of what a wretch we were before Christ. This creates pride, making us think we're perfect, and often causing us to berate others who are still in need of redemption.
2. Hanging on to it: There are many that are so caught up in who it is that they used to be that they cannot move on. Either they keep condemning themselves (which is unhealthy), or they are focused on the thing they were redeemed from as the central obstacle in all Christian life (like a former alcoholic believing that all alcohol is evil by nature).

In this particular case, Paul is speaking of the latter sense. Our former existence brings praising God, by reminding us of how grateful we need to be. The grand purpose of Paul is a calling for us to leave that former way of living behind completely, and live in a grander, more heavenly way (which he will describe as being united to one another).

Therefore, this week consider the life you live in comparison to the world. Is it different? Are you living a life that is distinct and holy? Holy doesn't mean that you live perfectly moral. It simply means that you live differently: a life devoted to God. So live that out, and celebrate that we are no longer tied to the concerns and ways of this world, but have been birthed into a greater life.

---

Translation notes
To be finished later

¹ There actually is no preposition here at all, though one is implied because the words 'transgressions' and 'sins' are in the dative (which makes them indirect objects grammatically). Most translations use the term 'in' here, but sense there is really no demand to use any particular preposition here, I thought to use one that explained things better.

² The word here is literally 'an act of falling aside'.

³ The phrase here is "kata ton aiona tou kosmou toutou" which means "according to the eon of this world". The two basic ways I saw to translate this in other versions was "according to the course of this world" [KJV/etc...] (which is not literal enough to be this cryptic in my opinion) and "following the course of this world" [ESV/NIV]. I think the second is better, but I think both miss the mark since they don't interact with the notion of the 'aion'.
'Aion' is defined as a long period of time. It is even translated as eternity in some contexts. I believe in this context it means the full time of this world, or this world's full lifetime. I then translated it to point this out.

⁴ Ok, the word is is literally 'air'. What is important to note here is that there is a connection in Greek (and Hebrew) between spirit and air. The Greek (and Hebrew) word for spirit means wind or breath, and the word air can also mean the upper regions. It is also important that the word later on translated as 'spirit' is connected to this word here for this same reason. The "spirit working" is an element of the air. Since it is impossible to translated both of these senses simultaneously in English, I decided to emphasize the other half here.
However, I am really unsure of this choice, and debated for hours before I finally settled on it. Even now I'm really unsure.

⁵'Exousia' literally means "the right to do what one wishes". Where it was used in chapter 1, I translated it as 'authority', and I still think that that is the best sense of the word. However, it doesn't make sense in this context. The word 'influence' is chosen here just to make the sentence read easier.

⁶ 'Apeitheia' means "won't be convinced". I felt that 'disobedience' was too law focused.