Theological Musings

o all of you who read and comment, may your Christmas time be one of rich blessing, and may the peace of Christ dwell in your hearts.  I appreciate all of you who have come into my life through this blog, and wish you joy.  I likely will not post again until 2007, so…

Until next time,

steve

any of you are probably familiar with George Barna. For years, church leaders turned to Barna’s research polls as a barometer of the culture around them and within their own churches. Many of the church growth principles that drove the megachurch model since the late 80’s and early 90’s found their support in Barna’s statistics.

Unfortunately (in the minds of some), Barna’s focus in recent years on the ways in which the institutional church is failing, along with his controversial book Revolution, has meant that he is no longer a welcome voice to many church leaders. I have been disappointed over the past year to see my prediction back in February come true.

I tend to feel, however, that any criticism of Barna amounts to “shooting the messenger”. After all, we can’t decide that we like polls only when they reflect what we want to see! I don’t personally believe that Barna has anything to gain by bringing bad news. In fact, from what I can gather, it has severely affected (in a negative way), his bottom line. (I tried unsuccessfully to locate the article where Barna described the severe downsizing that his organization went through about a year ago. If I find it, I’ll update this post with a link to it.)

Anyway, I say all of that to lead up to discussing a finding that Barna published earlier this year. It was brought back to my attention in a recent roundup of discoveries from 2006 that the Barna Group released this week. In that summary document, the following statement is found:

Evaluating spiritual maturity remains an elusive process for clergy as well as individuals. Across the nation, the only measure of spiritual health used by at least half of all pastors was the extent of volunteer activity or ministry involvement.

The more detailed analysis is found in this January, 2006 article on Barna’s website. It appears that pastors tend to think their congregants are deeply spiritual, but people themselves differ in their responses about their own spiritual commitment. In trying to understand this discrepancy, Barna describes the characteristics that pastors often use to judge the spiritual commitment of “their people”:

Overall, only one measure – how many people are involved in some form of church-related volunteer activity or ministry effort – was listed by at least half of all pastors (54%) as a measure of the spiritual health of their congregation. Only two other criteria – church attendance and some type of life change experience (usually meaning that a person has made a first-time commitment to Jesus Christ as their savior) were named as important criteria by more than one out of every seven pastors. (Each of these criteria was listed by 45% of all pastors.) Other top-rated standards were whether congregants were involved in evangelism (13%), how much new information or knowledge about Christianity the people received (10%), how much money was donated to the church (10%), and the comments made by congregants to the pastor (10%).

I’ve linked to the article above, so you can read it in its entirety, if you wish, but this paragraph is very telling. Many times on this blog, I have mentioned that I feel like the institutional version of church tends to put barriers in the way of believers actually growing and maturing. I don’t believe these barriers are intentional in any way! However, I keep coming back to this idea that it is next to impossible for someone to actually “pastor” large groups of people (i.e., anything over about 20) because that person can’t possibly know the spiritual condition of the people he is “pastoring”.

This report from Barna seems to support my ideas a bit from the standpoint that it shows that the way church leaders measure spiritual condition is severely flawed in and of itself. Notice the criteria that topped the list: involvement in church-related activities. While involvement in activities of the church may be the result of a spiritual passion, the reality is that those activities can easily be carried out without much in the way of spiritual depth in an individual.

Some of my commenters in the past have felt like I was being a bit too hard on the institutional church by seeing it as largely failing at its task. I don’t wish to overly emphasize the negative things that I have seen in my own experience, but I do think there’s something to be asked here. If Barna’s numbers are accurate, what does that tell us? I think that it tells us that the church is going to continue to “miss the point” if it evaluates spiritual commitment and passion based on a checklist of external actions.

And that is really the position I continue to hold. I don’t think that anyone inside the institutional church is seriously trying to miss the point. At least that is true for the vast majority, in my opinion. After all, “it’s always been done this way”, right? But I do think that, by and large, we continue to miss the point.

If we are to be making disciples, as Jesus told us to do, then we need to be aware of what a disciple looks like. We need to have some kind of relational sense of where someone is in their progress as a disciple. And I don’t think that can be measured solely by looking at attendance records, giving records, or even amount of involvement within the institution itself. Nor can it be measured from a distance.

Until next time,

steve

his is a rather unique type of post for this blog, but I wanted to share about a blessing today. We had the distinct joy and privilege of meeting one of my loyal readers and dear friends in person today! It took a very long drive to Cairo, GA (pronounced KAY-ro, not like the city in Egypt) to do it, but it was definitely worth it!

Today, we got to meet blogging buddy Gordon Cloud of Heavenly Heartburn, along with his dear wife and sons, and the congregation of Pine Park Baptist Church where Gordon serves as pastor. Gordon has been a regular reader and commenter here on Theological Musings since earlier this year (sometime around March, I believe), and we have developed a very strong friendship as a result of our many conversations and debates here.

(from left: my lovely wife Christy, Gordon’s wife Amy, me, and Gordon)

Gordon and Amy are wonderful people, and have been extremely gracious hosts to us. We did not arrive here in Cairo until 1:00 AM this morning, and so we did not get to meet the Clouds until we arrived at the church this morning for the service. After spending the night at the Best Western here in Cairo (where I’m “liveblogging” our visit, thanks to the free wireless internet!), we arrived at the church and got to finally meet in person. (Also, a special shoutout to one of Gordon’s regular commenters, Ron, who we had the joy of meeting and fellowshipping with, as well.)

Gordon was gracious enough to allow me to minister in music in the morning worship service. Christy and I ministered for about 20 minutes as part of that service, after which we spent a wonderful afternoon with the Clouds at their house. Amy Cloud can cook!! We had a great meal together and spent the afternoon discussing all kinds of things. For those who are interested to know, I managed to bring up the cessationist/continuationist debate within the first 15 minutes of conversation but we waited until much later in the afternoon to really talk about it. I haven’t convinced Gordon yet to leave his cessationist views behind, but I took it easy on him! hehe

Seriously, it was a terrific time of fellowship, and we were delighted to fellowship with them in person. We joined their church again for a Christmas presentation and covered dish “birthday party for Jesus” this evening, and now are relaxing in our motel room. Tomorrow, we’ll have an early lunch with the Clouds again before the 10-hour drive back to Boone.

Of all the things I love about blogging, meeting new people and making new relationships is very high on the list. My friendship with Gordon has been a great blessing, and that blessing got much sweeter today! Thank you, Gordon, for letting us come!!

Until next time,

steve

s we discussed in my recent post and comments, there sometimes is a point where we have to look for what might be standing in the way of following biblical patterns. One can tell from the comments that there is disagreement as to what models and patterns even exist in the New Testament for us to follow.

Some believe that we must be very careful in applying Paul’s instructions across the board because they were written to specific churches in a specific culture at a specific time. Others believe that, because certain gifts allegedly no longer exist, some specific instructions might not necessarily apply.

This is all fine and good, and readers of my blog know that I don’t really have a problem not finding complete agreement on these issues. I have tremendous respect for all of my regular commenters here, and have no desire to debate endlessly on things that could end up dividing us if we aren’t careful.

However, since this is my blog…

No, seriously. This morning, Dave Black linked to an article he had written back in 2003 entitled “There’s Only One ‘Senior Pastor’ and It’s Not Us!“. How’s that for a provocative title?! In this article, Dave challenges the status quo of leadership styles in our churches.

First of all, if you are not familiar with Dave Black, allow me to introduce him to you:

Known for his love for New Testament Greek and passion for teaching, Dave Black is a husband, father, professor, author, preacher, lecturer, web journalist, and (above all) a sinner saved by God’s sovereign grace….

Dave is currently Professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He has also taught courses at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Lancaster Bible College, Fuller Theological Seminary, Talbot School of Theology, Simon Greenleaf University, Criswell College, Freie Hochschule für Mission (Germany), Tyndale Theological Seminary (Holland), Bibelschule Walzenhausen (Switzerland), IEM Bible College (India), Chong Shin Theological Seminary (Korea), Faith Theological Seminary (Korea), Cosin Theological Seminary (Korea), Evangelical Theological College (Ethiopia), Meserete Kristos College (Ethiopia), and at other institutions.

In addition, he has lectured at the Complutensian University in Spain, the Areopagus in Timisoara, Romania, and the Universities of Oxford and Leeds in England.

Dave has published over 100 scholarly articles and book reviews in such journals as Novum Testamentum, New Testament Studies, Bible Translator, Journal of Biblical Literature, Biblica, Westminster Theological Journal, Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, and Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.

(By the way, Dave and his wife are leaving today for three weeks in Ethiopia. If you wouldn’t mind, keep them in your prayers today and over the next few weeks.)

In the article that I linked to above, Dave talks pretty frankly about our traditional structure of leadership and how it departs from the New Testament experience. For example, he describes the lowly, servant-style approach that Jesus exhorted his disciples to use, and then contrasts it with this statement:

Someday, I hope, the plain truth of the matter will no longer be a subject of debate and confusion among God’s people. The whole traditional concept of one “pastor” of a local congregation is a practice that is absolutely foreign to Scripture.

I tried to post some questions in my previous post to spark some thinking about what changes might be needed in our view of church, if we accept the New Testament record as one showing some principles that are timeless and a-cultural. Dave puts it a bit more bluntly:

The time has come to bring our local church practices under the scrutiny of God’s Word. If there are practices in our tradition that are in conflict with the New Testament revelation, then we have only one option, and that is to correct our practices. The Bible clearly rejects our clergy-laity divide. All members of the local church are to function in the body according to the grace given unto them (Rom 12:1-8). The church is a temple in which every Christian is a “priest” who offers spiritual “sacrifices” to God (1 Pet 2:5, 9). According to the New Testament, all Christians do the work of ministry through the exercise of spiritual gifts. Whatever legitimate distinction can be made between leaders and led (e.g., 1 Thess 5:12-13) does not negate the fundamental truth of the priesthood of all believers. (emphasis mine)

I’ve emphasized one sentence in bold, because I think it illustrates the kind of radical thinking I continue to push for on this blog. I don’t think that, ultimately, it’s good enough for us to sit back and think about how different things should be. If we know something should be done differently, I think we have a responsibility to pursue that.

Now, please note that I am not saying anything specifically about how things should be changed. I’m learning to be humble enough not to think that I actually have answers to all of these questions for everyone else’s situation! But I do want to continually encourage each of my readers to act on any truth that has been revealed to them, and trust God to lead them into whatever changes might be necessary. For some, the changes might happen fast and radically. For others, it could take years.

When I started to question my own involvement in leadership and the conventional system of doing church as a whole, it was not an immediate change for me. In fact, it took almost a year for us to work through some of the concerns Christy and I had about heading in a new direction. For some, it could be even longer.

Ultimately, when a body of believers is involved, any changes need to involve the whole body. This might mean that some are ready to change long before changes actually take place. Or some may be a bit slower to adopt changes that take place. But the mutual respect and edification that results in treating each member of the body as vital to the life of the body would, in my opinion, be very beneficial to the maturity of the church.

Let me illustrate a little bit by quoting a comment Alan Knox left on my recent post. Maybe I can talk Alan into sharing a bit more about the journey that his fellowship is on. In writing about the introduction of open, participatory elements into their gathering, Alan wrote:

I’ve talked with many people who recognize that scripturally any believer should have opportunity to use their gifts (speaking or serving) to edify the church. However, they do not know how to implement this in their current context and with the current expectations of the church.

We started by discussing this with the church. Has everyone caught on? No, many still believe it is the “preacher’s” responsibility to speak to the church on behalf of God. However, there are some who are beginning to understand that God may desire to speak through them. So, some are beginning to take their responsibility seriously.

It’s a process. But one which we should not prevent our fellow believers from experiencing, if we sense that God is leading us toward a different expression of the body. If God is the author of the change, then we don’t need to try to figure out how to make it happen, or how to make sure people are prepared for it. We must trust Him to be the “Senior Pastor” of His sheep, and follow Him ourselves as an example to others.

Until next time,

steve

ast year, I wrote a post questioning the whole concept of a “War on Christmas“. I had hoped that this year, things would be a bit calmer. But it appears that some still want to hold to the idea that Christmas is threatened. And others are feeling the same frustration I did last year (and still do).

I don’t have a whole lot else to say other than what I said last year, but I do want to point you to some other good thoughts on the issue. Blogging buddy Tony Sisk is covering this topic this year on his blog. Frankly, I wish I had thought to write the thoughts he is expressing in his posts! It’s good stuff, and passionately written. Go check it out and let him know what you think. His articles so far can be found here:

• “Is There a War on Christmas?“
• “Merry Christmas…Yeah, Right“

Update: Good homeschooling friend and blogger JenIG (Jenefer Igarashi) also had a great post recently about the idea of celebrating Christmas, but not even worrying about the “holy day” concept. Fascinating take on this subject, and one that has me intrigued.

Until next time,

steve