Occupy Hermeneutics

December 6, 2011 By scotmcknight 30 Comments

Mercy, this is why Christian Smith had to write The Bible Made Impossible.

By Tony Perkins, Special to CNN

(CNN)– One of the last instructions Jesus gave his disciples was “Occupy till I come.”

As Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem for the last time, just before his crucifixion, he was keenly aware that his disciples greatly desired and even anticipated that the kingdom of God was going to be established immediately on the earth.

The primary purpose of the parable, which appears in the Gospel of Luke, was to make clear to his disciples that the kingdom of God would not be physically established on the earth for some time and that, until then, they were being entrusted with certain responsibilities. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Public Issues 30 Comments

Jesus and Abe

December 6, 2011 By scotmcknight 8 Comments

At least he’s from Illinois!

Jesus is the second most popular person in America, just behind Abraham Lincoln, a recent Public Policy Polling survey found.

Ninety one percent of Americans view Lincoln favorably, and Jesus weighs in at 90 percent. The national survey was taken to see if anyone in history could beat the level of popularity of Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who gained a record-high 89 percent favorability in a survey last month of Wisconsin voters.

Notably, all Republicans had a favorable view of Jesus, according to the poll.

Besides specific people in history as well as those living today, the poll also asked participants how favorably they view themselves. Ninety three percent of respondents gave themselves a positive rating, and only 1 percent viewed themselves negatively.

“Americans have a very high opinion of themselves,” said Dean Debnam, president of PPP, in a statement. “You can argue that we’re a psychologically healthy nation … or you can argue that we’re an arrogant one. Either interpretation fits the numbers.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized 8 Comments

Galli, Bolsinger and Now Michael Mercer

December 6, 2011 By scotmcknight 17 Comments

Galli’s defense of the “chaplain” model of the pastor drew Tod Bolsinger to say “but not today” because “missional” is the new category, and that got Michael Mercer onto the platform with some serious pushback:

Yes. Churches need to be more missional. Yes. Pastors need to provide a degree of leadership to help their congregations burst the Christian bubble and get meaningfully involved in their world. However, what I can’t accept in Tod Bolsinger’s argument is that somehow, the meansby which we (pastors, in particular) most effectively provide the care and spiritual formation that will enable missional living has changed.

In my own work as a chaplain, I have come to appreciate more than ever before the power of personal, face-to-face ministry and the effects of that, which seem to multiply exponentially when we simply engage in humble, “chaplain-like” service to our neighbors.

Bolsinger seems to suggest that simple servants can’t cut it today because the world has changed. But I have to say it again: WHO is our model for ministry? If it’s Jesus, then I see a Gospel servant who changed the world by working personally, humbly, and in relative obscurity in a world long before anything like Christendom ever existed. And if it’s the apostles, then they did the same. They were “missional,” of course, going to the ends of the earth, but everywhere they went their work was simple, house to house and face to face, and energized by a servant approach and willingness to suffer. The Cross was their paradigm, plain and simple (see 1Cor 2:1-5). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Pastoring and Leading, Pastoring and Preaching 17 Comments

Biblical vs. Deistic Economics

December 6, 2011 By scotmcknight 76 Comments

I’m not sure I’d push this onto deism; but what David Dunn says in response to Dave Ramsey is worth consideration and conversation. Much of what Dunn says here was said years back by Ron Sider. The issue even for a Christian libertarian, as I see it, is two-fold: (1) all that we have is not “mine!” but “God’s” and what God has given us, and (2) the fundamental idea of taxation, which runs right through Israel’s laws, is not theft by the government but support for the people.

I’m for a good solid reading of the Bible, but one has to be careful about thinking levitical laws are for today; one has to see what the law was driving at (care for the marginalized); one has to think these things into the NT teachings and the radical attitude of Jesus and the early church toward possessions and even property; and one has to baptize it all into changing times, including a vastly different economy in our world, and how best to live this out in our world. Yet, even after all those moves have been made … well, there’s too much to say here. Here’s Dunn’s response to Ramsey.

Even though the Christian financial “guru” Dave Ramsey claims not to understand Occupy Wall Street, he does know why protesters (and by extension most Americans) want to raise taxes on the wealthy: We are sinners. “At the core of this demand [to raise taxes],” he says, “is envy.”

This judgment is not just offensive and wrong (see my last post) but sadly ironic: Dave Ramsey tells people to bring the Bible to their personal finances, so he should know that God’s economy is all about (what he scornfully calls) “wealth redistribution.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized 76 Comments

Anointed? 7 … What Makes a Leader? (RJS)

December 6, 2011 By RJS 24 Comments

The post today will wrap up our discussion of The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age by Randall Stephens and Karl Giberson.  In this book Stephens and Giberson examine several different facets of American evangelicalism to explore the manner in which “America’s populist ideals, anti-intellectualism, and religious free market, along with the concept of anointing – being chosen by God to speak for him like the biblical prophets” influence a broad range of evangelical and fundamentalist beliefs and practices.

The theme that ties the book together is an analysis of the informal criteria generally used to “anoint” leaders within evangelicalism. Chapter six, Made in America, focuses explicitly on this topic. Stephens and Giberson open the chapter with a discussion of three leaders – Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, and Pat Robertson – and use this, along with a consideration of the individuals described in the earlier chapters as a starting point to look at the way in which leaders emerge within American evangelicalism and fundamentalism.

Throughout the post-1960′s era Falwell, Roberts, and Robertson were public symbols of the capacity of the parallel culture of American evangelicalism to anoint leaders using criteria internal to that culture – fidelity to the Bible, inspirational preaching, confident assertion of a special relationship to God.

…

The parallel culture of evangelicalism is like a country without monarchs or politicians. It must produce its own leaders, which it does, through informal processes. These leaders, both great and small, build constituencies more or less skilfully, but they generally employ similar strategies – finding themes around which to rally their followers, playing on common fears, identifying out-groups to demonize, and projecting confidence. (p. 232-233)

What does it take to become a successful leader within evangelicalism?

Which of these characteristics should we value in our leaders?

Which are problems that damage the church?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Evangelicalism Tagged With: , 24 Comments

Simply Jesus 7

December 6, 2011 By scotmcknight 14 Comments

The question I kept asking as I read Tom Wright’s new book, Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters, was this: OK, so God becomes King in Jesus and God exercises his sovereignty through Jesus, but what does that look like today? where is that to be found today? How close are kingdom and church? How is it meaningful to say Jesus is the Ruler of the World? I found this chp fascinating.

First,  Tom contends vigorously, and he anchors this from Genesis 1 to Revelation, that God exercises his rule today through the church, through us.

Jesus rescues humans in order to extend his kingdom and rescue project through those who are rescued. We are not helping him; he gives this task to us. He called his followers to be his witnesses in Acts 1. It was through them that the gospel would go to the Roman empire. Tom develops the temple them in Acts.

Second, the vital action of the followers of Jesus in this kingdom work is to worship the one and only God, and worship is the most political action the Christians are to perform. They are also to do good works as the way to implement the rule of Christ in this world. The church has surrendered too much of this to the State, forgetting that it was the church that did these things over its history. [I wondered here if Tom would consider the implementation of these elements by the state as evidence of the church's ministry and mission being successful.]

I would ask you: Where is the kingdom manifested today?

Third, this means Tom is one of the important voices today in seeing the significance of the church in the kingdom of God in this world today; it means he sees an ecclesial shape to kingdom. He has some wise words about how the media talks about the church and observes that it might be a 1000 to 1 ratio of folks doing good things vs. the one bad egg the media decides to squat on. The church, he reminds us, is the society of the forgiven and reconciled and not the society of the perfect. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Jesus 14 Comments