Weekly Meanderings

Last updated on: November 2, 2012 at 2:53 pm By Scot McKnight

Sandy’s fury

Becky Hsu distinguishes satisfaction and happiness. “Can we say, then, that life satisfaction is more like taking an exam (where 100% is the highest you could get), whereas happiness should be scored more like an essay (upon which there are no constraints in how excellent, thoughtful, or thought-provoking it could be)? Or, maybe we can say that asking whether you’re satisfied with life is like asking whether you finished your scoop of ice cream, whereas asking about happiness is more like asking how your scoop of ice cream tasted. There are no bounds on how delicious ice cream could be.”

The Jesus-was-married fragment: “The real interest of this fragment, assuming its authenticity, is to underscore the immense and ongoing diversity of opinions within the early church during the 2nd and 3rd centuries. This sophisticated analysis, which scholars of early Christianity have been building for over a century (and which is arguably more offensive to conservative Christian sensibilities than Jesus’ marriage), is simply not part of the general public’s imagination. The impression, bolstered by many in the often equally conservative Biblical Studies community, that early Christian history is only about Jesus continues to shape the public’s perception of new textual and archaeological discoveries. Clearly, the scholarly community has failed to communicate the fruits of its dynamic interdisciplinary research to the general public. At the same time, however, it has increasingly become the norm for prominent scholars to submit new discoveries to the court of public opinion before a thorough international scholarly analysis is allowed to take place. Book deals and television rights now take precedence over peer-review and patient research.”

Nick Perrin, Mike Bird and The Gospel of Thomas. Mike Bird’s red-headed friend.

Fr Bob Barron takes on Steinberg: “It was with barely concealed delight that “Chicago Sun-Times” columnist Neil Steinberg conveyed the findings of the recent Pew Forum survey that the “nones,” those who claim no particular religious affiliation, are sharply on the rise in America. Moreover, he crowed, the survey revealed that a disproportionate number of young people placed themselves firmly in the “none” camp, thus indicating that religion’s decline would only accelerate in the years to come. Taking these findings as a starting point, Steinberg then delivered himself of an anti-religion screed that was, even for him, remarkable in its vitriol and lack of nuance.”

Esther Junia’s journey into the Women in ministry discussion: Part one, Part two.

If only all reviews were this sane and intelligent: Fred Sanders reviews the new book that collects essays by evangelicals on the Trinity and complementation [hierarchicalism]/egalitarian [mutualism] debate. “The evangelical debate about gender roles may seem like an unlikely venue for hashing out trinitarian theology, but that is what has been going on in the last few years. Everybody knows that evangelical complementarians and evangelical egalitarians have competing views of the relationship between men and women in the family, the church, and society. But now there is a substantial literature that connects these two views to the doctrine of the Trinity. Some complementarians argue that just as the Father has headship over the Son in the eternal Trinity, so husbands have headship over wives in human society. Some egalitarians counter that this is heresy, and that the immanent Trinity is really a community of equality that our societies should emulate. That exchange seems straightforward enough, but it has generated a very complex literature.” Here is a good zinger: “Socialists peer into the Trinity and discern socialism; capitalists capitalism; Catholics see hierarchy; the Orthodox see intercommunion among equals; Baptists see Baptists; egalitarians see only equality, and complementarians see complentarianism. When we use the image-of-the-Trinity strategy, we tend to find what we want to find. Furthermore, there is a notably arbitrary character to which of our convictions and values we decide to locate in the Trinity.” [Yes, trinitarian relations need to be examined; Yes, we need to be cautious about what we see and find.]

Good sketch by Mark Roberts of the pros and cons of digital technology for education. And another good sketch of gospel and salvation by Derek Vreeland. Thanks Derek for that nice graph.

Gerald Green, of the Pacers, has some serious hops.

Roger Olson on Jenkins’ new book on the genocidal texts: “I am not going to declare unequivocally about the historicity of those texts; I will bracket them out and say “I just don’t know what to make of them” and “I cannot picture Jesus, who is the God I worship and adore, commanding those things.” And “I look forward to finding out from God himself, from Jesus himself, what I am supposed to think about those texts.” For now, all I can say is, they do not speak God’s voice to me. I do not understand them. They are dark and obscure and frightening. I run to Jesus. That was Luther’s approach, too, but he held onto a “hidden God” behind Jesus who commanded the slaughter of the innocents and who uses the devil to carry out his commands (“The devil is God’s devil!”). I do not believe in a “hidden God” behind Jesus. With Barth I affirm that Jesus is God for us and all we need when contemplating the character of God.”

The Bible and leprosy.

Anorexia survivor — Emma Scrivener.

Rules for life after 35.

Phillip Jenkins, on the Urban History conference: “I don’t imagine that a group of atheistic professors gathered in a smoke-filled room to devise strategies from preventing their younger colleagues discovering the truth about religion in American urban history. Certainly, many academics do have a secular and left-liberal bias, but that does not lead them to deliberate policies of censorship. Usually, I imagine, they know perfectly well about religion’s role, they just choose not to study it. Adding to the irony of the event, the conference coincided with a large-scale youth-oriented demonstration and prayer walk focused on the theme, “God Belongs In My City.” You saw the T-shirts all over the city. In the academic study of urban history, though, God has at best a toehold.”

Meanderings in the News

Earnings for dead celebrities: “Liz has beat out the King of Pop, one of her most loyal friends, for the honor of highest paid dead celebrity, according to Forbes’s annual list of “Top-Earning Dead Celebrities.” Taylor, who died at 79 in 2011, grossed $210 million last year, thanks to the $184 million that her estate made from Christie’s auctions of the star’s belongings, Forbes reports. Her best-selling perfume White Diamonds made $75 million last year, and the rest of the loot comes from her property sales and movies like Cleopatra andAround The World in 80 Days.”

Yowzers, the ten most expensive universities, beginning with Sarah Lawrence.

Learning a second language: “Siebert started studying the science of memory and second-language acquisition and found two concepts that went hand in hand to make learning easier: selective learning and spaced repetition. With selective learning, you spend more time on the things you don’t know, rather than on the things you already do. Siebert designed his software to use spaced repetition. If you getcup right, the program will make the interval between seeing the word cup longer and longer, but it will cycle cup back in just when you’re about to forget it. If you’ve forgotten cup entirely, the cycle starts again. This system moves the words from your brain’s short-term memory into long-term memory and maximizes the number of words you can learn effectively in a period. You don’t have to cram. In fact, if you do cram, you might learn a set of words and do well on a test, but you’ll forget it all a few weeks later.“

What’s wrong with this evolution chart?

Speaking of evolution… what makes us human? Cooking!: “According to a new study, a surge in human brain size that occurred roughly 1.8 million years ago can be directly linked to the innovation of cooking. Homo erectus, considered the first modern human species, learned to cook and doubled its brain size over the course of 600,000 years. Similar size primates—gorillas, chimpanzees, and other great apes, all of which subsisted on a diet of raw foods—did not. “Much more than harnessing fire, what truly allowed us to become human was using fire for cooking,” said study co-author Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.”

America’s next top mortician…

Are we getting smarter? Yes: “IN THE MID-’80s, the political philosopher James Flynn noticed a remarkable but puzzling trend: for the past century, average IQ scores in every industrialized nation have been steadily rising. And not just a little: nearly three points every decade. Every several years, IQ tests test have to be “re-normed” so that the average remains 100. This means that a person who scored 100 a century ago would score 70 today; a person who tested as average a century ago would today be declared mentally retarded. This bizarre finding—christened the “Flynn effect” by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray inThe Bell Curve—has since snowballed so much supporting evidence that in 2007 Malcolm Gladwell declared in The New Yorker that “the Flynn effect has moved from theory to fact.” But researchers still cannot agree on why scores are going up. Are we are simply getting better at taking tests? Are the tests themselves a poor measure of intelligence? Or do rising IQ scores really mean we are getting smarter?”

Are young Americans reading more and using libraries?

Potential source of problems in Jerusalem: “JERUSALEM — A simple, ancient ritual is threatening the delicate security balance atop Jerusalem’s most sacred plaza: Jews are praying. On most days, dozens — sometimes hundreds — of Jewish worshipers ascend to the disputed 36-acre platform that Muslims venerate as Al Aqsa mosque and Jews revere as the Temple Mount with an Israeli police escort to protect them and a Muslim security guard to monitor their movements. Then, they recite a quick prayer, sometimes quietly to themselves, other times out loud. Jewish activists call the prayers harmless acts of faith. Police and Muslim officials see them as dangerous provocations, especially given the deep religious sensitivities of the site and its history of violence. Twelve years ago, the presence of Jews on the plaza was so controversial that a brief tour by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon helped trigger a Palestinian uprising that lasted more than four years.”

Erik Eckholm sketches response by ex-gay men about conversion therapies.

Meanderings in Sports

Al Carius: “When Al Carius was winning Big Ten titles in cross-country and track as a University of Illinois runner nearly 50 years ago, he wore pants with a size 32 waist and promised himself never to need a larger size. The label on the jeans Carius was wearing this week said “W 32.” That not only proves Carius, who turned 70 in July, is a man who keeps his promises.”

Where’s Nadia Comaneci today? “We remember her as a shy, ponytailed, 14-year-old pixie who scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics history 34 years ago. But these days Nadia Comaneci is a multitasking mom who juggles charity work, speaking appearances and product endorsements, Twittering as she goes. Comaneci, who spoke on the phone with the AARP Bulletin while working out on a treadmill in her Norman, Okla., home as her 4-year-old son napped, is married to gymnast Bart Conner, also a former Olympic gold medalist. Together, they run the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy, International Gymnast magazine, a television production company and a gymnastics supply company.”

Church: Institution for Overactive Consciences?

Last updated on: October 24, 2012 at 5:32 am By Scot McKnight

So what is that many of us are members of, participants in? Just what is this thing called “church”? I like it when pastors theologize, so when Andy Stanley gets to doing theology I want to see how he thinks. I know how he preaches; I know how he writes; but in his new book Deep & Wide he ponders what a church is.

First, he contends a church is a movement and not an institution; its organic and not an organization. Too many think the church is an institution for overactive consciences (51). Many of us (count me one of them) run from such institutions. He defines a church as a “gloriously messy movement with a laser-focused message and a global mission” (51). He gives us a sketch of church history that would sound like Yoder’s polemic against Constantine if I didn’t know this is an old Baptist story. He’s got good points; it’s more complex, but he’s right that Constantine’s engines made the church far more institutional, hierarchical and authoritarian than it had been. Stanley’s thesis is that the word “church” (ekklesia) in the NT means “gathered ones” and “congregation” and not a building, not an institution — it’s a movement, not a location. His story means the Reformers, beginning with Tyndale, recovered the movement element.

What do you think of his grace and truth approach to ministry?

If I chose one good example of this I’d choose Acts 15, as does Andy. How does grace and truth manifest itself in the Jerusalem Council’s decision? Was that simple exegesis or was that a step beyond the Bible? Andy quotes Acts 15:19 and says “churches shouldn’t do anything that makes it unnecessarily difficult for people who are turning to God” (91).

Second, Stanley offers what I think is one of the finest essays into the tension and messiness of genuinely Spirit-led pastoral theology. His theme is that gospel work is about “truth and grace” and not one or the other, not one first and the other second, but always both at the same time.

When the word “and” is added, tension arises. He opens with a classic story about his father’s church and the gay parade and that they decided to let everyone out early and they were to exit the back of the church so they’d miss the parade… but they let out on time and everyone watched and they saw the Methodists handing out cold water to those in the parade and “It was embarrassing” (71).

Who is the church for? Sinners. Can we welcome the sinners or do they have to get cleaned up first? It’s not “Just as I am” but “Just as I ought to be (and if not I’ll fake it).” That’s not from Andy. “…this is in fact a tension to manage and not a problem to solve or really even a question to answer” (72). Some of this was in italics. “Churches designed for saved people are full of hypocrites” (74). Conservative churches are big on truth and too often lose grace; liberal churches are big on grace and too often lose truth.

Jesus embodied grace and truth and what he did was neither fair nor consistent. He gives folks a full dose of truth as in “You’re a sinner and you’re forgiven.”

Living grace and truth is real messy.

North Point’s approach: we “wade in hip-deep and sort things out one relationship, one conversation, at a time” (78). Here are some examples…

they put people in leadership too early… adults learn on a need-to-know basis…. no formal leadership training … we encourage non-believers to sign up for short-term mission trips… they don’t lead…. it doesn’t seem fair … “We let women baptize. I’m not confident with that. I let ’em do it anyway” (80). Andy thinks remarriage is sin and teaches that; they allow remarried couples to lead at every level in the congregation. They don’t do charity work; they support local charities. Big time. “Our doctrinal statement is conservative. Our approach to ministry is not” (81). Got problems? That’s the tension. He reads all the critical mail; he responds personally to the most critical.

Here’s why we need grace and truth: “Either you were a mess, are a mess, or are one dumb decision away from becoming a mess” (82). Grace takes you as you are and welcomes you home. That’s grace and truth.

Evangelicals Left Out and Left Behind

Last updated on: October 21, 2012 at 12:56 pm By Scot McKnight

Some people want to reclaim a supposed original meaning for the world “evangelical.” Lillian Kwon, at CP, recently wrote up a story about a rant by someone who says evangelical is basically a kind of Reformation theology, and the rant included pointing fingers of compromise at Carl Henry and Christianity Today, a magazine he evidently doesn’t read carefully and a theologian whom he must be ignoring, but his rant does raise an issue many care about: What is evangelicalism and who gets to define it? Before we get to that question, a clip of the CP piece:

More specifically speaking, it’s someone who believes the Gospel is centered on the doctrine of justification by faith and the principles of sola fide (by faith alone) and sola scriptura (by Scripture alone), he added. “The Gospel is a message about redemption, it’s a call to repentance from sin … and a summons to yield to the Lordship of Christ.”

Abuse of the term “evangelical” is not new. Nineteenth century preacher Charles Spurgeon had decried the fact that the modernists of his day wanted to be called evangelicals even though they abandoned all the evangelical principles, according to Johnson. Such a label would give them “instant credibility” and easy access to people who believed the Bible, he said.

Johnson, who serves as an elder at Grace Community Church, also believes the magazine Christianity Today has had a negative impact on how “evangelical” is defined today.

“The abuse of the term evangelicalism and the corruption of the evangelical movement really started, I think, with a core of people who included the founder of Christianity Today who wanted a new kind of evangelicalism and that was their term – new evangelicalism,” Johnson said on the radio show.

“They wanted to do away with certain evangelical distinctives and embrace a kind of ecumenical diversity instead. And slowly and gradually that’s what they did. My argument would be today, these days, you could read Christianity Today, you barely will find any actual theological evangelicalism in the magazine at all,” he added.

Johnson also listed the emerging church and the seeker sensitive movements as contributing to the murkiness of evangelicalism.

But what he has found more disturbing is how politicized the term has become over the last few decades.

Defining “evangelical” has become somewhat of a game, but it all comes down to who defines it and why. This piece wants evangelicalism to be old-fashioned fundamentalism, the kind that pre-Carl Henry and pre-neo-evangelicalism’s coalition and pre-John Stott. But more disconcerting perhaps is the deliberate ignoring of the important work of the best historians of evangelicalism: Mark Noll and David Bebbington, both of whom embrace a four-fold characteristics of evangelicalism: crucicentrism, biblicism, conversionism, and activism. Evangelicalism isn’t so much a doctrinal statement as it is a movement and one can legitimately call it “variations on the gospel theme.”

Which leads me to discuss the evangelicals who did get left behind in the rise of the Moral Majority, those whom David Swartz calls the “moral minority” in his new book Moral Minority. Their story, which I’ve told in two parts (here and here), depresses me as the story of squandering potential for reformation and revival. Ron Sider was at the top of his game and the hope was high in 1973 but by 1975 the coalition of progressive evangelicalism was torn to shreds into separate identity groups. I emerged theologically in the days of this hope.

The best book I’ve read this year.

What do you think can unite evangelicalism? Is it unifiable at all? From where I sit these days, is say No. What say you?

Instead of reformation and revival, the moral minority devolved into identity politics. In the heat of the civil rights movement, black evangelicalism was realized by significant black leaders to be a form of white evangelicalism rather than genuine black Christian faith. As Swartz summarizes it: “The impulse by early black leaders to create an integrated evangelical community lost momentum as a younger generation embraced racial separatism” (190). The principal voices here are those of John Perkins, Charles Marsh, William Bentley, Columbus Salley, Clarence Hilliard and others like Wyn Wright Potter.

Female evangelical feminists discovered the moral minority was a new version of male-led evangelicalism, and they often pointed to the lack of interest in the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment). A significant protesting voice was Evon Bachaus and she asked for 50% representation in the meetings. Evangelical feminism in the early 1970s was undeveloped and unorganized. Others included Letha Scanzoni, Nancy Hardesty, Lucilled Dayton, Virginia Mollenkott, and Neta Jackson. Inclusive language was already being seen as a formidable issue. ERA support was part of their activism. Then there arose women’s ordination. But many in the progressive group did not support it. They, like the disenfranchised blacks, began to form their own movement — the Evangelical Women’s Caucus. Don Dayton showed an alternative history to American evangelicalism, one in which women played major roles.

Theology broke the unity down as well. This was a coalition, not a theological party. The Reformed and the Anabaptist and black evangelicals and Calvinists and “non-aligned denominations” and churches and leaders. So Yoder came into conflict with Stephen Mott and Rich Mouw. Robert Webber proposed greater senses of unity that brought the coalition together, but his “plea failed spectacularly” (206). Wallis exited; Bentley left. It became a Babel of identity voices. The Anabaptists formed Evangelical for Social Action and the more radicals into Sojourners. More of the Reformed opted for the Association for Public Justice. And others went in other directions.

The Moral Minority became the minority when the Moral Majority became the majority. That happened in the late 1970s and 1980s when the Democratic Party became pervasively more “secular” and the Republican party appealed to evangelicals of a more conservative order. While the evangelical left had hope under Carter, he did not side enough with the conservative Christian Democrat and Reagan played the right cards… and by the end of the 80s the parties were ideologically rigid and divided. Identity politics sent the Democrats themselves into some tailspins but by the time Clinton’s years were over the Moral Minority was politically ineffective.

One cannot say the same today; while the numbers of evangelicals who are progressive remains low, the younger evangelicals offer to some of the progressive leaders some hope for engaging the political forum with a more robust evangelical progressive politics. I have little confidence in the evangelical political left’s longterm impact on evangelicalism or politics. It has shifted from an identity politics to social justice, but until the evangelical left can put forward a compelling economic theory alongside its appeal to care for the poor it is unlikely to influence American politics decisively.

Weekly Meanderings

Last updated on: October 17, 2012 at 5:58 pm By Scot McKnight

C. Michael Patton’s sketch of apologetics and the problem of evil.

Patrick finishes up his series calling complementarianism into question. “First, some realism: Can there be a recognition that neither side are going to ‘obliterate’ the other’s arguments, however passionately they believe the other is wrong? The tone of some of the debate is characterised by this sort of vain hope. The reality is that either side ‘ain’t going away you know’. Second, evangelicals have lived with other such areas of disagreement for centuries. As with baptism, can there be a willingness to work together in mission and witness and a refusal to let this issue become something that threatens unity around the gospel? Third, it is possible to imagine constructive and healthy debate on this issue for they are already happening (see here) where both ‘sides’ explore what they disagree about and affirm what they believe in common within a respectful dialogue. So can we please move on beyond the sort of divisiveness that thinks ‘If we can completely demolish their credibility we’ll win the argument once and for all’? Can we all repent of unchristian attitudes, forgive one another and commit speak well of one another in future as a sign of love?”

Rebecca Trotter: “This restoration to the “image of God” is the teaching of theosis. When this restoration of a person to who they were created to be occurs, there is no longer any impediment to union with God. That is salvation. Theosis is union with God. It is being saved, restored, redeemed. It means becoming the person we were created to be and the person each of us has been created to be is an image of God.”

Larry Hurtado responds to the mythicists (who don’t believe Jesus existed): “Instead, what we have are many unsupported assertions (e.g., about Paul, early Christianity, ancient Judaism, Pharisees, etc.), put forth often with surprising confidence, but for which there is scant support in relevant scholarly circles, often out-dated generalizations, and distortions (albeit perhaps unintentional) of evidence.”

Mark Regnerus: “This shift in discourse of late away from reducing teen pregnancies—a fairly intelligent, no-brainer goal—to reducing unplanned pregnancies continues to grate upon me years after The National Campaign added it. (I don’t actually mean to single them out.) It’s not simply a subtle and neutral turn of phrase, but instead indicates a larger push for social change around conception and childbearing, one that reaches well past teen pregnancies to adult ones as well. Although the Campaign is focused on unmarried adults, the discourse can and does spill over into marriage, as the advice column suggests.”

Over the years Billy Graham has made mistakes in connections with the White House; this one appears to be another mistake in the political realm.

In light of Tom Wright’s work, with a nod toward mine, iMonk proposes some ponderings on the Creed.

Roger is writing on heresy.

Church as airport: “If you go to an airport and ask someone, “So where you are traveling to today?” you will neve hear someone say, “Oh, I’m not going anywhere. I’m here just wandering the terminal to admire the incredible design of the gates, to enjoy the amazing food at the restaurants and to enjoy the comfortable chairs. After a while, I’ll probably just get in my car and head home after that.” In fact, if you heard that, you’d probably call security. The point is, of course, that airports are intended to take you somewhere. The role of the airport is to make sure you connect to some place else.”

We are rejoicing with IBI in Dublin!

Meanderings in the News

Good report of the week: Lemonade stand boy. (HT: LEMB)

Check this out from Katherine Mangu-Ward: “French President François Hollande proposed banning homeworkas part of a school reform package last week. French schoolkids already put in long school days: 8:30 to 4:30 or longer. But that’s not Hollande’s concern. In fact, he wants to extend the school week from 4 days to 4.5. Instead, he is worried about the inequality factor—kids who get extra help at home have an unfair edge, he frets. “An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home.”

And then Janet D. Stemwedel writes about a father against the subject of chemistry: “There’s a guest post on the Washington Post “Answer Sheet” blog by David Bernstein entitled “Why are you forcing my son to take chemistry?” in which the author argues against his 15-year-old son’s school’s requirement that all its students take a year of chemistry.”

Got a Zombie Teen? Maybe it’s all that chemistry homework! “Many parents know the scene: The groggy, sleep-deprived teenager stumbles through breakfast and falls asleep over afternoon homework, only to spring to life, wide-eyed and alert, at 10 p.m.—just as Mom and Dad are nodding off. Fortunately for parents, science has gotten more sophisticated at explaining why, starting at puberty, a teen’s internal sleep-wake clock seems to go off the rails. Researchers are also connecting the dots between the resulting sleep loss and behavior long chalked up to just “being a teenager.” This includes more risk-taking, less self-control, a drop in school performance and a rise in the incidence of depression.”

This girl is neither a zombie nor one who ignores homework — but her homework comes to school in clothing: “This is how Stella Ehrhart, age 8, decides what to wear for school. She opens her closet. She opens her book, “100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century.” And she opens her mind. Voilà, she is Billie Holiday, in a black dress with a red tissue-paper flower tucked into her strawberry-blond hair. Behold, she is Grace Kelly in pink satin lace on her wedding day. Poof, she is Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, wearing a hat her aunt got her in Vietnam. The Dundee Elementary School third-grader comes to school dressed as a different historical figure or character — Every. Single. Day. And she’s done that since the second day of second grade, when this all started.”

Harper Lee to Oprah on “real” books. Priceless. “Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it. And, Oprah, can you imagine curling up in bed to read a computer? Weeping for Anna Karenina and being terrified by Hannibal Lecter, entering the heart of darkness with Mistah Kurtz, having Holden Caulfield ring you up — some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal.”

Stephanie Pappas: “Now, archaeologists have unearthed a concrete structure nearly 10 feet wide and 6.5 feet tall (3 meters by 2 meters) that may have been erected by Caesar’s successor to condemn the assassination. The structure is at the base of the Curia, or Theater, of Pompey, the spot where classical writers reported the stabbing took place.”

Touch-friendly Windows 8 machines.

Many creative breakthroughs occur in a dream. How about you? “It’s said that Dmitry Mendeleyev was on a three-day work bender when he finally gave in for a few minutes of shut eye. Instead of falling asleep for 17 hours like most sleep deprived people, Mendeleyev dreamt of an arrangement of elements that would change modern chemistry forever, then popped up about 20 minutes later to record it. “I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper … Only in one place did a correction later seem necessary.”

Urban schools, gentrification, suburban schools.

Some good suggestions for airports.

Sports

Watch out for the “deckering.”

Honest Answers to Honest Questions

Last updated on: October 1, 2012 at 6:55 am By Scot McKnight

What is perhaps most remarkable about the Christian faith is how adaptable and resilient it is. Think about this set of factors: the Story of God’s presence in an ancient people (Israelites) took on a different life with the Man from Galilee (Jesus) whose life and death and resurrection became the core of a Roman-Jew (Paul) which in twenty centuries had struck root in the soils of every continent and in the depths of most cultures.

Now the noteworthy feature is that while the gospel is the message that gospel, even with Paul and James and Peter and the author of Hebrews and John, found expression in new ways in new days because it was capable to being adapted. There are of course dangers here: one can so adapt the message that it becomes culture instead of message; or one can become so rigidly tied to one set of categories that the message becomes so disconnected from a culture that it no longer makes sense. Most gospeling occurs along a spectrum between the two.

What are the major elements of “contextualizing”? How does it happen naturally? What have you learned? What is a good example of contextualizing?

How does this occur? How do we “contextualize” the Christian message? This is the subject of Tim Keller’s 10th chp in his book Center Church. He proposes that fidelity to the gospel means three phases of “contextualization” take place. Tim Keller has thought about this process in a pastoral context as much as anyone, and his wisdom about what is involved is expressed in this big idea: contextualizing must be about “honest answers to honest questions” if it is going to take root in our culture. Here are his three:

1. Entering the culture. The secret to entering the culture is to listen to the culture: to spend time with others, to talk with others, to get to know others, to hear its passions and problems … deep enough to know the culture. Tim Keller learned this in part by getting feedback from his sermons, and while he didn’t emphasize this I believe it is the most important thing I have experienced as a professor and perhaps one of the biggest lacks in pastoral work: professors get evaluated every class and this leads us to deeper perceptions of our gifts and of our weaknesses and of how people are hearing us. Pastors could benefit from this. Keller did this informally by meeting with people and listening to their feedback.

He thinks we need to see that our audiences operate with different “conceptualities”: some people derive conclusions from logic and evidence; others are more concrete and relational and pragmatic; and yet others are intuitional — insight and experience and stories.

He makes an important distinction here that I’ve not heard: he distinguishes A beliefs from B beliefs in a culture. The A beliefs are common grace, natural revelation, etc, beliefs shared by humans; B beliefs are defeater beliefs; beliefs that lead to the implausibility of the Christian faith.

Big one: if you listen well, you can find the honest questions. If you don’t listen well, you will only hear what you have answers for.

2. Challenging the culture. Keller’s major idea here is to learn to use A beliefs to challenge B beliefs. “If you believe A (which is true and Christian and biblical), why do you believe B (which is not)?” That is, “with the authority of the Bible we allow one part of the culture — along with the Bible — to critique another part” (125). He uses two illustrations, one from Korean women who struggled to know that God loved them but who grasped God’s grace through the sovereign king’s election and predestination; and other from CS Lewis who argued from the meaning of love to a God of love.

But one of Keller’s best themes in his ministry is sin as idolatry. Sin is making something God that is not truly God, and how this approach to sin through idolatry can be shaped by appealing to human freedom. Other areas to challenge our culture include the commodification of sex in the sexual freedom revolution; the problem of human rights necessitating a view of God and justice; and a culture that has lost hope (here he refers to the fine book by Andrew Delbanco, The Real American Dream).

3. Appealing to the culture. Big idea: learn to tell our culture’s story inside the Jesus Story. He uses four “atonement grammars”, at the core of which is substitution though as I read him here it is as much vicarious (one person doing something for another): the language of the battlefield, the language of the marketplace, the language of exile, the language of the temple, and the language of the law court. That is, defeat of powers and systemic injustice, freedom from slavery, coming hoe, being clean and beautiful, and the end of guilt and being right with God and others.

From the Shepherd’s Nook: John Frye

Last updated on: September 28, 2012 at 5:45 am By Scot McKnight

“But isn’t [being subversive] dishonest? Not exactly, for I’m not misrepresenting myself. I’m simply taking my words and acts at a level of seriousness that would throw [the congregation] into a state of catatonic disbelief if they ever knew.”

How can the pastor be subversive and sustain his vocation?

Eugene Peterson wrestles with who is living in the real world. Is it the business man who thinks church is a nice diversion from the real world of money-making, bottom lines and profit margins or the faithful pastor who announces, “The kingdom of God is at hand”? In my view, when business or any other cultural metaphors replace the old, but ever new kingdom-of-God realities for describing the vocation of ministry, any pastor will lose his or her footing and begin sinking in the quicksand of artificial relevancy. Wanting to be seen or known as important is a giant step away from Christlikeness. “It’s hard to maintain a self-concept as a revolutionary when everyone treats us with the same affability they give the grocer.” Without a deep, enduring commitment to the realities of both the truth and the way(s) of the kingdom of God, a pastor will settle for becoming “a chaplain to the culture,” rather than a discerning challenger of it.

I like EHP’s description of the pastor as subversive because it points to the way of God in Jesus Christ. “Jesus was the master at subversion. … Jesus’ favorite speech form, the parable, was subversive. … But under the surface of conventionality and behind the scenes of probability, each was effectively inaugurating the kingdom: illegitimate (as was supposed) conception, barnyard birth, Nazareth silence, Galilee secularity, Sabbath healings, Gethsemane prayers, criminal death, baptismal water, eucharistic bread and wine. Subversion.” These quotes are from The Contemplative Pastor, a book we’re using to grasp EHP’s taxonomy of pastor.

Emily Dickinson wrote, “Tell the truth, but tell it slant.” EHP writes, “Hitting sin head-on is like hitting a nail with a hammer; it only drives it in deeper.” The kingdom of self is a highly fortified kingdom and direct assault on it almost always fails. A lot of Bible expositional hammering has been going on in the USAmerican evangelical church and, yet, George Barna and company report that the sin index of the church is just like that of the culture around it. So much for the supposed magic in “Preach the Word.” The “still small voice” of God’s Spirit has been replaced by the loud, Bible-verse spouting voice of the preacher. Have you ever noticed how many church announcements feel like TV commercials for God? We don’t like the kingdom of God being like a teensy, weensy mustard seed or hidden yeast; we want it to be like an ear-splitting, action-packed movie trailer for God’s blockbuster hit in Jesus.

EHP notes that there are three things implicit in subversion: One, the status quo is wrong and must be overthrown. (You can get fired for this one). Two, there is another in-breaking world; a God-oriented and Jesus-saturated world. Three, the usual means by which one kingdom is thrown out and another put in its place—military coup or democratic election—are not available. The tools available for the subversive pastor are two: prayer and parable. “Words are the real work of the world—prayer words with God, parable words with men and women. The behind the scenes work of creativity by word and sacrament, by parable and prayer, subverts the seduced world.”

A man or woman who wants the job of pastor will sooner or later become disillusioned. Getting to traffic in holy things: holy Bible and Eikons of God; getting to study and communicate the Word of God; getting the accolades of well-meaning people—all these things will turn to sand in the mouth. There has to be a heart-gripping mission. A pastor is patient, seeking to observe grace-evidence in the parched lives of human beings. She is a subversive spy in very dangerous territory wisely, faithfully, subversively alerting people who are so susceptible to the blinding schemes of a fierce enemy and the foolish values of a godless culture. The spy knows a hard, yet breath-taking way out of this mess we’re all in.

Weekly Meanderings

Last updated on: September 15, 2012 at 6:56 am By Scot McKnight

Jason Clark and why theology is of use to the Vineyard! “I’ve already mentioned that we have theological convictions and beliefs as part of all we do, already. The issue is what theology will shape and form us, not if theology will shape and form us…. Our understanding of the Kingdom came from theological reflection by early leaders in the Vineyard. You and I might say we believe in the Kingdom, but do we know what that means and why? Do we know why Vineyard ministry times usual involve standing quietly waiting on the Holy Spirit? This was not something John Wimber invented, but experienced when he became a Christian within Evangelical Quakers in the USA.”

Ted’s full sentence of gospel truth: “What this all adds up to is a life in God through Jesus by the Spirit in the fellowship of the church in mission in Jesus to the world. In that through Jesus we find find real life.”

The Virtual Abbess is back, with this thoughtful post on complementarian vs. egalitarian, two terms that don’t collide. “Patriarchy belongs to the semantic field of kinship — the realm of the family. Egalitarian belongs to the semantic field of politics, referring to things like equal access to the vote, to positions of public leadership, and to ownership of property. The opposite of patriarchal dominance is not egalitarian anarchy/cooperation.”

Speaking of which, here’s my friend Patrick’s review of a recent book on women in ministry, not the least of which is the irony of a woman teaching us that women ought not to teach men endorsed by men who think women ought not to teach men.

Who is around you? “Who in your life makes you a better person? I just had lunch with with a friend who is such a person. He is older, wiser, and helped me think through a life issue and a church issue as well. I am better off for having spent time with this friend. He is the kind of person who makes me want to be a better man and leader. I enjoy being with him. Now I realize that not everyone is like my friend. Some people complain constantly. Some people enjoy arguing. Some are pessimistic and cynical. Others are manipulative. Many of us deal with all kinds of people every day. I have learned that I am better equipped to deal with these kinds of people if I am deliberate about surrounding myself with five different kinds of people.”

Good story about Dan Kimball.

An excellent post by Mark Stevens, one of our students at Tabor in Adelaide.

From Geeding, 7 things to remember about elections: “1. Both political parties go to church. 2. Political talk radio and cable “news” only want ratings. 3. Those who argue over politics don’t love their country more than others. They just love to argue more than others. 4. Thinking your party’s platform is unflawed is a mistake. 5. Scripture tells us to pray for our governing leaders (2 Timothy 2:1-4) and to respect those in authority (Romans 13:1-7). 6. Don’t be paranoid. 7. Stop saying, “This is the most important election in the history of our nation.” It’s not. The most important election in the history of our nation was when Abraham Lincoln was elected president.”

Meanderings in the News

NYC 9/11 Memorial and the price: “NEW YORK (AP) – With its huge reflecting pools, ringed by waterfalls and skyscrapers, and a cavernous underground museum still under construction, the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is an awesome spectacle that moved and inspired some 4.5 million visitors in its first year. But all that eye-welling magnificence comes with a jaw-dropping price tag. The foundation that runs the memorial estimates that once the roughly $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate. The anticipated cost has bothered some critics and raised concerns even among the memorial’s allies that the budget may be unsustainable without a hefty government subsidy. By comparison, the National Park Service budgeted $8.4 million this year to operate and maintain Gettysburg National Military Park and $3.6 million for the monument that includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Running Arlington National Cemetery, which has more than 14,000 graves and receives 4 million visitors a year, costs $45 million annually. Officials at the 9/11 memorial say they face unique challenges that make comparisons to other national memorials difficult. The foundation plans to spend at least a fifth of its operating budget, or around $12 million per year, on private security because of terrorism fears. Visitors to the memorial plaza pass through airport-like security, and armed guards patrol the grounds.

10 colleges with in dorms.

But teachers aren’t making what others are making with equal college education. For a link to the story about the graph to the right, click here.

Must read and graph about women crushing men worldwide in college race. “Women have outnumbered men on college campuses in the U.S. for a while now. But American guys aren’t the only ones falling behind. The graph below, courtesy the OECD’s new report on global education indicators, is a wonderful illustration of the way women have just crushed men in the college race. The blue lines essentially show how the fraction of women earning higher degrees in each country grew during the aughts. The gray lines are for the men. Upshot: women are expanded their presence on campus faster than men pretty much everywhere.”

Men behind women, why? David Brooks.”But, in her fascinating new book, “The End of Men,” Hanna Rosin posits a different theory. It has to do with adaptability. Women, Rosin argues, are like immigrants who have moved to a new country. They see a new social context, and they flexibly adapt to new circumstances. Men are like immigrants who have physically moved to a new country but who have kept their minds in the old one. They speak the old language. They follow the old mores. Men are more likely to be rigid; women are more fluid. This theory has less to do with innate traits and more to do with social position. When there’s big social change, the people who were on the top of the old order are bound to cling to the old ways. The people who were on the bottom are bound to experience a burst of energy. They’re going to explore their new surroundings more enthusiastically.”

Richard III?

MOOC’s: “Jonathan Salovitz’s course load sounds as grueling as any college undergraduate’s: computer science, poetry, history, math and mythology, taught by professors at big-name schools such as Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. Except Salovitz, 23, is not an undergraduate. His effort won’t count toward a bachelor’s degree, and he hasn’t paid a dime in tuition. Nor have his classmates, who number in the tens and even hundreds of thousands. Instead, Salovitz calls himself a “guinea pig.” He’s participating in a grand experiment in higher education known as Massive Open Online Courses –MOOCs, for short. Learners of all ages around the world are flocking to them. Top universities are clamoring to participate. And MOOCs already have attracted the interest of some employers, paving the way for a potential revenue source. All in less than a year.”

Presidents and WASPs: “So WASPs, you’ve had your great run. And there is no doubt that another white Protestant will rise up one day against the growing odds and win the White House. But until that day comes, you can console yourself knowing that a white Protestant male is one of the most exciting athletes in our nation today: Tim Tebow. (Of course, he is the back up to Mark Sanchez.)”

Thomas Jefferson to the defense of America.

Here’s a new take on having a fair: a funeral fair. “Wedding fairs are commonplace around the country as happy couples prepare for their big day. Mention the concept of a funeral fair to help plan your final farewell and the initial reaction might be a combination of shock and surprise. But in Bournemouth this weekend, more than 150 people from inside the funeral industry are gathering for the peculiarly titled “Joy of Death Festival”.”

That makes sense: “The smell of freshly brewed coffee can be hard to resist. Unfortunately, the taste doesn’t always live up to expectations. Scientists think they know why – and it is all to do with us having two senses of smell. When we smell coffee as it is brewing, the aroma goes up through the nose and blows across a sheet of cells that send the information to the brain. Then, when the coffee is sipped and swallowed, the scent is pushed up from the throat towards the same sheet of cells at the top of the nose. But, crucially, it wafts across them in the opposite direction. This second, ‘retronasal’, sense of smell leads to the information being sent to a different part of the brain and interpreted differently, the British Science Festival in Aberdeen heard. As most of the taste of a food or drink actually comes from its smell, this, combined with many of the flavoursome chemicals in coffee being stripped out by saliva, leaves it bound to disappoint.” [This is the experience of all except those who drink Intelligentsia!]

Maria Popova on crying.

Using artificial light in devices before bed — bad for sleep: “In today’s gadget-obsessed world, sleep experts often say that for a better night’s rest, Americans should click the “off” buttons on their smartphones and tablets before tucking in for the night. Electronic devices stimulate brain activity, they say, disrupting your ability to drift off to sleep. But according to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 90 percent of Americans regularly use a computer or electronic device of some kind in the hour before bed. Increasingly, researchers are finding that artificial light from some devices at night may tinker with brain chemicals that promote sleep. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute showed that exposure to light from computer tablets significantly lowered levels of the hormone melatonin, which regulates our internal clocks and plays a role in the sleep cycle.”

Meanderings in Sports

Oregon Duck fans have a problem the Illini fans do not have.

Release the APE — Beau Crosetto

Last updated on: September 5, 2012 at 10:01 am By Scot McKnight

A recent post by John Frye in his weekly “From the Shepherd’s Nook” column responded to an approach to ministry called “APEPT” or “APE” so we have in this column, by Beau Crosetto, an apologetic for the APE approach to ministry. Beau’s calling by God is to raise up and release apostolic & evangelistically gifted men and women into the world. He currently is the Greater Los Angeles Director forGreek InterVarsityand in charge of specifically seeing new Greek InterVarsity chapters start on college campuses. The vision of Greek InterVarsity in Southern California is to see a “witnessing community in every fraternity and sorority in SoCal.” He has been on staff for 7 years and previously oversaw the ministry at San Diego State. Beau is married to Kristina and they have two kids: Noah (2) and Sophia (5mo). Beau became a Christian in college at the University of San Diego where he played golf. He has a passion for helping students connect with Jesus, and right behind that is his passion for the Seahawks!

We are interested your response to this summons to release the apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic gifts in the church? Do you think they are suppressed?

It’s time for the church to release the APE.

For the first 300 years of its life, the church had existed on the margins. But Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in the early fourth century, and the game changed. Christianity became centralized, worship was welcomed, and the church moved to the middle of culture. When there was a problem with life, a matter to settle, or a question about God, people turned to the church for answers. In this increasingly “Christian” culture, the role of the shepherd and teacher started to take on increased emphasis—in a culture where everyone is more or less “Christian” and people are coming in towards the church, you need shepherds to guide and teachers to train.

But in a missionary context like the one the West faces today, we need more catalytic leaders who will go out with the gospel and spark things for God where the people are. In a culture where Christianity is not central and people are no longer looking to the church for answers, we cannot afford to wait for people to come to us; we must take the gospel out into culture right where they are.

I believe that a key to facilitating this shift is to re-calibrate the leadership of the Western Church based on Ephesians 4:11 where it says that “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers…”

In a “Post-Christendom” culture like the one we have today, we need every person in the church to be a player and you especially need the more catalytic functions of the church fully activated. The apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic vocations need to be released fully!

It is time to release the APE within the church and for the world just as Christians did in the early church. If the church is going to be effective in mission and healthy in growth, we must empower all five vocations as stated in Ephesians 4, not just two. We need the Apostle, Prophet, and Evangelist as well as the Shepherd and Teacher. We need the APE too, not just the ST.

Because it has existed in a “Christianized” society, the western church has become fascinated with calling every position in the church “Pastor” or “Teacher” and we have greatly emphasized these gifts. It is confusing to me when today’s Western churches primarily only uses the Sheperd/Pastor and teacher titles, when Jesus clearly gave us five vocations as stated in Ephesians 4. Almost every church I go to has many leaders and those leaders are all titled “pastor” and “teacher”. You would be hard pressed to find Western churches that are actually releasing apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic leaders in a healthy way. You tend to either get no mention of the APE vocations or some crazy version of it that Biblically is hard to follow.

We need more books like The Permanent Revolution, where Hirsch and Catchim lay down a theoretical and theological grounding for the five-fold, and Creating a Missional Culture, where JR Woodward shows how the five-fold can work itself out in the local church.

Please hear me clearly at this point: We need pastors and teachers in the mission of God. What I want to challenge is the way we have overemphasized two vocations (Shepherd, Teacher) while leaving behind the other three more generative vocations (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist).

Because of this imbalance, many leaders that are actually gifted in A, P, or E are receiving little vision or modeling and one of two things tends to happen: Either they get stuffed into a pastoral role or they say to themselves, “Leadership in the church is not for me!” This was part of my experience as a young leader, and you can read more of my story here. I had no language for the APE vocations and I was left frustrated with deep stirrings caged inside of me. So I went to the Para-Church where there was more modeling of this way of life, but still very little language or interpretation for what was stirring in my soul.

Jesus did not design nor call every person in the church, and especially in leadership, to be a Shepherd/Pastor or Teacher! Jesus gave the church five gifts/vocations: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher (Ephesians 4).

Sadly, the APE has been “caged” in many of our churches, and I believe this “caging of the APE” is one of the key factors contributing to the decline of the western church. For the most part, the words Apostolic, Prophetic, and Evangelistic have vanished from our vocabulary. Language shapes cultures, and the Western Church at this point barely has the APE words in its dictionary! As such, a first step is to try and put language to these vocations again, and here is how I would frame the APE vocations:

Apostolic: architect for mission, visionary, reproducing, guardian of the gospel, obsessed with the “sentness” of every believer.
- Apostolic example: John Wesley
Prophetic: justice minded, challenges the status quo, keeps us faithful to God.
- Prophetic example: Shane Claiborne
Evangelistic: the linchpin of the church, recruiter, obsessed with conversion, great at explaining the gospel to people not following Jesus.
- Evangelistic example: Billy Graham & Para-church (IV, Cru, etc)

If we are going to reach people in this “Post-Christendom” culture and see the church reverse its decline and actually start growing in the West, we have to start talking about the APE so that church can be taken to people “out there” in culture. We are going to have to start catalyzing churches in businesses, pubs, cafes, fraternity houses, and malls. We are going to have to start finding the places where real conversation is happening in today’s culture and plant the gospel and churches there.

Just a few months ago in a fraternity house at San Diego State University, I had a guy who was not a Christian thank me profusely for starting a bible study in his house so he could talk about the things of God. He said, “I have never felt this comfortable with my self ever before, and I cannot thank you enough. I am surprised that at a Bible Study in the fraternity is where I felt most at home.”

This “frat boy” as many like to say, was never going to darken the door of a church and if we are going to reach him and others alike, we better get out there and get creative with the planting of the gospel. I think APEs are critical to this task and that is why we as the church need to release them fully.

People primarily gifted with shepherding and teaching have a key role to play in this mission, but if we believe Ephesians 4, they cannot do it on their own: we need to release the APE. Otherwise, it is like fighting a battle with one arm tied behind your back. You just aren’t going to win.

Or as a businessman would put it: It is like asking your best manager at work to go and start a new business venture for you.

It makes no sense.

Managers are skilled in a way that helps them manage the people in the company well, and the entrepreneurs and catalysts are skilled to go start new things.

You need both. You can’t run a company well with only managers or only entrepreneurs.

It is the same for God and church.

The battle that is the advancement of the Kingdom of God must be fought with all five vocations fully released, and right now we are mostly fighting with two when it comes to church leadership.

I am totally convinced that if the Jesus mission is going to get done, and the Kingdom of God is going to fully come, then we must “Release the APE” inside the church and to the world.

Your Sons and Your …

Last updated on: August 27, 2012 at 7:34 am By Scot McKnight

Here’s what my Bible records Peter explaining on the Day of Pentecost: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

The NIV11 does show the cognate terms clearly because “servants” refers to male and female servants of God — same term, different gender. What this text says is that Pentecost heralded a new day, and that day meant God’s Spirit would be poured out on all — men and women, sons and daughters, young and old. This is Joel’s and Peter’s version of Paul’s Galatians 3:28. But instead of the “in Christ” theme of Paul we’ve got the “gifts” theme. God chooses to whom to distribute gifts; God chooses from the Day of Pentecost on to give those gifts to men and women.

If God gifts women with prophecy, why are so few women speaking in churches?

But there are plenty of churches that don’t recognize the gifts of women when they’ve got them. Non-recognition of gifts grieves the Spirit. We don’t decide in advance which gender speaks and which gender is designed to listen; we listen instead to the gifting of God. When God gifts, we receive.

Many women have a story about believing and knowing they’ve been called and gifted by God; some of them have been given sufficient opportunity — small groups, youth groups, sudden opportunities (I tell the story of Alice in Junia is Not Alone) — to notch it up from knowing they are gifted to being recognized by others for those gifts. Then church leaders — males — step up to say God doesn’t gift women like that. And that flies in the face of Acts 2 which says God gives women the highest gift of all — to prophesy.

A prophet is someone who stands between God and God’s people: God speaks, the prophet hears, and the prophet speaks for God to the people. It is a noble calling; if not the highest of gifts, near the top.

A very good memoir of a woman called is by Sara Gaston Barton, A Woman Called: Piecing Together the Ministry Puzzle. I would urge you to get a copy of this book and get ready either to read it or better yet: get a copy, read it and then give it someone who is called and waiting for the church to recognize God’s calling. Sara tells her story among the Churches of Christ, of a gift not always recognized … and so her struggle is the struggle of many called women.

I like this book so much I wrote the foreword. But there is no way to blog through a memoir. They’re meant to be read, not sketched. It’s a great story of a life. If you are looking to wrangle with a woman over some passages in the NT, go elsewhere. This not that kind of book; it’s her story being called and discerning what that means when males are casting hot shadows over any woman who thinks such thoughts. The book is full of grace.

What we need more of is males. Males who believe women are gifted by God. Males who are willing to resist churches and leaders who think women aren’t gifted. Women can stand up and fight but time has convinced me that until recognized male leaders have the courage to stand up for called and gifted women their gifts won’t be recognized. So here’s my challenge: If you think the word omitted in the title to this post is Daughters, then I’m asking men who really believe it to look around at your church and ask one question: Do women speak routinely in my church or is always males, or almost always males? If it is mostly males, it is time for you to stand up for the called women at your church. (My logic is from the greater to the lesser: if women can be prophets, they can surely speak behind a pulpit on Sunday morning. Teachers are third and prophets second in 1 Cor 12:28.)

What Pastors Urgently Need: John Frye

Last updated on: August 14, 2012 at 9:15 am By Scot McKnight

What Pastors Urgently Need

First , a big “thank you” to Scot McKnight for inviting me to post a weekly reflection on pastoral ministry in this 21st century. You can read my first two posts on this topic at my blog “Jesus the Radical Pastor.”

Second, a word about my purpose. I am writing very intentionally about the traditional view of pastoral ministry within the current milieu of many contentious views about the vocation of pastor. To get a feel for this purpose, please read the first two posts. These are my own reflections about being “a pastor” and I believe these ideas have an enduring and rightful place in any discussions about local church ministry. Now to today’s thoughts.

Because many pastors and local church leaders have not met Jesus, the Pastor, the pastoral vocation and local church ministry gets needlessly skewed. If you’re new to this idea, read slowly through Ezekiel 34, John 10 (the Good Shepherd) and ponder these two titles of Jesus–the Great Shepherd (Hebrews 13) and the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5). For some odd reason many pastors have been led to fixate on Paul the Apostle and his letters. With this Pauline fixation, pastors neglect Jesus the Pastor and ignore the Gospels as pastoral documents. I’ll make the point again, Paul never describes himself as a pastor nor is he referred to as a pastor. He is Paul the Apostle (to the Gentiles). (more…)

What is the Christian teaching about humility?