Category Archives: Theology

How far is too far?

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In pushing the theological boundaries how far is too far? I have been thinking a lot about TSK post here

on Acts 15 and recognise that as missionaries come back and tell the stories of how they contexualised the gospel, that the teachers did indeed make some sense these stories and grounded them in the biblical narrative. A couple of thousand years on are todays teachers willing to do the same leg work? As I try to make sense of where God leads through mission contexts I am not sure if the teachers will catch up. As the missionaries move on and culture shifts if they do not keep up it takes a Luther or Calvin to fill the vacuum (My fear is they would never be heard in the myriad of voices of postmodernity). If Dave comes back with a reinterpretation of Blessed are the mourners through his experience with the young people here that does not fit into the traditional narrative who is to say they are right and he wrong. Where should the weight be, with missionary or the teacher?

Penalty Kick Off!

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Penal substitution is a topic that is being kicked around the church at the moment. The concept that Jesus took the penalty for our sin when he died on the cross.

In thinking about this a couple of things have crossed my mind:

  1. Sin is separation from God. The penalty for sin is separation from God (hell?). So the penalty is the same thing as the offence itself… but can we call it an offence, seeing as we are all born separate from God? Perhaps the offence is to choose separation from God? To choose your own way, to choose sin. So if you choose sin then you get sin.
  2. Jesus died for our sins and it does seem that he was temporarily separate from God. But perhaps death, for Christ, was more about being stronger than evil and working out God’s forgiveness than taking the penalty?
  3. Who’s dishing out the penalty? God? Or is it us when we choose sin, when we choose the actual penalty? Certainly the only one who can save us from the penalty/sin is God.

I probably need to get my head down and look at some theology about this to be honest. Anyway, you can take the above merely as some wandering wonderings of the mind! 🙂

Lets listen to fill the vacuum

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There is a great discussion going on with tall skinny kiwi here here and Jesus Creed here sparked by DA Carsons forth coming book.
But more importantly the discussion could be the beginnings of a genuine dialogue between the edge and core, the missionaries and the academics. At times I feel very frustrated that academia don’t seem to hear the stories unless written in academic form. So it was surprising yesterday to hear “Meet them where they’re at� was on the reading list for an MA in Evangelism and Mission. To kick things off I thought Skinnys Reflections on Acts 15 is great and is very helpful to the process.

Skinny says, Peter, an authority figure, got up and said the new stuff was really important. That shut everyone up. They were listening.
2. Barnabas and Paul, the missionary-travellers-eyewitnesses-storytellers, told stories about what God was doing out there where the action was. They listen to the stories.
3. James, the teacher, whips out a can of Old Testament Teaching and locates the present situation in the Scriptures. They listen to his counsel.
“Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas” 15:22
Here’s the deal.
1. In the past 7 years, we have had key authority figures rise up and give their blessing to the emerging church – Rick Warren, Len Sweet, Thom Wolf, E.B. Brooks, Tom Wright, Eddie Gibbs, Rowan Williams, etc, – and the whole church has been called to listen.
2. Right now, missionaries who travel and bloggers from around the world, are reporting that the new churches are emerging out of the global postmodern culture with the blessing of God and the good fruit of changed lives and reconciled communities. Thats where I put myself – as one of those storytellers, eyewitnesses, and participants.
3. The teachers are rising up and locating what God is doing in the present with Biblical precedent and historical memory. Thats why if you want to follow this story to the next installment, you should shift over to Scot McKnight’s blog Jesus Creed.

In some ways I have a foot in both camps (academia and mission) and regularly get frustrated, so I hope to blog around this subject again, particularly around rethinking church and the theological vacuum that post Christendom culture and emerging church is creating. However it may take me a day or two to put it together.

Reluctance to Change

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Stuart Murray’s ‘Post-Christendom’ has got me thinking!

I wonder if there is reluctance to change in the church for this reason:
If dramatic change takes place, anyone who is in a position of power or influence in the church (or ‘a’ church) is likely to find themselves on a level with others, without an advantage. They would find themselves beginners again, unfamiliar with their newly deconstructed/reconstructed environment.

Does this mean that such people might resist change? I wonder…

Post Easter Reflection

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I always thought it was significant that Jesus first appeared to Mary, a woman. Prompted by the Easter readings I was intrigued by Jesus many appearances and how in some ways they mirrored the relationships restored through the cross. Jesus and Peter by the lake – Man to himself, Jesus and the fishermen – Man and creation Jesus and the disciples with Thomas – Man to Man Jesus and the road to Emmaus – Man to God. What do you think?Hellraiser: Hellworld psp

No Taboos

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I was chatting with Richard and Lori P today and I suddenly said to him “what I like about this is that there are no taboos chatting with you guys”.

I thought back to my youth at church and recognised that you just weren’t allowed to question too much stuff (not that my parent’s were like that though).

This made me think about ‘not doubting’ as we are instructed to ‘not doubt’. But the essence of the ‘do not doubt’ instruction is ‘do not doubt what you know by faith’, which is entirely different to doubting loads of the other stuff that you hear at church, etc. Anyway, I found this deeply encouraging, as it is great to be encouraged not to doubt the stuff you are absolutely certain of, that God has shown to you – i.e. to get on and live how you believe.

It’s also great to know that we can (and should, perhaps) doubt everything that we don’t have a certain faith about. Let’s face it, I’m not about to have faith that ‘you must go to the church meeting every Sunday morning’! 🙂 But I am not going to doubt that ‘God is love’! Hurrah!

Brian and heaven

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I was going to blog about Christ’s scars from the cross being visible in heaven and when he showed Himself on earth and the challenges this presents to much of our theology about suffering and heaven. However Brian Bunny has his own site so I wanted to give this a link and show the latest edition which is just great.

Stop asking young people to believe in God

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I have added another parable in the Youth work tacks.

My mind is still all over the place around the issue of belief. (see the snowed in by God post) As I grapple with the concept and context, the more I think calling young people to “believe in God” is unhelpful. As said before the believe notion means that God may or may not exist. Thinking about the context of when belief is used biblically often the root can be traced back to couple of Greek words (verbs) around agree, make friends or yield. This further connects with the Jewish tradition of making space for God which could well have been the context of the time.

Some may say I am arguing about semantics but if we are asking young people to believe in a modern context are we doing them and us a disservice and setting ourselves up for problems in the long term. If belief implies only the possible existence of God then aren’t we leaving too much space or opening the way for the individualistic gospel and the non wholehearted believer. By changing the language would we change the nature of what we are calling young people towards.

It reminds me of a time we had two young people interested in God. When we explained the elements of the gospel they understood each part, but when we put it altogether and called it becoming a Christian we lost them. They got the concrete parts, God made the world, man screwed up, Jesus was Gods son, and He died in our place. But together that abstract concept of becoming a Christian lost them. In the ended we pointed them to a maze and said once they got to the centre tell God they wanted to follow him a 100%. Through their journey with us they had already realized God was real, but asking them to believe and become a Christian made no sense to them.

Any thoughts about ways to replace notions of believing in God or comments gratefully received as my brain hurts, but I think it is an important issue for us.
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Gentile Church

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Well (in response to the question I posed at the end of my last post) I reckon we have plenty of Jewish traditions (adapted):
1) The worship leader (High Priest).
2) We come into the House of the Lord.
3) We come into God’s presence.
4) We come into the Holy Place.
5) Worship narrowed down to singing instead of it being our whole lives.
6) Ecstasy – no, not that ecstacy!
7) Lots of singing.
So I’m ready for a remodel! 🙂

Now, what is a sensible attitude to existing tradition?

I think that if we are going to learn something from the OT it is more
likely to be in the realms of justice and community incorporating economics,
social care, empowerment, etc.

Snowed in by God

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Quick post as I am off to Denmark to do some stuff with youthworkers over there. Hoping I get there as there is heavy snow at the moment. It seems that where ever I travel I run the risk of getting snowed in at the moment. Last week I woke up to several inches of snow in Rugby where I was speaking. Maybe it’s connected but I have been thinking a lot about believing in God, and whether it is actually possible to believe in God and does that imply if you don’t believe He ceases to be, if so our current concept of believing in God is a bit of a non starter (feel free to comment or slate me on this). As God is fact in my view, maybe it is more about making space for Him in our lives (an old pre-Christian idea). This space may not be about the Christian ideas of inviting Him in, but more about the recognition of Him in all and through all. When we don’t don’t make the space does He snow us in so we can’t miss Him?Serenity film