Tim Abbott

5 Deeply De-Christian Doctrines Meme

Joe tagged me with this so I thought I ought to play ball and join in.

List 5 doctrines that are taught within the Christian church that you believe to be deeply de-Christian.

I will interpret 'taught' in it's broad sense. Some of these things may not be preached from the pulpit, but are often taught by what we do. Also, I'm pretty much on the same page as Joe with the five things he listed so the pressure is on to find another five.

1. The longer / louder your prayer the more likely it is that God will hear it.

2. When Jesus said 'make disciples'; he had in mind a teaching series delivered by an expert

3. That holiness is more about what I do than what God does

4.The body of Christ looks like a (our?) church rather than the church (with all her faults, diversity and character)

5. That running a business is less spiritual than running a church / Christian organisation

Most of the people I might have tagged seem to be on a blog holiday however, should they wish to join in, for perhaps a more youth work tinted view I tag Ian, Sarah and Alice.

Sunday influences

Today...

This made me angry
The woman who is standing up to feral thugs

This made me sad
Niki Made Her Choice and, Apparently, So Did We

This inspired me
How to think, what to think, and thinking outside the box
(though note the story is fictional)

And this made me smile
Dave, exploring the meaning of sabbath in a whole new way (and I'm slightly jealous!)

Rounded the day off by joining with friends at Pub Church, but as this is still something of an underground movement I can't say any more than that!

I once was a Buddhist nun

Esther Baker grew up in a home hostile to Christianity and the church. A passionate seeker after the truth, she followed a passing interest in several faiths and worldviews, before finally arriving at Buddhism. Her journey took her to various parts of Asia leading her eventually to ordination as a Buddhist nun in an English monastery.  It was there that God started to make himself known to Esther, stirring her spirit to seek him.

It was Good Friday, and suddenly, for the first time in my life, I really wanted to know what had happened to Jesus that day. It wasn’t rational; I can’t explain why I suddenly wanted to know.

God continued to bring people across her path who, each in their own small way, nudged Esther towards him. An encounter with some Christians protesting outside an inter-faith gathering at Canterbury Cathedral began to sow seeds of doubt about whether Buddhism was really the truth. She started helping an elderly Anglican nun who lived in the village. A visitor spoke enthusiastically about a programme she had seen on TV in which a lady called Jackie Pullinger prayed for drug addicts in the name of Jesus and saw them released from addiction. One night, the abbott of the monastery showed a video of this programme. The impact on Esther was almost overwhelming and all the more remarkable in that no one else in the monastery seemed to have been moved by it. She felt devastated and confused with a battle going on in her soul.

One sleepless night, in desperation, I called out to God. “God, if you are real, please come.” And God came! After I had prayed I felt a sense of peace and well-being flooding my heart and body. This was the first time I had invited God to touch my own life, invited him in and asked for his help. I knew he had answered my prayer.

Over a period of several months, during which time she was able to spend more time with Christians, Esther’s inner turmoil resolved to a new commitment to Christ, and the knowledge that she needed to disrobe as a nun and leave Buddhism. In time God led her to work with Jackie Pullinger in Hong Kong, ministering in exactly the same way that she had first seen on the video in the monastery. She now works in Thailand, a country steeped in Buddhism, where she is involved in a ministry of healing and discipleship helping to build the church and, in her own words, “helping to make the bride of Christ more beautiful and more ready for him.”

Esther writes in a straightforward and very readable style, her own story effectively interwoven with clear teaching about Theravada Buddhism and Christianity. This is a book about the impact that these two faiths have had on one person’s life - the testimony of a journey and a search for truth. It is as honest about the Buddhism that she abandoned as the Christianity that she embraced and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to someone who was dabbling in Buddhism but still searching, or, for that matter, anyone interested to know whether God is real.

I once was a Buddhist nun - Esther Baker: IVP

Genesis

Matt Stone on Genesis: An Authoritative Myth?
including what I found to be such an inspiring quote from Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament  by Peter Enns that I went straight to Amazon and bought it.

What did Jesus version of community look like?

I'm away in Toronto this week taking in a conference at TACF with a couple of friends from Colchester - all part of an ongoing process of personal reflection about the future.

Today, as well as an inspiring session on "Endurance" at the conference, I was particularly inspired by Internet Monk's response to the question What Did Jesus’ Version of Community Look Like?

Tragedy, judgement and Jesus

Are the Bush Fires the Judgment of God?  Mark Conner responds to self appointed prophets invoking God's judgement on the state of Victoria as the reason behind the devastating bush fires. Very wise words.

Jesus and the dinosaurs

Thanks to Dan Kimball for posting this.

We laughed. We nearly cried. We printed it out and stuck it on the wall.

I'm really not sure what to make of it. I think it could be subtitled, "where fundamentalism meets paleontology". But I'm not really sure.

Dan wonders whether this was truly from a Christian children's colouring book. I hope not...
I'm still confused...

You could also see Dinosaur Comics!

Todd Bentley

There's a lot of interest here in the revival meetings taking place in Lakeland, Florida, with Todd Bentley. Whilst most of the attention is on the big meetings, this video interview with Todd reveals the background to the man and this ministry.

Big meeting type stuff is always vulnerable to hype and 'crowd-think', and I'm sure there's a bit of this happening here. But my cynical side has been tempered somewhat.
Firstly by hearing Todd speak of his passion for a close relationship with God, regardless of whether it leads to any kind of ministry. Secondly, I've noticed in the meetings there is quite a focus on testimony from people who have seen God heal or work in their lives or the lives of their friends other than at the Todd Bentley meetings.

I still have an open mind about what's happening. But there are a few things I still hope to see:
- similar things breaking out elsewhere and perhaps in surprising settings/churches/streams
- people and churches touched by this move of God engaging with their communities, not just having amazing meetings
- people outside our churches being touched by the manifest presence of God as Christians offer to pray for them
- lasting fruit in people's lives

What are your thoughts about what's going on?

UPDATE 17 May: Honest questions about the Lakeland revival over at Charismamag - in a fast moving avalanche of views this seems, in my opinion a very balanced reflection which recognises gladly signs of revival whilst acknowledging sensitively the concerns of many.

Revision

The build up to GCSE exams has been creating huge demand for us to visit schools to take revision lessons. Typically these lessons have taken the form of a question and answer session, with students asking their own questions based loosely on the topics covered in their course (Belief in God, Life and death issues, Social harmony, Religion and the media etc). The idea is that our answers, and particularly the personal stories we share, will help students gain a better understanding about how the Christan faith works out in real people's lives and so give them examples they can use in the exam.

However, fun though these sessions often are, and as useful as they may be, we've always felt there must be a better way to help young people engage with the subject, explore their own understanding and still gain from our personal examples.

So this year we've been getting them to do more of the work. And it seems to be working.

After getting students to recap the different issues they have covered we ask them to work in groups to come up with the main points they'd include in answer to a question we set them. So, for example, "How and why do Christians use the Bible to make moral decisions?" In plenary discussion we then pool everyone's ideas and help them to reflect on them to ensure they can state their points well and back them up with examples from Christian teaching and, where possible, the Bible. If we have a personal story that's relevant to the question we share it as an example.
Some questions require both sides of an argument to be presented, for example, "Present the arguments for and against abortion with reference to the teachings of the Christian faith." Here we divide the class in half and get them to speak for each side of the argument. We've found it's worth emphasising that it's not a battle and that it's important to think through and listen to the other side of the argument as well as your own!

Clearly you can't cover the five or six topics that form the whole of an RE syllabus, but staff have been very appreciative of this approach as it not only revises the content of the subject, but also the method of religious enquiry and of the exams to come. Students have responded very well because they can get more involved than with a simple "they ask, we answer" format. And we get to be facilitators more than experts, though still with the fantastic opportunity to share real life stories of how God has made a difference in our lives.

Feminism and scripture

An interesting post from Scott McKnight exploring issues raised in John Stackhouse's new book Finally Feminist.
I've always said I don't have a problem with women in leadership. I know many women who are superb leaders, and quite a few men who are not. I think the issue is fundamentally about quality of leadership, not gender.
But as well as exploring the issue of gender and leadership, Scott identifies in Stackhouse some  important ideas that influence the way we approach our understanding of scripture. On the whole, I find them very helpful. As you might expect, there is a lively discussion following in his comments section.

In a similar vein, John Stackhouse on his own blog asks, Does the Trinity prove anything about gender? Not much.  He concludes:

Many theologians (I among them) strongly endorse circumspection when it comes to the attempt to use one of the great mysteries of the faith—the internal life of God in the Trinity—to shed light on some other doctrine. Some doctrines do require deployment of the doctrine of the Trinity to understand them properly—most notably Christology, soteriology, and pneumatology. But the question of gender seems to be one of those theological subjects not much improved by reference to the Trinity—as is evidenced by the fact that everyone seems to be able to selectively access this doctrine in the interest of contradictory understandings of gender.