Quote of the Week

Warning: If you treat your church like a business, you will treat other churches like your competition.

– Jared Wilson

Read Blogs? Try Google Reader.

Here’s a bit of time saving advice: If you read more than one blog and check them regularly than you need to use Google Reader.  Once entering your favorite blogs, Google Reader posts all of the latest entries like email.  In this way you can keep up to date with all your blogs without having to visit each site one-by-one.

I’ve been using the program for three months and I just set Tami, my wife, up this past week. 

Thanks to Abraham Piper at Desiring God you can find step-by-step instructions for getting started.  Follow the instructions below to add this site, Logosmadeflesh.wordpress.com, to your account. 

Setting Up Google Reader

1. Create a Google account.
2. Go to Google Reader and make sure you’re signed in.

Adding a Subscription in Google Reader

1. Select “Add Subscription” from the left column.
2. Type in the address of a blog you want to subscribe to and click “Add.”

 

Jesus Made Me Puke – The Hypocracy of Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones posted an undercover expose of the Christian Right yesterday, entitled, “Jesus Made Me Puke.”  In the article, Matt Taibbi, the author of the piece, recounts his adventure infiltrating a “clandestine” meeting of the religious right.  While I have to admit the article made me chuckle at times, it’s point is not to make people laugh as much as it is to expose what Taibbi would argue is the shocking stupidity of Christians and by implication their political agenda.  Taibbi states the purpose of his article,

When most Americans think of the Christian right, they think of scenes from television — great halls full of perfectly groomed people in pale suits and light-colored dresses, smiling and happy and full of the Holy Spirit, robotically singing hymns at the behest of some squeaky-clean pastor with a baritone voice and impossible hair. We don’t get to see the utterly batshit world they live in, when the cameras are turned off and their pastors are not afraid of saying the really dumb stuff, for fear of it turning up on CNN. In American evangelical Christianity, in other words, there’s a ready-for-prime-time stage act — toned down and lip-synced to match a set of PG lyrics that won’t scare the advertisers — and then there’s the real party backstage, where the spiritual hair really gets let down. I was about to go backstage, to personally take part in the indoctrination process for a major Southern evangelical church.

What I found disgustingly Ironic about Taibbi’s description of the relgious right is that he himself blantly lies in order to expose their supposed double nature.  It’s not as if Taibbi is an undercover police officer trying to put the mofia behind bars or even try to find a lead in a case.  Taibbi sole motivation for his dupicity is to mock those he refuses to understand – Christians who act with complete sincerity.   Take the following excerpt from the article for instance.  Taibbi records that after listening to a speaker he along with the rest of the participants of the weekend retreat seperated into small groups under a group leader.

Once Morgan had us all gathered together, we looked for table space in the cafeteria area of the main building. Ominously, each of the cafeteria tables had a fresh box of Kleenex resting on top of it.

“Well,” Morgan said, “I think what we’re going to do to start is this. I’m going to tell you my story about my wound, and then we’re going to go around in a circle, and each of us is going to just tell his story. Is that OK?”

Everyone nodded. I noted with displeasure that I was seated first after Morgan in clockwise order. Already I was panicking; what kind of wound could a human cipher like myself possibly confess to?

Morgan told his story. Even a perfunctory look at my fellow group members told me that we had people here with some very serious problems, and yet Morgan’s wound was a tale that wouldn’t have even ruined a week of my relatively privileged childhood, much less my whole life — something about being yelled at by his dad while he was out playing with remote-controlled airplanes with his friends as a thirteen-year-old. He hammed up his trauma over the incident in classically lachrymose Iron John-in-touch-with-his-inner-boy fashion (again, there is something very odd about modern Christian men — although fiercely pro-military in their politics and prehistorically macho in their attitudes toward women’s roles, on the level of day-to-day behavior they seem constantly ready to break out weeping like menopausal housewives), but his words were bouncing off a wall of unimpressed silence radiating from the group.

Blank stares. This was a tough crowd. Five minutes into our group acquaintance, we were at a full 9.5 out of 10 on the International Uncomfortable Silence scale.

Morgan turned, glanced again at my name tag and sighed.

“Well, uh, OK, then,” he said. “Matthew, do you want to tell your story?”

My heart was pounding. I obviously couldn’t use my real past — not only would it threaten my cover, but I was somewhat reluctant to expose anything like my real inner self to this ideologically unsettling process — but neither did I want to be trapped in a story too far from my own experience. What I settled on eventually was something that I thought was metaphorically similar to the truth about myself.

“Hello,” I said, taking a deep breath. “My name is Matt. My father was an alcoholic circus clown who used to beat me with his oversize shoes.”

The group twittered noticeably. Morgan’s eyes opened to tea-saucer size.

I closed my own eyes and kept going, immediately realizing what a mistake I’d made. There was no way this story was going to fly. But there was no turning back.

“He’d be sitting there in his costume, sucking down a beer and watching television,” I heard myself saying. “And then sometimes, even if I just walked in front of the TV, he’d pull off one of those big shoes and just, you know — whap!“

I looked around the table and saw three flatlined, plainly indifferent psyches plus one mildly unnerved Morgan staring back at me. I could tell that my coach and former soldier had been briefly possessed by the fear that a terrible joke was being played on his group. But then I actually saw him dismissing the thought — after all, who would do such a thing? I managed to tie up my confession with a tale about turning into a drug addict in my midtwenties — at least that much was true — and being startled into sobriety and religion after learning of my estranged clown father’s passing from cirrhosis.

It was a testament to how dysfunctional the group was that my story flew more or less without comment.

He infiltrates their community, lies to them and then mocks them for trusting him.  I’m sure the audience of Rolling Stones is rolling in the aisle.  But would it be as funny in a different group with a similar aim.  Would it have been as funny if Taibbi had infiltrated an AA meeting, told completely ridiculous stores and then question their sanity for trusting him. 

What Taibbi fails to realize is that their are places and situations in our lives where trust must be assumed.  What kind of relationship would we have if we had to question our significant others every time they stepped out the room.  What kind of life would we have if we doubted everything our Parents said.  The relationship expected in the situation Taibbi entered was trust.  Taibbi’s response was as juvenile as saying, “losersaywhat” and then laughing when the unsuspecting person says, “what?”  For Taibbi going undercover is not enough to understand the Christian community because he lacks the one thing that these people possess – sincerity. 

“So your Saying Jesus is a Woman.” Not Exactly.

I don’t know how many times you stick your foot in your mouth but I do it quit a bit.  Recently when discussing the Shack with a co-worker I took issue with the author’s separate characterizations of Jesus and Sophia.  “Jesus is Sophia,” I said.  To which my friend replied, “So you saying Jesus is a Woman.”  No, I’m not saying Jesus is a woman.  I’m saying the New Testament writers and particularly John present Jesus as the embodiment of Sophia/Wisdom.  Jesus was and is a man but before he was a man he was the Logos and or Sophia. 

This may sound odd but I assure you my feet are firmly planted in the scripture. 

Sophia, the Greek word meaning wisdom, first appears as a character in the Old Testament book of Proverbs.  In Chapter one, we read,

Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; ²¹ At the head of the noisy streets she cries out.

The writer of proverbs presents Sophia as the protection against the other woman, “the adulteress who flatters with her words” (Pro. 1:16) But more than a literary figure, Sophia in Proverbs is a semi-divine charachter who acts as God’s consort.

“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. ²³ “From everlasting I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. ²⁴ “When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no springs abounding with water… ³⁰ Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, ³¹ Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of men.

Because Sophia is Wisdom of God, the writer of Proverbs encourages his readers to pursue her.

¹³How blessed is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding. ¹⁴ For its profit is better than the profit of silver, And its gain than fine gold. ¹⁵ She is more precious than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her.

But Proverbs isn’t the only place where we find wisdom personified.  The authors of some of the apocryphal books continue in the vein of Proverbs.  The Wisdom of Solomon for instance says,

She is a breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; so nothing impure can find its way into her. ²⁶ For she is a reflection of the eternal light, untarnished mirror of God’s active power, and image of his goodness. 

The book of Ecclesiasticus has Wisdom/Sophia say,

³‘I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and I covered the earth like mist. ⁴ I had my tent in the heights, and my throne was a pillar of cloud. ⁵ Alone, I have made the circuit of the heavens and walked through the depths of the abyss. ⁶ Over the waves of the sea and over the whole earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway.

You can find the main passages related to the personification of wisdom in Proverbs 1-9, Ecclesiasticus 24, Wisdom of Solomon 6-8. 

How does this Woman relate to Jesus?  I’ll address that issue in my next post.

The Error of the Seeker Sensitive Church

Unchurched adults interested in finding a congregation aren’t nearly as likely to visit one in person as a church member who is shopping for a new congregation. That means effective evangelism must begin outside the sanctuary in relationships between Christians and unbelievers, according to research from several recent studies from LifeWay Research…

You can find the full articles here. 

I think it’s time we stop giving over Sunday Mornings to unbelievers and instead use the time to build up the body of Christ.  Evangelism must be done but Sunday Morning isn’t the place to do it.  Even Willow Creek, the church who spearheaded the Seeker Sensitive approach is now rethinking its methods. 

The Spiritual Gospel – Blood and Water

Part 5 of the Spiritual gospel is now available.  In this presentation I explore the meaning of water as found in the multiple references to that liquid in the gospel of John.  You can find this presentation here or you can subscribe to an automatic feed for itunes here. 

Online Church?

What do you think?  Is this in step or out of step with the identity, purpose and mission of the Church?  Why or why not?

What Is the End Goal of Discipleship?

If you haven’t got a chance to read some of the great comments that have been written on what makes a healthy church, I encourage you to take a look.  But I have another question.  It’s related to the former but looks beyond the cooperate body to the health of the individual.  What is the end goal of discipleship?  What is Christian maturity?

What Does a Healthy Church Look Like?

If you have the time I would really like to hear your thoughts on the following questions.

1. What comprises a healthy church? 
2. What is it that you look for in a church? 
3. What is it that keeps you going to the the church you attend? 
4. Why did you leave your church?
5. What do you believe is the role of the church? 
6. Why should we attend church at all? 

Talking Sex Certainly Draws a Crowd.

My blog has over seventy posts.  Since I transfered to wordpress a little over a month ago people have found my site by searching for things like ”spiritual gospel,” and “is the Shack true.”  I have written on numerous issues: god, the church, christianity, Jesus, music, theology, etc.  But until yesterday I have never written about sex.  Yet in a single day five people found my sight searching for that word.  In a single day more people found this sight for that single issue than have found my sight in the past month for any other issue that I have written on.  I know our culture is obsessed with sex but I never expected that they come to my site looking for it. 

sex	5
spiritual gospel	3
youversion	2
is the shack a true story	2
gospel of john book of revelation chiasm	1
the spiritual gospel	1
spiritual logos	1
the shack william young	1
two worlds soluce	1
“dave mccabe” grace foursquare	1
longing of man	1
ciaphas jesus painting	1
bread logos	1
double entendre gospel of john	1

The Truth about Sex

With our cultures never ending obsession with sex I thought it might be interesting to shed a little light on the subject.  Please don’t read or watch the video if you think you might be offended. 

Good sexual intercourse last for minutes not hours, therepists say

Satisfactory sexual intercourse for couples lasts from 3 to 13 minutes, contrary to popular fantasy about the need for hours of sexual activity, according to a survey of U.S. and Canadian sex therapists.

Penn State Erie researchers Eric Corty and Jenay Guardiani conducted a survey of 50 full members of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, which include psychologists, physicians, social workers, marriage/family therapists and nurses who have collectively seen thousands of patients over several decades…

Past research has found that a large percentage of men and women, who responded, wanted sex to last 30 minutes or longer.

“This seems a situation ripe for disappointment and dissatisfaction,” said lead author Eric Corty, associate professor of psychology. “With this survey, we hope to dispel such fantasies and encourage men and women with realistic data about acceptable sexual intercourse, thus preventing sexual disappointments and dysfunctions.”

Humor is never that far from the truth.

 

He Has Won It!

 The Victor – Keith Green

Swallowed into earth’s dark womb
And death has triumphed
That’s what they say
But tried to hold Him in the tomb
The Son of Life
Rose on the third day
Just look
The gates of hell
They’re falling
Crumbling from the inside out
He’s bursting through
The walls with laughter (Hah!)
Listen to the Angels shout

It is finished
He has done it
Life conquered death
Jesus Christ
Has won it

His plan of battle
You know it
He fooled them all
They led Him off to prison to die
But as He entered Hades Hall
He broke those hellish chains with a cry
Just listen to those demons screaming
See Him bruise the serpent’s head
The prisoners of Hell
He’s redeeming (Oh!)
All the power of death is dead

Chorus

Just look
The gates of hell they’re falling
Crumbling from the inside out
He’s bursting through the walls with laughter (Hah!)
Listen to the Angels shout
(Listen, oh, listen)

Chorus

The Spiritual Gospel – Two Worlds, One Solution.

Part 4 of the Spiritual gospel is now available.  In this presentation I explore how John’s worldview is divided into two realms of existence and how Jesus bridges the divide.  You can find this weeks presentation here or you can subscribe to an automatic feed for itunes here. 

The Longing of Man

Happy Holy Week

The Spiritual Gospel – Beneath the Surface

Part 3 of the Spiritual gospel is now available on-line.  In this presentation we explore how we can look beneath the surface of the text through an understanding symbol, ambiguity, irony and allusion.  You can find this weeks presentation here.  Or you can subscribe to an automatic feed for itunes here.