When Is a Church Not an Actual Church?

 

Cardinals and a snowy window

Francis Chan knows it is possible for a church to not be a church. The name "church" doesn't mean it is what it says. In Chan's book Letters to the Church he writes, 

"If Muslims were advertising free doughnuts and a raffle for a free iPad as a means to get people to their events, I would find that ridiculous. It would be proof to me that their god does not answer prayer. 

If they needed rock concerts and funny speakers to draw crowds, I would see them as desperate and their god as cheap and weak. 

Understand that I am not judging any church that works hard at getting people through the doors with good motives. I spent years doing the same thing, and I believe my heart was sincere. I wanted people to hear the gospel by any means possible. Praise God for people who have a heart for truth! 
I’m just asking you to consider how this looks to a watching world. 

While our good intentions may have gotten some people in the door, they also may have caused a whole generation to have a lower view of our God. 

It is hard for the average person to reconcile why a group of people supposedly filled with God’s Spirit, able to speak with the Creator of the universe, would need gimmicks.

(Chan, Letters to the Church, pp. 95-96)

Then Chan asks, rhetorically:  

"Is there ever a point when a church is no longer a church?...  Just because you walk into a building with the word Church painted on a sign doesn’t mean God sees it as an actual church." (Ib., 96)

***
My leadership book is: Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

Our Secure Foundation

The first time I heard God speak to me was in the spring of 1970. God said, "John, I love you." That moment set off a revolution inside me, that has never left me. I carry them in my heart every day. God's love, for me, is my secure foundation. His love protects me from my fears, anxieties, and uncertainties.

Henri Nouwen writes:

"When we start losing our money, our friends, or our popularity, our anxiety often reveals how deeply our sense of security is rooted in these things. 

A spiritual life is a life in which our security is based not in any created things, good as they may be, but in God, who is everlasting love."

God loves you. Post this truth on the temple wall of your heart.

Should We Affirm Everyone's Worldview? (Reality Is Not Socially Constructed)

 

 

                                    (Sterling State Park, Monroe)

There are folks who do not agree with my Jesus-formed worldview. OK. If I have the opportunity to ask them, I say, "What is your worldview? Please explain."

Every moral judgment finds its residence in a pre-existing worldview.

Do not be intimidated by someone who doesn't like your worldview.

I've been studying worldviews for five decades. I see no reason to discard my Christian theistic worldview. What might I replace it with? There's nothing on the horizon (to borrow from Nietzsche), as I see it. 

I taught logic at Monroe County Community College for seventeen years. I used two logic textbooks: Hurley, and Vaughn. Both texts, indeed, all logic texts, are about evaluating and formulating beliefs. 

A belief is a statement that claims something as either true, or false. To claim that something is true, or false, is to say that a certain state of affairs obtains, or does not obtain.

For example, The window in my home office is now closed. That statement is true. Which means, it is true for everybody, whether they agree with it or not. This is called an"objective truth." 

Objective truth is not socially constructed. Or, at least, an objective truth cannot be fully reduced to a social construction. Objective truth has nothing to do with whether or not people affirm or disaffirm it.

This is how scientists think. To claim that The Moderna vaccine has a 95% efficacy against the coronavirus is to say that a certain objective state of affairs obtains. Which is to say, it either does, or it doesn't, and this has nothing to do with the social construction of reality. Should we affirm everyone's belief about the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine? Of course not. The scientist is interested in What IS the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine? The answer to this question is unrelated to what people believe about the efficacy of the vaccine.

Vaughn has some nice sections on worldviews. A worldview is a set of beliefs. Vaughn writes:

"A worldview is a philosophy of life, a set of beliefs and theories that helps us make sense of a wide range of issues in life. It defines for us what exists, what should be, and what we can know. We all have a worldview, and our notions about morality are part of it." (P. 422)

Worldviews differ. Should we affirm everyone's worldview? Of course not. We should love people, of course. But we should not expect those who hold to differing worldviews to affirm (agree with? endorse?) differing worldviews. Here is why.

The statement We should affirm everyone's worldview is itself part of a worldview (perhaps postmodernism). This moral belief itself is not part of my worldview (Christianity), for example. It's also not part of a Muslim worldview. Nor is it part of a philosophical atheist's worldview. Over the years I have had numerous discussions with atheists. Not one of them has "affirmed" my belief that God exists.

Undergirding the false belief that We should affirm everyone's worldview is the belief that Reality is socially constructed. But if that were true, then the belief that Reality is socially constructed is itself socially constructed. If the belief that we should affirm everyone's worldview is itself socially constructed, then we need pay no attention to it.

Now Reading...

 

It's a cold, snowy day in Southeast Michigan. I'm in our upstairs office reading Rod Dreher's new book Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning In a Secular Age.

One of my sons gave it to me for Christmas. In a hard cover - yay!

Dreher is an author I follow. I've read his two previous books: The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians In a Post-Christian Nation, and Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents. 

Seven Signs of a Move of God

When God shows up one should expect certain things. What are essential elements of a real move of God? 

I distinguish essential elements from contingent elements. For example, essential elements of "car" include wheels, motor, can be driven; contingent elements of car are attributes like red, four-door, convertible, and 450 hp. 

What will a real move of God look like? Will there always, for example, be people falling down under the power of the Spirit? The answer is no. "Falling down" is a contingent, not essential, attribute of a move of God. (This does not mean it is unimportant.)

Here's what I'm now thinking (with a little help from JB).

7 Essential Elements of a Move of God

1. Proclamation and Demonstration of the Kingdom accompanied by the Presence of The Holy Spirit
2.  People are transformed internally (identity, behavior, etc)
3. Social transformation (reach out to lost, hurting, poor, etc.)
4. Awe – (especially expressed in worship)
5. A truth is restored or expressed in a new way (e.g., the. Father's love)
6. Fellowship together and *disenculturation (unity, mission, prayer, etc.)
7. Resistance and possible persecution

*Disenculturation - an examination of our culture through the lens of the Kingdom of God.

The Moral Argument for God's Existence: Some Resources

 

                                (Redeemer Church in Monroe)

The moral argument for God's existence is my favorite, among arguments for the existence of God. People have not stopped making moral judgments and pronouncements. But if these judgments are not grounded in the reality of a transcendent command-giver, and we are left with atheism, then they are mere subjective tastes.

To understand the moral argument, begin by reading "The Indispensability of Theological Meta-Ethical Foundations for Morality," by William Lane Craig.

Here are posts I have written on the moral argument for God's existence, and on moral-ethical issues in general related to this argument...

William Lane Craig's Moral Argument for God's Existence

The Most Compelling Argument for God's Existence

The Moral Argument for God's Existence (Facebook Live)

Moral Obligations to Tell People They Are Wrong

If There Is No God Then There Are No Moral Facts

Morality Is Non-binding if God Does Not Exist

Objective Moral Values and Duties Exist (Premise 2 of the Moral Argument for God's Existence)

Biological Determinism and Moral Responsibility

George Mavrodes On the Weirdness of Moral Obligations in a Russellian World

Metaethical Studies and Moral Nihilism

Explaining Objective and Subjective Moral Values

Is Paul Copan A Moral Relativist?

On Objective Moral Values

Science Says Nothing About Moral Values

What Is It Like to Be a (Moral) Bat?

Does Moral Action Depend on Reasoning? Part 1

The Naturalistic Fallacy (You Can't Derive Moral Facts from Scientific Facts)

Is God a Moral Monster? #2

Is God a Moral Monster?: #3

On the Moral Argument for God's Existence: Objective Moral Values Exist

Objective Moral Values - Another Example of Proper Basicality

The Difference Between Moral Ontology and Moral Epistemology

The Moral Argument for God's Existence - Going Deeper

Is God a Moral Monster?: #4a

Marcello Pera On the Moral Necessity of Assuming the Existence of God

How One Atheist Lives Without Morality

Christianity's Moral Claim

Is God a Moral Monster?: #5

Michael Shermer's Category Mistake About Moral Progress

Logic, Moral Reasoning, & the "Trolley Problem"

Atheists Who Agree That Without God There Are No Objective Moral Values

You Can't Derive "Ought" From "Is"

The Christian Roots of Atheistic Morality

Franz DeWaal & the Atheist Dilemma

Divine Command Theory and P1 of Craig's Metaethical Argument

On Evolutionary Accounts of Ethical Beliefs

The Euthyphro Dilemma

If There Is No God, then Right and Wrong Don't Exist (Moral Nihilism)

My Second Responsibility in Life

 

                                          (Munson Park, across from our house - 1/10/21)

I have always felt that a Jesus-follower's second responsibility is to their family. Sometimes "family" is referred to as "loved ones."

My first responsibility is to love God. 

My second responsibility is to love those in my family.

My third responsibility is to share the love of Jesus with others.

If I don't live out our first two responsibilities, my third responsibility will be inauthentic.

If someone claims to follow Jesus, but does not fulfill their second responsibility, why would I listen to what they say to me about the love of Jesus?

Dallas Willard puts it like this.

"A common usage of the word neighbor today locates the neighbor as one who lives “next door” or close by. [See Luke 10:36-37] A “next-door” neighbor is one with a special degree of intimacy, in this understanding, and there is something to that. But in this understanding my most important neighbor is overlooked: the one who lives with me— my family, or others taken in by us. They are the ones I am most intimately engaged with in my life. They are the ones who first and foremost I am to love as I love myself. If only this were done, nearly every problem in families would be resolved, and the love would spread to others."

The Secret Sauce of Effective Church Leadership

 

Join us January 11th from 11am - 1pm EST for a teaching from these veteran leaders as they share their wisdom on how to tackle the many challenges the church may face.

January 11th

11am - 1pm EST

Sign up HERE.

You will be sent the Zoom link.

$5/seminar

Part of My Ministry is Meeting with People Who Have Questions

 

                                                                        (Monroe, MI)

(Adapted from my book Deconstructing Progressive Christianity.)

One complaint progressive Christians have is that they were never allowed to question beliefs about God, and other biblical matters. One thing we see when progressives chat on social media is bitterness about their former churches, and how oppressive the pastors and leaders were. Sadly, some of that is true. 

For me, as a philosopher-theologian [PhD, Northwestern U., 1986], I invite questioning. Imagine 50+ years of meeting with people who  want to ask questions about Christian beliefs, such as the existence and nature of God. I never turn them down. 

Philosophy is the discipline that demands questioning. Of everything. Of the meta-issues (do I exist; metaethical matters; epistemological obstacles; how do words refer; etc.) 

We philosophers are trained to evaluate, and not to affirm, until the evaluation is sufficient. So, I question many things, including progressive Christianity. I am skeptical about the metanarrative progressive Christianity offers me. I read Richard Rohr and John Shelby Spong and Brian McLaren and Rachel Held Evans and Marcus Borg and you-name-them, and I question them. I question the postmodern claim that we cannot know objective truths, which would mean, we can’t know about God. (And which devalues science.) 

Progressive Christians who love questioning should rejoice that I am doing this! (p. 77)

Transitioning to a Presence-Driven Church: Step One

 

(Grand Haven, Michigan)

When I do a "Presence-Driven Church conference or retreat, some ask the question, "What do we do now?" Here is how I see this.

Step One in transitioning to a Presence-Driven Church is this: the pastors/leaders  must engage in the ongoing abiding life. 

Do not view these teachings as tools for ministry. Rather, see yourself as instruments of righteousness being formed by the Father's hands. This is all about relationship with God, not programming the church. You need to spend time alone with God, otherwise you will not really understand, and you will not be credible.

Seek God, spend much time with God, for the sake of your own restoration and transformation. Begin to live in constant, abiding renewal.

Along the way, share stories of what God is doing, transformationally, in you. 

It is crucial that you not try to program this, or strive to make things happen. This is a slow-cooker, not a microwave.

In my experience, many Westernized pastors do not do this. And, among those who attend my classes and seminars, most do not continue in this. They fall back into the rut of, "I don't have enough time to pray."

For many pastors the praying life will be a revolutionary change. There will be resistance. Therefore, begin today, not tomorrow. Carve out relational time with God. This "step" is to continue and grow and increase until the day you stand fully in God's presence.

Remember how God spoke to you at the conference? Remember how restoring and renewing your solitary times with God were? It can be the same today. God did not remain at the conference center. He, Immanuel, is with you, presently. Trust and abide in him.

Don't force the issue with your people. Do not try to make things happen. Of course you want to share your experience with your people. But I suggest deepening the experience in yourself first. Pray, today, like you did at the conference. Do not bypass this step. (Refer to my book Praying about this.)

Slow-cook in God's presence, for weeks. Re-familiarize yourself with your God. "Forget about yourself, concentrate on Him, and worship Him." Tend the fire within.

With greater, growing familiarity, comes increasing discernment. Discernment is in direct proportion to familiarity. God will show you what to do, and when to do it.

Lead by being led. The Lord is your shepherd. You will not be wanting. And, you will bear much fruit.

Find another (or more) pastor-leader, and share together your experiences with God.

Then, along the way, discernment increases. God will lead you to lead your people into the abiding life, into God's beautiful, empowering presence.

When God says "Now!" preach, and teach, out of John chapters 14 & 15. 

***

My leadership book is Leading the Presence-Driven Church.