Helping Relationships - Linda and John Piippo

My two books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God (May 2016)

Leading the Presence-Driven Church (January 2018)

I am now writing:

How God Changes the Human Heart

Technology and Spiritual Formation

Inner Healing - Peace With God, Peace Within (Sermon)

Redeemer

I spoke this morning at our HSRM conference on Believing Higher Than Our Experience, with an emphasis on declarations that speak to the peace God has given us.

The sermon I gave at Redeemer on "Inner Healing - Peace With God, Peace Within," is online and can be heard HERE.

My power point slides are included.

What Is the Purpose of a University, and a Church?

Flowers, in my back yard

(A few thoughts I have on Stanley Fish's recent essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the  cultural analysis as helpful in understanding the meaning of "world" in Romans 12:1, and expectations of the same effect on the Church as on the University.)

As American educators know, the idea of the "university" as an institution for a broad education for life is going. This especially affects the liberal arts. 

Attendance in the humanities is low. In response, the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point is proposing to eliminate 13 majors, including history, art, English, philosophy, sociology, political science, French, German, and Spanish. (See here.) 

What is the purpose of a university? Is it to educate? Or, is it to function like a trade school, preparing clients for career opportunities? Stanley Fish thinks it is the former. He writes: "The university’s obligation is to be true to what it is and to resist turning over its mechanism of judgment and decision-making to some purpose not internal to its proper operations."

We must, writes Fish, identity the university's "core activity." 

Fish believes universities have surrendered to metricization. "The rest of the world is preaching instrumentalism, assessment, outcomes, employment statistics, and metrics."

That is American culture. Universities are near-fully conformed to its worldview. Hence, the university is no longer a university. Fish thinks the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point should remove the word "university" from its appellation.

The same point can be made about the Church in America. Much of it has been shaped into this world's mold. How can we know this? We can infer it when the language of the Church is increasingly instrumentalist, using assessments, outcomes, statistics, and metrics (How many? How big? How much?).

When such methods and concerns predominate, the Church's core discipling and equipping functions are less attended, and perhaps eventually removed. (The Church as equipping people for ministry, which has nothing to do with entertainment.) The purpose of the Church is lost. The appellation "Church" should be removed.

Followers of Jesus have an obligation to be true to what Church is. We must resist turning the Church over to some purpose not internal to its proper operation. 

WARNING: THIS WILL NOT BE POPULAR.

Because, in our world's mold, "only what can be measured is worth knowing." (Ib.)

***

My two books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church 

I'll Be at My Favorite Conference Soon!

Make Your Way to the... Holy Spirit Renewal Conference, June 24-28. You can register online or at-the-door. God makes a way in the wilderness for His people! Receive a touch from God and a double portion of His blessing. Rest in His love and experience His presence. Reignite with fresh power, anointing & purpose. Awesome messages, awesome worship, awesome workshops, awesome healings, awesome miracles, awesome friendships.

Go Here For More Info

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Is. 43:19

Register Here Conference Schedule

SPEAKERS and WORKSHOPS: LOOK DEEPER AT THE CONFERENCE BOOKLET

There Are No Levels In the Kingdom of God

Norjo Cafe, Monroe, MI

To understand what God is doing in Christ it is important to understand honor/shame hierarchies. 

Every culture has them. For example, when I was growing up I learned that we were "middle class." This meant there were people above us (better than us; better off than us), and people below us (worse than us; worse off than us). 

The honor/shame hierarchy is the realm of all competition, comparison, jealousy, slander, flattery, pride, and shame. The soul of the kingdom of darkness is measurement on the honor/shame hierarchy. 

In the kingdom of God honor/shame hierarchies do not exist. We see this in the song Mary sings, recorded in Luke chapter one. God, in his greatness and mercy, 

has brought down rulers from their thrones

    but has lifted up the humble.

53 

He has filled the hungry with good things

    but has sent the rich away empty.

The tearing down of the honor/shame hierarchy is magnificent and breathtaking! Now, in Christ, life is different. Eugene Peterson writes, "There are no higher levels in the life of Christ - only following him." (In Peterson and Dawn, The Unnecessary Pastor, 1%)

Just following Jesus, without competing. Cheering and championing one another along, with everyone wearing the victory crown. 



***
To study honor/shame cultures go to honorshame.com. 

In my book I share how a praying life lifts us off the prevailing honor/shame hierarchy - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

See also Leading the Presence-Driven Church. 

Why Westernized Christians Don't Pray, and the Implications of Prayerlessness

Flowers in our backyard

The Church in America has lost the culture wars. (See here, e.g.,) How can we regain the vast moral and spiritual ground we have lost?

I think, and pray, about this a lot. I ask God for wisdom and discernment, and what I am to do. This morning the often-quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14 is before me.

 If my people, who are called by my name,

will humble themselves and pray and seek my face

and turn from their wicked ways,

then I will hear from heaven,

and I will forgive their sin

and will heal their land.

What a great promise! Yet, sadly, most American Christians are too busy to pray, men more than women. 

This verse is about a "constant praying life," not a few multitasked prayers tossed upwards for a parking space. This is ongoing praying, consistent God-seeking. If American Christians did that, then watch out for the Church!

In the process of encouraging people to pray as conversation-with-God, I often hear the following, from Western Jesus-followers: "I don't have time to pray 30-60 minutes a day!" ("I'm too busy on social media!"

But, if the Jesus-follower is from a Third World country, like ancient Israel in the time of Jesus, they have time to pray. 

What's going on? My answer is: the more Westernized a person is, the less they take time to meet and talk with God; the less Westernized a person is, the more they take time to meet and talk with God.

I estimate that 80% of European and North American pastors and Christian leaders do not have a significant praying life. By this I mean that they do not take time to actually pray. By "taking time" I mean more than saying a blessing over dinner, or multi-tasked "praying." By "significant," I mean something like an hour or more a day. I mean something like Jesus did, habitually.

My estimate comes from teaching and coaching over 3000 pastors and leaders, over a period forty years. Many, many pastors have confessed this to me.

The statistics flip for pastors and leaders who are from Third World contexts. 80% of them have a significant prayer life. When they attend my prayer and spiritual formation seminary classes, they already have a quantitative praying life in place. They pray... a lot. 

European and North American clergy, on the other hand, find themselves "too busy to pray." They find it hard to "fit in" times of actual praying. Why is this so?

The reasons Westernized Christians don't pray, and Third World Christians do, include these.

1. SENSE OF NEED: More access to human helping agencies lowers the desperation level. But when I was, e.g., teaching and speaking in India, the lack of access to medical care, education, jobs, etc. was massive. One could only turn to God, in prayer. So in India I found pastors who were praying people. The less felt need there is, the less one prays; the more felt need there is, the more one prays.
2. NEED TO CONTROL: Westernized Christians live under the general cultural illusion that they are in control of life; Third World non-westernized Christians live in a cultural world where human control is minimal at best; hence, they appeal to God (or gods, or spirits) for help. The more one feels in control of life, the less one prays; the less one feels in control of life, the more one prays.
3. TIME: The more stuff a person has, the less they pray. Much of their life is dictated by their stuff, which demands much time protecting, arranging, storing, repairing, cleaning, cultivating, etcing. Stuff demands time. On the other hand, the less personal ownership, the more actual time to pray. The busier one is the less one has time to pray; the less stuff one has, the more one has time to pray.

The typical European and North American Jesus-follower has little felt need, is under the illusion that they can control things, and is afflicted with burnout-busyness. As these three elements converge, the God-relationship is virtually gone.

James Houston writes: "To pray is to declare loyalty to a spiritual reality above and beyond the human realm of self-effort and control."

Will it be heart-loyalty to "things above," or "things below?" The answer to this question will determine whether or not a Christian prays. And that will determine whether or not the American Church wakes from its slumber. 

***
My two books are - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God. 

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

I am now writing...

How God Changes the Human Heart

Technology and Spiritual Formation

Answering Before Listening is Stupid

Maumee Bay State Park (Ohio)

Answering before listening is both stupid and rude.

Proverbs 18:13

The Message

Listen, for the purpose of understanding.

Understand first. Answer afterwards.

For example, two years ago I began having a sharp pain in my leg. The pain was accompanied by swelling. I went to my doctor. He asked about the soreness. He felt the swelling. He wasn't sure what the cause was.

"We're going to run some tests."

Blood work was done. I had a Doppler ultrasound.

The ultrasound showed a blood clot in my leg.

Only then was my doctor in a position to prescribe treatment. I was put on a blood thinner for six months. Plus, he gave me further instructions (wearing support stockings; avoid sitting too long).

First, he "listened" to the test results. Only then did he give an answer.

Of course. A doctor who prescribes without diagnosis is an idiot.

It is the same in our relationships. To answer without first understanding is stupid.

***
My two books are - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God. 

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

I am now writing...

How God Changes the Human Heart

Technology and Spiritual Formation

Be Read by the Bible

Linda, on one of our Michigan beaches

When I lead a prayer retreat or a spiritual formation class I send the students out to pray for an hour, using Psalm 23 as their meditative focus. I tell them that they are not to exegete the verses, but instead be exegeted by them, via God's Spirit. This is an anti-Cartesian, anti-Western hermeneutic. It's more Jewish than American, and has affinities with the hermeneutical theory of Hans-Georg Gadamer in his book Truth and Method. There is an interplay between the text and the reader, with the text being-read by the self and the self being-read by the text.

The idea is that God, through the biblical text, knows you. Therefore place yourself before the text and be interpreted. This syncs with the idea in the book of Hebrews which describes the word of God as living and active and like a sword that penetrates your deepest being. The result is a knowing by being-known. The text is no longer a dispassionate object of study but is more like a passionate surgeon opening you up and studying you.

Henri Nouwen, in his book Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life, writes about this:

"Spiritual reading, however, is different. It means not simply reading about spiritual things but also reading about spiritual things in a spiritual way. That requires a willingness not just to read but to be read, not just to master but to be mastered by words. As long as we read the Bible or a spiritual book simply to acquire knowledge, our reading does not help us in our spiritual life." (Nouwen, Discernment, pp. 41-42)

***

***
My two books are - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God. 

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

I am now writing...

How God Changes the Human Heart

Technology and Spiritual Formation

Add Scripture Meditation to Praying

Pastors - Forsake Your Fading Hipness

Linda and I were with A.M.E. leaders in Trinidad

Jesus told us that his kingdom, his rule, his reign, is "not of this world." Jesus was not trying to be culturally cool. How weird if Jesus spent his time striving to be hip and fit in.

Pastors, following Jesus, can be free of the relevance disease. Cultural relevance is changing so fast. What is awesome today will be passé later today. 

Focus on the enduring truths, while wearing yesterday's cool clothes. Maintain the abyss between the two. Forsake your hipness for the sake of the Gospel. They are not the same. One endures, the other trivializes and fades away. 

Remember that "the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (Here.)

Eugene Peterson writes:

"Pastors are in charge of keeping the distinction between the world's lies and the gospel's truth clear. Not only pastors, of course - every baptized Christian is part of this - but pastors are placed in a strategic, countercultural position. Our place in society is, in some ways, unique: no one else occupies this exact niche that looks so inoffensive but is in fact so dangerous to the status quo. We are committed to keeping the proclamation alive and to looking after souls in a soul-denying, soul-trivializing age."
- Peterson, in Eugene Peterson and Marva J. Dawn. The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call (Kindle Locations 65-68). 

***

My two books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God(May 2016)

Leading the Presence-Driven Church (January 2018) 

Trying to Be Relevant Leads to Our Irrelevance

My back yard

At Redeemer, my goal is to see people come to know Christ, and discover life in the presence of God. For people to know God, experientially.

Thus, I am increasingly uninterested in being "relevant."

Os Guinness writes:

"Rarely has the church seen so many of its leaders solemnly presenting the faith in public in so many weak, trite, foolish, disastrous, and even disloyal ways as today...

This monumental and destructive carelessness has coincided exactly with a mania for relevance and reinvention that has gripped the church. So a disconcerting question arises: How on earth have we Christians become so irrelevant when we have tried so hard to be relevant? And by what law or logic is it possible to steer determinedly in one direction but end up in completely the opposite direction?... We are confronted by an embarrassing fact: Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously; never have Christians been more irrelevant."

- Os Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance, p. 11.

***

My two books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God (May 2016)

Leading the Presence-Driven Church (January 2018) 

The Church's Primary Focus Is Not on Meeting People’s Needs

Michigan beach

At Redeemer our primary focus, our distinctive, is God and his presence. Other things, while important, are secondary. Such as, meeting people’s needs. 

We believe the greatest need humanity has is the Lord. 

I recall the Steve Green song “People Need the Lord.” It moved me. I affirmed the theology behind it, and felt God’s presence as I worshiped by it. Are my deepest needs met in God’s presence? Yes. Because what I primordially need is God.

Some churches focus on meeting the individual needs of people as their raison d-etre, their way of life. Everything gets oriented towards this. This is a mistake, and makes solving conflict more difficult. James van Yperen writes: 

“In many churches, the remedy for conflict often makes it worse, deepening the problem by failing to address the fundamental issue: We are trusting our ways more than God’s. All individualism leads to consumerism. When self is center, the world exists to meet one’s personal needs. “Hey, I’m entitled to this!” A culture of consumerism will always value individual needs above community life. “You’re important to me so long as you serve my needs.When a church focuses on meeting the needs of individuals, Jesus and the Bible become a personal, need-meeting machine. The church becomes a collection of individuals who are fundamentally at competition with one another—competing to have their needs met. Here, the Gospel becomes a commodity distributed by supply and demand. Since no church can meet all the needs, ultimately one set of needs must be placed against the other. When this happens, staff and members will compete to make a case for how and why their needs are greater than others…. [T]he church becomes divided into interest groups or coalitions formed by age and individual preference.” (Van Yperen, Making Peace: A Guide to Overcoming Church Conflict, p. 30)

A presence-driven church is not a shopping center where we pick and choose what is good for us. Instead, the overwhelming, primary focus is God. God comes before us. God, before me. I decrease, so that he might increase. All my deepest needs are met in Christ.

- From John Piippo, Leading the Presence-Driven Church (Kindle Locations 1374-1393). 

COMING TO REDEEMER!

Redeemer, in Monroe

To my Redeemer Family and Friends:

Here are some things I want to share with you.

DECLARATIONS: I hope you are doing the 30-Day Declarations Experiment with us. I have heard from many who are being blessed by this. Linda and I are, too. We are changing, being transformed more and more into Christlikeness! (GaL. 4:9)

MICHAEL BROWN AT GREEN LAKE: Michael Brown (website) will speak at Green Lake Sunday morning and evening, and Monday morning and evening. Michael is our greatest Messianic Jewish scholar. He was one of the leaders at the Brownsville Revival. I am so exited about the messages he will bring to us who are there! If you want to read something he has written, I suggest his newest book - Playing with Holy Fire. For conference information and registration go to hsrm.org. 

BAPTISMS! We will have baptisms on Father's Day Sunday, June 17. If you wish to be baptized please let either myself or Tim Curry know.

JEFF & ANNIE DIESELBERG from Nightlight International in Bangkok will preach on two Sunday mornings in July - July 15 & July 22. 

WE BEGIN THURSDAY EVENING GATHERINGS on Thursday, June 14, 7-8:30 PM. I will do a half hour teaching on Declarations the first evening, plus ask how the Declarations are going (testimonies). Child care is provided. Please sign your kids up this Sunday morning, or call the office (242-5277).

Looking way ahead - Darren Wilson will premiere his new movie Finger of God 2 at Redeemer, Sunday night, Sept 30. More information TBA. 

ONLINE GIVING: You can give to Redeemer's General Fund (basic church expenses) by going here - thank you!

This coming Sunday morning I will preach on How Declaring God's Truths Goes Deep In Our Hearts. 

Today we declare: God is speaking many thing to me. I hear his voice often.

Blessings,

PJ

Are There Demons in Detroit?

Detroit skyline, taken from Windsor, Ontario

A pastor from Detroit who has been reading my blog contacted me. He wanted to meet and talk about spiritual warfare and healing. We got together at my office, AKA Panera Bread.

We looked at Luke 9:1-6.

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick....

So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.

I explained that the term "kingdom of God" is not a place, but refers to the rule, or reign, of God. (See Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom.)

The Twelve were given "power" (dunamis) and "authority" (exousia) to "drive out all demons." This is important, since biblically demons challenge the rule and reign of God. 

Power and authority were given to the Twelve "to cure diseases." As this happens, the gospel of God's kingdom is easier to proclaim, since the healings indicate the rule and reign of God, now, in this place.

The method is:
Deliver,
Heal,
Proclaim that our God reigns.

I took another sip of Panera dark roast. The pastor then asked, "Do you think there are any demons in Detroit?"

Yes, I do. 

Of course.

Paul counseled that our real battle is not against "flesh," but against "the powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil." (See here.)

How absurd to think this struggle no longer exists. How odd to think it doesn't exist at all, and Jesus and Paul were misguided. (See Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted, by Richard Beck.)

The Good News is that our God reigns. God's reign is especially seen in defeating dark angels and healing people. 

And Detroit is not the only place demons live. (See Greg Boyd, who has written extensively about the demonic. For a brief introduction, see Boyd, "Do Angels and Demons Really Exist?")

***

My two books are...

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

I am now writing...

How God Changes the Human Heart

Technology and Spiritual Formation