Ministry Demands More Than Our Best

Next to Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio

Jesus tells me that, if I connect with him, if I live the connected life, I will do the things he did. 

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me 

will do the works I have been doing...

John 14:12

Now that...   would greatly help me as a pastor. God would work through me to heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, raise the dead, and speak with an authority that is not from me.

My meager abilities, even when working with excellence, fall short of what Jesus did. If ministry was a game of horseshoes, Jesus is throwing nothing but "ringers," while my tosses are landing a foot in front of me.

More than me is needed.

Stephen Seamands writes:

"Of course, ministry deserves our best-all that we have to offer. But it also demands more than our best, more than anything we have to offer. To participate in the ongoing ministry of Jesus, to do what the Father is doing, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. Only through the Holy Spirit's directing and empowering us can we fulfill our calling."
- Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service, Kindle Locations 248-250

***
I have written:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

I am writing:

Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart

Technology and Spiritual Formation

I am editing a book on the Holy Spirit - hopefully available in June 2019.

Depleted Leaders Over-rely on Outside Sources

Oak tree in my backyard

In the 1980s, when I was in the end stages of writing my doctoral dissertation at Northwestern University, I was at a point of burnout. Whatever creativity and energy I had were gone. I couldn't see the forest for the trees. 

One day, as I was walking across campus, one of my professors saw me and asked, "How is the paper going?" 

"Not well," I responded. "I can't see clearly any more. I don't know what to do next."

Immediately he said, "You need to take two weeks off and get away from it." 

I took his counsel. During the two week hiatus the creative juices began to flow again.

I have never forgotten this. It applies to our spiritual lives as well.  

Years ago God called me to take several hours each week alone with him, praying, listening, and discerning. When I do this, I become less dependent on outside sources to inspire me because of what God is doing inside me. Other voices are at times helpful, but rarely do they assist me in the unique day-to-day challenges of ministry in my church family, times which demand creativity and discernment.

Burnout-busyness is the enemy of this. The busier a pastor gets, the more they rely on outside sources to do the job of discerning for them, because they lack the needed inner resources. Ruth Haley Barton writes:

"When we are depleted, we become overly reliant on voices outside of ourselves to tell us what is going on. We react to symptoms rather than seeking to understand and respond to underlying causes. We rely on other people’s ministry models and outside consultants because we are too tired to listen in our setting and craft something that is uniquely suited to meet the needs that are there. When we are rested, however, we bring steady, alert attention that is characterized by true discernment about what is truly needed in our situation, and the energy and creativity to carry it out."
- - Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, p. 121)

***
My first two books are...

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

Leading the Presence-Driven Church (January 2018)

I am now writing...

Technology and Spiritual Formation

Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart

Desire Eats Will Power and Religious Information for Breakfast.

(I took a picture of this magazine while in line at Meijer.
I can eat snacks and lose 115 pounds in a few months!
But that would put me at 75 pounds.)

Dallas Willard writes: "The realities of Christian spiritual formation are that we will not be transformed "into His likeness" by more information, or by infusions, inspirations, or ministrations alone. Though all of these have an important place, they never suffice, and reliance upon them alone explains the now-common failure of committed Christians to rise much above a certain level of decency."

This typical Willard-quote explains why so many Christians live lives of spiritual mediocrity. What is needed is: to learn what it means to abide in Christ, like a branch is connected to a vine, with Jesus being the Vine and you being the branch.

The fundamental secret of caring for our souls is found in a verse like Psalms 16:8-9: “I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely.”

 Willard writes: "Our part in thus practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to Him." Then, as this happens day after day after year and after year, our trust is in a God who can morph our souls into the form of Christ. (Galatians 4:19)

As we do this the Holy Spirit transforms our desires. Our desires are what we love, and what we want. When our desires become the desires of Christ, we won't need will power. Desires always overwhelm will power and information. Will power and information will eventually be defeated by desire. 

Desire eats will power and religious information for breakfast. 

All this is about what Willard calls the renovation of the heart. 

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

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

I'm now working on...

Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart 

Technology and Spiritual Formation

I am editing a book of essays on the Holy Spirit, authored by my HSRM colleagues. Hopefully this book will be out by the end of May.

And, when all this settles, Linda and I intend on writing our book on Relationships.

What To Do When You Are Upset With Someone in Church

(Linda and I, in Brazil)

So, someone in church has upset you. What should you do?

Go talk with the person. Do not talk with others about this person, unless it is with someone who can coach you in going to the person yourself.

If this person is going to abuse you, then bring a church leader with you.

Pray. For yourself, and the person, that truth will be spoken in love. You are going to the person because you love them, and you want to make the situation right.

Speak for your own self, and not for others. Do not say things like, "Many others are upset with you, too." If you know of someone else who is upset, direct them to the person, just as you are doing. If they refuse to do this, they have taken what John Bevere called "the bait of Satan." Have no part in this.

When you speak to the person, begin with love.  Begin your sentences with "I," rather than "you." Instead of saying "You upset me," own your feeling with words like "I feel upset _____________." Fill in the blank with a behavior; e.g., "I felt angry when you did not call me when you said you would." Or, "I felt angry when you called me irresponsible." "You"- language puts the other person on the defensive; "I"- language acknowledges your responsibility in the relationship. For how to do this, read this. 

Do not use negative descriptive adjectives when confronting the person in love (like these). Behind every adjective there is a judgment. You are not the judge of the other person, and do not want to come off that way to them. Instead, refer to behaviors. 

Listen to the person, for the sake of understanding. Your goal is understanding, more than it is agreement. Remember that you cannot begin to agree or disagree until you understand.

Be prepared to confess and forgive. You both may need to do this. For how to do this, read this, and this. And, see "The First Two Steps in Relationship Restoration." 

Follow this template, concerning speaking the truth in love. Have these attitudes, not only in your words, but in your countenance and behavior. Listen, understand, assert, love.

The Difference Between the God of Christianity and All Other "Gods"

(With graduating doctoral students at Palmer Theological Seminary)

I have retired from teaching philosophy at Monroe County Community College. I taught there for eighteen years. I continue to studying philosophy. I cannot get away from it!  Currently, I am immersed in moral philosophy, reading these books:

The Morals of the Story: Good News About a Good God, by David and Marybeth Baggett.

Atheist Overreach: What Atheism Can't Deliver, by Christian Smith.

Scientism and Secularism: Learning to Respond to a Dangerous Ideology, by J. P. Moreland.

Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality, by James Davison Hunter and Paul Nedelisky.

Christian Ethics: Four Views, by Steve Wilkens.

Introducing Christian Ethics: A Short Guide to Making Moral Choices, by Scott Rae.

One theme in the discussion of theistic ethics is the goodness of God. Essentially. This - among other things - distinguishes the God of theism from other "gods." The theistic God is qualitatively different from other gods. I have met village atheists (see Nietzsche's critique) who fail to grasp this difference.

The incoherence of the "new atheists" is fading (see atheist John Gray, Seven Types of Atheism - this was one of my Christmas presents, thank you). They provided theistic philosophers a feast of beliefs to both defeat and defend. One such belief was the idea that the God of Judaeo-Christianity is just another god, in the same league as all so-called gods.

This belief funded the "new atheist" slogan: "We are just like you theists, except we believe in one less god than you do." That was a cute saying, parroted by philosophically untrained atheists, accompanied with a slight smile and wink of their eye, appearing like they have dealt Christian monotheism a final death blow.

In all my philosophy career I never heard a real atheistic thinker pull that slogan out of their internet. Here, perhaps, is why.

From David Bentley Hart:

"There are two senses in which the word “God” or “god” can properly be used. Most modern languages generally distinguish between the two usages as I have done here, by writing only one of them with an uppercase first letter, as though it were a proper name—which it is not. Most of us understand that “God” (or its equivalent) means the one God who is the source of all things, whereas “god” (or its equivalent) indicates one or another of a plurality of divine beings who inhabit the cosmos and reign over its various regions. This is not, however, merely a distinction in numbering, between monotheism and polytheism, as though the issue were merely that of determining how many “divine entities” one happens to think there are. It is a distinction, instead, between two entirely different kinds of reality, belonging to two entirely disparate conceptual orders." (Hart, The Experience of God, pp. 28-29. Yale University Press. Emphasis mine.)

Philosopher David Bagget explains:

"Some atheists are fond of saying that they believe in just one god less than do the monotheists, but this is perhaps the wrong way to understand what’s going on. The difference between a polytheistic assortment of this-worldly, morally flawed gods, on the one hand, and an all-powerful, omnibenevolent God, on the other, can hardly be starker, so what accounts for the way some thinkers conflate these two radically different visions of reality?" (Baggett, The Morals of the Story: Good News About a Good God, pp. 41-42. Emphasis mine.)

There is, literally, a world of difference between the God Christians affirm, and the gods we deny. It would be like believing in cars, with the atheist telling me, "I just believe in one less pair of shoes than you."

Why Megachurch Pastors Keep Failing

(Comerica Park, Detroit)

FOR MY PASTORAL COLLEAGUES:

Just read this article - it's good (thank you Lora). 

"Some Thoughts on Why Megachurch Pastors Keep Failing."


You can't have a great ministry and bad marriage. A bad marriage will obliterate a great ministry.

If you’re winning at work but losing at home, you’re losing.

Leaders, you're supposed to serve the church. It's not supposed to serve you.

Just because everybody doesn't need to know everything, it doesn't mean nobody does.

There is a world of difference between a platform and a pedestal. Pedestals are about ego and adulation. Platforms are designed to be shared and used for the benefit of others.

It's way too easy for your platform to outgrow your character.

The seeds of failure are in all of us. So are the seeds of finishing well.

Desire for Holiness Is In Another World from Legalism

I, and many others, are praying for a wave of the Father's love to come to our church family, and to churches across America. We are praying for the Church to be revived and wakened.

This will include a fresh wave of holiness. Every historic revival included repentance and the desire for holiness.

Because the coming revival is about desire, it is not about legalism. When I got rescued in the Jesus Movement, I desired to be like Jesus. My desire to do drugs went away, overwhelmed by a desire to follow Jesus and have what he has.

I did not see myself as following a new set of rules. I felt set free to pursue Christ. I wanted - and still want - to be free to love him and share his attributes. (See, e.g., theologian Wayne Grudem, on the communicable and incommunicable attributes of God, Systematic Theology.)

Legalism can be forced on people. Desire cannot be forced. I don't desire tofu. You might be able to force me to eat tofu. But you will never (apart from a miraculous, divine intervention) force me to desire it. Desire is not like that. Desire and passion for Jesus, passion for repentance, passion for holiness, is not like legalism at all.

Not everyone will welcome the coming revival of love and holiness. Not everyone desires to be a "living sacrifice." Someone has said that the problem with a living sacrifice is that is can climb off the altar.

Is this you? Were you once aflame for Jesus? Have you succumbed to the pressures of the secular culture, and lost you passion for Jesus? Do the "cares of this world" overwhelm your passion for Christ? If that's you, I can pray for you. 

I cannot force you to desire Jesus again. But the Holy Spirit can change your heart. 

I am prepping you. You will not enter into a revivalist lifestyle without a revival of love, purity, and holiness. This is why, as I understand it, Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry has, on their student application form, the following words. I shared them with my Redeemer church family on a recent Sunday. It reads:

A revivalist is not bound by laws. They are compelled by passion. Desire for holiness is in another world from legalism.

Love and Hate

(Middlebury, Ohio)

(This is a theological thought experiment.)

God loves you.

God does not love everything you do.

God hates sin.

If you sin, God hates what you are doing.

If you raped a little girl, God would hate that. That's good, right? You cannot begin to imagine a world where a perfectly loving God would say, "I love it when this man rapes little girls." Neither is God indifferent or neutral about this.

Does God love the rapist in their raping little girls? Yes. That... is... astounding. Does God love the raping? No. God hates it.

God's hatred is loving. This is because God IS love, and all God is and says and does and thinks and feels is love. When God hates, it is another manifestation of his love. God's hatred is logically consistent with his essential nature, which is love. Every lover is also a hater. This is an asymmetric relationship: every hater is not a lover.

Sometimes, God hates our worship. Francis Chan writes:

"There are times when God hates our worship. There are churches He wants shut down. So often we assume that as long as we show up to worship, God is pleased. The Bible tells a different story (Amos 5:21–24; Isa. 58:1–5; Mal. 1:6–14; 1 Cor. 11:17–30; Rev. 2:5; 3:15–16). 
Since the beginning of time, there has been worship God loves and worship He rejects. As I examine the state of the Christian Church today, I can’t help but think that God is displeased with many of the churches in America. 
I don’t say that lightly." (Chan, Letters to the Church, p. 24)

The gentle, fiery, bearded prophet Eugene Peterson said "the consumer church is an antichrist church." (See here.) Surely God hates anti-christ churches, right? Just because the name says "church" doesn't mean it's cool with God. 

More than Francis Chan, more than Eugene Peterson, way more than myself, God doesn't say things lightly. You don't really believe God loves everything that goes on in the name of "worship," do you?

God's grace and mercy are emergent properties of God's love. God IS love, in his being, in his essence. God's love gets expressed in his grace and mercy, and forgiveness, and countless other ways. When we sin, God is gracious and merciful to forgive our sin, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

This was written for Christians (it's important to understand this).

8 If we claim to be without sin, 

we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 

9 If we confess our sins, 

he is faithful and just 

and will forgive us our sins 

and purify us from all unrighteousness.

This is awesome. But we are not to presume upon the gracious, merciful forgiveness of God. We are not to live as if sin is no big deal. And, we are not to sin so we can experience, again, the amazing grace of God. How weird would that be? The rapist would keep on raping, the abuser would keep on abusing, the adulterer would keep on adultering, the embezzler would keep on embezzling, for the sake of experiencing - over and over - the merciful, gracious forgiveness of God. That would be sick!

Paul writes (written for Christians - it is important to understand this):

What shall we say, then? 

Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 

2 By no means! 

We are those who have died to sin; 

how can we live in it any longer?

Romans 6:1-2

If you love God, you will hate sin. You will grieve over your own sin. You will worship our God who is gracious, merciful, and forgiving.  

Real love hates what is unloving. This is why so many of us hate the act of abortion. Our hatred is loving. Love the sinner; hate the sin.

***
My two books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

REDEEMER COMING EVENTS

WOMEN'S CONFERENCE - ARISE AND THRIVE: CALLED BY HIS SPIRIT!  March 14-16. Please register for this event. Registration fee covers meals, speaker costs, and incidentals. You can register HERE. This is going to be a great weekend for our women, adding to revival!

SCHOLARSHIPS TO COVER REGISTRATION ARE AVAILABLE TO ANYONE WHO CANNOT AFFORD THIS. Please see Linda Piippo or Stella Reeber.

COME TO HIS TABLE: (Go HERE.) The time is NOW! This online group is for those that will be joining together to participate in 21 days of prayer and fasting starting on February 17th. If you have friends or family that would like to join us in fasting and praying for revival and breakthrough, please invite them as well. You do not have to be a member of Redeemer Fellowship Church to join us. Please read the church bulletin and check back here often for updates.

Feb. 21st - 6:30-8pm: Family Skate/Scoot Night in our fellowship hall. Bring your scooters! Bring your family...or bring your baby in a stroller and walk laps! A disco ball is possible, and the grooviest Christian music playlist is being created! Bring a snack, a 2-liter or beverage to share! We'll have tables set up for those of you who want to kick back and watch. Youth Group will join us!!!

February 28th: 7:15 pm: At North Monroe Street Church,2393 N. Monroe St. 48162, we are going to gather with Jake and Hannah Loop and other passionate followers of Jesus from different churches in the Monroe area and worship together. The whole family is welcome!!!

FROM HOLLY: HEADCOUNT NEEDED!!!! If you are attending the Women's conference in March, and would like your children to be a part of our Kids' Ministry during the conference, I need a head count for each session of how many kids & ages. This will help us make sure we have enough leaders. The schedule for the weekend is this:
THURSDAY NIGHT: 7-9 pm
FRIDAY:   8:45-12    1:30-4    7-9pm
SATURDAY:   8:45-12   1:30-4
You can email me at hollybenner@gmail.com. Thank you for your help! Holly Collins

LARRY SPARKS PREACHES @ REDEEMER - Sunday morning, March 17. Larry is the editor of Destiny Image books, and co-author (with Patricia King) of the recent book Arise! A Prophetic Call for women to receive Swords, Mantles, and Kingdom Assignments. 

OUR ANNUAL GREEN LAKE CONFERENCE - June 23-27. Details are HERE. God has used this conference over the years to greatly impact Redeemer!

STEVE AND WENDY BACKLUND FROM BETHEL REDDING @ REDEEMER - Sept. 21-23. Go HERE for more on Steve and Wendy.

SWIM PARTY AT LAKE ERIE THIS AFTERNOON. (Just checking to see if you have read this far! I won't be there.)

Love,


PJ

21 DAYS OF FASTING & PRAYING FOR REVIVAL

(Patti Angove and Melissa Dunsmore, from our Redeemer family, are leading this - thank you!)

The time is NOW! 

This online group is for those that will be joining together to participate in 21 days of prayer and fasting starting on February 17th. 

If you have friends or family that would like to join us in fasting and praying for revival and breakthrough, please invite them as well. 

You do not have to be a member of Redeemer Fellowship Church to join us. 

Please read the church bulletin and check back here often for updates.

Does Desire for Holiness Always Accompany Revival?

(Josh & Nicole's cat, Jax)

Does desire for holiness always accompany revival?

Yes.

Read for yourself.

Acts 2:38-41.

John Arnott suggests reading the entire book of Romans. 

Read these:

God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America, by Larry Eskridge

A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir, by Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge

The Second Evangelical Awakening, by J. Edwin Orr (This is a classic text on revival and awakening)


God loves me already. Why am I to still desire holiness?

See this: 

Paul is writing the Letter to the Romans to Christians.

Romans 12:1-2.

Romans 6:1-2; 11-14:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?...  11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Galatians 4:19

Read these:

After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, by N. T. Wright

Wright writes:

"The aim of the Christian life in the present time—the goal you are meant to be aiming at once you have come to faith, the goal which is within reach even in the present life, anticipating the final life to come—is the life of fully formed, fully flourishing Christian character." (P. 32)

The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship, by Dallas Willard

Willard writes:

"As disciples (literally students) of Jesus, our goal is to learn to be like him. We begin by trusting him to receive us as we are. But our confidence in him leads us toward the same kind of faith he had, a faith that made it possible for him to act as he did." (P. 24)

Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ, by Dallas Willard


The Root of the Righteous, by A. W. Tozer

Tozer writes:

"Unsanctified desire will stop the growth of any Christian life. Wrong desire perverts the moral judgment so that we are unable to appraise the desired object at its real value. However we try, still a thing looks morally better because we want it. For that reason our heart is often our worst counselor, for if it is filled with desire it may give us bad advice, pleading the purity of something that is in itself anything but pure." 

The Fire of His Holiness, by Sergio Scataglini

And, I am still writing my book Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart. (I have 900 pages of typed manuscript!)


Will the coming revival be a wave of holiness?

John Arnott and others believe so.

See Arnott, Preparing for the Glory: Getting Ready for the Next Wave of Holy Spirit Outpouring

Arnott writes:

“Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” (Rom. 6:1-2). And, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” Certainly not! (Rom. 6:15). 
But sometimes I still sin! I don’t want to, but I do. I still do things that miss the mark that I know I shouldn’t do. I still do things that I need to repent of—and be forgiven for. This is what we call “sanctification.” The Bible teaches that I have been saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved. In other words, my salvation was completed when I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. But according to Philippians 2:12, I am also to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” You owe it to yourself to have a really good study of the book of Romans, especially chapters 6, 7, and 8. It teaches that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can be overcomers and live victorious lives. 
Although my identity is secure in the fact that I am no longer a sinner, I still sin from time to time. I still need to come to the cross and once again confess my need for His cleansing and forgiveness. I still need to repent on an ongoing basis." (P. 140)


And:

"This next wave of revival will be one of holiness, of purity, of being set apart. That’s what holiness means: “set apart.” In Romans 12:1, it says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” That word holy means “dedicated to God.” It also means to be “morally and spiritually excellent.”" (P. 141) 


What are barriers to spiritual revival and awakening?

See:

The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus' Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It, by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel

Goggin and Strobel write:

"In a culture drunk on power and in need of an intervention, the church has too often become an enabler. In many places, churches openly affirm the way from below. Instead of being told how desperately I am in need of God, I am repeatedly told how much God needs me. Instead of being exhorted to pick up my cross and follow Christ, I am told that Jesus wants to be my partner in the plan I have to rid my life of all struggles and challenges. We hear gospels of moralism, centering on my power to become a better person, and we hear sermons offering up God as merely another resource along my journey for successful and happy living. Sermons become pep talks amid a quest for power and significance. Instead of worship being an invitation to come before God in humble awe and reverence, worship becomes an experience meant to lift us above the travails of everyday life and give us a sense of transcendence. Instead of hearing God’s vision of redeeming all things in Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit, we hear of the pastor’s vision to grow an even bigger church that does bigger things so that he can be powerful and we can be powerful with him. 
The church is called to rest in the grace of God, whose power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Unfortunately, the church has often capitulated to the way from below. It has embraced the way of power to control." (Pp. 14-15)

Letters to the Church, by Francis Chan

Chan writes:

"The New Testament could not be clearer: we are not just to believe in His crucifixion; we are to be crucified with Christ. If you listened only to the voice of Jesus, read only the words that came out of His mouth, you would have a very clear understanding of what He requires of His followers. If you listened only to modern preachers and writers, you would have a completely different understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Could there be a more catastrophic problem than this? 
There are millions of men and women who have been taught that they can become Christians and it will cost them nothing. And they believe it! There are even some who have the audacity to teach that life will get better once people pray a prayer and ask Jesus into their hearts. Jesus taught the exact opposite!" (P. 128)

Revolution In the Church: Challenging the Religious System with a Call for Radical Change, Michael Brown

Brown writes:

The "religious system" "exists wherever human ways take precedence over divine ways; wherever the will and wisdom of man are superimposed over the will and wisdom of God; wherever church traditions become more sacred than the clear teaching of God’s Word; wherever spiritual progress is thwarted by the flesh, however “religious” that flesh might appear to be."

Why Revival Tarries, by Leonard Ravenhill

Rut, Rot, or Revival: The Problem of Change and Breaking Out of the Status Quo, by A. W. Tozer