Happy Halloween Reformation Day

Some of you may have visited a few of the "Blogs I Read" (links at the right). I can't always recommend Wade Burleson's blog. Despite what I am willing to assume are Wade's best efforts to be gracious while still challenging and confronting serious issues in the SBC, the comment streams after his posts are not always as gracious. In fact, they sometimes derail into mean-spirited, abrasive, and divisive conversations.

But I thought I would point you all in his direction today. I'm all about my kids having fun dressing up as Buzz Lightyear or dancing skeletons. I should be even more about reforming my life.

Books that Challenge

I appreciated Rachel’s thoughts on The Golden Compass yesterday. One thought in particular especially caught my attention. She said, “I hesitate to say that they shouldn't be read by anyone because I think reading things that challenge our beliefs can sometimes be a good thing….”

And my wheels started turning. There have been a handful of books I have read in my life that were completely contrary to my own beliefs and values in various ways. Others were controversial for different reasons (sensitive topics, explicit language, etc). And yet I am still a better person for having read them. They DID challenge me. I had to think. I had to look for underlying assumptions and philosophies. I had to work out practical implications of various ideas and concepts. It was tough to do at times, but it was all good for me.

I’m sure I could think of more, but a few books come to mind immediately:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Walden Two by B.F. Skinner
Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

I wonder if any of you all have books like this. What books have you read that were difficult and/or contrary to your beliefs and values – and yet were good for you? Better yet, if possible, I’d love to hear what those books were about and why they were significant to you. If the topic takes off, I’ll come back and provide those descriptions for books on my list, too.

The Golden Compass

(Step 1) Go to Google and search for a movie being released in December this year – “The Golden Compass.” Or click here for a short cut.

(Step 2) Read a few of the reviews and watch some trailers -- like this one or this one. They seem nice. Nicole Kidman is big. The movie may do very well in theaters.

(Step 3) Notice the movie is the first of a trilogy from the books of Philip Pullman. He has been called the male version of J.K. Rowling and has been compared with C.S. Lewis (think Chronicles of Narnia) and J.R.R. Tolkein (think Lord of the Rings). The trilogy has sold over 15 million copies.

(Step 4) Then read this quote from Pullman: “I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak.... Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God.”

(Step 5) Be careful what you let your kids see this winter.

I don’t know just how big of a deal all of this will be – I haven’t read the book or seen the movie. It only seems right to reserve some judgment until I have more information. But Pullman is an avowed atheist and many are saying his books are a clear attempt to teach anti-Christian beliefs to children. Some are suggesting the movie has purposefully watered down the atheist stuff in order to (1) make money, and (2) encourage the sales of the books, which ARE anti-Christian.

For more information, you might want to check out a few other links:
Snopes
Christianity Today
New York Magazine
Syndey Morning Herald

WWCND?

I have several friends and acquaintances who either hold a political office, will be running for a political office, or have worked for others in political offices. With my sincerest apologies to all of them, I must say that I generally avoid politics like the plague. I vote because I want to be a good citizen. But even that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t like politics and I tend to just ignore 99% of what’s going on in Washington.

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” –Ernest Benn

But I’m beginning to take interest in the current Presidential campaigns. And that is thanks to none other than…..

..…Chuck Norris!

He weighs in on Mike Huckabee for President. And I ask you – who wants to ignore Chuck?

It also seems that many other conservative Christian leaders are instead leaning toward supporting Mitt Romney – a Mormon. That’s interesting. And a little weird. An interesting blog thread on that issue can be found here.

That’s it. No point to my post today. Just observations. (And I wonder… Who Steven Segal is endorsing?)

Eager

In one of my classes, we’ve been discussing the “right” way(s) to do “Christian counseling.” It can be incredibly difficult to sort through the various ways in which Christianity and psychology are related as well as the ways in which they ought to be related. If you read my posts last week, you may have gotten a taste of what some of those discussions have been like.

There seems to be an underlying assumption that there is only one right way to do Christian counseling. I may have even promoted this idea, albeit unintentionally. But my sense is that we sometimes worry too much about doing it the “right” way. It is almost as if we think, “If I don’t use the Bible in the right way,… or if I don’t use prayer in the right way, then my client and I aren’t going to find God in counseling. He won’t be able to help us understand and/or solve this problem.”

Yesterday, I came across this description of the prodigal son and his father (Luke 15:11-32). After the son wishes his father dead, takes his father’s money, and wastes a part of his own life, he returns home. “Verse 20 mentions that the father ran to meet his son. In our day, we might not think too much of that. But in ancient cultures, fathers were figures of dignified authority. Fathers waited for their sons to approach them. Fathers rarely walked out to meet their sons, not to mention doing something so undignified as running out to see them. In this story, the father's eagerness to see his son reveals his strong love for his son.”

The thought occurred to me that God might still find us in counseling, even if we aren’t doing it the “right way” and it appears undignified for Him do to so. I am still a proponent of doing good theology and of thinking clearly about the best ways to do Christian counseling. That is incredibly important work. But it is helpful for me to remember that the criterion for finding God isn’t that we are integrating psychology and Christianity correctly. (Check out Deuteronomy 4:29.) And it is helpful to remember that God is eager to meet us.

Milestones

Parker lost his first tooth this weekend. You should have seen my family. We cheered, gave high fives and hugs, and acted like Parker won the lottery. My sister called it a rite of passage. I think Grandma might have cried because her grandson was growing up. Looking back, it was a little surreal. It doesn’t seem like such a big deal now as I write about it. But yesterday, it was a big deal. It was a milestone.

I never used to think much about milestones. I don’t think many people do until they become parents. It is a scientific fact -- your brain gets weird when you become a parent. Consider the evidence. Before you have children, you think about normal things: sports, the weather, how you can save money for buying books and CDs without your spouse finding it and spending it on Sonic drinks. You know, regular stuff.

Then one day you have a baby and you think differently. You forget about sports and the weather and you start keeping track of odd things related to your children: their first poop, their first set of clothes, their first sneeze, their first real foods, their first steps, their first words, their first day of school, their first loose tooth,…. you get the picture. Milestones help us keep track of development.

I got to wondering about spiritual development. Most theologians agree there is a progression of faith. It is not just that we become closer to Jesus. Our faith actually changes as it grows. It looks different over the years. And I got to wondering about milestones in spiritual development. What are the markers that our faith is changing and growing? Here are few items to ponder…

- Your first prayer (other than for salvation)
- Your first answered prayer (I remember mine)
- The first time you read the Bible on your own and God spoke to you through it.
- Learning to tithe.
- The day you realize life--including your own salvation--is not about you.
- The first person you lead to Jesus.

I’m interested in your thoughts. What are the significant milestones to the Christian life? I would love to hear from everyone, but especially from those who in their spiritual journeys have put a few miles on the tires.

Psychology and the Sufficiency of Scripture, part 2

In yesterday’s post, we summarized and discussed 2 of the 3 main positions when trying to address the issue of the sufficiency of Scripture in counseling. You’ll remember that Crabb finds weaknesses in the first 2 positions. Here is the third (and the one Crabb promotes).

Is the Bible a textbook for counseling?

Yes. Every question a counselor needs to ask is answered by both the content of Scripture and its implications.

For Crabb, the ultimate purpose of counseling is to improve relationships (both with God and with others). And he says ‘yes’ the Bible is a textbook for relational living. But he works out the issue of sufficiency carefully.

In a sentence, here is Crabb’s view: Biblical data support doctrinal categories which have implications that comprehensively deal with every relational issue of life. Let’s break that down…

(A) We start with exegesis of the Word. We study it deeply and carefully. But while exegesis is the starting point, it can never be the end in itself.

(B) We take the teachings of these various texts we study and organize them into broad statements of truth. These are doctrinal statements or categories. For example, if you open any textbook on systematic theology, you will find in the table of contents an organization of some doctrinal truths.

(C) Now when we encounter data from nonbiblical sources and when we encounter real-life problems from real people, we view (and explain) them in light of the biblical text and the categories and principles of theology.

(D) Finally, we must work hard to communicate God’s truth to people in ways they can hear and understand it. Crabb suggests that our own lives as counselors and pastors are the best examples or demonstrations of God’s power. We must enter into the life of another person, engage them in deep, profound, and intimate ways. We pour our life into them. And they see God’s truth lived out in us.

“Good exegesis and careful theology enable us to recite God’s truth to others accurately. Insightful reflection about the implications of those truths to real-life questions makes it possible to present truth with relevance. But only living the truth with growing consistency equips us to communicate with power.”

Now we have all three positions. What thoughts/observation/questions do you have?

Psychology and the Sufficiency of Scripture, part 1

A recent class period generated particularly good discussion and several students mentioned afterward how much they enjoyed it. I’ve decided to post a summary of that discussion here for a wider audience. I’m going to encourage my students to come and participate in further dialogue, but would appreciate anyone else’s input as well.

In one of our texts, Larry Crabb addresses the issue of Biblical sufficiency in counseling. At the heart of the debate among Christians is this question: Is the Bible sufficient to tell us everything we need to know about understanding and solving the problems people face in their lives?

Rephrased for counselors, the question might go something like this: Is the Bible a textbook for counseling? Crabb outlines three positions on this question.

(1) No, God never intended to write a comprehensive guide for counseling. Under this position, “Content other than biblical data is permitted to serve as the beginning and end points for thinking through the issues of counseling.” Counselors legitimately can use any data in understanding and solving personal problems as long as they don’t contradict direct teachings of Scripture. One major problem with this position is that the Bible often fails to serve as a foundation for our counseling. Our theories and techniques must only avoid conflict with the Bible. They do not necessarily emerge from the Bible.

Sometimes our churches operate under this position even though they would verbalize something different. Churches that verbally commit to the Bible being sufficient for everything needed in understanding and solving personal problems often openly neglect addressing personal problems. Crabb puts it this way, “The message [in many churches] is clear: The community of God’s people is no place to deal with the real concerns eating away at your lives; we exist to maintain orthodox belief and to promote conforming behavior. Helping you with your personal problems is not the business of the church.”

(2) Yes. It is comprehensively relevant to every legitimate question that life presents. Under this position, if the Bible does not answer a question about life, then the question should not need to be asked. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 seems pretty clear, doesn’t it? Crabb agrees with much of this position, but in the end says, “The problem with this reasoning… is that it is so close to being right.” He offers two reservations about this position.

Reservation #1: If we are looking for direct answers, we might give to the literal meaning of the text a comprehensive relevance that it simply does not have. Imagine we are called to counsel a man struggling with intense urges to cross dress. Since the Bible directly address this issue (in Dueteronomy 22:5) we might assume that this teaching is comprehensively relevant. Nothing else is needed. We would counsel the man, “Don’t do that.” If he asks why he struggles with such urges when most other men don’t, or if he asks what causes such urges, we would advise him that those questions are illegitimate. They aren’t answered in the Bible, so those questions must not matter. Crabb explains, “Under the banner of biblical sufficiency, Christian counselors may ignore crucially important questions by responding only to questions that they can easily answer.”

Reservation #2: When the range of permissible questions is narrowed, our understanding of complicated problems is too simplistic. Imagine this time we are counseling a woman struggling with anorexia. Since the Bible doesn’t directly answer this issue, we turn to issues the Bible does answer. We know that the Bible describes our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Anorexia may then just be seen as rebellion against her responsibility to care properly for the temple. Again, “why” questions go unanswered and we give shallow answers to complicated problems. “When we limit the questions we are allowed to ask to those the Bible specifically answers, the result will often be a nonthinking and simplistic understanding of life and its problems that fails to drive us to increased dependency in the Lord.”

For Crabb, there must be a third alternative. We’ll be discussing that in class today and I’ll be posting a summary of it here tomorrow.

Meet Craig Smith

Craig is a buddy of mine from OBU – that’s Oklahoma Baptist University for all you Ouachita fans out there. He is the Minister of Youth and Young Singles at First Baptist Church in Hot Springs, AR. They have tolerated his antics there for 7 years and he has a girl in OKC that likely thinks too highly of him. You can check out his blog at Frankie Say Relax.

His bio on the FBC webpage reads as follows:

Craig was unable to be reached for comment on his bio. We were able to reach his grade school principal Mrs. McCormick happily living out her remaining years at The Sunnyside Retirement Center in North Enid, Oklahoma.
"Craig was always such a sweet boy. He was squad leader one year on the school crossing guard, responsible for making sure hot tamales and ginger ale were available. He was always thinking of others that way. He enjoyed watching and playing sports, rooting on his Denver Broncos and OU Sooners, although if you ask me, his fascination with OU is unhealthy. "He went on to Oklahoma Baptist University and gave up a promising career as a lifelong crossing guard for youth ministry. He loves his music too, all types too! From The Ink Spots to Louis Prima, from Tennesee Ernie Ford to Paul McCartney, from the Boomtown Rats to Rich Mullins, from the Kingston Trio to Ray Charles. And he loves him some Jesus, too. He is always telling me to read John 7:37-38 and Genesis 27:11. And he loves working with teenagers. He says that is the greatest joy of his life. See? Such a sweet boy."


(1) What part of your job is most rewarding? What part is most frustrating?

Working with the students here at the church is the most rewarding part. Makes sense, right? I feel like so many of them don’t have anyone in their corner, don’t have an advocate. So I like to stand in that gap. I have also noticed that the longer I stay here, the deeper and richer the friendships become. Most frustrating? The people. If it weren’t for people, ministry would be easy. Sometimes the people you work with on staff can really drag the job down. The parents can be so maddeningly frustrating. And then the typical church junk of people doing or saying things that really cast such a poor light on the Gospel…

(2) What is something else (not related to your job) that you are passionate about?

On a more noble note, I am deeply bothered with poverty and social justice issues. I see it as a huge short-coming and character flaw of the Church that she remains so silent on so many things. So I do my best as a sponsor for multiple children through compassion international and also through Operation Christmas Child and Heifer International.

And from the guilty pleasures file…music and TV. I enjoy all types of music, really an eclectic range (of everything except modern music – it has been corrupted by people who are creating music based on the desires of 13 year old girls…just sickening). Right now I especially love The Beatles, Paul McCartney, jazz, blues, rockabilly, 40’s and 50’s pop and doo wop…at one time I had over 10,000 songs on my ipod. And then I started dating someone. And TV – well I have a few obsessions: 24 (seriously, how could they kill Tony Almeida AND Curtis Manning???) is crazy good. I also LOVE Heroes (how do you kill DL? And they need more Peter and Hiro and less Parkman and Claire). I also own each season of The West Wing, Everybody Loves Raymond, and The Office (both US and UK versions). But I don’t have much time for TV anymore. I also love the OU Sooners and used to love the Denver Broncos until they stank up Conseco Field at Mile High this season against the Chargers.

(3) What is one good book you’ve read lately and what made it so?

Hmmm…as part of the job I feel obligated to read the God stuff and then I enjoy biographies and some fiction. One good book lately? Well, I am not sure how good it was but other than the immense Beatles biog penned by Bob Spitz (a close second) I read through The Qur’an. It was interesting to read in modern English. In parts, especially in the opening prologue, it sounds alarmingly similar to the Bible. But I found it to be really inaccessible and hard to navigate. Plus it really is thick with violent messages about God’s judgment. That book really had me thinking about my holy book, The Bible.

(4) What is something you know now that you wish you would have known when you were younger?

God can still be honored and first in my life even though I listen to the Beatles and read Harry Potter. For a while I was one of those “get rid of all the fun stuff” Christians. I wish I could talk to the 18 year old me. I would say, “Listen, as you get older, the less you realize you know. So, stop being so full of yourself and enjoy being young for a while.”

(5) Describe someone you know personally that most admire, and why?

My late grandfather. He just passed in July. He was pretty straight with people but very kind to his family. He absolutely saved the best of him for us. And he spent all he had on the love of his life, my grandma. A life that spends the very best very richly on your family is the best lived life. He did that. And he was extremely generous to boot.

(6) Describe something that has surprised you lately.

Lately, more and more, I feel the urge to cuss a lot. I am reading my Bible every day and praying more than ever. I am worried about that verse in Matthew 12:34 that says your words are just the overflow of the heart. Although that bit of good news is delivered by Jesus to a brood of vipers called the Pharisees. I do see a lot of Pharisee in me, though. Especially in how I view other believers. I can be overly critical. Basically, it is okay for me to cuss because I know how much I love Jesus. You can’t because I am not so sure where YOU stand with him. I am working on that. So far, nobody has heard one of these excited utterances. And they usually come in fits of frustration. I am getting cranky.

(7) Name one or two questions you are most eager to have answered once you arrive in heaven.

Why couldn’t I come here sooner?
Is Judas here?

I always wondered about these type of questions. By the time you get your answer, the question doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

(8) If you could share any one “life lesson” with a college student today, what would it be?

Spend your life. Pour yourself out. What are you holding anything in reserve for? Use yourself up for the cause of Christ.