ShelfLife
I decided to join an online Watermark book club going through a quick read of J.P. Moreland's Love Your God With All Your Mind. Hopefully it will quickly grow in true dialogue back and forth between readers (currently the activity has been a mostly devotional style question response style in the same vein as Watermark's online devotional, The Journey), yet I do highly appreciate the thought behind Watermark doing this. Anyway, here's my first entry of conversation, responding to the idea that Christian intellectualism is limited to meeting a merely evangelistic tool or need. I will say that my response is a little scattershot, but hey, it is supposed to resemble a real-time book club conversation, right?
Or you can read the full text below:
Anyway, you can read it in context here. I threw out plenty of fodder for responses, so I invite you to join the book club or simply respond to my thoughts on AP.
Or you can read the full text below:
I appreciate J.'s comment because I find it reflective of what much of Christian culture professes. For now (in what will be a failed attempt to seek brevity), I’ll just speak to this part of our new conversation..
We too often identify intellectualism myopically as merely one of many available tools to the evangelist for the persuasion of the convert. This simply misses the mark. It is, indeed, the Holy Spirit that opens the eyes to receive the truth of Christ of whom God calls to Himself; the repentance of the sinner is by no means the unguided product of crafty or well structured sermon. Having said this, it seems impossible to be called to believe in something that is so ill-defined as “you need to get right with God” or “accept Jesus in your heart.” (See pages 49ff & 59ff for more on this…)
Still, this moment is not what we are primarily talking about when we discuss Christian intellectualism. The acceptance of Christ is not the point at which our minds are satisfied and thus to stop seeking the questions of Christ and His dominion. To cease consideration of Christ and the workings of the Divine upon conversion is truly the shame of the modern church, largely resultant previously from the Second Great Awakening and currently sustained through the overly focused “seeker” model that does much to sensationally tailor services to the seeker while all but forgetting the need to build up and train the Christian for a life of maturity and ministry.
It is, instead, at conversion that we really catalyze the true beginning of our intellectual responsibility to pursue Truth. As heaven and earth intersect within us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, truth has just become accessible and true wisdom finally attainable. We have just begun. We instantly find ourselves in Genesis 1 for our own birth into Christ’s kingdom; He has created life out of death. So, now what?
Willard fleshes this answer out immediately in his introduction through his reference from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, claiming that “the outcome is that we increasingly are able to do all things, speaking or acting, as if Christ were doing them” (11). This is why the modern church is so mediocre in pursuing holiness and conversely so exceptional in mirroring the trappings of this world. At conversion, we think we have finished our consideration of Christ and that all is left is to apply. Yet we have little truth for application. We have no context of understanding. We then subject ourselves to teachers primarily driven through their personal opinion resultant from their own historical illiteracy, linguistic incompetency, lack of serious doctrinal study, and absence of ecclesiological authority. Their words are most often empty, occasionally dangerous, and yet almost always sweetened through their proof texted sermons; however, the church largely has no ability to discern their teachings.
As so many of our Christian leaders are themselves intellectually void, how does one expect the parishioner to excel in his love for God in a right way? Perhaps reading this book will at least serve as a glimpse to some of the importance of seeking Truth. From there, one will find a wealth of instruction and training for the serious Christian. Though the church may not always reflect it, we have a wealth of pedagogues, both antecedent and contemporary. Some, however, might be wondering why it even matters…especially if this is not at all about conversion.The answer is worship. Specifically, the answer is found in being a resurrection people, called from death to life to live as a beacon and vision for what God accomplished through Christ in his death and resurrection. Moreland calls this being “salty.” It is to interact in a world groaning for redemption in a way that effectively proclaims that God is good, redemption has come, and Christ is on the throne. It is to be not only objects of redemption but to now also be agents of redemption, ushering in the kingdom of Christ. Ashamedly, this gets lost through abhorrent eschatology, much of it popularized through entertaining yet theologically muddled children’s books. Here again is revealed the importance for a discerning mind to separate the culture (even that of the fundamentalist church) from the call of Christ to His people. It seems difficult for Christians to seriously engage in worshiping God when they have no idea why He has them here or why they are ultimately to pursue truth in the grand scheme of God’s plan and workings through history. Yet, I digress. Wrapping things up…
To pursue truth, though, is to pursue beauty, justice, and love. It is to live as God created us to live, as we await His recreation of heaven and earth. None of this, however, is possible without loving God with your mind, without seeking out and meditating upon His truths. How are we to proclaim (much less appreciate) the resurrection, baptism, the eucharist, the prophets, the law, grace, the ascension, the cross, etc if we do not know that of which we speak? How can we worship that which we do not know? God desires relationship with us to the point of Christ on the cross. He knows us and yet still pursues us. When we cease to seek him, to learn of Him and from Him, we are essentially turning over and falling asleep as He is whispering life into our fragile ears.
A professor of mine once said something very pertinent to our discussion:
“The most important thought you will ever think is what you think when you think about God. For what you believe about God determines every other facet of your life.”
posted by matthew at
3:22 PM
@matthewjmoore
matthewjmoore
the (re)public house
9 Comments:
Matt – thanks for joining the conversation. I haven’t seen you around the neighborhood lately. Was your professor A.W. Tozer? Wasn’t he the author of that quote? Oh well, you know what they say, “Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.”
Thanks for taking the time to write so much (and write so clearly). I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but you appear to be a very gifted writer/thinker, so I look forward to your contributions. Plus, you appear to have a little angst which I always think is cool
“It is, instead, at conversion that we really catalyze the true beginning of our intellectual responsibility to pursue Truth.” I like the use of the word “responsibility”. In the past (and even still today), I will come across a passage that is confusing or a concept that doesn’t make sense and it is so easy to “outsource” trying to think through the issue to someone else. As you pointed out, the process (or responsibility) has just begun at conversion, because we now have the necessary software to be able to think through real life issues with God.
“This is why the modern church is so mediocre in pursuing holiness and conversely so exceptional in mirroring the trappings of this world.” I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences about churches you’ve seen or been a part of that actually create culture rather than mirror culture? I’ve heard that “should statement” before (i.e. the church should create culture rather than imitate it), and it makes a lot of sense, however, I feel like I haven’t seen very many examples. I can think of being a part of the 7:22 bible study, lead by Louie Giglio in Atlanta during the late 1990s and how completely different that entire movement was from anything I had experienced in the world (I started to attend that study about 2 years after I became a believer). I will say that some of the things Jackie and I have learned at Watermark appear to be very counter-cultural: the value this church places on conflict resolution, and the value this church places on marriage, to name two. I see (and commend) Watermark for trying to create culture in these two small areas.
“We then subject ourselves to teachers primarily driven through their personal opinion resultant from their own historical illiteracy, linguistic incompetency, lack of serious doctrinal study, and absence of ecclesiological authority. Their words are most often empty, occasionally dangerous, and yet almost always sweetened through their proof texted sermons; however, the church largely has no ability to discern their teachings.” That’s some good angst there, brother. Well said. Do you think the American mega-church is the best context to achieve what Moreland is advocating for in this book? Don’t the context and environment sometimes overly-influence the program? You and I can make a lot of progress when it’s just us sitting across a table drinking coffee. Add others the table, and the dynamic of the conversation changes dramatically. I pray that the church will be able to creatively find a way to make progress despite its size and not feel handcuffed by the environment.
“The answer is worship.” Amen. As Paul said, in view of what Christ has done, offering our entire self is our reasonable act of worship. I pray that more intellect is never the end result. I never want intellect to become my functional savior. It will never satisfy like the Almighty and will never forgive me when I fail it.
Adam,
First quick response, re: the quote.
Actually, it was something I heard Bingham often say. Support:
http://qualisest.com/2009/02/20/read-your-bible-this-march.aspx?ref=rss
http://community.icontact.com/p/discipleschurch/newsletters/name_official/posts/in-n-out-burger-and-the-beauty-of-disneyland2
http://www.aarongreenway.com/devotionals/1999/081999.PDF
http://www.facebook.com/john.buerger?ref=ts#/john.buerger?v=info&viewas=681690133&ref=ts
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendId=29223043&page=2fa
I believe you are thinking of a very similar quote that is from Tozer, which likely inspired Bingham’s:
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.” (from The Knowledge of the Holy)
So, it is true what they say about originality…you can pass that along to Bingham if you want (though his words do have a different spin and were more pertinent to what I was writing…)
Here we go…
Part 1
Tozer:
Clarified.
Responsibility:
Good insight…very good.
Mediocrity of the Church Pursuing Holiness / Culture:
I think the key word in my phrase “conversely so exceptional in mirroring the trappings of this world” would be the word trappings. I’m not really trying to talk about creating a new culture vs imitating the one we have; instead, I am claiming that the average parishioner looks no different than his non-Christian neighbor when it comes to the statistical negatives, i.e. divorce, materialism, etc. Barna studies illustrate this well enough.
If we did, however, want to broach such a conversation, I’d claim extreme hesitancy with the idea that the church should create a separate culture. Think of Christ – He lived and perused among a sinful culture, and yet, he did not fall into that culture’s trappings. Think also of Daniel. In Daniel’s case he did some things differently on a cultural level, and yet, it was all done within a very prominent role within a larger culture. I don’t think it’s about creating a separate culture as much as pursuing holiness in the culture God has placed us; so that, within this present setting, we can be “salty.” As for what WM is doing well, I think that is much like Daniel – how can we, being equipped by and responsible to God’s truth, live within our present culture to be a light, not hidden under a bush (hiding the light under a bush, of course, would be creating our own culture and exercising it within some compound out in the country…which would not be good). This, though, goes back to the question of why we are here, and relatedly, how we should impact our given culture.
Part 2
Low Quality Teachers:
Let’s group these into two groups:
First, the issue of ecclesiological authority. This is the inherent effect of churches splitting off of churches that split off of another church that split off, etc. What you end up with is a large number of churches totally disconnected and without any authority for the pastor. Wise churches will develop a strong elder board; however, this is not necessarily the norm. There are many churches that align to a specific school or seminary, which is interesting. Protestant churches, however, non-denominational especially, will always struggle with this and have a more difficult time mitigating an absence of authority. Ironically (or not), they also tend to struggle much more with serious doctrinal training and historical literacy. So, let’s move onto there.
Taking historical illiteracy, lack of study, and inability to read the languages, we find that this is a more recent reality. I’m not trying to spew angst, but merely, stating a fact in comparison to the historical church. Allow me also to isolate Protestants in this, as Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox Christians still place a very high expectation on serious study as well as on the immense importance of consulting the vast cumulative wisdom that has come through Christ’s church through time and space (history). As for language study, I think this is probably a push among a data set of all who have advanced training. So, allow me to focus on Protestant Christians for ease of this conversation.
This is not (none of this section) intended to spew angst but merely recite a present reality. It used to not be like this. In the last days of great Christian Intellectualism, there were three types of American men that went through advanced university studies: Medical Doctors, Attorneys, and Pastors. Those were your doctorates. There was not only high expectations academically of pastors but there was also high acceptance within the academic circle. Look at this list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ivy_League_university_presidents) of Ivy League Presidents and look at the commonality between most schools until the early twentieth century. Let that sink in.
Studies were also quite rigorous, needless to say. My point is that the training (and expectation of) Protestant ministers have declined greatly the last hundred or so years. Again, picking on non-denominational churches especially, you see much to often random guys just starting their own church. Much of this comes from consumeristic preferences, which is a shame. I think that time at seminary makes it easy to assume that is just the natural and assumed path for many; however, most American pastors have no formal academic training. That is staggering.
So, yeah, we have a culture of ill-equipped pastors (at least in comparison to previous standards). As we have lost a Christendom partially defined through great intellectual teachers and laymen who are leaders in intellectualism, we see that those two groups are, indeed, related.
Part 3
Specific Questions and Coffee
Q: “Do you think the American mega-church is the best context to achieve what Moreland is advocating for in this book?”
A: No. I think the American mega-church is one of the greatest detractors and liabilities of Christendom today. Not a fan.
Q: “Don’t the context and environment sometimes overly-influence the program?”
A: Definitely. See my above statement about being overly seeker friendly, and then let’s couple that with catering to soft Christianity.
As for a table with coffee, I think that’s a brilliant idea. It might be fun to have a coffee talk time midway through this book and then at the end for those who want to talk about stuff face to face. I’m all for it.
Worship / Intellect
Agreed. What we strive for is knowing God, not merely knowing about God. However, the former somewhat requires the latter. The Biblical text, however, makes it clear that the demons know God (informationally much better than any of us right now!), so this is not the end. Truly knowing God must in the end translate to loving God and loving our neighbors.
Oh, and lastly…
Though I tried to downplay the angst on mediocre pastoral leadership, you could very fairly attribute angst more to the children’s book / fundamentalism comment…I left the door wide open on that.
Low quality teachers –
I like what you are saying there and I believe your observations are spot on. Having (like you), spent some time in formal training (at Dallas Seminary), I always found it un-motivating when I was taking certain classes and I heard over and over again how a many of the classes were “not practical” and therefore not valuable. That sentiment was pretty consistent from very different folks (church members, church staff, teaching pastors, and other seminary students). Collectively the zeitgeist was “just memorize what you need to memorize and read what you need to read so you can get through these classes.” I was pretty immature and a little too impressionable when I entered seminary, so I might not be the best test case, but all of those comments certainly had a big impact on my motivation to truly learn certain subjects. However, I don’t know why I’m still a little hesitant to say that formal academic training is necessary for all Protestant pastors. I think my fear is that too much formal training would lead to pastors who can only communicate on a level that misses so many people. However, I will say (as you have also said), most local Protestant churches in American have much ground to make up in this area, so for now, any little bit of progress is good. Great list of the university presidents, by the way. Very interesting.
Coffee –
We are definitely going to have to plan something during the week of 9/28. It will be good to put faces and names together and have some off-line conversations.
As I was thinking a little more this morning, I believe the reason I feel a hesitancy or fear about too much formal training for Protestant pastors is because I’ve seen so few examples of people who have a high level of intellect AND a high level of ability to love people and love God. Without realizing it, I believe that if I had to choose between high EQ (emotional intelligence) or high IQ, I would rather have high EQ. As one quote I recently read states rather candidly: “EQ gets you through life, IQ gets you through school.”
I guess this is subclass of the “sacred vs. secular” split. The early church leaders (and Christ) appeared to embody both very well. As you said above: “Truly knowing God must in the end translate to loving God and loving our neighbors.” I really hope we (the body) can embrace these two very opposite things (or at least they appear to be opposite, on the surface) which will ultimately result in loving God, loving others and further the kingdom.
Yes, but don’t choose between the two. Such an hypothetical situation by no means abdicates the responsibility to pursue both. We are to love God with all of our mind and heart. We are to worship Him in Spirit and truth.
Too often, Christians think this is a one-or-the-other proposition, where they do receive a choice as to which one they will primarily commit to. We have not such a choice.
To the degree of which God gave you a brain and put you into a context with other people, you must pursue both.
Besides…
If you choose to love people yet do not with all your might search God’s truths, then you really don’t have much to offer. Certainly not wisdom. Such a Christian is merely equipped to say “Oh, I’m very sorry for you” (yet can give no wisdom) or “I’ll be praying for you” (and they won’t but if they do it will be quite whimsical) or “Let’s start an accountability group and project to one another that we believe the Christian life is a very trite list of do’s and do-not’s” (okay, maybe they don’t say this, but we know it’s true). The degree to which you close your mind to God is the degree to which you have nothing to offer his people and further propel this sad state the church is in – tell me how choosing EQ over IQ really loves his people…
It doesn’t. It may make you feel better or make them feel warm for a bit, but it does not love them. Not really.
Instead, such laziness (which it is, because anyone can pick up a book and can learn to a degree…and again, are responsible to that degree) condemns those you say you love.
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