http://ryanpaulson.net/

Thanks. Hope to hear from you!

Anyway, i’d love to know what you think. Also, just for your reading pleasure famous atheist Christopher Hitchens and pastor Douglas Wilson engaged in a debate with the same title. They go back and forth in a fairly respectable manner. the debate in Christianity today can be found here. There are 6 parts to it, but I trust that you will find it very interesting. They also wrote a book about their correspondance (pictured to the right).

Share your thoughts!

Declaration 1: deep church must be postfoundational. In order to fully appreciate what Belcher is saying, one much first define “foundationalism.” He defines it as, “the view that knowledge can be based on self-evident truths that don’t need to any backing from religion or any other external authority, that is, knowledge that has ‘invincible certainty.’” (78) Belcher claims that it is this view of metaphysics that leads to the arrogant smugness that is often found in evangelical fundamental churches. While I’m not sure that the way we are viewed is a reason to reevaluate beliefs, but I do agree with him in that this theory of metaphysics is dead.

The logical follow up question that many in the fundamental church ask is, “Can we know anything for sure?” This has always been the question that has bothered me and indeed it has been one of the main reasons that I have held the emerging church at an arms distance. Belcher answers this question by stating, “Even though we realize that language always stands between us and reality, that beliefs always shape how we interpret the world, we still believe that there is an objective reality outside of us, that we can have some knowledge of it and transcend our culture. But we don’t do it by going back to the Enlightenment and individually or corporately creating our own reality. We do it by living in the biblical story, which teaches and transforms us.” (84)

After thinking about this statement for a while, I got to thinking that this was the same way that Jesus taught. He did just simply give objective truths. He invited people to live in the story of God and see that they were true. This is no more evident than in his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. In it he invites people to life in the Kingdom of God. He invites them to live in and be transformed by the biblical story. It seems to me that Jesus embraced this “third way.” After working with college students for years now, I am convinced that they are hungry for this invitation as well.

So, the question becomes, do we invite people simply believe a set of statements… or do we invite them to live the life that Jesus taught and modeled. I think that is an important distinction that we need to wrestle with. Maybe the answer is both… I’m still wrestling with that myself.

I’m sure that like me you have been watching the rescue efforts the last few days that are going on in Haiti. There are some amazing stories that are emerging. Stories of sacrifice, heroism, and miraculous rescue. I just got this picture this morning of God searching for his children in the same way. It’s amazing that we worship a God who WANTS to rescue. He wants to redeem. And he wants to usher us into fullness of life.

I love the way C.S. Lewis puts it when he states:
“To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son–it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”

It’s pretty amazing to think that God values us enough to SEEK and SAVE us!

(1) Jesus SEES Zacchaeus. in the midst of a crowd of people, Jesus sees him. There are people crowding in around Jesus, I mean this is a parade like atmosphere and Jesus sees this one person sitting in a tree. (2) Not only does Jesus see him, but he also pursues him. It would have been really easy for Jesus to just tell Zacc to repent of his sins, you know, get out a bullhorn and share the gospel with him, but that’s not what he does. He invites himself over for dinner instead. Relational. Intimate. (3) Finally, Jesus challenges him in a very personal way. See Zacc understood 1/2 of the gospel. he understood that he was a sinful man… he just didn’t understand that there was redemption that awaited him. In a very personal way Jesus introduces Zacc to redemption.

My hope is that God might use this story to stir up our group (www.thewellefcc.org). That he might put it on the hearts of our people to look in their sphere of influence for people who want to see Jesus, but who might be too ashamed of their past, fearful of judgment, or just unsure of Jesus. Not only to look, but to pursue in the same way that Jesus pursued Zacc… and in the same way that he pursues us all.

“Hope prevents us from clinging to what we have and frees us to move away from the safe place and enter unknown and fearful territory… It is an act of discipleship in which we follow the hard road of Christ, who entered death with nothing but bare hope.”

I hope this quote inspires you to move more into the unknown and uncertain, being certain that we have a God who loves us and calls us His children.

Over the past week I have had the opportunity to walk with college students who are going through very painful things in life. Things like drug abuse, broken relationships, issues with sexuality… and some others. As their pastor I am so honored to walk with my people through the hard times in life and to help them find healing and redemption in Jesus, but I am finding out more and more that the weight of what they are going through weighs heavily on my heart. And, because these are people who I care about deeply, I can’t just let it go when the meeting is over.

I have been reminded of a few things over the past few days that have helped me:

1. while God may use me in the process of helping these students, it is HE who does the healing. I need to remember that.
2. I need to be constantly connected to the vine in order to speak life into the lives of people who I am shepherding.
3. I need to remember that God loves these people more than I ever could.
4. I need to remember that sin sucks and it will destroy lives.

Just a few thoughts from the places that I have been living over the past few days. Retreats are amazing times. One of the things that is so amazing about them is that they allow groups to get to a deeper place of honesty with each other. But, when that happens, we must be ready for the heaviness and the call to walk with people that comes with that.

I’m so grateful for the chance to walk with college students.

Anyway, today I am left wrestling with how to respond when I feel like I’ve been wronged. This is the verse that popped into my mind. So today I will practice the truth that God’s grace is sufficient for the situation that I am working through. I hope you, in whatever you face in your life today, can do the same.

Based on his company’s interviews with thousands of people during the year, researcher George Barna synthesized the findings across numerous studies and summarized four themes that emerged from his research regarding religion in 2009.

Theme 1: Increasingly, Americans are more interested in faith and spirituality than in Christianity.

“Faith remains a hot topic in America these days,” George Barna commented, expanding on the theme. “Politicians, athletes, cultural philosophers, teachers, entertainers, musicians – nearly everyone has something to say about faith, religion, spirituality, morality, and belief these days. But as the fundamental values and assumptions of our nation continue to shift, so do our ideas about faith and spirituality. Many of our basic assumptions are no longer firm or predictable.

“One of those assumptions relates to how we develop our faith. These days,” he continued, “the faith arena is a marketplace from which we get ideas, beliefs, relationships, habits, rituals and traditions that make immediate sense to us, and with which we are comfortable. The notion of associating with a particular faith – whether it is Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or some other strain – still has appeal because that connection provides a discernible identity and facilitates the possibility of belonging to something meaningful. But the actual components of what we choose to belong to are driven by our momentary needs and perceptions.

“Our studies consistently demonstrate – as explained in unChristian, the book by my colleague, David Kinnaman – that being a Christian or associating with the Christian faith is not as attractive to Americans as it used to be. That is largely due to two realities. First, the mass media have unfavorably caricatured the Christian faith, devout Christians and Christian churches. Second, it is relatively rare to find someone who is an exemplar of the Christian faith,” the researcher explained. “Consequently, millions of Americans have less trouble embracing Christ than they have embracing Christianity, but many people assume it is a package deal: that is, you cannot be a Christian without adopting the institutional framework and limitations of the Christian world. Young adults, in particular, find that unappealing.

“Ultimately, in a culture where people are busy, distracted, confused and trying to keep it all together, there is less loyalty to a faith brand than to self. The purpose of faith, for most Americans, is not so much to discover truth or to relate to a loving, praiseworthy deity as it is to become happy, successful, comfortable and secure. For a growing percentage of citizens, their sense of spirituality, more than Christianity, facilitates those outcomes.”

Some of the related survey results Barna cited from this year’s studies included:

o       Just 50% of adults contend that Christianity is still the automatic faith of choice in the US

o       Nearly nine out of every ten adults (88%) agreed either strongly or somewhat that their religious faith is very important in their life

o       74% said their faith is becoming more important in their life

o       Substantive awareness of other faith groups is minimal; even simple name awareness of some groups, such as Wicca, is tiny (only 45% have heard of Wicca)

o       Most self-identified Christians are comfortable with the idea that the Bible and the sacred books from non-Christian religions all teach the same truths and principles

o       Half of all adults (50%) argue that a growing number of people they know are tired of having the same church experience

Theme 2: Faith in the American context is now individual and customized. Americans are comfortable with an altered spiritual experience as long as they can participate in the shaping of that faith experience.

“Now that we are comfortable with the idea of being spiritual as opposed to devoutly Christian,” Barna pointed out, “Americans typically draw from a broad treasury of moral, spiritual and ethical sources of thought to concoct a uniquely personal brand of faith. Feeling freed from the boundaries established by the Christian faith, and immersed in a postmodern society which revels in participation, personal expression, satisfying relationships, and authentic experiences, we become our own unchallenged spiritual authorities, defining truth and reality as we see fit.

“Consequently, more and more people are engaged in hybrid faiths, mixing elements from different historical eras and divergent theological perspectives,” Barna stated. “In some ways, we are creating the ultimate ecumenical movement, where nothing is deemed right or wrong, and all ideas, beliefs and practices are assigned equal validity. Everyone is invited to join the dialogue, enjoy the ride, and feel connected to a far-reaching community of believers. Screening or critiquing what that community believes is deemed rude and inappropriate. Pragmatism and relativism, rather than any sort of absolutism, has gained momentum.”

Some of the survey findings that related to this theme included:

o       About half of all adults (45%) say they are willing to try a new church or even a new form of church

o       71% say they will develop their own slate of religious beliefs rather than accept a package of beliefs promoted by a church or denomination

o       Three-quarters of adults (75%) believe that God is motivating them and others to connect with Him through different means and experiences than were common in the past

o       Barely one-third of self-identified Christians (36%) strongly agree that it is important for followers of Christ to maintain positive relationships with people who are not Christians

o       Two-thirds of adults (64%) are willing to experience and express their faith in new or different environments or structures than they have in the past

o       Only one-third (34%) believe in absolute moral truth

Theme 3: Biblical literacy is neither a current reality nor a goal in the U.S.

Barna’s findings related to Bible knowledge and application indicate that little progress, if any, is being made toward assisting people to become more biblically literate.

“Bible reading has become the religious equivalent of sound-bite journalism. When people read from the Bible they typically open it, read a brief passage without much regard for the context, and consider the primary thought or feeling that the passage provided. If they are comfortable with it, they accept it; otherwise, they deem it interesting but irrelevant to their life, and move on. There is shockingly little growth evident in people’s understanding of the fundamental themes of the scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and application of biblical principles.

Barna noted that some of the critical assumptions of many preachers and Bible teachers is inaccurate. “The problem facing the Christian Church is not that people lack a complete set of beliefs; the problem is that they have a full slate of beliefs in mind, which they think are consistent with biblical teachings, and they are neither open to being proven wrong nor to learning new insights. Our research suggests that this challenge initially emerges in the late adolescent or early teenage years. By the time most Americans reach the age of 13 or 14, they think they pretty much know everything of value the Bible has to teach and they are no longer interested in learning more scriptural content. It requires increasingly concise, creative, reinforced, and personally relevant efforts to penetrate people’s minds with new or more accurate insights into genuinely biblical principles. In a culture driven by the desire to receive value, more Bible teaching is generally not viewed as an exercise in providing such value.”

Some of the survey-based results that led Barna to his conclusions included the following:

o       68% of self-identified Christians have heard of spiritual gifts, a decline in the past decade; a minority (roughly one-third) can actually identify a biblical spiritual gift they claim to possess

o       Less than one out of every five born again adults (19%) has a biblical worldview, which is unchanged in the past 15 years

o       Just half of all self-identified Christians firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles (not the facts, just the principles) that it teaches

o       Barely one-quarter of adults (27%) are confident that Satan exists

o       Less than four out of every ten self-identified Christians firmly accept the teaching that a person can be influenced by spiritual forces, such as angels or demons

o       An overwhelming majority of self-identified Christians (81%) contend that spiritual maturity is achieved by following the rules in the Bible

o       Only 4% believe that poverty is an issue that is primarily the responsibility of the Church

Theme 4: Effective and periodic measurement of spirituality – conducted personally or through a church – is not common at this time and it is not likely to become common in the near future.

“There are two levels on which evaluation of where we stand spiritually can take place,” noted the California-based author. “There can be external measurement, such as that conducted by pastors, teachers, coaches or peers, and there can be self-evaluation. At the moment, we’re seeing very little of either form of review related to a person’s spiritual condition.

“Our studies this year among pastors showed that almost nine out of ten senior pastors of Protestant churches asserted that spiritual immaturity is one of the most serious problems facing the Church. Yet relatively few of those pastors believe that such immaturity is reflected in their church. Few pastors have gone so far as to give their congregants a specific, written statement of how they define spiritual maturity, how it might be measured, the strategy for facilitating such maturity, or what scriptural passages are most helpful in describing and fostering maturity. Those pastors who made any attempt to measure maturity were more likely to gauge depth on the basis of participation in programs than to evaluate people’s spiritual understanding or any type of transformational fruit in their lives. Overall, less than one out of every ten pastors said they were completely satisfied with how they assess the spiritual condition of their congregation.

“The situation is similar among Christian individuals. Americans have an almost insatiable curiosity about themselves and how they stack up against others. Yet, in the spiritual realm, that same level of curiosity is much less apparent. Perhaps it is because of the lack of tools for such measurement or even the absence of motivation to grow or to deepen their relationship with God.

“Not surprisingly,” he continued, “our research found that a majority of churchgoing adults are uncertain as to what their church would define as a ‘healthy, spiritually mature follower of Christ’ and they were no more likely to have personally developed a clear notion of such a life.

“It may well be that spiritual evaluation is so uncommon because people fear that the results might suggest the need for different growth strategies or for more aggressive engagement in the growth process. No matter what the underlying reason is, the bottom line among both the clergy and laity was indifference toward their acknowledged lack of evaluation. That suggests there is not likely to be much change in this dimension in the immediate future. In other words, as we examine the discipleship landscape, what we see is what we get – and what we will keep getting for some time.”

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While most of the trends Barna identifies are negative, there is a silver lining to most of them. For example, people ARE open to spirituality. Whether they identify that as Christianity or not will probably be determined by the Christians they interact with. I think the bottom line is that the if the church is going to reach people, it is going to need to change. That excites and challenges me!