Mondays with Michael Spencer: January 11, 2016

Gethsemani Window 1

I’ve been involved in some good discussions recently on the role of subjective, personal spiritual experiences. How should we deal with personal experiences of God “speaking” or otherwise relating to Christians on the subjective levels of feeling and sensing? Because there is such abuse and misuse in this area, it’s very easy to create a kind of “classroom” Christianity, where everyone is a theologian and a note-taker, but those who have experiences with God are viewed as off the rails and abandoning the Bible.

Jonathan Edwards can write about overwhelming sensations of God’s presence, but such talk today will get you looked at as one of those touchy-feely contemplative types.

Is subjective Christian experience one of those areas we have to throw away in order to hold on to Biblical authority and reasonable, non-fanatical balance in the Christian life? Or is there a way to look at subjective experiences that is positive, balanced and healthy enough to honor the Biblical material, the reality of the Spirit and our own humanness?

Here are some of the main points in these recent discussions. Your comments are welcome.

1) Subjective spiritual experience is everywhere in the Bible. It’s an incomplete and distorted Christianity that tries to take away the element of feeling, hearing, sensing, enjoying God and his presence. God speaks to Abraham, and we rightly look at the words of the promise as crucial. But God also MET and SPOKE to Abraham, an experience that would have been life-altering on its own.

2) So the Christian life is a life that believes and trusts in a personal God of objective truth, but this God is experienced. He has made us in his image that we might subjectively know him as well as know about him. We cannot make this a secondary aspect of the knowledge of God, and we cannot make it the primary aspect of the knowledge of God. Finding the proper place of subjective Christian experience is an important part of Christian growth and the life of the church.

3) Many Christians automatically make the experience of God a matter of suspicion; often to the point that to say “I felt” or “I sensed….” is to commit the sin of disbelieving and ignoring scripture. Yet how can we believe the Bible’s story, and especially its portrayal of the life of the Spirit exemplified in Jesus, and say that the Christian experience is only rational and objective? The Christian has a subjective experience of God in the Spirit, and that experiential Christianity must be rightly valued and encouraged.

4) Subjective Christian experience is often the critical place where God reveals himself to us, leads us, encourages us and gives us particular directions and assignments. Without a healthy emphasis on subjective spiritual experience, Christians will overvalue the role of human leaders and reason. While these are two very important components in the Christian life, it is impossible to see that the God of the Bible only works in and through those elements. We have a God who speaks, who gives senses of his presence, who works within our life experience in ways that cannot be entirely objectified or systematized.

5) For example, at times in the Bible God revealed himself to individuals through dreams. Nothing will make a thoroughly rational person more uneasy than someone saying that God speaks truth through dreams. We are, like Scrooge, more like to say there’s more of “gravy” than God in such revelations. Yet we cannot deny that this is the God who spoke to Joseph and Paul, and unless one is a cessationist of a high level, there is no reason that we should not believe that God, in his freedom and sovereignty, could not speak through a dream in the life of an individual today.

6) The argument that God does not give various kinds of subjective experiences today generally depends on the desire to honor the sufficiency of scripture. But completed revelation in scripture does not change God’s design of human beings to experience him subjectively, nor does it change his nature to do so. That the authoritative place of the Bible in Christian experience now is part of the “matrix” of Christian experience does not erase or replace that subjective experience.

7) It is, therefore, important to build into the church a culture that values subjective Christian experience rightly, interprets it correctly, and equips us to minister to one another in ways that honor the work of the Spirit. Leaders should determine that they will not create a church where those who “feel,” “sense” or “hear” God are looked down upon or seen as immature, deceived or deluded.

Gethsemani Window 28) Crucial to this culture will be inter-relating subjective experience (“God spoke to me through this event”) with scripture (“What does the Bible teach and tell?”), the collected wisdom of the church (“What does the wisdom of church tradition tell us about this kind of experience?”), and the role of spiritual leadership and mentors (“How does a wiser, gifted Christian mentor see this experience?”) In this matrix of factors, subjective experience can be valued, but not over-valued; owned, but not in a way that begins to dominate and over-influence.

9) The relationship of subjective spiritual experience and human personality is the critical area of study. Because we are fallen, sinful and broken images of God, none of our spiritual experiences may be seen as absolutely dependable. We can be wrong. Other factors of humanness- from brain chemistry to sleep to food- influence our perception of spiritual experience.

10) This awareness of our fallenness does not, however, render subjective experience useless. Abraham was a sinner when God spoke to him. Joseph had other dreams where God did not speak. Sometimes we have a subjective experience that is due to factors that are not God. But this is where we ask simple and important questions:

  • Does this experience validate God and the Gospel as revealed in scripture?
  • Does this experience reveal truth that is validated through reason and the wisdom of others?
  • Does this experience make me more useful in my assignments in God’s Kingdom?
  • Does this experience foster Christian virtues like humility and the despising of sin?
  • Does my critical reasoning ability tell me that such an experience is outside of what the Christian worldview presents as the right interaction between God and the world, and between myself and other persons?
  • Is there any obvious reason to attribute this experience to other factors?

11) It is important for all Christians to remember that subjective Christian experience is a significant part of God’s response to our humanness. Everyone on the day of Pentecost was a sinner. Many of those in scripture to whom God gave significant experiences were sinful, weak and broken. We cannot automatically conclude that our depravity means that any sense of God’s presence or voice is meaningless.

12) An unhelpful emphasis on “hearing God’s voice” as the normal pattern of the Christian life can create havoc in the matrix of Christian experience. We ought to beware of anyone who proscribes or describes subjective experiences in universal terms. Godâ’s ways of dealing with all people are in scripture. His subjective ways are unique to our personalities, etc.

13) A further warned is needed for those leaders who base their leadership upon their own subjective experience. Leaders are, in particular, to be aware of their need to submit aspects of their experience that affect leadership to the wisdom and counsel of others. It is unethical and wrong to manipulate others with our subjective impressions of God. (“God has revealed to me that you are going to fall in love with me and marry me.”)

14) Finally, the subjective experience of Jesus was a sense of the Father’s fellowship and constant love. While we see other kinds of experience- such as insight into the human thought process, etc- the primary work of the Spirit is the assurance of God’s love for us, which is proclaimed in scripture and poured out in our hearts.

Epiphany I: Our baptism is always with us

Running Water HDR

Epiphany I
Our baptism is always with us

One of the key themes of recent liturgical renewal is the insight that baptism is the root and foundation of the Christian life. In our baptism, we are united to Christ in his death and resurrection (Rom. 6). The Christian life is an ongoing experience of the dying of our old selves and rising of the new.

Several practices in Christian worship remind us of our baptism. The entire season of Lent is not first of all an extended meditation on the suffering and death of Jesus, but rather a preparation for our remembrance of our baptism. The declaration of pardon following the prayer of confession is, in many churches, read by the pastor at the baptismal font, a reminder of grace that is sealed to us in our baptism.

Several denominations have developed “remembering your baptism” services. In some of these services, worshipers are invited to physically touch the water of the baptismal font as a reminder of their baptism.

Each of these practices is designed to nurture a baptismal piety—a way of living the Christian life that actively recalls the significance of one’s own baptism. As John Calvin once argued, “The benefit which we derive from the sacraments ought by no means to be restricted to the time when they are administered to us. . . . The benefit of baptism lies open to the whole course of life, because the promise which is contained in it is perpetually in force.” More recently, Hughes Oliphant Old stated: “Baptism is a sign under which the whole of life is to be lived. Our baptism is always with us, constantly unfolding through the whole of life.”

• Living Water: A Baptism Renewal Service, Reformed Worship

Last year, when two of our grandchildren were baptized, I found a poem by Wendell Berry that spoke to me of the fullness of the baptismal promises and the baptismal life.

Water abstract HDRLike the water
of a deep stream,
love is always too much.
We did not make it.
Though we drink till we burst,
we cannot have it all,
or want it all.
In its abundance
it survives our thirst.

In the evening we come down to the shore
to drink our fill,
and sleep,
while it flows
through the regions of the dark.
It does not hold us,
except we keep returning to its rich waters
thirsty.

We enter,
willing to die,
into the commonwealth of its joy.

• Wendell Berry
“Like the Water”

What wonderful reminders of the rich gift of baptism! — “In its abundance it survives our thirst” — “we keep returning to its rich waters thirsty” — “We enter, willing to die, into the commonwealth of its joy.”

May our baptism always be with us, constantly unfolding through the whole of our lives.

Saturday Ramblings: January 10, 2016

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Welcome to the first Saturday Ramblings of 2016.

Our Christmas wasn’t white, and the weather outside so far this winter has been anything but frightful here in the Midwest. Still, we may be displaying a bit too much optimism to put up a red convertible as our ride for the week. Ah well, even though we haven’t had a chance to suffer the least bit of cabin fever yet, I for one am ready to ramble with the wind in my face.

Today, we’ll look at some of the New Year’s resolutions for 2016 that people are making and encouraging others to make. Our interspersed memes are courtesy of, among other sites, Memes Vault.

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Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings: January 10, 2016”

Lottie

Clossie young 2Lottie

When first we met in summer
it seemed as though that fall would be her last,
one final Christmas if by strength.

But she from tough Kentucky stock
and hills that had withstood the mines and stills and feuds,
determined, spoke of other plans:

I’ll plant my flowers in spring,
outlast the winter and get out on my porch to sit
and see them bloom again.

I smiled and said I’d pray;
it couldn’t hurt to ask for such a simple thing.
And so I did

though folks like her quite seldom
get what they ask, for death sits at their shoulders
soon to drag them off.

Death did not know her well enough!
He took her husband, dog, and others too
but every spring she smiled.

For seven springs in fact
the flowers bloomed in beds and pots around her porch
and she, determined, carried on

While I kept praying year by year,
shaking my head to see that life could be so strong
and she so constant.

When death took her this winter
I’d like to think she finally just gave him permission,
determined to the end.

Perhaps she’d had a dream:
some Gardener calling out for help in spring
to tend his beds

and bring new color to his porch,
where he finds pleasure visiting with those
whose help comes from the hills.

What about THIS “cutting edge”?

Abbey elders

What are churches in the U.S. doing to advance this “cutting edge” ministry?

Census data tells the story. From 2000 to 2010, those people age 45 to 64 (the boomers) increased 31.5%. The next highest increase was those 65+, who increased over the same period by 15.1% (source: US Census at http://www.census.gov/2010census/) It is projected that by 2025 there will be more persons 85 years old (the boomers again) than 5 year olds.

• Donald R. Koepke

In an article in the Lutheran Caring Connections journal, Donald Koepke notes how the post-WWII “baby boom” has driven the agenda for the church for many years now.

  • In post-war America, we saw the rise of a massive youth culture and thus church and parachurch groups began to emphasize “youth ministry.”
  • When the boomers entered adulthood and began families, the church suddenly began to “focus on the family.”

However, now that we (yes, I am a BB) are turning gray by the tens of millions, I for one do not see any corresponding growth in emphasis on ministering to older adults.

I understand that my perspective is limited, influenced by my own experience and otherwise anecdotal, but if people like me (and Michael Spencer before me) offer any kind of example, then what I see are churches who are failing to take this next step and who are losing aging BBs because they haven’t conceived how to minister to people outside the “youth and family” model that has long characterized local congregations.

In brief, one reason for the “post-evangelical wilderness” that so many of us aging BBs are traversing is that churches, and “cutting edge” evangelical churches in particular, have not aged with us and have little clue about what Christian spirituality in older age is all about.

It has left many of us feeling like we have “outgrown” the church as it exists and functions in its current forms.

It also betrays the church’s cultural captivity to maintaining a certain level of energy and spectacle, a high level of activism (or more cynically, busyness), and forms of teaching and preaching (and marketing) that are more designed to whip up enthusiasm and loyalty for certain “brands” or “positions” than to actually form people and congregations in Christ and in the world through all the different seasons and circumstances of life.

I’ve not heard of a movement to create “cutting edge” ministries for older adults. I’m not aware that churches are eagerly searching for “elder pastors” in the same way that they are seeking “youth pastors.” Tell me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see churches targeting over-50 communities strategically or putting spiritual vitality for seniors front and center in their vision statements. Few congregations are changing their “worship style” to appeal specifically to older people. Visitation pastors are usually low on the staff totem pole, if they make it on to the staff at all.

I’m not saying churches don’t have programs for older folks, but they are certainly not central to the church’s ministry, in my experience and to my observing eyes. Worse, like “singles,” churches tend to lump “old people” together and think that after a certain age everyone is facing the same issues. Yet, as Joan Chittister reminds us in her book, The Gift of Years:

There are, gerontologists tell us, three stages of “old” in our society. There are the young old, sixty-five to seventy-four years old; the old old, seventy-five to eighty-four; and the oldest old, at eighty-five years and over. All of these stages have some things in common— and each of them faces specific issues at the same time.

Where are the church “gerontologists” who are studying this and developing strategies for encouraging people in these groups spiritually?

Listen, we are talking about one of the largest demographic groups this world has ever seen! Still, it seems the church has little vision to reach them or to help them understand what it means to have a “Jesus-shaped spirituality” in one’s later years.

I know it’s now true that the Millennial generation has surpassed the BBs to become the largest living generation. I understand why the church is so concerned about ministering to them and including them in its life.

But for heaven’s sake, there are about 75 million graying people out here too. And many of us are asking, “What does life with Jesus look like when I’m 65? 75? 85? older?”

What does it mean to follow Jesus in the late autumn and winter of our lives?

And why don’t churches seem to care?

Open Mic: January 6, 2016

magi

A blessed Epiphany to you, and welcome to the first Open Mic of 2016.

For any who might be new to Internet Monk, several times throughout the year, we throw the doors open and invite any and all to come and participate in conversation on topics of their choosing. We always hope that new readers and those who haven’t commented before will join us in these non-directed discussions.

It is not a complete free-for-all, however. We follow some basic rules, which are stated and re-stated in various ways with each Open Mic post.

Here are a few of those fundamental rules for Internet Monk commenting, especially on open thread days —

  • Know that you are welcome here. You don’t have to agree.
  • Be respectful of others.
  • Be concise and clear in your comments.
  • When in a conversation, stay on topic and don’t resort to silly stuff like name-calling.
  • Don’t dominate the discussion.
  • Please listen.
  • No questioning of another’s salvation allowed. No dissing other traditions.
  • All good things must come to an end. Pay attention to when the horse gets dead, and stop beating it.

With these simple parameters in place, the floor is yours today.

Enjoy God’s gift of conversation…and each other.

Nouwen: With Open Hands (1)

Open Hands

I would like to take a few days to discuss some ideas on prayer from Henri Nouwen’s book, With Open Hands.

Before we begin, I would encourage you, if possible, to get a copy. It is available for only $0.99 on Kindle right now if you have the ability to read ebooks. Click on the link above or on the book’s picture below and it will take you to Amazon, where you can get it for that price.

Here are the first few paragraphs from the book’s introduction. In them, Nouwen sets out the basic metaphor that he will develop — moving from resistance (clenched fists) to relational vulnerability (open hands).

Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched. Why would you really want to do that? Perhaps you would let the other cross your inner threshold to see something or to touch something, but to allow the other into that place where your most intimate life is shaped — that is dangerous and calls for defense.

The resistance to praying is like the resistance of tightly clenched fists. This image shows a tension, a desire to cling tightly to yourself, a greediness which betrays fear….

…When you want to pray, then, the first question is: How do I open my closed hands? Certainly not by violence. Nor by a forced decision. Perhaps you can find your way to prayer by carefully listening to the worlds the angel spoke to Zechariah, Mary, the shepherds, and the women at the tomb: “Don’t be afraid.” Don’t be afraid of the One who wants to enter your most intimate space and invite you to let go of what you are clinging to so anxiously. Don’t be afraid to show the clammy coin which will buy so little anyway.

Henri Nouwen reminds us of some important characteristics of prayer in his introduction, as he unravels this metaphor.

First, without resorting to the cliché meme of “my personal relationship with God,” he does point out that prayer is part of developing a trustful companionship with a personal and accessible God, a conversational communion that involves knowing and being known by Another. For all the talk I have heard expressed in these terms through my life, I suspect that few of us actually have this kind of intimate acquaintance with God.

Not that we don’t want it. But perhaps we don’t grasp what it is we say we want. After all, who among us has any background with falling in love and growing more deeply in love with another person who is present but unseen, who communicates but is silent, who we long to feel but cannot touch? The best of us struggle to become one with our human lovers, sensibly available to us. How much more mysterious and opaque to speak of allowing “the [O]ther into that place where your most intimate life is shaped”!

Second, Nouwen is kind to remind us that the “detachment” that keeps us from opening our hands and hearts to God is not just a grasping of things we love. In our humanness we often cling not only to that which is attractive, but also to things that are repulsive. We know, for example, that resentment and bitterness, fear and envy are bad for us and for our relationships. Yet we hold on to them — who knows why? — no matter how destructive they may prove. Perhaps we prefer the demons we know and have learned to live with over the thought of risking something new.

Third, he notes that we sometimes want to receive the love of God but think we must make a clean way for him by hiding those imperfect and embarrassing aspects of our life. We want to put on the best face when he comes to us. Nouwen calls this “forced and artificial,” a response that is motivated by fear more than love. Note: at the heart of our tendency toward self-justification is the fear of being found out.

Fourth, the life of prayer is a long journey. Henri Nouwen describes how we have spent our whole life making clenched fists and “behind each fist another one is hiding, and sometimes the process seems endless.” The life of prayer is like a lifelong marriage or friendship. It ebbs and flows through any number of seasons and circumstances. We are never done knowing and being known. Our hands close and open, close and open, close and open. We find ourselves clenching them shut. A fresh wind blows and we open them to heaven. We hide and we emerge from hiding. We draw near and run away.

But God never stops calling, “Where are you? What is that you have in your hands?”

Mondays with Michael Spencer: January 4, 2016

Stone Arch

Back in the day, I got a psych major in my undergrad work. That’s pretty ironic, believe me, in more ways than you can imagine.

I can’t say I learned a great deal, but I did begin a lifelong journey of making observations and drawing tentative conclusions about myself. If I would have paid attention to all I’ve discovered about myself, I’d have a very different life. Some psychologist can tell me why I routinely ignore the lessons I’ve learned and repeat all the same mistakes.

One thing I’ve learned is that I’ve got some holes in my personality that go a lot deeper than I can understand. They are caverns in my self-understanding; potholes in the soul, so to speak. Like a series of tunnels that connect with points in my past and experience, these dark places are imperfectly mapped, sometimes frightening and very, very real when you fall into one.

What I’ve found in some of those dark places can be amusing, irritating or terrifying.

Of course, I’ve learned to avoid these traps whenever possible, and some of the time I’m successful. I have the most well known holes in my soul marked with warning signs that I respect. The trouble is that you never know when a new hole is going to appear, often in the most unexpected places. And you never know how that dark place in your soul is going to help you understand what you’d rather not even thing about.

When it became apparent that my wife was going to go down the road to the Catholic Church, I fell down one of those holes. It was, in a word, an overpowering dark place of fear and anger. It came from someplace in me, but I couldn’t see where. For many weeks, it was my world.

In that hole was everything I heard about Catholicism growing up in a fundamentalist church more than 30 years ago. In that hole were a collection of fears about things I thought I understood and had under control. In that hole, was my fragile concept of vocation and marriage.

I fell into that hole and stayed there for a very long time. All I knew was how I felt. Feeling and fear were everything. I was thinking, reasoning, talking and asking questions, but I could not pull myself out. My journey out of this irrational, fearful darkness was slow and may still be incomplete.

The other night I picked up my son for dinner. I noticed that he had pierced his ears.

I have no problem with this sort of thing. He’s almost 21 and engaged. I don’t tell him how to live or dress. I have dozens and dozens of friends with pierced ears. I teach a lesson on this very issue in Bible class. I’ve told my son a dozen times that I don’t care, God doesn’t care and it’s not an issue.

But there I stood, and for that moment, I was falling down a well of feelings from another place in my soul. I was overwhelmed with feelings of anger and disappointment. I had failed as a dad. My son was going down the wrong road. I was hurt and wanted to say how I felt; to express my disapproval.

It was, in a word, irrational.

Now in just a few moments I recalibrated myself back to rationality. My thoughts and my feeling matched back up with what I know and believe, and those moments in that dark place of irrationality faded away.

Now, why am I talking about this? More iMonk whining and dirty laundry? No, something different.

How much of our lives do we spend reacting entirely out of those places of darkness, fear, irrationality and disconnected feelings? How many of our conflicts and problems come because we are deep in a hole, and do not recognize where we are?

How many of us are dominated by aspects of our history and experience that we are unable to view truthfully and rationally? Instead, we are speaking and acting in ways that are destructive and hurtful to ourselves and so many others?

I wonder how many of us are dealing with our spouses and our children out of places of darkness, but we are so submerged in the darkness and so afraid to see where we are that we will fight to the death anyone who challenges out view of reality?

Stone Wall 2When I listen to Christians speak- especially pastors and other leaders- I hear a lot of anger. I wonder where it comes from. I hear anger from Christians over things they say they believe deeply about love, truth and justice, but what comes out from so many is confusion and bitterness, but they don’t realize this is happening. They are unable to see that they are living out of fear and irrationality.

Years ago, a friend- an older man- was widowed after caring for his sick wife for many years. Six months later, he remarried. But his son, a good Christian man who I knew to be a loving and reasonable person, went completely over the edge objecting to his father’s marriage. His behavior was embarrassing…and it didn’t take a great deal of insight to see that his feelings came from places within himself that he could not acknowledge.

I can point out this fellow as an example, but I believe many of us are as conflicted and live out our lives in similar embarrassing conflicts. And I believe that if we can find a place where we can see what is happening to us, we will realize that these “holes” of emotion and irrational fear are not where we want to spend our lives.

The answer? Certainly we need to ask for insight in prayer into how we are living our lives, what we are living “out of,” and who we have become.

We also need spiritual direction, or at the least Godly counsel of those who can gently help us see the illumination of the Holy Spirit on the effects of our words and actions.

In our personal journeys, all of us should begin to map out those dark places we are aware of, and we should consider how we can grow in ways that will not lead us down those roads so easily.

Where we’ve done damage, and where we’ve insisted we were right and rational when we were, in fact, irrational and wrong, we should go back and make amends.

Somewhere, we need a community that can come to know us with an honest awareness of our personal “potholes of the soul.” In the honest acceptance of others, perhaps we can learn to accept ourselves with grace, contentment and compassion.

I will never come to a place where these “holes” of fear and emotion are not part of me, but I can live aware of them, transcend them by the grace of God, accept forgiveness and continue the journey on a better path.

Christmastide II: He makes it possible not to give up

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Christmastide II
He makes it possible not to give up

I consider it a providential blessing that our New Year’s Day falls within the bounds of Christmastide. Both speak of new beginnings and hope, and both seem to refresh our spirits, energizing them to start again when we have tired.

Here is a brief excerpt from a message by Rowan Williams for today on this theme.

At Christmas — and at of all times of the year — we need reminding, believers and unbelievers alike, of what sort of difference can be made to the world because of that birth in Bethlehem. Not only can be made, but is made: whether in Congo or in the back streets of our country, plenty of people know that it’s only because of those who believe the Christmas message that they have recovered hope for their lives.

And the message is that God has told us he is not going to give up on us: he appears to us in the life of Jesus, a life of complete identification with human suffering and need. And he makes it possible for us to identify in the same way with those who suffer and live in hopelessness and need. He makes it possible not to give up, even where there seems least chance of change.

• Rowan Williams
Goodness and Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas

iMonk Annual Review – 2015

Ambassador-2

We will resume Saturday Ramblings next week. The Rambler, as you can see, is in the shop, being made ready to travel far and wide in 2016. I must give a hearty “thank you” to Pastor Dan Jepsen for doing most of the driving last year as we rambled, and I’m looking forward to seeing where our journeys will take us in this coming year.

Today, we’ll focus on our Annual Review of posts here at Internet Monk.

Before we look at some of the favorite and most-discussed posts of 2015, I want to remind everyone of the big site update we made last June. We moved from “Dispatches from the Post-Evangelical Wilderness” to “Conversations in the Great Hall.” Using the imagery of C.S. Lewis’s “Great Hall,” we renewed our purpose as a site that will provide a place of conversation where people from various Christian traditions (and outside those traditions) can meet to talk about the faith. It is our goal to strive to be:

A post-evangelical, ecumenical, pastoral, and contemplative site
devoted to maintaining a legacy of Jesus-shaped Christianity.

With that in mind, here are some of our most-discussed posts from the past year, along with lists of some other favorites.

• • •

Most Discussed Posts in 2015
(not counting Saturday Ramblings or Open Forums)

January
Chaplain Mike: A Response to Owen Strachan on Cultural Courage (Jan 21)

February
Chaplain Mike: In the beginning, it’s not about “days” (Feb 13)

March
Damaris Zehner: Some Thoughts on Artificial Birth Control (Mar 24)

April
Chaplain Mike: Faith in the system, or faith in Jesus? (Apr 23)

May
Matthew B. Redmond: Some Thoughts on What Is Happening at Village Church (May 26)

June
Chaplain Mike: A Moral Continental Divide? (Jun 11)

July
Miguel Ruiz: New light on the oldest profession (Jul 30)

August
Rob Grayson: The judgement of the cross (Aug 10)

September
Pete Enns: No Turning Back (Sep 30)

October
Chaplain Mike: Swimming against a Tide: Doctrine (part 1) (Oct 12)

November
Chaplain Mike: Questions about Penal Substitutionary Atonement (Nov 4)

December
Chaplain Mike: Why Isn’t Rachel Weeping Today? (Dec 3)

• • •

Ten of my favorite posts written by other writers at iMonk in 2015:

  1. Damaris Zehner: The Undeserved Grace of a New Beginning (Jan 19)
  2. Mike Bell: The Most Significant Moment in My Spiritual Journey (Jan 23)
  3. Tokah: On the Sunday of Forgiveness (Feb 26)
  4. Randy Thompson: Religious Virtuosity – The Spiritual Life on Automatic Pilot
  5. Damaris Zehner: The Coup, the Queen, and the Resurrection (Apr 1)
  6. Jeff Dunn: The “Realest” Michael Spencer (Apr 6)
  7. Lisa Dye: Jump! (Jun 2)
  8. Damaris Zehner: My Dysfunctional Relationship with God (Jun 17)
  9. Jon Henry: Already Compromised, Moon Edition (Aug 14)
  10. Jan Richardson: This Luminous Darkness – Searching for Solace in Advent and Christmas (Dec 23)

• • •

Some posts I wrote that meant a lot to me in 2015:

• • •

I couldn’t leave a post like this without saying “Thank you” to all who read Internet Monk, those who participate in the discussions, and those who generously support us with encouragement and financial support.

May 2016 provide a few more oases in the wilderness for all of us as we live in the grace and mercy of Christ.