Question: Is Evangelism Child Abuse?
My last post has stirred up some, uh….”interesting” commentary and email. To the point: in the view of some people, evangelism of teenagers is abusive and unethical. Since I’m a preacher who preaches the Gospel to teenagers with an appeal for their conversion, I’m engaged in abusive behavior.
This especially seems to to apply, to some, to the cases of those who are stated unbelievers or atheists. If I know that is their position, then to evangelize at all is to be disrespectful and manipulative. These young people should not have to hear Christian appeals for conversion and it is entirely appropriate to see this kind of activity as unethical pressure tactics on those least able to resist.
These claims hit close to home. I’ve devoted most of my life to evangelizing students, and I am not bashful about it. That said, I am just as passionate to reject all unethical methods, pressure tactics and manipulation. Scripture, in fact, commands me to abandon and oppose any underhanded or unethical use of the Gospel. I am told to serve and love others in Jesus’ name, and to proclaim/teach the Gospel with faith and submission to Christ at the center. I am given specific instructions to honor God in evangelism by leaving matters of the heart and conscience to him. My calling is to love, communicate and relate. I am an incarnational proclaimer of the Good News. I can’t manipulate and represent Jesus. I also can’t equivocate and represent Jesus.Continue reading “Question: Is Evangelism Child Abuse?”
On Throwing Away A Ministry of Comfort
Last night was one of those nights of preaching where I am reminded of where God has put me and what he’s put me here to do. I meditated a bit on that today, and share my gratitude to Him with you.
“I live by preaching. My tongue is a devoted thing.” – John Wesley
For 17 years, it’s been my vocation to preach the Gospel to hundreds of teenagers who come to our ministry, most of whom, for much of the time I preach to them, do not believe it. I am not a professional evangelist, but evangelistic teaching and preaching is the majority of my ministry focus.
When I came to this work almost two decades ago, I came from twenty years of working on church staff; 16 as a youth minister and 4 as a pastor. In all of those years, I had very limited contact with unbelievers aside from a few unconverted church kids. That contact was on my “turf.†But in my first few weeks at my current ministry, I was overwhelmed with hundreds of unbelievers.
It was a jolting adjustment, to say the least. Almost everything in my ministry mindset and toolbox was calibrated for the believing children of church families. Unbelievers were, to be honest, the people I was supposed to teach my young people to stay away from, a la Landover Baptist’s “Ten Mile†rule. I was a servant of a “church shaped” spirituality: create a busy youth program and keep the students involved as much as possible. With lots of church based activities and experiences, it was far less likely those students would take up with criminals, get pregnant or use drugs.Continue reading “On Throwing Away A Ministry of Comfort”
Dr. Mike Wittmer: Heaven Is A Place On Earth: The IM Interview
As we were discussing the subject of “Can We Be Too God-Centered?,” I remembered an excellent book I’d read a couple of years ago: Heaven Is A Place On Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters To God by Dr. Michael Wittmer.
I contacted Dr. Wittmer and he graciously agreed to a blog interview here at Internet Monk.com. Check out the interview, leave your comments and check out both of Dr. Wittmer’s books. Here’s the brief bio he provided.
“Mike Wittmer is Professor of Systematic Theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. Grand Rapids is the home of Rich DeVos, who owns the Orlando Magic, who bounced Cleveland from the NBA playoffs. Mike grew up in Northeast Ohio, and has been waiting his entire life for Cleveland to win a championship. Now, thanks to his Christian neighbor, the ordeal continues. Mike distracts himself from his cursed teams by spending time with his wife, Julie, and their three young children.”Continue reading “Dr. Mike Wittmer: Heaven Is A Place On Earth: The IM Interview”
Internet Monk Radio 143
This week: A few stories from Advance 09. Friendship. Answers to the “Too God-Centered” Objection.
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The Shepherd of These Hills
Other IM essays on Appalachia.
The Gospel and Appalachia
The Gospel and Appalachia: Can The Culture Change?
The Gospel and Appalachia: Four Christian Responses
Most IM readers know that I live in southeastern Kentucky, in a particularly poverty and crime affected area of Appalachia. In economic and social studies of crime and poverty, our county and congressional district are among the ten worst affected areas of the United States.
You don’t have to be a detective to see sin, poverty and their terrible effects where I live. The last three years have featured the arrest and conviction of large numbers of public officials for involvement in the vote-buying and the distribution of drugs in our county. Jaw dropping visible poverty is common (though we are far from the worst I’ve seen in Eastern Kentucky.) Social problems of every kind are plentiful. Ignorance, unemployment, exploitation, oppression: these aren’t concepts, but realities here.
Of course, Appalachia has a lot of good Christian people. The Christians who live and work here in southeastern Kentucky are dedicated believers. They see and experience a lot of pain, suffering and loss in this culture. It is a tough place to raise your children. Schools are often not good. The dropout rate is astronomical. Medical care often requires lots of travel. Economic and educational opportunities are few. Churches are usually small, clergy are almost always untrained and church splits are very, very common.Continue reading “The Shepherd of These Hills”
iMonk 101: Credible Christianity for the Cultural Atheist
This November ’07 piece, Credible Christianity for the Cultural Atheist, was a follow up to some of what I had written reflecting on my experiences teaching students from China. It discusses those aspects of Christian practice and ministry that seems to me to hold the most interest to those who have been raised in cultural atheism and who look at Christianity with an eye for what kind of “footprint” it leaves in the real world.
This isn’t a discussion of Atheism as much as what I’ve seen prompt discussion, questions and further seeking after Christ. Obviously, I presuppose that God is at work in the lives of the young people I teach, and these are the aspects of our community’s witness that I’ve seen the Spirit use in bringing some to Christ. Because these aren’t “arguments” or polemics, they apply to the discussion we’ve had on BeAttitude’s “deconversion.”
Another One Gets Off the Evangelical Bus: Thoughts on A De-Conversion
BeAttitude gives his reasons for Why He Walked Away From Christianity. Don’t skip this. Read it carefully and don’t start talking. Just listen.
1. I always want to commend anyone who moves to a position of authenticity for themselves. If you don’t believe the claims of your own Christian community, then by all means please move to a position where you are able to say “This is what I do believe.” What you don’t believe is a step along the way. We’ve got thousands of Christians who are actually unbelievers, agnostics and atheists. We’d all be better off to ring a bell and go to our real position. Even if it makes mom and dad cry, which it will.
2. The hand of the new atheists is heavily apparent here. If you don’t believe their assault on the Christian faith and religion in general are making an impact, you’re out to lunch. Their arguments may be weak and answerable, but they are persuasive to millions of ordinary people. Most Christians won’t be professional apologists and they aren’t coming to your seminar or class. For many people, a Chris Hitchens or a Sam Harris are devastatingly confident voices of self-proclaimed reason. Investigation may prove otherwise, but that’s hardly well-publicized or well communicated.
3. The hand of shallow evangelical thinking is just as apparent. Does this read like Bart Ehrman’s discovery that inerrancy wasn’t true? Yes, and I say where are the evangelicals with the courage- and that’s what it will take- to say that simplistic inerrancy isn’t the default Christian position? Where is the awareness that the vast majority of the Christian world isn’t playing by the rules of a minority segment of evangelicalism determined to make their ideas of inerrancy the definition of Christianity. Read the Catholic Catechism on the inspiration of scripture, for goodness sake. Find out why you don’t have to have your faith detonated like Ehrman did, by a bomb that was defused long, long ago.Continue reading “Another One Gets Off the Evangelical Bus: Thoughts on A De-Conversion”
What God Has Joined Together: A Study of Grace and Discipleship In The Teaching of Jesus
Galatians 5:5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (ESV)
Galatians 5:5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (NLT)
My head is rattling around with about a hundred ideas related to Jesus shaped spirituality, and one of them has occupied me in various ways the past two days.
In short order, Jesus shaped spirituality is a spirituality Jesus would recognize as what he gave us; what he taught, lived and began in the experience of his followers.
Jesus shaped spirituality is about a “Big Picture†of truth (God, the world, creation, etc,) but it is especially about what Jesus means for relationships (God and others) and human life (yours and others.) If you are a follower of Jesus, your life, your relationships and your participation in this world are deeply affected by him.Continue reading “What God Has Joined Together: A Study of Grace and Discipleship In The Teaching of Jesus”
Ten Guidelines for Interpreting the Gospels
MODERATION is on.
1. Don’t harmonize the Gospels. That’s like taking four paintings and combining them into one. You come up with something no one painted and no one intended to paint. Let each Gospel author be an artist in his own right. However, a Gospel synopsis, such as those available from UBS, are very useful and important in comparing Gospel texts to one another WITHOUT harmonizing them.
2. When you interpret anything in the Gospels as if the words were spoken or the incident happened in the contemporary world (especially the west), you are almost certainly headed in the wrong direction. The Gospels come to us from another time and place. They aren’t inaccessible, but they require us to let them be what they are and not attempt to contemporize them.
3. Jesus did and said a lot of things that he didn’t explain. Ever. At all. I don’t believe there are special keys to understanding difficult sayings laying around for us to find in some spiritual treasure hunt. If Jesus first century hearers were often confused, then we will probably be confused too some of the time.Continue reading “Ten Guidelines for Interpreting the Gospels”
The Internet Monk Archives 