Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday and as mentioned in the previous post, it is an extremely important Sunday in the historical church. The day the Holy Spirit filled the disciples and fills believers still today (and is at work throughout all creation) is an essential matter of what Christ-followers should reflect on. I will be the first to say the Holy Spirit (and the theology of the Trinity) is a difficult doctrine to pin down. So years ago, I stopped “trying” because a theology that is living and breathing cannot be pinned down by mere mortals.  Take note, this does not mean I have given up studying Scripture, theology and the world around me, I just no longer buy into the notion that aside from a few loose ends that will be corrected when I get to heaven, I can have it mostly figured out ;-).

Having been educated in my college years in systematic theology (among many worthy disciplines), I had always been overwhelmed by the idea of trying to have perfect Biblical theology (a fruitless mission). That is part of the claim of modernity – that you can know it if you discover it all, accept it all, organize it all, understand it all, etc. The problem is “all” is too tricky for the flawed human mind and nature. As it turns out, one cannot comprehend it “all”. Feel free to try, you do not have to believe me but let me know when you stop trying, I think I have some solid brotherly direction for you.

God is not a subject. “World religions” might be a class but God is a person. He is not empirical, cannot be researched, organized and reduced to be “more understandable”. In other places, I have described this as dissecting the theological frog. The Holy Scriptures is a sacred thing that we are invited to partake in, one that we read, study, meditate, apply, converse with others, all in a Christ-like humility. And one of my favorite aspects of all this is Paul writes that the Holy Spirit will help us understand God’s will/word. Passages like I Cor. 2:14 & most of Eph. 1 have allowed some theologians to explain that the Spirit will “illuminate” these things to us. (“Illuminate” huh? Sure sounds good, throw that in the mix too). The Holy Spirit helping us to understand, that sounds like what Jesus promised in John 14. (He actually calls the Spirit a “helper”. Further, I have always found this to be so interesting because there was no New Testament cannon, only Old Testament and it would take centuries before his very writings would be canonized. Certainly they kept them, read them, copied them, etc. but there was no 3 ring binder, marked, “New Testament” that they threw them into it. What was being illuminated was the Old Testament and the present world in light of the work of Christ.  Sorry for the rabbit trail, I find that exciting).

I sometimes wonder what  the idea of “faith” would look like if it were not for the work of the Spirit.  I suspect that the Church would be obsessed with knowledge than anything else and therefore, “faith”, would be a meaningless term.  Which in looking at one of the most important aspects that I have underestimated in all the conversations about Scripture, accuracy, inspiration, the text, etc. is that the Spirit has always been at work in people’s hearts.   The Spirit at work in our hearts is even more important than proper doctrine. Don’t misunderstand me, the Church has suffered greatly from anti-intelluctualism and doctrine is extremely important  and as a whole, we may not be giving it its proper attention but loving God (and others – Mark 12) is even more important.   Again, don’t misunderstand, people have claimed the Spirit’s working in places where He was not – this is sinful but not a reason to dismiss the Spirit entirely, as some have seemed to do.  We need the Holy Spirit to realize, mature, and be at work in our faith and understanding of it all. And among other reasons, this is why Pentecost is so important.

(Part 3 hopefully tomorrow).

As many know, this Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.   Pentecost means “fifty” and the historical Church celebrates this on the 50th day after Easter.  It tends to be a bit neglected in non-liturgical churches but many pause and reflect on its great significance to the New Testament church – you should too.

Growing up in a non-liturgical setting, the beauty of this day was often lost on me.  But like so many, I could not escape the power of the coming of the promised Holy Spirit in Acts 2.  Gospel readers will remember that it is back in John 14 that Jesus promises the coming of the third person of the Trinity.  Acts opens with Christ’s Ascension into heaven which has always been a beautiful scene that was tragically cut short by bad writing (come on Luke) and the angels resembling NYC Police, “Move along now.  Nothing more to see here folks, move along ..”

If you have not read it in a while you should.  Start from the beginning.  I always try to exercise my imagination when reading Scripture (I used to think everyone did but …) and I imagine this incredible scene, with the Jesus giving His final farewell as He ascends into heaven in slow motion (it may not have been but slowmo but you are free to imagine how you please).  The disciples once again in a state of disbelief, their mouths open, their minds racing and spinning as they watch the Lord soar into the sky, finally their gaze interrupted by a cloud.  As you would imagine, they probably kept staring into the sky.  That is, until these angels (who I am sure were only following instructions) fly back into focus and say, “What are you looking it? The same way He left, He’s going to return … ”

It’s a good thing I wasn’t there, I would have been remembered as the sarcastic disciple who got zapped by an angel.  “What are we looking at?  What do you think we are looking at?  Jesus, you know the guy who was dead last month, just flew up into the sky after fishing and hanging out with us all week.  Now I’m talking to celestial beings – give us a moment if you don’t mind.”

But angelic authority trumps human curiosity every time and they returned back to Jerusalem, selected a replacement for Judas (Matthias) and waited … (chapter 2 tomorrow)

Here’s a couple of thoughts regarding Andy Rowell’s Article in Christianity Today, “Jim Belcher, Francis Chan, N.T. Wright, and Others Leave the Pastorate to Write and Speak: Why church planters often quit their congregations.”

First, I liked that Andy wrote it. I do not know him personally, just thought it was a worthy piece.

Second, Andy refers to all these departures, sabbaticals, breaks as a “phenomenon” – you need to admit, it seems “something” is going on.

Third, no one ought to judge the intentions of any of names mentioned.

Fourth, I think it’s worth remembering that today’s conference speaker bears some similarity with the 19th century evangelist. And the tradition of the evangelists has not always been a bad thing if you can get past the idea of today’s “televangelist” whom Paul says “there is not one good, not one” (I will abuse context the way they do) Which leaves me wondering, when are some of those guys going to participate in this phenomenon and take a non-scandoulous break?

Fifth, at the same time, it would be wise of us to seriously consider how we define success and faithfulness in ministry. Why are most of our conference speakers successful writers, and either pastors or leaders of large(r) organizations? Would it beyond our logic to have a pastor from a small church in Arkansas be a speaker at a Cataylst event and say, “I graduated with my MDIV with a grander vision than Billy Hybels and I am a more talented speaker and writer than Rick Warren. But God called me to this church outside of “outside of Little Rock”, where I have been pastoring for the last 30 years … let me tell you what I have learned about the ministry …”

Maybe the next day another presenter can begin with, “I apologize that I have come late to this event and that I will need to leave as soon as I am finished speaking but my schedule is a bit complicated at the moment. See, I have just accepted a position as the worship pastor at this new church. It’s my fourth pastorate in 7 years now, and we have a disabled child and a world of debt but I was asked to share about my experience in the ministry and so here’s what I can tell you …”. I think many of would be able to connect with something like that.

While I do not think Chan or Belcher or anyone ever used the church as a “farm team”, it would seem a bit naive to assume that some leaders are not guilty of this, or at least trying to do this. And while i have always been suspicious on just how lucrative and fulfilling the speaking circuit is for the long term, I have always seen the presenter as a position of value. Of course I do, I chase down theologians and writers like I used to chase down baseball players to sign my Upper Deck cards.

Sixth, I absolutely loved David Fitch’s post, “Do You Trust an Author on the Church Who Leaves His/Her Church?”. After I read it, I decided not to post this (then I read something else and I changed my mind). Also, there was also an excellent comment on this post by Nathaniel Snow (May 11, 10:24am) about the publishing industry and copyright being part of the empire (for those of you who appreciate that discussion).

Seventh, it is my impression that almost of all the names have been pardoned in either a post or a comment except for Jim Belcher. Wright gets pardoned because we are all afraid he’ll write a book tomorrow addressing this nonsense. It’s preface will begin with “I don’t really have the time to write this but my flight has been delayed and the fellow next to me was kind enough to loan me his iPod Touch …”

Rollins gets pardoned because he has more friends than Ashton Kutcher. And unlike Kutcher, he doesn’t care. Further, he’s not a pastor (read the tweets, he’s not a pastor! ;-) We are all crazy in love with Francis Chan so he is excused and I think everyone accepts that he wants to do something different – good for him.

From where I sit, Belcher is the only one that no one has defended (I may not be following the right people). But it seems to me that some of have pretty much said, “Yeah, he wrote a best-selling book and is cashing out.” What’s wrong with him leaving the pastorate at this time? Ministering in the Kingdom is a life-long calling, but I am not sure the pastorate is and I do not write that as someone who hopes to get out.

I don’t know Belcher, but listened to the audio version of Deep Church, liked a good bit of it, liked his voice and while I do not connect with some of what he concludes, I think he has done a great thing for us in the Kingdom, especially those of us who are in the middle of the emerging-traditional church discussion. Does that mean he “deserves” a break? No, he could have taken the break even if he had not written anything – it simply seems that he and his family need a break.

It seems that there a few bloggers out there that are disappointed that the sales of his book have allowed him to take a break. You are envious and mean … and I hope your computer crashes (And if it did, I suggest you ask Belcher to buy you a new one ;-). For all we know he’s a powerball winner but in seriousness, good for him for writing something worthy buying. (After the free christianaudio.com download, I bought the book to support the “artist” – a virtue learned from my Napster days). But not only is it good for Belcher, good for the many of us who finally contributed to the success of a book that didn’t have these words in the title ‘Your Best’, ‘Personal Prosperity’, ‘Success’, or “Vote for Me and I Will Make All Your Dreams Come True!”. Seriously, it’s about time some of us bought something worthy from CBD. Now if he comes out with a book called, The Deeper Life, Examining a Third Way Beyond the Missional Life and the Celebrity Life” with devotional journal, Deep Meditative cd and his own edition of the Your Deep Life Now study Bible, then let the barrage begin.

But to make this simple, and to offer a “third way” – as a proud pluralist, it’s easy for me to reconcile the way of JIm Belcher, the words of Andy Rowell and the life of David Fitch. And while I hope my career resembles more of Fitch. Assuming he is following the leading of the Holy Spirit, he is allowed to change his mind too. I think what we can gain from Rowell’s article is have we created an unhealthy speaker-writer culture that is unhealthy for our local churches? Regardless of recent departures and personalities, some reform is needed on who we give a mic and pen to.