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Here is an interesting little group of statistics discussed at TWW.

In a recent Time Magazine article some interesting statics were revealed.  In America 16% of people identified themselves as having no religious affiliation in a 2009 survey but only 4% identified themselves as athiests or agnostics.  So 12% of the American population believes in God but does not identify with religion or church.  A little less than half of the unaffiliated (40%) claimed to believe in God, pray and had a desire find the right “religious” home.

Breaking this down with numbers based on the population of the United States of 307 million as of July 2009.

16% unaffiliated would be 49 million people.

4% are athiests or agnostics: 12 million

The unaffiliated spiritual/religious people: 19.6 million.  Of these spiritual people we might guess that 3/4 of the unaffiliated are Christians given than 76% of American identified themselves as Christians.  It is a guess but not an unreasonable one.

That leaves 14.7 million Christian Americans that have given up on institutional church.

If they were a denomination they would be the second largest in America behind the Roman Catholic church with 25.1 million.  The SBC claims to have 16 million members but only 15.8 million American identify as Baptist in general…so their claims are suspicious.

The number of the unaffiliated is growing and has doubled since 1990.

Aris Survey

I love it when people actually talk about principles rather than partisan attacks.

It has been 10 years since my best friend of most of the first half of my life died. It has been over 6 years since I married the person he married and began to help raise his children. I miss Mike in many ways. He was a lot of fun, and if was still around I’m sure that we would still be having a lot of fun. In some ways it is kind of a difficult thing to think about as I have no idea how my life would have turned out if things didn’t happen the way they did.

I was at bible school when Mike died. I received a call from an old friend informing me that Mike had died suddenly. After about 10 minutes of processing the shock I jumped in the car and headed home…next door to where Mike lived. My mind rushed with thoughts of promises made long ago. The situation was subdued when I arrived. Carol and the kids were gone. I sat and chatted with my roommates. It takes a while before the reality of such major events sets in.

That night I walked across the 12 or so feet that separated my door from his and entered their lonely house. We had a key for emergencies and such. I remember sitting on the steps of the stairway experiencing a peace about the whole situation. Little did I know at the time that was the exact spot where Mike took his last few breaths. I remember fondly the times I shared with many of our mutual friends as we cherished our memories of Mike together at the viewing and the funeral. There was lot of great stuff to cherish and remember about Mike. We mourned, we grieved, and we laughed. I have to remember to have a few words with him about how heavy his casket was…just about pulled my shoulder out carrying him on a frosty winter’s day.

I had no idea how much this event would change my life. Carol and I had a on again, off again relationship. We both had baggage to work through and I’m glad we did. Eventually I got through some of my issues and asked her to marry me. As I walked through our relationship things seemed chaotic and irrational, but in retrospect the timing couldn’t have been better.

The challenge of leading this family together is hard enough all on its own. I’m glad we worked through what we had to. Life raising Mike’s kids hasn’t been easy. I’ve often joked that I’ve been reaping what I’ve sown. I used to tease Mike a lot, and it was probably poetic justice that I got to raise his oldest son. There has been incredible blessing even in that. I’m not just spouting of Christianese…for all the grief I’ve endured I am a much better man than I was 5 years ago. Fortunately it is getting easier and our worst fears for David have subsided. Matthew embodies a lot of what was so great about Mike and has many wonderful unique qualities as well. It is stunning sometimes to see both of them reflect different aspects of their father. David mutters under his breath in the exact same way Mike would, kind of like Fred Flintstone would. The boys always enjoy my stories, and I have many, about their father.

I’ve often said that when I reach eternity Mike will be the one to take me on my first tour. I’m pretty sure he would be able to muscle himself up to the front of the line. I won’t be able to avoid a big bear hug either.

Justin nails it.  Although I wish I knew what he said in French.  I don’t believe any of the crap that Justin is a conditional Canadian. 

This latest internet spying bill is really invasive.  Lumping opponents to the bill in with child pornographers is even more disgusting.  We can’t afford to pay seniors but we can afford to build unnecessary jails to hold people and turn them in to better criminals when the crime in Canada continues to decline.

Jamie has reshared a shout out to the men who might respond to John Piper’s recent message on the “masculine flavour” of God.  You can read the full text here.  Mr. Piper contends that God has given Christianity a masculine flavour and defines masculinity this way:

Theology and church and mission are marked by overarching godly male leadership in the spirit of Christ, with an ethos of tender-hearted strength, and contrite courage, and risk-taking decisiveness, and readiness to sacrifice for the sake of leading, protecting, and providing for the community—all of which is possible only through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s the feel of a great, majestic God, who by his redeeming work in Jesus Christ, inclines men to take humble, Christ-exalting initiative, and inclines women to come alongside the men with joyful support, intelligent helpfulness, and fruitful partnership in the work.

As a husband, father, church leader and author I appreciate how God’s desire for me to become fully what I’ve been created to be.  I find common ground with those who find most expressions of church emasculating.  I have to ask the question  where does my definition of masculinity come from?  Is it a sociological category, societal norm, biological expression,  a product of consumer culture or theologically defined.   I just pulled up my bible program, I can’t find the word masculine anywhere.  Trying to define what manhood might be from scripture might be a bit scary if we are ever brave enough to venture in to the Old Testament. 

We know that David told Solomon to be a man (1Ki 2:1-2).   Immediately after this he told Solomon to follow the Torah and to make sure a certain someone met an untimely demise.   In the book of Judges we see someone taunted Gideon to “be a man” and kill them, so he did (Jdg 8:21).  Some aspects of manhood being displayed here have been superseded by Jesus’ instruction and example.

We know the definition of masculinity has changed with our culture.  Over a hundred years ago many baby boys were dressed in pink, because some believed that red was a masculine colour, and masculine lite would have been pink.  Defining Christianity as masculine would force us to define what version of masculinity from what culture. 

Piper’s definition of masculine breaks down this way

• tender hearted strength
• contrite courage
• risk-taking decisiveness
• readiness to sacrifice
• for the sake of leading, protecting, and providing for the community

I could include “spirit of Christ” but that isn’t defined so I’m leaving it out.   You know who Piper’s list reminds me of? Optimus Prime or perhaps Aragorn. When I look at this list I don’t immediately think of Christ or Paul.  The same Christ who willingly walked in to his own slaughter and send his disciples out as lambs among wolves.  The Christ would extoled meekness as a virtue and told men to let others exploit them.  The same Paul who appeared to the Corinthians with weakness, and fear and much trembling (1Cor 2). 

While Jesus was tender hearted, he rarely exhibited strength.  He cleared the temple and he had spoke boldly against the religious establishment, but the lion’s share of his ministry was an expression of gentleness, mercy and grace.  Paul was pushed around a lot.  While certainly ready to sacrifice and was willing to take risks his interactions with the churches had a decidedly gentle tone.

Consider Paul’s words to the Thessalonians:

But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed–God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
(1Th 2:2-8 ESV)

Does Paul sound  masculine or feminine here? 

While it  is true that Jesus was a man and he appointed men as the 12 disciples one could easily argue that such a strategy would have been advantageous given the cultural context. 

Let’s consider Piper’s implied definition of feminine ministry in the church:

• joyful support
• intelligent helpfulness
• fruitful partnership

It sounds a lot like Paul’s approach to ministry.

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
(1Co 3:9 ESV)

But that does not mean we want to dominate you by telling you how to put your faith into practice. We want to work together with you so you will be full of joy, for it is by your own faith that you stand firm.
(2Co 1:24 NLT)

Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.
(Php 1:4-5 NLT)

My read of Paul in particular gives me the impression that many aspects of Christian ministry would be more typically understood as feminine. 

We are all created to experience the fullness of our own humanity.  Men should be what they are designed to be, as should women.  Some of us fit in to nice neat categories but many do not .  True grace and compassion wouldn’t reject people just because they don’t fit in to our nice neat categories.  When we do we miss out on what God has for us.  Thankfully the people of Israel followed Deborah in to battle.  Thankfully the church embraced the Gentiles.  Coming up with inflexible theologies that might even catch some aspects God’s intention for us but codify it in to a rule use to judge and impair the choices of others is not consistent with the gospel of grace.

Some aspects of masculinity are at odds with new covenant ministry.  We normally associate masculinity with strength and strength, whether it be personal, physical, political, or institutional can hinder our ministry.  God’s power is perfected in weakness not strength.  The kingdom is like a seed that grows on its own and we don’t understand why.  As Christians we must acknowledge we are completely dependent on the power of God and our own power gets in the way of that.  The more typically male inclination to use coercive force through rules, judgments, or raw brute strength, especially against perceived competitors is at odds with the gospel.  It leads to moralism and shame. 

That is my big concern with all this masculine chest thumping.  There are many men who aren’t very good men as defined by folks like Piper, Driscoll, and Eldridge.  Insecure men often over compensate through other means like the pursuit of career or ministry success.  Inwardly they are flooded with shame because they know they don’t measure up.  Often that shame is then projected and dispensed to people all around them.  Some churches are just a web of shame.  People trying to live by their own strength living up to an ideal that isn’t realistic for who they are and where they came from.  This striving in their own masculine strength impedes them from coming to know the powerful transformation available to them through God’s strength.

In the tradition of Alan Knox’s series:

Mar 4:33 With many such parables finely crafted three point sermons he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.
Mar 4:34 He did not speak to the church without a parable sermon, but privately to his own inner circle he explained everything his  strategic plans.

Hi there

I’ve been working on a big writing project.  I’m attempting to put my thoughts, ideas and values concerning church ministry in to something that will resemble a book.  I think I’m going to make it a website and publish it as a file one can read on e-readers.  It has been an engaging project for me.  I am very genuinely surprised how much I learn when I study the scriptures.  I have a couple of great software programs that have made the process of research and writing so much easier.

For years I used e-sword and really loved it.  It is a fantastic program and now that the ESV and the Good News Bible are available as free downloads it really doesn’t get any better as free programs go.  Because it is lighter and more agile I still find myself using it when I’m just reading the text and jumping between translations.   I still recommend e-sword over any other program for simple bible study. 

Logos has other advantages.  The sheer abundance of high quality resources puts it well ahead of anything I’ve come across.  While individual modules are more expensive than some other programs the packages provide an incredible discount over paper books.  It is easy to build the library with community pricing.  Before a module is developed they ask people to pledge money in a bid format.  When enough is pledged they develop the resource and those that bid get the resource for the amount that they bid.  So far I’ve picked up a handful of modules this way, most are old, but I now have a library on my computer that I’d be hard pressed to fit in any room in my house.

The ability to drill down in to a passage in unparalleled.   Type in a reference, hit the button the software goes to work for you.  Then you are one or two clicks away from lexicons, commentaries of all sorts, word studies, phrase studies.  What would take a half hour to just assemble in a library you can do in 10 seconds (especially with Solid State Drive and a half decent processor).  There are all sorts of language tools available that go beyond my skills. 

The interface is highly customizable.  There is incredible amount of power that lies in its menus but it takes some time viewing the tutorials to make use of it.

Scrivener is the software I’ve been looking for for my entire life but never really knew what I was looking for.  Take the power and the organizational features of Microsoft OneNote and combine it with a word processor then add features designed explicitly for composing novels, screenplays or intensive academic works.  Combined with dropbox it is extremely powerful solution for composing full length documents of all sorts.  I absolutely love it and it is only $40.  The only thing is lacks is a grammar checker. 

This software enables you to have your most important documents available to you on your desktop, laptop, smartphone and tablet.  It is very helpful to use with a smartphone. It makes transferring files quick and easy. 

I came across this video on facebook.  In it the preacher tells young single men to “grow a pair” and be more masculine when relating to women.  In one part he even makes fun of someone he ministers to in his message for not being manly enough.

Yesterday I was talking with someone else about a famous quip made by another famous preacher in which he proclaimed that he couldn’t worship someone he could beat up.  Sad to say the person he claims to worship let himself get beat up and instructed other men to turn the other cheek and follow his example.  Indeed many of them did. 

Can you imagine one of these uber-masculine folks ever say the following?:

“As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.”

That was Paul in 1Thessalonians.

If we are truly following God what should that look like?

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
(Gal 5:22-23 NLT)

What?  Where is toughness, bravado, decisiveness, aggressiveness, assertiveness, boldness, or strength?

How then did Paul and his contemporaries manage to turn the Roman world upside down?

For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.
(2Co 4:6-11 NLT)

What do we see here?  Fragility, pressed on every side, perplexed, hunted down, knocked down, and suffering.  But despite the very real apparent weaknesses they were never destroyed, driven to despair or crushed.  Why?  They had a power inside them that sustained them.  The weaker they were the more God’s power was observed and the more people came to faith in the same power.

That isn’t to say that Paul wasn’t willing to take risks, even bold ones.  That certainly looks masculine.  He put himself at risk because of his faith in God, not faith in his own ability.  The courage he had wasn’t source in self-reliance or personal toughness it was the divinely imparted confidence he had that he would never be abandoned. 

I think there is there is room for masculinity in the Christian faith but it doesn’t manifest itself through pride, bravado or anger.  A truly secure man is at peace inside and isn’t threatened by other opinions or being wrong.  A truly secure man has self-control and integrity and will stand steadfastly for what he believes in.  He will be a true friend to the disadvantaged.   A truly masculine man doesn’t need the leverage of oppressive gender roles that disenfranchise or limit the potential of women.  Why?  Because he is not afraid.

I don’t know the heart of the two guys I referenced in this post but I think that some of these uber-masculine guys get angry at less masculine guys because they perceive a weakness they hate in themselves.   They project masculinity in order compensate for their own weakness.  Instead of accepting their own weaknesses they shame themselves in to pseudo-strength and try to do the same to others.  Many of them aren’t brave at all. They will fight you but only when they have a steep advantage.  They will leverage the pulpit or their organization in order to intimidate.  They might face you, but only after they have stacked the deck in their favour.  Why?  Because they are cowards.

I believe that we could make room for men to be men in the church.  I don’t see how walking in to a crowded room of 1000 people to idolize some preacher with a tattoo making vulgar comments about his sexual prowess changes that.

From Wikipedia

Einstein had previously explored the belief that man could not understand the nature of God. In an interview published in 1930 in G. S. Viereck‘s book Glimpses of the Great, Einstein explained:

“I’m not an atheist. I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza‘s pantheism, but admire even more his contribution to modern thought because he is the first philosopher to deal with the soul and body as one, and not two separate things.^[6]”

In a 1950 letter to M. Berkowitz, Einstein stated that "My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment."^[14] Author Anthony Alioto has referred to Einstein as an "agnostic theist"^[15] sometimes called a form of deism or panentheism.

According to biographer Walter Isaacson, Einstein was more inclined to denigrate disbelievers than the faithful.^[16] "The fanatical atheists," Einstein said in correspondence, "are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who—in their grudge against traditional religion as the ‘opium of the masses‘—cannot hear the music of the spheres."^[16][17] Although he did not believe in a personal God, he indicated that he would never seek to combat such belief because "such a belief seems to me preferable to the lack of any transcendental outlook."^[18]

The problem I have with fundamentalism whether it be religious or Atheistic is that there is no room for doubt or mystery.  There is no acknowledgement of the readily apparent finiteness of human perception and human experience.