Friday, March 23, 2007

Of Pastors and Heresy

I thought about titling this entry "Anything you write can and will be used against you..." I've been contemplating authority and openness. A couple of my pastors now follow my blog (at least casually), and I've thinking about the implications.

One of result is this: It's an awful lot harder get away with heresy. And in general, I think this consequence is a good thing. I know, I know, America has stereotypes of leaders being evil men (and women) who can't wait to use their power for evil. How many admirals in Star Trek were ever good guys? (Kirk was demoted back to captain...) Even the beloved Twenty-Four doesn't exactly overwhelm us with good high-ranking officials.

But the absence of authority does not prevent evil - it merely leads to other evils. For example, if we had no environmental laws, how many corporations would be ecologically friendly? Child labor laws are the result of children's work conditions. Anti-theft laws are the result of stealing. And so forth. I'm not claiming that all power is used for good, but that we (I) often underestimate the legitimate good use of power.

I see leaders restraining evil -- appropriately -- as a GoodThing(tm). It's a GoodThing for my pastors to know how I communicate - both content and tone. It's good for them to be able to say "I know you want to teach a church class, but you really need to work on your attitude toward Apple and iMacs. Your writing just doesn't reflect the tone and awe toward them that we feel is vital in teachers." (For those of you not familiar with my church, a significant fraction of our staff and leaders are Apple fanatics.) It's good for the pastors to know the people they are giving responsibility to. It's good for them to know people's doctrine, heart, character, and such.

That said, real openness toward church leadership is hard, especially when one aspires to lead. It's easier to settle for a fake openness that doesn't seem too wicked, too evil, or too corrupt than to genuinely own up to one's beliefs/attitudes/character and see how leadership responds.

It's harder still to accept negative responses from leadership, such as "We're sorry; we don't think you're ready for that responsibility." Rejection, err, constructive criticism is harder still when one thinks leadership's reasons are garbage. Been there, done that. Sometimes leadership is right and I didn't see it. Usually I was right. (Okay, maybe not. But more right than not.)

But the really tough question is this: Do I trust God to work through leadership, even when I think they are making the wrong decisions for the wrong reasons? I'm not talking about really important decisions like "What is the gospel?" but just the "minor" day-to-day decisions that appear to impact me. Do I think God is bigger than the authorities in my life? And do I think he works more powerfully when I faithfully serve under my leaders, or when I work around my leaders?

[Disclaimers: Happily, I haven't had any major clashes with leadership lately. It makes writing this much, much easier. Often I think of these important topics when I'm going through the trial, and it's tough to write about while doing justice to all parties. But I have had my fair share of clashes with various authorities. In many clashes, I've decided much later that leadership was right. There's a few I'm still pretty certain I was right about, and it's been a huge challenge to trust that God sees and guides. And there's a handful where I'm not clear who was right.

I also don't intend this post to suggest that leadership should always be followed, or that advice is the equivalent to command, or that one should stay under abusive leadership. I'm thinking more about day-to-day living, not the "What should I do if my demon-troubled king starts hurling spears at me?" question.]

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Bits N Pieces

So I don't have much to say about my absence from the blog-o-sphere, other than, well, that's life. I've had a number of deeply encouraging interactions with friends over the last couple weeks, which is perhaps a bit scary given that my girlfriend is out of town for half of that time.

It's weird - I don't exactly have more time with her gone. In some sense I do, and yet I to have an elastic schedule which expands to fill whatever time I have. I heard a teaching once about time management like filling a jar: If one first puts in the big rocks, then the small rocks, then the sand, and then the water, then it's easy to pack the jar full. But if one starts with sand, it's hard to get the bigger rocks (e.g priorities) into one's schedule. Maybe this elastic experience means I'm doing a good job of time management.

I'm also trying a new experiment with an MP3 bible and iPod shuffle that I own to try and get through the minor prophets. I've always had a hard time reading through the prophets, mostly because the action seems very slow. I've also never been a strong poetic reader - as much as I dabble at writing it - and that may not help. So I'm trying to listen to them several times and seeing if that helps my comprehension. The jury is still out on that, but I can now summarize Nahum. I don't exactly get why a three chapter explanation of God shaming and annihilating Nineveh makes the Bible while other oracles don't, but I can at least summarize Nahum. I've also made a mental note that God's anger is very, very scary.

(I've also been contemplating how impervious Nineveh seemed, and how easy it is for me to think America is untouchable. There's been a handful of recent occurrences - such as Katrina and the TV show Jericho - that have reminded me that God wouldn't have any trouble wiping out America if he set his mind to it. Nahum is another such reminded. It's sobering that all of our technology, wealth, and civilization is meaningless against the intentions of God.)

One of these days I'll get back to blogging about my reading, but for now, here's an interesting survey on modesty. It looks at how guys answered lots of different questions about how women's attire and posture communicated to them. The Al-scientist likes data, and it's interesting how guys answered the questions. As modesty tends to be a hot topic, I should probably put lots of theological disclaimers on the survey like "Popular opinion doesn't make right" and "Just because some guys are offended doesn't mean don't wear it", but maybe I'll just stick with this disclaimer: "Caution: Hot topic. Use common sense, wisdom, and godly counsel."

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Choose Wisely...

For once, I have more blog topics than I care to bore my readers with. So my thoughts on the first two chapters of The Lamb's Supper will be postponed. I also will skip my thoughts on my proposed presidential campaign theme.

I spent most of today reading Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View by Gary Friesen. Oh, that didn't say much about it? Alright, the gist of the book is that God doesn't have an individual will for our lives. Instead we're called to obey God in what he commands, and live wisely by his principles in our choices. But Friesen argues that there's no "one right choice" to our decisions when there isn't a clear command. The author's four point summary of his points is:
  1. Where God commands, we must obey.
  2. Where there is no command, God gives us freedom (and responsibility) to choose.
  3. Where there is no command, God gives us wisdom to choose.
  4. When we have chosen what is moral and wise, we must trust the sovereign God to work all the details together for good.
His points aren't entirely revolutionary for me, but I tend to have strong "there is one exact choice" leanings. Friesen does a good job looking at how the Bible discusses decision making and how that differs from the typical American (evangelical protestant Christian?) view of God having a precise knowable will for each and every one of us. So that's my summary of 500 pages, much of which is spent discussing various Biblical texts.

For example, I'm looking for housing and a roommate. At the moment, I have no supernatural revelation from God about where to live - or with him. I have a few commands about what not to do (e.g. moving in with girlfriend = BadIdea). And then there's a collection of desires about what I'd like in my housing situation
  • Warm, dry, safe place to live
  • Place where I can host activities and have guests over
  • Cheap (economical) housing
  • Affordable housing
  • Somewhere near my work, church, and friends
  • Quiet relaxing environment
  • Financially stable roommates
  • Roommates who share my values
  • Trustworthy roommates (e.g. won't steal my stuff)
  • etc.
Many of these desires are based on biblical commands or principles. For example, affordable housing is based on the principle of living within my means. Cheap housing is based on my preference of saving money. But that preference can conflict with other values, for example, living near other friends, or having warm dry apartment, or living near work and friends.

Likewise, there's trade-offs in my selection of roommates. For example, do I prioritize hospitable roommates or ones who can consistently pay rents? If my roommates also value hospitality, then is it realistic to have a quiet relaxing environment?

The traditional view is that there is one right choice for my housing situation, and that if I seek God appropriately, that choice will become clear. The view Friesen supports is that I'm to determine values and trade-offs (e.g. hospitality, frugality, location, etc.) and make a decision (assuming, of course, I'm not violating any clear commands from God, such as "Gophers are evil.")

Thoughts?