Why church doesn’t work

Jason Coker has posted thoughtfully about church as we know it. Every once in a while we open our eyes and see. And what we see is so uncomfortable we force our eyes shut again. But what if we kept our eyes open, open long enough to see where our looking would lead. Meig’s post is that kind of post.

I am not endorsing the responses proposed. But I am endorsing the looking and seeing.

A Christian expression that we should give up on

Are you ready? I bet you’ve never heard this one before. “The God of the universe is crazy about you!” This is a description used to advertise the new book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. You would think Max Lucado already beat this phrase to death. But it has nine lives.

This is exactly the kind of expression that John Piper lives to kill. Yes, it is true, gloriously true. But it is true in a certain way, and it’s that certain way that does not get the press it deserves so that the phrase does not turn us into a bunch of spoiled children who whine at the drop of the hat about what we are not getting from God. I like the way Piper phrases it. God obeys the greatest commandment, to love the Lord God with heart, soul, strength and mind. God is not an idolator, setting his affection on that which is not infinitely worthy. Father loves Son, and Son the Father, and the Holy Spirit binds Father and Son together in love. The Father loves us in the Son and our love for the Father does not make us the center of the universe

While there are objections to Piper’s way of expressing this that need careful consideration, Piper has uncovered a stream of evangelical dissatisfaction with spiritual narcissism so rampant in the church. There is a swelling desire to sacrifice, to burn, to risk among us that asks nothing back from God other than the honor of giving all for him. CT Studd is the hero of such a kind of Christian.

Sorry, I can’t read another book that makes me the center of the world. I can’t take being that important.