12 August 2009

Be a Team Captain instead of the Coach

One of my favorite things to do is spend time on a soccer field. Many of my best memories from college were spending time on the soccer field with a group of guys (and occasionally gals) who spent tons of time together. I don’t have the opportunity to play like I used to in college. Now, I coach a group of six and seven year olds.

Last week during practice, I (along with another coach) were trying to instruct the kids on various techniques and skills. We asked the kids questions and invariably my son knew the answers. On a side note, he is a very smart kid and seems to gravitate toward anything I’m remotely interested. After answering questions, he would try to tell the kids what to do. He was trying to be a coach. After practice, we sat down on the side of the field. As we removed our cleats and changed into regular shoes I asked my son, “Do you know what a captain does on a soccer team?”

I think he knew where I was going (and he remembered a previous talk) because he rattled off a few things a team captain does:
  • Plays as hard as they can

  • Does their best

  • Encourages their teammates

I wonder, “how often in life do we do the same things my son was doing on the soccer field?” How often do we try to become the coach? Why do we act like we are the only people who can do something?

Now I realize there are dangers in comparing God to a “coach” and I don’t want to take that metaphor too far, yet at the same time, would we do better if we acted less like a coach and more like a team captain?

What does life look like when we trust that God’s Holy Spirit is active in the lives of others? What does “playing as hard as we can” look like in life? How do we encourage others? Finally, how is that kind of living the kind of living that lines us up with the mission of God in the world to reconcile all persons to Gods own self?

11 August 2009

Index to the Review of the Concerened Nazarene's DVD

Given the fact that the review I posted of the Concerned Nazarenes' DVD was posted in five separate parts, I wanted to provide a post that would give users easy sequential access to the information. Below you will find links to each of the five posts. The entire review was written by Ryan Scott and provides helpful information and what seem to me to be valid critiques and concerns without resorting to personal attacks or diatribes.
  1. Introduction and Chapter 1 of the DVD
  2. Chapter 2 and 3 of the DVD
  3. Chapter 4 of the DVD
  4. Chapter 5 of the DVD
  5. General Critiques and Final Conclusions

07 August 2009

Review of the Concerned Nazarenes DVD (Part 5)

This is the final post in a five part series. This post is a continuation of the review of the Concerned Nazarene's DVD. The first post can be found here.

By Ryan Scott
General Critiques
  1. There was almost no mention of the Church of the Nazarene.
    If this is truly a DVD intending to speak to the Church of the Nazarene there should be more specific references. Using non-Nazarene speakers who spend a great deal of time disparaging and rebutting standard Wesleyan Holiness theology is not helpful to the cause.
  2. There was a distinct de-emphasis on Christ in favor of an over-emphasis on scripture.
    The phrase, “the power of God is in the gospel,” was used with the explanation that the words and understanding the words are the most important thing. This elevates scripture to a position of power and authority over and above Christ himself. This gives too much credence to the words of scripture and particularly to our own interpretation of scripture. While scripture is the most important means of revelation and interpretation, Wesleyans hold that scripture is not the exclusive means, along with reason, experience, and the tradition of the Church. The speakers on this DVD kept saying that experience must be tested by scripture, which is quite true, but they seem unable to believe that someone would come to a different conclusion than they have made.
  3. There is an assumption that Christians cannot be discerning.
    Time and again the speakers talked of conspiracies and manipulations with the assumption that Christians would be powerless to understand when they were being told something outside of their own beliefs or tradition. Surely there are people who can be tricked and led astray, but this DVD acts as if this is the normal position of Christians.
  4. There was a combative, ungraceful posture to the overall design of the DVD.
    This critique applies specifically to the inclusion of Jon Middendorf’s name on the back cover of the DVD. Middendorf has been repeatedly attacked by name in a number of places by the Concerned Nazarenes. Christian disagreement is a practice of engagement and dialogue, not isolation and attack. The very brief coverage of Middendorf’s out of context statements does not warrant the prominence of his name.
  5. Much of the arguments were based on illogical conclusions.
    The speakers demonstrated that some very liberal people, well outside the realm of orthodoxy, used specific buzzwords and then made the assumption that anyone who would use these same words must be as liberal and heretical as the first person. This is just not a sound logical leap. This guilt by association technique has gotten us in trouble countless times over the years. In his final conclusion, Sandy Simpson pointed out that while the emerging leaders have some good things to say, they also have some troublesome things to say. For him this meant throwing out the good with the bad, because Satan often sneaks the good in with the bad to deceive us. If this logic were extended, we would all have to be in perfect agreement all the time to respect each other’s opinion on anything.

Final Conclusions

As you can see, the fifth chapter is the one which got under my skin a little more than the rest. I appreciate the efforts of the Concerned Nazarenes to get these statements and opinions out to the public. I hope that they will take up opportunities to speak with other Nazarenes about why we disagree in some of these areas. While I have not read every book to which they refer, nearly every book they referenced that I have read was misrepresented in the DVD. This takes away from the credibility of the speakers. They often accused the emerging leaders of setting up straw men to knock down; this is probably true, but no different than the straw man arguments used in this DVD.

Perhaps the most troubling element of the DVD for me was the introduction. While it is relatively harmless upon first viewing, it is disheartening in light of the content of the DVD. I admit that Rev. Beverly Turner has every right to be upset with some of the contents; she should feel comfortable and secure in expressing her doubts about specific practices and beliefs, but to have an ordained elder endorsing a DVD that devotes so much of its content to contradicting traditional Nazarene doctrines and belief is very sad. I think we all would have been better off with a Concerned Nazarenes DVD that took a truly Nazarene perspective.

I do believe that there are legitimate differences that continue to need dialogue and discussion. Many contemporary issues, both practical and theological, require sound discernment and study with contributions from a range of sources and perspectives. I will not defend Brian McLaren or anyone else’s opinion on individual matters, but I do wish to stand up in favor of fair and honest engagement, rather than suspicious attacks. Without genuine unity and care for each other nothing will be resolved.

06 August 2009

Review of the Concerned Nazarenes DVD (Part 4)

This is the fourth post in a five part series. This post is a continuation of the review of the Concerned Nazarene's DVD. The first post can be found here.
By Ryan Scott
Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was an interview with Sandy Simpson, a missionary and author, again about McLaren and the emerging church, but also specifically about diaprax, which he described as an intentional manipulative means of getting someone to believe one’s own opinion and think that they came up with it themselves. This, he claimed, was what emergent leaders were secretly doing when they held dialogues or conferences. They had audio clips that purportedly showed McLaren doing this, although they did not play them. Simpson also commented that during his workshops, McLaren would have people break into groups to discuss for themselves, but he always had spies at work to make sure the groups moved in the direction the speaker wanted them to move.

This interview contained a lot of eye rolling and obvious disparagement. Simpson was obviously quite upset about these wrongs and blamed the emerging church for the failure of traditional mission work. He claimed McLaren coined the term “missional” in the 1990’s to describe the attempt by emerging leaders to change the focus of Christian life from winning souls to fixing the planet. Simpson also said that while emerging leaders did have legitimate critiques of the Church, they also had a lot of troubling things to say including solutions that would bring about the antichrist and a one world government at the end of time (there was a veiled reference to President Obama here as well).

This chapter contained few, if any positive attributes and, in my opinion, damaged the value of the DVD as a whole. Simpson certainly seemed genuine, even if he acted less professional and respectful than the other speakers. He seemed more knowledgeable and prepared than other speakers, at least on the wide variety of topics covered, however, he was ungracious and condescending and the charges of intentional manipulation seem a bit far fetched.

Many of the complaints he made about emerging leaders were so general that they could have equally applied to his own interview on this DVD. When speaking about persuasive techniques it is easy to make them sound manipulative (as in a sense, all human attempts at persuasion are, in essence, manipulative). There were also some troubling statements presented as fact. For example, the term “Missional” has been around for nearly 100 years and refers most often to the idea of prevenient grace expounded above. Also, I attended one of McLaren’s conferences and the statement about “spies” certainly did not apply there (unless he had secretly co-opted two local pastor friends of mine or their spouses). Many of the general critiques of the whole DVD listed below apply particularly to chapter 5 as well.

05 August 2009

Review of the Concerned Nazarenes DVD (Part 3)

This is the third post in a five part series. This post is a continuation of the review of the Concerned Nazarene's DVD. The first post can be found here.
By Ryan Scott
Chapter 4

Chapter 4 was an interview with Mike Oppenheimer, another author and former New Age practitioner. His comments were very pragmatic in nature. This was perhaps the least well produced segment. Oppenheimer wasn’t that comfortable on camera and perhaps that nervousness led him to appear a little less together. He spoke of his conversion from New Age practices and the dangers these pose for the Church. He also spoke about how many of the things he sees and hears from emergent leaders come from the New Age literature he used to read.

This segment touched on Jon Middendorf, which was the only connection in the entire DVD to the Church of the Nazarene (aside from the short introduction). Oppenheimer mentioned he had seen or heard a few clips from Jon’s workshop at M7 and they had some audio from a podcast where Jon was speaking with Greg Horton, although Horton did all the talking. Oppenheimer commented on two statements he connected with Middendorf, one a quote from the M7 conference where Jon said, “An emerging congregation embraces the culture and expects to find God there,” and the other a comment made by Horton on the podcast that too many Christians think there was a time when people actually lived according to the Mosaic Law.

Oppenheimer was passionate and given his background as, essentially, a pawn manipulated by the New Age movement, he is rightly concerned in keeping others from the same fate. It is difficult to fault someone for such strong feelings when they have such an emotional connection. At the same time, one with such an intense connection often has difficulty gaining proper perspective to truly evaluate those experiences.

At one point Oppenheimer spoke of moving from yoga to vegetarianism to a religious sect that was essentially Satanist. He spoke as if this was a natural movement. It might be without some other accountability procedure, but it is difficult to say that it is automatic transition. He gave lip service to the idea that people could practice yoga without incorporating Hinduism into the practice, but he was unwilling to say it was possible. Again, it seemed like his personal involvement clouded his ability to judge the involvement of others in some of the same practices.

As for his dealings with Jon Middendorf, it was pretty apparent that he had little actual knowledge of who the man was and had only been given some clips on which to comment. He read almost exclusively from a note pad during this part of the interview. He also misinterpreted the statements that were used.

In the quote, “An emerging congregation embraces the culture and expects to find God there,” Oppenheimer rebutted that we should never look for God in the world around us, but find God in scripture. I agree, in principle, with the rebuttal, however perhaps the lack of context made it more difficult for Oppenheimer to understand Middendorf’s point.

I was in attendance at this conference and participated in this particular workshop. Jon was referring to prevenient grace, in that God is always at work everywhere, so when Christians get out into the world, they expect to see God already at work in some way, even if the gospel still needs to be proclaimed or light shown on those places in which God is already at work. This concept of prevenient grace is traditional Wesleyan theology. It would have been heartily affirmed by any of the founders of the Church of the Nazarene.

The second comment, that no one ever actually lived according to the law of Moses was made not by Jon, but by Greg Horton. Jon Middendorf has taken a lot of heat for befriending Horton, an intellectual who has strayed in and out of orthodoxy in his beliefs. Regardless, even in this point, Horton was simply trying to communicate that even the Jews could not live up to the Law of Moses. Oppenheimer made the same point in his rebuttal; this was again a place of mistaken context.

04 August 2009

Review of the Concerned Nazarenes DVD (Part 2)

This is the second post in a five part series. This post is a continuation of the review of the Concerned Nazarene's DVD. The first post can be found here.
by Ryan Scott
Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is an interview with Ray Yungen (books by this author on Amazon.com)who is an author skeptical of contemplative prayer and meditation, specifically the movement birthed by Thomas Merton and the writings of Richard Foster. There was extensive discussion of mantras, chanting, and the influence of eastern mystical religions upon Christian meditation and contemplative prayer.

Yungen, like Gilley, presents a relatively professional and kind demeanor in his presentation. He points out many of the extreme positions and conclusions one can legitimately reach from unabashed adherence to some of these practices. I’ve never been a big fan of such emotionally driven contemplative prayer, especially in the extreme form characterized here, so I resonated quite thoroughly with the cautions provided. There are dangers in taking any practice to an extreme conclusion.

Also like Gilley, very little attention was paid to moderate positions or the very real influence of our Christian past on current contemplative practices. Here he seemed to be throwing out tradition as a source of interpretation and understanding. I think he rightly points out that one can lose a spiritual center when experience and emotion play too large a role in one’s life, yet at the same time, comparing the rosary to Hindu chanting seems a step too far.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is an interview with Johanna Michaelsen (Books by this author on Amazon.com), who was formerly involved in New Age practices and was converted to Christianity from that lifestyle. She’s written extensively on the dangers of New Age teaching. This interview dealt specifically with the occult and how spiritual warfare is engaged through these practices. I am not all that big on demons and such, even as I recognize the reality and depth of other people’s experiences on the matter. I am not in a position to comment on this section either way.

03 August 2009

Review of the Concerned Nazarenes DVD (Part 1)

A friend of mine recently posted a review of the Concerned Nazarene's DVD. This week, I'll be posting each day one section of the review. This review initially appeared at Naznet. The author has edited the review a bit from the initial posting to clean up typos and such. I've been working too much to watch the DVD so I'll share his insights with you. This is the first post in a five part series.
By Ryan Scott
I spent a few hours recently viewing “The Emerging Church,” a DVD provided by the group, Concerned Nazarenes, across the street from the recent General Assembly. This DVD is a series of interviews with pastors and authors concerning really three distinct topics, Brian McLaren and his Emergent movement, contemplative prayer, and New Age practices. Out of respect for the great effort and expense exercised in the production of this product and because of a commitment to Christian unity and dialogue, this review is an attempt to be even-handed and positive embracing the value of the DVD and also challenging some aspects from a Nazarene perspective. I do not wish to disrespect the fervor and passion of the Concerned Nazarenes; these are fellow Christians with legitimate concerns about the course of the denomination. The worst thing that can be done is to react dismissively or defensively. In that vein, I will highlight each section with a brief summary, followed by comments specific critiques.

After a brief opening, viewers are greeted by Rev. Beverly Turner, an experienced evangelist and ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene, who explains the problems inherent in the emerging church movement and the problems they will bring to our treasured denomination. In these few minutes, Turner presents a calm and concerned demeanor; she very passionately believes that the emerging church may be the end of the Church of the Nazarene.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 is an interview with Pastor Gary Gilley (no biographical information is provided for any of the speakers). This chapter deals mainly with Brian McLaren and other emergent leaders, focusing primarily on theology. The most common theme is Gilley’s explanation of specifically how the emergent leaders desire to throw away all doctrine and focus Christian life on fixing the world in our own power. The main charge is that the emerging church seeks to repeat the mistakes and continued failures of the late 19th century liberal theology movement.

Gilley does well in hitting the heart of nearly every extreme statement made by a liberal outspoken proponent of many of McLaren’s ideas. This chapter is spot on in naming and refuting some of the troubling beliefs and teachings at the fringes of the emerging movement. He is never condescending or dismissive, even as the interviewer tends to be on occasion. Pastor Gilley handles his presentation in a very professional manner. He presents his viewpoints clearly and concisely. The quotes from various authors have been interpreted in more extreme and different ways than I have interpreted the same passages (for the books I have read), but that is hardly a matter of fact. McLaren often leaves his statements extremely open ended, which allows for any number of understandings. Gilley is good to remind us that no one person or system of belief should be accepted without digestion; this is a sentiment shared by McLaren and often stated publicly, even in reference to himself.

My biggest critique of the chapter itself is simply that it failed to recognize or address the fact that the concerns presented deal only with the extreme fringes of people speaking in favor of the ideas of the emergent proponents. There are certainly a number of issues (heaven, atonement, salvation, ecclesiology, etc) in which some voices have moved beyond orthodox positions. However, in those same doctrinal areas, the emerging church presents legitimate, orthodox alternative views, which should rightly be discussed; this does not happen.

By far the majority of the objections in chapter 1 (probably 60% or more) were simply a defense of reformed theology. Many of these were entirely counter to traditional Nazarene beliefs that could be seen in the Manual Articles of Faith all the way back to the beginning of the denomination. One example of this was when Gilley described an emergent understanding of salvation as being “opt-out,” that is God’s saving action of the cross provided salvation for all and only when one chooses to deny that grace are they removed from its covering. This is the classic Wesleyan understanding of salvation, which is only an affront to Gilley because of his belief in limited atonement (that Christ died only for those who would ultimately believe).

My thoughts on chapter 1 are simply, that it presented astute critiques of the theological excesses of the emerging movement, even if it may have mischaracterized some of Brian McLaren’s quotes, but the vast majority of the time was spent directly refuting classic Wesleyan principles, which have formed the Church of the Nazarene from the beginning.