NeoZine

Chaos suddenly flared across Europe, tearing apart the fragile coalitions of the Holy Roman Empire, the "Protector of the Church." This was bad timing, because Muslim Turks were marching into the soft underbelly of Europe and advancing to the heart of the Empire.

Europeans were romantic and hopeful about their Holy Roman Empire. It was the rebirth of ancient Rome and Europe's best hope for holding back the invasions of Muslims equally bent on world domination. When Charles V (1519–1558) came to power, he wore the crowns of Spain, Austria and Germany, which could finally unify most of Europe under church rule.

Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire - the verge of greatness, until Luther's 'protests'.

But a crazy monk messed it up early one frosty morning in 1517 with a hammer, a nail, and a handwritten list of "protests" against local abuses by church authorities. As he tapped the nail he had no idea his protests would expose deep fractures lying beneath the glossy surface of the HRE.

His complaints became a movement defying the Vatican's monopoly on Christianity. It was infectious and flashed across Europe, triggering religious confusion, chaos in revered social structures, riots and wars. The armies of Charles V were preoccupied with the invading Turks and could do little to quash the Protestant Reformation for years, and then it was too popular and unstoppable.

Luther's Mess

Martin Luther was the guilty monk, but he never meant to plunge Europe into a revolution that rocked dynasties, but it happened anyway when he posted a Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (he was long-winded). Today we call it The 95 Theses. It was an endless list of Luther's "protests" against Indulgences: a growing practice of the church not dissimilar from mob racketeering!

Flag of the Holy Roman Empire, or 'the Christian flag'. Crusader flag - more square.

The 'Christian flag' today - some Christian schools force kids to pledge allegiance to it.

By paying the church an Indulgence, peasants could free their dead relatives from the tortures of Purgatory. This practice grew so widespread it became a major stream of revenue for building St. Peter's Basilica.

the beneficiary of indulgences

With such monies at stake, it is not surprising that the Holy Roman Empire was desperate to throw enormous energies and armies to stamp out Lutheranism, but it was not easy.

Brave Beginnings

The achievements of early Reformers like Martin Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Melachthon were extraordinary. They were courageous men breaking away from superstitious dogma fermenting for a millennium in dark pockets of the Middle Ages.

When Roman Emperor Constantine seized control of the church in 383 AD, Christianity required major surgery to function as a branch of government. The greatest need was to establish and modify an "official" version of Christianity, so the decrees of the Pontifex Maximus¹ (Pontiff) gained equal standing with the Bible.²

By Luther's time it was called The Holy Roman Empire, and it dominated most of Europe. Today's Catholic church bears little resemblance to this product of the Middle Ages. Catholic and Protestant historians largely agree it was corrupt, fantastically wealthy, and a fat bureaucracy in pursuit of conquest.

Luther's "protest" was dangerous, but not uncommon. Calls for church reform were increasing across the empire. But the pressure to unify Europe under Charles V and fight Turkish invasions greatly reduced tolerance for dissent at this time.

This whole affair is so foreign to modern Americans because we enjoy the separation of church and state. Columbus "sailed the ocean blue in 1492" just before the Reformation exploded, so his discoveries opened escape routes for large numbers of Europeans fleeing religious persecution. This is the reason why the American Constitution was the first attempt in history to separate the church from state. In 1776 it was radical, but in the 1500s the separation was unthinkable.

Europe was emerging from feudalism in the 16th century, and society was ordered by strict customs. Protestants were disturbing the social order, not merely raising questions of faith, so they were branded enemies of the state and suffered terrible persecution.

But persecution only spread the rebellion as people fled one jurisdiction for another. A newfangled invention by Gutenberg also enabled Protestant refugees to bring along Luther's new German-language Bibles. Suddenly people could see and discuss the book which only church authorities were allowed to read, and it became immediately clear why the book was controlled so tightly: many popular beliefs were not in the Bible, or contradicted by it. Soon monks, priests, bishops and masses of peasants joined the movement.

Just as the monarchs and church warned, chaos erupted as church authority was questioned.

Five Solas

The Vatican demanded that Luther and his sympathizers either recant and retract their protests, or become excommunicated. This was a serious threat, since the church could make life like hell not only on earth, but for all eternity, too! Since the church owned the keys to heaven and hell, Luther was anathematized by excommunication, meaning he was damned to hell!³

The Reformers united under "Five Solas" against the Roman Catholic church, and these became the first clear divisions between Catholics and Protestants:⁴

• Faith alone (Sola Fide) - Justification (that is, becoming right before God) comes through faith only, not good works.
• Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura) - The Bible is the only inspired and authoritative Word of God and is accessible to all. This is "the formal cause of the Reformation because it was the underlying cause of disagreement" in the Reformation.
• Christ alone (Solus Christus) - Christ is the exclusive mediator between God and man, not Mary, the saints, or priests.
• Grace alone (Sola Gratia) - Salvation comes by grace only, not through any merit on the part of the sinner.
• Glory to God alone (Soli Deo Gloria) - "The Reformers believed that human beings (such as the Catholic saints and popes) and their organizations (the Church) were not worthy of the glory that was bestowed on them."

The Solas were bold, rebellious claims. A large body of authority and official church practices were supported by these pillars of Medieval Christianity attacked by the Protestants.

Everyone who comes to know Jesus as their personal savior today must be deeply indebted to the early Reformers and their success at resurrecting biblical Christianity. The Solas became the bedrock of classic Reformed theology and still distinguish between Protestant and Catholic views today.⁵

The Visible Church

The Solas were great strides toward biblical Christianity, but more strange beliefs from the Middle Ages remained which the early Reformation retained. The Visible Church was a big one retained by Reformed theology.

The Visible Church concept justified the Vatican's claim on divine privilege to rule the earth. It teaches that the organized institution headquartered in Rome is the only true church on earth, and it will eventually establish the reign of Christ on earth as Revelation 19 describes: the so-called "The Millennial Reign of Christ." Reformed theology simply moved the Visible Church from Rome to their native countries where Protestants retained a close relationship between church and state authorities.⁶

A thousand years earlier Augustine wrote The City of God in which he formulated the Visible Church to help Christians deal with the shock of the fall of Rome. Terror gripped the Roman Empire when Goths sacked the great city:

Since Rome had been undisputed queen of civilization for a millennium, her fall shocked the ancient world. As [church leader] Jerome put it, “The whole world perished in one city.” Josef Pieper notes, “To Augustine himself and to all with whom he dealt, Rome was nothing less than the symbol of order in the world.” ...Augustine’s answer was The City of God. - Christian History & Biography

In the City of God Augustine wrote about a hopeful future for Christianity: it is not dependant on the Roman empire, but God's authority. This is clearly a biblical position. But Augustine went further and reasoned that the Visible Church was God's earthly kingdom which will last forever.

This would all be very abstract except that Emperor Constantine turned Christianity into a state-run institution. As outcasts in the empire, Christians gathered in simple groups that shared spiritual life and God's love. But once legalized, this simple "fellowship" became an institution called "church" with military, money and power. ⁷ This institution of the church gained more authority and power when Augustine identified the Visible Church as God's Kingdom on earth.

The Dark Ages plunged Europe into social chaos, but the church organization survived and became the center of civilization and learning for 1,000 years. It seemed that Augustine's Visible Church was indeed God's earthly kingdom because it endured and grew into a monolithic Holy Roman Empire.

Visible Atrocities

By Luther's time the Visible Church had the power to grant salvation or damnation, gather armies, and was intimately tied to state authority.⁸ It maintained an iron grip over people's lives, often with cruelty and great military power.

It is mistaken to think the teachings of Christianity caused the horrors perpetrated in that era. The Spanish Inquisition and so many other atrocities were initiated and sustained by human governments subjugating their populace and expanding territory. Tyrannical governments like monarchies, oligarchies, and eve the dictatorships in our modern era are especially cruel, but democracies can also be cruel, as American Indians and African Americans know.

Monarchies controlled everything during the feudalism of the Middle Ages, including the Visible Church, and great atrocities were perpetrated by the state-owned Visible Church. Augustine was brilliant, but The City of God exposed Christians to government control and transferred God's authority to human-engineered institutions. It was common for monarchs to give high positions of church authority to cronies and relatives, irregardless of belief.

Bad ideas like the Visible Church arise when Christianity strays too far from the authority of God's Word. The Bible in fact teaches against a Visible Church. God's kingdom is invisible and spiritual, according to Jesus:

Pilate summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." John 18:33,36

Anyone who claims that Jesus Christ established an earthly kingdom is somehow overlooking one of the clear teachings of the New Testament.⁹

The Visible Protestant Church

Why would Protestant leaders continue to embrace a philosopher's concept of the Visible Church? If the Bible taught otherwise, why did it transfer to Reformed theology?

The answer is found in one word: Anabaptists. They were the most feared threat to arise from the Protestant movement.

European monarchies were initially thrilled by the opportunity to relocate church power to their own locality. King Henry VIII of England is a famous example of a monarch who leveraged the Reformation for his own political gain. These political favors were not unwelcome to leaders of the Reformation, because they enjoyed abundant protection from local, ambitious fiefdoms. This was especially helpful to Luther, who worked in safety among the "German princes" for most of his life.

But Anabaptists threatened this new social order. Their name came from "baptizing again" church members already baptized as infants. Anabaptists claimed that only adults could make the decision to be saved by Jesus Christ, so adults who made this decision were baptized as Jesus instructed (Mt. 28:18ff).

This was more than a dispute over rituals: it was sedition. The state church needed all citizens to be "Christian," which meant Christianity-at-birth, not later. Especially in wars against Muslims, the battlefield is no place to ask, "Am I a Christian yet?" Infant baptism settled the issue, and battlefield generals wanted it that way.

But more seditious was the Anabaptist teaching that Jesus Christ was the only head of the church, not any human authority. They denied the vast spiritual authority assigned to the Visible Church, and this clearly alienated any monarchy that might support Protestants. Monarchs controlled a Visible Church with authority over ignorant peasants, but Anabaptists denied that authority.

The Institutes

The leaders of the Reformation were not thrilled with the social chaos that erupted with the Visible Church of the HRE removed, so John Calvin established a new Visible Church in Geneva. But this was ruled by Calvin, not the Pope.

And rule he did! Thousands of Catholics and Anabaptists were hounded, persecuted, burned alive and tortured. Calvin provided a scholarly foundation for his "Geneva experiment" by writing Institutes of the Christian Religion. He reaffirmed Augustine's City of God, affirming the authority of the Visible Church, infant baptism, Christian salvation at birth and other doctrines which perpetrated a state-owned church.

Armed with Calvin's Institutes and other condensed "confessions of faith," European authorities held the weapons to stamp Anabaptists out. They were hounded and hunted everywhere by the tens of thousands. No European powers wanted Anabaptists around.

Thus Protestant European states killed more religious dissidents than the Holy Roman Empire, many estimate.

The Calvinist Problem

Calvinism as a movement took a wrong turn when it placed such great authority on Institutes and other "Great Confessions". All these new tests of "true faith" undermined Luther's original, simple conviction: "Sola Scriptura!"

Sadly, despite their efforts to remove the unbiblical precepts of the Holy Roman Empire, early Reformers still retained whatever restored social order and legitimized their organizations. In the end, the church and the state remained integrated organizationally and theologically.

Reformed theology today is virtually unchanged since Calvin's Institutes. Burning heretics and torture are not condoned, of course, but Calvin's modern adherents cling to the legacy of Institutes with a tenacity that knows no end.

Next: Calvin's Amillennial doctrine.

1. Pontifex Maximus was a title used by the ancient Etruscans of Rome for their high priest. "At the end of the 6th century Gregory I was the first Pope to employ Pontifex maximus in a formal sense, in a broader program of asserting Roman primacy. It has remained one of the titles of the popes to this day. - BibleStudy.org [⇑]
2. The right of the Vatican to modify and add to the Bible was formally approved at the Council of Trent in 1514, as a response to Luther's denial of the Vatican's authority. But the church's power to add "divine Revelation" to the Bible was already common practice. Vatican II reaffirmed this broad authority in 1964: "[Bishops] bring forth from the treasury of Revelation new things and old, making it bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors that threaten their flock. Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth." -- Wikipedia, Vatican II. [⇑]
3. Only the pope could sentence people to hell, and it required a ceremony which included 12 other priests. Thus Pope Benedict VIII pronounces: "Let them be accursed in their bodies, and let their souls be delivered to destruction and perdition and torture. Let them be damned with the damned: let them be scourged with the ungrateful; let them perish with the proud. Let them be accursed with the Jews who, seeing the incarnate Christ, did not believe but sought to crucify Him. Let them be accursed with the heretics who labored to destroy the church. Let them be accursed with those who blaspheme the name of God. Let them be accursed with those who despair of the mercy of God..." So it goes on and on - from History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: § 86. Ecclesiastical Punishments. Excommunication, Anathema, Interdict. [⇑]
4. Quoted from Theopedia, Five Solas, but edited for brevity here. [⇑]
5. See Theopedia, Reformed Theology. [⇑]
6. Easton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary provides a good snapshot of Reformed theology on the Visible Church: "A credible profession of the true religion constitutes a person a member of this church. This is 'the kingdom of heaven,' whose character and progress are set forth in the parables recorded in Matt. 13. The children of all who thus profess the true religion are members of the visible church along with their parents. Children are included in every covenant God ever made with man. They go along with their parents (Gen. 9:9-17; 12:1-3; 17:7; Ex. 20:5; Deut. 29:10-13)." Later we will see the importance of the children clause imported from the Old Covenant into the New Covenant. [⇑]
7. The Bible uses the Greek word Koinonia to describe Christian gatherings, translated "to share" or "fellowship together." But the word "church" means "building", and the Bible never associates that word or concept with Christianity. As a Roman institution, however, buildings and property were a vital part of Constantine's new "Department of Christianity", so "Christian building" became synonymous with Christian gathering. [⇑]
8. From the Catholic Encyclopedia: "Moreover, there is a true sense in which they may be said to be saved through the Church. In the order of Divine Providence, salvation is given to man in the Church: membership in the Church Triumphant is given through membership in the Church Militant. Catholic Encyclopedia, The Church: The necessary means of salvation. [⇑]
9. Wherever people indwelt by the Holy Spirit gather, in whatever format, they are part of the invisible "Body of Christ." (See Eph. 1:22 - 23; 4:12; Eph. 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:19.) Thus, the biblical term "ecclessia" (or "gathering") is a generic term which describes a house meeting of Christians, a whole region where Christians reside, or all Christians across the globe. Only God knows the real members of the ecclesia, according to the Bible. Augustine's Visible Church turns a generic, broad word (ecclesia) into a narrow, technical term used by institutions today to define church membership. [⇑]

You just gotta love 'em: the "New Calvinists" they're called, which means they embrace Reformed theology, commonly known as Calvinism.

A young generation of Christian leaders like Mark Driscoll are capturing headlines even in the NeoZine! They are dubbed "the young and restless Reformed" because they are innovative church-planters, but they still maintain a strict diet of old-fashioned Reformed theology.

Driscoll is speaking in July at the Xenos Summer Institute, so it's worthwhile to study Reformed theology and its history in order to appreciate Driscoll. Especially at Xenos, people are largely unfamiliar with the old, tired dog of Reformed Christianity called Covenant Theology.

Reformed churches were once-monolithic Protestant denominations, such as the Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Baptists, but since the '60s they are growing increasingly irrelevant, with few exceptions. The newest research now shows about 7% of the population is "evangelical", and the hardest-hit are these Reformed denominations.¹

But changes are underway, and some of these Protestant churches are trying to stop the bleeding.

A Gen-X Revolution?

Generation-X made a big splash in the pool of American church life with "Emergents" (Emergent Church) and young, Restless Reformed. The Emergents and Restless Reformed are driving new directions, but with very different theologies.

Gen-X hits the pulpit

Emergents are represented by the Emergent Village, and is renown for blending Postmodernism with the Bible,² but the Restless Reformed maintain a classical epistemology (view of truth).

Driscoll characterizes Gen-X as largely ineffective, silly Christianity:

This generation can be a whiny bunch of idealists getting together in small groups to complain about mega-churches and the religious right rather than doing something. - quoted in Relevant Magazine

He then describes his Restless Reformed theopraxy³ as a backlash against the "whiny" Emergent church:

In Revelation, Jesus is a prize fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity.

The Thrill is Gone

Still, these very different Gen-X movements bear the same prominent Gen-X trademark: a penchant for the banal. (What does "Generation-X" stand for, anyway? Nobody knows, and nobody cares.) They know how take the zing out of the Bible.

Continue Reading »

1. See Dennis McCallum's review of "Fall of the Evangelical Nation". [⇑]
2. See Wikipedia - Emerging Church: Postmodern World View and the language of deconstruction. [⇑]
3. Theopraxy is the practice of theology, or what some call "the practice of God." [⇑]

By Dennis McCallum

Now, I was not happy to see that McLaren is on the cover of Bruxy's book because the emergent movement is headed directly away from biblical orthodoxy. I should make clear that I know most of these leaders personally (not McLaren), have attended their conferences, visited their churches, had lengthy arguments with them in public debate, blogs, email, and by phone.

McLaren is at this print doubting the reality of hell, saying universalism is okay for Christians, denying the need for penal substitution at the cross and suggesting that would be child abuse, declaring all language to be indefinite and incapable of transmitting objective truth, and all "truth" to be discursive (which undermines the usefulness of Scripture, and flies in the face of what Jesus and Paul taught). So, I believe McLaren is a bad player, and I'm not surprised to see the top evangelical thinkers here and abroad finally critiquing his stuff.

One of their own, Mark Driscoll, has broken with them over their increasingly extreme theology. He was one of the original leaders of the movement gathered by Leadership Network. He participated in their leadership councils for a decade and knows exactly what they think. He mentions the following serious problems in his critique:

1. Scripture. This includes the divine inspiration, perfection, and authority of Scripture.
2. Jesus Christ. This includes his deity and sovereignty over human history as Lord.
3. Gender. This includes whether or not people are created with inherent gender differences, whether or not those gender roles have any implications for the governments of home and church, and whether or not homosexual practice is sinful. This also includes whether or not it is appropriate to use gender specific names for God, such as Father, like Jesus did.
4. Sin. The primary issue here is whether or not human beings are conceived as sinners or are essentially morally neutral and are internally corrupted solely by external forces.
5. Salvation. The issue is whether Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation and whether or not salvation exists for people in other religions who do not worship Jesus Christ.
6. The Cross. The issue here is the doctrine of penal substitution and whether or not Jesus died in our place for our sins or if He went to the cross solely as an example for us to follow when we suffer.
7. Hell. The issue is whether or not anyone will experience conscious eternal torment, or if unbelievers will simply cease to exist (annihilationism) or eventually be saved and taken to heaven (universalism).
8. Authority. This issue is perhaps the most difficult of all. Much of this conversation is happening online with blogs and chat rooms. However, as the conversation becomes a conflict, the inherent flaw of postmodernism is becoming a practical obstacle to unity because there is no source of authority to determine what constitutes orthodox or heretical doctrine.

With the authority of Scripture open for debate and even long-established Church councils open for discussion (e.g. the Council of Carthage that denounced Pelagius as a heretic for denying human sinfulness), the conversation continues while the original purpose of getting on mission may be overlooked
because there is little agreement on the message or the mission of the Church.

I think there is a range of views represented within the group calling themselves emergent. You can see this range if you read the book, "Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches" (Zondervan) which ranges from Driscoll at the conservative end to Paggit and Ward at the liberal end. In between, you see Kimball and Burke, who are not that bad, whereas Paggit sounds like a non-believer. Driscoll's views are no more liberal (probably more conservative) than ours. McLaren is at the liberal end of this continuum, in my opinion.

Keith mentioned their problems with evangelism, which are acute. Even one of their own leaders, McKnight, acknowledged that he sees a huge problem here--and it's not just because they are ineffective at reaching non-Christian postmoderns (which would be a major problem, considering that their literature implies that they are the ones who know how this should be done) but that they are increasingly unwilling to witness at all! This is because they don't want to be arrogant in asserting that Christians are right and everyone else is wrong. So you just witness with your life, not your words. McLaren is in the vanguard of this view as you can see in his treatment of other religions in "A Generous Orthodoxy." I can only say, my Bible does not take the same view of other religions that McLaren does. Rather than respecting them and learning from them, refusing to view what we teach as superior, Paul says the gods people worship are in fact demons (see 1Cor. 10). Both New and Old Testaments agree on this.

Why Navpress would have no problem with McLaren, or Zondervan, or Baker, is a baffling question. The only answer I can imagine is 1. they have no idea what he teaches, or (more likely) 2. Dollars and cents mean more than being faithful to God's word.

I think Bruxy Cavey should consider removing his endorsement in a new edition of his book. McLaren's Secret Message was a more innocuous book. Also read his more inflamatory stuff like Generous Orthodoxy, and some of the careful and fair critiques by many of the leading thinkers in the Christian world today, such as D. A. Carsen, Millard Eriksen (editor of RECLAIMING THE CENTER:
CONFRONTING EVANGELICAL ACCOMMODATION IN POSTMODERN TIMES, which includes a dozen of our best theologians writing essays about why they are so worried about the movement), and many others. Groothius' book, Truth Decay is good.

Amazingly, it has taken over ten years for the evangelical church to realize what we are dealing with in the emergent movement, and they are still partially asleep on this. But I do believe that finally we will see in the next few years the believing church mobilize against the extreme liberal wing of this movement.

Tags: emergent church

Finding Xenos

I’ll never forget finding Xenos. Kathryn and I moved from Colorado Springs to Columbus in 1996 where Kathryn worked for Focus on the Family in the marketing department. A copy of “The Death of Truth” by Dennis McCallum, senior elder with Xenos, came across her desk. She was intrigued by the book and brought it home for me to read. The book struck a chord with me because of its philosophical bent. It agreed with much I had picked up as an undergraduate student of J. P. Moreland at Biola University. Once we moved to Columbus, despite the 45 minute drive from our apartment in Delaware, OH, we decided to check out Xenos.

The first day we strolled into the warehouse there a band was playing Steely Dan music. I was able to get a donut and coffee to eat during the service. I’d never seen a church with a snack bar! In addition, everyone was dressed like they were about to wash their car! But the best part occurred when Dennis got up to speak. I looked at Kathryn and said “this is our church.”

We were passive pew-sitters for a while but everyone kept talking about “getting incorporated” by checking out a home church. We decided to check out a home church and were referred to a home church in Upper Arlington led by Eric and Vicky Schroer and Anne Blackwell. Continue Reading »

Tags: church growth, ecclesiology, methods, str2008, xenos

It's fair to blame the failures in Prince Caspian on Kingly-Leadership working independently from Prophetic-Leadership. We covered these failures in the first Caspian review, and they typify the "Natural Man" Paul describes:

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14

The efforts of King Peter, Queen Susan, King Edmund and Prince Caspian were brilliant. Their "hidden hole," the ambush of the castle, their call to attack and not defend were all sound, practical solutions, but also doomed to fail.

Why was failure inevitable? Yes, their youthful characters were flawed, and they cracked under pressure. But as the story unfolds, it becomes evident they must fail, even without the flaws: quite simply, Narnians were too weak and too few against the power of the dark lord and his swarming armies.

trebuchets at work

In the ferocity of spiritual warfare, the Kingly-Leader's brilliance and power is worn down into a dull and pathetic leadership. I've been there. I sympathize with those brave Narnian leaders when their escape routes were severed, their strength and strategies all exhausted. Meanwhile, fresh hordes of the enemy advance with trebuchets pounding mercilessly away.

"We've waited for Aslan long enough," Peter told Lucy earlier. Oh what fatal words those were.

Continue Reading »

Tags: leadership, movies, prince caspian, prophecy, spiritual warfare

Go watch the movie Prince Caspian, and do it quickly! If you watch it knowing that C.S. Lewis was not only a Christian, but someone deeply in love with God's Kingdom, it helps explains the "The Deep Magic" that governs the movie.

Prince Caspian is the study of a Christian's greatest weakness: "the Natural Man", as Paul calls it, or "Carnal Christianity." We've all struggled with this handicap, and we get so confused by it, mostly because we feel so much strength in the Natural Man...

Until the "fog of war" descends.

the 'natural man' in the the 'fog of war'

That's when Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy reappear and take turns thrashing, fighting and scheming in a series of brilliant failures, until they reach utter despair and the end of their brilliant plans.

To those familiar with Christian leadership, it's a familiar task these brave souls undertake. They must lead a strange, motley crew of Narnians out of their snug habitats in the deep, dark woods and into a bloody crusade. On unfamiliar ground the gentle Narnians clash with a savage dark lord who is the epitome of "The Father of Lies." Christians in the modern era face a tidal wave of spiritual hostility, and these Narnians likewise take such a pathetic stand against hoards of rabid, advancing enemies rising out of "the pit of darkness."

Continue Reading »

Tags: leadership, sanctification, spiritual warfare

When you read the history of Xenos, you read about chaos - or so it seems to the institutional mind. But to those who enjoy the love of Christ, it's called freedom, and freedom is chaotic for legalistic minds. This is the "real Xenos model" in a nutshell: some call it chaos, while others call it "freedom through the love of Christ". (What a cool slogan!)

Here's the kind of chaos I love: listen to The Road Less Traveled by Dave Browning, some dude from the West Coast.¹ He's a Willow Creek mega-church business-model dropout who is now more relaxed and happier than ever -- and more fruitful than ever, too! This was Dave's life in the business-model church:

Dave's high didn't come from a bottle or a needle, but from those Sunday mornings when a big crowd packed his church, everything went just right and he hit the ball out of the park with another power-packed sermon. The need for that rush nearly destroyed everything Dave cared about.²

The Business-Leader Model

Such is the life of the business-model church leader: it's all about "Kingly-Leadership" which kills a good Church Planting Movement. The business-leader model also kills the kingly leaders through exhaustion.

Willow Creek's own research now reveals a disturbing trend with this entire approach. I recently blogged about the "Revolving Door Syndrome" that kept us stagnated here in Northeastern Ohio, and Willow is discovering the same trend through research. It's called the "Old Christian Syndrome" (or OCS), and it looks like this:³

Willow's research uncovers OCS

Continue Reading »

1. The Road Less Traveled, by Dave Browning from Christ the King church in Washington. His podcast is from last month's Multi-Site Exposed 2008 conference [⇑]
2. Quoted from Leadership Network. [⇑]
3. Research from the Reveal Web site. [⇑]

Tags: church growth, ecclesiology, leadership, methods, retreats, str2008, xenos

A Word of Prophecy

Tom Dixon's teaching began with some fumbling and mumbling mishaps with the microphone and sound system, which probably shook Tom up a little. It promised to be a dismal teaching from an obscure figure.

But then Tom launched into a strong message about what it means to carry out the Great Commission: "GO!" It's all there in the first word. Aside from Tom, there was a surprising paucity of insights about the Great Commission at the STR.

This Great Commission oversight was not only unusual for the STR, but very noticeable since Calvary Chapel was often cited. As a model of a healthy church, if Calvary is actually driven by the Prophet-Leader extolled in the "Tri-Perspectival View," there should be a clear path to follow in their footsteps. But what is it?

Dennis strongly endorsed Calvary's "hot theology of ministry," but then grew vague about exactly why it was so hot. It was difficult to discern what changes leaders could implement from the STR, beyond avoiding the obsession with statistics. The deemphasis on counting was only marginally-helpful for NeoXenos leaders, since our statistical work is already sloppy and pathetic enough.¹

NeoNews reported the aspects of Calvary which Dennis said were not enviable or easily-transferred into a Xenos ethos, and the list eliminated most of the distinctive differences from Xenos.

But there was one major distinction from Xenos which Calvary pursues with gusto: Calvary is perpetually sending out leaders to plant extra-local churches. This was, of course, the point of Tom's teaching about "GO!" Unfortunately, only Tom's teaching tackled this issue. Some of the other teachings casually mentioned the "sending" ministry of Calvary, but without much practical benefit.

The Multi-Site Movement

Driscoll's "Tri-Perspectival View" of leadership is merely an introduction to the real excitement and drama in Driscoll's teaching. He uses the Prophet-Leader concept to call for potentially-unsettling changes at Mars Hill in Seattle. He calls it "Multi-Site Church", and whatever else may be said about his vision, it is certainly valuable for Xenos in two big ways. Continue Reading »

1. Leaders discuss statistics about once every six months: the October leader retreat and February FST retreat. View a slide show of the 2008 retreat slide online. [⇑]

Tags: church growth, ecclesiology, methods, missions, retreats, str2008, surveys, willow creek, xenos

No, he's not a drunken bum, he's just a visionary of sorts.

Greg Morscher and I were watching this cool online broadcast by Mark Driscoll titled, "Why Mulit-Site?" Driscoll is the big speaker at XSI in Columbus this summer, and his arrival is none-too-soon. Columbus Xenos is re-evaluating itself, the major topic at this year's Servant Team Retreat (STR) in Cincinnati. Listening to Driscoll's broadcast offers a refreshing and visionary alternative to some of the hand-wringing confusion at the STR.

Driscoll proposes answering the big question left unanswered from the STR: how will Columbus regain its vision as a Church Planting Movement (CPM)? This is a significant issue for NeoXenos, because we are absolutely committed to CPM, and we fought a long and hard battle to get here. STR was certainly inspirational by teaching us the differences between spiritual and carnal leadership, but never resolved was The Quest for CPM, as most of the STR teachers acknowledged.

But Tom Dixon's teaching at the STR raised the most exciting and clear answer for The Quest. Surprisingly, it is an ancient solution, but still highly applicable, and Driscoll frames it well.

The "Tri-Perspectival View" of Leadership

Driscoll approaches the Great Commission in a fresh way even though he uses silly terms like "Tri-Perspectival". Jesus is the pattern to follow, he says, and names three roles of effective spiritual leadership: the Priest, Prophet and King. These Old Testament offices were all fulfilled by Jesus, as we are studying in Hebrews. This is God's eternal paradigm for spiritual leadership, and since the authority of Jesus is driving the Great Commission, these aspects of his leadership should be evident.

The Priestly Leader is compassionate and concerned about people's needs, like we studied in Hebrews: "He is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people..." (Heb. 5:2). Driscoll says the Priestly-Leader asks the question "Who?" In other words, he cares for people. This is what someone does with the "pastor/shepherd" gift, and it is an invaluable leadership role (see Eph. 4:11ff). But churches don't grow without the other leadership roles, and they often shrink.

The Kingly Leader is a builder, Driscoll says, always asking "How?" These leaders are not only practical, but phenomenal organizers who bring people together to build. This energetic, effective leadership is a spiritual gift in Romans 12:8, but still requires the other leadership roles for balance. The King-Leader becomes too results-driven and uncompassionate without the Priest-Leader, or too institutional without the Prophet-Leader, thus eliminating God's dynamic leadership altogether.

The Prophet-Leader is perpetually asking "Why?" and pursues the quest for change, Driscoll says. This corresponds to the gift of prophecy in Romans 12:6, and it is highly-valued in Paul's writings. This is a powerful gift with strong influence in the church because it arises from the spiritual and mystical leadership of God. As such, this leadership gift also brings the upheaval and change that God desires for his people (see 1 Cor. 2:9, Luke 5:37; 2 Cor. 5:17). But these leaders are too theoretical or rhetorical without the other leaders who implement, build, and touch people's concerns.

Leadership Imbalances

The STR teachings were aimed at the overwhelming influence of the Kingly-Leader model working in Columbus. When this occurs it means structures, organization, programs, buildings, statistics, bureaucracies, policies and budgets dominate a Christian group. Continue Reading »