Ekklesia

Six desires of piety

My summer reading of biographies continues and this time with a book about John Wesley. I’ve started to read “Wesley and the People called Methodists” written by Richard P. Heitzenrater. The first part of this 300+ pages volume is about the early development of the Church in England and how it gradually became the Church of England, following many struggles between the papacy in Rome and the governing forces in England.

Heitzenrater describes the birth of the pietism and religious societies in Europe and England in particular. One of the first step of this was the Calvinists urge for Christians to recognized their elect status and making it visible in their lives, as a human response to God’s grace and in this way the Calvinists did not promote “good works” as such. Parallel to this, there was a whole “new” movement gaining ground in Germany in particular - Pietism saw the light of day. On of the main spokespersons was Philipp Jacob Spener, who was among the very first to present the program of the movement. One of the groundbreaking books was “Pia desideria” (1675). In this book Spener outlined six desires of piety. As I read through these six points once again, I realized how some things tend to repeat. We live in non-cyclical times where the kingdom of God is advancing towards a final goal, at the same time some things repeats themselves. These were the six desires of piety that Spener wrote about;

1) In order for the church to ground its life in the proper authority, the church needed to reemphasize the study of Scripture. This was a reiteration of the theme than was one of the main aims of the Reformation - Sola scriptura (Scripture as sole authority for Christian life and thought).

2) The second point of Spener was also a reiteration of one of the Lutheran themes, namely that the renewal of the church needed to commit to active involvement and concern of laity.

3) Speners third point was about the need of more emphasis placed on the evangelical zeal instead of debating skill.

4) Fourthly, Spener meant that there also should be a practical focus on Christian living rather than intellectual acumen.

5) The fifth point was about the method of preaching. Spener wrote that the preaching should be aimed at the salvation of the listener, not simply for instruction or correction.

6) The final point was aimed at the declining moral and spiritual qualities in the lives of many pastors. Spener meant that the ministerial training should emphasize the development of moral and spiritual qualities in the life of the pastors.

It is really interesting to see how these six points, written more than 300 years, in many ways just was well could have been written in our day and age. In an age when the church is contextualizing away some of the truths we find in Scripture, there truly is a need to reemphasize the study of Scriptures. 

Reflections on “Wigglesworth - the complete story” - part 2

Im getting close to the end of the book and slowly a picture is being formed within of who this extraordinary person was. In a recent posting Reflections on “Wigglesworth - the complete story” I shared some of my initial reflections. Wigglesworth seems to have been very much criticized specially for some of his teaching and methods. But as I went on to read, I found some interesting details about his visit to Scandinavia and Sweden in particular.

Julian Wilson, who has written this excellent biography writes that “Wigglesworth encountered problems [...] when he arrived in Stockholm, Sweden in April 1921. His teaching on healing and water baptism and particularly his praying for the sick in public, aroused strong objections from the Lutheran State Church and members of the Swedish medical profession, who joined forces in opposition against him. As a result, both Wigglesworth and Lewi Pethrus, at whose church Wigglesworth ministered, were arrested by the police. Wigglesworth was released, but Pethrus was detained for further questioning.”

It was a very controversial visit, especially compared to his visit to the other Nordic countries. Wilson goes on to explain how representatives from the former Swedish state church, together with medical authority and the police even went to the Swedish king, trying to win support for the expulsion of Wigglesworth. At the kings household there was a nurse who claimed that she had been healed after visiting one of the meetings where Wigglesworth had been ministering. Later on Wigglesworth was application for an extension of his visa was denied and he was forced to leave Sweden. Prior to this occasion, Wigglesworth had visited Stockholm and Örebro where he had ministered to thousands of people.

Wilson goes on and shares some awesome stories of what actually happened and tells about the final and biggest meeting that was held in one of the parks in the city of Stockholm. Some 20′000 people turned up! The police allowed Wigglesworth to minister but on one condition - he was not allowed to lay hands on the people who asked to intercession. For the first time in his life, he realized that God didn’t require that he actually did put is hand on the person he ministered to. What about the result? Hundreds were healed.

All these stories are really fascinating to read even some almost ninety years later. Wigglesworth was criticized for some of the things he said and did. Right or wrong? It’s difficult to say. As far as I can understand he did his ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. My conclusion is that God uses whom he wants to do his works. He chose David despite his lack of morals, he chose Moses who stuttered and lost his temper, he chose Elijah who struggled with depressions, he chose John the Baptist, even though he most likely dressed like a hippie and seemed to be an outcast.

Currently Christians are criticizing what is going on over in Lakeland, Florida, where Todd Bentley and others from Ignited Church and Fresh Fire Ministries are ministering to people longing for healing and deliverance. Yes, there might be things that hard to understand or agree with, but does that mean that we should judge all that is happening “as long as Christ is proclaimed” (to use the words of the Apostle Paul). For a great posting on this visit Synergetics by John van Dinther.

Reflections on “Wigglesworth - the complete story”

This spring I decided to dedicate part of my summer-reading to a few, different biographies. Why? Well, mostly to get inspired and hopefully a bit stirred up and encouraged to go deeper and explore more and maybe even new areas of my discipleship.

The first book I decided to read was Wigglesworth - the complete story. To be honest I didn’t have a huge knowledge about Wigglesworth prior to reading this book. His name was mentioned a few times as I studied theology and recent church history. I also knew that he had been experiencing how God used him in a mighty way, as he prayed for the sick. That as basically all I really knew. But after some recommendations, I got a copy and my first and lasting impression is very positive. I still have almost half the book to finish but it looks very promising.

Wigglesworth seems to be exactly one of those “unusual people in history” as the back cover suggests. He has been called an “apostle of faith”, much due to his teaching and practicing of faith. It seems as if Wigglesworth applied the KISS-principal to some of his teaching - Keep It Simple & Stupid.

One of his basics assumptions can be summarized this way; if it’s in the Bible, then it’s true and supposed to be applied as a truth. Take for example faith. Faith is considered to be one of, if not the, favorite topic. For instance Wigglesworth considered a lack of faith to be the result of not reading and feeding on the Word. He writes that “faith comes by hearing [...] not by reading commentaries” (p. 110).

Wigglesworth was a man who didn’t gain recognition from everybody. Jack Hywel-Davies first line in the foreword actually is “Smith Wigglesworth was not a popular man” (p. ix). Slowly I start to understand why. He did things in a way that was not appreciated by all. He is also described as having somewhat of a strict personality and maybe was a bit difficult to cooperate with. The biggest encouragement is his faith and what seems to have been an awesome dependency and obedience to God and I’m sure he had that special, English flavored humor. There are dozens of examples throughout the whole book that makes you giggle as you read.

“Some people like to read their Bibles in the Hebrew; some people like to read it in the Greek; I like to read it in the Holy Spirit.” (p. 79)

Lost in Translation

Back in 2004 I saw Sofia Coppola’s debut movie Lost in Translation staring Bill Murray (Broken Flowers, The Darjeeling Limited, The Royal Tenenbaums) who plays the role of a actor named Bob Harris. Harris is in Tokyo, Japan to film a commercial for Suntory whiskey. As he arrives to the film set he meets the Japanese producer Yutaka Tadokoro who starts speaking to him in Japanese. Harris who obviously doesn’t know any Japanese is relaying on Tadokoros translator. However this woman takes a shortcut and basically skips everything Tadokoro is trying to communicate and sums it all up her own little weird way. Just like in the case of the dialouge between Bob Harris and the producer, all communication of any message requires some understanding and knowledge of the spoken language. If that prior knowledge is missing a need for translation is needed in order for the message to be comprehended and receivable. To use a radio allegory; if one wants to acheive the best possible transmission, it has to be done in the correct frequency (or wavelength). Either the receiver has to be tuned to the correct frequency in order to reach the person listening at the receiver (which might turn out to be really difficult). Or the person at the receiver has to tune the frequency to receive my transmission. This requires that the person tuning the waves, knows what to look for and where.
The same principal applies to the communication of the Gospel to people we encounter. Sometimes we decide that we are gonna do it in a way that either requires some prior information (frequency - could be knowledge, theology and likewise). The outcome is dependent on at least two factors. First of course, we are dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit. Secondly the way we communicate and translate the Gospel, will change the outcome. We need to do it in a language that is somewhat understandable. However, it is my opinion, that this should not be done in a way, where we try to make everything so easy digestible, that there is nothing left! But that is a whole different question, which I will write more about later. A book that address some of these issues in a interesting way is Shaping the Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (Strand Publishing (2003), ISBN 1-8768-2587-1). A while ago I did some research in a course on leadership and came across a book by the catholic theologian Stephen B. Bevans. In his book Models of Contextual Theology, Bevans shares some really interesting thoughts concerning how we do this translation and how we shape our different theologies. Bevans’ main thesis and starting point is that “There is no such thing as “theology”; there is only contextual theology (Newbigins view on this matter is really interesting. See my paper on Lesslie Newbigin.) and contextual theology is an imperative, according to Bevans.
In his book Bevans shares a few different models that he has discovered in his studies. These are the Translation, Anthropological, Praxis, Synthetic, Transcendental and the Counter-cultural model. I wrote a paper on contextual theology where I look at these different models and what they are all about. This paper can be downloaded here; download: Getting Lost in Translation (167.32KB) added: 21/05/2008 clicks: 32 description: Postmodernism är något av ett modeord även inom teologins gebit. Samtidigt ger allt fler kristna uttryck för ett skriande behov av att omvärdera både hur vi tänker kring frågor som rör exempelvis synen på församlingens roll och funktion samt missionsuppdraget. Mycket av den förnyelse som efterfrågas baseras på behovet av kontextualisering och att budskapet om Jesus Kristus presenteras på ett relevant sätt. Vad innebär då detta i praktiken? Är kyrkan tänkt att vara relevant och i sådana fall i vilken utsträckning? Försvinner budskapet om Kristus försonande verk i vår översättning eller brist på översättning till världens kulturella språk?
By the way; in case you really wonder what Tadokoro was saying, have a look at this movie at You Tube;

Joel meets Acts

It’s been quite some time since I posted anything here. The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy. Last Sunday (Day of Pentecost) I preached about what happened when the Holy Spirit was poured out on all the followers of Christ back in Jerusalem, 50 days after the Easter drama when Jesus was crucified and resurrected from the dead. What really strike me as I was preparing was the fantastic text in Joel chapter 2. Usually we just read some popular verses

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” (Joel 2:28 ESV)

and forget about the beginning of the same chapter. The prophet Joel begins by proclaiming that the day of the Lord soon would arrive (Joel 2:1-11). This was also the very words of Jesus as he started out his public ministry and proclaimed “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:17 ESV). Joel then goes on to exhort the people of Israel to return to God, instead of turning to their idols (Joel 2:12-27). Later on, just before the well known verse 28, God tells his people through Joel, that He would supply and meet all their needs. He would be the one that would give the m according to their needs and for the vindication of the people. The floors will be full of grain and there would be an overflow of wine and oil. The people would be satisfied and know that God was in the midst of them (Joel 2:19-27).

As the first church was born at the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem Jews from all over the region and around the Mediterranean was in the city to celebrate what? The feast called Shavuot. Shavuot is also referred to in the Old Testament and Torah as Hag HaKatzir (Feast of Harvest) (Ex 23:16) and Yom HaBikurim (Day of First fruits) (Num 28:26). The Jewish people was celebrating and remembering the things that Joel two was speaking about prior to the verses that describe the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Jewish people was celebrating Joel 2:12-27 and before their eyes verses 28-29 were being fulfilled.

“I like to consider myself as being a trend setter”

I was sitting out in the sun this afternoon reading the last couple of chapters in a book. Beside me sat a group of three.  It was really hard to really focus on the reading and I was constantly interrupted by their conversation. Suddenly the two girls made a comment on the trousers I believe it was, that the guy was wearing. They had not seen him wear the pants he usually wore, which were of some special kind of brand. In fact the parts of the conversation they had (and gladly shared with the rest of us sitting close by) basically was about wearing the right outfit - being in or being out. Well, the guy answered by saying something like “well, you know, I like to consider myself as being a trend setter.” That line struck me as I was reading through my book. To some people, being a trend setter is mostly about having the right image to impress and to amaze, to some it´s about the outer appearance.

As I was sitting there on the bench I just felt a prayer building up within me. God I also want to be a trend setter, but not in the sense of what is cool or not, but a person who points towards an alternative trend, a trend that is about something else, a trend that is all about your Kingdom.

To people who don’t have come to know the living God this all probably sounds like the weirdest thing. What kind of Kingdom? And that is a deep longing within me, to be able to use whatever gifts God has bestowed upon me, to proclaim it and make it visible. As I have finished yet another book by Bill Johnson, I am even more deeply convinced that this must be the way. In the book “Strengthen yourself in the Lord” , Bill writes that;

“[and] to carry His glory is exactly what we are made to do- the Christian life is not only about getting saved so we get to go to Heaven when we die. Rather, it’s about learning to live in Heaven’s reality now[.]” (p. 140)

I’m preparing for next weeks Scandinavian leadership conference with New Wine, that will be held in Stockholm. It’s hopefully gonna be an awesome weekend with lots of great teaching and input.

Sad statistics - in need of a radical change

I’m currently preparing a sermon for the Sunday service and have been reading the Letter to the Philippians over and over again. I’m deeply touched by the fact that Paul wrote this letter to one of the churches that he planted some 5-10 years earlier. The whole letter basically has one word running through it from first to last sentence; joy. The passage I am focusing in on is Philippians 1:12-30 and is all about finding joy in difficult times. The question I ask myself is how to find the courage to be as bold as Paul in sharing the Gospel and to plant more churches.

And how can we (Christians in Sweden in particular) find joy and strength to carry on the Great commission (Matt 28:16-20) when we experience difficulties? In Philippians 1:12 Paul uses a word in Greek (prokope), that was used in nautical terms, to describe a ship making advance in spite of the heavy winds, a ship heading straight towards the wind against all odds.

“But I want you to know, brothers, that the things concerning me have more fully come to the advancement of the gospel, ” (Phil 1:12, LITV)

Despite the odds, Paul found ways to use the situation and advance the kingdom of God, even while being imprisoned and chained to a roman soldier 24/7. So what about the situation in Sweden? Are we heading in the right way despite the headwind? The other day there actually was an article published on the present situation in Sweden. We used to be a nation of churches that sent out missionaries to places all around the world and dozens of other countries.

In the article “Free churches are getting fewer and smaller” (dagen.com 20080408) the facts and figures speaks a clear language. Things are looking really bad. While 22 new churches have been planted, 220 old ones have been closed down. With an average of 4000 inhabitants per congregation, there would have to be 190 new churches planted in Skåne alone. In the area of greater Stockholm the same amount of churches to plant would be approximately 384! One almost needs to pinch yourself in the arm - it is actually true. The situation is tremendously tragic.

I remember hearing a sermon from Mars Hill Bible church in Seattle where the preacher (Mark Driscoll I believe) mentioned that there was just a couple of percent Christians in the city. Just a few percent? Where I used to live in Sweden there is less than 0,3% Christians (i.e people regularly attending some kind of Sunday church service!) on a normal Sunday. Where I live at the moment there is around 0,5%. I red that there are “only” 4% evangelicals in Seattle where Mars Hill church can be found (according to Georgia Baptist news). If that would be our case there would be 10 times the amount of Christians which almost is hard to imagine. I’m not even gonna try to estimate the amount of evangelicals around these parts of the world, but trust me - there aren’t that many.

The statistics are sad and Sweden is in need of a radical change!

A glass of water longing for the ocean

I’m getting close to the end of yet another book - “When Heaven Invades Earth” written by Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, CA. Throughout the last couple of weeks I’ve encountered some people (and books) that have created a hunger deep within.

Firstly; In February I went on a New Wine leaders retreat. Together with a bunch of great leaders from south Sweden, I was renewed in my hunger for more of God. The teaching and ministry of those weeks created an urge for a deepened relationship with God and a longing to study the Word more and trying to go deeper. The teaching that week reminded me that the Bible should be given a bigger part of my life, being a follower of Christ Jesus.

Secondly; In March I started reading the first book I’ve red by Bill Johnson; a book with the title “The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind”. It’s a title that makes many Christians shrug their shoulders. Words such as supernatural, power and transformed mind has a somewhat negative ring. But as you think about it those are not words that really should make us feel uncomfortable.  We (followers of Christ) should model his way of living and that also goes for things concerning the kingdom of God. Jesus proclaimed the good news about the kingdom AND he made that very kingdom visible, by his acts. We should not settle down and “only” proclaim the kingdom. We are called to do the same things as Christ did.

Thirdly; A couple of days ago I met with a person that has been spending many years, giving birth to a wonderful project. As we were talking I asked; what had been the most important priorities. The answer; prayer and fasting. Another important experience was the total dependence of God. A total dependence that made it impossible to go on in your own strength.

Conclusion; I’m desperately longing for more of God in my life! I’m hungry for more. This evening I heard this song by Oh Laura that has a line that goes like this;

I am [...] a glass of water longing for the ocean
Release me

That is my prayer and what I feel! I long for more of the source - I long for more of God.

Listen to the whole song here; “Release Me” performed by Oh Laura

Contextual theology - as in gender-neutral?

Today Dagen published an article about the lutheran church in Norway. There has been a debate in the church whether they should keep on baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. A priest in the city of Hamar wanted to remove the masculine language in the baptism liturgy. The priest says that in the long run, it will be a huge burden to carry, by continue talking about God as a male person.Gender is important today and by all means - there isn’t (supposed to be) any difference between male or female (at least in the Kingdom of God), to use the words of Paul the Apostle. But do we really have to make things more difficult than they really are? A.W Tozer writes that we only degrade God as long as we try to describe him with our own words. There aren’t words enough to describe his majesty and greatness. The antipope and theologian Novatian (200 AD) once said that God is beyond anything we ever can describe with our words, there is a linguistic limitation.

As I studied the subject of contextual theology (which questions like these really are all about) I realized that there are 2 main factors that decide the outcome or theology. The 2 parameters are the present experience and the past experiences.

The past experiences include the Bible and the Christian tradition. The present experience is all about culture, social orientation and personal or collective experiences. The outcome (read theology) will depend on where we put the emphasis.

By the way; count Nikolaus Zinzendorf wrote about God the Father, God the Son and last but definitely not the least God the Spirit, who Zinzendorf believed is described to have typical female characteristics.

The growing inequalities

I’m looking for a new place to live. All I need is an apartment, nothing fancy. In my search for a new home I can’t get this thing out of my head; how is it that it is so hard to find a place to live? Why does it feel like there is a growing gap between those with the fixed assets and the rest? Maybe I’m just imagining all or could it be that there actually is a growing inequality in the midst of a western society where the market economy and neoliberalism is gaining ground.I’m about to finish my paper on Guillebaud´s “Re-founding the World - A western Testament” (previous posting here) and as I finished reading and went back a few chapters I found this quote by Guillebaud as he comments on the situation in USA in particular (p124);

“the proponents of neoliberalism reassure (and defend) themselves by stressing that this resurgence of inequality has, in spite of everything, taken place against a backdrop of general prosperity, making the newly widened gap between rich and poor less painful and less iniquitous.”

My biggest fear is that Guillebaud might be right. There actually seems to be a growing gap of inequalities, which is more or less accepted. The next question is; How are we, the Church, gonna address this issue? How are we gonna respond? I believe in orthodoxy and orthopraxy. The two should always go hand in hand if we want to be trustworthy to the Gospel. As the church we should proclaim the salvation in Christ and the Kingdom of God. My biggest question that remains unanswered boils down to the praxis.