The Bible Nerd

I grew up during the heyday of the Religious Right. Ralph Reed and the gang had triumph after triumph with Ronald Reagan and the two George Bush’s. Tons of money was raised, and awareness of political issues was brought to the eyes of the Evangelical church. There were even pastors running for presidential office! Being a Republican who emulated Alex P. Keaton (Family Ties reference there, sorry), I was young and was swept up in all the excitement. I graduated with a political science degree, and it seemed like Christianity was retaking America. Then, we all woke up. Abortion law? Never repealed. Same sex marriage? Gaining ground. Morality in politics? Anyone remember Bill Clinton?

In the midst of all of this, I have struggled to escape the opinion that many non Christians have that all Evangelicals are Fundamentalists (in the most negative, Jerry Falwell sense of the word). Bible thumping, intolerant, ugly signs wearing people have often put us deep in a hole when trying to share the Gospel of Jesus. Yet, as soon as you say that you are an Evangelical Christian, some people will simply lump you into the camp who make routine guest appearances on talk shows, because the host knows they are good for at least a few outrageous comments. That is why I appreciated Roger Olson”s book How to be Evangelical without being Conservative.  Though he is a little older than I am, I connected strongly with Olson’s experience and struggle with the term “conservative”. What many of us Evangelicals mean by conservative is not necessarily what the world thinks it means.

Olson looks at several different topics and discusses how the term “conservative” has been hijacked and applied to one view of Christianity or the church that isn’t always positive. He explains that the opposing view is not “liberal” in any sense of today’s usage of that word, but rather a differing view WITHIN the Evangelical circle. I don’t agree with all of his points (other than the Bible, how many books do we totally agree with?), yet I love his approach to create a new category he calls post conservative. Yes, I know, just like with my last post on “missional”, some of you may be tired of people just adding “post” to a term and acting like it is a cool new word (post modern, post evangelical, postman… opps, not the last one).

In the book, he also clarifies what he views as the defining characteristics of the term “evangelical”, which he backs up with church history and personal experience. Though I have called myself an Evangelical for years, I don’t think I thought in detail about what that actually meant. To me, it was just a way to say I was not part of an older, mainstream denomination. I could lump all the “non denominational” churches into this one category. In the hopes of seeing greater unity in the body of Christ, I believe definitions like his are critical to establish the foundational beliefs, while separating out the secondary ones.

I realize that some people will fear or hate this book, seeing some of Olson’s comments as “liberal” or non patriotic to his own country. He is definitely not getting invited to any of the religious right’s conferences, nor will many churches in the south of the United States feel comfortable with some of his conclusions. However, I still recommend his book to get you thinking about labels that both we and non Christians use such as evangelical and conservative. I still am a strong believer in Christians voting, being involved in social and political issues, and caring about the health of their nations. We should squeeze everything we can out of a democracy for Jesus (if you live in one). We do need to take care though that the face we put forward to the world isn’t one full of hateful, prejudicial, or judgmental voices. The Gospel is good news after all.

Blog side note: Speaking of book recommendations, I am currently beginning work on a book of my own entitled “The Next Reformation”. Due to this endeavor, I won’t be able to post as much on this blog as I have in the past. I know there is nothing sadder than checking a blog and seeing the last post was in 2007. I promise to keep plugging away and do at least one per week, and I appreciate so much everyone who has been reading the blog and sent me encouraging notes. Let us all continue to be hungry for God’s Word and press on to study, apply, and teach its riches to the world.

I would like you all to think that I am really smart and thought of all that stuff about the church on my own. But alas, there is this annoying command in the Bible not to lie, so I guess I have to tell you about some books that I read this summer that helped challenge my thoughts on the church. I would highly recommend that you check these out if you haven’t already, and most are available on the Kindle as well, if you want to save trees and a few bucks.

The first was Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. I was excited to see these authors teaming up again as I thoroughly enjoyed their last book called Why We Aren’t Emergent. Clearly, you can see where these guys are going just from the title of the book, and they don’t disappoint to address what they see as alarming trends in the bashing of the church. It is not that they are simply defending the traditional church, although they are from a Reformed background. Without trashing all the authors they disagree with, they engage in a discussion on the trend of people exiting the church and creating “new paradigms” for engaging God. Kevin, a pastor,  tackles the Biblical foundations as well as the apologetic defense of their stance. Ted, a sports writer, provides interviews, real life stories, and humorous analysis to complement the academic chapters of Kevin. After reading this book, you will see the view of people who know that the church isn’t perfect, are actively involved in reform, yet still love the church and many of it’s current components.

The second book will take you in a completely different direction. Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna makes the claim that much of what the traditional church does today was taken from “pagan” (non Christian) sources and has nothing to do with Biblical Christianity, especially that of the early church. I appreciated their research and scholarship on showing the parallels and links from changes to the church with pagan culture. The question you need to be asking yourself as you read this book is, “Does God use “pagan” means to accomplish His will? does God redeem these cultural expressions for His glory?” If you read any of Frank Viola’s other works, some also with input from Barna, you will see their belief is that we should all return to the house church model, and dump much of what we see as “church” today in favor of organic, simple church. If you read this book together with Viola’s Reimagining Church, you would get a perspective of people who love the church, but see the need for massive reform.

The third book I would recommend is Deep Church by Jim Belcher. This book could have easily been called a Third Way, as Jim plots a course for what he sees as an alternative to traditional church or emerging church. First, he presents what the emerging church movement is, and outlines his involvement in both the traditional and emerging church. Then, Jim takes seven major critiques that the emerging church has of the traditional church and analyzes the validity of the criticism. Often, instead of picking either side as what he sees as correct, he describes a “third way” that he calls the “deep church”. I find it pretty interesting that this deep church ends up being a Redeemer Presbyterian Church (yes, same as Tim Keller) which is a Reformed church. Who knew liturgy would be “in” again? Deep Church will mainly be helpful to you to be able to see the two sides of traditional and emerging, and even if you don’t agree with Jim’s solutions, you will be challenged to come up with your own.

Finally, the best book on church out there is still the Bible (no Amazon link here, if you can’t find a Bible on your own, you have bigger problems than figuring out your beliefs on church). I know, shocker. Seriously though, I was often disappointed in the lack of Scriptural evidence and discussion in many of the books I read about the church. At times, there was Scripture quoted without serious analysis, background, or context given at all. Sure, it is more work to study through the whole New Testament, book by book, putting together what you learn about the church. However, until you do that, you will be at the mercy of book after book, conference after conference, telling you what is the more “Biblical” way to do church or be church. This year you will start your house church, next year you will be opening up a new cafe at a seeker mega congregation, followed by selling flowers at the airport. Don’t forget your name tag.

I am supposed to be moving on now to the third and final “mystery of the faith” or “apparent paradox” of the incarnation of Christ.  But before we get to that, I have just got to give a plug for a book that every Bible nerd should read.  Also, I just flew about 4,000 miles (not me personally, but the airplane) to get somewhere, and my brain is way too mushy to be diving into deep, theological waters.  Don’t you love it when people start out a teaching, preaching, or post with an apology?  “I am really jet lagged right now, so I am not sure what’s going to happen this morning”, or “My kids kept me awake all night long, so I can’t think straight.”  Talk about taking all your motivation to listen right out from the beginning!  What you really mean is, “I am afraid my teaching is going to stink this morning, but if I warn you beforehand, it’s not my fault you stayed and listened.”  Public Speaking 101 please.

Vishal Mangalwadi’s book “The Book that Made your World:  How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization”  is by far one of the best books that I have read this year.  It instantly makes the list of books that not only every Bible nerd should read, but anyone in Christian ministry (which is every Christian…).   In his work, Vishal sets out to show how the Bible is the key foundational source for the advancements of Western civilization.  He debunks current, secular myths that many of these advancements came from socio-political factors or Greek civilization.

Vishal puts into words what I have been thinking about for years now.  I was in a discussion with someone, and asked them what country would they want to live in that IS NOT  “Christianized”  or has been seriously influenced by a Biblical worldview.  This was a woman with a teenage daughter, so all the Muslim nations quickly dropped out of her options.  All of her options outside of the US were all in Europe.  Even had she mentioned a few select places like Japan, who have prosperity and freedom but isn’t a “Christianized” nation,  most of those advancements in Japan are due to their adopting the principles from the West.

Then, I had a discussion with my Bible study in Taiwan, where I challenged them with the thought that there is nothing inherently good with the West.  Without the influence of the Bible, there would be no advancements in Western civilization.  We would still be Vikings raping and pillaging, or running around the forest with paint on our face building Stonehenge.  There are concrete reasons why Taiwan has prospered in ways that China has not, even though they share the same language, culture, and history.  Taiwan’s close ties with the United States brought in Western influence and concessions (like democracy).  Yet, those alliances and influences would not have existed without the Biblical worldview that was utilized in the founding of America.

Thankfully, Vishal is way smarter than me and has spent a lot of time researching this.  I guess this is what you have to do in order to write a book.  Sigh!  I am quite sure that Vishal was not jet legged when he wrote this book, and it needs no apologies before you begin.  If you wonder why we love the Bible so much, why we go to the ends of the earth to teach it, and why we should thank God every day for this book, Vishal’s work will be the encouragement you need to press on.