Theology: Tell It To Me Straight So I Can Drive Right
For some people, the word "Theology" reminds them of pipe-smoking blazer tweed-suit with elbow patches middle-aged men posturing about obscure doctrines in the echo chamber of academia. Theological ping-pong as it were where the process of the little white balls going back and forth over the net of debate is primarily for the jollies and amusements of the professors with paddles playing.
The ball only has bounce, weight, and the motion of significance, in that dead air. Take the same game outside the walls, the pristine white ping-pong balls blow away when the brisk and strong winds of reality come a blowin'. The professors with paddles retreat back to the dusty and safe room, and get the help to drag the ping-pong table back inside. Or they drag the table back inside and one of him throws out his back and the other rips his boxers.
Lina and I have heard two extremely obscure and long-winded sermons in the last few years about Baptism that caused her to go comatose in the pew (it was NOT our pastor, for the record) and for me, who usually has a high tolerance for the theoretical, to grow weary.
Baptism sermons can be rich in teaching us about the covenental faithfulness of God. They can also be exercises in inaness. The two we heard were the latter. The points made could have been said in two to three sentences. No mas. Literally, the baby (main points) were thrown out with the baptismal water (minutiae).
One of the goals of this blog is to connect theology to practice. It is my nature to be theologically-minded. I am reader and a thinker. Have you seen my library? I love, in particular, to pontificate while driving. Which drives Lina crazy. The more I talk, the slower the motion of the car. I am like a smart phone that can only be a phone or a media device while being used. I cannot both drive well and pontificate well. There just is not enough cross-functionality built-in.
But, I am also practical. Working with teenagers in the public school often is akin to throwing whatever I have at an issue to try and knock it out. I will use anything legit to beat back a problem be it a metaphorical chair, pencil, or key chain. I will even use my bare hands. Getting by and keeping the car running is what we try to do. I win ugly a lot. We are not a wealthy district...we have to use what we have and cannot afford to be picky. School Districts that have a lot of money don't realy impress me. It is easy when you have the cash to buy and build nice things, programs, and hire the pedigreed people. Show me a strapped District that does good work, like Northeastern, then you have my profound respect.
When I was running some errands on Saturday (taking Lina's car to get the oil changed and other stuff while she worked on tasks at home), I happened to be listening to my wife's CD of Joyce Meyer's preaching. I am not real wild about women preachers as a rule but I do believe God has raised up Joyce Meyer to both encourage and confront the church. Being from Missouri, she is the epitomy of an individual from the "Show Me State." Heck, she is more of a theological man than some biological men.
Meyer does talk a lot but there is very little doubt of what she is speaking about and what it means in real life when we take our theology onto the road of life (as a note, her ministry has been on the receiving end of accusations of financial impropriety and undue extravagance which seem to have been adequately addressed by the ministry). She is also really funny in an ornery way.
Lina, as a Doer, loves how practical Joyce Meyer is. Deep within me (maybe because I was born in St. Louis, myself) I really like her preaching too. So many pastors there days either preach indigestible rock-like doctrine or the watered-down mealy-mouthed pablum such as this from Joel Osteen (painful to watch him trying to weasel). Can theology be practical?
Since I was born in St. Louis, one of our neighbors happened to be working on the Gateway Arch as an Engineer and I was able to take a ride on the elevator before the two sides of the Arch were joined and the work was completed. It was an interesting ride but profoundly incomplete (f my memory serves me right, either the Arch had not yet been completed or there was equipment failure in the elevator that kept us from making the complete journey. But the arch was finished in 1965 and I would have been two so it is unlikley that I would remember back that far. Who knows for sure).
Nonetheless, the metaphor stands: One side of the arch is theological, the other side is practical. And, the two must join and form an Arc. And, that is the "Gatway to the West" that the church must pass under as it does her work.
The ball only has bounce, weight, and the motion of significance, in that dead air. Take the same game outside the walls, the pristine white ping-pong balls blow away when the brisk and strong winds of reality come a blowin'. The professors with paddles retreat back to the dusty and safe room, and get the help to drag the ping-pong table back inside. Or they drag the table back inside and one of him throws out his back and the other rips his boxers.
Lina and I have heard two extremely obscure and long-winded sermons in the last few years about Baptism that caused her to go comatose in the pew (it was NOT our pastor, for the record) and for me, who usually has a high tolerance for the theoretical, to grow weary.
Baptism sermons can be rich in teaching us about the covenental faithfulness of God. They can also be exercises in inaness. The two we heard were the latter. The points made could have been said in two to three sentences. No mas. Literally, the baby (main points) were thrown out with the baptismal water (minutiae).
One of the goals of this blog is to connect theology to practice. It is my nature to be theologically-minded. I am reader and a thinker. Have you seen my library? I love, in particular, to pontificate while driving. Which drives Lina crazy. The more I talk, the slower the motion of the car. I am like a smart phone that can only be a phone or a media device while being used. I cannot both drive well and pontificate well. There just is not enough cross-functionality built-in.
But, I am also practical. Working with teenagers in the public school often is akin to throwing whatever I have at an issue to try and knock it out. I will use anything legit to beat back a problem be it a metaphorical chair, pencil, or key chain. I will even use my bare hands. Getting by and keeping the car running is what we try to do. I win ugly a lot. We are not a wealthy district...we have to use what we have and cannot afford to be picky. School Districts that have a lot of money don't realy impress me. It is easy when you have the cash to buy and build nice things, programs, and hire the pedigreed people. Show me a strapped District that does good work, like Northeastern, then you have my profound respect.
When I was running some errands on Saturday (taking Lina's car to get the oil changed and other stuff while she worked on tasks at home), I happened to be listening to my wife's CD of Joyce Meyer's preaching. I am not real wild about women preachers as a rule but I do believe God has raised up Joyce Meyer to both encourage and confront the church. Being from Missouri, she is the epitomy of an individual from the "Show Me State." Heck, she is more of a theological man than some biological men.
Meyer does talk a lot but there is very little doubt of what she is speaking about and what it means in real life when we take our theology onto the road of life (as a note, her ministry has been on the receiving end of accusations of financial impropriety and undue extravagance which seem to have been adequately addressed by the ministry). She is also really funny in an ornery way.
Lina, as a Doer, loves how practical Joyce Meyer is. Deep within me (maybe because I was born in St. Louis, myself) I really like her preaching too. So many pastors there days either preach indigestible rock-like doctrine or the watered-down mealy-mouthed pablum such as this from Joel Osteen (painful to watch him trying to weasel). Can theology be practical?
Since I was born in St. Louis, one of our neighbors happened to be working on the Gateway Arch as an Engineer and I was able to take a ride on the elevator before the two sides of the Arch were joined and the work was completed. It was an interesting ride but profoundly incomplete (f my memory serves me right, either the Arch had not yet been completed or there was equipment failure in the elevator that kept us from making the complete journey. But the arch was finished in 1965 and I would have been two so it is unlikley that I would remember back that far. Who knows for sure).
Nonetheless, the metaphor stands: One side of the arch is theological, the other side is practical. And, the two must join and form an Arc. And, that is the "Gatway to the West" that the church must pass under as it does her work.
Comments
1. I find that I simply cannot tolerate Joyce Meyers or any number of the super-rich "prophets" who so obviously live in a world far-removed from the great unwashed multitude. Suspicion rules whenever they open their mouths, particularly when their ministries hide or "spin" financial details about their compensation. So, she may have lots of good things to say, but I just ain't gonna hear them until I'm convinced that at some level she herself is attempting to be a faithful disciple of Jesus. I just cannot imagine what Paul would say about the lifestyles of our current generation of "prophets."
2. What is the purpose of preaching? One definition might be to fulfill the great commission by making disciples. If this is palatable, one thinks of all kinds of things that are important: culturally relevant to the listener, unburdened by technical terminology, rich with suggestions for application, and culminating with How To.
I too have issues with those who profit financially off the Gospel. Yet, one reason that I like the PCA is that we pay our pastors well. Too often, being in ministry means that though that could afford to pay more, we won't under the guise off "it is ministry." Instead, we are cheap and are withholding wages from the workers. So, there is a balance.
Joyce Meyer's ministry within the last year or so has been cleared by and accepted by ECFA...I am not saying that there are not issues still yet it is a step in the right direction.
I know that my wife has been greatly blessed by listening to Joyce Meyer...and that very personal fruit is something that I cannot deny. It would be ungrateful of me to say otherwise.
Keller, like most good "Christian writers" (I think Keller is a good writer but not great) has been influenced greatly by both C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer.
Whereas Lewis was from a different inspirational stream (English Lit), Schaeffer was most definitely hugely influenced by both Van Til and Rushdoony. Neither man is given his due by Schaeffer.
As a populizer, Schaeffer made the presuppositional apologetic of Van Til accessible to the lay reader and then combined it with cultural analysis. His work was much needed and it is truly hard to fathom how much worse we would be if he had not done the work.
Although Keller does give some press to Lewis, he actually takes a lot more from Lewis idea-wise that perhaps he is even conscious of. It is not plagiarism as such but I recognize a lot in Keller that has already been stated by Lewis--and quite better I might add. He may mention Schaeffer more. I don't recall.
Keller is a pastor who has done a remarkable work in Redeemer. I don't want to dis him. But, his work to me seems like retreading. Maybe I am just envious of the accolades he receives?
Re: Keller.
I agree he is not a "great" writer, but I have given his book to non-believers who have actually read it. I think he is culturally connected in his setting. I was somewhat amazed last summer to see that Keller was on the faculty of WCA Leadership Summit. He was very well received and, I believe, impacted many of the attendees. Bottom line for me with Keller is that he connects with a large segment of 21st century American culture and that Floats My Boat. As NT Wright says, Paul did some amazing (perhaps awful) things to connect to the culture in which he found himself and that, for me, is a bellweather for the work of the church in fulfilling the great commission to both the world and the church. We really should chat sometime...
Keller is a great contextualizer and his new book of idols seems to getting into are area ripe for examination.