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The Radically Normal Christian Life

By Jeremy Myers
10 Comments

The Radically Normal Christian Life

radically normalI recently read a book called Radically Normal, and I found it to be shockingly refreshing.

To be honest, the book was much heavier on story-telling and narrative than most books I read, but I appreciated the insights and ideas that were behind the stories.

The bottom line idea from Josh Kelley is that Christians donโ€™t have to be weird to follow Jesus. We can live normal human lives. In fact, living normally may be the best way to reach out to our neighbors and love others like Jesus.

For example, on page 68, Josh Kelley writes about โ€œHarvest Partiesโ€ and โ€œReformation Dayโ€ celebrations as two of the things churches sometimes do to offer a โ€œChristian alternativeโ€ to Halloween. I laughed out loud at this because I remember attending โ€œHallelujah Partiesโ€ (instead of Halloween Parties) when I was younger. I always thought it was strange because everybody could still dress up in costumes and we still got candy, but we just didnโ€™t go door-to-door and say โ€œTrick or Treat!โ€ Anyway, John writes that he and his church specifically chose to not have any sort of Halloween substitute at their church because they figured that Halloween was an excellent time to be in the world but not of it. He is absolutely right!

The rest of the book contains similar examples of how we can be Jesus to others in a completely normal way. By doing so, we love people into the Kingdom rather than scare them off with our weirdness.

Each chapter in Radically Normal looks at one area where Christians often behave a little weirdly, and then shows how we can view these things a little more normally. He has a great chapter on parties (and how life and heaven is one big party), about money, evangelism, and several other critical Christian concerns.

To get a copy for yourself, buy Radically Normal on Amazon today!

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Christian living, evangelism

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Do Seminary and discipleship play nicely together?

By Jeremy Myers
20 Comments

Do Seminary and discipleship play nicely together?

seminary - blessed are the balancedBefore I went to seminary, my greatest fear of seminary was that I would freeze to death. Not literally, but spiritually. I tried my hardest in seminary to ward off the frostbite, but to this day, over six years after graduation, I am not sure whether or not I succeeded.

I Was Afraid of Freezing in Seminary

I certainly know a lot more about the Bible and theology than I did before entering seminary, but looking back over my life, the times I felt the closest to God were all before entering seminary. Of course, I tell myself that feelings arenโ€™t everything, but of course, feelings arenโ€™t nothing either. And so there is a part of me that is afraid that despite my best efforts to ward it off, I froze to death in seminary.

I wrote about entering seminary several years ago, and also about my post-seminary experience. ย Yet I am still struggling with much of the aftermath of seminary and whether it was a help or a hindrance to my life as a follower of Jesus.

A Book about Surviving Seminary that might have helped

So it was with great interest that I recently read Blessed are the Balanced by Paul E. Petit and R. Todd Mangum, which purports to be a book about how seminarians can maintain their passion for Jesus while in seminary and after graduation. Interestingly, they frequently used the โ€œfreezingโ€ and โ€œfrostbiteโ€ analogy in the book for what happens to many students while in seminary. I was also interested to see that both authors attended the same seminary I didโ€ฆ

Anyway, having read Blessed are the Balanced, I am not sure what to make of it.

On the one hand, I think the information it contained was good. If a person is in seminary, or is thinking about attending seminary, I recommend they read this book for helpful insights and suggestions on how to maintain a passion for Jesus while in seminary.

I also found the discussion in the book about the purpose of seminary to be extremely helpful (pp. 52-55) The authors equated seminary with boot camp where soldiers train for war. It is not the war itself, and in fact, many of the skills and behaviors learned at boot camp (or seminary) will never be used in war (and in fact, may be a hindrance). Nevertheless, it is helpful to learn these skills, not for their information, but for the way they teach discipline and commitment.

I think this is exactly true. I would not say that seminary taught me much that was helpful for life outside of seminary, but I would say that seminary taught me study habits and disciplined thinking patterns that have served me every day since graduation.

So in that sense the book was good. It really helped show what the seminarian should and should not expect to receive from seminary.

But while I was reading the book, it struck me as odd that I was reading a book about maintaining a relationship with Jesus which basically says that reading books can get in the way of maintaining our relationship with Jesus! It made me feel a little bit like an alcoholic who tries to beat his addiction to whiskey by turning to wine.

Nevertheless, what other way is there to learn information quickly than by reading? So I read the book.

If you are in Seminary…

Ultimately, I recommend this book, especially for people who are about to enter seminary, for those who are in seminary, or for those who have graduated from seminary. While many of us are acutely aware of the dangers of freezing in seminary, this book not only provides a good reminder of that danger and how to avoid it, but it also provides good insights for what seminary is (and is not) for.

If you are headed for seminary (or there right now), consider getting a copy of Blessed are the Balanced from Amazon and letting me know what you think!

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Discipleship, seminary

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The Trail by Ed Underwood

By Jeremy Myers
6 Comments

The Trail by Ed Underwood

the trailOne of my favorite bloggers and pastors is Ed Underwood. He has recently published a book with Tyndale called The Trail which is an allegory about finding God’s will.

I believe that allegories may be one of the best ways of teaching theology. The Chronicles of Narnia have been best-selling allegories for decades, and you may have heard of another popular allegory from a few years ago called The Shack.

Of course, the Bible, though not allegorical, still teaches theology in story form.

So when Ed Underwood came out with an allegory about finding God’s will, I was excited to read it, especially on a topic like finding God’s will. This is a subject that numerous people struggle with, and about which there is so much bad thinking and bad theology. For example, I had a friend in college who use to pray about God’s will for every decision, including which ice cream to get at Baskin and Robbins.

The other difficulty with finding God’s will is that there are so many people approaching God’s will from so many angles. Like my friend, some think we need to pray about literally everything. Then there are others who follow the Martin Luther approach, which is essentially just to “Love God and do what you want.” There are numerous other approaches as well.

Anyway, the beautiful thing about The Trail by Ed Underwood is that he takes two of the more common approaches to finding God’s will and incarnates them into two of the main characters in his book, Matt and Brenda. They learn about discovering God’s will as they trek with another character named Sam Lewis through the High Sierras.

It is a beautiful, compelling, and (most of all) helpful story. If you have questions about how to discover God’s will, I recommend you get a copy of The Trail and set out on a journey that will change your life.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading, Ed Underwood, Gods will

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Making Sense of the Bible

By Jeremy Myers
45 Comments

Making Sense of the Bible

Making Sense of the Bible

Making Sense of the Bible is the book I wish I had read 20 years ago. It would have saved me so much headache, heartache, and trouble as I have sought to make sense of how to understand what the Bible teaches about God, and how to reconcile the enemy-loving Jesus with the enemy-killing God in the Old Testament.

In Making Sense of the Bible , Adam Hamilton brings sanity back to the Bible wars. With clear explanation and compelling exhortation, he explains the doctrines of canonization, inspiration, and inerrancy in ways that make sense and liberate the Bible from the theological shackles in which we have bound it. In the end, Hamilton shows that the Bible is much more than what weโ€™ve been led to believe.

making sense of the BibleAs I finished the book, it gave me a new hope that the Bible is for today, and that God can speak to me through the pages of Scripture. Yet it did this by arguing against the traditional doctrines of inspiration and inerrancy, showing that the way these doctrines are taught today was not the way they were understood in the early church, and is not even what Scripture says about itself. Yet this does not mean the Bible not inspired, or that the Bible is hopelessly full of errors and cannot be trusted. Far from it, Adam Hamilton shows how we can trust the Bible, and how the Holy Spirit breathes life into the Bible so that we can understand it for today.

Best of all, this book closed with several chapters on pertinent theological questions for today, such as how to reconcile the Bible and science, how to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament, and how to make sense of what the Bible teaches about women, homosexuality, and the fate of those who have never heard the gospel.

The pastoral heart of Adam Hamilton really comes out in the book, and if you have ever had concerns about โ€œgoing down the slippery slopeโ€ by giving up the belief in the inspiration or inerrancy of Scripture, this book is an excellent source to see how someone can abandon these and still hold on to their faith. In fact, this book helped me see that giving up the traditional understandings of these doctrines can actually help strengthen oneโ€™s faith in God and aid one in following Jesus more closely. I highly recommend Making Sense of the Bible .

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: bible, books, Books I'm Reading, Theology of the Bible

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Convictions of Marcus Borg

By Jeremy Myers
10 Comments

Convictions of Marcus Borg

convictions - Marcus borgBack in 1995 I was a 5-point hyper Calvinist. Over the course of the next 3 years, and through studying various passages and reading various books, I dropped belief in the third point of Calvinism: Limited Atonement. But I told myself that I would never drop the other 4 points.

At that time, I read some book by Clark Pinnock (I donโ€™t remember the title) which recounted his exodus from Calvinism. He said that he too began by dropping Limited Atonement, and over the next several years, the other four points dropped out of his theology as well. He then went on to become a defender of inclusivism and open theism.

After reading that book, I wrote a paper called โ€œThe Pinnockio Pathโ€ in which I slammed Clark Pinnock for his theological conclusions. I basically called him a lying (Pinocchio โ€ฆ get it?) heretic. In the paper I said that while Pinnock had rightly dropped the third point of Calvinism, he should have stopped there (like me), for the rest of his theological journey led him into some strange lands and heretical conclusions.

Looking back now, I laugh at myself, for it appears I have traveled nearly the same road as Clark Pinnock. I donโ€™t defend inclusivism or open theism (Yet???), but I no longer consider myself a Calvinist of any shape or size. (I call myself a 2 and 1/2 point Calvinist, because I believe in half of each point: depravity, election, atonement, grace, and the saints).

I have also learned, I hope, to be a little more gracious toward those who have studied longer and traveled further than I have, knowing that I might end up exactly where they are, if I keep studying and following where Jesus leads (to the best of my ability).

All this is an introduction to a book I just finished reading, titled Convictions, by Marcus Borg. It is sort of a theological autobiography, in which Borg recounts his theological journey into what he calls โ€œProgressiveโ€ Christianity, and explains the central ideas and convictions (hence the name of the book) which led him to the central beliefs he now holds.

As I read, I found that strange sense of dรฉjร  vu from when I read Clark Pinnock so many years ago. I recognized that much of the early questions and studies that led Borg to where he now finds himself, are the same questions and studies that I am currently facing. Does that mean that just as I followed the โ€œPinnockio Pathโ€ I am now on the Path of the Borg so that โ€œresistance is futileโ€? (You Star Trek fans will get that.)

It could be. And if so, I accept it, because as I look at Borgโ€™s convictions, I find myself almost there already.

Convictions - Marcus BorgAmong his convictions which Marcus Borg explains in his book is the idea that salvation is about way more than just going to heaven when we die. As I have argued for years, the Gospel is about all of life, not just what happens to us after death. Salvation is not just about how we will live in the hereafter, but also how we live in the here and now.

Another conviction Borg unfolds is the idea that Jesus is the lens by which we must read an interpret all of Scripture. This too is something I have been writing about for two years or more, and am always thrilled when I encounter other writers and scholars saying the same thing.

Then he has a chapter on how the Penal Substitutionary view of the atonement leads to some bad theology about God and our sin. Borg argues that the cross still matters and is central to Christianity, but the cross was not some sort of blood sacrifice as a payment for sin or a strange way of God dealing with His own anger by killing His Son.

There are other chapters as well, all of them good. There was an excellent chapter on Borgโ€™s conviction about peace and non-violence.

The chapter that challenged me most was the chapter about how the Bible is true even though it isnโ€™t literally true. I am really grappling with the doctrines of inspiration and inerrancy right now, and found much of what Borg said to be helpful as he explained how he reads and understand the Bible, even though he doesnโ€™t believe the Bible is inerrant.

This is a great introduction to some of the central beliefs of Borg, and also to many of the central convictions of an ever-widening swath of Christians in the world today.

My only real complaint is that there were not more footnotes in the book. Since I would love to read up more on some of the ideas he presents, I would have liked to see more footnotes about where I can turn to study further, or at least a โ€œRecommended Readingโ€ list in the back.

Whether you agree with where Christianity is headed, or are fighting to hold back the tide, this book provides a good introduction to some of the convictions of progressive Christianity, and will both affirm and challenge many of your own theological convictions. I highly recommend it. You can get a copy of Convictions from Amazon.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: books, Books I'm Reading, marcus borg, Theology - General

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