ShelfLife

Two quotes stick in my mind as I finished up the book this week:

1. Dallas Willard’s quote from The Divine Conspiracy that says, “Your system is perfectly designed to yield the result you are getting.”

1. A quote from a lecture on leadership given by Andy Stanley where he said, “To reach people no one else is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing.”

I think these quotes sum up the message Moreland has been trying to communicate throughout all 10 chapters of this book.  Our church “system” in America is yielding a result and the result is marginal, at best.  As with many things in life, admitting there is a problem is often the first step towards transformation.  That is why I think these quotes are relevant.  If we want to yield a different result, then we are going to have to change the system and do things that no one else is doing.  To me, this reality is very challenging, to say the least.

When faced with challenges like this, my mental pendulum swings dramatically before finally settling somewhere in the middle.  At this moment, my pendulum is pretty far to the side of, “I’m not sure the American mega-church is the best environment to accomplish the goals Moreland presented in this book.”  It seems like the greater the number of people, the more divided the interests and the more moderate everything has to be.  I am thankful that Watermark does try, as was evidenced this past weekend with the guest William Lane Craig (and trying something like this blog!), however, for some reason I feel like we are too big to make any quick and far reaching changes.

On the flip side, the size of our church brings many great opportunities to try to raise the value of intellectualism.  More people usually means more resources and the ability to conduct little experiments like this blog, guest speakers and other one-time equipping classes.  With so many season-of-life specific ministries offered at Watermark, I find it refreshing that we can start something new and know up front that each new endeavor is not intended to reach everyone.  We have the freedom to try a lot of stuff and see what sticks.

So, what is next for ShelfLife and how can it help to foster some change?  To be honest, we are not sure.  Week #1 of this book started off with a bang from a dialogue perspective and was really fun.  Then, as you all can tell, the dialogue stopped.  We’re not sure why that happened, but our suspicion is that although the content of the book was excellent, it didn’t lend itself easily to good dialogue beyond the first two chapters.  Despite the fast start and slow finish, we believe there is a need in our church body to provide a forum for more mature believers to converse about topics that are not regularly discussed on Sunday morning, in our community groups or in most equipping classes.  Our hope is that ShelfLife can help to meet that need.

In the meantime, as the ShelfLife team talks through a few ideas for “what’s next”, we’d love to hear from those of you who followed along the past four weeks:

• Did you enjoy the book?
• Why do you believe the dialogue stopped after chapter 2?
• Do you believe electronic communication (i.e. a blog) is a good forum to discuss books like the one we just read?
• What would have made this test run better?
• Besides simply reading a book and talking about it on-line, what are some other things ShelfLife can do to help meet the needs discussed above?
• Would you participate again?
• What other general or specific suggestions do you have to help make this a better tool for the body?

If you’d rather not post your answers as a response, please feel free to email me directly at adtarnow@yahoo.com .

~Adam Tarnow

Let’s face it, we’re men. It comes naturally to us to compartmentalize everything… Be honest, how many times has your wife said to put down the paper and “talk to her” even though you know that you can read and “talk” at the same time? But we do this…we compartmentalize family and other relationships, work and fun, food and exercise (for me especially lately), and feelings and truth, to name a few. While sometimes this can be a useful trait, it can also be very dangerous when we do this in our spiritual lives – when we separate Sunday from the rest of the week – and particularly when we view our jobs simply as a means to earn a living and nothing more.

In Chapter 9, J.P. Moreland continues the theme that begins in Chapter 1 of cautioning us to stop segregating our faith (the “sacred”) and our everyday lives (the “secular”) (p. 174). Specifically, he exhorts us to integrate our Christian worldview with our vocation. Early in the book, Moreland says “If I am a plumber, clerk, bank manager, homemaker, elected official, senior citizen, or migrant worker, I am in “full time” Christian service no less than someone who earns his or her living in a specifically religious role” (p. 12). Let that soak in for a minute….Christian service is not left to the paid church staff “professionals,” but is a calling to all who claim to be Christ-followers and in whatever profession you are engaged in. If you haven’t thought about all the ways that your particular job intersects with the eternal priorities of God, I would encourage you to burn some quiet time and do just that.

Several years ago, I began to question the significance of what I was doing professionally. I was practicing law at the time and felt like I had some great opportunities to speak into folks’ lives at the point where they were most troubled (if you’ve ever been involved in litigation, you know that it’s emotionally, financially, and spiritually difficult). And while there were some great opportunities to share with my clients, overall, I began to wrestle with whether I was still on the sidelines or actually in the game in terms of advancing God’s kingdom on earth. I was successful – but was it success at “meaningless” things? How would someone sum up my life after my death? Most importantly, what would I say to God about how I had stewarded not just my time and money, but my vocation as well?

Scripture teaches that life is a “vapor.” So, how was I doing at the things that God clearly called me to be concerned about – sharing the gospel, loving others, serving the poor, actually seeking out those in need (outside of my safe circles of friends, family, and colleagues). You do not need to “meditate” over the meaning of passages like Isaiah 58, Micah 6:8, James 1:27, Matthew 25:31-46, and Luke 10:25-37. They are clear enough for my 7 year old to understand and apply. Why then are we not doing better in this area?

Please don’t hear me say that the conclusion you should reach is to leave your profession and go into paid ministry. While allowing for the fact that might be exactly what God is asking of you, the world really needs devoted Christian plumbers, bankers, business folks, architects, construction workers, computer techs and teachers – who are living out scriptural principles in all aspects of their work. We need to be engaging our culture, wherever we are. And, God may very well haveplaced you right where you are for maximum kingdom impact. So, explore that…and be very sensitive to the Spirit’sleading. And, be sure that your heart is in a place to obey whatever the Lord might lead you to do. Make sure everything is “on the table”. Otherwise, save yourself the effort. There are some great books and resources out there to help you generally (i.e. “Don’t Waste Your Life” by Piper, “Crazy Love” by Chan, “Holy Discontent” by Ortberg, “The Purpose Driven Life” by Warren, “The Hole in our Gospel” by Stearns, etc). Then there are vocation-specific resources (i.e. for me it was “A Lawyer’s Calling”). Moreland also suggests gathering in groups centered on vocations. I think this is a great idea. Also check out these Internet resources: http://www.christianitytoday.com/workplace/features/living.html

So, if you haven’t already, take a cue from Moreland and spend some time thinking and praying about your profession particularly and ways that your faith should inform the various aspects of your work and then also consider how to use your particular professional strengths to directly advance the kingdom in even more impactful ways.

~Jeff Ward

I’ll never forget my first “real” encounter with a moral relativist.  I was traveling on an airplane for work from Atlanta, GA to Anchorage, AK and was I sitting in a row with three seats.  I was in the aisle seat, a middle aged woman named Jerry was in the middle, and a man in his late twenties named Derek was sitting by the window.  As the flight took off, I was doing what I normally try to do on an airplane: not talk to anyone.  When the beverage service started, I overheard Derek say to Jerry something about how Jesus was a “good teacher, but not God.”  I listened to Derek espouse his “spiritual views” and after about 10 minutes I decided I would ask God whether or not He wanted me to join this conversation.  I’ve never had a prayer answered so quickly and so surely in my life.  So, I took a deep breath and ask Derek and Jerry if I could join their conversation.  Derek and Jerry were more than happy to let me join and began to ask me why I believe what I believe.

My answers were heartfelt, yet simple.  Everything for me changed when I began to see my bad behavior as more than just mistakes and actually realized they were sins against God.  “At that point,” I told them, “I came to see my need for Jesus.  I came to see that I needed my sins to be forgiven and realized that Jesus died on my behalf as payment for my sins.”

The conversation continued back and forth for a few more minutes, but I was having trouble trying to figure out what it was exactly that Derek believed.  He was very spiritual and seemed to believe everything, except that Jesus was the Son of God and savior of the world.  I finally asked Derek how he thought his sin was going to impact him when he died and he gave me an answer that I’ll never forget.  He said, “Well Adam, in my world, there is no sin.”

I was stunned.  I had never heard anyone say something like that before.  What Derek meant, was that in his worldview, there was no concept of “sin” and therefore no need for a savior.  There really wasn’t any right or wrong in his worldview.  Therefore, he was fine keeping Jesus as a teacher, because Derek’s worldview didn’t have any need for a savior.

I have to admit, once he said that, I had no defense.  All I knew at that time was good news and bad news.  The bad news is everyone’s a sinner and needs a savior.  The good news is Jesus is that savior.  Derek completely stole my thunder and I just went back to reading my book thinking to myself, “Oh well, one day he’ll see I’m right and he’s wrong.”

Looking back, I’m kind of embarrassed.  I know God is sovereign and I have no way of knowing what Derek took away from that conversation.  But looking at that conversation on a purely surface level, I was ill equipped to intelligently respond to his relativistic worldview.  What may even be more embarrassing is that it took years before I took that time to think through what a good response to Derek may have been.  I was fine once I was able to retreat back into my holy huddle of suburban white middle class Christianity.

After reading chapter seven, I must say I wish I would have done something similar to Moreland’s attempt at stealing the student’s stereo to make his point (page 153-154).  I guess I could have thrown my Diet Coke in his face or made the guy sitting in front of him lean his seat all the way back or something cool like that.

Learning how to communicate the gospel of salvation clearly is invaluable and without a doubt should be a priority of the church.  But I wonder how many conversations Christians engage in with a skeptical or morally relativistic person that never make it to the point where the gospel of salvation can be shared because we cannot intelligently speak to a person’s skepticism, their philosophy of science, or their moral relativism?

The more I read in this book the more I see how vital it is for us to do all we can to better equip ourselves so that conversations with all the “Dereks” in this world don’t end like mine did.  I left that conversation happy I had a group of people who believed the same thing I did and Derek left that conversation a man who was still in need of a savior.

~Adam Tarnow