March 17th, 2010

Live blog by Chipper Flaniken

To view the live-stream for Christine Pohl’s lecture on hospitality, visit here: http://tiuproductions.com/livestream/

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding welcomes Dr. Christine Pohl, Professor of Church in Society at Asbury Theological Seminary

At 1:00 PM in the ATO Chapel of TEDS, Dr. Pohl will be delivering a lecture entitled:

“Practicing Hospitality in Troubled Times: Promise and Peril for the Church”

See below for a summary:

Offering hospitality to strangers was a distinctive feature of ancient Christian life. The biblical texts and tradition, Jesus’ practice and explicit teachings, and the needs of the ancient church and world combined to make hospitality a central aspect of Christian discipleship. In the last 500 years, transformative understandings of hospitality have been mostly lost, and with them, some crucial insights into Christian witness, social ministry and congregational life. Giving fresh attention to an ancient practice allows us to see the close connection between theology and everyday life, and offers promise and challenge to the contemporary church.

Begin Live Blog:

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Introduction

-  In the church today, our hospitality tends to be fairly tame and “safe”

-  It doesn’t really cost us.

Hospitality in Scripture

1. True hospitality is present from the the very beginning of Scripture until the very end, in fact, true hospitality is a condensing of the gospel

2. It wasn’t easy, but the NT finds leaders challenging each other to be welcoming

- Hebrews 13 - we may even be entertaining angels!

- 1 Peter 4 - hospitality is vital yet costly

3. Hospitality was practiced in the church and in the home

4. Hospitality was often practiced around meals

5. Hospitality was connected to the divine

- Jesus makes a close link to this in Matthew 25

- Jesus presents a hospitality parable in Luke 14:12-14

A History of Hospitality:

In the early church, hospitality was a vital apologetic

- as expressed by many writers, including Justin Martyr

The church reformers valued hospitality

The reformers, including Martin Luther, spoke very favorably of hospitality

John Calvin commended Christians engaged in the welcoming of refugees.

However, in their efforts to reform the church, Luther and Calvin did not recover the importance of hospitality in congregational life.

This is a critical issue, because vibrant hospitality occurs when there is overlap between society and the church.

If there is too much emphasis on the social/civic side, hospitality becomes disconnected and scattered.

18th Century - John Wesley recovered many of the practices of hospitality - such as eating meals together and visiting. But he did not call it hospitality since the term “hospitality” lacked a moral significance in England.

The argument is not that hospitality was damaged intentionally, but hospitality has been altered into something shallower in the Christian church over the past several centuries.

Wesley’s understanding of hospitality was much closer to the practices of the early church, so his views certainly deserve a closer look.

The Resurgence of Hospitality in the Modern Church

Why is this important?

1. Hospitality provides us a fresh lens that we can use to think about our faith

- we gain fresh perspective on discipleship

2. Hospitality is critical to the credibility of the gospel

- without hospitality, it is easy to dismiss truth.

- Robert Webber: the most significant apologetic for the Christian faith will be the hospitality found in the local church. This will become the new apologetic. People will come to faith not through arguments, but through fellowship.

Illustration: Christian community in rural Georgia. It is a rural Christian community that attracts 3,000 visitors per year simply because strangers are attracted to see how this Christian body loves and serves refugees.

3. New Christians hear about the gospel through intimate relationship!

- This is what allows for discipleship

4. People are much more alone than they used to be.

- People in lots of churches have no family close by. Thus, the church can help reconstruct families out of people who have come to be parts of these congregations.

- Churches have generally embraced a social service model. We serve meals, but we don’t sit down and have conversations with them, or invite them into our church. This is artificial and destructive! We are not just providing a social service

5.  People today are open to mystery!

- People understand that life has to consist in more than how much money they make. This is a dangerous search unless the church longs to meet these yearnings!

The Perils of Hospitality

What is in danger when we practice hospitality?

1. When we practice hospitality, our lives and our lifestyles are in danger!

- our lives are more exposed when we practice hospitality - especially when we become friends with people unlike ourselves. Hospitality forces us to live closer to our limits. Our frailties are exposed!

- hospitality stretches us! It involves a dieing to self. It is costly!

- we worry about embracing hospitality because we think that strangers might take advantage of us

- we must become willing to live with a certain amount of risk while still protecting the vulnerable people in our families.

- hospitality is safer in the context of community, so since we have smaller families today,

2. Since it is so potent, hospitality can be misused!

- many in the Christian tradition have used hospitality as a means of being idle

- but the churches founds ways to deal with this!

- Calvin wrote that people in need should be helped, but their circumstances should be inquired about. But remember, don’t cover your stinginess under the shadow of prudence!

- We have to start with God’s gracious character and generosity. This gives us a better set of resources to deal with the hard cases.

3. Hospitality can endanger our reputations and our experience of privilege

- transformative hospitality assumes that true hospitality moves in both directions! Other people need to be enabled to used their gifts of service!

4. We hesitate to do significant hospitality because we are worried about losing time and money.

- protecting family time and rest are important things to do, and there are times when we have to limit our hospitality!

- Francis Schaeffer: It is not sinful to be finite!

5. Hospitality endangers our plans

- hospitality interferes with our idea of efficiency and measureable results

6. Hospitality can interfere with our cherished way of life

- a shared way of life in good and compelling, and when we welcome people that are different than us, it can change our own identities.

- we have to be wise about what values we change, and which aspects of our community we are willing to adapt.

Discourse on hospitality as resistance

- our acts of welcome and respect toward people different than ourselves are particularly important when the world says they aren’t worth our time

- when we welcome these types of people, their self-assessment changes. Our opinions are influenced by what people think about us! There is nothing more dangerous than being invisible or having a place to contribute.

- in this way, hospitality is an important means of pursuing justice.

- the most vulnerable people in the world are those without vibrant relationships. These people need places to share their gifts! They need a home!

7. When in ministry, we must separate dignity from need! Otherwise we can easily humiliate the people that we help.

- hospitality reminds us that respect does not need to be drained from relationships when someone has significant needs.

8. there is peril in hospitality because it is effective in forging relationships, so it can be exploited by ambition. Don’t turn hospitality into a form of commercial exchange! We are goal oriented, which can be a dangerous thing.

- Hospitality cannot just be a strategy for church growth or evangelism! There are few contexts that are better for sharing the gospel.

9.  Hospitality is dangerous because it draws us so close to God’s mystery. It’s full of surprise and mystery!

- it can be crazy and unpredictable!

- when you talk with practicioners of hospitality, you often find that you get more than you give! God moves through these circumstances to effect the givers.

- however, we cannot carve our days into mundane things and the things that we think will effect the kingdom! We cannot build this distinction into our days!

The Henry Center is pleased to announce two upcoming events.

First, in partnership with Lausanne 2010, it will host a conversation on conversation on global Christianity and cultural engagement on March 17, 2010 at 9am in ATO Chapel.  The TIU community and the local evangelical community is invited to this exciting conversation, which will feature such leading evangelical thinkers as Tite Tienou of TEDS, Doug Birdsall (Executive Chairman of Lausanne), Andy Crouch of Christianity Today, Bethany Hoang of International Justice Mission, and Peter Cha of TEDS.  Skye Jethani of Leadership Journal will moderate the discussion.

Trinity is one of a select group of locations for Lausanne gatherings, including New York City, Boston, and Pasadena.  Please join the Henry Center and other distinguished guests for the March 17^th conversation.

Visit http://www.lausanne.org/global-conversation/chicagotrinity-gathering.html for more information.  The event will likely be live-streamed and recorded for later posting on this website.

Second, on Wednesday, March 17^th at 1pm in ATO Chapel, the Henry Center will sponsor a Scripture & Ministry lecture by Dr. Christine Pohl of Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, Kentucky) on “Practicing Hospitality in Troubled Times: Promise and Peril for the Church”.  The lecture is free and open to the entire TIU community.

The following is a brief description of the talk:

Offering hospitality to strangers was a distinctive feature of ancient Christian life. The biblical texts and tradition, Jesus’ practice and explicit teachings, and the needs of the ancient church and world combined to make hospitality a central aspect of Christian discipleship. In the last 500 years, transformative understandings of hospitality have been mostly lost, and with them, some crucial insights into Christian witness, social ministry and congregational life. Giving fresh attention to an ancient practice allows us to see the close connection between theology and everyday life, and offers promise and challenge to the contemporary church.

Clearly, the issue of hospitality relates broadly to essential Christian themes and practices.  Attendees of the lecture will benefit from a richly scriptural and theological look at a Christian calling that many attempt to practice but few fully appreciate.

Please join the Center for these two upcoming events, which are free and open to all.

The Henry Center is pleased to announce that Dr. Richard Mouw’s recent Scripture and Ministry Series lecture and interview are now posted free of charge for the viewing of the general public.

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January 20, 2010 | Richard Mouw | Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA “Confessions of an Evangelical Pietist” (1pm in ATO Chapel at TEDS)

The Christian community needs to work at integrating our doctrine, action and piety (”head, hands and heart”). But which takes priority? And a closely related issue: what, in the most basic sense, is the Bible trying to “do” to us? Shape the way we think? Guide us in the activist programs we align ourselves with in the word? Transform our inner life? Obviously, all three are crucial. In this lecture, Richard Mouw explains why he keeps coming back to the fundamental need to be guided in everything else by the kind of piety that characterized the “sawdust trail” of our revivalist past.

Confessions of an Evangelical Pietist | Video | Audio | Audience Q&A (Audio)
Interview | Video | Audio

The Henry Center is pleased to announce that videos of talks presented at the 2009 Conference on Short-Term Missions are now posted free of charge for the viewing of the general public.

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July 30 - August 1, 2009 | Conference on Short-Term Missions - Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

In the summer of 2009, building on the momentum of the Henry Center’s Lima, Peru conference in 2006 (henrycenter.org/international), Dr. Robert Priest (TEDS) led a conference on Trinity’s campus on the topic of short-term mission. The conference brought together scholars, pastors, missiologists, anthropologists, youth pastors, missionaries, students and laity to think biblically and practically about short-term missions.

Miriam Adeney — Associate Professor of Global and Urban Ministries, Seattle Pacific University
“What We Can Learn From China: Short-Term Missions in the Dragon Kingdom | Video

Eric Iverson — Multicultural Integrity Director, Youthworks
“One Cross at a Time: The Mission Agency’s Role in Building the Missional Church” | Video

Oscar Muriu — Pastor, Nairobi Chapel, Nairobi, Kenya
“Short-Term Missions from a Kenyan Pastor’s Perspective” | Video

Kara Powell — Executive Director, Fuller Youth Institute; Assistant Professor of Youth and Family Ministry, Fuller Theological Seminary
“Deep Justice Journeys and STM for Youth”| Video

Robert J. Priest — Director, PhD Progam in Intercultural Studies, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Professor of Mission and Intercultural Studies, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
“Megachurches and Short-Term Missions: New Priorities and Paradigms of Mission” | Video

Kurt Ver Beek — Assistant Professor of Sociology, Calvin College
“Different Soils and Different Seeds: Review of Research on STM and Study Abroad” | Video

Robert Wuthnow — Director, Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University; Chair and Professor, Department of Sociology, Princeton University
“Short-Term Missions and the Global Reach of American Christianity” | Video

Panel Discussion | Video

a report live-blogged by Andy Naselli

Craig Carter is Professor of Religious Studies at Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto. He blogs at “The Politics of the Cross Resurrected.” Here’s how the Henry Center advertised this address given on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School:

Title: Is the Evangelical Left a Viable Alternative to the Religious Right?

Is the “Religious Right” finished? In serious decline? Temporarily dormant? Evangelicals appear to be unsure. Many pollsters and pundits claim that younger Evangelicals increasingly lean to the left in politics and the recent US election cycle saw the rise of a new “Evangelical Left,” led by Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo. Let us suppose that the Religious Right is in decline, and that many Evangelicals are swinging leftward as a result of dissatisfaction with the over-identification of Evangelicalism with the Republican Party. This scenario raises important questions about the future of Evangelicalism which this lecture will address.

Carter changed the title to this: “Augustine and the Secular in Christendom and Modernity.”

This address is available via live-stream.

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Social Justice in Modernity

Carter, who considers himself theologically conservative and politically liberal, almost thought of entitling this talk “How I Lost My Faith in ‘Social Justice.’” He’s been influenced from both the left (Ron Sider, Jim Wallis, John Howard Yoder, and Karl Barth) and the right (Francis Schaeffer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Tom Oden, and John Paul II).

Carter is disappointed with the reaction to his book Rethinking Christ and Culture: A Post-Christendom Perspective for several reasons.

1. It tended to get swallowed up in the widespread shift to the left during the Bush years.
2. The interpretation of Yoder’s thought was trending toward theological liberalism.

Recent events have caused Carter to doubt his faith in “social justice.”

1. The evangelical left has supported Barack Obama’s statist agenda.
2. The secular left has disgracefully treated Sarah Palin.
3. The Orwellian-named “Human Rights Commissions” has persecuted Christians in Canada.

What does Carter mean by “social justice”? It’s an interconnected set of beliefs.

1. Equality is the highest goal of society.
2. Equality is best defined in terms of equal economic opportunity.
3. Natural inequality must be overcome by human will.
4. Individual freedom must be sacrificed in the pursuit of equality.
5. The rule of law must be sacrificed in the pursuit of equality.
6. The state is responsible to create equality.

Is the pursuit of “social justice” a socialist project? No, it’s a “modern” project, i.e., a project of the enlightenment, which produced two great systems of political economy: capitalism (freedom) and socialism (equality). Going back and forth between the left and right of modernity is not a helpful way to critique modernity. Augustine stands outside of modernity.

From “Orthodox Anabaptism” to “Augustinian Conservatism”

Carter used to call himself an Orthodox Anabaptist, but now he prefers the label Augustinian conservative. The rest of this lecture deals with Augustine.

• Augustine became an amillennialist. He embraced a more sober, realistic view than the one that got caught up in the triumphalism of the day. Why? The key to Augustine’s working his way free of his early eschatology was his biblical interpretation.
• Prior to Augustine, there was no such thing as the secular. Something was either sacred or profane. There was no neutral ground. The idea of the secular makes possible individual liberty, religious freedom, free enterprise, personal responsibility, the rule of law, natural law, limited government, and the division of powers.
• For Augustine, the secular is (1) the invention of Christianity; (2) not evil; (3) this world during this age and contains the church and human institutions like Rom; (4) is grounded in an eschatological tension that prevents us from seeing any human institution as either completely good or completely evil.
• Christendom tended to distort Augustine’s thought. Its constant temptation was triumphalism in which the church brought the state under church-control.
• Augustinianism vs. Triumphalism:

Augustinianism:

1. There are four entities: church, state, city of man, city of God.
2. The church is on a pilgrimage toward the city of God.
3. Church and state may reflect elements of both the city of God and/or the city of man.

Triumphalism:

1. There are only two entities: (1) city of God/church/political structures ruled by the church and (2) city of man/political structures not ruled by the church.
2. To oppose the church is to oppose the city of God.
3. The church becomes violent as if judgment day had already come.

• The evangelical left is critiquing Christendom but not modernity.
• Modernity has distorted Augustine’s “the secular” into “secularism.” Both Christendom and modernity have the same root problem: a false eschatology.
• The pursuit of “social justice” is  statist project. The logical end result is something like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
• The statist project is well-advanced in Europe, less so in Canada, and much less so in the US, but the election of Obama has reinvigorated the politics of what Jonah Goldberg called “liberal fascism” (in his recent book of that title).
• Augustine vs. Modernity:

Augustine:

1. Original sin means no utopianism.
2. The state is neutral and dangerous.
3. The secular is potentially common ground for Christians and others.
4. Our real hope is the second coming of Christ and the kingdom of God.

Modernity:

1. The perfectibility of man means progress.
2. The state is the hope of the world.
3. Secularism says that there is nothing but the material world, and religion is private superstition.
4. [missed this]

Concluding Thoughts

1. The evangelical left is assimilating itself to the modern project of statism by its fixation on social justice. This will lead to the loss of its ability to prophetically critique the modern project.
2. The dehumanizing of man in the “brave new world” of modernity must be critiqued, and only a conservative politics rooted in Augustinian theology can do it.
3. There is no point in being fixated on Christendom today. What needs to be challenged is the modern state that seeks to usurp the place of God and close down the neutral space between church and state in which Christians have influenced culture for the public good.

A report live-blogged by Andy Naselli

Ravi Zacharias is founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. Here’s how the Henry Center advertised this address:

Someone from India recently quipped to me, “India has gone from ancient to postmodern and skipped over the modern period.” Indeed, in distilling truth, it has been rendered to neutrality. How then, in a climate of cultural preferences (whether in the East or in the West), does one share the Gospel graciously and winsomely without it seeming like a cultural chiding or contravention? This is the essential challenge before us in the church today.

This address is available via live-stream.

The ATO Chapel is packed—over 500 people have filled the room.

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The only thing worse than nostalgia is amnesia. (Ravi earned his M.Div. here at TEDS from 1973 to 1976.)

Two weeks ago Ravi responded to the “Man Vs. God” Article in The Wall Street Journal, and WSJ printed his letter to the editor (though WSJ cut the length in half).

Malcolm Muggeridge:

It has become abundantly clear in the second half of the twentieth century that Western Man has decided to abolish himself. Having wearied of the struggle to be himself, he has created his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, his own vulnerability out of his own strength; himself blowing the trumpet that brings the walls of his own city tumbling down, and, in a process of auto-genocide, convincing himself that he is too numerous, and labouring accordingly with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer in order to be an easier prey for his enemies; until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keels over, a weary, battered old brontosaurus, and becomes extinct. Many, like Spengler, have envisaged the future in such terms, and now what they prophesied is upon us.

Thoughts on Postmodernity in the West

• “We don’t know who we are, and he doesn’t know who he is.” That sums up postmodernity.
• Descartes should have said, “I think, therefore, thinking exists.” A pantheist could question his leap.
• You can ascribe intrinsic worth only if we are created by a creator. Talk of morality and intrinsic worth is not consistent with a worldview that embraces  empirical knowledge as the only knowledge.
• “It all depends on what the word ‘is’ means.”
• Cf. Nietzsche’s skepticism re objective truth.
• But when we are the victim of a lie, undoubtedly we will lay claim to the truth.

The Problem in the East

• Philosophy in the West has gradually moved to the existential, learning to the skeptical, art to the sensual, and spirituality to the mystical. Here’s the problem: While the West was moving unhinged from all these categories, the East was digging in its heels.
• Ravi has to be very careful that he not appear as a brainwashed Westerner when he speaks in the East.
• The West and East view Christianity, religion, and truth very differently.

Conclusion

Ravi closed with four stories that raise hard questions for postmodern thought.  Here are the essential points of the stories:

1. How do you affirm individuality?
2. We often don’t want to own up what goes on inside us.
3. Guilt is a terrible thing.
4. A prominent sheik told Ravi that it’s time to stop asking if Jesus died on the cross and start asking why he died on it.  This shows an abiding interest in the significance of the God-man.

a report live-blogged by Andy Naselli

March 24 and 26, 2009 | Dr. Greg Waybright | Lake Avenue Evangelical Free Church, Pasadena, CA

The Center is pleased to welcome Trinity’s former president back to campus.  Dr. Waybright will cover the subject of ecclesiology through consideration of two passages in Ephesians. His talks are entitled “The Dream Church.”  His first sermon will cover Ephesians 1:3-14 and is entitled “God’s Idea–Not Mine,” while his second will cover Ephesians 2:11-22 and is entitled “From Dream to Reality.”

Introduction

Eph 2:11–22 is one of the greatest texts in the Bible about the church. Contrast George Barna’s conclusions about the local church, which he calls “a much more privatized spirituality.” God’s vision for his church is much bigger than a privatized spirituality can ever bring about. God has called us into his unexpected family in order to worship him, serve him, and declare his glory together.

1. What did God have to do to begin his masterpiece (Eph 2:11–18)?

Note that 2:11 begins with “therefore.” Remember that we were dead (2:1–3) and that God has rescued us (2:4–10). We are God’s masterpiece. “Therefore” (2:11):

• Relationship 1: Sinful people had to be reconciled to a holy God.
• Relationship 2: Hostile people (i.e., Gentiles and Jews) had to be reconciled to one another (cf. Rom 15:5–7).

2. So then, what is the church, this masterpiece of God (Eph 2:19–22)?

Three powerful images (that go increasingly deeper):

• The church is a new citizenship (2:19).
• The church is a new family (2:19b–21). We have a Father who ties us all together.
• The church is where God “lives” (2:22). Just like the tabernacle and temple were the locus of where God lived in the OT, the church is the locus of where God lives now.

Conclusion

When Dr. Waybright preached this sermon last fall at his church (Lake Avenue Evangelical Free Church in Pasadena, CA), he told them about his dream for them. He wants people to see their unity in diversity and wonder, “How on earth they all get together?” and “So that’s what God is like. God must be in that place.” Waybright is dreaming and praying that Lake Avenue Church will look like Eph 2:11–22. We “are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (2:22). May it be so to his glory. Amen.

a report live-blogged by Andy Naselli

The Henry Center is sponsoring the following event:

March 18-19, 2009 | Esther Meek

Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA

“Knowing Knowing, Knowing God: Contours of Covenant Epistemology”

Most people have never had a philosophy course; that doesn’t keep them from practicing philosophy. We all inherit “default settings,” unexamined presumptions about what knowing is, which are proving unhealthy and unbiblical. They infect every dimension of human life, including knowing God. “Epistemological therapy” thus holds the prospect of favorably impacting everything from business to Christian discipleship, athletics to scientific research. This lecture will introduce you to Meek’s “covenant epistemology,” centrally the proposal that we take, as our paradigm of all human knowing, the transformative, interpersonal, covenantally-featured relationship. We will explore its key features and the ways it accords with the Christian Scripture, commending its value for reshaping the way we engage the world, and restoring us to ourselves. (more…)

A report live-blogged by Andy Naselli

(Media from this event should be made available shortly.)

I’m writing from the A. T. Olson Chapel at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Here is the information that the Henry Center provided for this event:

Bradley Nassif,Professor of Biblical & Theological Studies, North Park University

“Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Christian Antiquity”

Contemporary Christians are increasingly turning to the past for wisdom and guidance in the 21st century. While some of the past is best left behind, other portions offer buried treasures for Christian life and ministry. This lecture will examine the nature of holiness in the great Desert Fathers and Mothers in Egypt, Palestine and Syria from the 3rd - 6th centuries, with an emphasis on the role of Scripture in personal development and pastoral counseling. We’ll examine the rise of the great desert disciples and the role Scripture played in cultivating a life of holiness. For them, the Word was not only to be interpreted with the mind, but also to be “seen” as an exegeted text. A wholistic “hermeneutic of the desert” emerged in the context of personal discipleship and a life of prayer, fasting and inner watchfulness.

1. Rediscovering the Christian Classics: The Academy and the Church

• Christians are increasingly rediscovering the classical tradition of the Christian church. Cf. Tom Oden’s ancient Christian commentary series. Other factors for this rise include multiculturalism, well-established doctrinal boundaries, reclaimed ecumenical roots, and the rise of the new ecumenism.
• Interest in Eastern Orthodoxy in particular is rising among divinity schools.
• The (newly formed) Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies focuses on the early church.

2. Rise of Early Monasticism

• Monasticism already existed in the second or third century (and maybe the first).
• Early monasticism was the golden age.
• Why did people flee the city for monasticism?

2.1. External motivations

It was a means to protest the growing worldliness in the church and the growth of elaborate forms of Christian worship that made God seem distant.

2.2. Internal motivations

• The primary motivation was the gospels themselves (i.e., the gospel contained in the liturgies).
• Example: St. Simeon the Pole-Sitter sat on a thirty-foot pole for about thirty-eight years. He would preach from the pole.

2.3. Theology of the desert

• Why did they flee to the city? Is there a connection between the Bible, the land, and the quest for holiness?
• The desert is a place of death.
• The desert is a place for testing and humbling.
• The desert is a place where God’s people repented and where sins were forgiven and forgotten (i.e., the scapegoat).
• The desert is a place of spiritual warfare (cf. Luke 4). It is not a retreat.

2.4. Theology of the landscapes

• Is there a correspondence between the desert’s geography and the human heart?
• The dessert is physically barren, and the heart is spiritually barren.
• The dessert is detached from the things of this world. Simplicity is the essence of survival.
• The desert is a place of silence (cf. Ps 46:10).
• The desert is a massive place, evoking awe and wonder at God and whittling down people to their proper place.

3. Scripture and the Quest for Holiness

3.1. Obedience

• We need more Bible obedience, not Bible knowledge. We need more integration, not information.
• The Bible was central to the monks. It was their daily bread.

3.2. Meditation

• This refers not to a mental pondering of the biblical text. Rather, they orally pronounced the text as the sat in their cells.
• They would fight what they called “the noon-day demon,” a well-known enemy of the soul. It was either a psychological or demonic attack to make them despair and doubt, and the attack typically came in the day rather than the night. It was a temptation to leave one’s calling as a monk in the dessert. The remedy for this was reciting Scripture (cf. Matt 4).
• What is the Christian life? “I fall down, and I get up.”

3.3. Memorization

• The Gospel of Matthew was the most popular book to memorize.
• The Psalms played a major role in their daily prayers.
• One monastery required its monks to memorize all 150 psalms and the entire NT!
• Monasteries could be treasure troves of ancient biblical manuscripts.

3.4. Spiritual warfare

The more you practices the Scriptures, the more you learned them, and the more you learned them, the more you practiced them. True exegesis is attaining the text by putting it into action.

3.5. Transformation

• One monk (Anthony) said, “If a person is not edified by my silence, neither will he be edified by my words” (saying 2).

4. Conclusion

Contrary to popular conception, this quest for holiness in ancient antiquity was deeply rooted in the Bible.

4.1. Saying of Anthony

Someone asked Anthony, “What must one do in order to please God?” Anthony replied,

Pay attention to what I tell you, whoever you may be: (1) Always have God before your eyes. (2) Whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit. (3) And whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts, and you will be saved.

4.2. Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth, faintheartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.

Give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother, for you are holy always, now and ever and unto the Ages of Ages.

Amen!

-prayed frequently during Great Lent in the Eastern Orthodox Church

5. Select Bibliography on Desert Spirituality

(Items 7–9 are scholarly resources.)

1. Roberta Bondi, To Love As God Loves (Fortress, 1986). A great place to start learning about desert discipleship.
2. John Chryssavgis, In the Heart of the Desert. Written by an Orthodox priest and student of the desert tradition. Great icons with accompanying text.
3. St. Athanasius, The Life of Anthony, translated from the Coptic and Greek by Tim Vivian and Apostolos N. Athanassakis (Cisterician, 2003). The classical definition of the ideals of monasticism through the life of one of its greatest exponents.
4. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, translated by Benedicata Ward (Cisterician,1975). Warm, sometimes humorous presentation of individual “sayings” of great monastic leaders of the early church, written much like the book of Proverbs.
5. The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, translated by Benedicata Ward (Cisterician,1997). More “sayings.”
6. The Philokalia, translated by G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherard, Kallistos Ware (4 of 5 volumes available; Faber, 1972ff.). The classical work on the spirtiuality of the Christian East from the 4th–15th centuries. Next to the Bible, this collection has been read more widely than any other ancient or modern piece of literature among Eastern Orthodox Christians.
7. The Philokalia, edited by Brock Bingaman and Bradley Nassif (Oxford University Press, 2011).
8. Douglas Burton-Christie, The Word in the Desert (Oxford University Press).
9. William Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction (Oxford University Press).

live-blogged by Andy Naselli

Live from the chapel on the campus at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School:

Students, faculty, and guests are gathering for a much anticipated lecture by Dr. Phil Ryken. At 3:00 PM CST, Ryken is scheduled to present the latest Scripture and Ministry lecture (sponsored by the Henry Center): “The Suffering and the Glory: Pastoral Ministry in Union with Christ.”

About Phil Ryken

From Ryken’s bio (which also lists most of his books):

Dr. Ryken holds degrees from Wheaton (B.A.), Westminster (M.Div.), and the University of Oxford (D.Phil.). He is on the Board of Trustees at both Wheaton College and Westminster, and is an Executive Board Member with the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Philip Graham Ryken is Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, where he has preached since 1995. He is Bible Teacher for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, speaking nationally on the radio program Every Last Word. Dr. Ryken was educated at Wheaton College (IL), Westminster Theological Seminary (PA) and the University of Oxford (UK), from which he received his doctorate in historical theology. He lives with his wife (Lisa) and children (Josh, Kirsten, Jack, Kathryn, and Karoline) in Center City, Philadelphia. When he is not preaching or playing with his family, he likes to read books, shoot baskets and ponder the relationship between Christian faith and American culture.

Lecture Overview

Here is how the Henry Center has described the lecture:

What is the meaning and purpose of suffering in the work of pastoral ministry? What hope do we have that preaching the gospel will make a lasting difference for Christ? The rich biblical doctrine of union with Christ provides a complete theological and practical context for understanding both tragedy and triumph in the ordinary work of the pastor.

Philip Ryken has experienced both the cross and the empty tomb in his ministry at Philadelphia’s historic Tenth Presbyterian Church, where he has preached for thirteen years. The author of thirty Bible commentaries and other books on Christianity, culture, and the church, Dr. Ryken has a passion for the local church and for connecting people in ministry to the life-giving work of the crucified and risen Christ.

1. Introduction

• Seminaries are often criticized for teaching practical theology that is not all that practical.
• But seminaries also teach theology that is not all that theological.
• Philippians 3:10-11: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
• Thesis: Pastoral ministry is exercised in union with Christ, both in his humiliation and in his exaltation—the suffering and the glory.

2. The Doctrine of Union with Christ

• Being connected to Christ is one of the central concerns of the NT.
• Paul repeatedly emphasizes the necessity of being found “in Christ” (e.g., Phil. 3:9; Eph 1:3; 2 Cor 5:17).
• Union with Christ is central to systematic theology, including predestination, election, justification, adoption, and sanctification.
• Every aspect of salvation is wrapped up in union with Christ.
• Union with Christ was a prominent theme in the theology of the Reformers (e.g., Calvin), post-Reformation theologians (e.g., Beza, Zanchius), Puritans (e.g., John Preston), and Princetonian theologians (e.g., Archibald Alexander).

3. I Want to Know Christ

• Puritans often distinguished the work of Christ into his humiliation and his exaltation.
• Humiliation is the work of Christ in suffering and dying for sin.
• Exaltation is the work of Christ in conquering sin and death through his resurrection and ascension.
• Both humiliation and exaltation are clearly in view in Philippians 3:10-11. The kais in verse 10 are epexegetical: what follows serves to explain what Paul meant by knowing Christ. He meant personally knowing Christ in his crucifixion and resurrection.
• In order to attain this knowledge of Christ, Paul had to declare spiritual bankruptcy (Phil 3:4-7).
• Paul knew Christ already, of course, but knowing Christ only made Paul want to know him all the more. He wanted to become ever more closely identified with the crucified and glorified Christ.
• Paul’s aspiration to know Christ in his humiliation and exaltation usually is taken as a general comment on the Christian life, but what the apostle says about being united to Christ in suffering and glory should also be considered from the vantage point of Christian ministry. Paul was writing these words not simply as a Christian, but also as a minister of the gospel.
• The doctrine of union with Christ thus provides the paradigm for a theology of pastoral ministry.

4. Becoming Like Him in His Death

• To follow the pattern of Christ’s own ministry, in which the cross came before the crown, one must begin with the sufferings of the ministry. Pastoral ministry is not a matter of life and death, but a matter of death, then life (cf. Rom 8:17; 1 Pet. 4:13).
• The biblical history of gospel proclamation is primarily a story of suffering. For every success there seem to be dozens of failures.
• Example: Most of the Old Testament prophets were called to suffer (cf. Jer 1:17-19; Isa 6:8-10). Many faced rebellion from God’s people. Other suffered persecution (e.g., Elijah, Jeremiah). They anticipated the sufferings of Christ (cf. Heb 11:26). They suffered in union with Christ (cf. Luke 24:25-27; 1 Pet 1:11).
• Jesus suffered many indignities at the hands of the evil men who plotted to have him killed. He was unlawfully arrested, unfairly accused, unjustly convicted, and unmercifully beaten. But he endured his greatest sufferings on the cross, where he died a God-forsaken death. Stephen challenged the Sanhedrin, “Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him” (Acts 7:52-53).
• At the time of his death, the preaching ministry of Jesus Christ could hardly be judged anything except a failure. The main thing it seemed to accomplish was getting him killed.
• Jesus’ followed suffered as well (e.g., Peter, Stephen, Paul). These men suffered all these things because they were united to Jesus Christ in his sufferings and death. In the context of his gospel ministry, Paul became like Christ in his death.

5. The Fellowship of Sharing in His Sufferings

• What does this litany of misery teach about pastoral ministry? A call to pastoral ministry is not to be trifled with. Any minister who knows his Bible can hardly expect to escape suffering—specifically suffering for the cause of Christ.
• An authentic pastoral theology must be adequate to the task of ministry under conditions of the most extreme hardship. Being united to Christ in the ministry of his gospel always involves conflict within the church and some measure of opposition from without. “The sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives” (2 Cor 1:5).
• Nevertheless, many ministers are surprised by suffering because they have failed to grasp the implications of pastoral ministry in union with Christ. How rare it is—especially in America—to find a minister who desires fellowship with Christ if it includes sharing in his sufferings.
• Paul’s joy in his suffering is striking (Col 1:24; 2 Cor 12:10).
• There were two reasons for Paul’s readiness to share in Christ’s sufferings: (1) It was necessary for the evangelization of the lost (Col 1:24). (2) It afforded a deep, personal knowledge of Christ.
• This does not mean that suffering needs to be sought out. The kind of spiritual intimacy that Paul sought comes not only from outward suffering, but also inwardly from dying to self (cf. 2 Cor 4:5a; 1 Cor 1:23a; Gal 2:20). As one aspect of his union with Christ, the pastor must die to self in all its hideous forms: self-indulgence, self-aggrandizement, self-love, and self-will. He must be dead to pride, dead to financial gain, dead to recognition and approval.

6. The Power of His Resurrection

• Paul’s ministry a gospel ministry grounded in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
• The power of Christ’s resurrection is the life-giving power of God the Holy Spirit. (This is Trinitarian theology.) The Holy Spirit is the effective transforming agent of God’s resurrection power (cf. Rom 1:4; 8:11).
• The resurrection gives power for gospel ministry. It was not until Jesus was raised from the dead that his preaching achieved lasting effect.
• The resurrection was not simply the basis for the apostles’ message, but it was also the source of their power.
• Through the preaching of the risen Christ, the Spirit is inaugurating the glories of the coming age. Practical theology is not merely a theology of the cross but a theology of glory.
• The Spirit has the power to regenerate, sanctify, and glorify.
• The Spirit is at work not only in a minister’s evident successes, but also in his apparent failures. Paul viewed his ministry from the vantage point of the cross (suffering) and empty tomb (glory).
• Many of the greatest glories of preaching are deferred benefits. The hope of deferred glory is of particular encouragement to men who are discouraged by their apparent fruitlessness in gospel ministry.
• Charles Spurgeon: “Set small store by present rewards; be grateful for earnests by the way, but look for recompensing joy hereafter.”
• The apostle Paul was looking for that recompensing joy (Phil 3:14, 20b-4:1a; 1 Thess 1:19-20).

7. Conclusion

• The exaltation of a pastoral ministry, which is rarely glimpsed in this life, will be fully displayed only at the Second Coming, when God will reveal his Son in the risen church.
• When—somehow—we attain to that resurrection, we will know Christ’s power to the fullest measure.

The lecture closed with Q&A. The audio for the lecture and Q&A should be available shortly here.