Christmas, Theology, Advent, Church, Hospitality
John Beeson
The Faithfulness of God of the Manger

Recently we had someone over and as the night came to a close Angel warmly offered, “Let’s do this again soon!” I wilted as I processed just how many things were on our calendar in the coming month. Just like Angel did, I wanted to be with them again and soon, but her invitation made me flinch.

 

My wife Angel and I are very different people. Angel brings light and life everywhere. People are drawn to her, and she is drawn to people. One of the many things I love about Angel is how she gets caught up in a moment with people. In that space, it’s not unusual that she shares hopes with those we are with of spending more time together. And she means it: there is no doubt of her genuineness.

The Faithfulness of God of the Manger
Advent, Christmas, Theology
John Beeson
A Humble God?

“I don’t compare myself with anybody, but nobody is better.” Michael Jordan

“They say the sky’s the limit, but I think my potential is beyond it.” Jay-Z

“I won’t be happy until I’m as famous as God” Madonna

“I won’t be a rock star. I will be a legend.” Freddie Mercury

“We’re more popular than Jesus now.” John Lennon

We tend to expect that greatest among us are also some of the most arrogant. And why wouldn’t they be? For many who make it to the top of their field, we can see how that arrogance can be a driving force for their greatness.

A Humble God?
Christmas, Forgiveness, Theology
John Beeson
The Just and the Justifier

God became flesh.

Let that sink in. Christianity asserts that God—sovereign, immutable, omnipotent, other—the eternal God who has no beginning and end—became a human being.

 Because many of us have had exposure to Christianity from our early years, it is easy to miss how massive the theological implications of the incarnation are. The incarnation lays the groundwork for a God who chooses to participate in his creation. The incarnation denies the existence of an abstract and distant God, unmuddied by his handiwork.

The Just and the Justifier
Advent, Christmas, Theology
John Beeson
The Theology of the Manger

“God did not, as the Bible says, create man in his own image; on the contrary, man created God in his own image.” Ludwig Feuerbach dropped this theological bombshell three years before Friedrich Nietzsche’s birth. Feuerbach, a name forgotten by most, but who influenced Nietzsche, wrote these words in his book, The Essence of Christianity (1841). He argued that human beings project their own attributes and desires onto an imagined deity, creating God in their own image. This for Feuerbach, is the essence of Christianity (and indeed all religions), the deification of our human ideals. “What man wishes to be, he makes his God… God is the outward projection of a man’s inward nature.”

The Theology of the Manger
Death, Gratitude, Prayer, Suffering
John Beeson
Go To a Funeral

We Westerners avoid death.

 

When was the last time you walked through a cemetery? When was the last funeral you went to? Our churches no longer have cemeteries, those who are older head to retirement communities and then to head to long-term care or assisted care facilities. The number of funerals held in churches has diminished. Death has become professionalized, antisepticised, and remote.

Go To a Funeral

Leadership

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How do You Pray for Someone Who is Hurting?

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How do You Pray for Someone Who is Hurting?

“How are you?” you greet your neighbor at the park. You ask the question like you mean it.

“Okay,” she responds. But the crease between her eyebrows and the slump of her shoulders lets you know that she is most definitely not “okay.”

“What’s the matter?” you ask, lovingly responding to her body language instead of her words.

She begins to open up. She and her husband got in a fight last night. Tears begin to flow. She’s worried about her mom’s health. She’s anxious about work. The conversation winds to a close. You would like to pray for her, but how do you cross that bridge? How do you pray for someone in need?

Perhaps the only thing stronger than our natural impulse toward the spiritual and religious is our reticence toward public displays of our religion. Last week we talked about five reasons we ought to press through our discomfort to pray for those in need. Those reasons were:

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Teaching for Change: the Power of Questions

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Teaching for Change: the Power of Questions

I took three preaching courses at seminary. They were all excellent. I didn’t take any courses on teaching, and wasn’t aware of any offered. It wasn’t until after a campus minister sat me down for a conversation I would have even considered the need for a separate class on teaching. Aren’t they both just presenting biblical truth accurately and memorably?

That conversation ended with the most impactful advice I’ve ever received about teaching: prepare your lesson around several open questions that engage the group. Such preparation maximizes what small group teaching environments can do so well: connect biblical truths with individual hearts to bring about change.

Let’s unpack how to teach with the aim to experience change ourselves as teachers and help those in the group experience change.

Before I begin, let me qualify this post in two important ways. First, I absolutely believe in preaching and the power of the exposition of God’s Word. Clear and impactful preaching of the authoritative Word of God is important for the gathered body of Christ. Second, there are times in which classrooms and groups can benefit from a teacher preaching. There is a time and a place for non-interactional teaching. That said, there can be the opposite drift in biblically-grounded churches. In such contexts, classrooms and living rooms become mini-sanctuaries and the preaching ministry is multiplied into small group contexts. I think misses out on some of the great benefits of smaller groups and can reinforce a brand of Christianity that emphasizes the accumulation of knowledge to the detriment of life-change.

Let’s dive in, then. Here are some methods I use when I prepare to teach interactively:

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Teaching for Change: How I Learned to Stop Preaching

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Teaching for Change: How I Learned to Stop Preaching

When I signed up to serve as a pastoral intern during my seminary years in New Jersey, I was given the opportunity to teach our church’s adult Sunday school class. The popular and engaging regular teacher graciously handed me the reins for a chunk of the fall semester. I decided we would study the gospel of John together. I read through the gospel, paged through commentaries, crafted a syllabus, and prepared the manuscript for the class’s first week. I handed out the syllabus to the group (that included weekly homework) and launched in, hands gripped to the podium, with passion and verve.

I had mixed thoughts about how it went. On the one hand, my sermon lesson was well structured, thoroughly researched, and faithful to scripture. I intentionally added questions in the lessons, so it wasn’t just a monologue. I should have felt good about it. On the other hand, there seemed a disconnect between the class and myself that I couldn’t figure out how to bridge. My enthusiasm for the book didn’t seem to create engagement. The questions I asked were met with (mostly) silence or shallow answers. The faces in front of me seemed largely unaffected.

I got a friendly call from one of the campus ministers who attended our church (and that Sunday School class) that week and he invited me out to coffee. Over mugs at the local caffeine dive, Small World, I had a brief conversation that was worth a semester’s worth of seminary education. (Parenthetically, while I took four classes on preaching, I never took a class on teaching at seminary, and I am not sure if one was offered.) The conversation changed the way I have taught ever since.

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How to Make Your Spiritual Life Purposeful: What is Your Destination? Part 2

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How to Make Your Spiritual Life Purposeful: What is Your Destination? Part 2

A few years ago my wife and I took a hike for my birthday. We enjoyed the beautiful Arizona morning, winding our way up into the foothills of the Catalina Mountains through the lush Sonoran desert. Creosotes, palo verdes, mesquite trees. barrel cacti, cholla, ocotillos, and saguaros sprang out of the mountainous terrain. We went on a well-traveled trail toward our destination: pools tucked into the Catalina foothills, 2.8 miles from the trailhead.

As inexperienced hikers who hadn’t hiked the trail in some 20 years, we overestimated our progress and asked multiple passersby how far away the pools were. It shouldn’t take this long to go 2.8 miles, right? Our legs grew heavy and my wife wondered if we had made a wrong turn. Maybe we should just turn around?

We finally crested a hill and below us lay the still, emerald pools. Our pace quickened with the pools in view and the final 15 minutes sped by. We relaxed on sun-bathed boulders, ate a snack, took some pictures, and then headed back. Knowing the terrain now and having a much better sense of how far the 2.8 mile destination was, there were no moments of confusion or frustration. The trail seemed to melt quickly behind us and we arrived back at the trailhead quickly.

Knowing your destination changes your journey.

This is a series about fixing a spiritual destination, and doing so changes our spiritual journey.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. She Wants to Meet the Man Who Killed Her Father: Police Officer Richard Houston was killed when he responded to a domestic disturbance. His 18-year-old daughter spoke profoundly at his funeral. Don’t just read this, make sure you watch the 90 second clip.

  2. Just Preach the Gospel? It’s Complicated: Provocative post by Trevin Wax. I appreciated his thoughts. He says, “At its best, “just preach the gospel” serves as a needed warning to stay tethered to the central message of Christianity. At its worst, it means “don’t touch my idol.”

  3. 12 Observations on Spiritual Authority: Samuel James in 12 compact observations considers spiritual authority, its abuse, and the response for those who have been impacted by it (and those who haven’t).

  4. He Gives His Beloved Sleep: Tim Challies begins, “Of all the divine thoughts recorded in the pages of sacred writ, of all the promises God provides to humanity, perhaps none is more moving, none more blessed, none more needful than this: He gives his beloved sleep.”

  5. Previously Unheard Fish Sounds from Restored Coral Reef: The sound of life is beautiful.

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How to Make your Spiritual Life Purposeful, part I

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How to Make your Spiritual Life Purposeful, part I

What plan do you have for your spiritual life? Where do you want to go spiritually? And how are you going to get there?

My hunch is that most of us don’t have a plan for our spiritual life. Most of us live hoping that we’ll drift into a better spiritual life. But that is a faulty assumption. Have you drifted into losing weight? Or becoming a better father? Or into your Master’s degree?

For some reason, we think that even though we make plans for improvement and we set goals in other areas, it's not necessary or spiritual for us to set out these kinds of plans for our spiritual walk.

Jesus himself lived an incredibly purposeful life. If you pick up the gospel of John, you see that Jesus is very sensitive to discerning and following God’s purpose for his life. His purpose was not about self-fulfillment but self-giving at the cross. In John 17:1, Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”

How do we live a spiritual life with such purpose and awareness?

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What I Read in 2021 (and Maybe What You Should Read in 2022)

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What I Read in 2021 (and Maybe What You Should Read in 2022)

I’ve been able to hit the 100-plateau of books the past few years. This year I read 111 books (the symmetry of that number made me smile). If you wonder how I read that much, this post might help spur you on and provide some practical pointers in your reading journey in 2022. I love reading for many reasons. It’s a gift to be in conversation with a multitude of wise voices, to be invited into the imaginative worlds of some of the best minds of our time, and to grow in empathy and understanding as I step into the shoes of those very different from myself.

I love the gift of reading books with friends. Most of the books I read are recommended by friends and I love it when friends read a book I recommend. If you read any of the books recommended below, I would love to hear what you think. And I would love to hear what your favorite books of 2021 were. If you want fuller reviews on any of the books listed above or just want to connect on an ongoing basis about reading, I encourage you to friend me on Goodreads.

Let me start with my three favorite books of 2021, and then we will get to the rest of the action:

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. The Anxiety of Perpetual Yearbook Day: Eric Geiger likens social media today as a perpetual version of the day yearbooks came out. It’s a great analogy. He shares, “One of the most anxious days each year for me in high school was yearbook day – the day when yearbooks were passed out to all the students.”

  2. 3 Reasons for Hope in the Midst of Grief: Alaistair Begg writes, “You do not have to live long as a believer to discover that faith does not insulate us from feelings like grief and the fear of it.”

  3. 7 Healthy Ways to Resolve Conflict: Carey Niewhof opines, “I’m increasingly convinced many churches simply don’t grow because they suffer from conflict and that many teams never thrive because there’s simply too much tension.”

  4. Defending Sound Doctrine Against the Deconstruction of American Evangelicalism: Jonathan Leeman’s post is lengthy, but worth the time to read for those who are disconcerted by evangelicals deconstructing their faith. His conclusions are thoughtful and nuanced. Note his suggestion of having race consciousness but rejecting race essentialism.

  5. What’s Love Got to Do With It: Hope you’re not tired of my Walk off the Earth recs 😊!

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Thank You, Great Church Members

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Thank You, Great Church Members

Presidents age poorly. This post on U.S. presidents before and after their terms reveals what we all know. The weight of running a country impacts you. Take a look at George HW Bush after just four years. Barack Obama had nary a grey hair when he entered office. When he left, he had a lot more salt than pepper.

Leadership isn’t easy. We pastors are called to keep watch over the sheep, prepared to give an account to God for their care. That is a heavy responsibility. Many (my former self included) aspire to leadership, not recognizing the burden that comes with caring for people. Many people are hard to lead. They disengage, they wander, they chafe at correction, and they demand that their preferences are met.

Not all church members are hard to lead, though. Some of you make leading easy. I treasure you.

The author of Hebrews has an interesting word to the church he is writing to. He says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb 13:17). Did you catch that last part, “Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you”?

To whom is that comment directed? I’ve always read it as an encouragement to leaders to lead with joy and not groaning or grumbling. I think that’s true. We must lay our anxieties and frustrations as leaders before God and let him carry them. The flock is God’s, not ours, and so we must trust him with those who are difficult. To have our joy sapped by challenging congregants is to reveal the idol of control in our hearts. I have been and continue to be convicted by these words.

I recently heard this preached as an admonition to congregants as well. That had me returning to the text, and sure enough. It’s right there. “Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb 13:17).

The more I read it, the more I was convinced: this admonition is primarily to congregants.

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Thanksgiving Recommendations

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Thanksgiving Recommendations

1. A Christian Case for Bitcoin: A nuanced and thoughtful consideration of a timely issue. The authors encourage us, “While crypto is in its early days, now is the time for Christians to carefully explore and experiment with the possibilities, for the advance of the gospel, for the good of others, and for the glory of God. We are convinced that Christians will all soon agree that crypto is not a curse to be feared, but a blessing to rejoice in, fully under the control of the One who has overcome the world.”

2. The Pastors Aren’t All Right: Kate Shellnutt at Christianity Today reports that 38% of pastors are considering leaving ministry. That is up from 29% in January. Underlying this is this: “Back in 2016, 85 percent of pastors rated their mental wellbeing as good or excellent, according to a previous Barna poll. In the October 2021 poll, it was down to 60 percent.” Please pray for your pastor.

3. What if Thoughts Can Be Evil? Pierce Taylor Hibbs with a heavy hitting piece on our thoughts and the existence of evil. He says, “But what makes me nervous, what would have Screwtape and his nephew smiling, is the fact that we assume thoughts are neutral, that there’s no way they could be evil, that demons and the forces of Satan are pre-modern myths. When we go to that extreme, we let evil operate unchecked. We don’t ask for the Spirit’s help in giving us the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) because we actually believe our thinking isn’t susceptible to evil influence.”

4. Characteristics of a Hardened Heart: Is your heart hard? Sacha Alexandre Mendes explains how we can discern whether a heart is hardened toward God. Consider that, “A Hardened Heart Does Not Recognize the “Finger of God” (Ex. 8:19). Even the Egyptian magicians recognized the “finger of God.” Something was different. A person with a hardened heart does not recognize the spiritual realities around him. A hard-hearted person cannot see how God is working in their situation, even though close family, relatives, and friends tell him so.”

5. How to be Less Thankful: This backward approach to gratitude is simple and profound. “If you’ve had enough of the thanksgiving police bullying you into a humble posture, this article is for you. Read on for some tried and true methods for growing in thanklessness.”

6. Flying With Birds: Where do I sign up???

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