#IReadThis...in Biblical Archeology

1177 B.C. - The Collapse of Bronze Age Civilization:

     "Are we at the beginning of another perfect storm of stressors on our interconnected societies?'

     "Are we headed for a collapse of multiple elements of our complex global society?"

     "If our interconnected world is nearing the breaking point, are there lessons we can learn from the Late Bronze Age collapse to help prevent or stave off our collective demise?"

     "We should be aware that no society is invulnerable. Every society in the history of the world has ultimately collapsed. The collapse of similarly intertwined civilizations just after 1200 B.C. should be a warning to us that it can certainly happen again."

IMHO, citizens of this world should be concerned, even despair. Citizens of God’s Kingdom should be concerned but instead we must “lift our eyes to the hills…” Our response must be faith-provoked, biblically-based rather than flag-waving political platforms.

Why I ThInk We Need to #ReimagineCHRISTIANITY...

According to Jethani, the evangelical church in the U.S. has somewhat ironically fallen into some of the same errors as the medieval Roman Catholic Church. “The abuse of power, the exaltation of leadership, the financial shenanigans that went on, the selling of indulgences,” he said, are all abuses of which we can see parallels today.

While reading the @TME 100 ...

"Three Ways Forward" - a report with articles by three international leaders from the World Economic Forum.

1. The way forward is through partnerships.
2. The way forward is by protecting our soli (the foundation of life)
3. The way forward is driving innovation, meaningful social outcomes, and economic prosperity for all.

Sounds like something Jesus would say.

• Partnerships - The unity of the Church
• Soil - Pray for workers for the harvest to plant seed and reap the harvest
• Creativity. Bless your community. Care for those with less,

Phil @

The Reimagine.Network

GUEST POST: How to Ask Good Questions in Discipleship

GUEST POST: #REIMAGINE...Systems to Move Forward

 8 Systems you will find essential moving forward

GUEST POST: Risking Love for Neighbors, Strangers, Enemies

PO Box 6000, Colorado Springs, CO 80934-6000 · 1-866-568-7827 · email@navigators.org

#ReimagineCHRISTIANITY...Start with Good Friday

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD," John writes, "that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." That is to say that God so loved the world that he gave his only son even to this obscene horror; so loved the world that in some ultimately indescribable way and at some ultimately immeasurable cost he gave the world himself. Out of this terrible death, John says, came eternal life not just in the sense of resurrection to life after death but in the sense of life so precious even this side of death that to live it is to stand with one foot already in eternity. To participate in the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ is to live already in his kingdom. This is the essence of the Christian message, the heart of the Good News, and it is why the cross has become the chief Christian symbol. A cross of all things—a guillotine, a gallows—but the cross at the same time as the crossroads of eternity and time, as the place where such a mighty heart was broken that the healing power of God himself could flow through it into a sick and broken world.

It was for this reason that of all the possible words they could have used to describe the day of his death, the word they settled on was "good." Good Friday. 

-Originally published in The Faces of Jesus

GUEST POST: #ReimaginePRAYER...Pray for a Business in Your Community

John Piper, theologian, pastor, and author, tells how George Muller, the prayer legend of the 19th century, said that for years he tried to pray without starting in the Bible in the morning. Inevitably, his mind wandered. He said his prayers were weak and powerless. 

Then he added the habit of using the Bible in prayer, and turned the Book into a prayer manual as he read, and for 40 years he was able to stay focused and powerful in prayer. 

Piper then notes, “I have seen that those whose prayers are most saturated with Scripture are generally most fervent and most effective in prayer. And where the mind isn't brimming with the Bible, the heart is not generally brimming with prayer.“ 

Our first Wednesday email of the month has a focus to help facilitate prayer that you can use for your business, community, city, and country. 

1. Begin with Thanksgiving and Gratitude to the Lord for being our Protector (Psalm 100:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Psalm 18:2; Psalm 127:1).

2. Pray that Jesus will revive His believers and His church to His Beauty, Love, and Supremacy (2 Chronicles 7:13-15; Psalm 85:6; Habakkuk 3:2-3a; Acts 2:37-41).

3. Pray for unity between believers in every sphere of culture. Pray that walls of theology, doctrine and practice will come down. Pray for offenses to be forgiven. Pray for love to grow and flow in us and through us making us one with Christ (John 17:21-23; Psalm 133:1-3; Acts 4:24).

4. Pray for those that are unbelievers, or believe but have wandered away, or have been offended by Christians, to be visited again by the love of God whether through dreams, visions, friendship, or something they see, hear or read (Acts 26:18; Romans 10:1; Galatians 4:19; 2 Peter 3:9).

5. Pray for relationships. Pray that Jesus will heal, restore, and strengthen every God-designed friendship, partnership, and family (Romans 15:5-7; Malachi 4:5-6; Joshua 24:15).

6. Pray for your local, state and national government that they will honor God and be given wisdom and serve with integrity, justice and mercy (1 Timothy 2:1-2; Romans 13:1; Micah 6:8).

7. Ask God to bless your city as you pray for its peace, welfare, and prosperity (Proverbs 11:11; Jeremiah 29:7,11; Acts 3:26). 

May the Lord bless you as you partner with Jesus to be a house of prayer for all nations. 

Your prayer partner in Christ’s love,

Bob Perry 

Workplace Prayer A Ministry of A.C.T. P.O. Box 1649 Brentwood, TN 37024 United States

GUEST POST: Thirving Churches Are Intentional Churches 

GUEST POST ~ Reorient Your Despair Over Our Culture

Despairing Over the Culture? There's Still a Reason to Get Out of Bed Tomorrow

by: Carl R. Trueman

Giving in to Despair?

One of the questions that Christians ask repeatedly at the moment is whether there is any hope or should we simply despair? Is the world so intent on dismantling what it means to be a human being that society is doomed to collapse, or at least committed to shunting Christians and Christianity to its far margins? The obvious answer is that yes, hope springs eternal for Christians because we know that Christ wins in the end, that the gates of hell will not ultimately prevail, and that the marriage feast of the Lamb will take place. Yet, while all true, there is a certain glibness to such a response if that is all that is said. For the question of hope is not simply one that asks about the ultimate end of history but one which typically has a more immediate, personal dimension for us: in asking about grounds for hope we are also asking about how we might find the motivation now to avoid despair and the personal experience of hopelessness that our present context often brings to our lives as individuals. The end of history is a long way away; the need to find a reason to get out of bed tomorrow morning has a more pressing urgency.

Ironically, the feeling of impotence and despair that many Christians feel in the face of the dramatic social changes we are experiencing is itself a function of the kind of self-hood that has led to those changes. If the sexual revolution is rooted in a notion of the human self as unencumbered with obligations towards others and as free to create its own identity and pursue its own pleasures as it sees fit, then this is also the reason why so many good Christian people are so despondent at the moment. It is not that we have forgotten our obligations to those around us—indeed, it is the frustration of our ability to fulfill those obligations (the protection of the unborn, of children, of the most vulnerable in society) that fuels our anxiety and despair. Rather, it is that we have forgotten our obligation to those of generations to come. Modern men and women—whether secular or religious—think too much in the short term. We want results now. We forget that we work today not just for the present but for the long-term future.

Strange New World

Carl R. Trueman

Carl Trueman identifies the historical, philosophical, and technological influences that have shaped present-day identity politics and teaches believers how to shift their modern understanding of personhood to a biblical perspective.

A Short-Term Mentality

The contrast with earlier generations is instructive. Take, for example, Cologne Cathedral, perhaps the single greatest example of medieval Gothic architecture that Europe ever produced. Building work started in 1248 but was not completed until 1880. Now, a significant delay was caused by the various wars that tore western Europe apart from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, but, even so, one thing is true: the original architect and the first masons hewing the first stones knew that they would never live to see the building completed, to enter through its magnificent doors, or to worship in the austere splendor of its sanctuary. And yet they still considered the task worthwhile. All of the hard work, and indeed the immense physical risk, involved was a small price to pay for constructing something they themselves would never live to enjoy.

That is incomprehensible to most of us today. The idea that we might work for something that not even our grandchildren might see come to fruition is a profoundly alien concept to our culture. We are children of an age of instant gratification with reference to the deep and worthwhile things in life as well as to the consumerist ephemera with which we surround ourselves.

It is worthwhile asking why that is. The answer is that the men and women of the thirteenth century saw themselves and the world they inhabited as embedded in something much bigger: a cosmos that was itself embedded in God and therefore had a meaning that transcended both the raw material from which it was made and the present moment of its existence. Thus, they built things like Cologne Cathedral because they knew the world was not about them and that they had obligations not simply to their own day and generation but to generations to come. That they could build fast enough to see the final fruit of their labor was of little account. They were building for future generations, that they might have a glorious building in which to offer praise to God.

We want results now. We forget that we work today not just for the present but for the long-term future.

 

Reorienting Our Perspective

That medieval mentality, whereby the individual found significance and purpose precisely in seeing themselves not as the center of the universe but as part of a larger whole with responsibility to future generations is something that should animate us today. To return to the question, Is there any hope or should we simply despair? The response should be: there may be no hope that our culture will be different by this time next week, next year, or even within my lifetime. But that does not mean we do not work here and now for the benefit of those future generations to whom we have an obligation. We may not live to see them, but that does not free us from our responsibility towards them.

And so, today we are called to be faithful, not because our work will come to fruition in the near future. Rather, we do it because it lays the foundation upon which our spiritual descendants can stand and then build. Hope lies not in the day after tomorrow but in the generations to come, and we must not allow the setbacks of today to discourage us from fulfilling our obligations to them.

The New Testament model of the Christian life points to precisely this kind of thinking. We are to hold fast to a form of sound words, we are to follow the teaching of the apostles, and through faithful worship and witness we are to pass the faith on to future generations. Paul knew this well, and thus he was able to see all of the personal setbacks and suffering of his ministry as a light, momentary affliction compared to the eternal glory that is to come. All of us need that future orientation if we are to fight today’s battles without losing heart. We need to relativize our present, and indeed ourselves, in the context of the larger divine plan of which we are privileged to be a small part.

Carl R. Trueman is the author of Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution.

Carl R. Trueman (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College. He is a contributing editor at First Things, an esteemed church historian, and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Trueman has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including The Creedal Imperative; Luther on the Christian Life; and Histories and Fallacies. He is a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Article by Carl R. Trueman. Originally published and used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. 

7 Reflections on the State of the Evangelical Church

#Pastors Identify the Role of Prayer for Their Life, Ministry

More than 7 in 10 pastors (72%) say consistency in personal prayer is important, which also makes it one of the top needs of pastors overall. Similar percentages of pastors say it’s vital in their lives to invest in friendships and fellowship with others (69%) and to focus on consistency of Bible reading not related to sermon or teaching preparation (68%).

Around 2 in 3 U.S. Protestant pastors say it’s important for them to trust God (66%), invest in relationships with other pastors (64%) and practice consistency in taking a Sabbath (64%). More than 3 in 5 pastors (61%) say they need to invest in confessing and repenting from personal sin. Few (4%) say they don’t consider any of those issues important investments for their life as a pastor.

“Some churchgoers may be surprised to find that spiritual disciplines don’t always come easily for pastors,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Yes, they know how to do these things, but achieving consistency takes time and effort. It is not automatic.”

Younger pastors, those between the ages of 18 and 44, are among the most likely to say many of the spiritual needs are areas in need of attention in their lives. They are the most likely to say they need to invest in friendship and fellowship with others (79%) and relationships with other pastors (73%). Pastors under 44 are also more likely than pastors over 55 to say they need to focus on consistency of Bible reading not related to sermon or teaching preparation (75%) as well as confessing and repenting of personal sin (69%). They’re also more likely than those over 65 to say it’s important they invest in consistency in personal prayer (78%).

Read the complete article here>>>

GUEST POST ~ Redemptive Prayer of a Righteous Person Changed A City

by Francis Frangipange

God's Response to Redemptive Intercession
When Abraham was confronted with the possibility of Sodom's destruction, he did not immediately jump on the "Destroy Sodom" bandwagon; instead, he went before the Lord and prayed for mercy for the city. Abraham's prayer is an amazing study on the effect a mercy-motivated intercessor has on the heart of God. Indeed, my objective here is to gaze into the heart of God as it is revealed in the discourse between the Lord and Abraham.

When we look at Abraham's prayer, we discover an amazing power granted us in intercession. And what is that? God is looking for a mercy reason that would justify Him delaying or canceling wrath. We must not belittle this principle, for in it is great hope for our land as well. The mercy reason for delay is found in the compassionate prayer of an intercessor.

Let us consider the Lord's initial response to Sodom's sin. First, He revealed to Abraham, His servant, what He was about to do. Why? Wasn't the evil so dark that it deserved to be destroyed? Yes, the wickedness in Sodom fully deserved divine wrath. Yet that is not why the Lord revealed to Abraham the pending judgment. The Lord informed Abraham of what was coming not so His servant could criticize, but so Abraham would intercede for mercy. Remember, God delights in mercy (Mic. 7:18) and takes "no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Ezek. 33:11). The Lord always seeks for opportunities of mercy. Therefore, let's take note of how Abraham approached the Almighty:

"Abraham came near and said, ‘Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?'" (Gen. 18:23-25).

Notice, Abraham did not pray from a place of anger. He never said, "God, it's about time You killed the perverts." There was no finger-pointing vindictiveness in Abraham's soul. Somehow we have come to believe that non-compromising Christians must also be angry. Abraham never compromised with Sodom's depraved culture, yet he was above fleshly reaction. In fact, throughout his prayer, Abraham spent almost no time at all telling God what was wrong in Sodom. He appealed, instead, to the mercy and integrity of the Lord.

This is vitally important for us, because Jesus said, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham" (John 8:39). One of Abraham's most noteworthy deeds involved his intercessory prayer for Sodom, the most perverse city in the world!

Abraham first acknowledged the Lord's integrity, then he spoke to the Lord's mercy.

"Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty?" (Gen. 18:24).

The Lord knew that it would be unjust to slay the righteous with the wicked; Abraham's prayer did not enlighten the Lord of some unknown fact. But God in the process of determining future reality always prepares a merciful alternative, which is unlocked by the persevering prayer of a mercy motivated intercessor.

In other words, urgent, redemptive prayer shoots straight through the mercy door and enters God's heart. This door is never shut, especially since we have a High Priest, Jesus Christ, ministering at the mercy seat in the heavens (Heb. 8:1). It is open each and every time we pray.

Listen to how the Lord answered Abraham's prayer for mercy: "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account" (Gen. 18:26).

How the truth of God's mercy flies in the face of those so eager to judge their nation! Incredibly, the Lord said He would spare the whole of Sodom if He found fifty righteous people there. Now keep this in mind: the Hebrew word for "spare" means more than "not destroy"; it also means "to forgive or pardon." This is a tremendous revelation about the living God. He will minimize, delay, or even cancel a day of reckoning as long as Christ-inspired prayer is being offered for sinners!

Time and again throughout the Scriptures the Lord proclaims an ever present truth about His nature: He is "slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness" (Exod. 34:6). Do we believe this? Here it is, demonstrated right before our eyes in the Scriptures. He tells us plainly that a few righteous people scattered in a city can preserve that area from divine wrath.

Abraham knew the love of God. He was an intimate friend of God's. Abraham, in truth, had a clear view into the heart of God based on his own experiences. This interceding patriarch had seen the Almighty bless, prosper, and forgive him, so he pressed God's mercy toward its limits.

"What if there are forty?"

The Lord would spare it for forty.

Abraham bargained, "Thirty?"

He would spare it for thirty.

"Twenty?"

He finally secured the Lord's promise not to destroy the city if He could find just ten righteous people there. On God's scales, wrath is on one side and mercy on the other. Put the entire city of Sodom with all its sin and perversion on one side. The scales tip toward wrath as the weightiness of advanced wickedness runs rampant through an entire city. Let's assume that there were two hundred thousand evil people in Sodom. It is weighed heavily on the side of evil. Yet on the other side, place just ten righteous individuals. As the ten are placed on the scale, the spiritual weight of the righteous, with just ten, tips the scales toward mercy!

In God's heart, the substance of the righteous far outweighs the wickedness of the evil! Herein we discover what we are seeking in the heart of God through prayer: the Lord would spare (forgive) sinful Sodom, with its gangs of violent homosexuals, because of the influence of ten godly people who dwelt within it!

How About Your Community?
Now, let's think of your city: Are there ten good people among you? Consider your region. Do you think there might be one hundred praying people living within its borders, people who are pleading with God for mercy? What about nationwide? Do you suppose there might be ten thousand people interceding for your country? God said He would spare Sodom for ten righteous people. Do you think God would spare your nation for ten thousand righteous?

I lived in a metropolitan area in the United States that has about two hundred thousand people. I can list by name scores of righteous individuals, including pastors, intercessors, youth workers, black folks, white folks, Hispanic folks, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Christian business people, moms, dads, godly teenagers, praying grandmothers, secretaries, policemen, and on and on who live there -- far more than the ten righteous needed to save a place like Sodom. There are many who care about this city.

Think about your church and the greater church community in your city. Aren't there at least ten honorable people who sincerely care about your community, who desire that God would bring revival? Remember, the Lord said He would spare Sodom for the sake of the ten.

My plea in this message is that you would see yourself as one who is standing in the gap for your city. See if there are others in your community who will pray with you. The power of prayer can release a tsunami of mercy that can topple strongholds and set captives free in your region.

Finally, let us not give up our communities to the influences of hell. God is able to raise up a standard against wickedness. In fact, He says He looks for a man who will stand in the gap, that He might not strike the earth in His wrath. Will you be that one? You see, the true measure of spirituality is not how angry we become toward sinners, but how Christlike; our mission is not to see men destroyed, but redeemed.

Lord Jesus, forgive me for devaluing the power of prayer. Forgive me for underestimating how passionately You desire to reveal Your mercy. Lord, give me grace to be one who never ceases to cry out to You for mercy. Lord, let me not base my obedience on what my eyes see or my ears hear, but upon the revelation of Your mercy; let me build my life on Thee. Amen!

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GUEST POST ~ Scot McKnight

The Treadmill called “Success”

Scot McKnight

 

Churches, through its pastors and leaders and volunteers, can form into a culture of success. Such a culture then forms the pastors, leaders, and churches to fit into that culture. That is, the various measures of victories, winning, achievements, progresses and advances – getting caught up in these measures creates a culture of success.

Photo by Mark Neal on Unsplash

Pastors can get snagged in the pull of success, prosperity and fame. That pull is formed by comparison with other pastors and churches, comparisons give birth to competition, and competition gives birth to expectations, and unmet expectations – they are inevitable and eventual – give birth to frustrations, and frustrations to denigration of other pastors, churches, and fellow workers, and denigrations turn into personal and church depressions, and together these are the treadmill to  disillusionment.

When a pastor with such ambitions gets snagged he or she discovers the thrills of glory and acclamation, but such glories are themselves a never-stopping and rarely slowing-down treadmill. Losses, declines in giving and attendance spur the pastor to work harder and to “get back to where we once were.” That past is past; the present doesn’t return to the past. Yet another treadmill of going forward while looking back.

What to do?

I’ve talked to enough pastors in the last two decades to put forward a kind of “Wisdom of jumping off the treadmill of success.” Pastors, especially during Covid, have been run ragged. As they come out of this long winter of discontents, may they find the tranquility of what they were called to be and do.

Three commitments transformed the pastors I’ve talked with, and in most cases such pastors have had to sit down with the elders, deacons, co-ministers, boards — whatever — for a talk about stepping back to core commitments. Mind you, some of them have been hard conversations. All of them have yielded wiser pastoring.

Faithfulness

Instead of the ambitions of success, wise pastors commit their days, their homes, their work, their gifts, their pastoring, their preaching, their teaching, and their walk with the Lord toward being faithful to God, faithful to Jesus, faithful in the Spirit, faithful to the Scriptures, faithful to the great traditions of the church, faithful to their own calling to pastor people (not run the world), and faithful to themselves. And, yes, faithful to their spouses and children and family.

Pastoral Care

Instead of the ambitions of “bigger is better” and “more is magnificent” wise pastors commit their lives to pastor – catch this fave of mine – who they’ve got not those they’ve not got. In other words, they care for those in their care – parishioners and co-ministers and staff and family – instead of striving for more people and more givers and more filled pews/chairs and more buildings and more of this and that and here and there. Such persons care for those they know instead of looking through them to the newest visitor and the next big giver.

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Personal giftedness

Instead of the ambitions of being everything to everyone, which can mean preacher, teacher, leader, entrepreneur, visionary, manager, chaplain, overseer, community worker, networker, conference attender, book reader, DMin-er, PhD-er, author, conference speaker, Zoom yacker, blogger, Substack-er, columnist – and, oh yes, husband/wife and mother/father, brother, sister, daughter/son, neighbor, friend, fellow pastor…. let’s start this sentence again: Instead of the pull of being everything for everyone, the wise pastor commits her or his life around what she or he is called to do, gifted to do. Yes, working on weak areas, but only because those areas are areas in need of shoring up for the calling. Wise pastors know their limitations and renounce the temptation of “no limitations.” They know their time constraints, their body, their psyche, their family’s capacities and health. They know their gifts enough to empower others to do their calling, to do what that pastor can’t do well, and to be given credit for their contributions to the Body of Christ.

Someone needs to hear this today. Hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

Thank you for hearing me out.

GUEST POST ~ #ReimagineCHRISTIANITY...In America

What Is an Evangelical?

Are you an evangelical? It’s complicated. I thought I was until someone told me that since I was, I was also a white supremacist. This is what happens when theological terms are defined by the broader culture. So let’s clarify what it means.

The Complexity of the Modern Term

“Evangelical” is a contemporary grouping of Protestant Christians that have their roots in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century revivalism. They generally share four characteristics, the well-known Bebbington Quadrilateral: biblicism (the centrality of the Bible), conversionism (the individual acceptance of Jesus as Savior), activism (the requirement for evangelism and mission), and crucicentrism (the atoning work of Jesus on the cross). While some of these characteristics may be shared with other Christian traditions, evangelicals are also further located in the context of the twentieth-century debates between theological liberals and conservatives. These three ideas—Protestant Christianity, revivalism, and Bebbington’s Quadrilateral—triangulate the social identity of evangelicals in the United States today.

The term is not used the same way in other parts of the world. In Europe, for example, it refers to an ecclesial identity that is not Roman Catholic. In the UK, it shares some similarities with the use in mainland Europe; however, it is also used as a subgroup identity for low-church Anglicans, as well as for those not attached to the Church of England but still identified by the above three ideas. This suggests that “evangelical” is not simply a political identity, as it is all too often presented in the early twenty-first century, though it is a contested and somewhat malleable term.

The New Testament Root of “Evangelical”

The term “evangelical” draws from the lexical setting of the New Testament Greek noun euangelion, which can have a contextual meaning such as “good news” or, as some English translations of the Bible translate it, “gospel” (Gal. 1:11; Rom. 1:1, 16). The rationale for this group label is that those committed to biblicism, conversionism, activism, and crucicentrism may properly be understood as those who have aligned their patterns of belief and embodiment with the aims of the gospel. It is the message that God has acted in Jesus of Nazareth in order to redeem humanity, establish the kingdom, and restore creation. The ecclesial communities who identify themselves as evangelical understand their mission as the proclamation of this good news throughout the world. While there is significant debate as to the social implications of the gospel, there is agreement on the centrality of Jesus to the message.

When the diverse ecclesial label “evangelical” is attached to the term “theology,” it raises a perennial challenge: How does one define evangelical theology ? It is a theology that has its focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ from beginning to end. Several implications may be detected from this. Evangelical theology is fully Trinitarian, orthodox in its Christological teaching, and animated both by Christ’s atoning work on the cross and by the centrality of the Christian community of faith, gathered for worship and mission.

Twin Components: “Protestantism” and “Revivalism”

Two terms mentioned in the opening sentence of this post need further definition: (a) Protestantism and (b) revivalism, since evangelicalism is a nested social identity within these two movements from church history. Protestantism is a sixteenth-century movement of protest concerning the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, itself a branch of Christendom that resulted from an earlier split with the Orthodox Church in 1054. The material principle of the Protestant Reformation—what made it possible—is that justification of sinners occurs by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The formal principle—its unique shape—is Scripture alone. Scripture formed the doctrine that made possible a movement to reform the church for the glory of God alone. Since a protest movement is inherently unstable, though, Protestantism quickly branched into four streams: Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Anabaptist. As these grew, further movements developed: Baptists, Methodists, and eventually Pentecostals.

The second movement important for understanding evangelicalism is revivalism, a conversion-and-renewal movement in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Its roots were in the Reformation’s Lutheran stream in Germany that developed into pietism—an approach to the Christian life emphasizing holiness and personal experience in contrast to the dry orthodoxy that had overtaken much of Europe. A shared spiritual ethos also developed with Puritanism, especially in England and America, along with the Great Awakening and eventually the Pentecostal outpourings. Revivalism was characterized by (a) longing for repentance, (b) confident expectation for revival, (c) gospel proclamation, and (d) renewal of ardor and scripturally based worship and mission practices.

Recent Movements Around the Evangelical Label

Why does this matter? In the last several years, there has been a move to give up on the “evangelical” label, with some referring to themselves as “ex-evangelicals.” It has also, no doubt, been co-opted by political leaders and has drifted from its original gospel orientation. Labels matter, though, and sometimes we need to revisit what they indicate. When my evangelical identity reconnects the gospel with my theology and the church, it is functioning the way it should. But when it only connects an inward-focused subgroup, a condition referred to as koinonitis, then an intervention is needed—one that requires more than Dr. Phil.

Published on October 21, 2021. Modified on October 27, 2021.

GUEST POST ~ Mike & Terri Higgs, with Francis Frangipane

"This is without doubt a “kairos” time for us all to seek God. The world around us is anything but routine, and God is raising up a remnant that will not just survive, but thrive as they advance the Kingdom of Light against the encroaching Darkness."

sondancing Our Tent of Meeting   While we have never met Francis Frangipane, his writings have mentored us in profound ways. Mike in particular has been significantly impacted by his books, which reflect an author for whom Christlikeness is a singular goal. This is a selection from his book, Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God. We include it for several reasons. This is without doubt a “kairos” time for us all to seek God. The world around us is anything but routine, and God is raising up a remnant that will not just survive, but thrive as they advance the Kingdom of Light against the encroaching Darkness.   The selection also resonates with us in that our home here in the Idaho mountains has become a sort of Tent of Meeting for us. As you will read below, Moses pitched the Tent of Meeting “a good distance from the camp” of the Israelite nation. God pitched our tent, so to speak, a good distance from the “camp” of comfort, familiarity, and friends in Oregon, and even a shorter but not insignificant distance from our current ministry focus in the Sun Valley area of Idaho. While at times it has been a quite challenging adjustment, we believe God knew what He was doing.    May we all “choose to leave the camp of familiarity – whatever that may be for each of us - and place our tent in the presence of God.”     The Tent of Meeting "When You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You, 'Your face, O Lord, I shall seek'" (Ps. 27:8).      There are certain times when the Lord calls us out of the routine of our daily lives. These are special seasons where His only command is "Seek My face." He has something precious and vitally important to give us that the familiar pattern of our daily devotions cannot accommodate. During such times people are often delivered of sins that have plagued them for years; others discover a depth in their walk with God that leads to greater effectiveness in ministry and prayer; still others experience breakthroughs in their families and are used by God to see loved ones brought into the kingdom.         Yet here we are not seeking God for things or even for other people. We are seeking God for Himself. Maturity starts as we break the cycle of seeking God only during hardship; holiness begins the moment we seek God for Himself. A touch from God is wonderful, but we are in pursuit of more than just an experience, more than "goose bumps and tears." We are seeking to abide with Christ, where we are continually aware of His fullness within us, where His presence dwells in us in glory.         How do we enter this sacred place? If we study the life of Moses, we will see how he sought God and lived in fellowship with Him.         "Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp" (Exod. 33:7).        Notice that "everyone who sought the Lord would go out.” If we are going to truly seek the Lord, we must pitch our tent "a good distance from the camp." What camp is this? For Moses, as well as for us, it is the camp of familiarity.         Is there anything inherently wrong or sinful with the things that are familiar? No, not in themselves, but you will remember that when Jesus told His disciples to follow Him, He called them to leave the familiar pattern of their lives for extended periods and be alone with Him (Matt. 19:27; Luke 14:33). He knew that people, by nature, are unconsciously governed by the familiar. If Christ would expand us to reach for the eternal, He must rescue us from the limitations of the temporal.         This is not to say we neglect our families or that we become irresponsible as we seek God. No. God has given everyone enough time to seek Him. The time is there. Having done what love would have us do for our families, we simply say no to every other voice but God’s. We must redeem the time: cancel hobbies, forsake television, and put away the newspaper and magazines. Those who would find God, find time.         Sadly, many Christians have no higher goal, no greater aspiration, than to become "normal." Their desires are limited to measuring up to others. Without a true vision of God, we most certainly will perish spiritually! Paul rebuked the church at Corinth because they walked "like mere men" (1 Cor. 3:3). God has more for us than merely becoming better people; He wants to flood our lives with the same power that raised Christ from the dead. We must understand: God does not merely want us "normal"; He wants us Christlike.        For the Holy Spirit to facilitate God’s purposes in our lives, He must redefine our priorities in life. Christlikeness must become our singular goal.        For most people, however, our sense of reality, and hence our security, is often rooted in the familiar. How difficult it is to grow spiritually if our security is based upon the stability of outward things! Our security must come from God, not circumstances or other personal relationships. When it is, the other areas of our lives experience eternal security.        Yet our fears run deep and are numerous. Indeed, most of us pass through life umbilically tied to the world of the familiar. Even people who have been delivered from adverse situations are often drawn back into hardship. Why? Because adversity is more familiar to them.        Humans are cocooned in the familiar and thus insulated against change. When we work all day only to come home, watch television, then collapse in bed, our lifestyle tethers us to earthly things. These things may not necessarily trap us in sin as much as they keep us from God.       Moses would leave what was familiar and pitch his tent "outside the camp," where he would then seek the Lord.   "Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come" (Heb. 13:12-14).        In the same way that Moses and those who sought the Lord went outside the camp, and as Jesus went outside the camp, so also must we, at times, leave the camp of what seems normal and predictable and begin to seek after God. Here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city that is to come.        This is one reason why Jesus said, "When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray" (Matt. 6:6). Christ desires us to leave the familiar, distracting world of our senses and abide in the world of our hearts, bearing in mind that the highest goal of prayer is to find God.        Every minute you seek God is a minute enriched with new life and new power from God. Give yourself a minimum amount of time -- an hour or two each day -- but do not set a limit, as the Lord may draw you to seek Him on into the night. And continue day by day, and week by week, until you have drawn near enough to God that you can hear His voice, becoming confident that He is close enough to you to hear your whisper.        If we are going to become holy, we must sever the chains and restraints -- the bondage of desiring just an average life. We will choose to leave the camp of familiarity and place our tent in the presence of God.

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"I love the biblical model of anonymous but faithful disciples who engage their world with the news -not the advice- of the gospel."