Recap: Links to Responses to A New Kind of Christianity

Welcome: I’ve been blogging my way through a series of responses to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity. My focus is on pastoral theology or practical theology response. As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m asking: “What difference does our response to each question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

Recap

Here are the links thus far in my series.

*Post # 1: Brian McLaren, I Accept Your Invitation

*Post # 2: A Biblical Counseling Response to Brian McLaren  

*Post # 3: Responding to Brian McLaren’s Q # 1: The Narrative Question  

*Post # 4: Responding to Brian McLaren’s Q # 2: The Authority Question—The Bible  

*Post # 5: Responding to Brian McLaren’s Q # 3: The God Question

*Post # 6: Responding to Brian McLaren’s Q # 4: The Jesus Question

*Post # 7: Responding to Brian McLaren’s Q # 5: The Gospel Question

*Post # 8: Responding to Brian McLaren’s Q # 6: The Church Question

Six Views

I’ve also collated other responses and reviews to A New Kind of Christianity.

*Post: 6 Views on Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity

The Rest of the Story

In my next post, I respond to Brian’s answer to the sex question. He asks, “Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it?” What does biblical counseling have to say about addressing human sexuality?

Join the Conversation

Which question do you think is most important and why?

Responding to Brian McLaren’s Question # 6: The Church Question

Welcome: You’re reading Part 8 of my blog series responding to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity (read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7). Many have engaged Brian’s thinking by focusing on a systematic theology response (visit here for a boatload of links). My focus is on pastoral theology or practical theology. As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m asking: “What difference does our response to each question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

What Is the Church Here For?

In addressing the church issue, Brian asks a serious of important questions. “Around what grand endeavor can we rally? What one great danger do people need to be saved from and, more positively, what one great purpose do they need to be saved for? Around what melody can we harmonize without trying to homogenize?” (p. 164).

In response, Brian believes that we must “rethink our core mission” (p. 165). Brian’s rethinking is motivated by his belief that the church has lost touch with “normal” people and that preachers have forgotten how to speak their language. He’s also motivated by his perception that the church is living within an isolated or withdrawn religious subculture, or spiritual country club.

I’m not sure what churches Brian is visiting, but I agree with him—I wouldn’t applaud those churches either. I find it ironic that Brian uses the “spiritual country club” imagery for the churches he’s against. It seems to me that an exorbitant percentage of young Emergent church leaders are all coincidentally called to minister in churches filled with cool, trendy, well-educated, philosophically-inclined, upwardly-mobile, suburban, white-collar types. Isn’t God calling any young Emergent leaders to minister to blue-collar, high-school-educated, rural, or urban people?

A Church Of Biblical Counseling

Brian also seems to think that only he and his fellow Emergent church leaders are ministering in the mess and muck of life, and that only they are speaking the language of the people. The truth is, non-Emergent churches are in the trenches, on the front lines providing ministries based upon truth and love.

Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, Indiana, under the direction of Pastor Steve Viars, is a prime example. They’re staunchly conservative Evangelical in theology and cutting-edge in ministry practice and outreach. They’re a church of biblical counseling, not just a church with biblical counseling. Their biblical counseling ministry is not just within their congregation, it is to their community.

Every week over 100 community members receive free biblical counseling from Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries. Their waiting list is seemingly endless. Someone must believe they are speaking their language.

As part of Faith Community Ministries, the church built a community center…not for the congregation, but for the…community. The list of need-meeting ministries is amazing, such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Community Blood Drives, Community Foster Car, Habitat for Humanity, Red Cross Disaster Shelter, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Clothing Closet, Food Pantry, etc. As part of this ministry, Faith also built a state-of-the-art outdoor skate board park. Many of these “Skaters” end up in church…with their skate boards and their torn jeans to hear exegetical, expository, biblical preaching every Sunday. These young Skaters believe Faith is speaking their language.

Faith’s Vision of Hope residential treatment center offers faith-based treatment for girls age 14-28 who are struggling with unplanned pregnancy, alcohol or drug abuse, eating disorders, or self-harm. State agencies and the court system regularly refer girls to Vision of Hope—with the full knowledge that the program is based upon biblical counseling. Someone realizes they are speaking their language.

Faith Bible Seminary combines the traditional M.Div. emphasis in theology, the original languages, and pastoral training within a mentoring environment in partnership with area local churches. Students gain first-hand experience with Faith Biblical Counseling, Vision of Hope, and other unique ministries. They have no problem attracting students nor do their graduates have any problem finding local church placement. People know they are speaking their language.

Spiritual Formation in Truth and Love

Brian offer’s his view of the new core mission of the church. We’re called to focus on communities that form Christlike people living as agents of transformation. “The church exists to form Christlike people, people of Christlike love. It exists to save them from the danger of wasting their lives” (p. 164). The meaning of those words depends upon how Brian answered his previous five questions. As Mike Wittmer notes:

“Brian’s shallow evaluation of our problem (no Fall, original sin, total depravity, or hell) produces a shallow understanding of salvation (love as much as you can and let God’s judgment burn your bad stuff away) which produces a shallow view of the church (it exists merely to stop people from wasting their lives).”

Brian wants to know, “How does spiritual formation in the way of Jesus differ from religious education in the way of Christianity?”(p. 170). Great question! Of course, to answer this we must go back to Who Jesus is and why He came. If Jesus is a community organizer Who came to usher in the “sacred ecosystem” (p. 165), then formation in Jesus looks like one thing. But if Jesus is the God-man Who came in Holy Love to justify, regenerate, reconcile, and redeem sinners, then it looks like quite another thing.

Brian traces the church’s problem to knowledge without love. I don’t know anyone who would argue that we should only have love or only have knowledge. But Brian seems to minimize the role of knowledge—truth, doctrine, theology. The same Paul he quotes in 1 Corinthians also says in Philippians 1:9-11 that our love must abound in knowledge and depth of insight. Paul is not pitting love against knowledge. Paul is saying that truth or love alone are never enough. Brian says the church should be a school of love (p. 170). I would say, and I believe it’s a crucial difference, that the church should be a school where love abounds in knowledge and depth of insight.

Brian also says that we need to be Spirit-saturated people. I agree. Of course, we have to ask and answer the question, “How does the Spirit saturate us?” In what ways and under what condition(s) does the Spirit enter a person’s life? I would say, through rebirth, through salvation—through justification, regeneration, reconciliation, and redemption. (See my response to Question # 5.)

Brian’s view of the Fall, of Christ, and of the Gospel all seem to call into question salvation as justification, regeneration, reconciliation, and redemption. In this chapter, Brian furthers states that the goal of the church is to save people from wasting their lives. That’s quite different from saving them from sin, depravity, and alienation from God. So, without salvation, how does the Spirit saturate a person?

I believe the Bible teaches that the goal of the church is to introduce people to Christ Who saves them. They are thus justified, regenerated, reconciled, redeemed, and indwelt by the Spirit and thus they are empowered to be formed into the image of Christ. Then, as new creations in Christ, together as the Body of Christ, we minister to one another (biblical counseling and spiritual formation) so that our inner lives increasingly reflect the inner life of Christ and so that our outer lives increasingly sacrificially minister Christ’s grace to hurting and hardened people.

The Rest of the Story

In our next post, we respond to Brian’s answer to the sex question. He asks, “Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it?” What does biblical counseling have to say about addressing human sexuality?

Join the Conversation

What is the purpose of the church and how is it accomplished?

Responding to Brian McLaren’s Question # 5: The Gospel Question

Welcome: You’re reading Part 7 of my blog series responding to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity (read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6). Many have engaged Brian’s thinking by focusing on a systematic theology response (visit here for a boatload of links). My focus is on pastoral theology or practical theology. As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m asking: “What difference does our response to each question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

The Gospel of Brian

Brian’s trek toward his new kind of Christianity began fifteen years ago when he repented of his belief that the Gospel was about justification by grace through faith (p. 138). He now proclaims that the Gospel is not about solving the problem of the Fall and original sin (p. 139), or about avoiding hell and ascending to heaven after death (p. 139). It is the “good news” of the liberating king who sets God’s people free from oppression (p. 138). The Gospel is helping the poor and the downtrodden, healing the planet, and stopping war (p. 140). The Gospel is the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is the “peace revolution, new love economy, sacred ecosystem, beloved community or society, dream, dance, and movement” (p. 277).

Mike Witter summarizes these two chapters well in his post What Is the Gospel?

“How does Brian think salvation happens? He dismisses penal substitution and justification by grace through faith, but doesn’t offer anything in their place. All that’s left, although he doesn’t spell this out, is that we are saved by following the example of Jesus the liberator, who came to show us how to love our neighbor. Brian’s understanding of sin is insufficiently developed, which leads to a corresponding weakness in his explanation of salvation. He needs to clearly explain what sin is, why everyone has it, and how Jesus saves us from that sin.”

The Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul—The Gospel of Jesus

The biblical Gospel can be summarized by four vital components—each central to salvation and to sanctification: justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and redemption.

*Justification offers us forgiveness and cleansing for our sin—Christ’s solution for the penalty of sin—new pardon.

*Reconciliation offers us the way back to God from our state of rebellious relational alienation—Christ’s solution for the partition caused by sin—new peace.

*Regeneration offers us a new nature (as new creations) from our state of total depravity—Christ’s solution for the pollution of sin—new purity.

*Redemption offers us new freedom from enslavement to sin—Christ’s solution to sin’s prison—new power.

For all of Brian’s talk of hope and peace, if there was no original sin, then there’s no need for salvation. Omitting original sin doesn’t bring hope; it results in despair.

Biblical counseling and spiritual formation are Christ-centered and Gospel-Centered. They seek to anwser the age-old question, “How can we change?” I’m unclear what Brian’s answer to that question is. Perhaps it’s that Christ’s example so motivates us that we naturally change.

As any sinner (i.e., all of us) can tell you, change is not natural. It is supernatural. How do people change? We change because we have already been changed—by Christ, through salvation.

Perhaps Brian mistakenly concludes that “the old kind of Christianity” sees salvation as only focused on justification. As vital and absolutely essential as justification is, our complete salvation through Christ equally involves reconciliation, regeneration, and redemption. Without these four “gowns of salvation” we are powerless to change (see Soul Physicians, pages 337-424 for practical teaching on our salvation in Christ).

Brian believes that we can’t get a coherent doctrine of anthropology, sin, and sanctification from Romans (p. 276). Think about those three categories—they’re Creation, Fall, and Redemption. They’re the categories of people, problems, and solutions. To use the systematic theology concepts, they’re anthropology, hamartiology, and soteriology.

They’re each central to biblical counseling and spiritual formation. True biblical psychology is the study of the soul—the nature of human nature (people), the study of what went wrong with the soul—sin (problems), and the study of how God in Christ conquers our spiritual problem—salvation/sanctification (solutions). (See Soul Physicians, 425-499 for how to apply our salvation to our progressive sanctification—growth in grace). Brian’s gospel robs biblical counseling and spiritual formation—robs us blind and leaves us blind.

In the spirit of conversation, I’d ask, Brian, how do people change? Without justification, reconciliation, regeneration, and redemption, Brian, how do you help people to follow Christ’s example? Where do people find the power to live Christlike lives? What is your model of growth in grace? What is your process for progressive sanctification?

The Rest of the Story

In our next blog post, we respond to Brian’s answer to the church question. “What do we do about the church?”

Join the Conversation

How do people change?

Being one-quarter Irish, on St. Patrick’s Day I couldn’t resist posting something related to St. Patrick. The following prayer by St. Patrick has been variously titled Morning Prayer, The Breastplate, or The Lorica. Some question whether St. Patrick actually wrote it, or whether someone else penned it years later and it was ascribed to St. Patrick. However, for centuries it has been associated with his name and his ministry.

Various versions and translations of assorted lengths are in existence. The one below is my collation.

Morning Prayer

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through the belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of Christ’s birth with His baptism,

Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,

Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension.

I arise today

Through God’s strength to pilot me,

God’s might to uphold me,

God’s wisdom to guide me,

God’s eye to look before me,

God’s ear to hear me,

God’s word to speak for me,

God’s hand to guard me,

God’s way to lie before me,

God’s shield to protect me,

God’s host to save me

From snares of devils,

From temptations of vices,

From everyone who shall wish me ill,

Afar and anear,

Alone and in multitude.

I arise today

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

Christ with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right,

Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down,

Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness,

Of the Creator of Creation.

Responding to Brian McLaren’s Question # 4: The Jesus Question

Welcome: You’re reading “Part 6” of my blog series responding to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity (read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5). Many have engaged Brian’s thinking by focusing on a systematic theology response (visit here for a boatload of links). My focus is on pastoral theology or practical theology. As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m asking: “What difference does our response to each question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

Jesus: A Community Organizer

Early on, Brian asked, “What are the deep problems the original Christian story was trying to solve?” For Brian, the deepest problem is not original sin and relational separation from God. He says the “Fall” is not a fall into sin, depravity, and alienation. Rather, Genesis 3 narrate a “compassionate coming-of-age story” (p. 49). Specifically, Genesis depicts humanity’s movement from hunter-gathering to agriculturalist and city-dweller (p. 50).

It’s against this backdrop that Brian asks, “Who is Jesus and why is he important?” Brian’s clear on who Jesus is not. In the Gospel according to Brian, Jesus did not come to address and remedy the Fall so that we could avoid eternal condemnation due to original sin (p. 128). By eternal life, Jesus is not promising life after death or life in eternal heaven instead of eternal hell (p. 130).

In two chapters, covering sixteen pages, and using over 8,000 words, Brian never once calls Jesus God; never calls Him Savior, and never mentions His crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection in a salvation-from-sin context. However, Brian does save enough words to talk about “his loyal critics” eight times.

When Brian quotes John 1:29 about Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he interprets it to mean not the sacrificial lamb of Leviticus, but the lamb slain in Exodus to liberate people from oppression. The one time Brian mentions Jesus’ death and resurrection, he makes it mean liberation from physical oppression, not from spiritual condemnation. “Jesus and his message have everything to do with poverty, slavery, and a ‘social agenda’” (p. 135). Everything? Really?

For Brian, Jesus came to save us from the sin of oppression, not to save us from the oppression of sin. Read that again. Slowly.

In Brian’s new kind of Christianity, Jesus is our example who models the way of peace. He is a liberator of the oppressed. He is not our Savior from Sin. Jesus is…a community organizer.

Is this a new kind of Christianity or is it the old kind of liberalism? H. Richard Niebuhr aptly described it in 1959, explaining that liberals believe that, “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

Practical Implication # 1 for Biblical Counseling: Our Greatest Problem Is the Oppression of Sin, Not the Sin of Oppression

Of course, the ultimate practical implication is clear—we’re going to die in our sins with this “Jesus.” I’m struggling to write anything else in today’s blog post. What’s left to say? However, my self-chosen task is to respond with a biblical counseling perspective to Brian’s handling of each of his questions. So I shall continue.

In my book Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, I quote ex-enslaved African American Pastor James W. C. Pennington. Reflecting on his conversion, he seamlessly expresses his understanding of suffering and of sin. Without minimizing for a moment the evils of slavery, he maximizes for all eternity the horrors of his own enslavement to sin and Satan.

“I was a lost sinner and a slave to Satan; and soon I saw that I must make another escape from another tyrant. I did not by any means forget my fellow-bondmen, of whom I had been sorrowing so deeply, and travailing in spirit so earnestly; but I now saw that while man had been injuring me, I had been offending God; and that unless I ceased to offend him, I could not expect to have his sympathy in my wrongs; and moreover, that I could not be instrumental in eliciting his powerful aid in behalf of those for whom I mourned so deeply.”

Our deepest problem is not our emotional woundedness for which we need a therapist. Our deepest problem is not our societal oppression for which we need a community organizer. Our deepest problem is our personal, willful, relational, stubborn, spiritual rebellion against God for which we need a Savior.

Practical Implication # 2 for Biblical Counseling: Even in Facing Suffering (Being Sinned Against), Our Greatest Need is a Suffering Savior

Let’s be clear. Christians should be concerned about social issues, social justice, the needs of the poor and the oppressed. But that’s not the social gospel. The social gospel is no gospel at all—it removes the need for a Savior from sin because it removes sin. Christians practice a Gospel-Centered concern for social issues, believing that our ultimate problem is sin and that those rescued from the sin problem gratefully share the good news of salvation from sin and compassionately meet the needs of the hurting, suffering, wounded, and oppressed.

Let’s also be clear that truly biblical counseling deals both with the sins we have committed (practical implication # 1), and with the evils we have suffered (practical implication # 2). As I frequently say, we live in a fallen world and it often falls on us. That’s why I wrote God’s Healing for Life’s Losses: How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting.

However, even in a biblical sufferology (a biblical theology of suffering), our greatest need is a crucified, resurrected Savior. The Apostle Paul did not want the believers in Corinth to be ignorant of the suffering he endured in Asia Minor. So he candidly shared his heart, explaining that he despaired of life and felt the sentence of death (2 Corinthians 1:8-9a).

Paul doesn’t stop there. He continued. “But this happen to us so that we might not rely upon ourselves, but upon God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9b). The casket of suffering draws us to the empty tomb of our resurrected Savior.

Do we really want to help the oppressed? Do we have deep compassion and empathy for the suffering? Do we have hearts that long to comfort the hurting? Then for goodness sake, don’t practice identity theft on Jesus! Don’t make His eternal existence, life, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, present intercession, and future return simply be about “Jesus meek and mild” the community organizer!

Rev. Pennington got it right. The enslaved, the hurting, the wounded, and the oppressed first and foremost need a Savior from sin. Then they can find healing hope by celebrating the resurrection of their loving, forgiving, reconciling, redeeming Savior. Biblical counseling deals thoroughly with suffering and with sin through a Christ-centered focused on Jesus the God-man. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

The Rest of the Story

In our next post, we explore the gospel question. Brian asks, “What is the gospel?” We’ll respond to his gospel presentation through the lens of biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

Join the Conversation

What difference does Jesus make for biblical counseling and spiritual formation?

Responding to Brian McLaren’s Question # 3: The God Question

Welcome: You’re reading “Part 5” of my blog series responding to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity (read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here). Many have engaged Brian’s thinking by focusing on a systematic theology response (visit here for a boatload of links). My focus is on pastoral theology or practical theology. As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m asking: “What difference does our response to each question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

Does the Bible Need Therapy?

Brian’s third question is the God question. Is God violent? He’s asking, “Why does God seem so violent and genocidal in many Bible passages?” “Is God incurable violent,” Brian asks (p. 20). In the asking, we see that for Brian, the Bible’s view of God needs to be cured. The Bible needs therapy. Now that’s a new slant on “biblical counseling”!

Some may argue, “Wait a minute, Bob. Brian’s only trying to cure our false images of God, not the Bible’s false images of God.”

I’m sorry, that’s simply not true. Using his idea of the Bible as a “library,” Brian is honest enough to state, “But I have to admit that there are problems in the Bible as library too. Real problems. Big problems” (p. 98). He says that as a serious reader of the Bible he’s uneasy because of “images of God that are also found in the Bible—violent images, cruel images, un-Christlike images” (p. 98). That’s Brian in his own words.

God in Brian’s Image

In biblical counseling and spiritual formation, we talk about what it means to be created in God’s image. In A New Kind of Christianity, Brian talks about what it means to create God in our image. That’s God in Brian’s image.

So how does Brian counsel and cure the God portrayed in the Bible? How does one do spiritual formation on the Bible’s God? How does Brian help the God of the Bible to become more Christlike?

Brian takes an evolutionary view of the Bible’s portrayal of God. “I begin to see how our ancestors’ images and understandings of God continually changed, evolved, and matured over the centuries. God, it seemed, kept initiating this evolution” (p. 99).

This entire section reminds me of the 1996 book God a Biography by Jack Miles who saw God in evolutionary terms. For Miles, God began his life as a socially-inept child, matured into a socially-awkward adolescent, and finally grew up relationally as he stumbled upon how to love—learning from the prophets how to relate!

To be fair, unlike Miles, McLaren is not saying that God grew up and got better. He is, however, claiming that the Bible’s portrayal of God grew up and got better. “Scripture faithfully reveals the evolution of our ancestors’ best attempts to communicate their successive best understandings of God. As human capacity grows to conceive of a higher and wiser view of God, each new vision is faithfully preserved in Scripture like fossils in layers of sediment” (p. 103).

God in Jesus’ Own Words: WDJS

Is this what God says anywhere in Scripture? Does Jesus anywhere indicate that He has a problem with the Old Testament view of God? Brian says he’s trying to properly honor Jesus as the ultimate revelation of God—as the living Word who teaches us the meaning of the written Word. Great. Show me the message. Show us where Jesus takes issue with anything written in the Old Testament about God. WDJS: What Does Jesus Say?

It seems like this is a case of everyone doing and believing what is right in their own eyes. Who gets the last word on the best view of God? When applied to God, this is the essence of idolatry—creating images of God in our own image.

God doesn’t need a bailout. He doesn’t need a “Personal Recovery Act.” The biblical presentation of God doesn’t need an Extreme Makeover! God doesn’t need new PR.

Practical Implication # 1: Our Image of God’s Holy Love

These issues are vital theologically and practically. In biblical/Christian counseling and spiritual formation, nothing is more important than our image of God. Jeremiah 2:5 explains that it is because of faulty, light-weight views of God that we commit spiritual adultery. Jeremiah 2:19-25 notes that when we lose our awe of God, we become attracted and addicted to false lovers of the soul. The very center of biblical counseling is a biblical understanding of Who God is.

In Soul Physicians, I explore the biblical image of God as a God of “holy love.” While our finite minds can never capture the infinite attributes of God, numerous biblical passages combine God’s holiness and His love as a way to communicate something of God’s perfection. Holy love communicates God’s transcendence—He is holy and far above us, sovereign and in control, King and Lord. Holy love also communicates God’s immanence—He is loving and near us, affectionate and caring, Father and Friend.

Brian seems to object to the “holy” side of God. Of course, the Old Testament repeatedly presents, in perfect harmony, God’s holy love. We can’t dissect God and pick and choose what aspects of His infinite, eternal being are acceptable to us. This is true not only because that would be the epitome of sinful arrogance, but also because God’s attributes aren’t dissectible. He’s not “holy” now, and “loving” later. In everything He ever does, His infinite being always works in perfect harmony. God is forever and always simultaneously holy and loving.

Practical Implication # 2: Spiritual Conversations and Scriptural Explorations—Trialogues

The heart of biblical/Christian counseling involvement beats around the concept of “trialogue.” In biblical counseling, we don’t preach at people (“directive” counseling). Nor do people come with all the answers that we simply draw out (“non-directive” counseling). Rather, in the personal ministry of the Word, we practice “collaborative” counseling. We not only dialogue, we trialogue. In every counseling situation, there are three parties: the counselor, the counselee, and the Divine Counselor through the Word of God and the Spirit of God. (See Spiritual Friends for literally 1,000s of examples of trialogues).

Of course, we can’t have a trialogue, only a dialogue, if every passage is up for grabs. A dialogue is the essence of secular therapy—two people exploring life together using the resources of human reason alone. By their very definition, pastoral counseling, biblical counseling, and Christian counseling involve two people exploring together from a shared reservoir of agreed upon theological principles and faith practices.

So picture what happens if we get to pick and choose what portraits of God we like.

“So, Evan, as you work through your grief, could we explore how David candidly lamented his losses in the Psalms?”

“Oh, sorry, Bob. I don’t believe that David got God right. We’d have to go to another passage where I think the view of God is highly enough evolved to apply to my life today.”

Now, we certainly could beneficially engage Evan in spiritual conversations regarding his beliefs about the Scriptures and God. Vital issues, indeed. Which is my point—unless and until we accept the Bible’s view of itself and of God, we’re doing “pre-counseling.” Or perhaps even evangelism or apologetics—all worthy ministries.

But can we do biblical counseling and personal discipleship when one or both parties dismiss the Bible’s view of God? Remember, we’re not talking about disagreements surrounding how to interpret passages that we believe are authoritative. We’re talking about the belief that the Bible does not present accurate images of God. Doesn’t such a belief preclude biblical discipleship? If not, what is the definition of “biblical” counseling and “biblical” discipleship?

The Rest of the Story

In our next post, we explore the Jesus question. Brian asks, “Who is Jesus and why is He important?” Nothing is more important. What does a biblical counseling perspective offer that can be essential in this ongoing conversation?

Join the Conversation

How could you do biblical counseling using Brian’s view of the Bible and of God?

One of my passions is bridge-building, connecting, and highlighting other ministries and ministry resources—so that the Body of Christ is built up and Christ is magnified (Ephesians 4:15-16). My weekly post, The Best of the Best Around the Net, links you to blog posts that provide robust, rich, and relevant insights for living. Check out the following links you can trust.

Strategic Discipleship

Over at Church Matters, the blog site for 9Marks Ministry, Pastor Deepak Reju has posted a very helpful blog on “Picking Fruit Off of a Tree.” He explores practical principles for discipling leaders.

Scandalous

John Bird over at Discerning Reader reviews D. A. Carson’s Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. “In his inimitable style, Carson returns us to where we must forever dwell theologically: Christ’s cross and resurrection.” Read the rest of John’s review here.

6 Views on Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity

I normally don’t post about my own post, however, this really isn’t “my” post. I’ve updated a post where I link you to six different views on McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity. If you’re interested in what to make of this book, visit here.

What Is the Character of God and Why Does It Matter to Me?

Ed Welch of the CCEF has a very practical blog where he asks, “Is God Picky?”. How we see God is the most important thing about us.

Ingredients of Successful Blogs

Michael Hyatt is the leading Christian thinker about Web 2.0, social networking, blogging, ministry-based-marketing, etc. In this post, he invites a guest blogger to discuss “The Third Ingredient of a Successful Blog”. Also find the links to the first two posts in the series. What good does it do if you write a great blog, but nobody reads it? Or, put another way, “If a blog is written in the woods, does anyone see it?”

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Of my Best of the Best Around the Net, which post impacted you the most? Why?

What blog posts have you read this week that you want to share with others?

Responding to Brian McLaren’s Question # 2: The Authority Question

Welcome: You’re reading “Part 4” of my blog series responding to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity (read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here). Many have engaged Brian’s thinking by focusing on a systematic theology response (visit here for a boatload of links). My focus is on pastoral theology or practical theology. As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m asking: “What difference does our response to each question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

The Question of the Bible’s Sufficiency

Brian’s second question is the authority question. How should we understand the Bible? He’s asking, What is the Bible and what is it for? He feels a moral obligation to revisit how we view the Bible.

In defending his revisioning of Scripture, Brian again resorts to caricature. He speaks of preachers passionately decrying psychology because they see the only relevant biblical categories being disobedience and demon possession (p. 68). Well, many of us decry secular psychological assumptions that seek to understand the creature apart from the Creator. However, many of us have spent our lives developing a biblical psychology—a robust understanding of people, problems, and solutions derived from a Bible that we cherish as sufficient, authoritative, relevant, and profound. (See my Soul Physicians for one example.)

He says we’re steering our ship by wrestling with biblical passages in a simple “thou shalt not” way, and thus paralyzed in solving major life-and-death issues (p. 69). Well, many of us have been in the trenches wrestling with real people with real problem, thinking deeply with them about how God’s story intersects with their story. (See my Spiritual Friends for one example.)

Brian further claims that the Bible “offers us no clear categories for many of our most significant and vexing socioethical quandaries” (p. 68). Wow. Some of us talk about the sufficiency, authority, relevancy, and profundity of Scripture for biblical counseling and spiritual formation. Brian presents the insufficiency, incapacity, irrelevance, and shallowness of Scripture for life and ministry.

Read with confidence and applied with wisdom, the Bible offers us categories for thinking about everything we need for daily life and godly living (2 Peter 1:3; Hebrews 4:12-16; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 2:3-10). I’m baffled as I attempt to visualize a pastoral counseling session from Brian’s perspective of the Bible. In Spiritual Friends I offer 1,000s of sample “spiritual conversations” and “scriptural explorations” all based upon the sufficiency, authority, relevancy, and profundity of God’s Word. What would Brian offer (WWBO)?

WWBO: What Would Brian Offer?

Reading the three chapters in which Brian shares his view of Scripture, I felt like I was watching an episode of American Idol. If Simon Cowell was responding, he might have said, “Sorry, Brian, but that was a mess.” I could almost hear Randy Jackson saying, “Listen dude. Yo dawg. For me for you; I just didn’t get it. It was pitchy and karaoke.”

Brian’s Bible is filled with internal inconsistencies (p. 81) because his Bible is neither authoritative nor inspired (pp. 82-83). His Bible was never intended to provide answers to deep questions, but rather to stimulate conversations without any final direction (p. 92).

Why? Because for Brian the God of the Bible (using Job as an example) is “not the actual God necessarily, but the imagined God, the author’s best sense of God, the fictional character playing God for the sake of this dramatic work of art” (p. 94). Try telling that to the person in the midst of horrible life suffering. Try telling that to the person in need of empowered wisdom to break the chains of a besetting sin.

WWJS: What Would Jesus Say?

Brian sees the Bible through evolutionary lenses. In each generation, it was the current best attempt to conceptualize who God is, who we are, how we relate to God and to one another. We need to come to the Bible with more enlightened eyes, more evolved insight—according to Brian.

Brian also says that he wants us to return to the place where we look at the Bible through Jesus’ eyes. He says he is “a follower of Jesus and a devoted student of the Bible” (p. 83). Taking him at his word, I want us to ask together, “What would Jesus say?” Did Jesus see the Bible the way Brian sees it?

Jesus tells us that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). In the midst of personal suffering, trials, and temptations, Jesus clung to and exhorted us to cling to the sufficient, authoritative, relevant, and profound Word of God.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18). In the midst of a sermon on personal, social ethics Jesus related Old Testament truth to daily life, in so doing teaching us to trust in the sufficiency, authority, relevancy, and profundity of Scripture for life, ministry, and relationships today.

Clearly, we can all misinterpret and misapply Scripture. No one should claim that their interpretation or application is inspired or inerrant. However, that’s infinitely different from claiming that the Bible itself is not inspired or inerrant. That’s why we must interpret and apply the Bible humbly in community. Humbly—but with confidence that God’s Word provides the wisdom we need to love God and others. Without that humble confidence in the sufficiency, authority, relevancy, and profundity of Scripture we have no basis for biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

The Rest of the Story

In our next post, we explore the God question. Brian asks, “Is God violent?” We respond to his response—through the lens of biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

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What view of and use of the Bible do you follow as you minister God’s Word to hurting and hardened, suffering and sinning people?

Responding to Brian McLaren’s Question # 1: The Narrative Question

Welcome: You’re reading “Part 3” of my blog series responding to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity (read Part 1 here and Part 2 here). Many have engaged Brian’s thinking by focusing on a systematic theology response (visit here to see a boatload of links). My focus is on “pastoral theology” or “practical theology.” As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m asking: “What difference does our response to each question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

What’s the Big Idea?

Brian’s first question asks, What is the overarching story line of the Bible? He’s asking what are the deep problems that the original Christian story was trying to solve? What’s the big picture?

Brian claims that the traditional answer to these questions are radically informed by what he calls the Greco-Roman narrative, and thus in turn influenced by Platonic thought and Roman imperialism. That he doesn’t lend any historical support to this major contention is problematic. Much worse, however, is the straw man he fashions. One can’t even say it’s a caricature or a stereotype. That would imply that the version he presents as the traditional Christian meta-narrative is anywhere near what anyone actually teaches.

What Brian’s addressing is the “CFR Narrative”—the Creation, Fall, Redemption story line of the Bible. One hardly recognizes it in Brian’s hands. I’ve authored two books on church history and studied church history for 25 years. I’ve never once read anyone’s view of the CFR Narrative that sounds the least bit like Brian’s straw man. In fact, let’s all agree. Brian, the Greco-Roman narrative is not Christian. You detest that view. So do I.

The CCFRC Narrative

Now that we’re in agreement with Brian that the Greco-Roman narrative fails the Christian test, let’s do what we came here to do. Let’s ask, “What difference does our response to the narrative question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

The CFR narrative, as actually taught in historic Christianity, is really the CCFRC narrative.

*Community: The eternal community of Oneness shared by the Trinity.

*Creation: God’s original design of the universe and of the nature of human nature.

*Fall: Humanity’s fall into sin.

*Redemption: God’s solution to humanity’s problem—salvation in Christ.

*Consummation: Eternity future.

These five meta-narrative themes, plus two core questions about truth and ministry, provide us with life’s seven ultimate questions. By addressing these seven questions, we offer a biblical counseling and spiritual formation response to Brian’s narrative question.

Life’s Seven Ultimate Questions

In our post-modern generation shaped by relativism, even the Church is filled with differing views on the largest issues of life and ministry. The question that defines us more than any other is: “Upon what do we base our life and ministry?” Here are seven truths that must shape the way we see life and ministry. They teach us what makes biblical ministry truly biblical.

1. Question 1: “What is truth? Where do I find answers?”

Answer 1—The Word: “God’s Word is sufficient, authoritative, profound, and relevant.”

All that we need for life and godliness we find in Scripture (the written Word). In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (the Living Word). We live and breathe every nano-second not by bread alone, but by the Word of God. Therefore, in life and ministry every question is ultimately a God-question and every answer is fundamentally a God-answer.

2. Question 2: “Who is God?”

Answer 2—The Creator: “God is Trinitarian.”

God is not the “alone with the alone.” The God of the Universe is, always has been, and always will be Three-in-One, communitarian, Trinitarian. Before God created, He related. Thus God created us not out of need, but graciously from the overflow of infinite Trinitarian fellowship. Reality is relational because God is Trinitarian. Therefore, in life and ministry our purpose is to enjoy and glorify God as we combine Scripture and soul, truth and love.

3. Question 3: “Who am I”?

Answer 3—Creation: “We are created with dignity by God in the image of Christ.”

I am not an accident. I am fearfully and wonderfully made with the purpose of worshipful fellowship with the God of the universe and sacrificial one-another fellowship with my fellow human beings. Together we are to enjoy God by glorifying Him forever as we fulfill our calling as stewards of His universe. Therefore, in life and ministry our goal is to reflect increasingly the inner life of Christ.

4. Question 4: “What went wrong?”

Answer 4—The Fall: “We sinfully and foolishly choose god-substitutes over God.”

The only explanation for sin and suffering is humanity’s fall into rebellion initiated by Adam and Eve and continued to this day by every person who ever lived. We sinfully forsake and attempt to replace God because we have lost our awe of God and chosen to love false gods. Therefore, in life and ministry we must recognize and confess that our core problem is spiritual adultery.

5. Question 5: “Can we change? How do people change?”

Answer 5—Redemption: “We must apply our complete salvation to our daily sanctification.”

Our only hope for change is our acceptance by faith of God’s grace in Christ. Those who are new creations in Christ can change because they have already been changed. Justification (our new pardon), reconciliation (our new peace), regeneration (our new purity), and redemption (our new power) provide the four-fold basis for daily growth into the image of Christ. Therefore, in life and ministry our identity in Christ is foundational to our transformation in Christ.

6. Question 6—“Where am I headed? What is my destiny?”

Answer 6—Glorification: “Heaven is my final home.”

For those who enter into eternal relationship with God in Christ, our destiny is endless relationship and purpose—sacred communion within God’s holy and happy family. The biblical answer to the question of ultimate destiny ought to impact drastically how we live today—our future destiny impacts our present reality. Therefore, in life and ministry, reading the end of the story makes all the difference in how we respond to present suffering and how we overcome besetting sins.

7. Question 7—“Can I help? How can I help?”

Answer 7—Sanctification/Ministry: “We dispense God’s cure for the soul—grace.”

Grace is God’s prescription for our disgrace—the disgrace of sin and the disgrace of suffering. Grace is God’s medicine of choice for our sinful and suffering world. God calls us to be dispensers of His grace which sustains and heals us in our suffering, which reconciles and guides us in our sin, and which moves us toward sanctification in Christ. Therefore, in life and ministry we must be dispensers of grace.

The Life of the Soul through the Lens of the Scriptures

These seven biblical categories are essential for seeing the life of the soul through the lens of the Scriptures. The biblical meta-narrative is absolutely vital because these relevant biblical categories address life’s seven ultimate questions that every honest person asks.

Rather than being some Greco-Roman invention based upon some contrived Platonic and imperialistic concepts, the biblical CCFRC Narrative offers God’s authoritative wisdom for how we minister to one another for His glory. Omit these and we have no “practical theology,” no “pastoral theology.” That’s what we lose if we accept Brian’s straw man attack on the historic CFR Narrative.

The Rest of the Story

In our next post, we’ll respond to Brian’s second question, the authority question: How should the Bible be understood? We’ll ask that question through the lens of biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

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What is the Bible’s meta-narrative and what difference does it make in real life?

A Biblical Counseling Response to Brian McLaren

Welcome: You’re reading “Part 2” of my blog series responding to Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity (visit here for Part 1). Many have engaged Brian’s thinking by focusing on a systematic theology response (visit here to see a boatload of links). My focus is on “pastoral theology” or “practical theology.” As a pastor, counselor, and professor who equips the church for biblical counseling and spiritual formation, I’m accepting Brian’s invitation to interact about the implications of his views for the everyday life of one-another Christianity—“the personal ministry of the Word.”

What’s Biblical Counseling Got to Do with It?

Brian talks about his quest throughout A New Kind of Christianity. I’ve been on a quest also. I’ve spent the past quarter-century developing a theology of the spiritual life. As a pastor, professional counselor, and seminary professor, I’ve relentlessly sought to understand how to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth.

In my preaching and teaching ministry, I’ve called it “the pulpit ministry of the Word.” How do we proclaim Christ’s changeless truth for our changing times in order to change lives?

In my one another ministry to people, I’ve called it “the personal ministry of the Word.” How do we engage in spiritual conversations with people using Christ’s changeless truth for our changing times in order to change lives?

I also call this personal ministry of the Word “biblical counseling and spiritual formation.” So that you know what I mean by these terms, I offer my summary definition:

Christ-centered, comprehensive, compassionate, and culturally-informed biblical counseling and spiritual formation depend upon the Holy Spirit to relate God’s inspired truth about people, problems, and solutions to human suffering (through the Christian soul care arts of sustaining and healing) and sin (through the Christian spiritual direction arts of reconciling and guiding) to empower people to exalt and enjoy God and to love others (Matthew 22:35-40) by cultivating conformity to Christ and communion with Christ and the Body of Christ.

People sometimes ask why I would relate and equate biblical counseling and spiritual formation. To me, that’s a no-brainer. The goal, the end game, of biblical counseling is to form us increasingly into the image of Christ—spiritual formation (how we live like Christ). The personal process of helping others in their spiritual formation involves loving relationships that connect the Bible to daily life—biblical counseling (how we care like Christ).

As Adrian Monk would say, “Here’s the thing.” I’m responding to Brian McLaren’s book through the lens of biblical counseling and spiritual formation. For each of his ten questions, I’ll be asking and pondering:

“What difference does our response to this question make for how we care like Christ (biblical counseling) and for how we live like Christ (spiritual formation)?”

Seems like a vital quest and an important question to me. If you agree, then please keep reading.

Biblical Counseling and the Sufficiency of Scripture

A good friend and colleague in ministry asked me an insightful question yesterday. “What is Brian saying that is persuasive to so many? What can we learn?”

I think people are attracted to what Brian is saying because he’s asking honest questions. He’s asking how we relate the words of the Bible written centuries ago from a very different cultural perspective to our changing culture today. He’s also saying that there’s something wrong with the way many people are trying to do this today.

Brian is attempting to understand and “exegete” Scripture, soul, and society. He’s spot on regarding the need to do all three of these.

Unfortunately, in some Evangelical circles, we’ve done great work in exegeting and studying Scripture, but we’ve done lesser work in understanding people and culture. So we end up answering questions no one is asking. We end up listening to God’s story but ignoring or only half listening to the human story of suffering, sin, struggle, and sanctification. We end up giving people Scripture but not our souls, truth apart from relationship, content apart from community.

Into this void steps Brian McLaren.

Sadly, in my opinion, Brian’s exegesis of Scripture is off target. More specifically, I think he lacks confidence in the sufficiency, authority, relevancy, and profundity of God’s Word (strong words, I know—and I’ll engage each of his ten questions in detail to explain why I would make this claim).

So where does this leave people? Either with Scripture or soul/society. They either receive God’s truth unrelated to real life, or they receive human reason related to real life.

This is where biblical counseling and the sufficiency of Scripture comes into play. In true biblical counseling, truth and love kiss. The biblical counselor’s prayer is the Apostle Paul’s prayer: “that our love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” (Philippians 1:9). The biblical counselor’s model is the Apostle Paul: “I loved you so much that I gave you not only the Scriptures, but my own soul, because you were dear to me” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). The biblical counselor’s method is the Apostle Paul’s method in Acts 17 where Paul studied the Athenian culture, engaged them in culturally-aware spiritual conversations, and shared with them the sufficient, authoritative truth of Scripture.

In my opinion, even some biblical counselors have gotten this wrong over the years. We’ve believed in the sufficiency and the authority of Scripture, but in practice we’ve minimized the relevancy and profundity (profound depth of relational insight) of Scripture. We’ve engaged, at times, in the non-relational giving of simplistic answers, rather than engaging in the intimate sharing of robust spiritual conversations that seek to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth. It’s not enough to believe in the sufficiency of Scripture if we do not equally believe in the relevancy of Scripture. It’s not enough to believe in the authority of Scripture, if we do not equally believe in the profundity of Scripture. (I think this is equally true in the pulpit ministry of the Word, but that’s a conversation for another blog series.)

Again, into this void steps Brian McLaren.

His answer, as he steps in, as I see it, is to offer people changing truth for changing times. Re-read that sentence. Let it sink in.

The biblical counseling and sufficiency of Scripture answer is to offer changeless truth for changing time. Throughout this blog series, I’ll respond to Brian’s ten questions and I’ll compare and contrast his responses to a biblical counseling response.

Spiritual Formation and Progressive Sanctification

Brian launches his book by saying that there’s something wrong and something real. Part of the something wrong in Brian’s mind is the fact that the church is out of touch with the culture—we’re not asking the soul/society questions. The something real in Brian’s mind is a new kind of Christianity. Brian wants this Christianity to be a Christ-centered Christianity.

This is where spiritual formation and progressive sanctification come into play. Progressive sanctification is the process by which, over time, through the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the people of God, we increasingly reflect the inner life of the Son of God and we increasingly impact our society for Christ.

In Brian’s mind, too much so-called biblical preaching has focused on doctrine apart from life. And, too much so-called biblical ministry (including biblical counseling) has focused on simplistic proclamations and exhortations apart from the mess and muck of real and raw life and apart from a Christ-like concern for society.

To whatever extent these charges are true…we preachers and counselors ought to repent.

If we don’t…then into this void steps Brian McLaren. He steps in saying “we need not a new set of beliefs, but a new way of believing” (p. 18). He’s on a quest for “new ways to live and serve faithfully in the way of Jesus” (p. 18).

Rather than simply criticizing his way of stepping in, we need to step in with true spiritual formation that enters the mess and muck of life with real and raw relating that combines Scripture, soul, and society to relate changeless truth to change lives to be more like Christ and to change our world for Christ.

Brian’s goal—a Christ-centered Christianity with Christ-like Christians—is totally laudable. Throughout this series we’ll probe whether or not Brian’s ten responses to his ten questions get us there.

The Rest of the Story

I know…kinda’ a long introduction. I know…you want to get to the ten questions. It’s coming. But if I’m going to tackle A New Kind of Christianity through the lens of biblical counseling and spiritual formation, then you deserve to know what in the world I mean by those terms and how I intend to relate them to Brian’s book. So, in our next post, we’ll get to Brian’s first question, the narrative question. What is the overarching story line of the Bible? We’ll respond to his response by exploring the Bible’s meta-narrative through the lens of biblical counseling and spiritual formation.

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How would you answer my friend’s penetrating question: What is Brian saying that is persuasive to so many? What can we learn?”