Category: Podcast

Paul starts out all his letters with “Paul,” not “Dr. Paul” with a long resume of accomplishments attached, just Paul. He often refers to his being called by God to be an apostle–one sent by God (See for example 1 Corinthians 1:1). His calling and sense of identity were shaped dramatically by his Damascus Road experience and his time away in Arabia (See Acts 9:1-19; Galatians 1:11-24).

What shapes our identity and sense of mission? Do we sense God’s call? Or do we feel God has coerced us, or perhaps worse, that we are trying to coerce God and others to give us a free rite of passage? Paradoxically perhaps to some, no matter how hard we try to manipulate and outmaneuver God and others, we end up tying ourselves up in knots. 

I don’t get any sense from the letters in the New Testament attributed to Paul that he felt coerced by God. In fact, I come away with an overwhelming sense that Paul was overwhelmed by the fact that God would even choose him–of all people. This is a key indicator of those who truly sense that they are called by God and do not try to coerce God and others: they firmly believe the only right they have to serve God and others is God’s undeserved grace and mercy in their lives. Paul saw himself as abnormally born, as the least of the apostles, and as one who did not even deserve to be called one because he persecuted Christ’s church (1 Corinthians 15:8-9). Paul was a vivid example of the Lord’s words uttered to another pharisee being reversed: those who are forgiven much love much (Luke 7:47). The amazing love of God in Christ compelled Paul forward from the heart (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Far too many times in my Christian life I have operated from a sense that I deserve to serve as a leader rather than I only have a right to minister because God in his grace chose me and continues to choose me. I remember one occasion where I was talking with a colleague, complaining about not having the opportunity to minister in a certain context. After all, I had received a great amount of education and training to that point; I deserved to lead. My friend’s response blew me away: he wanted to stay clear of leading people because he was afraid that he would mess up their lives. He did not intend by his remarks to rebuke me. However, his words pierced me right between the ribs and showed me how undeserving I was of ministering before God to people. I wasn’t thinking about others, only myself. Those who minister from a sense of entitlement of deserving to lead will likely run over people and ruin their lives. While my friend needed to grow in his sense of God’s call on his life bound up with a Christ-shaped confidence in God (and he did), people were much safer with him than with me in ministry. May God continue to change my heart!

We will never change the world if God does not change us. Paul, when he was still Saul, wanted to change the world as much as he did when he was Paul the apostle. However, his framework completely changed: previously he would coerce and control others; he would enslave the church, taking Christians captive in chains to destroy them and the church. After his Damascus Road experience, Paul found it to be a great privilege to be put in chains for the church’s freedom and growth in Christ, for he was who F.F. Bruce called the apostle  of the heart set free. There were a lot of mundane moments along the way, no doubt, as Paul sat in jail cells in chains for Christ. But God used those chains and Paul’s confinement to unleash his church.

Have you ever met someone like Paul whose heart has been set free by God to obey God wherever God leads? My wife and I recently heard Loren Cunningham, the Founder of Youth with a Mission, deliver a message at a church one Sunday morning. After the pastor of the church introduced him with all the customary and appropriate words of respect, Cunningham began sharing of God’s personal call on his life to obey God. Cunningham didn’t talk about his accomplishments over the years, but of God’s intimate initiative and his response of faith in obeying God in various situations. The message was quite simple, though profound and refreshing. No posturing. No positioning. No sense of being coerced and no attempt at coercing. Just a sense of God’s call to obey and a delight in responding in faith to obey God.

I had the opportunity to interact with other YWAM leaders, such as Danny and Linda Lehmann and John Dawson, around the time of hearing Cunningham speak. I came away with a sense that like their movement’s founder these leaders are captured by responding to God wherever he might lead. That is the way movements are formed and sustained, and kept from turning into monuments for personality cults of people driven to build empires for their egos. I sensed nothing of such empire building during my time of interacting with them, simply a passion to respond to God’s call on their lives, even in the little things. Like Danny Lehmann’s book The Next Big Thing: How Little Choices Can Make a Big Impact makes clear, “Little choices to obey the next thing God puts in front of you, whether big or little in your eyes, can change and make history,” as long as our definition of big and little conforms to God’s own definition. Simple though profound and refreshing truths. No coercion, just a sense of calling to obey God in the little things. That’s actually quite a big deal.

Those who sense that they are called by this God who loves them will not try and coerce God and others in their desire to change the world. Rather than running over people in their passion to make a world-changing difference, they will become the world-changing difference in giving themselves up for others for Christ. As was said of the Lord hanging on the cross, he who saved others cannot save himself (Matthew 27:42). Are you and I who claim to be Christians trying to save ourselves by finding some grand call for our lives, or is Christ’s call of love to obey him in faith every step of the way more than sufficient to give us meaning and purpose? Only as we experience his call to obey him in the little and big things of life as defined by God will we be the kind of people who have anything of value to contribute to the church and the rest of the world.

This piece is cross-posted at Patheos and The Christian Post. Comments made here are not monitored. To join the conversation, please comment on this post at Patheos.

My friend, Tom Krattenmaker, has written an important new book bearing on concern for the common good titled The Evangelicals You Don’t Know. Krattenmaker, who is a self-professed liberal, hopes that progressives like himself will welcome the changing face of Evangelicalism. In a recent Huffington Post article, Krattenmaker has written to liberals about “6 Evangelicals You Don’t Know…But Might Want To.”

Only one of the individuals mentioned in that list is a woman, who is also a person of non-Anglo heritage, my friend and colleague, Lisa Sharon Harper. My statement is not intended as a criticism of Krattenmaker’s article. Rather, I intend to build on this point by highlighting that the article is suggestive of what stands out in Evangelical circles and is structurally symbolic of the movement even at this time.

In what follows, I am building on Krattenmaker’s claim on pages 9-10 of The Evangelicals You Don’t Know and calling for greater attention to be given to Evangelical leaders who are women and people of diverse ethnicity whom Evangelicals don’t know, or don’t know enough, and need to know better. Krattenmaker is sensitive to this subject. Here is what he writes on pages 9-10 of The Evangelicals You Don’t Know.

Many of the people and projects described in this book fit, roughly, a category you might call the “new evangelicals.” That is a term you’ll see often on the pages that follow, mixed in with variations like “new-century evangelicals” and “new-paradigm evangelicals.” Who are they?

Part of the answer is that the characters in this book are generally Caucasian.  Not to deny black churches the attention and credit (and criticism) they warrant, and not to imply that African American, Latino, and other non-white evangelicals are not participating in the course corrections necessitated by the changing times. But the transformations and correctives described in this book are generally seen in the ranks of white evangelicalism, a tradition that has largely been distinct (and, sadly, separate) from the black Protestant experience in America and that finds itself today with distinct challenges and imperatives for change.

In addition to being white, the new evangelicals chronicled in this book are generally, but not exclusively, young adults and adults in early middle age. Sharp-eyed readers will notice, too, that a disproportionate number of the central figures of this book are male. This parallels an unfortunate reality about this new evangelicalism (and the old one, too)—namely, the movement is largely led by men. By showcasing several women in the coming chapters, I hope to encourage more to step forward, and more men to accept their leadership.

In this spirit, Krattenmaker goes on to give prominent, chapter-heading roles to Lisa Sharon Harper, Julie Clawson, and Stephanie Tama-Sweet. Others who stand out to me and who need to receive consideration in future works include Andrea Smith, Mae Elise Cannon, Sandra Van Opstal, Mimi Haddad, and Carolyn Custis James. The list could and should go on, so please add more!

I have mentioned previously in my writing that my wife, Mariko, a native of Japan, has encouraged me and white, male Christian leaders like myself to share the microphone with others so that the body of Christ can become more well-rounded and whole. One area where such sharing of the microphone needs to occur increasingly is at Christian conferences. My friend and colleague, Soong-Chan Rah, recently spoke about how monolithic many Christian conferences are in terms of the diversity—actually the lack thereof—of keynote presenters. Of course, white male Christian leaders have something vital to contribute to the ongoing conversations around the church, the gospel, and the Christian life. Given the makeup of numerous conference speaker lists, it almost goes without saying that white, male Christian leaders are viewed as having something vital to contribute. What needs to be stated in increasing measure is that we need to hear from a greater variety of diverse perspectives and voices, including especially women and men of non-Euro-American ethnic heritages, so that our appreciation and understanding as Evangelicals of the church, the gospel and the Christian life can become more well-rounded and expansive.

As we Evangelicals get to know and hear from an expansive number of Evangelical leaders who are women and men of diverse ethnic backgrounds here in North America and across the globe, we will come to know better who we as a movement are and what the gospel of the kingdom entails for us in our day.

This piece is cross-posted at Patheos and The Christian Post. Comments made here are not monitored. To join the conversation, please comment on this post at Patheos.

What does it look like to live out the Christian faith in a multi-faith society? My recent Leadership Journal article titled “The One and the Many: Ministry that’s clearly Christian in a multi-faith world” begins with the following words:

We now minister in a multi-faith society. Our congregants are living and working in a multi-faith world.

Our congregants of Asian-American heritage may very well attend funeral services of Buddhist family members where incense is burned.

Our church members will probably be asked during a coffee break what they make of the Dalai Lama as a spiritual guide, or what they think of Islam.

Other parishioners might be enrolled in yoga classes or may have close Mormon friends. Our church members need to know how to talk about and interact constructively with those of other faith traditions… (The full article can be found online at Leadership Journal)

In addition to what I write in the article, where I draw from the examples of military chaplains, pastors and Dr. Billy Graham participating in multi-faith settings of different kinds in grace and truth-filled ways, it is important that we continue to reflect on how to live out the Great Commission in our day as we train those entrusted to our spiritual care. Such training will include teaching those we mentor to obey all that Jesus commanded, taking to heart the staggering claim that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20). Jesus’ instructions included the Great Commandment of loving God with all one’s heart and the ensuing instruction to love one’s neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22: 34-40; Mark 12:28-34). Certainly, this is a tall order! What does such training look like for Christians seeking to live out the New Testament teaching that includes baptizing people in the singular name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) in a multi-faith society in the twenty-first century? Certainly, Jesus and his followers like Paul lived in a multi-faith society. In many ways, ours is similar. In other ways, it is quite different. More on that in a later post.

What I write here is intended to stimulate ideas and cultivate conversation. By no means should these brief reflections be taken to be exhaustive. Moreover, I plan on writing a series of posts on this subject.

Teaching our disciples/parishioners to love God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves will move us beyond avoiding how to engage people of diverse religious backgrounds and beyond compromising our faith to engage them. So, where might one begin?

While one may be overwhelmed by the prospect of interacting with someone of another faith tradition such as Islam, Buddhism or Paganism if one does not know much about that particular tradition, one can still learn to ask good questions that invite rather than negate conversations. Inquisitiveness rather than an inquisitional posture is key. One can be inquisitive in a way that does not leave one’s own faith behind, and which is informed by one’s faith. In fact, the answers people of other faith traditions provide can shed light on parallels and also distinctive and unique features of the respective faith traditions that further inform one’s own faith.

Just this week I was in a conversation with a person of a different faith tradition, where I asked the individual in question what it is she believes and practices and why she finds her particular tradition so fulfilling. I asked simply out of a desire to understand. None of my questions were loaded, though I always welcome the opportunity to share the reason for the hope that I have in Christ in a manner that is hopefully gentle and respectful, as Peter commends (1 Peter 3:15).

If I care about my diverse religious neighbor as myself (and based on Jesus’ teaching in Luke 10:25-37, my neighbor is not simply the person who believes like me!), I will take an interest in what matters most to that person, just as I would hope the person in question would take an interest in what matters most to me. Taking an interest in what matters most to another person does not entail compromise. In fact, I may strongly disagree with this or that adherent of another faith tradition, and in the right context and in a gracious and truth-aspiring spirit, express how my convictions differ and why. Going further, far from compromising my faith, taking the views of another human being seriously is for me bound up with taking Jesus seriously, who knows intimately every detail of our human condition and all our aspirations.

More to come.

This piece is cross-posted at Patheos and The Christian Post. Comments made here are not monitored. To join the conversation, please comment on this post at Patheos.

I was invited to speak at the historic Hawaiian church, Kawaiaha’o Church, on July 7. It was an honor to be with their congregation and share this message. You can listen to me deliver the sermon or read it below.

Where do you belong? To whom do you belong? These are the kinds of questions with which we live all our days—from childhood to our elder years.

Back in 1998, when my son (our oldest) was 3, we were in Japan, hoping to land a job, after finishing my course of doctoral studies. To make a long and tumultuous story short, our perfect picture and almost certain plans for a future in Japan came to a surprising and crashing halt. We were living out of suitcases, staying with relatives for a few months in Nagano, Japan, until we decided we should return to the States. One day during our long wait my son said to my wife: “Mama, let’s go home.” My wife later cried as she shared his words with me: “We have no home.” No home in the States where I am from, or England where we lived the past three years while I pursued my doctoral studies, or Japan where she is from. But we did have one another…

A few weeks ago, my elderly and widowed mother in Illinois shared with me how much she misses my father and how hard it is to be in transition: having moved from their home of many years to a smaller place, where he would eventually die as a result of cancer. My mother shared with me that what brings her comfort now is that no matter the setting Jesus is her home…

In Luke 10, we find that Jesus and his kingdom are his followers’ home, even in the midst of uncertain and difficult journeys. The disciples were living out of suitcases—perhaps empty ones. They had no home. All they had was him, but they found in due course that he was ultimately all they needed.

In Luke 10:1-24, we find that Jesus sends them out on mission to go before him into all the towns and villages where he would go and proclaim the good news of the kingdom embodied in him (Luke 10:1).

As we will soon see, there is nothing about his followers to brag about. Jesus brags about his Father’s grace in revealing the kingdom’s mysteries to them (Luke 10:21). It is the one who sends them who gives them their significance: his disciples find their significance in relation to him. Given who God is and who we are, we dare not speak for him. But given that God sends us out in relation to Jesus and calls us to speak the good news of the kingdom, we must speak!

There were so many places to go in such little time. As they set out, Jesus calls on them to pray for more workers: the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few (Luke 10:2); the need is so great and the time is so short. Jerusalem and the cross are getting closer and closer as Jesus quickens the pace. The Lord tells his disciples not to take anything for the journey, but to depend on God and the people of peace who will welcome them on their way (Luke 10:3-9). Jesus tells them to bless those who bless them, for the kingdom of God is near in his coming (and he is coming soon!) and to warn those who don’t welcome them, for the kingdom of God is near in his coming (Luke 10:8-12).

We see here in this passage how desperate his followers are for him. They depend on Jesus’ word and find their identity in relation to his call on their lives and his promise to take care of their every need (cf. Matthew 6:33). How dependent on the Lord are we, or do we look to find our security outside his call and promise to care for us?

What is most striking to me about this passage are the comparisons and superlatives Jesus makes.

Jesus is not some pop psychologist who sets everyone at ease by telling them “I’m okay. You’re okay.” Jesus is no prosperity gospel preacher who tells people to give to others, even to God, simply to get. Rather, he is a fiery prophet who condemns the inhospitable. He tells his contemporaries that it will be better for wicked Sodom on judgment day than for the town that does not welcome Jesus’ followers who are identified with him. Sodom’s wicked inhospitality pales in comparison with such townspeople’s rejection of him and his followers (Luke 10:12).

Just like Sodom over inhospitable places whose people do not welcome Jesus and his followers, it will be more tolerable for pagan Tyre and Sidon on judgment day than for Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum where Jesus performs miracles but to no avail. The people in these places reject Jesus and his message. Even Tyre and Sidon would have repented long ago if confronted with the miracles Jesus performed in the midst of these other places. Anyone who rejects Jesus’ followers rejects him, and anyone who rejects Jesus rejects his Father. That person’s fate will be most severe (Luke 10:13-16).

Are we like the people of Tyre and Sidon, or worse, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, when confronted with Jesus’ miraculous presence? Depending on how our lives answer that question, the outcome could be unbelievably wonderful or catastrophic.

The disciples return and are ecstatic as they share with the Lord that the demons submitted to them in his name (Luke 10:17). Jesus is not amazed, but rather matter of fact as he receives this news. He is not surprised. He’s been there and done that many times before; in fact, he’s done even better: he is there when Satan is cast from heaven like lightning. No wonder he has the authority to give them power over serpents and scorpions and Satan’s brood (Luke 10:18-20). But still, what should amaze his followers most is that Jesus has displayed his authority by writing their names down in heaven as their eternal destiny! This is where their hope should reside!

What defines us-casting out demons of whatever kind in Jesus’ name or being called and secured by Jesus? So often, I fear that I use Jesus for power encounters, getting my high from his power and anointing and benefits rather than from Jesus who truly benefits us. How I long to long for him from whom love and power and goodness flow. How I long to find my rest in him!

In closing, I wish to thank the church family here at the distinguished and historic Kawaiahao Church. There are no doubt many people who come through these church doors who long to experience the Aloha spirit that you have so graciously extended to my family and me this morning. Many who enter this memorable church may have homes, but don’t have anyone with whom to share life or who welcomes them home or who remembers them. Thank you for sharing your hearts and church home with all of us who visit here. I will never forget it. May all who enter here taste the Aloha of heaven and through your grace and care for them come to trust in Christ Jesus and journey to their eternal home.

This piece is cross-posted at Patheos and The Christian Post. Comments made here are not monitored. To join the conversation, please comment on this post at Patheos.

This is part of a series of posts on the topic of Hawaiian theology. Start with part 1 and part 2.

Some may fear the loss of authoritative control when considering the possibility of how orality may shape textuality and theology generally. Whether we are aware of it or not, orality and other forces shape our approach to texts. Those we deem authoritative shape our readings of texts. Schools of thought develop around those who are deemed authoritative.

Take for example Jesus. In Matthew 7:28-29, we find that Jesus is viewed as authoritative, as his teaching is compared favorably with the teachers in his day. No doubt, it had something to do with the nature of his claims, which were staggering in terms of how he viewed his uniqueness and his teaching’s import for their lives. Notice how he compares himself favorably with the Law–seeing his teaching and work as the fulfillment of the Law and how his disciples’ righteousness must surpass that of the religious leaders if they are to attain eternal life (Matthew 5:17-20). The wise build their lives on his teaching, which is to do the will of his very own Father, who is in heaven. Those who fail to build their lives on  his word do so to their eternal peril (Matthew 7:21-27).

As we move forward in Matthew’s gospel, we see more and more clearly how there is complete consonance between Jesus’ words and life. May that be true of all of us who are teachers!

I have noticed in the Hawaiian context how it is even more significant than it is in the continental U.S. that one is connected relationally–having relational authority, including the need to make relational connections to those with whom one speaks. Authority in this context is earned increasingly, as the relational connections are built. One needs more than degrees and titles and resumes. They have their place. But they can never replace what is of paramount importance–relational connections.

Authority can be imposed on people. But such authority does not win people’s love–only their spite and hate. In contrast, Jesus wins people’s hearts by laying down his life for them, not by ruling oppressively over them. The kind of authoritative orality arising from Jesus that forms his rabbinic school is shaped ultimately by his sacrificial life offered up for his students, not sophisticated rhetoric that may wow people’s intellect, but does not win their total trust.

Hawaiian theology as I envision it requires that its teachers give themselves, including their words. Only then are teachers truly deemed authoritative and their teachings worth writing about.

As challenging as it may be for those of us who teach in Hawaii (and elsewhere for that matter), we should become like Father Damien, the Catholic missionary who gave himself for the people at the leper colony on Molokai, not like the prototypical plantation overseer or luna. Only then are teachers truly deemed authoritative and their own teachings worth writing about.

This piece is cross-posted at Patheos and The Christian Post. Comments made here are not monitored. To join the conversation, please comment on this post at Patheos.