But this is not an article about basketball. My experience with UConn basketball over the last 24 hours was a reminder of something fundamental about our faith that I would like to share with you. Upon watching UConn win the national championship, these were my natural reactions:

(1) I wanted to praise the ones who brought me such joy. I found myself wanting to thank Jim Calhoun, hug Kemba Walker, and write notes of thanksgiving to every player who chose to come to UConn and gave their all so that the team could win the championship.

I am not the first to notice this reality. Consider the much more eloquent words of C.S. Lewis from his book, Reflections on the Psalms:

I love that last paragraph. I tell my wife that I love her because my delight in her wells up until I can not contain it, and must speak it. It is meant to be the same with God.

I hope my point is clear. Our greatest need as followers of Jesus is not for evangelism training, or to create opportunities for fellowship, or to teach people how to worship. Our greatest need is to be captivated by the beauty and majesty of our God. To enjoy Him. To marvel at who He is and what He has done. To try to comprehend how much He loves you, how much He delights in you, how full of grace and mercy He is. To be honest about who you are, and what He has rescued you from. To consider the eternal bliss that awaits you. Get a hold of that… and the pull to worship, the longing for fellowship, and the desire to evangelize will well up within you until it overflows joyfully and authentically.

1) Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one. Spoken to someone who has just lost their child, or is struggling with past abuse, this answer is clichéd and probably offensive. But to the philosopher who sees a good, all-powerful God as incompatible with pointless evil and suffering, it is worth considering. How do you know the suffering you see is pointless? Because you can’t think of any good reason for God to allow it? It takes enormous faith in your own cognitive faculties to say that if there is a God, he could have no greater reason for allowing the suffering we see. Think of the analogy of a human trying to free a bear caught in a trap – in order to free him, he needs to shoot him with a tranquilizer gun, and then push the trap further into the claw in order to release the springs and open the trap. Do you think during this process, the bear thinks the human is acting out of love? With time and perspective, most of us can see good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that occurs in our life. Why couldn’t it be possible that, from God’s vantage point, there are good reasons for all of them, even a tsunami? If you think God should be big enough to stop the tragedy, then he must be big enough to have reasons for allowing it that you can’t understand.

2) Where are you getting your idea of evil and justice from? In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis talks about how he was an atheist because the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But then he realized something: where had he gotten the idea of just and unjust, of good and evil? Was it simply his own personal conception of justice and goodness? If so, then who was to say that he was accurate in his perception? Or, was he responding to some universal standard of justice and goodness? And if so, then where did that standard come from if not from God? Atheism, Lewis realized, was too simple a response to the problem of evil. 

3) God IS all-powerful and good, but in order to create a universe with love, there had to be the possibility of evil.  To answer Bashir’s question directly, in order to create humans capable of love, he had to give them free will, which meant allowing for the possibility of evil. God could have created human beings without free will, but then there would be no love, for there would be no free choice; we would all be robots. By creating us with free will, he created the possibility that we would choose evil and bring suffering into this world. None of the evil and suffering that we experience, including that which was caused by the tsunami, was part of our good and all-powerful God’s original plan. And if God were to continually intervene into the world in order to stop each instance of suffering, he would inevitably be taking away freedom, and therefore love, from the world.

Now, as I said in the introduction, these philosophical arguments may ultimately be unsatisfying to someone experiencing real suffering in their own life. Next week, I’ll address the more personal issues associated with suffering.

Thoughts? Comments? Agree? Disagree? Please leave a comment below.

 Wouldn’t you know it, on that very day I was preaching came a modern day example that was really intriguing.  It comes out of North Columbus, Ohio, where a church called New Beginnings Ministries exists in the same town as a strip club called the Fox Hole.  According to the local news, the pastor and many from his church have for the past four years been rallying outside the strip club to try to shut it down, preaching at patrons with bullhorns and even taking pictures of license plates in the parking lot and posting them on the church website (you can read about it here). 

On August 8th, however, the strip club turned the tables.  As people showed up for the morning service on Sundays, they were greeted by strippers from the Fox Hole, who set up on the lawn outside the church with their own homemade signs, protesting the way the church has been treating them (you can see the news report here).  Needless to say, the reverse protest only served to raise the levels of hostility between the church and the strip club.  The pastor and his congregants were no closer to embracing the women of this strip club, nor was the strip club any closer to embracing the God of New Beginnings Ministries.

What do you think?  Is the behavior of New Beginnings Ministries really the way Jesus would want His church to handle the situation?  Their goal has been to shut down the strip club, since it is not a place that is glorifying to God.  Nothing wrong with a church having that goal.  But their methods – protests, shaming patrons, disparaging those who work there – has only served to communicate to the people associated with the Fox Hole that the Christian God is a God of judgment and condemnation.  In doing so, they bring to mind Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:13 - “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”  What would have happened if, instead, the church sought to shut down the club through loving the women into the Kingdom, through showing them a God who is better than anything they could find in the world of adult entertainment?

Well, maybe this would happen:  One woman – Sherri Brown from The Rock Church in San Diego, heard about this story and decided to do just that.  Together with a friend who God had saved out of the adult entertainment industry, they went to Ohio to visit the women of the Fox Hole.  This is what they had to share (courtesy of xxxchurch.com):

DAY ONE

Just wanted to send an update on the Ohio strip club outreach. After much prayer, we felt the Lord calling us to spend all weekend with the girls. We arrived at the club at 12:30am and were met outside by the local church protesters. We said, “hi” as we passed them to enter the club, but didn’t communicate any further. We were greeted at the door by the girls and they welcomed us in with open arms! There are a total of 7 girls who work there (but only 6 were present). They brought us into the dressing room where we spent the next 2 hours sharing Jesus’ Love with them!!! They were sharing the pain they were experiencing through this church and telling us disappointing things that have been said to them.

We continued to let them know that God loves them and that is not the heart of Jesus. Surprisingly enough, they were totally open to hearing and receiving all we had to say. We thought that they were probably so turned off by the church that they might cringe at the very mention of Jesus…. but it was quite the opposite. These precious women were hungry and told us that all of the hateful things said to them didn’t seem like something God “who is suppose to Love them” would say. The girls thanked us repeatedly for coming and were very touched by the gifts, love, & gesture…. this outreach was MORE than amazing!! It was a total God-thing!

We established great new friendships with the girls and they realized that the Love of Jesus was a gift for them! Tomorrow night we will be returning with dinner for the girls. We are planning on being there from 7:30-9:30pm Eastern time (4:30-6:30pm Pacific time). Please pray during this time because we are certain something even bigger is going to happen!! After leaving the club, God pressed upon our hearts to offer them the free gift of salvation (now that they have received His Love). We are so excited to see what God is going to do; we can’t wait to go back!!

DAY 2

We do believe that we are suppose to talk to the pastor (as of now) because God can change things around through Love. Please pray for wisdom and discernment and that every word spoken out of our mouths is only from the Lord and not our flesh. We want to bring the heart of Jesus to this pastor and to the church as well. I thought that we were here for the girls, but maybe God wants to use us to help bring His Love to the church as well. Thank you very much, as always, for your prayers and support!!

Tonight is one of the greatest nights in our lives!!!! We brought pizza to the Foxhole for the girls and also brought some for the church protesters too. The church was not there when we arrived so we left their pizza in the car. We went into the club and were blessed by flowers & cards from the girls!!! We had such a wonderful night with them. God spoke into us and then we spoke into them. It was so not us, which made it very supernatural. Two of the precious girls gave their lives to the Lord and a few rededicated their relationship with Him!!! Yea God!!! We just LOVE these beautiful girls with ALL of our hearts and pray a special blessing on them and their families.

When we left the club, Pastor Bill and some of the men from the church were there. We were so happy to see them and give them the pizza that we had brought for them. We were able to share with them a little about our ministry and the heart God has given us for HIS precious daughters. They were excited about us being there and the Lord gave us a really special heart for these men… it was the same heart He gives us for the girls!!! We just loved them! He gave us a chance to pray together and pray for Pastor Bill which was a huge blessing! Pastor Bill invited us to their church tomorrow and is going to allow us to share what God can do through HIS LOVE and AMAZING GRACE for the entire service!!!

We are so excited!!! We invited the girls from the club into the church to be there as well, and prayerfully they will accept and the heart and LOVE of Jesus will not only transform the church & the girls, but the community as well! Praise God for what HE is doing and continues to do!!!

DAY 3

Praise, Honor, and Glory to God for what HE DID IN WARSAW OHIO TODAY!! Anny & I were invited to speak to the church this Sunday at The New Life Ministries Church. We were met by our beautiful new friends from the Foxhole Strip Club. We exchanged huge hugs and were so excited to see them again. We also got a chance to meet the strip club owner Tommy and give him a gift! We invited the girls into the church to listen to the message God had given us to give to the church, but said that they did not feel welcomed in and as much as they wanted to go inside, they didn’t.

Anny and I showed up with nothing but the Holy Spirit and the Love of Jesus and were able to share our testimony, stories, and hearts with this beautiful church. God Rocked the House!! Tears were flowing, repentance, grace, and forgiveness was taken place, and the Heart of the Father and His Love was being released to His Church. After Anny prayed an amazing prayer, we invited the church to help CHANGE THE FACE OF CHRISTIANITY by standing with us and truly LOVING God’s Beautiful Girls just as Jesus would. The entire church stood with us and God was PLEASED!!!! There was an overflow of the Love of Jesus onto His people, who were now ready to take that same Love and pour it into their community beginning with the precious dancers.

As the church left the building, they became Jesus in Flesh and the Love of the Father poured out all over these girls as they began to Love them, hug them, and seek forgiveness from them!!! Our Sweet Lola was broken and afraid to trust the church. Pastor Bill Hugged her and held her and promised with all his heart he was not gonna fail her. He prayed for her and it was AMAZING!! I saw my beautiful Lola Smile from ear to ear for the very first time!!!

This whole community was touched and reached today because they received the message Jesus had for them, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Pastor Bill and Strip Club Owner Tommy allowed the Love and Grace of Jesus to heal their relationship and they made peace with one another! They are going to have lunch on Wednesday! Praise be to God and we give Him all Honor and Praise for what HE DID here in Warsaw Ohio this weekend!!! The VICTORY HAS BEEN WON!!! THE WAR IS OVER!! PRAISE OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

The above testimony only represents the perspective of one woman in the situation, but even if 75% of it is true, then it is a beautiful reminder of how much more powerful love and compassion are than judgment and condemnation in overcoming evil and bringing people to God.  Now go and do likewise in the name of Jesus.

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it’s Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

I used to avoid this truth by applauding – as you can – the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It’s a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.

But this doesn’t fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world – a directness in their dealings with others – that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.

We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.

Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers – in some ways less so – but more open.

This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.

It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man’s place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.

There’s long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.

I don’t follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.

Anxiety – fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things – strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won’t take the initiative, won’t take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.

How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds – at the very moment of passing into the new – that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it’s there,” he said.

To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It’s… well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary’s further explanation – that nobody else had climbed it – would stand as a second reason for passivity.

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I’ve just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.

Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.

And I’m afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

Pretty incredible to read something like that from an avowed atheist.  Please feel free to share your comments below.

 The first is by Penn Jillette of the Las Vegas illusionist duo Penn & Teller.  Penn Jillette is a very smart, outspoken atheist, and it is not hard to find videos online of him ridiculing religious people for their beliefs and practices.  In a recent video, however (which you can see at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM&eurl=http://umbl0g.blogspot.com/, he spoke briefly of an encounter he had with a gentleman after one of his shows.   Let me share some of what he said:

He walked over to me and he said, “I was here at the show last night, I saw the show and I liked it.”  He was complimentary about my use of language and my honesty… he said nice stuff… and then he said “I brought this for you” and he gave me a pocket Gideon’s Bible with the New Testament and Psalms… he said “I brought this for you, I wanted you to have it… I’m proselytizing… I want you to know I’m a businessman, I’m sane, I’m not crazy.”  And he looked me right in the eye, and it was really wonderful.  I believe he knew that I was an atheist.  But he was not defensive, and he looked me right in the eyes.  And he was truly complimentary.  It didn’t seem in any way that it was empty flattery; he was kind, and nice, and sane, and looked me in the eye and talked to me, and then gave me this Bible.  And I’ve always said, I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize.  If you believe there is a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever and you think “well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward.”  How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?  How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?  If I believe that there is a truck bearing down on you, and you didn’t believe it, there’s a certain point at which I tackle you.  And this is more important than that.  This guy was a really good guy.  He was polite and honest and sane and he cared enough about me to proselytize and give me a Bible which had written in it a little note to me and five phone numbers and an email address in case I want to get in touch.  Now, I know there is no God, and one polite person living his life right doesn’t change that.  But I’ll tell you, he was a very, very, very good man, and that’s really important, and with that kind of goodness, it’s okay to have that deep of a disagreement.  I still think religion does a lot of bad stuff, but that was a very good man.

 The second video is of a conversation between D.A. Carson, John Piper, and Tim Keller, three heavyweights in the field of ministry and theology (you can see the first video in the six part conversation at http://www.new.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=34324371575.  I highly recommend watching all of them if you have the time).  They were discussing the balance between ministries of mercy and evangelism, and whether feeding the hungry and caring for the poor detracts from the importance of evangelism.  They had a lot of insightful things to say, but one of the things that stuck with me was when Piper said:

It’s very hard to give up preaching the gospel if you believe there is a Hell, endless suffering for those who do not believe in the gospel.  We exist to relieve all suffering, especially eternal suffering.  It’s a prioritization of time and intensity.  If I succeed in relieving all poverty and did not relieve the eternal problem, I would prove to be unloving…The eternal matters more than the temporal.

Penn Jillette and John Piper would not agree on much, but they both highlight that if Hell and judgment are real, then the most loving thing you can do is to tell someone about it in the hopes of relieving eternal suffering.  It is very Biblical and right to relieve the suffering experienced in this world by hunger, poverty, oppression, discrimination, etc.  But someday that suffering will end.  The suffering experienced by those in Hell will go on forever.   If that is true, then there is nothing more loving than letting people know the gospel, that Jesus Christ died to save sinners, to restore them to a right relationship with God, that all who would repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus Christ will have eternal life.

I spoke with Ray today to hear more about the article and to let him know that some churches have contacted us about getting involved with the ministry.  I was shocked to hear him tell me that not all of the response to their ministry has been good.  Apparently, the health department read the article and wasn’t pleased about this little soup kitchen on wheels that has been operating under their noses for over 15 years, and consequently Ray has a meeting lined up tomorrow with a health inspector, where he will learn whether or not Isaiah 58 can even continue serving hot food to the hungry and homeless (how dare they try to give food away for free!)  Please pray for Ray and for Isaiah 58, and he’ll give us an update when he is in church on December 14th. 

In the light of my current sermon series on Death and the Life after that, I thought it would be worth reflecting a bit on the motivation behind Isaiah 58 and similar service ministries.  There is often a belief in evangelical churches that the only thing that matters is saving individual souls.  This line of thinking goes that everyone will die and go to either heaven or hell, and so therefore all that really matters is making sure that people are going to heaven.  If this is true, then there are two ways of viewing the work that the Labbes do.  The first way is to consider it a waste of time.  Sure, Ray tries to share the gospel every time he is there, but considering all the time and effort given towards giving people food, surely that could be better used to save the souls of men and women.  It’s like Stephen Baldwin, the Baldwin brother-turned-Christian, who said in his autobiography about Bono’s work with world leaders trying to eliminate third world debt:  “You would do far more good if you just preached the gospel of Jesus rather than trying to get rid of Third World debt relief.”

The second way of viewing the work they do is that by feeding hungry people, the Labbes and their ministry are plowing the ground of men’s hearts in order to make it fertile ground for the gospel.  In other words, feeding hungry people in and of itself is of no value, since both hungry and well-fed people who do not know Jesus will go to Hell, but at least feeding people can gain you a hearing for the gospel. 

 But is there any good in simply feeding hungry people because they are hungry?  Is that act by itself worship to God and a redeeming use of one’s time? 

 I would argue that there is overwhelming Biblical evidence to support the argument that feeding hungry people is in itself worship to God.  The second greatest commandment, of course, is to love your neighbor as yourself, and most people I know take care of their food needs regularly.  There is also Jesus’ parable about the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, where he tells his disciples that whatever they have done to the least of these (including giving the hungry something to eat), they have done to him, and that this fact will be a pretty important detail come the final judgment.  And the Old Testament prophetical books are filled with admonitions from God that His people care for the poor and hungry among them instead of trampling on them.  Exhibit A, naturally, is Isaiah 58 itself:

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isaiah 58:5-7)

True fasting, according to this passage, is not just about going without food.  It is working for justice, providing shelter for the wanderer, and – yes – sharing your food with the hungry.  Not so they might be converted, but because this act is itself worship unto God.  Why?  Because God is a God of justice and righteousness, and it is RIGHT and JUST in God’s kingdom for people to have food and WRONG and UNJUST in God’s kingdom for the rich to hoard food and the poor to go without.  To share your food with the hungry is to provide a witness to the way God intends for the world to be.  The ministry of Isaiah 58, and all food ministries like it, declare that in God’s kingdom, when God reigns and His servant are following the King, no one goes hungry.  And as we read in Revelation 22:2, the tree of life will stand in the new heavens and new earth, yielding its fruit every month for the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem.  No one will ever go hungry when God’s kingdom finally comes on earth as it is in heaven.  To feed the hungry today is to provide a window into the world as God intends for it to be, the world that will be on that final day.

So pray for Ray & Linda Labbe and the ministry of Isaiah 58, and be encouraged that, as Jesus said in Matthew 10:41-42:  “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

I will leave you with an interesting link to check out today… apparently the TV reality craze has hit Christianity:  a new show called “Make Me a Christian” is debuting this month over in England (read about it here).  Apparently 13 non-Christians are going to “give up their normal lives and attempt to live like Christians” (lol) as they are taught about Christianity through Bible studies and mentoring by British religious leaders.  I’m not sure if you can watch this on the web, but it sure would be interesting.  I can’t imagine the British religious leaders, which include a Catholic priest, a curate from the Church of England, a leader of the Christian Party (not sure where that’s held, but it sounds like fun…) and a pastor of Kensington Temple, even agreeing on what it means to be made a Christian!  Is it living your life a certain way?  Agreeing to certain doctrines?  Repeating a prayer and asking Jesus to be your Savior (sorry, ”Saviour”)?  Becoming a faithful church-goer?  I can just see the 13 contestants listening in amusement as the religious leaders each try to convert them to their definition of Christianity…

Anyways, I’m off to go further complicate my life.  I’ll see you again when my “vacation” ends.

Not sure if that represents three months worth of sermons at your local evangelical church or adult education courses offered at the local high school?  I’m not sure either these days.

I’ve been posting some thoughts on the seeker-sensitive approach to church ministry over the past few weeks.  One of the hallmarks of this approach is topical preaching designed to speak to “felt needs.”  For example, in a seeker-sensitive church, you’re likely to hear a series on parenting, or managing your money, or dealing with anxiety, with sermons that draw on Biblical wisdom in order to teach you God’s way to raising teens, balancing your budget, or living stress-free.  The goal is to attract people to church by speaking on relevant topics, and then to help people see how the gospel and the way of God is the answer to what they’ve been looking for, better than all the other wisdom out there. 

As a preacher, I’ve struggled with whether or not to adopt this method of preaching.  On the one hand, this is what many people seem to want to hear – “tell me how the Bible applies to my day-to-day life, like raising kids, keeping my marriage together, and doing well at work.”  It seems like more people would come to church and people might be more attentive if I would do sermon series like “how to have a great marriage” and “how to raise great kids.”  And that’s understandable – there’s usually little to be gained from a poor sermon on Leviticus that the preacher can not apply to the hearer’s personal experience.  But on the other hand, it’s pretty clear that God didn’t arrange the Bible according to neat and easy topics – there is no “Book of Workplace Behavior” or “The Gospel of Great Sex God’s Way,” nor is the gospel primarily about how God can help you have your best life.  If the gospel is primarily about our complete lost, sinful, and self-centered condition and our need for the salvation found in Jesus, and how experiencing that salvation will eventually transform us in every aspect of our lives, then is that compatible with seeker-sensitive, topical preaching?

As I mentioned last week, most churches that use seeker-sensitive methods do so out of a deep desire to see people come to Christ, and their commitment to be as creative as possible in order to reach that goal.  This is why I have a hard time agreeing with the harshest critics of the seeker-sensitive movement, because I think they often falsely characterize these pastors as just wanting to grow their church for the sake of ego.  For example, I recently heard a panel discussion from the Ligionier’s Conference which included Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and RC Sproul, theologian and pastor and host of Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast.  They were asked their opinion of the seeker-sensitive movement, and their answer was essentially, “it’s a horrible thing” (I recommend watching the 7 minute piece at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2zvqQ1w-Os).  Their opinions are worth careful consideration, as both of these men are heavyweights in the evangelical community, and they make some excellent points theologically, but I think they falsely conclude that such churches never get around to preaching the gospel. 

I have found that one of the dangers of topical, seeker-sensitive preaching is that you may end up never preaching on major themes and sections of the Bible.  If your preaching calendar is driven more by the felt needs of people, when would you preach through the prophets, for instance?  Unless your community is really striving for a good rebuke for failing to live up to God’s standards, you would have no reason to preach through Jeremiah or Ezekiel.  The result, therefore, can be a skewed perspective on what the Christian faith is all about.  The average listener can come away thinking that it’s about how faith in God can give us what we want instead of learning that it’s about centering our lives around what God wants. 

However, I think it can be beneficial to help people understand what the whole Bible has to say about a certain subject, like money or marriage.  When Paul wrote his letters to churches in Corinth or Galatia, or in his pastoral letters to Timothy, he took time to address the issues that were facing those particular churches in those unique cities.  For example, in 1 Corinthians he addresses marriage (ch. 7) and food sacrificed to idols (ch. 8), all in the context of how the gospel affects our view of those things.  Therefore, I think it’s very appropriate to preach on issues that affect a certain congregation, if it is done in the light of how the gospel transforms our handling of money, or stress, or work, for example.

 My counsel would be to occasionally preach topical series, but not to preach them in such a way that it sounds no different than any other man-centered, self-help message you can hear in the marketplace today.  God’s will is not just for you to get out of debt and have a healthy savings account; it’s for you to have been so transformed by the gospel that your trust is in Him and not your bank account, and as a result you become a generous person whose treasure is in heaven.  God’s will is not just for you to communicate well with your spouse and be appropriately affectionate; it’s for you to have been so transformed by the gospel that a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church, and the wife submits to her husband as the church submits to Christ.  And His will is not just for you to learn relaxation and stress-relieving techniques, but to be so transformed by the gospel that you know that the one who gave His son for you will give you everything you need, and that he has conquered every enemy – even death – so you have no need of worry.

In the end, I don’t think seeker-sensitive, topical preaching is evil if it is done with the perspective of how the gospel transforms your view of the topic.  If it is done in this way, it can be relevant to those outside the church without compromising the central message of salvation or the radical nature of the gospel-transformed life.

Two words that should never be in the same sentence, some would say (unless that sentence reads: “the church should never be involved in marketing”).  Marketing the gospel, the argument goes, treating it like another product to be sold, is an affront to God and the ways He builds His kingdom.  Others, however, would disagree, claiming that marketing is an essential part of evangelism, communicating the gospel in a clear and attractive way that brings people into the church and into a relationship with God. 

What do you think?  More importantly, what does God think about the concept of church marketing?

These past two weeks, I’ve been looking at some of the benefits and dangers of using seeker-sensitive methods in church.  I think that marketing is one of those methods that is worth reflecting upon.  Is it wise to spend time learning from the world’s methods of advertising in order to promote church and the gospel?  Should churches spend time studying how Starbucks creates atmosphere, how top hotels provide extraordinary service to their guests, how Apple uses advertising in order to promote its product, in order to make the church more hospitable and attractive, in order to create a “wow” factor, as some church leaders teach?  Or is borrowing from the corporations of the world in order to improve the church antithetical to the spirit of the gospel? 

These are tough questions.  On the one hand, there is the sense that the gospel should be enough.  Churches for centuries have relied on prayer, ministry, and evangelism to build the kingdom of God.  When church leaders listen more to the marketers of the world, using billboards and mass mailings and gifts at the door for visitors to their church, are they not telling God that He needs help advertising His “product,” that the gospel is not enough?  Are their marketing methods communicating to the world that the gospel is just another life-improvement philosophy being peddled alongside countless others in the marketplace?  Or, on the other hand, are these church leaders to be commended for their conviction that the greatest message ever told deserves to be communicated in the most creative and effective way possible, that finding innovative ways to share the gospel and bring people to church is indeed worship unto the Lord?

One truth that is worth pondering as we think through this issue is that, intentionally or unintentionally, the church is always marketing itself, if we see marketing as simply communicating a message to the world.  Even if a church chooses not to put an ad in the Yellow Pages or put a sign out in front of its church, it is communicating something about the church or the gospel or God Himself to the world.  Perhaps the church that intentionally tries not to market itself is unwittingly communicating to its community that they are not looking for anyone to visit their church, that they prefer to remain isolated and unknown.  Would not that message contradict the spirit of the gospel, where Jesus tells his followers that they are the light of the world, a city on a hill (Matthew 5:13-16)?  It may be that, even if you try, it is impossible to escape the reality that you are marketing yourself. 

A church is always marketing itself, whether or not it does so intentionally.  It is communicating something about the gospel and its God by how it spends its money, by the kind of building it meets in, by its level of involvement in its community, and by the missionaries they support.  A church communicates something about the gospel and its God by the way its members treat each other, and by how they act towards their neighbors.  You may choose to call it by its more spiritual term “witness” or by the more secular term “marketing”; either way, the church is always communicating positively or negatively about Jesus and His gospel.

So perhaps the question is not “to market or not to market.”  Perhaps the question is, what are you communicating about God, church, and the gospel by the way you are living and “doing church”?  Thinking specifically of NewLife, what do we communicate by meeting in a Masonic Lodge?  What are we communicating by the events we have done, or by the service projects we have done or haven’t done in the community?  Look at how we use our money and the missionaries we support – what are these communicating about our values and our message?  What are we communicating by the website we have created, by the blog posts I write, or by the ads we have put in the paper?  And do these messages we are communicating accurately reflect the witness we are trying to have in our community?

I don’t think you can escape the fact that, as a church, we are marketing yourself, giving a witness, or communicating a message to those around you.  But sometimes trying to copy the marketing strategies of the world can lead you to communicate a gospel different than that of Jesus.   Let me share four messages I would hope we don’t communicate; if you have other ideas of messages to avoid, I would encourage you to share them in the comments:

1) The Christian life is all about YOU.  I want to communicate that the Christian life is all about GOD, and that by making our lives all about knowing and worshiping God, in the end we find the life we’ve been looking for.  Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-26, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?’” One danger when the church thinks in marketing terms is that most of the world’s ads and messages are trying to pander to people’s self-centeredness.  When Christians write books and communicate messages about how God can give you your best life and make you happy and prosperous, they may be creating a church of self-serving Christians who will follow God as long as it works for them instead of disciples who love God with all their heart and are satisfied with Him above all else.
2) God is just another product to enhance your life.  Similarly, I don’t want to communicate that God is just one of the choices out there that will enrich your life, like joining a wellness company or buying an iPhone.  God has to be all or He is nothing; the center or else not in the picture.  He will not have any gods, any idols, above Himself, and is not an accessory to make you feel better when you’re down or when you need spiritual inspiration.  On the contrary, following God will often wreck your life, taking your dreams and dashing them, and often only later showing you that His way was better all along.
3) Salvation is repeating a prayer in order to receive a get-out-of-Hell free card.  I have often seen salvation and a relationship with God reduced to an escape from Hell, and I don’t think that is Biblical.  I used to take my youth group to an event where the gospel message was communicated something like this:  (1) We’re all sinners – even if you’ve only lied once, you’ve sinned.  (2) All sinners are going to Hell.  (3) Jesus died to get you out of Hell.  (4) Repeat this prayer after me and you will go to heaven instead of Hell.  Do you really believe that this is all the Bible is about, the totality of the Christian message?  Pray a prayer so you can go to heaven?  All this approach does is create a lot of people convinced they’re saved because they prayed a prayer, even though their lives are never changed.  I would hope that our church does not communicate that this is the extent of the Christian message.
4) We have to bribe people to come to church or become Christians.  There’s a fine line between being an attractive, hospitable church and trying to bribe people to come to or return to your church.  I’ve heard people advocate giving out gifts to newcomers, like Starbucks cards, free books, etc., and I’m not sure whether this is radical generosity or shamelessly bribing people to come to your church.  I remember one youth ministry training seminar where youth pastors were promised a method that would double the size of their group in three months.  The method, called the Great Commission Competition, went like this:  divide your youth group into three teams.  Whichever team can get the largest amount of friends to come to youth group over the next three months wins an all-expenses paid trip to Six Flags.  And during those three months, of course, the youth pastor would preach evangelistic methods aimed at converting people to Christianity.   I almost tried it until I realized how shameless a method it was.

In the end, I don’t believe the church can escape marketing, even if they call it by the more spiritual term “witness”.  We are always communicating a message to the world by what we do and how we live our lives.  To that end, we need to carefully examine the messages we are sending in order to ensure that we are not communicating something contrary to the gospel and the values of God’s Kingdom. 

The results were stunning:  attendance at the opening weekend services was 7300, up from a typical attendance in the 5000’s (and about half of the new people stayed at the church).  Countless first-timers to church heard about God’s good design for sex and the dangers of sexual immorality.  Local networks as well as national news stations picked up on the series and reported on it.  Churches around the country began to do similar sermon series with similar results.  And (as is obvious by me writing on it), it is still generating discussion over two years later.   

But, of course, the response has not all been positive.  Although they reached many new people through this approach, Granger received plenty of criticism as well.  One sample letter went like this: “It  now appears that in addition to Victoria’s Secret and countless other billboard ads loaded with sex, I now have to shield my children from church signs in order to keep their innocence intact. I am outraged that a Christian Church is putting signs up like this, so my 9-year-old can ask me, ‘Mama, what’s a sex life?’ Some churches are more than lukewarm people pleasers. They’re a menace to common decency. I remember clearly what the Word of God says about those who cause little ones to stumble. I tremble for these hirelings posing as shepherds.”

The “mylamesexlife.com” billboards are a perfect example of one of the greatest philosophy of ministry decisions faced by pastors and church leaders today:  what do I believe about the seeker-sensitive philosophy of doing ministry?  Is it Biblical, Christ-like, and Spirit-led to use methods such as billboard advertising on sex, sermon series based on pop culture, and entertaining skits, multi-media presentations, and performances in order to attract people to church so that they might hear the gospel of Jesus Christ?  Or is it, as its detractors would argue, simply a man-centered, watered-down gospel that trades the offensiveness of the cross and the suffering way of Christ for the comfort of self-help psychology and the tantalizing idol of megachurch status?

I’ve been evaluating this approach to ministry for a few years now and still find it a very difficult question (even though I know that those on the opposite ends of the spectrum find the answer very simple).  On one end of the spectrum are churches like Granger and their Executive Pastor Tim Stevens, author of the recent Pop Goes the Church, which argues that it is completely Biblical to use pop culture to speak the language of the people in order to make church relevant and bring them to a place where they will hear the gospel.  This past Christmas, Granger did a whole series based on Beatles music (“Let it Be…Christmas”), and Stevens writes in his book: “You see, if you don’t offer people something they need, they won’t come. If people don’t come, you can’t teach them the truth. So an effective church is busy identifying people’s needs and letting the community know you have some help they should consider.”

                Tim Stevens                                   David Wilkerson

On the other end of the spectrum are people like David Wilkerson, pastor of Times Square Church in New York and probably best known as the author and subject of The Cross and the Switchblade.  In a message called “The Gospel of Accomodation” (you can read it at http://thewordistrue.com/?p=21) that he gave at the Assemblies of God headquarters to pastors from all over the country, he spoke against what he saw as the nonconfronting message of the seeker-friendly church, along with pastors who rely more on formulas (e.g. do a survey to find out what nonchurchgoers want and issues they want churches to talk about and then give it to them) to grow their church than they do on prayer and the direction of the Spirit.  He warned against ungodly ambition and the goal of growing a church without real consideration being given to the leading of the Spirit and the Biblical message of repentance and faith in Christ.
As Wilkerson put it:  “I ask you, how long do you think that audience would stay in church if the pastor was gripped by the Holy Ghost, convicted for “entertaining” people toward hell, and suddenly preached a message entitled, “Be sure your sins will find you out”? How long would people keep coming back if a gospel of holy living and separation from the world was preached? Two things would happen: (1) Those who are misguided, hungry, and didn’t know any better would weep and run to the altar. (2) Those who are judiciously blinded by their pleasures in madness would flee from the church and never come again. The church doors would close.”  And:  “I’m not about to put up a silly skit and preach a 15-minute message on how to cope to a multitude of people who are dying and going to hell. I tremble at the thought.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts, and I will most likely be sharing some more of my reflections over the next couple of weeks.  If you have anything to add to the discussion, please post a comment.

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC,
and his book, The Reason for God

Now, I’m guessing at least 90% of you have never even heard of Tim Keller or Redeemer Church, unless you read this week’s article in Newsweek about him.  This ignorance is largely because even though Keller is 57, this is his first attempt at writing a popular book; previously, he seems to have been very content to fly under the radar and work with Redeemer as they seek to renew New York City socially, spiritually, and culturally.  As a pastor serving a church of roughly 5000 transient, intellectually and culturally sophisticated New Yorkers, as well as helping plant and assist countless other churches ministering in cities around the world, he has certainly had his hands full.  But I have a feeling that many Christians will be grateful that he took the time to write The Reason for God.

The timing of this book is great for me, as I have been preparing to preach a series that will begin on Easter dealing with some of the biggest reasons people reject the God of the Bible and Christianity.  I am planning to address questions such as “why does God allow suffering and evil?”, “How can Christians claim that theirs is the only right religion?” and “isn’t Christianity incompatible with science?”, as well as more relational objections such as “I would be happy to follow God if it weren’t for all those hypocritical, judgmental Christians.”  (I encourage you once again to visit our Why Believe? webpage and tell your story of why you do or do not believe).  I am sure this book will be of great value to me as I prepare.

The timing of this book is also great for our society, given the recent influx of “New Atheist” books that have been best-sellers, such as Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and Sam Harris’ Letters to a Christian Nation.  These authors have gone on the offensive to argue that not only is belief in God irrational, but that it is downright evil, that the world would be better off without religion.  And many are buying what they are selling.  Their criticisms are pretty harsh, and I have been waiting for someone from the Christian community to step up and engage those who have attacked the concept of faith in God.  Thankfully, Tim Keller was up to the challenge. 

Now, in the midst of all of this intellectualizing and arguing, it is important to keep things in the proper perspective.  I am not sure anyone can be argued into the kingdom of God.  Many people enter by being attracted to the incomparable love and beauty of Jesus; for others, it is coming to a realization of their need for a Savior in the light of their sin and brokenness.  Becoming a Christian is not like buying a car which you can be argued into purchasing (“all right, you’ve convinced me – I’ll take Jesus.  Does he come with a warranty?”).  So, I’m not expecting The Reason for God to argue many people into becoming Christians.  However, I do think that books like this one that defend the rationality of belief in God are invaluable in correcting false assumptions and beliefs about God and showing clearly that believing in God does not mean throwing your brain out the window.  As someone who always graduated near the top of his class and considers himself an intelligent person, I find it frustrating how many atheists think all believers are simple-minded people who have faith because they wish to have someone else tell them what to do and what to believe.  As Keller shows, being a Christian often means thinking harder and deeper about the reality in which we live and how the Biblical story of creation, sin, and redemption make sense of it.         

The two things I have appreciated most about Tim Keller are how central the Gospel is to his message and how well he gives intellectual reason for faith.  No matter what text he is preaching from, whether it is Genesis, the Psalms, or Romans, he somehow always ends up back at the cross of Christ and the need for his listeners to allow the fact that Jesus “lived the life they should have lived and died the death they should have died” to transform their very being.  And his intellectual ability is incredible.  In a typical sermon, he’ll somehow manage to weave in Hebrew scholars, writers for New Yorker magazine, existential philosophers, and modern musicians into his sermons as testimonies to how true the Biblical metanarrative of creation, sin and redemption is to the world in which we live.  

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he answered “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).  I have found other preachers, teachers, worship leaders, and servants who have been better at encouraging me to love God with all of my heart, but none who have compared to Keller’s ability to help me love God with all of my mind.  I am hopeful that God will use this book to help others do the same.

Now that I’ve told you about someone who has impacted my faith and ministry, I am curious about which teachers, preachers, or writers have had the greatest impact on your faith.  If you would, post a comment on someone you’ve found particularly inspiring, so that we all might be encouraged or exposed to someone of which we may have never heard.  And one more note – if you are interested in The Reason For God, you can visit www.amazon.com, search for the book, and read excerpts from it.

This past Wednesday I had a rare opportunity to address two separate sessions of 50 kids each about the Christian faith at Manchester High School.  I had been invited to participate in a panel representing the living religions of the world, and was given five minutes to explain my faith.  After all the presentations, we had the opportunity to respond to any questions posed by the students or teachers to the members of the panel.  The teacher had done an excellent job of bringing together a diverse group; besides me (representing Protestant Christianity), there was someone representing Catholicism, Mormonism, Baha’i, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, and Rastafarianism.

As I prepared to speak, there were a few questions I had to consider:

   • What is the Christian story and how do I sum it up in 5 minutes?
   • How do I explain the Christian concept of God (especially the Trinity part) in a way that ninth graders would understand?
   • What place does my personal story play in illustrating the truth and beauty of Christianity?
   • How do I accurately portray the historical impact, both positive and negative, that Christianity has had on the world?

I opened my five minutes by explaining that I was representing Protestant Christianity.  I said that if there is one thing that Christians have been historically good at, it is dividing over all sorts of issues, to the point where there are hundreds of different denominations under the umbrella of “Protestant Christianity.”  I explained that my church calls itself “non-denominational”, which means that we don’t play that game.  We basically would call ourselves “Christians,” not choosing to identify ourselves as “Lutheran” or “Baptist” or “Methodist.” 

I decided to present Christianity as a love story, the greatest love story ever.  I explained that God is by nature a community of three, known as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that this is a community of perfect love, joy, and peace.  I explained that we were created to experience that love, joy, and peace, invited to be a part of that community, where God would be our God and give us all the love, joy, and peace we would ever need.  Unfortunately, people have always chosen to reject God and do their own thing, bringing hatred, pain, and suffering into the world.  I said that after humanity’s initial rejection of God, God tried to use a man named Abraham and his family to bring people back to Him and bring His love and joy and peace to the world, but they failed to do it.  So finally God the Son came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ in order to show us just how much God loves us and to save us from the disaster we were causing by rejecting him.  Jesus was not like the religious people expected; even though he was a perfect man, he chose to spend time with those who were rejected in his day, like the prostitutes, tax collectors, and lepers, and saved his harshest words for religious hypocrites who were more concerned with appearing religious then loving others.  Jesus went through everything we might have to go through on earth, including rejection by his friends, intense suffering, and finally death on a cross.  But the Bible says that He rose again from the dead, making it possible for people to enter back into the relationship with God that was originally intended.  By dying for us, he showed just how deeply God loves us.

Of course, Jesus left the future of the faith in the hands of people like you and me, who became known as the church, with the mission of bringing God’s love, joy, and peace to the world.  Over time, the church has done some amazing things, like caring for the poor, the sick, and the oppressed, but has also done some terrible things, like the Crusades and displaying some of the same hypocritical judgmental behavior that the religious people of Jesus’ time did.  I also explained that this same story has been true in my life, that God has been the initiator, the lover, in my life.  I said that when I was their age, I would never have expected to be a pastor, but after high school, God revealed Himself to me in an amazing way, and ever since then my greatest desire is to know God more and enjoy His love and joy and peace and to help others experience it as well.

I felt that presenting the Christian story as a love story was an accurate way of bringing out the truth and beauty of our God.  There is a danger in reducing Christianity to principles, steps, or other mechanistic approaches that de-personalize the faith and how central love and relationship are to following God.  The next two Sundays, I will speaking on marriage and how the Biblical view of marriage is that it is meant to be a window through which people should see God and His love for us.  I think you’ll be surprised just how often the Bible uses wedding imagery to illustrate God’s love for us.  I think that is a clear indication that God intends for us to understand the depth of love and commitment that is involved in knowing Him.

The question and answer time was great, although I wish there could have been a longer time with more interaction between the panelists.  The prevailing mood, of course, was tolerance, that everyone should be allowed to practice whatever they choose, and that no religion is better than any other.  If there had been more time, it would have been interesting to say something like this: 

“Certainly there are many things that these different faiths have in common, but there are also irreconcilable differences.  For example, one faith believes in reincarnation, while another believes that after death some go to heaven and some to hell.  Some believe in one God, other is one God made up three persons, others in a divine energy that can be interpreted as many different gods, and some in no god at all.  Logically, we can’t all be right.  Either we’re all wrong, and have all just made up religions in order to help us cope with the uncertainties of life and death, or one of us is right and the rest are wrong.  How do we reconcile that?”  

I believe in tolerance to the extent that people should be allowed to practice other religions freely.  I also believe that there is truth and beauty in every religion, that I can learn a lot from other religions, and that being a Christian doesn’t mean I’m a “better person” than someone who is a Hindu or Muslim (or atheist for that matter).  But I also think it’s intellectually naïve to live as if all beliefs are equally valid when they say irreconcilably different things.  Either a single God exists or He doesn’t; either we are reincarnated or we’re not.  You can’t have it both ways.

The best question I was asked brought this to light.  A young man asked the panel whether any of us wished that the others practiced our religion instead of their own.  After a couple of people shared their tolerant beliefs that all religions are equally valid, I spoke up and said that as a Christian I try to follow Jesus, and although He was an amazing man and teacher, he also said some pretty exclusive things.  For example, one of the last things he told his disciples was to go into the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything he had commanded.  Part of what it means to follow Jesus, therefore, is to help people follow Him.  As much as I believe that people should be allowed to practice whatever they want, in the end if I’m going to answer his questions honestly, then yes, as a follower of Jesus I want everyone to follow Him.  As I reflect on the whole experience, that was probably the only “intolerant” thing said all morning.

I thought this experience would be a good catalyst for a discussion of Jesus among other gods and how to reconcile the exclusive claims of Jesus with the age of tolerance in which we live.  To help me deal with this topic, it would help to know what questions you have regarding religions, pluralism, tolerance, truth, and exclusivity.  If you have any questions, thoughts or comments to add, please post your comments so that we might accurately discuss Jesus in our tolerant culture.