The Spirit of the Christian Household

Mike Leake

I will be reviewing Trained in the Fear of God on Monday.  Until then I thought you could benefit from a rather lengthy sample.  This is from Peter R. Schemm Jr.’s contribution:

I once thought that the defining mark of a Christian home was “family worship” in the living room every evening[1].I would not have put it that way at the time, of course. Yet I have since realized that I was far too invested in performing the act of family worship as a measure of my success as a father. I possessed the spirit of a Pharisee-and few attitudes are more unhelpful to the Gospel of Jesus than such a spirit. It is the spirit of one who works to impress God and others through religious achievements. It is the spirit of self-justification. It is not the spirit of a Christian household.

By the spirit of the Christian household, I mean something closer to what Dallas Willard suggests in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines. He says,

The spirit of the disciplines-that which moves us to them and moves through them to prevent them from becoming a new bondage and to deepen constantly our union with the heart and mind of God-is [our] love of Jesus, with its steadfast longing and resolute will to be like him.[2]

Spiritual habits and disciplines are hollow apart from a genuine love and affection for Jesus Christ. They tend to take on a “new bondage” and become a means to seek an evil and enslaving endpoint instead.

The spirit of the Christian household is inspired by the love of God whom “we love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). It is a disposition that consistently reflects God’s love through grace and forgiveness. This disposition moves us to and through the habits proposed below. Our habits and disciplines, founded on the love of God, become a good means to a greater end. They form and transform our families into redemptive communities. These habits and disciplines train not only children but also fathers and mothers, to repent of specific things such as anger and demanding expectations. Paul Tripp describes it this way, “As we-parents and children alike-face our need as sinners, the family becomes a truly redemptive community where the themes of grace, forgiveness, deliverance from sin, reconciliation, new life in Christ, and hope become the central themes of family life.”[3] In a word, the spirit of the Christian household is a spirit of redemption.

Fortunately I didn’t have to type all of that out.  I did a search to see if I could find this quote somewhere else.  Looks like the Family Ministry Today blog thought this selection was worthy of quoting as well.  Credit to them for typing all that out.  Lot’s of good stuff at that blog.  Check it out: Family Ministry Today.

The Root of Angry and Divisive Calvinists: Part Three

Mike Leake

If it wasn’t seminary (or any other new found education) that caused mark to become angry and divisive what happened to Mark, then?

Probably the same thing that happened to students in Newton’s day when he said:

I do not mention this as the necessary fault of the institution, but as the frequent effect of notions too hastily picked up, when not sanctified by grace, nor balanced by a proportional depth of spiritual experience.[1]

Newton is saying what Luther said 200 years prior, “experience alone makes the theologian[2]”. What happened to Mark and a host of students like him is that he became like a young David wearing Saul’s armor; wearing the armor of another man without first growing into it. Newton expresses this well in verse:

When first my soul enlisted
My Savior’s foes to fight,
Mistaken friends insisted
I was not arm’d aright:

So Saul advised David
He certainly would fail,
Nor could his life be saved
Without a coat of mail.

But David, though he yielded
To put the armor on,
Soon found he could not wield it,
And ventur’d forth with none.

With only sling and pebble,
He fought the fight of faith;
The weapons seem’d but feeble,
Yet prov’d Goliath’s death.

Had I by him been guided,
And quickly thrown away
The armor men provided,
I might have gain’d the day;

But arm’d as they advis’d me,
My expectations fail’d;
My enemy surprised me,
And had almost prevailed

Furnish’d with books and notions,
And arguments and pride,
I practis’d all my motions,
And Satan’s pow’r defy’d:

But soon perceiv’d, with trouble,
That these would do no good;
Iron to him is stubble,
And brass like rotten wood.

I triumph’d at a distance,
While he was out of sight,
But faint was my resistance,
When forc’d to join in fight:

He broke my swords in shivers,
And pierc’d my boasted shield,
Laugh’d at my vain endeavors,
And drove me from the field.

Satan will not be braved
By such a worm as I;
Then let me learn with David
To trust in the Most High;

To plead the name of Jesus,
And use the sling of pray’r:
Thus arm’d , when Satan sees us,
He’ll tremble and despair

Notice, once again, that Newton refers to “books and notions” as he did earlier “notions too hastily picked up”. Through his experience Newton found that theology not owned is unhelpful to the flaming darts of the evil one.

The most likely root of angry and divisive Calvinism (or any other angry and divisive “ism”) is mostly like found in this principle of “notions too hastily picked up”.  Until “notions in the head” match experiences of grace in the heart what is typically manifested is angry, divisive, and prideful. 

“This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”…

[1] Newton, Vol 1, 139

[2] Trials, 25

Review of The Resignation of Eve by Jim Henderson

Mike Leake 5 Comments

Warning: My introduction may be totally unwise.  It could add fuel to what could become a wild fire.  Read on…

A few years ago I attended my very first Missouri Baptist State Convention.  At one point there was a very heated discussion on the issue of alcohol.  Anyone following SBC life knows that the use of moderate alcohol for recreational (or missional) purposes is highly debated. 

In my opinion there are people who give very reasonable arguments on both sides of the discussion.  But what happened at the MBC was not a reasoned discussion.  What ended up happening was that at least four people right after another came to the microphone and gave emotional and passionate stories of how alcohol use had ruined their life.  We clearly moved from reasonably debating the issues from a biblical standpoint to emotional appeals based on varying personal experience. 

That is what you have, in my opinion, in Jim Henderson’s book The Resignation of Eve.  The fundamental question in this book is what would happen if women stopped coming to church.  Henderson believes that all across the church landscape women are overcome with a sad resignation.  Women are wondering why it is that God has gifted them but leaders in the church (men) are not allowing them to lead. 

What follows are numerous stories of women and their views of women in the church.  The book begins by highlighting women that are “resigned to” their position.  In other words they agree with the complementarian position.  Then the stories slowly move towards the other end of the spectrum.  Henderson does an excellent job showing that this issue is far more complex than simply complementarian and egalitarian. 

The problem, though, is in the way Henderson frames his arguments.  He treats those on the complementarian problem as those that are simply blind to the problem.  They do not hold their position because of a reasonable biblical defense.  They hold their position because they are blind to the other world that could be theirs.  For Rose Claxton who is committed to a more traditional interpretation of submission, Henderson cannot help but note that “none of us escape the influence of our past”.  It must be because of her “confusing childhood” that Rose is “grateful for the structure and security submission has provided for her”.  (35)

Fast forward to Jennifer Roach.  She too had a troubled past but through the help of “three important men” she has risen above that past and is now “being ordained as a priest and becoming one of the first female church planters in her denomination”  (223).  Yes, this is Jesus’ rescue, and his empowering of Jennifer and elevating her.  Not even considered is that her story of abuse does not impact her understanding of Scripture. 

This is the problem throughout the book.  Henderson has a bias—which appears to be the same structural disdain found in all things Barna—and it clouds everything in the book.  And that is really sad.  It is sad because I think there are actually some really good things to be said here.  It is true that men have abused power and that churches have been really sloppy in how they handle the teachings of Scripture concerning women.  These stories are real and they are sad.

But what I find increasingly sad is that the mindset that permeates this book is the same one that I have encountered in counseling struggling couples that pursue a divorce, or those struggling with homosexuality that decide to give up on the struggle.  The argument is simple.  A) God made me this way.  B) What you are saying the Bible says would go against how God made me, and would lead to my unhappiness.  C) God would never desire me to not use my gifts, not be who I am, not be happy.  D) Therefore, what you are saying must be incorrect and your interpretation of the Bible must be outdated. 

There is much room here for discussion and reasoned debate.  The problem is, as it was at the MBC a few years ago, such a discussion is not allowed to happen because of the emotional appeal, sloppy rhetoric, exaltation of personal experience, and anthropocentric world views. 


Should You Buy It?

I wouldn’t.  It’s irresponsible.  These stories might very well be ones that should be told.  There is much that those of us that come from a complementarian position can learn from hearing these stories.  But at the end of the day this book is just simply irresponsible on a very difficult and often heated topic. 

Yes, it comes from the same perspective as I do but I have found Tom Schreiner’s book Women in the Church very reasonable and a good defense of the complementarian position.  Which by the way is never really fairly represented in this book.  It’s just caricatured and then torched as an outdated and brainless (perhaps heartless if the analogy would fit) straw-man. 

On the Barna agenda you might find this beneficial.  It’s far from watchblogging.
—
I received this book for free from Tyndale (I think) in exchange for a review.  It didn’t have to be positive—as you can clearly see. 

People You’ve Maybe Never Heard Of But Should: Charles Simeon

Mike Leake

Charles Simeon was born in 1759 in Reading, Berkshire.  He attended Eton College and Cambridge.  While at Cambridge he came to know the Lord.  John Piper helps us to see the miracle of this when he says, “He had no mother to nurture him.  His father was an unbeliever.  His boarding school was a godless and corrupt place.  And his university was destitute, as far as he knew, of other evangelical believers.”

After his conversion he soon became the pastor at Trinity Church in Cambridge.  Here he remained for the next 54 years until his death.  We have much to learn from a pastor that has such staying power as Charles Simeon. 

Why You Should Know Him:

Simeon was vital in the modern missions movement.  He used his influence through his position at the university to not only fill many pulpits throughout England with evangelicals but also to send missionaries to the East.  Many of those that would pioneer missions movement go back to Simeon as a mentor.  His branches extend far throughout the world. 

Simeon was also a wonderful preacher.  Simeon said that the three great aims of all his preaching where, “To humble the sinner, to exalt the Savior, and to promote holiness”.  For 54 years that is precisely what Charles Simeon did.  And he did it, especially in his early years against the backdrop of much persecution. 

The newly minted preacher was not wanted by his parishioners.  They wanted another guy.  So they revolted.  It wasn’t until 1794 that the congregation allowed their own pastor, Simeon, to give the Sunday afternoon lecture.  When Simeon tried to start a Sunday evening service the churchwardens locked the door.  They also had a habit of locking the pew doors on Sunday morning and then going home.  Those that wanted to hear Simeon would have to do so while standing.  When Simeon decided to provide seats in the empty spaces (at this own expense) the churchwardens threw them into the churchyard. 

All of this is not to mention the cold reception that he would receive when visiting peoples houses.  On top of this he was despised as he taught at Cambridge University.  All of this lasted for at least ten years.  Finally, through patient plodding and preaching the Word the community gradually began to accept Simeon. 

Charles Simeon’s faithful endurance under very difficult circumstances is a model to all of us.  Many pastors—(perhaps even including myself)—would not have been strong enough to have endured such attacks.  But Simeon kept pressing on and left a lasting gospel legacy. 

Samples:

One particular thing that is endearing about Simeon is his response to controversy and his refusal to needlessly engage in it.  I love his word to a pastor encouraging Simeon to engage in controversy:

I know you will forgive me if I say that the very account you give of yourself in relation to controversy is a dissuasive from embarking in it.  Let a man once engage in it, and it is surprising how the love of it will grow upon him; and he will find both a hare in every bush, and will follow it with something of a huntsman’s feelings.

Simeon was also very passionate about experiencing and enjoying grace and not merely defending it:

By this then, my brethren, you may judge whether you are Christians in deed and in truth, or whether you are only such in name…For a nominal Christian is content with proving the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer.  But the true Christian loves it, delights in it, glories in it, and shudders at the very thought of glorying in anything else. 

There is much more gospel centered and humble preaching that flows from the works of Charles Simeon. 

Further Reading:

John Piper’s Biography on Simeon is one thing that I used in putting together this article.  It’s very helpful. 

There is much on Google Books by Simeon and about Simeon.

Also check out the Simeon Trust.