Year-end spiritual reflections, part 2: On asceticism and weakness

My first blog of year-end spiritual reflections focused on some key things I have been thinking about related to hospitality and defeatism. Today I want to share a few more key things that God has brought to my mind in the past few months.

On asceticism

I have slowly been reading some chapters from Thomas Merton’s spiritual classic No Man Is An Island. Merton was a Trappist monk (a type of Catholic) and often has a mix of ideas that I find unhelpful along with the truly brilliant and biblical. One of the more helpful chapters I have read in No Man Is An Island is a chapter on asceticism and sacrifice. Asceticism, to say the least, has fallen out of favor in the contemporary world, including evangelical Christianity. We live in a time when people generally find denying our pleasures to be pathological rather than a helpful aspect of character development.

What I find helpful in Merton’s discussion is that he says that asceticism is a way to truly enable us to give ourselves to God. He doesn’t deny the goodness of creation, but focuses on how we relate to creation, taking cues from the way Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 7:31 about enjoying the things of the world, but living as though we had them not. On the flip side, Merton says that many ascetics don’t use the things of the world, but live at though they did use them. That is, they’re so obsessed with the fleshly desire they are avoiding that they haven’t truly given themselves to God.

I see two key applications of these ideas. First, the Christian life needs to be centered on a vision of communion with God, not on the avoidance of certain wrong things or misguided pleasures. There is a place for rules, for telling people what to do and what to avoid. But if we are to truly grow in grace, we need to be motivated by a deep hunger to not just do the right thing, but to know Jesus and be conformed to his image.

Second, amidst much good theological work that has been done on the theme of “theology of culture” and enjoying the good gifts of God’s creation as part of our spirituality, I worry that some of the evangelical subculture is slipping into a complacency with hedonism in the name of spirituality. For example, people can justify an inordinate focus on gourmet coffee, craft beer, the outdoors (my characteristic temptation!), or even the arts in the name of enjoying the good gifts of God’s creation. I’m not inherently against any of those things (especially the outdoors and the arts), but my experience living in countries with higher poverty rates makes me sometimes think we maybe need to takes ourselves and our preferences a little less seriously at times. Maybe the more spiritual thing I could do is drink cheap coffee, abstain from Starbucks, save money by being a teetotaler (no, that’s not inherently legalistic), enjoy the outdoors for my health and pleasure within reason without making it my idol, and enjoy music and art without breaking my budget to do so. I could then give the difference to the church or a Christian agency providing micro-loans for the poor (or get myself out of debt). I don’t say this in judgment of anyone who happens to enjoy any of these things. There are way more factors involved than pure economic reasons—I often go to coffee shops for the social benefit, which I can often justify. This is a prudential issue of character focus, not an area with clearly defined right and wrong rules. I have to look in my heart and see why I do what I do, and leave others’ heart condition to them and God. I just raise the issue because I often see a despising of asceticism and simple living as “legalistic” while most of the world suffers in poverty, and that is something I know I for one need to take seriously.

On weakness

One of the best books I read while part of the Avance mission program in Mexico was the missiologist David Bosch’s A Spirituality of the Road. Bosch looks at key issues in missionary spirituality, with a special emphasis on Paul’s example in 2 Corinthians. For a short sermon at the end of the semester assembly for the Saturday Bible institute in November, I decided to preach on the theme of weakness and power in ministry, looking at 2 Corinthians.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”

I find it fascinating that God chooses weak vessels to make known his power. Often in the church we seem to think that we need a “powerful” testimony in order to be used by God. We need God to have done something big and miraculous. Those of us who grew up in the church often struggle with the feeling that we don’t have a testimony, or what we have isn’t quite up to par. Yet I think what Paul is getting at in this passage is that often the most powerful testimony of the death and resurrection of Jesus is not the person who has had all their problems miraculously whisked away—though that can be powerful at times—but the person who stays faithful in the midst of tribulation, carrying around in their body Jesus’ death so that Jesus’ life may be revealed in them.

How often do we look at the Christian life that way? How often do we look at our challenges as a chance to manifest Jesus’ life in the midst of the outward “death” we experience? For that matter, how do we experience our tribulations? If I were to honestly describe my current life as one of being hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down, as Paul did in 4:8-9, would I think there was something wrong in my spiritual life? Or would I see that as a natural part of the journey of discipleship? Ultimately, Paul thinks it’s rather normal, especially in the case of those in ministry positions. But he can find hope in the promise of the resurrection: “because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself” (4:14). As we live a life under the cross, we can find hope in our future resurrection. This is what ought to sustain the work of those in ministry. As Paul said elsewhere, capping off his magnificent explanation of Jesus’ resurrection and its significance, “Therefore [in view of the resurrection], my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

2014 reading: My top 10 books of the year

Like every professor, I love to read! I read over 30 books in 2014, and thought I’d give a list of the top 10 best books I read this year (or at least most helpful to me) with some brief reviews to stimulate your own intellectual curiosity and give a little insight into the theologians and other authors I’ve been wrestling with in 2014.

1. Timothy Tennent, Theology in the Context of World Christianity. (almost finished)

I had read a few chapters of Tennent’s book in seminary and read almost all of it this year. Tennent seeks to theologically reflect on the key areas of Christian theology in dialogue with issues that come up in religiously diverse contexts around the world. For example, how do we respond to the question of whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God when their views of God share some but not all of the divine attributes? Or, how do we explain the atonement in a culture that focuses on honor and shame more than forgiveness and guilt? What is the relation between guilt and shame in biblical theology? Or, perhaps most provocatively, does the Bible really require us to say that all non-Christians religions hold to a form of works-based salvation as goes the popular apologetic argument for the gospel? What about True Pure Land Buddhism that seems to hold to some kind of salvation by grace through faith?

Tennent’s attempt to engage the questions is brilliant and his arguments largely convincing. For example, he shows that we can’t just choose between guilt or shame as arbitrary models for the atonement, but that both are aspects of the broader biblical teaching that must be taken into account. In the case of True Pure Land Buddhism, he shows how the diagnosis of the human problem and the identity of the savior are the absolutely essential differences between it and Christianity—Buddhism rejects a Christian view of sin and the Amida Buddha (their savior figure) simply doesn’t have the necessary qualities to be able to save. This is important, because many Christians fall into the wrong idea that it is the act of faith that ultimately saves us rather than the object of our faith. That is, faith is a subjective condition for salvation, but faith is in vain if it doesn’t grasp onto the correct object, the savior Jesus Christ and his saving work. I highly recommend this book for anyone thinking through issues of theological evaluation of religious diversity and as a model of how to expand our ways of thinking about theology without rejecting the good parts of traditional western theology.

2. Daniel Doriani, Putting the Truth to Work: The Theory and Practice of Biblical Application.

I had also read about half of Doriani’s book in seminary, but finally got around to reading the whole thing in preparation for my Biblical Interpretation course. Simply put, I have never seen another book as well-balanced and comprehensive in considering the tricky issues around how to apply the Bible to contemporary life. One of the things I like best about Doriani’s approach is that he recognizes that narratives can establish doctrinal and ethical teaching, something that Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, in their otherwise excellent book (see #6 below), are rather hesitant about. I also find his approach helpful in avoiding interpreting narratives in allegorical ways but without denying that we can derive moral lessons from the characters. Rather, he shows that narratives can apply by showing us redemptive acts and/or by showing us models of good or bad conduct. The key is that the models of good or bad conduct have to do with the characters’ response to God (and often his covenants), not with reading into details of the story things that aren’t really there. He also has some great reflections on the application of Old Testament law today.

3. Stephen Brookfield, The Skillful Teacher. (almost finished)

This is a great book on college teaching, especially challenging me to consider how students experience my teaching. That is, how does the way I teach or lead discussion affect students emotionally, challenge them intellectually, motivate or fail to motivate them, etc.? There’s much more than that to the book and there are points where the author’s philosophical assumptions don’t line up with mine, but there is a lot more I can profit from on another read and put into practice.

4. David Bushnell, The Making of Modern Colombia.

Bushnell’s book is primarily a political history of modern Colombia with a substantial secondary focus on economic issues, starting with a brief introduction on the period before independence from Spain and then tracing the ups and downs in government from the independence period. Bushnell seeks to show that despite the well-known problems of violence and the drug trade, Colombia has actually been in many ways a remarkably functional country, both politically and economically. A couple of interesting insights I gained from the book:

First, Colombia has never had a strong left-wing or even populist political presence, and the few dictators it has had have been relatively moderate and short-lived. The traditional two strong parties of Colombian politics, the Liberals and Conservatives, often were very contentious, but they were really fairly centrist parties most of the time. In the 19^th century, the big difference was that the Liberals tended to be more libertarian on economic policy, were actively hostile toward the political power of the Catholic Church, and tended to support a more federalist system of governance, whereas the Conservatives were closely allied with the Church, were more centrists, and were more pragmatic on economic policy. These ideological views morphed a bit in the 20^th century, and today the traditional bipartisan split no longer holds.

Second, geography has played a huge role in the development and integration (or lack thereof) of Colombia. The largest cities are located in the hearts of large mountain ranges and separated by large valleys. This also contributed to strong regional cultures and made the development of road and railroad networks extremely difficult and expensive. To this day, ground transportation in Colombia takes a very, very long time by U.S. standards given the mountain topography and often marginal quality of roads. It’s not uncommon on mountain highways to have long sections where you can only average 15-30 kilometers/hour since there’s only one lane on each side, the grade is steep, and there is a large amount of semi-truck traffic.

Overall, a great book, though a bit out of date on contemporary issues, since it was published in 1993.

5. Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything.

Sanders, a theology professor at Biola, seeks to show the relevance of the doctrine of the Trinity to the Christian life and how we think about our salvation. I don’t know if I would quite call it “accessible” to your average churchgoer, but for those who like to read books about and think about their faith, this is a great short read that people without a seminary education can understand. Another added bonus is that Sanders intentionally focuses on drawing on theologians from the evangelical tradition to show how evangelicals have always been robustly trinitarian, even if we don’t talk about the Trinity explicitly that often. In this way he shows the ongoing value of many theologians often looked down on or ignored in contemporary discussions, such as the authors of The Fundamentals, the famous publications from the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early 20^th century.

6. Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, Lectura eficaz de la Biblia.

This is the Spanish translation of How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth, a primer on biblical interpretation that focuses on how to properly read the different literary genres of Scripture. I had heard it mentioned since college, but always had to read other books in my Biblical Interpretation classes. Occasionally I have some minor disagreements with Fee and Stuart, but this is about the best single book (it’s around 300 pages) that I could recommend for someone wanting to know how to responsibly interpret the Bible.

7. Douglas Davies, An Introduction to Mormonism.

Of the different books I read on other religions in preparation for my Religious Systems course, this was definitely the best and most academic, being published by Cambridge University Press. The single most helpful thing in this book is Davies’s distinction between the largely Protestant millenarian vision of Mormonism that we see in the Book of Mormon, which fails to introduce many big doctrinal innovations, and the ritualistic temple version of Mormonism that we find in Doctrine and Covenants, a Mormon holy book made up of a collection of prophetic words supposedly received by Joseph Smith and other church leaders throughout the first decades of the LDS church. This makes a lot of good historical sense for one like myself who doesn’t accept these revelations as legitimate—Joseph Smith started with a fanciful tale of Jesus’ actions in the Americas and then developed a whole new institutional framework later that made for an ever more “sacramental” system, thus strengthening the institutional LDS church.

In many ways these two components to Mormon doctrine correspond to the distinction between the Mormon missionary message, which focuses on the Book of Mormon, and the message of temple Mormonism (with baptisms for the dead, temple marriage, endowments, and the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods), which becomes the focus for Mormons more and more as they spend time in the church. Thus, it explains why Mormon missionaries can often sound so similar to evangelicals (though with an added Scriptural book), but then the focus in Mormon spiritual life for the truly committed can be so focused elsewhere.

8. Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue.

MacIntyre’s classic book on ethical theory had been sitting on my shelf for around ten years after an abortive attempt to read it in college. His argument is dense and complex, but the most important contribution for me was his clear argument for why any vision of ethics that excludes teleology (a vision of what human nature is and what it is made for) fails. I think his vision of virtue ethics is largely convincing, though in need of supplementing by a modified divine command theory of specific moral obligations. Such an explicitly theistic basis for ethics would give more coherence to his vision. (To his credit, he is a believing Catholic and would not deny the theological dimension, it just doesn’t factor prominently in the argument).

9. Reza Aslan, No god but God.

Aslan’s book on the history of Islam is incredibly readable and helpful. Aslan is clearly an advocate of a more progressive vision of Islam, calling for a reformation of sorts and the rejection of much traditional interpretation of the Qur’an, interpretations that he sees as illegitimately imposed on the Islamic community centuries after the time of Muhammad when individual interpretation was essentially banned and questionable traditions about the prophet’s life were solidified. Whether Aslan’s interpretation is ultimately the best or not regarding the validity or lack thereof on the sources of Islamic law, this is a great first place to go if you want to try to understand the early history and subsequent development of Islam, and especially why intelligent westerners might find Islam or the example of Muhammad attractive as a model by which to live their lives.

10. Kenneth Keathley, Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach.

Keathley, a Southern Baptist theologian, seeks to trace out a middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism and show how Molinism—a school of thought going back to the Jesuit Luis de Molina—can help do so. Molinism has long been a hot topic in philosophy of religion, but the value I found in this book was the way Keathley explicitly unpacked Molinism in theological terms. That is, he tries to show what resources it provides for answering theological questions and doesn’t spend all his time talking about the key philosophical points. I am fairly sympathetic to a version of Molinism myself and found Keathley’s way of describing it generally helpful and less speculative than William Lane Craig’s version of Molinism (for those who know the discussion, I find Craig’s belief in transworld damnation extremely speculative).

There are weak points to the book—I thought the chapter on perseverance was not particularly well argued even though I lean toward agreeing with his affirmation of what is usually considered a Calvinistic view of perseverance, and his attempt to cast Molinism as an alternative to Arminianism is a bit odd, since I think it is really a variant of Arminianism (and some scholars argue Arminius was a Molinist)—just the variant that is closest to Calvinism. With that said, for my Calvinist friends I think this book shows a clear example of a non-Calvinist who holds to a very strong version of God’s sovereignty and clearly avoids anything close to Pelagianism, something Arminians are often accused of. Whether it’s ultimately persuasive or not to a reader, it is a good explanation of a lesser-known option.

List of books read in 2014 (asterisked are books in above list, some partially read books not included)

Religious Systems class background reading

Anderson, Norman. Las religiones del mundo.

*Aslan, Reza. No god but God.

Braswell, George. Guia Holman de las religiones del mundo.

*Davies, Douglas. An Introduction to Mormonism.

Groothuis, Douglas. Confronting the New Age.

Harris, Sam. The End of Faith.

LDS Church. Our Heritage: A History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

McElveen, Floyd. The Mormon Illusion.

Pearcey, Nancy. Total Truth (partially read)

Rhodes, Ron. Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

*Tennent, Timothy. Theology in the Context of World Christianity. (mostly read)

Biblical Interpretation class background reading

De la Fuente, Tomás. Claves de interpretación bíblica.

*Doriani, Daniel. Putting the Truth to Work.

*Fee, Gordon and Stuart, Douglas. Lectura eficaz de la Biblia.

Ethics course background reading

Hays, Richard. The Moral Vision of the New Testament. (about 2/3 read)

Hill, Wesley. Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality.

Other theology and philosophy

Carson, D.A. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. (half read)

Carson, D.A. Showing the Spirit. (half read)

Feinberg, John. No One Like Him. (about 2/3 read)

*Keathley, Kenneth. Salvation and Sovereignty.

Lister, Rob. God is Impassible and Impassioned.

Lusk, Rich. Paedofaith.

*MacIntyre, Alisdaire. After Virtue.

McCall, Tom. Forsaken: The Trinity, the Cross, and Why it Matters

Mitchell, Basil. Faith and Criticism.

*Sanders, Fred. The Deep Things of God.

Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: the Making of the Modern Identity. (1/3 read)

Zagzebski, Linda. Omnisubjectivity.

Christian living

Foster, Richard. Celebration of Discipline.

Keller, Tim. Encounters With Jesus.

Merton, Thomas. No Man Is an Island. (1/3 read)

Nouwen, Henri. Out of Solitude.

Sumner, Sarah. Just How Married Do You Want to Be?

Teaching

*Brookfield, Stephen. The Skillful Teacher. (mostly read)

Vella, Jane. Taking Learning to Task. (half read)

Fiction

Achebe, Chinua. A Man of the People.

Colombia

*Bushnell, David. The Making of Modern Colombia.

Year-end spiritual reflections, part 1: On hospitality and defeatism

Most of what I’ve written on this blog has been focused on the specifics of ministry and teaching, but I haven’t written about what God has been doing in my own life spiritually since arriving in Colombia. So, looking back at my journals from the past seven and a half months or so since arriving in Colombia, here are a few things I’ve learned, areas I’m being stretched, and (often) ways I still need to grow.

On hospitality

If there’s any theme that came up time and again in my life this year it has been that of hospitality. Hospitality essentially comes down to letting people into our lives, letting their needs and even preferences have a claim on how I live. My pastor in Colombia focused a series of sermons this year on the “one another” commands of the New Testament—love one another, exhort one another, carry each other’s burdens, and so forth. I was especially struck by a comment he made where he said something to the effect of, “What if we thought of church membership primarily in terms of being a person who puts into practice these ‘one another’ commands of the Bible in the context of the local church community?” Obviously church membership has some institutional dimension, but I think he captured the heart of the primarily organic vision of what it meant to be part of a believing community in the early church.

Perhaps the most challenging biblical passage for me in considering hospitality is Philippians 2:3-4, which says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” We are then given as our model of this attitude in Philippians 2:5-11 what could be considered the most extreme expression of hospitality ever given, the incarnation. To use categories from other biblical passages, in the incarnation God came and offered rest (Matthew 11:28) and abundant life (John 10:10) to his creation, not just welcoming us in for a solitary meal, but offering to adopt us as part of his family (Galatians 4:1-7). Considering hospitality, I have seen three ways I especially need to grow:

1. Hospitality with space—This is the most obvious application, such as having people over at my apartment for lunch. I’ve had a couple of people over and taken some other friends out for meals, but this is an area I still need to grow a lot in.

2. Hospitality with time—This is the heart of the issue for me, and I have found more opportunities to put this into practice. I have tried especially to make time to help out some friends with English coversation practice. This has been a fun way to get to know people and do something tangible to help friends who need better English for future educational goals.

Time management is a constant area where I see room for growth. How many times do I not make time for a beneficial conversation, not seek out someone I could encourage, or not volunteer to help someone because I have other commitments or am rushed trying to finish something at the last minute? God has convicted me greatly of the need to manage my time better to have the margin in life to naturally be able to express hospitality in those ways and not have my use of time dictated by urgent necessities. I’ve made some progress, but have a ways to go.

One good step I have consistently put in practice is not working at all on Sundays. This has been great as a weekly reset. While I don’t hold that the Sabbath is still strictly binding on Christians in just the way it was in the Old Testament, I think there is definitely still a principle to apply today that I have often neglected to my own harm and the crowding out of chances to be hospitable to others.

3. Receiving hospitality—Colombians are quite hospitable, and sometimes I still feel guilty receiving so much from them, whether it’s new friends from church taking me out or having me over for lunch on a Sunday afternoon or being invited to Ibagué with a friend for Christmas. I have also received tremendous generosity from the financial supporters who have given to enable me to teach here. Sometimes there are moments of struggling with having the humility to accept that I have received so much from others and cannot do this on my own, especially when I see how much others are sacrificing to enable me to work in a ministry that I love doing.

On defeatism

At one of the first meetings of my church small group this fall, my pastor asked us to think of a word that summed up something about what God had been showing us in our lives. A lot of people said things like “love” or “grace,” but I said “holiness,” because God has been working on me for a number of years now on the topic. I later found out some people were taken off guard when I mentioned the word. Holiness? Who wants to focus on that? Why be so negative?

The idea that holiness might be a negative concept shows how much we’ve missed the good news of the fullness of salvation accomplished for us by Christ. Instead of realizing that Jesus has accomplished for us not only our justification, but also our sanctification (and glorification), it is easy to fall into a mentality of thinking that we are justified by grace and sanctified by works, and with that fall into a defeatist mentality, not truly believing that God will provide us with what we need to be obedient.

God has brought two passages to my mind repeatedly in thinking about this issue of defeatism in the Christian life—Romans 8 and 1 Cor 10:13. Romans 8 tells us that the Holy Spirit dwells in every Christian (8:9), that the Spirit has freed us from “the law of sin and death” (8:2), and that the Spirit gives us the ability to follow God’s commands (8:4). Lest this interpretation of Romans 8:4 sound a little too optimistic, 1 Corinthians 10:13 shows us clearly that God always provides the way out of whatever temptation we face: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” I’m not as optimistic as Wesleyans are when considering these passages—I don’t subscribe to a doctrine of entire sanctification. But I do believe God wants us to grow in grace, provides for us to do so, and that this is the way to find the abundant life that Jesus has promised us, even if we find it in the midst of some extreme difficulties.

One of the common indicators of a defeatist mindset is the mentality that says, “But I just can’t do it. I don’t have it in me to make such great sacrifices or live so radically for God.” That’s true. None of us has it in us. But through the power of the Holy Spirit God gives us the grace we need to obey in the moment. Notice that 1 Cor 10:13 does not say that we always are in a spiritual state to overcome whatever temptation might come against us. Rather, it promises us that if God permits us to be tempted, he will provide the grace needed to remain faithful in the moment (see also Matthew 10:19. I originally heard some similar ideas from a John Piper sermon on persecution).

That requires a much more dynamic life of prayer, depending constantly on God and recognizing that a relationship with him is a lot more than saying a prayer, getting his power all at once, and coasting along for the rest of life. In God’s wisdom he saw fit not to make things work that way, probably to keep our pride in check. Repentance and faith, the two conditions of salvation, are things that must be ongoing in the life of a Jesus follower. As Martin Luther said, “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said ‘Repent’, he called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” The same applies for faith. I must not only make the momentary initial decision, as important as that may be, but rather through faith constantly appropriate God’s grace that he provides for me so that I may come to resemble Jesus more and more in my character. Whether we see sanctification along more Reformed, Wesleyan, or Lutheran lines, I think this is the fundamentally grace-oriented focus that unites Protestant views (and ought to keep us all from being closet Pelagians!). 

(VIDEO) 2014 Colombia Highlights

Below is a six-minute video with highlights from my first semester teaching at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia that I made for a presentation at my home church last week. It includes interviews of a few students who were in my courses and background music from the seminary choir at graduation in late November.

Highlights from Biblical Interpretation class

My first semester here at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia is all but over. Yesterday I wrapped up (apart from grading the final papers) the Biblical Interpretation class I taught for the Ministerial Institute of Medellín, the Saturday morning Bible school program here. I also got to preach a short message for the end of the semester assembly of all the students in the program.

This course was definitely a change from teaching at the undergraduate level. Nearly all the students work full time and the level of outside of class work is substantially lower. This made my life easier in the grading department, but it also made me realize just how important it is to make crystal clear the key concepts I'm trying to communicate. Sometimes I felt I did that well and sometimes I found myself grasping for an explanation of a concept that was obviously clear to me but not to the students. Despite the occasional frustrations, I was encouraged to see students grow a lot, especially in learning to identify the historical and wider contexts of biblical teaching that inform the interpretation of specific biblical texts.

Last day of Biblical Interpretation class.

I used two main biblical passages throughout the course where we applied the concepts we were learning. In class, we mainly used Haggai 1, a great text for highlighting all sorts of important points in the proper interpretation of the Bible, from the significance of historical background (e.g., what difference does it make that they were back in the land but had no king?) to key words (e.g., the irony Haggai sets up in how they focused on their own luxurious houses while ignoring God's "house", always referring to the temple as the "house" of God, thus deepening the critique of their misplaced priorities) to how to apply passages from the Old Testament to life today (e.g., why Haggai can't be legitimately used to support the prosperity gospel since what it says about blessings applied in a different way under the Old Covenant -see Deuteronomy 28- than what applies to us now under the New Covenant).

For the homework assignments, we focused on Matthew 6:5-15, where Jesus teaches about prayer (including the Lord's Prayer). I noticed early on in the course that a common tendency of students when they first read the passage is to latch onto one concept that stands out to them (in this case, usually the critique of hypocrisy in prayer or the concept of God as Father) and to say that's what the passage is all about, meanwhile ignoring two-thirds of the passage. Perhaps this is a tendency that comes from our popular devotional practices of reading the Bible to look for what speaks to my life. While I think there is a legitimate place for that kind of reading done in a certain way, I focused a lot on giving students specific tools for analyzing a passage and uncovering the richer depths that go beyond initial impressions.

I am convinced that good biblical interpretation is an art as much as a science. But, being a musician myself, one of the things I've learned is that creativity in the arts depends on having a firm base built on discipline. I would never have gotten to the point of being able to improvise as a cellist if I hadn't spent so many years in private lessons, practicing my scales and learning classical technique. I think something analogous applies to interpreting the Bible. If we don't learn some good techniques for interpretation, we'll never reach the heights of the best insights that go beyond applying methods but are firmly based in what the text really teaches.

With this in mind and seeing what worked and what didn't, I saw that students kept grasping for something more and more concrete. They often felt overwhelmed by the Bible and struggled to know how to make headway, especially those who had only been Christians for a couple of years. So, to that end I made a ten-step handout for things to consider in identifying the main idea of a biblical passage. The point is not that I have the perfect process or that I will use it consciously most of the time. But, if a student can learn to apply the steps, many of them will become second nature, just as they have for me. Or, if they're struggling to know what to get out of a passage, it gives them somewhere to go.

The same applies even more so for biblical application. I gave students a handout talking about five different aspects of applying the Bible, largely based on Dan Doriani's wonderful book Putting the Truth to Work: The Theory and Practice of Biblical Application (P&R Publishing, 2001). Doriani says that the challenge for preachers shouldn't be finding the relevance of a text, but finding the best and most pertinent applications for their audiences among the many potential ways that the text can be applied. While we weren't able to explore this area in much depth, Doriani's book is a gold mine of great ideas and balanced advice.

(I have found three distinctions from his book especially helpful for my own Bible reading and preaching:
1). The difference between applications that have to do with duties [what does the Bible tell me to do?] and those that have to do with character [what kind of person does the Bible call me to become?].
2). The differences between rules [specific things to do or avoid] and ideals [traits that ought to characterize my specific actions, like love].
3). The difference between redemptive acts in narratives [what the passage shows about how God has worked to accomplish his purposes] and exemplary acts in narratives [moral examples from certain characters, which usually has to do with their response to God rather than a simple call to be like the character].)

To wrap up, some students commented I was one of the toughest professors they had had this semester. They said I made them work for all their points on the assignments, but that they learned a lot. I was encouraged today to receive a brief note from a student saying, "Thank you so much for everything. I hope that next year we have another class with you. I learned a ton . . . Thanks for letting yourself be used by God to prepare those who long to serve in the work [of ministry]. Your effort is worth it; don't give up..." Seeing students leave the class with a deeper passion for interpreting the Bible well is what it's all about, and it makes me content to be here training these students for all kinds of ministries whether as laypeople or ministers, students who often will never be able to afford a traditional seminary program like our undergrad program.

Preaching at the end of the semester assembly for the Ministerial Institute of Medellín. I looked at the theme of weakness and power in ministry in 2 Corinthians, especially focusing on 4:7-18. 

Radio programs, conversations with JWs

During the last two weeks I had the chance to share on Christian radio here on themes related to other religious groups. Originally the plan was to cover Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, but we ended up covering Islam the second week instead of Mormonism, since the hosts wanted to have someone with more background on that share given how much Islam appears in the news. The programs went well overall. We looked at historical roots, beliefs, and points of evaluation from a Christian perspective, as well as some ideas for engaging with people from these belief systems.

I was encouraged by the positive feedback I got from a number of people at my church on the programs. A few people commented they had heard the programs about JWs and found them helpful. I wasn't expecting the programs on Islam to have as much direct relevance for people, but today at church one woman requested a copy of my notes on Islam and another told me that she found the programs on Islam helpful since her Christian niece who lives in the U.S. is married to a Muslim. Since I had no idea who was listening, this feedback was encouraging.

For now, I have finished my involvement with these programs, but they are open to possibly having me back next spring, maybe to share on Mormonism. The next few weeks I have a lot to focus on in terms of course prep for the coming semester and, in my free time, preparing a sermon to preach at church on the 30th. This will be my first time preaching in Colombia and is a mission themed week, with the assigned sermon topic being "The God of Mission." I haven't settled on a text yet to preach on, but it should be fun!

One last note on the theme of interaction with other religious groups. Almost every Sunday the Jehovah's Witnesses have a literature stand setup near where I catch the bus to go to church. I had struck up a conversation with them a couple of months ago (mostly on the Trinity) and had recently seen the same people back. Over the last two Sundays I've left an extra half hour early for church and had some good substantial conversations about the Watchtower organization, the New World Translation, and comparing JW and evangelical beliefs on salvation. I don't feel like there's been a lot of receptivity on their part, but I think that there has been some meaningful dialogue and that I've had some good chances to explain what it is that evangelical Christians believe and how we interpret the Bible to get to those conclusions. I have felt a noticeable spiritual struggle on a number of Saturday nights or Sunday mornings as I think about how to try to talk with them and point them to biblical truth. Please pray that God would continue to give me words to say and the courage to speak and that he would open their hearts to see more clearly what the Bible teaches about God and salvation. It's easy when talking with JWs to get led off on any number of only minimally relevant rabbit trails, so please pray I could have meaningful, focused conversations on the central question of who Jesus is and what he did for us.

At VidaAM radio.

Life beyond teaching: cello and nature

While most of my time here in Colombia is spent teaching (or preparing to teach), this past Friday I got to perform the first Bach cello suite as well as accompany the seminary choir for a piece during an annual concert put on by student development . I don't have my own cello here (I'm looking into my options to see about fixing that), but a friend of a friend in student development is a music student who had a spare cello, so with five days notice, I attempted to make up for months of not playing. My fingers were sore from lack of calluses and it was weird adjusting to a different instrument, but I think it came together reasonably well. This definitely reinforced my desire to get a cello here and get back into playing music regularly!

Seminary choir practicing for the concert, led by Santiago Benavides, a well-known Christian musician here and husband of the leader of the student development office.

My other main hobby, the outdoors, has definitely taken a backseat here, but two weeks ago I was able to go on a wonderful retreat with other faculty and staff from the seminary, where we got to enjoy nature around the reservoir at Guatapé, about two hours from Medellín. A very generous donor to the seminary paid for the entire seminary faculty, staff, and their families to attend this two-day retreat (in four groups), the first time this kind of thing has happened in years, if ever, due to the normally prohibitive cost. This was a huge blessing and was cool to see how great of a community there is here among all types of people, from the security guards and janitors to support staff, faculty, and administrators. This was a great chance to decompress from work, relax in nature, reflect spiritually, and get to know others from the seminary better than before.

On a hike overlooking the reservoir near Guatapé with friends who work in student development, English courses, extension programs, and the library.

"Boating" on the lake. The boat more resembled a motorized dock (you can see it in the picture below with the white chairs lined up on it).

View from our hotel in our own private part of the lake. Water level was noticeably low as Colombia has been in a relatively dry spell lately (with severe drought in the far north of the country).

Preaching Proverbs Conference

Of all the books in the Bible to preach from, Proverbs would likely be one of the last I would pick, perhaps only surpassed by Ecclesiastes (I still don't have a very clear idea of what to do with most of the book) and Song of Songs (which I usually just read as fast as possible when I get there in my Bible reading plan, and then move on without lingering on the details). Wisdom literature is not exactly my strong point, especially if I were to try to figure out how to write a sermon outline on a passage.

This past week, however, the seminary hosted a conference on "Preaching Proverbs" as their annual Transformative Preaching conference in conjunction with Langham Partnership International, a ministry that grew out of John Stott's ministry and promotes quality preaching in the majority world. I was able to attend most of the morning sessions and learned quite a lot by seeing different models of expository preaching of a difficult book, all done by Latinos. Probably the most helpful thing for me was seeing how different types of texts and themes can legitimately produce different types of sermons. For example, Diego Cardona, a pastor and the preaching professor at the seminary here, preached a great sermon introducing the book and looking at the big-picture of the concept of wisdom and its connections to the gospel. Another preacher tied in quite a bit of his background in counseling, another focused on one single verse while going very deep in showing the relevance to our lives while drawing on his own life experience, another was brutally honest in discussing texts that deal with the struggles for sexual fidelity, and so forth. In other words, there's not one magic key to preaching Proverbs, but a range of options for communicating effectively what wisdom is about.

I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and realizing that the decisions I make at this stage in my life drastically affect where I will go in the future, but I feel like I'm getting to a point where the wisdom portions of the Bible are beginning to speak to me more. Perhaps this is the flip side of how a lot of people experience their faith. For many, Proverbs connects from the get go and later they go deeper in theology. For me, I've studied theology and the big picture of redemptive history for years, yet this conference has challenged me to remember that preaching (and the Christian life) has other dimensions than just making connections with the Bible's big story. Obviously to be truly wise we must recognize our need for the gospel, but I can't forget that so much of the Bible was written to hit home in daily life and decision making. God cares enough about our conformity to the image of Christ that he has given us pretty clear ideas about what leads to life and which decisions are just plain foolish.

Around 200 people attended the conference, well above expectations and a tremendously encouraging sign! In a country so lacking in quality preaching and nuanced applications of biblical texts, it was great to see so many pastors and other leaders seeking to grow in fidelity to God's word.

Singing a worship song with others attending the Preaching Proverbs conference in response to a sermon.

Two courses wrapped up: Religious Systems, Vocal course

My primary course that has kept me extremely busy, Religious Systems, finished a week ago and I spent a good part of the past week grading papers and exams. I definitely encountered a sharp learning curve in the course regarding the educational system here, where students are coming from, how to assess students well without overwhelming myself with too much grading, and considering how to better contextualize courses for the Colombian context in the future. In spite of all the ways I can see to improve (something I'm sure will never go away), I've heard a lot of positive feedback from students as well as others on staff at the seminary who have spoken with students and said they have learned a lot. Below are a few pictures from the last day of the course, when we wrapped up looking at other belief systems with a discussion on how the church can help strengthen the faith of people facing doubts due to the existence of so much religious diversity and differences of opinion.

With the 23 students in my Religious Systems course.

Four of my students during a group discussion activity.

Brainstorming ideas as a class, drawing on the insights of the different groups.

This past Saturday we also wrapped up the Foundations of Vocal Technique course by having a small certification ceremony. Students prepared a song (the Spanish version of "Lord Most High"), the teacher (Claudia) sang, and I gave a 15-minute homily based on Psalm 95. The message sought to summarize the key themes we studied regarding theology of worship, namely, why we worship (because God is worthy of worship for who he is) and how we ought to worship (with a humble attitude and a heart willing to listen to God and obey him in all aspects of our lives).

Though the course ended with substantially fewer students than we had in the initial five-week module, we still had a decent group of around 15 students who stayed through the whole twelve weeks. I saw substantial improvement in the last few weeks and many students are hoping to be able to continue. I played a role in evaluating the course for the seminary, and they are going to offer the course again beginning in October, separated into two levels this time. I will likely continue to help out with the theology of worship portions, but not attend the rest of the classes from here on out.

Here are a couple of reflections on the theological part of the course from an interview I conducted after the last class:

• Diana, a student involved with youth ministry and music at her church, said: “I have enjoyed the theological part of the class a lot because there are things that one understands erroneously in terms of worship and praise, ideas like thinking that worship is only a matter of singing or raising one’s hands. But worship is much more than just that.” 
• Luz Marina, a lawyer who works with victims of the armed conflict in Colombia and who also serves in worship ministry at her church, said the following, "It has been very special to be part of this course because I haven't just learned vocal techniques to help me sing better, but I have also learned the role that worship and praise plays within a worship service and the congregation's gatherings".

Singing at the certification ceremony for the Foundations of Vocal Technique course (in the seminary chapel).