Tim STEWART

Speaking of Politics…

Politics. That word can excite people, or make their blood boil. It can be a favourite topic, or a taboo around the table.

Personally, I find politics to be very interesting, and I think it’s important.

It affects our lives, and has shaped the history of our world. I actually devoted most of my undergraduate studies at UBC to this topic.

But when we talk about it together, conversations can quickly become heated, dismissive, and ultimately unhelpful.

As Christians in fellowship, is there a better way?

For our church, the Covid years brought some tension into the fellowship – the situation affected people differently, depending on their place of work, family situation, political views, and news sources. Those years brought to the surface some divisions that already existed between people – and the media just made it worse, with their increasingly polarized views.

Fortunately, I had some helpful opportunities to research this topic, to understand what was happening in our culture, and how people are responding to it.

From that research, came a paper titled “Desire for Dialogue” that included a graphic presentation with various charts, like the one below:

Since then, our church board decided to

read through a book together – written by David Fitch, a Canadian pastor who was serving in the USA.

Also the author of Faithful Presence, he wrote Desire for Dialogue – Presentation in direct response to the polarization that he’d seen in the church over political matters. He argues that the church should be its own political entity, as a place where Christ’s kingdom is at work in this world – and as a safe place where ideas can be shared.

It was an extremely helpful book that I’d highly recommend – and if your time is short, just read his conversation guidelines in the appendix. Here’s a good review on it as well.

Yet, the polarization continues. Voices in the media still engage in name-calling, labelling people from the other side in dismissive terms that are ultimately de-humanizing. I hear it from both sides. People are afraid, and I can’t help but wonder if this is a method of “divide and conquer” by our true enemy, Satan, who comes to deceive and divide.

So, carrying on from here, after some conversation with my fellow Christian brothers at church, here are some suggestions that I proposed:

) As a Christian fellowship, our highest authority is Scripture – not the media. If we want to make a case for something, we should be referring to God’s truths more than the opinions of our divided world.
) As a Christian fellowship, our first call is to love one another. Voices in the media tend to dehumanize people who have different views. They call them Fascists and Communists, completely dismissing their views, and expressing hatred. This name-calling is frequently done by both the left and the right – and Christians should be better than this.
) As a Christian fellowship, we do not belong to any political party. Jesus is our Lord and Savior, our Leader and our Hope. Our views should always be shaped by His teachings and the examples that He sets. Debates about politics should always include His words as part of the conversation. Our position, as Christians, is to stand apart from the world’s ways (John 17:15-18), to not conform (Romans 12:2), and to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-6). If there are other Scriptures that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them!
) As Christians who share the above values, there is no reason to let political disagreement lead to spiritual disunity. When political discussions happen, people don’t need to completely agree, but we should at least bring an open mind, being willing to learn something new, and understand where our fellow brother is coming from. I love to learn new things – real facts and stories that I haven’t heard before. But I don’t personally enjoy hearing name-calling and views that are dismissive of others.
) With an open mind and a loving approach, we should be able to see strengths in the other side. For example, Democrats can recognize that Republicans led the country thru the Civil War, brought an end to slavery, and brought an end to the Cold War. Republicans could recognize that Democrats led the USA thru the Depression, WWII, and the Civil Rights Movement. As Christians, we don’t belong to either – we’re called to love people and seek the truth.

I’m reminded of Paul’s stern warnings in the pastoral letters:

1 Timothy

⁵The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. ⁶Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk.

2 Timothy 2

¹⁴Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. ¹⁵Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. ¹⁶Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.

Titus 3

⁹But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. ¹⁰Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.

Grace and peace to you,

Tim

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Can people change? Sometimes, we doubt that. But in the book of Romans, Paul presents change as an expected and inevitable result of coming to faith. Forgiveness of sin leads to freedom from sin.

On September 15, 2024 a neighbouring church that was seeking change asked me to share with them about Freedom Session, a ministry we’d been running at Parkdale for some years. I’ve seen many lives transformed through this program, as people bring their problems into the light, and open their hearts to the truth.

Here is a link to my message, which I’d like to share with anyone desiring to experience spiritual growth and change through Jesus Christ.

Gospel for Victoria: Stories of Faith from Your Churches

On May 2, 2024, I offered a presentation to our CityReach Ministry Leaders’ Group in Victoria from my Doctoral Research Project. It includes:

Stories and background
Understanding the process of conversion
Biblical, Theological and Missiological presentations of the Gospel
Social, psychological & historical perspectives of conversion
My preliminary discoveries from interviewing 20 recent converts:
the Why, How & So What of Conversion

Through decades of ministry, study, and reflection, I’ve discovered some exciting truths on this topic. I look forward to finishing the project soon and having more to share!

Video below:

Small but Significant Church: A Review of an EFC Study

Hiemstra, Rick and Lindsay Callaway. “Significant Church: Understanding the Value of the Small Evangelical Church in Canada.” Toronto, ON: Faith Today Publications, 2023.

A review by Tim Stewart, also published at: Northwest Institute of Ministry Education Research

“Is it ok for a church to be small?”

Rick Hiemstra and Lindsay Callaway, authors of a recent EFC study, seem to think so. While ministry organizations, denominations, and publishers have often focused on the needs of larger churches and their strategies for numerical growth, the EFC has taken the time to explore and discover the unique opportunities and particular needs of smaller churches. Commissioned by a group of thirty Canadian ministry organizations and church denominations, the EFC conducted a multi-stage research process between 2019 and 2022. Beginning with a review of relevant literature, they proceeded to interview dozens of ministry experts and pastors before finally distributing a survey to 569 pastors of smaller Canadian evangelical churches (10). Thus, their research model facilitated a progressive narrowing of their focus toward the most pertinent questions and issues before broadening their reach to their targeted subjects.

And what did their survey accomplish? Perhaps to put it most succinctly, it gave a voice to those who are, in a sense, “voiceless.” While small-church pastors certainly speak to groups on a regular basis, it would be rare for their views to be heard beyond their immediate context. They may preach to fifty or one hundred congregants every week, but no publishers or conference circuits are knocking on their office doors. Does the small size of their congregations indicate that they are not worth hearing, or might we learn something valuable from them? Hiemstra and Callaway have taken the time to listen and find out.

And so, what did their study reveal? Before even mentioning their survey results, the authors establish an essential point: that small churches are fundamentally different from large churches. This crucial distinction is supported by experts like Lyle Schaller and Tim Keller who argue that church size, more than any other factor, gives shape to the relationships, ministry goals, staff roles, and atmosphere of a church (18). Thus, when trying to define “smallness,” Hiemstra and Callaway indicate that it is more of a “mindset” than a numerical value. While large churches are known for complex structures and polished programs, small churches are marked by simplicity of ministry and relational proximity – they are places where everyone can know each other and share a common identity (19). However, anthropologist Robin Dunbar claims that this “mindset” actually does correspond with a number: humans are only cognitively capable genuinely relating to 150 people or less.[1] Accordingly, for the purposes of their survey, Hiemstra and Callaway have used this same number as the upper limit for their definition of “small church.” Yet, this anthropological rule does more than provide an arbitrary number for categorizing churches; it raises a new question: “is it good for a church to be bigger than that? The authors clearly view small churches not as inferior versions of larger churches, but as communities that are uniquely suited to “succeed in particular kinds of ministry” (10).

While these ideas are well-explored in church ministry literature,[2] this EFC survey makes a crucial contribution to the ongoing discussion: by interviewing and surveying a large number of ministry leaders from a focused subset of the Canadian church, they are able to illuminate the differing perceptions that people hold about small churches. Most notably, their survey reveals a strong contrast between the language used by denominational leaders and the language used by pastors when speaking about small churches. Whereas the former frequently referred to them as “toxic, needy, discouraged, insular and broken,” the latter chose terms like “family-like, welcoming, faithful, and community-minded.” As denominational leaders identified “difficult people, poor leadership, and low pay” to be problems in small churches, their pastors spoke of the advantages of belonging, being known, and valued in community (24-25).

What do these survey results indicate? It seems, to the authors, that “denominational perceptions may be driven in part” by implicit rewards for numerical growth and the frequent need to intervene in unhealthy congregations (22-27). While the first part of that assertion may be conjecture, the second might reveal a potential bias in the results of this survey. It could be that denominational leaders predominantly hear from churches experiencing crisis or a pastoral transition, while the EFC researchers might have received more survey responses from pastors who were content in their role. That being said, the survey still highlights the stark difference between these two perspectives and gives a voice to many who have not previously been heard. By doing so, it underlines a crucial point: there are actually pastors and congregants who prefer the intimacy, participation, and other inherent advantages of small churches (22, 25, 27).

Perhaps these pastors would resonate with the writings of Eugene Peterson, who relentlessly defended the vocation of a pastor as one who would “know and value and love people in place and over time in Jesus’s Name.”[3] Rather than dealing primarily with theological abstractions and remaining aloof from his surroundings, he practiced the “art of small talk,” engaging humbly in down-to-earth situations.”[4] Recognizing ministry opportunities in “the interruptions,” he also affirmed that participating in Christ’s “incarnational” ministry must necessarily be personal, practical, and relational.[5] Therefore, for Peterson, being a faithful pastor necessitated that he serve in a small church, where he could know everyone’s name.[6] How else could he fulfill His vocation?

Recognizing the value of the small church context for ministry, Hiemstra and Callaway seek to find out from pastors what success looks like in their particular situation and what their churches need in order to thrive. Their survey helps to demonstrate just how hard it can be to transfer “church growth principles” into contexts that are shaped by a unique congregational history, demographic change, and economic turmoil. Moreover, pastors shared that what mattered most to small congregations was getting know their unspoken “covenant” that guided their family-like relationships. Only when a pastor became “part of the family” could he or she be permitted to renovate the home (45). This is a great example of the unique contribution that a survey like this can make: while some authors and experts may offer a “bird’s eye view” from their office or headquarters, this study has collected and processed a great deal of ground-level insight directly from the “front lines.”

However, it seems that not everyone views ministry success in the same way. The survey generally reveals a tendency for denominational leaders to define it quantitatively, and for pastors to define it qualitatively. Although this sounds like an over-simplification, it could be concretely observed. While certain denominational leaders blamed pastors for a lack of numerical growth in their churches, some pastors spoke of numerical factors (finances, human resources) that impeded the spiritual growth and health of relationships within their communities (70-73). For whatever reason, there appears to be a disconnect that needs to be bridged in order for these pastors and churches to feel affirmed and supported. Moreover, many pastors described a disconnect between their “specialist” theological education and the daily demands of a ministry “generalist.” On average, they reported spending 30% of their working time in “areas of weakness,” which was often exacerbated by times of crisis. Accordingly, the authors suggest that denominations, Bible colleges and seminaries should develop ways to support and develop well-rounded pastors for such ministry settings (91, 105).

Yet, despite all that has been said, a question remains: are small churches worth it?
Are they simply inferior versions of larger churches, with pastors who can’t get the job done? Have they simply failed to implement proven principles of growth, due to their stubbornness and complacency? Or do they serve a unique and necessary role in God’s kingdom that is worthy of our attention and support? According to their pastors, the answer to the last question is yes. Small churches provide an ideal context for valuable ministry to occur.

Furthermore, others are seeing the value of smallness in ministry too. Some, after experiencing problems with larger church settings, have started movements of smaller missional communities in order to “put discipleship back into the hands of ordinary people.”[7] Others, in response to cultural fragmentation, have called for a return to the “faithful presence” of local parish ministry.[8] Lastly, noting how believers were dispersed into local congregations in the book of Acts, Brandon J. O’Brien calls for churches to reimagine what success looks like.[9] He argues that, rather than “trying to imitate large-church ministry, small churches would do well to recognize and capitalize on their own inherent and strategic strengths.”[10] These ideas ring true for me, as I recall times when Jesus left the crowds to focus on His disciples, and times when I have experienced the value of slow conversations and congregational participation in the small churches where I’ve served.

I once heard someone compare church fellowship to a rock tumbler. That analogy stuck with me, as I have served as a solo pastor in small churches for twelve years while collecting rocks for about three times as long. Each time I climb a mountain or visit the beach, I return with pockets full of treasures – each with its own origin story, unique composition, and notable properties. Just like the unique people in church! And the idea is, as they tumble together, bumping into each other and creating friction, their rough edges get smoothed off and they emerge from the barrel transformed into gems – or, at least, the best versions of themselves.

So, for those who are tumbling in the barrel, serving in close quarters alongside others in a small-church setting, I expect that this EFC study may provide just what you need to hear: voices of others on the front lines, working in the thick of similar situations. These voices have affirmed the value of small-church ministry, and offer helpful insight for educators, authors and denominational leaders who want to see churches of all types thrive.

[1] Robin Dunbar, (1998). Grooming, gossip, and the evolution of language (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), p. 77.

[2] Gary L. McIntosh also describes One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Bringing out the Best in Any Size of Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 1999), 17, 21.

[3] Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir (New York: Harper One, 2011), 216.

[4] Eugene H. Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993), 122.

[5] Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), 7.

[6] https://www.missioalliance.org/eugene-petersons-long-obedience-in-the-same-direction-a-personal-tribute/

[7] Mike Breen, Leading Missional Communities (Pawleys Island, SC: 3D Ministries, 2013), v-vii.

[8] Paul Sparks et. al., The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2014), 188.

[9] Brandon J. O’Brien, The Strategically Small Church (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2010), 21, 29.

[10] Brandon J. O’Brien, The Strategically Small Church (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2010), 35.

Life without: Home, work & homework

In 2023, I started a personal discipline of “living without” a particular activity each month. This has been a helpful opportunity to keep certain addictive practices in check (books, audiobooks, coffee, smartphone), which has created more space for my attention to be on God and what He’s given me to do.

In 2023, I added some new elements to my life: playing guitar at church, playing adult soccer and coaching my son’s team, serving on strata council, and doing a paper route with my sons. These were all completely new experiences for me, and much better uses of my time than the time-wasters I’ve been cutting!

Alas, it is now 2024. I stayed true to my commitment to not purchase books for myself in 2023, but by the end of summer, I think I’d experienced “life without” enough things for a while. While I could try a month without driving, watching videos, eating sugar, etc., these things don’t appear to be major threats in my life.

In many ways, my spring/summer sabbatical served as a climax of this endeavour to make new space in my life – so that, upon returning in the fall, I was ready to focus on adding.

My Sabbatical started in mid-April, after Easter. After beginning with a week-long personal retreat, I had been expecting this three-month period tobe a perfect opportunity for me to forge ahead in my doctoral studies. However, my wife and I concluded that May would also be the perfect time to take our kids on a month-long road trip to see the National Parks of the American southwest. This had been a bucket-list item for years, and the kids were the perfect age: old enough to enjoy it, and young enough that missing school wouldn’t be a problem. So, for the entire month of May, our family vacated our home – staying with friends and family along the way, we visited 10 national parks in California, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Montana – in addition to other stops of interest.

Being away from home for a month – I hadn’t done this since my wife and I spent a summer doing missions work in Russia, as newlyweds. Now, we were doing it again, as a family of 5. In both cases, it had a really galvanizing effect on our relationships:

Removed from our daily commitments and regular roles, we were set free to learn, grow, and “come out of our shells” as we experienced something new together.

Of course, being away from home meant taking a break from work – for the most part. As a pastor, I spend a lot of my time supporting what other people do in the church. While preaching is certainly essential to my role,

I consider everything I do to be for the purpose of glorifying God by equipping the people of the church for their works of service and collective spiritual growth into Christ-likeness (Ephesians 4:11-16).

And so, while preaching can be covered by a guest preacher (thankfully, my dad, a retired pastor, came to do that), I found myself frequently checking emails and messages from people back home – making sure that people had what they needed to perform their various roles. Though this somewhat took away from my feeling of freedom while on vacation, I’m thankful for how it set in motion a healthy process of maturation in my church: from that point on, various members became more and more able to serve independently of me – which, in turn, freed me up to address other needs. Now, 8 months later, I look at my church and see a healthy, functional and maturing congregation that took major steps forward, last year.

Finally, while I took a break from home and from work during my sabbatical, I also took a break from homework. The previous year (year 5 of my Doctor of Ministry journey) had been another great step forward – I had interviewed 20 newly baptized believers in my city, recording their stories of coming to faith. Next on my to-do list would be to transcribe them and codify their content according to the themes and connections that I found in them. I expected this to be a long and tedious process, and struggled to discern whether I should forge ahead or wait. But, when I found that a computer program could transcribe my 30 hours of audio files in a matter of minutes, I felt free to receive this gift and set aside further work until after my family trip. Since then, after finishing my Sabbatical and getting rolling again in ministry work, I’ve resumed my studies and have found the codifying process to be both tedious and rewarding. What a privilege to be studying the stories of people who have recently come to faith in Christ!

For now, this ends my year-long journey of withdrawing, cutting, and ceasing from certain life practices…in order to make room for other things. It is certainly an ongoing need – to monitor one’s free time and ensure that the right priorities are in place. But perhaps the cumulative effect of this past year is that it has left me in a place where I have time and space to take on new, positive, productive, and rejuvenating endeavours. Here are a few devotional books that I have started this year:

The Ignatian Adventure: Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in Daily Life New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional Thirsting After God: Price, Keith A.: 9780875098203: Books - Amazon.ca

Thirsting after God is written by the Canadian director of “Christian Direction,” a ministry based in Montreal. Price urges his readers to seek the satisfaction of their hearts in God, alone.

New Morning Mercies is written by American pastor, speaker & writer, Paul David Tripp – offering daily reminders of how the gospel impacts our lives.

The Ignatian Adventure is written by American Jesuit priest, Kevin O’Brien, who seeks to make the Ignatian retreat exercises (Scriptures with guided prayers) accessible for people in their daily lives.

May God bless, guide & satisfy you in this year ahead!

NLT Bible Verse On X: Whom Have I In Heaven But You? I, 57% OFF

Life Without: Smartphone?

After starting 2023 with a commitment to avoid buying books for the whole year, I’ve selected something new to give up for each successive month.
Have I lost your attention yet? Why would I do such a thing?

Maybe giving up things for a month at a time sounds drastic and self-destructive. Maybe it sounds pointless and overly negative.
Is this just some kind of excessive legalism or ancient asceticism?
Why not focus on doing positive things?

The answer to that is simple – sometimes, good things get crowded out of our lives, and we need to make space for them to regain ground. That’s why Christian spiritual disciplines involve both stillness and initiative,
as gardening involves both plowing and sowing, both pruning and planting.

Marva J. Dawn, in her book Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, argues from her own personal experience that Sabbath includes activities of ceasing, resting, embracing, and feasting. And these turn out to work as a sort of process: when one removes certain activities from a day and regains a measure of freedom and energy, he or she is able to take initiative in new areas and enjoy the blessings already present in his or her life.

This is why I have viewed Sabbath as a foundational spiritual discipline – it creates time and space for other spiritual practices to flourish. These include things that we do on Sundays together in fellowship, as well as things we’ve been waiting all week to do on our own.

And there are other forms of ceasing. The Bible speaks plenty about fasting from food as a way to focus more, spiritually, or to express earnest desire. For me, fasting from other life habits on a monthly basis has served as a way to keep certain activities in check, avoiding excess while creating opportunities to replace them with more worthwhile activities.

After doing so with buying books, listening to audiobooks, and drinking coffee, I decided to try cutting the use of my smartphone in the month of April.

To some, this may sound impossible – we’ve become so reliant on what smartphones offer. To others, this may sound foolish – why make life difficult for myself? Perhaps others have not yet let smartphones become an integral part of their lives – they may wonder, what’s the big deal?

I didn’t have a cellphone until I was 22, and teaching English in St. Petersburg Russia for a year. Realizing that my Russian was a little sub-par, I needed a way to contact help when I needed it. Back then, we texted by repeatedly pushing numbers until they gave you the right letter. Sometimes, the technology of “predictive texting” expedited the process.

Now, I find my smartphone quite essential to my daily life – it has rendered street maps obsolete, it has replaced the morning newspaper, the sports channel on t.v., visits to the local bank, my calendar, my notepad, my camera – and it has streamlined a lot of communication. There’s an app for everything. So what would life be like without my smartphone? I thought I’d try to find out.

For emailing and messaging, the smartphone had made this available all of the time – even by voice texting (hands-free) in the car. But confining emails to certain times and places (in front of my computer) created space in my life for other things – to think, to pray, to rest my mind.

For checking news and sports scores, it was similar – while a smartphone makes these available all of the time, I found it a helpful relief to compartmentalize and localize that practice to my computer desk. I could more easily pick an appropriate time for it, and then walk away when I was finished.

With a smartphone, it’s so easy and tempting to pick it up at any spare moment – and so it is those spare moments that I gained back.

For google maps and google calendar, I actually missed these quite a bit. While it is possible to plan your route ahead of time, or write appointments in an agenda book, the ability to receive directions in real-time (on the crazy roads of Victoria) and to instantly synchronize your calendar with your wife – these have proven invaluable for me. Maybe if I still lived in a city whose streets followed a numerical grid (Metro Vancouver), I wouldn’t need Google Maps. Maybe if I worked a 9-5 desk job or trade, I wouldn’t need google calendar – but I’m thankful for these functions!

I could go on and on – there are other phone functions that can’t easily be replaced – it was hard to see any advantage in ceasing to cash my paycheque online, and without Whatsapp, it would be a lot harder to keep in touch with distant family. However, there were certain functions that I quickly saw the value in cutting completely. As much as I value Twitter/X as a source of breaking news and interesting facts, I greatly benefited from cutting its use from my phone. While I made exceptions for other things, this was the one discipline I stuck to.

Overall, the great gain from restricting my smartphone use came in the form of spare moments. By removing this constant distraction of my attention, I was more able to focus on things, and to be present to each and every moment – open to what God may show and tell me. Without such discipline over our attention, it’s hard to imagine following the advice of this Psalm:

Psalm 46:10 | Creative | Scripture Art | Free Church Resources from Life.Church

Life Without: Coffee

For me, this year began with a personal commitment to buy no books until 2024. It came from an inner conviction that buying books had become an unhealthy habit that needed to be broken. Since then, each month, I’ve taken a break from something else, giving myself a chance to reset my daily habits in a healthier way.

I haven’t posted about these experiences for a while – since fasting from Audiobooks in February. In the following months, I’ve resumed my practice of listening to audiobooks, but lack the compulsion I once had. It fits nicely into my life when it can, but not in an overpowering way.

Next was coffee. This might sound difficult…impossible…pointless? But there were mornings when I wondered if it was the reason for my indigestion. There were afternoons when I’d have a second cup…followed by restless nights. Could a month without coffee function for me like a control group in a scientific experiment? Could life without coffee reveal an alternative way to live?

Michael Pollan writes highly informative non-fiction books in which he personally experiences what he writes about: gardening, home-building, eating, and drinking coffee. His short book, Caffeine explores not only the social history and biochemistry of coffee, but recounts his personal experience as a consumer and abstainer. It’s a fascinating read!

For me, it served as a learning experience: not just biological, but social. Aware of caffeine’s addictive properties, I eased myself off of it by first using up the black tea bags in my cupboard. They’d been there for ages, since we have coffee in the morning, and herbal tea in the evening. Eventually, I switched to decaf coffee – maintaining the morning ritual of a hot, bitter drink, but lacking the addictive stimulant. Sure, there were some morning headaches and drowsy afternoons for a bit, but the memory of those experiences fade much quicker than the lessons I learned.

It is amazing how frequently coffee is offered to you in social settings…and for free! As a pastor, I make a regular habit of visiting people, which is often referred to as “grabbing a coffee” or “going out for coffee.” Coffee seems to have acquired a sort of identity as a “consequence free” indulgence to do in one’s spare time. Having virtually no calories, binging it threatens no weight gain – it’s just addictive and potentially sleep-depriving. If one does not wish to drink coffee when going out, then a problem arises: “how do I justify my presence in this cafe?” Fortunately, most will make you a decaf Americano, though often with a raised eyebrow.

Even when meeting someone for a full meal, coffee is always offered. When ordering pizza, Coke or Pepsi come with it. Consuming caffeine no longer requires one’s intentional pursuit – it comes to you involuntarily, and requires only your passive acquiescence. In a way, coffee has become “the water we swim in” – something we can consume, and be affected by, without intending or even noticing.

And this serves as an illustration for other areas of our lives.

How many things do we eat and drink because they are simply there, offered to us at the table or in the grocery store aisle? How intentional are we about selecting ingredients and noticing their effects on us? Can we be honest about our dependencies that we’ve developed and their effects on our social behaviour?

Moreover, how many things that we think, say, and do are mere reflections of our surroundings?

While our initial worldview can be formed at a young age, it is also continually in-formed by the news and media that we ingest. Does our outlook on current events and attitude toward others follow the latest cultural current, or is it anchored to a deeper source of truth?

While the accent of our speech can reflect our region of residence or birth, so can our vocabulary, expressions, and manners reflect the company we keep. Do we speak identically to those around us, or do our words distinguish us in a way that provokes curiosity? Do we carry a bit of a “foreign accent” that causes people to listen a little more closely? (Colossians 4:2-6; 1 Peter 3:15; Acts 4:13)

While we may think of our actions as intentional, how many things do we do without thinking, or without a conscious decision? How are habits formed? How often do we reflect on what we do, and consider alternatives? Ultimately, who are we following, and becoming more like as time passes? What effect do our actions have on others? The Scriptures offer us an attractive option: to grow, as God’s children, to increasingly reflect Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18), and, living differently from the world, we shall point others to hope in God, as well (1 Peter 2:11-12). Living differently, with a purpose.

In his letter to the Romans, after reflecting on the wisdom and grace of God at work in history, Paul calls for this response in ch.12:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ²Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This isn’t about legalism. This isn’t about asceticism, or abstaining from things to feel “holier than thou.” But rather, we are called to live reflectively, to live purposely. To let God be the One to shape our lives to serve His good purposes in this world. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31,

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Called to Be Where? An Issue Underlying Much of our Conflict

Also posted on the EFCC blog.

Sometimes, firm believers quarrel with each other. Sometimes, faithful attenders migrate to other churches. And we wonder – why do God’s people, who are called to unity, divide?

The Scriptures are full of beautiful metaphors which illustrate our collective identity as God’s people – to name a few, we’re called a family, a body, and a temple. And these images also clarify how we relate to God, as believers – we are children of One Father, servants of Christ, and a dwelling place for the Spirit (see Gal 3:26, 1 Co 12:27, Eph 2:22, plus more).

Certainly, it is essential for us to know who we are and how we relate to God – and knowing these Biblical images can build good common ground between believers. But there is a whole other issue that can trip us up and divide well-meaning believers. It’s an issue that requires another set of Biblical metaphors to clarify it: How are Christians called to relate to their surrounding culture?

Why can we be focused on worship, fellowship, and discipleship one minute, and get sidetracked by politics the next minute? Why do peripheral issues hijack our conversations?

Why can sincere Christians disagree so sharply about where to send their kids to school, how to vote, or what the church’s local and global missions should look like?

I’ve become convinced that our differences really boil down to the way we answer two questions:

Is our stance toward culture optimistic or pessimistic?
Is our posture toward culture active or passive?

An optimistic stance typically results in a person engaging with the culture around them, while a pessimisticstance results in their withdrawal or separation.
Those with an active posture would likely seek to change their culture, while those with a passive posture look for a way to coexist.

Now, one might ask for a definition of culture, but I’ll leave that to other authors like John Stackhouse, David Fitch, and Andy Crouch, who offer some great insights on this topic. And we could talk about the Kingdom of God – what does Jesus mean when He says the kingdom is like wheat mixed with weeds? (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43).

But for now, if we focus on asking these two questions, our results will produce a chart that I’ve found helpful for understanding others:

	Passive (Coexist)	Active (Change)
Negative (Withdrawn)
Positive (Engaged)

And so, these four quadrants represent four different lifestyles, or ways that Christians relate to the culture around them. As the chart below shows, each one expresses different felt needs, values, and virtues that Christians hold:

	Passive (Coexist)	Active (Change)
Negative (Withdrawn)	Subculture Flight, Refuge Holiness & Purity Preserving	Counter-culture Fight, Confront Justice & Power Replacing
Positive (Engaged)	Cultural Contribution Reconcile, Bridge Compassion & Peace Cooperating	Culture creation Renew, Create Truth & Love Transforming

Perhaps you can imagine what each of these lifestyles would look like, lived out in reality. Perhaps it can help parents understand why one would homeschool and the other would teach in the public system. Perhaps it can help people understand where the other side (politically) is coming from. Or why some Christians have founded monasteries, while others started wars; why some built hospitals, and others translated the Bible. Here are some examples from Scripture, Jewish culture, Christian history, and contemporary situations:

	Passive (Coexist)	Active (Change)
Negative (Withdrawn)	Patriarchs Essenes Monasteries Retreat Center Homeschool	Prophets Zealots Protestants Political Action Private School
Positive (Engaged)	Priests Sadducees Universities Hospitals, Daycares Public School	Kings Pharisees Missionaries Bible Translation Student ministry

Now, I hope that a chart like this can help people understand the value of each other’s view. As Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “there is a time for everything.” Throughout the Biblical narrative, Christian history and our daily lives, there is a time for God’s people to take refuge, and a time for prophetic confrontation. There is a time for building bridges, and a time to blaze missional trails. All of these cultural responses reflect Christian values in different times and ways.

Yet, I will admit that I do hold one quadrant to be ideal. In light of our call to be Christ’s Ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:14-21), to be “in this world but not of it,” (John 17:15-18) and to “live good lives among the pagans,” (1 Peter 2:11-12), I prayerfully hope for opportunities to be actively engaged with the culture around me. And, to end with one final metaphor, from Jesus:

Much more could be said on this topic, especially from its foundations in the Old Testament. From the moment of creation, humans were given dominion over the earth to care for it (Genesis 1:26-28), and no matter where they found themselves, God’s people were always called to be a blessing and light to others (Genesis 12:1-3, Exodus 19:4-6, Isaiah 49:6).

And that’s the metaphor we can take with us anywhere. As we live in this world and relate to our culture in various ways, we can always ask ourselves,

How am I called and equipped to be light here?

Life Without: Audiobooks

Last month, I started my “year without buying books.” It was in response to one of those inner promptings – when God’s Spirit guides us to take small steps of transformation. Like pruning, this process often involves cutting things out in order to make room, or reserve energy and time, for something better.

So, for 2023, there’d be a clean break from online-impulse buying; there’d be a dam in the stream of new arrivals overflowing my shelves; there’d be a moratorium on any additions to my growing list of un-listened-to audiobooks; there’d be a commitment, before entering a used bookstore, to only browse.

So far, I have no regrets. When you notice addictive behaviour, it can be really helpful to completely cut it out – to starve your appetite for it, and force yourself to look elsewhere for something to fill the void. Something life-giving. So, rather than accumulating more, how about adopting the practice of giving away? Or simply enjoying what I have? I do have a lot of books.

Interestingly, ceasing to purchase books resulted in a sudden increase in reading – or, more specifically, listening. After cancelling my Audible membership (to stop purchasing new ones), I realized that the end of January would bring an end to my access to all of the free titles included in my account. And I had a few on the go: Eusebius’s Church History, Sun-Tau’s The Art of War, and Andrew Murray’s Abide in Christ. Knowing that this was my last chance to finish them, I frantically devoured the first two, and half of the third before my time ran out.

Yet, while I’m somewhat proud to have finished a couple more classic works of literature, this frenetic end to the month raises another issue for reflection:
Are audiobooks becoming too big in my life? Are they taking up too much time and attention, and getting in the way of other things? Has the elimination of one addictive behaviour (purchasing books) cast a spotlight on another addictive behaviour (listening to books)?

So, as I entered the month of February, it seemed to me that taking a break from audiobooks would be worth a try. For years, they had accompanied me in the silence of my driving, dishwashing, home renovations, snoozing, and tedious office work. And they had added much richness to my life – insightful perspectives from non-fiction, imaginative escapes in fiction, or simply the efficient completion of an assigned reading.
But were these additions subtracting anything from my life? At times, they divided my attention and distracted me from people and important tasks. At other times, they filled the space that could have been occupied by prayer, pondering, Bible study, or conversation. And why? What was the appeal? Why did I feel the need to press on and finish book after book?

It seems that with books, I face not only the temptation to over-accumulate, but the temptation to strive for accomplishment.

That’s the addiction. Reading books to add to my “completed” list, as a subtle source of pride (see me on Goodreads). Audiobooks have enabled me to read more (albeit less attentively) but what have they caused to become less? Perhaps cutting them for a month would reveal some insight.

So, with audiobooks out of the way, what would fill the void? What else could I listen to?
I tried radio, and heard a lot of chatter, annoying ads, and shallow songs.
I tried podcasts, which challenged by sense of accomplishment (there’s nothing to say I “completed”). While they often thoughtfully engage both sides of a culturally relevant issue (Holy Post, Munk Debates), they also take a lot of time. I’d say they sure beat radio, for someone whose mind is free while they work with their hands, but I still prefer in-person dialogue.
I tried sermons – but find them less informative than books, and more suited for their particular context – better to be there, in person! I could listen to my own sermons – probably a painful but useful discipline that could lead to growth 🙂
I tried videos – which can be informative like books, without the same publishing credentials. Good for washing dishes alone, but few other times.
I tried articles – less time consuming and quite efficient (especially though Twitter), but certainly lacking the depth of books.
And of course, I tried to finish some books in paper – an ongoing, but painfully slow practice that is really irreplaceable for the memory it instills.

Despite the limitations of those options, some new practices also helped fill the void:
Listening to people – My Doctoral research project involves interviewing new believers to hear how they came to faith. And I was blessed to hear ten stories in the space of one month – an experience that was both draining and enriching! It takes energy and focus to listen and draw out a person’s story, but the practice has been quite enlightening. I’m glad to have the time and headspace for it.
Listening to God – this one might seem obvious, but when automatic go-to time fillers are removed, there can be space for prayer: reflection on His word, journaling and conversing with Him about life, and interceding for the needs of others.
Playing soccer – I’ve never played on a soccer team in my life – but after the parents from my son’s team decided to form their own, I’ve found my hockey and football skills transfer fairly well to the role of goalkeeper. So, Sunday afternoon snoozes with audiobooks have given way to exercise and new friendships!
Playing guitar – after taking lessons in high school, my guitar playing was basically dormant for 20 years. There was always someone else who could offer their musical abilities at church, and so, over the years, I’ve taken up other ministry roles. But, as our church has begun to lack instrumentalists lately, I’ve begun to respond to that stress by picking up the guitar again. While that might sound like a stressful endeavour to rescue the music ministry, it’s actually been much more of an inward practice that has produced outward fruit. For the first time, I’ve begun to genuinely enjoy playing for it’s own sake, and to worship God through song outside of a church service. And through that personal development, I’ve gained a capacity to serve in that area.
Playing music – related to that, I’ve begun to realize that songs have certain advantages over books. While books can broaden one’s perspective by adding knowledge, songs can deepen one’s understanding, or the impact of words, by repeating them. Played to music, songs lyrics stick in our mind and can help form our thoughts and actions. In times of stress or busyness, I am thankful when a timely song enters my mind.

So, this month, I sought freedom not only from the accumulation of books, but from the need to accomplish through reading them. And, surprisingly, that freedom from accomplishment has created space for new accomplishments to emerge. While there is a time and place to disengage from the world and broaden knowledge, this month has afforded me time to engage in the world more deeply and fruitfully.

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
Psalm 62:1

A Quick Review: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

While I’m not buying books this year, why not look back at a few that I’ve read?

I like to write in margins, take notes as I read – the “interaction” helps me commit things to memory. Similarly, writing a quick review on Goodreads helps me process and cement my own thoughts about what I’ve read – and have something to share with others!

A fellow minister and blogger shared one of my reviews on his site, and I though I’d just put the review up here too – of quite a monumental and important book!

Here it is:

Well, this was a very thorough treatment of a very relevant and difficult topic. Honestly, it’s so thorough that it can feel overly thick and tedious. Still, I think a book like this needs to be written, showing in great detail the historical, intellectual, and philosophical foundations of our current cultural milieu.

Perhaps to put it simply, the roots of current views on sexuality and gender are found in the thoughts of Rousseau, Freud, and others of their time— who began to untether human identity from divine revelation, objective reality, or social standing.

Now, feeling trumps physical; psychology overrules biology. What was once the diversity of personality within biological genders is now biological diversity within psychologically defined categories of identity.

As people define themselves based on feelings, the author wonders which social taboo will become mainstream next—polygamy, pedophilia, bestiality? That might sound alarmist at the moment, but Trueman shows clearly that the foundation for opposing such practices has been undermined, and the only object in the way of their legalization is current public opinion.

Our society is moving away from any objective, unchanging moral standard. Trueman also identifies various fractures in the LGBTQ movement as they work out their philosophies and ally around the common identity of victimhood. Interestingly, feminism has experienced frustration and division in relation to these developments.

Personally, I can’t help but think of biblical ideas of setting aside social, gender, and ethnic identities for the sake of unity in Christ. But this is not setting aside external identities for something self-defined; instead, it is finding a new identity, our true, original identity, defined by God and restored through Christ by the work of the Spirit for anyone, no matter who they are.

I think this book will provide a good basis for others to expand on, and perhaps there are other books that are more accessible to read. He provides a lot of research to support one main point. This is a difficult read, and I think he has a more popular version of this available (Strange New World — see living theology note below).

Other authors have explored the history of modern thought and its implications for Christianity. Francis Schaeffer (How Shall We Then Live) and Lesslie Newbigin (Foolishness to Greeks) are foundational.

Trueman’s conclusion alone is worth reading. He summarizes it all and offers some very helpful advice to Christians about how to relate in a world where they find themselves foreigners in their surrounding culture.