We do, though. We do.

2 Corinthians 4:5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.


Corinth was in a culture of hubris - pride in the self and what I am. 
Just like us today.
Someone during a discussion this week was talking about the clash of the gospel with the accepted attitude in France. "Il ne faut pas se soumettre."
It's the same in Britain and in the USA. 


Is that why evangelicalism is so tribal, so completely besotted with the cult of the personality - we accept each other on the basis of which big name preacher is our favourite, so we have to drop hints or quote them or mention them like some kind of badge... Paul, Apollos, Cephas, etc...?


Is that why we can never accept anything that just comes from out there - whether it's a ministerial training course, a declaration of faith or an evangelism course - without rewriting it completely? What's that all about ?


In the 1970s there was Berkhof. We were all reformed baptists but we read our Berkhofs and we discussed it together and that was fine. Now there's LOADS of Systematic Theologies and everyone has to write another one - their own particular systematic theology. What's that all about ? 


Is evangelicalism really so fragmented ? 
Or is it just rampant comsumerism ? 
Choice gone mad ? 
Or is it another symptom of the cult of the "me" ? 


And it's my fault because I really want a systematic theology written by: 
a guy who was brought up Anglican 
but then became a Reformed Baptist 
and who has a strong sensitivity to the heritage of Revival 
and a keen heart for evangelical unity 
but who "doesn't have a charismatic bone in his body" - 
in short by my hero, 
who is kind of super-me...


Then I'll have MY brand of evangelicalism all codified - MEvangelicalism - and I can preach it systematically - it'll be almost kind of like preaching myself...


I'll stop now. 
I always regret these half-baked rants. 
Read this quick because I'll delete it tomorrow !

Comments

Larry said…
What you describe is pretty accurate.

Thanks for the challenge.


The thing that gets me is that I can afix half a dozen if not mmore theological labels to my name (Reformed continuationist (now im just being provocative) baptist, amil..etc)

Surely the more defined I become in what i believe about God the more likely I am to be wrong somewhere. I'm not infallible after all...
9:05 am
Alan said…
No sweat, Larry. Continuationist is where it's at at the moment. All the best gurus are continuationist.

It's not where I'm at, but so what...

Definition good. Clarificaton good. Labelling bad. Tribalism bad.

(In my 'umble opinion)
9:25 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor...
Read more

Good news from my sermon buddy

Yesterday we went over my script from August 13. There really wasn't much she had taken exception to. Once or twice she wondered quite what I was getting at (they had the same problem at Deeside, I think...) and I do have difficulties with the word " de ", but then she said "Who doesn't?" So I felt very encouraged. I also took the opportunity to ask her about one or two things: 1) Direct preaching. Like I used to in Britain, I preach saying you - using "vous" when I am talking to the whole wide world and "tu" when I want it to feel as if I am addressing each person individually. French preachers tend to say rather "What will we do, what will one do". So I asked her if she felt my way was too direct, too brutal for the French ear. She said "I think you can get away with it with your English accent". In fact several people have commented on how much they appreciated being spoken to directly in preaching. 2) Liaisons Last...
Read more

A brief sortie to North Wales

 Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful.  We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I...
Read more