“Will I be laid off?”

“Can my children avoid drugs, violence and promiscuity?”

How will this surgery go? No matter how much we do to ensure positive outcomes, life brims with causes for worry. Anxiety arises whenever we fear possible loss or harm to our person, family, relationships or possessions. If we depend on our own resources, we can’t avoid worry, for no matter how much we have, we never know if it’s enough.

In limited doses anxiety motivates us. The apprehension I feel as I face deadlines focuses my energies, helping me to function at maximum efficiency. Excessive anxiety, however, however, robs us of peace of mind. It reduces our reasoning and learning ability, memory, creativity and productivity. Prolonged anxiety can lead to serious health problems.

How do people keep anxiety at a bearable level? Some avoid sources of anxiety. If meeting people makes us uneasy, we’ll skip it as much as possible. Others try to escape anxiety. Studies show that women tend to cope by overeating, while men favor alcohol and drugs. For many, keeping busy provides relief, yet worry lurks just below the surface.

Instead of relying on inadequate solutions, I have found ten principles to be effective in managing anxiety:

Prevention. We should not allow circumstances to shape our lives if we can do something about them. Instead of worrying about whether our job will become obsolete, for example, we can prepare for other employment options.

People. Talking with others brings our anxieties into the open, where it’s harder for our imagination to magnify them out of proportion. Examined objectively, anxieties look less menacing. When problems merit concern, supportive relationships save us from struggling alone.

Concern for the needs of others helps to take our mind off our own anxieties and put them in perspective. Karl Menninger’s prescription for depression works equally well with anxiety. He advised helping someone with a greater need than ours. Jesus taught, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:39).

At the end of your rope?

Physical Well-being. Physical conditions affect our emotions. When we fail to get adequate rest, nutrition or exercise, we experience low moods and fatigue, intensifying our anxieties; a healthy body, on the other hand, promotes a sense of well-being.

Professional Help. When anxieties persist, we may want to search for deeper causes. Millions suffer from internal conflicts, while others are genetically more prone to worry. For the latter, self-awareness and a sense of humor help. Disease, dietary imbalance or neurological malfunctioning can also contribute to anxiety. Depending on the problem, a counselor, physician or pastor can be helpful.

 Introduction

“Nondiscipleship is the elephant in the church.” So Dallas Willard¹ pictures the obviousness and enormity of the problem. Richard Foster agrees, “Perhaps the greatest malady in the Church today is converts to Christ who are not disciples of Christ—a clear contradiction in terms. This malady affects everything in church life….”² Brian McLaren asks, “Why aren’t we making better disciples?…Why aren’t people becoming more holy, joyful, peaceful, content, and Christ-like?…Why are so few of our good Christian people good Christians?”³

Are these observations overly bleak? Thom Ranier’s survey⁴ of members from many churches asked, “What is your evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the church’s discipleship program?” Only 4.6% rated their church’s program either “very effective” or “effective”. Another survey⁵ found that nearly one-fourth of Christians felt that they were sliding backward in their spiritual growth, while 40% felt stagnated. In addition, it found no correlation between the length of time believers had been Christians and their spiritual maturity. After extensive research into the state of discipleship in America, George Barna concluded that though the vast majority of churches have a discipleship program, consistent spiritual growth is rare, and mourned the fact that in their attitudes and actions Christians appear little different from nonbelievers.⁶

Nudges do not budge pachyderms.
By RegBarc, via Wikimedia Commons.

That Jesus commanded the Church to make disciples is unquestioned (Matt 28.19-20). Once people become believers, they are enabled by God’s Spirit to undergo the process of transformation into the likeness of Jesus (II Cor 3.18), becoming mature (Eph 4.13), complete (James 1.4), and fruitful (John 15.2, 8). As they cooperate with God, this is a present and continuing process; Paul declares, “We are his workmanship ….” (Eph 2.10). The Bible clearly states discipleship’s command, enablement, and goals. Then what has gone wrong? How has the elephant of nondiscipleship made its home in the Church? Will tweaking existing programs produce mature and zealous Christians? Unfortunately, nudges do not budge pachyderms. The effort must match the size of the problem. Failure to appreciate the magnitude of the problem will only result in inadequate remedies. Without comprehensive change in their approach to ministry, churches can expect minimal results.⁷ The first part of this paper identifies six hindrances to discipleship which the Church must seriously engage. The second part proposes nine strategies needed to move the malignant mammal from our midst. Because the goal is to provide an overview for analysis and dialogue, thorough treatment of each point must await a longer work.

Hindrances

Six areas of hindrances to discipleship exist—two each in the Church, in the culture, and within individuals. Specific hindrances will be mentioned in each area.

Inadequate Goals

In many ways churches in this country have settled for goals far short of the discipling component of the great commission. It needs to determine more appropriate objectives for ministry. Below are listed a number of these inadequate goals contrasted with the correct paradigm for ministry. The adoption of one or more of these goals can hobble the attainment of ongoing spiritual growth.

Growing Attendance vs. Life Change

Churches and pastors tend to equate growth in attendance with success. As long as it increases, ministry appears to be effective. Eighty percent of church growth, however, is simply transfer growth. Bill Hull suggests, “The wrong question for the church is, How many people are present? The right question is, What are these people like?”⁸ The goal of discipleship is not numerical change, but life change.

From the Conversations with Readers department appearing in the Spring 2011 issue.

A Reader writes about a review that appeared in the Winter 2011 issue:

In his review of Brad Harper and Paul Louis Metzger, Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction (Brazos, 2009), Wolfgang Vondey writes, “At least in their understanding of the church, Pentecostals in North America cannot consider themselves to be evangelicals.” I do not disagree with what he is saying in this instance about how the Pentecostal/charismatic working definition of ecclesiology does not fit the book’s description of what “Evangelical” ecclesiology is. However, I have always considered myself a Protestant (identifying with the Great Reformation and Radical Reformation) that is an Evangelical (with a capital “E” to identify with what I understand of Evangelicals historically) that is a charismatic (or choose a similar label: non-classical Pentecostal, postcharismatic, etc.). Maybe I would approach this differently if I had not grown up in a Baptist tradition and “came into the fullness of the Spirit” as an adult. But am I wrong in wanting to retain my connections to these “older” yet living expressions of Christianity even though I have significant theological and practical differences with them? Are we not defeating the idea of the unity we share in Jesus and the real purpose behind developing an robust ecclesiology when we seek to exclude ourselves from other traditions?

—TS

Response from Wolfgang Vondey:

I am thankful for the response to my small review and for the engagement of wider ecclesiological issues as they are discussed in the book. The comment on my review is particular valuable because it connects questions of ecclesiology with concerns about ecumenism, that is, our understanding of the church with our desire for Christian unity. Even more important is the fact that such issues are now raised in the context of Pentecostalism. Today an increasing number of scholars and pastors are engaging in both ecumenical and ecclesiological conversations.¹ At the same time, an ecumenical Pentecostal ecclesiology has not yet been proposed. My conclusion at the end of the review suggests that when such a proposal will be submitted, it will unlikely be the evangelical ecclesiology we see in the book under review. My conclusion therefore relates exclusively to the issue of ecclesiology and in the limited context of Pentecostalism. While I do not deny that Pentecostals in North America have been widely influenced by Evangelicalism, I suggest that a classical Pentecostal ecclesiology, if it were fully formulated, would not be synonymous with a contemporary evangelical ecclesiology.² I have similar doubts about the potential range of global Pentecostal views on the nature and purpose of the church.

How should we lead the church?
In this Pneuma Review conversation, Dr. Woodrow Walton reveals the humility and anonymity of true servant leadership.

 
Picture if you would a regatta where there are several vessels slicing across a river. Where is the leader of any one of those streamlined vessels? Is it the rower up front? Or, is it the man in the middle? Maybe, it is the man between the man in the middle and the man in front? You simply cannot tell yet it is progressing toward its destination: winning the race. There is no way to observe where the leadership is. There is anonymity.

Another illustration of anonymous leadership is that of moving a herd of cattle along the old cattle trails of the plains. There is a modern modification but more often chutes and trucks are used. A point man, swing men, and one or two behind the cattle are all important. The point man ahead of the cattle, all he does is give some guise of direction but there is a problem. Each cow, bull, heifer, steer, and calf would go off in every direction and not follow. This is where the right swing men and the left swing men are important. They are on either side of the herd and the herd, supposedly, moves together. You will also have stragglers made up of older head and young calves and this is where the men in the back work. Who is the leader? Actually, all are, as each have a designated function. There is an anonymous leadership.

In both cases there is leadership but there is no apparent leadership. You know there is leadership of some kind because there is obvious progression toward a desired goal. There is anonymous leadership as you cannot single out any particular person as leader. Who would think of the back rower in a canoe to be the person who steers it.

There is a principle here that is not often recognized. Leaders cannot be singled out from the community, or to use the words of Stanley Hauerwas, “Leadership cannot be abstracted from communities that make leadership possible.”¹

We may justly observe that Moses led the Israelites out of bondage; however, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews made a very interesting comment about Moses. “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant …” (Heb. 3:5, ESV). The preposition “in” makes a critical point. Moses was not separated, or taken, out from among the people or community of Israel. The phrase “as a servant” is also critical. Moses is not over the people as in a superior position. God is over the people. The leader is the cloud or the fire by night. Those within the camp who criticized Moses for leading them into the wilderness were not upset with his leadership; they were upset because they wanted to be in the driver’s seat. As a consequence the earth opened on them.

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 464 pages, ISBN 9781433506253.

Mark Driscoll, founding pastor of Mars Hill Church, and Gerry Breshears, professor of theology at Western Seminary, describe the foundational doctrines and therein the membership requirements of the Mars Hill Church. They divide the book into thirteen theological subjects and chapters and they provide small-group study guides at the end of the book. Each chapter defines their doctrinal viewpoint in order to provide prospective church members with a catechetical foundation of their church’s beliefs. Doctrine covers elementary conservative Evangelical Christian doctrines of Trinity, humanity, sin, atonement, and salvation.

Mark Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

Gerry Breshears is professor of theology at Western Seminary.

Its strengths are in its simplified language and conceptual presentations. These are supported by the Mars Hill website (relit.org), where the contents of the book are given in full sermon and sermon summary videos, as well as in summary teaching documents. The content of the book is available on the church webpage and it serves to communicate the same message through podcasts, audio files, videos, and documents. Together, these serve to make their conservative Evangelical Christian message abundantly clear.

Its weaknesses are also its strengths. Driscoll and Breshears plainly define their positions of exclusive male senior leadership in the church and of conservative views of charismata. They defend the “complementarian” perspective of gender at the expense of egalitarianism. Likewise, even though the book begins with robust Trinitarian and Christological chapters, it subsequently leaves us looking for an expanded chapter on the person of the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Thus, it seems that the role of women in the church and the role of the Holy Spirit in soteriology are subordinated.

Mark Driscoll is not a stranger to controversy because he is not afraid to state his theological opinions in a straightforward, even blunt, or unpretentious manner. We can admire any person for this. He has the courage to place in print confrontational statements like, “there are incredibly powerful demons—with names such as… Allah” (14). Driscoll refutes the error of Jesus being only an inferior prophet compared to Muhammad (221). He confronts the Muslim doctrine of Jesus’ supposed swoon on the cross (298) and of another person taking the place of Jesus on the cross (300).

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 335 pages, ISBN 9781433501302.

This is an engaging production by the dynamic, founding pastor of Mars Hill Church together with an experienced, theological teaching collaborator. It expresses the experimental fusion of mission focused churchmanship with a particular style of conservative, evangelical theology. This, indeed, is the power and potency in Driscoll’s approach. His dogmatic theology is clear, simple and acceptable to a large section of North American evangelicalism. What Driscoll offers is this theology, usually married to a conservative ecclesiology, combined with a very powerful contemporary, missional focus.

Driscoll challenges the collapse into relativism and pluralism that many would see associated with postmodern and emerging church movements. He offers a clear, doctrinal basis while allowing for an experimental missiology.

The potential weakness of this approach will be evident to some readers. For those who sense the validity of expressions from more than one doctrinal camp, this book will disappoint in dealing with nuances and varied flavours within the Word of God in Scripture. While many, for example, will have no quibble in agreeing to the propriety of stressing penal substitutionary atonement (p. 20), the appearance of favouring this to the extent of excluding other Biblical aspects to atonement that are valued and seen as basic by many, such as the stress of divinisation (2 Peter 1.4) found in Orthodox theology, may be problematic. That said, the book’s stress fits well with a perception of churchmanship that focuses on the priority of proclaiming a message of the Kingdom that is exclusively penal and crucicentric, together with a perception of church that emphasises agency over against modality.

In the book, there is a real attempt to develop a fuller perception of church and discipleship. Building on a perception of church modelled on the Reformed stress of Christ as ‘prophet, priest and king’, the authors comment that ‘the most common overemphasis is the (prophetic function’s) confessional reduction of the gospel to Jesus’ death, forgiveness of sin, and imputed righteousness leading to eternal; life in heaven. While this is true, it neglects Jesus’ exemplary life, resurrection, imparted life of regeneration, and the rich life of the missional community of the church on earth until we see him face-to-face’ (p.25).

This book is important because it expresses a theological journey that many, within the North American context, are finding faith through. For this reason in itself, it is worth engaging with.

Reviewed by James Purves

Preview this book: www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product_slideshow?sku=501302

This book is a collection of critical essays that addresses issues of ecumenism from a variety of Pentecostal perspectives. It is primarily the outcome of papers contributed to meetings for the ecumenism interest groups of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. Since the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement is one of the fastest growing sectors of Christianity within the world today, this volume presents a number of important works in contemporary Christian thought. The volume’s implications for global Christianity are further emphasized by Vondey’s observation that “In its current form, [this interest] group represents the only organized ecumenical think-tank among Pentecostals in North America” (ix). Therefore, the work of these authors deserved significant attention by Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals alike.

The editor, Wolfgang Vondey, begins the volume by contributing a brief history of the ecumenical movement that includes an overview of methods employed by ecumenical projects and the author’s own critical reflections. He does not assume that the reader possesses prior knowledge of the ecumenical movement, so readers who are new to the field can feel comfortable using this as an introductory text.

This volume is divided into three major sections. The first contains a variety of essays from several internationally renowned Pentecostals scholars which include Harold D. Hunter, Carmelo E. Álvarez, Paul van der Laan, Raymond R. Pfister, and Cecil M. Robeck Jr. These contributions address the history of ecumenism within the Pentecostal movement along with unique Pentecostal perspectives on the progress of ecumenism to date. Here views are drawn from different parts of the world, including North America, South America, and Europe.

Part two includes five final reports of ecumenical dialogues, featuring Pentecostal representation. These documents include conversations between leaders of Classical Pentecostals, Roman Catholics, the Alliance of Reformed Churches as well as Charismatics and Anglicans. Each final report includes an introduction that readers will find beneficial for contextualizing the contents of the document. The editor of this volume provides no commentary on these reports, thus allowing each final report to speak on their own terms. Readers can evaluate the merits of this approach, but, regardless, those doing research on ecumenism will find this to be a valuable and practical reference of primary materials.

The last part of this book includes three essays dedicated to Pentecostal reflections on The Nature and Mission of the Church published by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches. No official response to this document has been issued by the Society for Pentecostal Studies, thus the responses of prominent Pentecostal scholars Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Frank Macchia, and Wolfgang Vondey are featured here. These essays are critical responses that point out the strengths and shortcomings of this document. Each theologians provides a unique perspective on the future of ecumenism within the Pentecostal movement.

For most readers of The Pneuma Review, this will not be an easy book to read. Graham Ward, professor of contextual theology and ethics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, writes with a density and against a backdrop of contemporary philosophical debates that will simply be impenetrable to those without a graduate level theological education. Be that as it may, the argument developed here, an extension of a much larger project Ward has now prosecuted in the many other books he has written over the last dozen or so years, deserves attention by those in the renewal movement who are concerned about Christian discipleship in the twenty-first century.

In brief, the two central theses of this volume, captured in its title, is that all Christian discipleship has a political character, and the call to discipleship in our time involves the embodiment of a postmaterial form of life. Postmaterialism, Ward suggests, is a counter-cultural posture that not only resists the materialistic consumption of an unbridled capitalist way of life but also rejects the de-materialized virtual reality inhabited by an increasing percentage of the contemporary world. The former materialist mentality is hedonistic and self-absorbed, while the latter dematerialist trend perverts the embodied and material nature of men and women created as good in the divine image. The response, then, ought to be a postmaterialist theology, even metaphysics – as opposed to the claims regarding ours being a post-metaphysical era which actually masks the deployment of bad or destructive metaphysical assumptions- of the body, both at the personal level of intersubjective relationships and at the political level of ecclesial-social interactions.

Renewal church leaders and even scholars may contrast material with spiritual, thus assuming that a postmaterial citizen is one who is (in their mind) oriented toward the spiritual, other, or next world. Ward is indeed focused on what he calls throughout his book “the eschatological remainder,” the incompleteness of Christ-with-us in history and the heralding of partially present but yet to-appear-in-the-future kingdom. However, while this eschatological remainder names what we hope for, it is different from a false optimism that claims to fully know such hopes; instead, hope is shaped in part by what we don’t know. Thus the eschatological remainder serves as an apophatic check on our kataphatic theological commitments. Yet this eschatologically rich theological vision is clear also to highlight, because of Ward’s emphasis on a theology of the body, the very concrete, palpable, and political nature of Christian discipleship. To dwell in Christ (as St. Paul has it) is also to have Christ dwelling in us as embodied, social, economic, and political creatures, with embodied, social, economic, and political interactions with those around us. Thus to be disciples is to act out the way of Christ in the world, precisely the nature of public and political life. Being postmaterial therefore does not mean being spiritually minded if such involves being of no earthly good; on the contrary, being postmaterially and spiritually engaged with discipleship involves political witness, interaction, and engagement.

Dietrich Werner, David Esterline, Namsoon Kang, and Joshva Raja, eds., Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity: Theological Perspectives, Ecumenical Trends, Regional Surveys, Regnum Studies in Global Christianity (Oxford: Regnum Books, 2010), 800 pages, ISBN 9781870345804.

Parochialism is passé. The importance of understanding Christianity in global perspective is becoming crystal clear. A spate of excellent books such as Global Dictionary of Theology: A Resource for the Worldwide Church, edited by William Dryness and Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (IVP, 2008), and, specifically on Pentecostalism, Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods, edited by Allan Anderson, Michael Bergunder, André Droogers, and Cornelius van de Laan (University of California Press, 2010), are dedicated to navigating implications for identity and mission of shifting and/or expanding centers of Christianity. In a word, World Christianity is on the rise. Obviously, with a movement as broad and diverse as Pentecostalism, scholars are pressed to address its global makeup. For a few examples, see Amos Yong, The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: The Possibility of a Global Theology (Baker, 2005), Frank Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology (Zondervan, 2006), and Don Miller and Ted Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (University of California Press, 2007). Pentecostalism is a major player in a massive reshaping of contemporary global spirituality. However, it isn’t the only one. In fact, the ecumenical implications of the global qualities of contemporary Christianity are monumental. And that’s where Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity (HTEWC) comes into the picture.

The Regnum Studies in Global Christianity series is edited by Ruth Padilla DeBorst President, Latin American Theological Fraternity, Santiago, Chile; Hwa Yung Bishop, The Methodist Church in Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia; Wonsuk Ma, Executive Director, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford, UK; Damon So Research Tutor, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford, UK; and, Miroslav Volf Director, Yale Center for Faith and Culture, New Haven, MA, USA. Itexplores issues that the global Church struggles with, particularly in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It publishes studies intended to help the global Church learn not only from past and present, but also from provocative and prophetic voices for the future. HTEWC arises out of this series and has its mindset.

Some one hundred years after the famous Edinburgh, Scotland mission conference in 1910, HTEWC attempts to map and analyze subsequent developments in theological education on a global scale. With contributions from 98 leaders in theological education from around the world, it provides a comprehensive introduction to major themes and contexts in the international discourse on theological education, surveys of the issues and challenges faced in different regions, and introductory essays on the developments in theological education in major denominational families in World Christianity. The breadth and depth of this work is noted in that many of its entries contain six, eight, or even ten or more pages on a given discussion topic.

The idea for HTEWC developed during a meeting of an international study group on theological education brought together under the leadership of the program on Ecumenical Theological Education of the World Council of Churches in November 2008 at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey in Switzerland. HTEWC editors Dietrich Werner, David Esterline, Namsoon Kang, and Joshva Raja were among original participants in this process. Its specific objectives are to provide introductory surveys on selected issues and themes in global theological education; regional surveys on key developments, achievements, and challenges in theological education; an overview of theological education for each of the major denominational/confessional traditions; and, a reference section with an up-to-date list of the regional associations of theological institutions and other resources.

Desperately Wicked is a philosophical exploration of who we are. As the subtitle suggests, Downey seeks to uncover the magnitude of the wickedness in the human heart. His analysis is sobering, exposing that what is wrong with us is more than merely the fragility of human fallibility.

After six chapters of exploring philosophical writings on sin, he concludes in chapters seven to nine by demonstrating the necessity of the coming of the Christ King. The solution to wickedness is the conversion of the human conscience, a transformation that only Christ can bring.

The book under review is also helpful for scholars since it is also probably written with the goal of complementing the resurgence of analytical philosophical theology. While Downey is not explicit about the connection with analytical philosophical theology, the motif is evident, both in this volume as in his other work, Serious Comedy: The Philosophical and Theological Significance of Tragic and Comic Writing in the Western Tradition.

Humanity, Downey postulates, wears a Dionysian mask that conceals the criminal intent to perform dark deeds aimed at satisfying our ‘wicked’ desires often invisible to others. Behind the concealments are fears and anxieties of wanting to appear just and be just, and people often seek to overcome fear through coercion. The erotic and thumotic desires relate to the intent of wanting to possess and keep our private property. To satisfy these erotic and thumotic desires, and to protect our possessions, we blame or deceive others, or exaggerate our superiority over others. These primordial desires in humankind are carried to full term in the social arena of politics exactly the way such was portrayed in the Greek tragedies.

We need the miracle of the King. He knows us. He possesses all of the virtues shared by none. And He offers a gift that overturns what is impossible to correct in humanity. He turned the body politic of survival and the invisible quest for erotic and thumotic desires so rooted in humanity, and makes us “Good.” No longer must we mistake who our enemies are. No longer must we treat our brothers and sisters as rivals. No longer must we hold with a tight fist our discontent and malaise but learn the spirit of loving, sharing, and accepting others. Friendship with God becomes then friendship with the world in service to God and the world, with justice and equality. The old bondage of fear, rooted in displaced desires, and manifested politically in the search for excellence and happiness by means of deception, cruelty and self-enrichment through impoverishing others has been replaced. The taboo of others reading through our “invisible” Dionysian mask of wickedness no longer has a hold of us!