What's Your Church Personality

For one of my classes, Ministry Leadership, we had to take a “church personality” test. It is a diagnostic rather like the Myers-Briggs, but not entirely so. In the test, which I linked to on Facebook a few days ago, apparently I came out as an ICF (“Relational Church”) personality.

If you'd like to give the diagnostic a spin, you can get to it here. Dr. Douglass hired me to write the little program that works with his formulas a few years back. Needless to say, it was rather fun to then have need of taking the very same diagnostic!

In any case, apparently, Dr. Douglass developed the test to help make people aware of differing ministry styles with the goal of minimizing the potential for church conflict. Consider me intrigued.

Unfolding My Story: Real, Live Examples of What I've Been Saying

So someone in St. Louis comes by to my most recent post on the abusive activities at my old church today and posts a link anonymously. I have significant reasons to believe this to be from someone at that old church. The link goes to the Men's Fraternity bookstore page for a booklet called “The Quest for Authentic Manhood: The Overly-Bonded with Mother Wound.”

This smacks of something of the propaganda the pastor of the old church has pushed for the last year. My mother was well liked at the old church and can also hold her own under attack, so when she would not agree to the pastor's request that she push me to do what he wanted, when, instead, she supported my free and independent decision to refuse to continue to be abused by the pastor and those assisting him, the church leadership set out to attack her. The pastor attacked her in his communications with church leaders, our friends, my dean and others.

He would have been fine with her being as controlling as he falsely alleges if she had allowed him to use her to manipulate me. It was when she joined a chorus that also included numerous other godly people I go to for advice, when I stood up and said I would not violate Scripture or conscience to do the bidding of, as I now have come to realize, an overly controlling pastor (not an overly controlling mother), that suddenly the pastor decided I was not manly enough. Is not having godly advisors in one's life to help one deal with difficult situations part of what these “Biblical manhood” programs are even suppose to foster? The pastor wanted none of that, so he twisted the narrative to be about my mom somehow forcing me to stray and then attacked this straw man (or straw woman, in this case) — this caricature of my mother — he had created.

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A Year

Amazing grace,

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

So true.

Unfolding My Story: Why Christians Must Act

A year ago today, I spent most of the day on the phone. Fear knotted up my stomach as I looked towards the meeting scheduled the next day with my old pastor before one of the deans at my school. One of the mediators at the company the old pastor sits on the board of was trying to pressure me into signing a dangerously vague legal agreement and suggesting I would get myself in trouble with the school if I did not (which wasn't true, but was still unnerving to hear suggested). By this point I had watched as the pastor and those helping him mercilessly attacked not just me, but twice as cruelly had begun to try to undermine my mom.

Every time another person's story comes to light and I hear the fear, the pain, the brokenness that I experienced come to surface in another person — another victim — I know more than ever two things. First, if only Christians would take action against churches gone wrong, this would not happen. Second, as a Christian, I am amongst those who bears responsibility to act, as I will explain below.

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Thomas Tweets

Somebody has decided to tweet an abridged Summa Theologica. Maybe Twitter will prove worthwhile yet.

Unfolding My Story: The Aftermath of Abuse

It began one year ago today.  A simple plea that some questionable activities be stopped on the computers I administered at my old church turned into an all out war aimed at silencing me legally, vilifying me to my friends and destroying my work towards ministry. Eventually, the war grew so that it also took aim against my family and friends. I have discussed each one of those matters in the past and if I wanted to, I could document them meticulously. That's not my point today. Today, I am writing about the aftermath that makes it hard to even remember what life was like before.

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The Orthodox Church

I am doing an independent study on Eastern Orthodoxy this semester. Right now, I am finishing up Timothy Ware's book the Orthodox Church for that study.

Less than a hundred pages from the end, I really think this book is worth commending. While as a Reformed Christian I have some obvious differences with Ware's positions, I think the book as a whole is very irenic in spirit and compellingly written. The account of Orthodoxy history is especially engaging and has helped me to appreciate further the rich tradition of the Eastern Church. Reviewing the ramp up to the Great Schism of 1054 and the sack of Constantinople in 1204 reminded me all the more about the tragedy of the divided church.

It seems too me that most of us, as Western Christians, have spent too little time examining how some of the distinctives of Orthodoxy might enrich our own theological traditions. I will likely comment more on the book at some point, but, for now, it suffices to say the book is worth your time if you would like to become better aware of the Orthodox Church and its traditions.

He is Risen

In the end, the plans of men can never overpower the truth of the Christ.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Denominationally Speaking

Years ago, I took a quiz on what Christian denomination I was most similar to theologically. A few weeks ago, I ran through the same quiz again to see how much my views had changed. Both some of the changes in ranking and rereading of my comments between the rankings from years ago remind me of how I have indeed shifted theologically, in no small part due to coming under the influence of good teaching on Reformed theology during my time in college. I certainly do not agree now with all that I said back in 2002.

I like to say tongue-in-cheek that I was predestined to be Presbyterian. I went to a Presbyterian kindergarten and then, years later, unintentionally ended up at a Presbyterian college under the instruction of a very wise professor (who happens to be a Presbyterian minister). From there I ended up at a Presbyterian seminary…

God seems to have a trend in mind here for me.

(My current rankings, along with the old rankings, are below the fold — read on to see them and then share your results.)

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The Lost Art of Catechesis

J. I. Packer and Gary Parrett observe,

Thus, for most contemporary evangelicals the entire idea of catechesis is largely an alien concept. The very word itself—catechesis, or any of its associated terms, including catechism—is greeted with suspicion by most evangelicals today. (“Wait, isn't that a Roman Catholic thing?”)

I have noticed that probably the majority of Protestants do look rather funny at non-Catholics who mention using a catechism. This is really a shame because catechisms such as the Westminster Shorter Catechism do offer such a wonderfully rich exposition of the faith. Certainly better than many a Sunday School curriculum will ever do today.

Protestants (generally speaking) desperately need to find ways to embrace theology again and catechesis is certainly a helpful way to ground that, especially if the catechetical answer is not the sum of the teaching.

Packer is right, as he so often is.

Via: Dr. Alan Meyers