The Uncensored Unprofessor

God cares about everyone, but he does so from first commitments and then works outward. That's the biblical pattern. That was Jesus' own pattern. What does that mean? How does that apply to specific societal issues? This episode frames both what the Common Good has meant in history and what it might mean going forward.

The word faith is carelessly thrown around today. Yet, even in our post-Christian society faith is commonly discussed. What are the possible kinds of faith that fall short? What kinds, or levels, of faith are evident across John's Gospel? What kind of faith does Jesus want from us?

My doctoral discipline, the history of theology, taught me to dig for answers that lie beneath the surface. Why did they say it like that back then? Why did they read their bibles the way they did? How did the philosophic movements of their day shape their theological conclusions? But that training also helped me learn how to assess our own confounding culture. Why do we say it like we do? What is motivating her precise formulation? Let's go deeper than a social media surface-level assumption!

If we don't experience some risk, danger, knee-scrapes, falling and failure as children we don't learn how to process the big problems of adult life. That's not only true spiritually, it's true physically, socially, and brain-neurologically. Obviously, then, this affects parenting, teaching, and pastoring. But what about God? What does the Bible show us about his perspective on our failures? And then, on a more positive note, how does playfulness shape us while we are young? How does playfulness lead to innovation and success?

Why all the public tantrums in western culture? People have been malformed. We have had it so good that we have, for a generation or two, protected one another from the very things we need to help us grow and mature: failure, loss, pain, embarrassment, hierarchy, conflict, and risk. Christian spirituality, because it is an earthy spirituality, a for-this-life way of living, cannot sit by idly and ignore the malformation of our children or society. What can be done?

Western culture teaches us, directly and implicitly, that failure is bad. And so we think that both we ourselves should never fail and that other people should never fail. Things are now so good that we even extend that to, "people should never have their feelings hurt." But is that good for us? Does that weaken or strengthen us? I explain why failure is not only unavoidable, but why for our own growth and societal development failure is necessary.

My son, John, and I discuss how and why financial pressures weigh so particularly heavy upon Low churches. Big donors are wonderful, but they can come with unexpected consequences. Why is that? We also think through the issues of church board composition, how the Low churches might be still more relevant, challenges facing local pastors, and the importance of social engagement. Critical stuff!

What might be the concerns of millennials regarding the state of the Church? I have a running conversation with my son, John, about the importance of preaching and teaching to mature believers. We also discuss the role and place of small groups in today's Low churches.

Western society is infatuated with the new: trends, fads, products, things. We love the new! Unfortunately, this infatuation is infecting the Church. And if the Gallup Polling agency is accurate, new is not helping church growth. What are some answers? How might we mitigate the damage that the new can do? What steps can we take to help our pastors, our pastoral staffs, and our own selves? What did Jesus model for us that is helpful on this challenge?

Low churches do things that end up causing unnecessary problems. Why is that? Life is weird. And? "Sometimes when you win you lose." The Low church lowest common denominator approach of "appeal to the most possible without causing offense" isn't working. People are not hungry for vanilla. Gallup Poll says more people are leaving Church than ever before. In this fifth episode in my series I tell some personal stories and suggest some possible remedies.