Trying Not to Speak Christianese

This isn't a real post. It's mostly just me giving you a link to Addie Zierman's blog; she's creating an annotated glossary of Christianese, "How to Speak Evangelical." I'm enjoying it so far. My current series of posts has been about a bunch of Christian cliches connected to somewhat sketchy spiritual techniques- "Finding God's Will," "Giving God Control," "Not Splitting Head From Heart," and so on. Actually, I haven't written the post on the last one yet, but think about it- what kind of an odd phrase is that? It's Christianese- an example of language Christians (especially Evangelical Christians in America) use casually, but which can be pretty obtuse for someone who's not steeped in Christianity.

Actually, it's quite normal for people who associate over a specific, common cause or issue to develop some jargon. (I wasted some time last night exploring some of the WWF jargon on wikipedia, for instance.) But if part of the purpose of your association is to reach out and connect with others, then jargon isn't going to help. I've heard it said that "The Christian Church is the only organization on earth that exists soley for the purpose of those who are not yet members of it." (A quote from the late archbishop of Cantebury, Dr. Michael Ramsey, apparently.) So I'm liking Addie's blog, because I think Christians should be very careful about this sort of thing.

Why Your Motivations are Probably OK

This post continues my reflections on Philip Cary's book Good News for Anxious Christians: 10 Practical Things You Don't Have to Do. This week I'll talk about chapter 5, where Cary addresses the anxiety we face over whether our motivations are good enough.

In previous chapters, Cary emphasized becoming a wise steward who seeks to follow God's commands (where they're explicit) and discern what is good (where they're not). Now he moves on to address a couple specific sources of anxiety for the Christian who is trying to please God. Like previous practices that have been discussed, the attempt to have the right motivations is the result of sincere but unsound teaching. In short, motivations are important, but focusing on them leads us to miss what's most important.

Cary argues that we should be more concerned with the question of whether what we are doing is good than whether we have the right motivations. He describes a student who realized she needed to drop his course because she had too much on her plate, but was worried that her motivations were solely about grades and that dropping the course would amount to selfishness. This kind of deliberation, based on motivations rather than on what's good, leads into what he describes as an "endless inner labyrinth": we have many real, mixed motivations for what we do, and furthermore:

How (Not) to Find God's Will (or Give Him Control)

This post continues my reflections on Philip Cary's book Good News for Anxious Christians: 10 Practical Things You Don't Have to Do. This time I'll review chapters 3 and 4, where he talks about the ideas of giving God control and finding God's will.

I'd like to start by noting that both of these practices stem from the same basic insight, which is a good one: quite simply, we're all better off if we do things God's way. Cary isn't arguing that we're free to live however we  please instead of living to please God. Rather, he criticizes the practices of giving God control and finding God's will because they 1) involve a misunderstanding of our relationship to God, and 2) lead to something other than obedient lives that please God.

In the case of letting God take control, the basic misrepresentation of our situation in relation to God is that this practice makes it sound like we can wrest control from God in the first place. Think about it: if Satan and all the fallen angels cannot defeat God, isn't it a little silly to think that you can ruin his plans? To quote Cary,

How (Not) to Hear God's Voice

This post continues my reflections on Philip Cary's book Good News for Anxious Christians: 10 Practical Things You Don't Have to Do, which I reviewed in the previous post. In particular, I'm interested in what Cary has to say in the first two chapters, where he talks about hearing God's voice and recognizing the difference between our own intuitions and the Holy Spirit.

Cary describes how a very honest student in one of his college classes was having trouble with the notion of revelation: it's so hard to tell if it's really the voice of God speaking in one's heart, the student explained, and if you can't tell it's God's voice, then how can God reveal anything?

Latest Read: Good News for Anxious Christians

The book: In Good News for Anxious Christians: 10 Practical Things You Don't Have to Do, Phillip Cary addresses a number of practices commonly advocated in Christian circles. They include things like hearing God's voice in your heart, "letting God take control" of your life, "finding God's will for your life," getting transformed, and experiencing joy. For all of us who are quite familiar with these practices, and think they're right up there at the top of the things we're supposed to do to have a healthy personal relationship with God, Cary's thesis in this book comes as a surprise, if not a shock: as they're commonly understood, these practices are without a Biblical basis, and tend to make Christians anxious rather than help them grow into a mature faith. So we don't need to do any of them. 

You might be thinking, "you're kidding me, right?"