The Journey: Day Fourteen--Identifying with a Suffering Savior

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Fourteen: Identifying with a Suffering Savior

Welcome to day fourteen of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Fourteen: Identifying with a Suffering Savior[1]

It is important to ponder why African Americans turned to Christianity given the hypocritical religious culture of many of the Christian slave owners. In the midst of suffering through the ordeal of the sin of slavery, how did God save enslaved people from the slavery of sin?

Like any starving person, African Americans searched for sustenance. However, they often initially resisted Christian conversion because of the apparent contradiction between slave owners’ professed beliefs and their brutal treatment of their slaves.

Daniel Alexander Payne explains the inner battle that resulted from such hypocrisy. Born to free parents in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1811, during his ordination in 1839, he describes the testing of faith caused by Christian duplicity.

“The slaves are sensible of the oppression exercised by their masters; and they see these masters on the Lord’s day worshiping in His holy Sanctuary. They hear their masters professing Christianity; they see their masters preaching the Gospel; they hear these masters praying in their families, and they know that oppression and slavery are inconsistent with the Christian religion; therefore they scoff at religion itself—mock their masters, and distrust both the goodness and justice of God. Yes, I have known them even to question His existence.”

Religious Reconciliation

If spiritually famished African Americans were going to convert to Christianity, then they had to convert on the basis of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as revealed in the Bible, not on the basis of Christianity revealed in the lifestyles of the Christians they knew. Ironically, to find redemption in Christ, African Americans had to redeem Christianity as they saw it practiced.

Howard Thurman put it this way. “By some amazing but vastly creative spiritual insight the slave undertook the redemption of a religion that the master had profaned in his midst.”

Christ’s suffering for humanity’s sin was the key that unlocked their hearts and enlightened their eyes. “Jesus quickly became the ardent personification of the slaves’ own suffering.” Their suffering at the hands of Christians caused them to identify with a suffering Savior who suffered at the hands of religious leaders.

Salvation from Sin, Not from Suffering

At the same time, African American Christians clearly recognized and constantly emphasized the difference between Christ’s sinlessness and their personal need for forgiveness from sin. The recurring theme of the conversion narratives was salvation from sin, not from suffering. Yes, Christ shared with them the experience of unjust suffering. But more importantly, they shared in Christ’s suffering for their sins.

Pastor James W. C. Pennington, reflecting on his conversion, seamlessly expresses his understanding of suffering and of sin. Without minimizing for a moment the evils of slavery, he maximizes for all eternity the horrors of his own enslavement to sin and Satan.

“I was a lost sinner and a slave to Satan; and soon I saw that I must make another escape from another tyrant. I did not by any means forget my fellow-bondmen, of whom I had been sorrowing so deeply, and travailing in spirit so earnestly; but I now saw that while man had been injuring me, I had been offending God; and that unless I ceased to offend him, I could not expect to have his sympathy in my wrongs; and moreover, that I could not be instrumental in eliciting his powerful aid in behalf of those for whom I mourned so deeply.”

Rejecting the “slaveholding gospel” of the institutional Church of that era, the enslaved African Americans gave birth to a regenerated Christianity that reflected fundamental Christian doctrine. It created the new narrative of present resilience made possible by a Savior who suffered with them because they were sinned against. It also created the new narrative of future hope made possible by a Savior who suffered for them because they were sinners.

Their focus offers an indispensable caution for all soul physicians. While we are called to sustain and heal people in their suffering, if we neglect to address their sinning, if we fail to offer reconciling, then we may enable people to become more self-sufficient sinners. Such one-sided ministry attempts to empower people to live this life more successfully while giving them little incentive to turn to Christ’s resurrection power for eternal life later and abundant life now. We should shudder at the thought.

Learning Together from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Hypocritical Christians were a common threat to African American acceptance of Christianity. Of what hypocritical behaviors, attitudes, and styles of relating do Christians in our day need to repent?

2. African American converts understood that they needed Jesus because they were sinners, not simply because they were sufferers. As we present the Gospel today, do we present Jesus primarily as the healer of our hurts, or as the Savior of our sins?

3. Specifically, what can we learn from our African American forebears about biblically presenting Christ’s Gospel?

[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

The Journey: Day Thirteen--It's Wonderful to Be Forgiven

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Thirteen: It’s Wonderful to Be Forgiven

Welcome to day thirteen of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Thirteen: It’s Wonderful to Be Forgiven[1]

*Continued from Day Twelve . . .

Positioned in front of the firing squad, Chaplain White asks Private Mapps one last time, “Do you feel that Jesus will be with you?”

“Yes,” he replies.

“Do you put all your trust in him?”

“I do,” is his answer.

“Do you believe that you will be saved?”

“I do; for though they may destroy my body, they cannot hurt my soul.”

White then prays this benediction. “Eternal God, the Master of all the living and Judge of all the dead, we commit this our dying comrade into thy hands from whence he came. Now, O my Lord and my God, for thy Son’s sake, receive his soul unto thyself in glory. Forgive, him—forgive, O thou Blessed Jesus, for thou didst die for all mankind, and bid them to come unto thee, and partake of everlasting life. Save him, Lord—save him, for none can save but thee, and thee alone. Amen. Good-by, my brother, good-by.”

The order is now given: “Ready! Aim! Fire!” All earthly life extinguished. Eternal life commences.

White brilliantly, lovingly, and scripturally enlightened Mapps to see that it’s horrible to sin, but wonderful to be forgiven. Skillfully he wove together ancient Scripture and pressing need.

Turning of Heart

Private Mapps’ response to Chaplain White’s death-bed ministry offers one example of how God reconciled an African American to Himself. Through interviews, slave narratives, autobiographies, and letters, we are fortunate to have a multitude of first-hand accounts of personal conversion experiences.

These vivid descriptions help us to understand the literal turning of heart (metanoia—repentance, change of mind), transformation of identity, and reorientation of personhood that occurred at the salvation of African Americans. We have much to learn from them about how to witness to any oppressed, marginalized people, how to explain the need for a Savior, how to encourage repentance, how to offer the grace of forgiveness, and how to explain the changes that occur in one’s nurture and nature at salvation.

Learning Together From Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. Like Chaplain White, how can you weave together ancient Scripture and pressing modern needs?

2. What change of mind and heart took place in your life at your point of salvation?

[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

The Journey: Day Twelve--Sitting on the Casket

The Journey: Forty Days of Promise
Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity

Day Twelve: Sitting on the Casket

Welcome to day twelve of our forty-day intercultural journey. From Martin Luther King Day to the end of Black History Month we are focusing on The Journey: Forty Days of Promise—Celebrating the Legacy of African American Christianity.

Day Twelve: Sitting on the Casket[1]

On a quiet battlefield night at 10:00 p.m., the Orderly from Brigadier General Charles S. Russell came to Garland H. White’s tent, woke him up, and handed him an order. The bleary-eyed African American chaplain squinted as he read the handwritten missive.

“Rev. Garland H. White, Chaplain of the 28th U.S. Colored Troops: Sir:—You are requested to call upon Samuel Mapps, private in Co. D, 10th U.S.C.T, now under sentence of death, and now confined in the Bull-pen, to prepare him to meet his Savior. By official orders, Gen. C. S. Russell.”

Reverend White was an escaped slave now serving as chaplain of a black regiment from Indiana. He was one of only fourteen African American chaplains commissioned in the Union Army. Later he became a Methodist minister—his battlefield ministry providing hands-on training better than any seminary ever could.

Like white soldiers, some of the black troops ran afoul of military law. Private Mapps was convicted of trying to murder his captain. It was Chaplain White’s responsibility to tell Mapps of his fate and to prepare him for death—and life after death.

Knowing this, White immediately puts pen to paper. “Gen. C. S. Russell, Commanding this Post: Sir:—I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your order respecting my visiting Private Samuel Mapps, Co. D., 10th U.S.C.T. In reply, I would say I will comply promptly, and do all in my power to point him to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Yours, G. H. White, Chaplain.”

Loading the Conscience with Guilt: It’s Horrible to Sin

Meeting Mapps at the prison, White inquires, “Well, my friend, how stands your case?” Mapps begins to plead his innocence and enters into a lengthy discussion of his trial. White promptly shifts the focus. “I came to see you, not to discuss a point of law as to the nature of your trial and decision, for that is all useless, my friend, and I must tell you that today, at 12 o’clock you will be executed—yes, you will be shot. Now, let you and myself kneel down and address a throne of grace where you may obtain mercy and help in time of need.”

No beating around the bush. No chit-chat. All business. All salvation business.

Mapps complies and prays fervently, after which White reads several passages of Scripture, and sings a hymn Jesus, Lover of My Soul. Some historians falsely conclude that African Americans generally converted to a generic God. Nothing could be further from the truth in Mapps’ case and in the vast majority of conversion narratives. Mapps and millions of others specifically converted to Christ based upon a biblical understanding of who he is—Savior, and who they were—sinners.

White was not naïve. Realizing that Scripture reading, prayer, and singing were only preparatory to personal response, he then “spent some time in reasoning upon what he thought about religion.” To which Mapps candidly replies, “It is very good, and I wish I had it.” White next cites in plain terms the case of the dying thief who surrendered his life to Christ while hanging next to him on a cross. This gives Mapps hope. They then pray again and Mapps seems relieved.

Sitting on the Casket

At this moment the wagon with a squad of guards appears before the door. Mapps does not see them; White does. While Mapps continues to pray fervently, an officer enters announcing that the time has come “to repair to the place of execution.”

White writes that “I told him to stand up and walk with me. I took his arm, and went out to the gate where thousands of persons had assembled to see him. He entered the wagon, and sat on his coffin. I then got in with him, took a seat by his side, and commenced talking and praying all the way . . .”

What a picture! We talk about climbing in the casket to enter another’s agony. Chaplain White sits on the casket to share Mapps’ dying experience.

Learning Together From Our Great Cloud of Witnesses

1. What can you apply to your ministry from Chaplain White’s reconciling ministry to Private Mapps?

2. Like Chaplain White, how can we be “all salvation business”?


[1]Excerpted, modified from, and quoted from Kellemen and Edwards, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Purchase your copy at 40% off for only $10.00 at www.rpmministries.org.

Common Themes in African American Acceptance of Christ

Common Themes in African American Acceptance of Christ

Note: Excerpted from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, by Kellemen and Edwards

During slavery, if spiritually famished African Americans were going to convert to Christianity, then they had to convert on the basis of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as revealed in the Bible, not on the basis of Christianity revealed in the lifestyles of the Christians they knew. Ironically, to find redemption in Christ, African Americans had to redeem Christianity as they saw it practiced. “By some amazing but vastly creative spiritual insight the slave undertook the redemption of a religion that the master had profaned in his midst.”[i]

Christ’s suffering for humanity’s sin was the key that unlocked their hearts and enlightened their eyes. “Jesus quickly became the ardent personification of the slaves’ own suffering.”[ii] Their suffering at the hands of Christians caused them to identify with a suffering Savior who suffered at the hands of religious leaders.

At the same time, African American Christians clearly recognized and constantly emphasized the difference between Christ’s sinlessness and their personal need for forgiveness from sin. The recurring theme of the conversion narratives was salvation from sin, not from suffering. Yes, Christ shared with them the experience of unjust suffering. But more importantly, they shared in Christ’s suffering for their sins.

The Sin of Slavery and the Slavery of Sin

Pastor James W. C. Pennington, reflecting on his conversion, seamlessly expresses his understanding of suffering and of sin. Without minimizing for a moment the evils of slavery, he maximizes for all eternity the horrors of his own enslavement to sin and Satan.

"I was a lost sinner and a slave to Satan; and soon I saw that I must make another escape from another tyrant. I did not by any means forget my fellow-bondmen, of whom I had been sorrowing so deeply, and travailing in spirit so earnestly; but I now saw that while man had been injuring me, I had been offending God; and that unless I ceased to offend him, I could not expect to have his sympathy in my wrongs; and moreover, that I could not be instrumental in eliciting his powerful aid in behalf of those for whom I mourned so deeply" (Pennington).[iii]

Rejecting the “slaveholding gospel” of the institutional Church of that era, the enslaved African Americans gave birth to a regenerated Christianity that reflected fundamental Christian doctrine while maintaining compatible African traditions. Their cultural practice of biblical Christianity provided the new orientation toward existence that they needed given their shattered external circumstances and sinful internal nature. It created the new narrative of present resilience made possible by a Savior who suffered with them because they were sinned against. It also created the new narrative of future hope made possible by a Savior who suffered for them because they were sinners.

Their focus offers an indispensable caution for all soul physicians. While we are called to sustain and heal people in their suffering, if we neglect to address their sinning, if we fail to offer reconciling, then we may enable people to become more self-sufficient sinners. Such one-sided ministry attempts to empower people to live this life more successfully while giving them little incentive to turn to Christ’s resurrection power for eternal life later and abundant life now. We should shudder at the thought.


[i] Thurman, Deep River, p. 36.
[ii] Andrews, Practical Theology, p. 18.
[iii] Pennington, “The Fugitive Blacksmith,” in Katz, Five Slave Narratives, p. 52, emphasis added.

Tank Johnson and Historical Spiritual Care

Tank Johnson and Historical Spiritual Care

Those who read my Blog and my books know my conviction that history is relevant today. Even more, they/you know my conviction that the history of spiritual care is relevant to how we relate to one another today.

Today, I’m going to prove it.

The Bears’ Crisis

Most of my readers will be unaware of the “crisis” with the Chicago Bears’ football team brought on by one of their best players, Tank Johnson. A week ago, police raided Johnson’s home, finding a cache of firearms. Booked and released on bond, he awaits a trial. It is America: Johnson is innocent until proven guilty/convicted in a court of law.

Problems mounted and tragedy ensued two days later when Johnson’s body guard was murdered in a shooting at a local Chicago bar.

You ask, “How in the world does this relate to the history of soul care???”

Keep reading.

Tanking Tank?

The debate in Chicago sports pages now is whether or not Tank should be tanked by the Bears. Some say that the Bears should get Tank some help and get him back on the team. Others say that the Bears are embarrassing (emBEARrassing, perhaps?) themselves by keeping him around.

In fact, ever-bitter and biting Chicago Tribune columnist, Rick Morrissey, lampoons the Bears and questions the integrity of their head coach (Lovie Smith) and general manager (Jerry Angelo). Here’s what Morrissey has to say:

“I’d like to say Tank Johnson should have been sent packing by now, but I’m afraid he would take that to mean he should pack some heat. Why Johnson isn’t already a former Bear is a complete mystery, unless it’s that the organization likes being embarrassed, disrespected or played for a fool by its players. Or unless it’s that coach Lovie Smith has sold his soul for a chance to win a Super Bowl. . . . If Smith is concerned the rest of the team will think he has deserted Johnson if he waives him, then he has no concept of right and wrong. He should be very concerned right now that his team and his city believe he has no spine. If Johnson does play again this season, it will show exactly how far Smith will go to win games. . . . I see an opportunity for Smith and general manager Jerry Angelo to show they have trace levels of principles” (Chicago Tribune, http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-061216morrissey,1,3518618.column?coll=cs-bears-headlines accessed December 19, 2006).

Don’t get me started on the arrogance of Morrissey daring to question whether Smith has “trace levels of principles.” And don’t get me started on Morrissey totally misunderstanding the little matter of Unions, Contracts, and Procedures, not to mention that little issue of “innocent until proven guilty.” Because, moving in those directions would move this Blog to the Sports’ page and off the “Truth for Life” Blog page.

How History Replies to Tank’s Story

But do get me started thinking with you about how the history of soul care and spiritual direction might offer some guidance in this debate over how a team (organization, family, friends) might want to respond to an issue like this.

Those who would follow only the soul care (sustaining and healing) side of historic spiritual care, would insists that Tank Johnson should not be tanked. He should be cuddled, coddled, encouraged, grieved with, and rehabilitated.

Those who would follow only the spiritual direction (reconciling and guiding) side of historic spiritual care, would, like Morrissey, call for Tank’s instant removal from the team. He should be confronted, busted, exposed, exhorted, and released.

However, those who follow both the soul care and the spiritual direction side of historic spiritual car, would, like Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo, attempt to sustain, heal, reconcile, and guide Tank Johnson. They, like Tank’s friends on the Bears, are grieving with Johnson over the death of his friend. They are recognizing also that they have a social, family, organizational responsibility to “get Tank help.” They are not “winking at his problems” nor “excusing his sins.” However, they see him as a human being who is messed up and causing messes and needs healing.

At the same time, people like Lovie Smith, Jerry Angelo, and Johnson’s Bears’ teammates, also understand that Johnson needs to be disciplined. And, he has been. He has been deactivated from his livelihood. Further discipline, within the confines of NFL Union contractual obligations, are being discussed and considered. He certainly is being confronted, both publicly and privately. He is also being guided; he is being given the sort of counsel, direction, and advice necessary to clean up his life. He has been told in no uncertain terms what right behavior and wrong behavior is in his specific situation. The law has been laid down; he has been told what is acceptable and unacceptable activity.

I am not an apologist for the Chicago Bears’ organization, nor for Lovie Smith or Jerry Angelo. That’s not my point. Nor am I claiming that they are somehow consciously following historic sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding. Of course not.

I am saying, that we can map their response, and the responses suggested by others, such as the serpent-tongued Morrissey, using the GPS of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding.

Every encounter with another human being involves some combination of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding. The question always is, “What is the most effective combination and implementation of each in a given situation?”

Yep, Tank Johnson and the Church Fathers do relate. Yep, history is relevant today. Yep, the history of soul care and spiritual direction do help us to make wise people decisions today.

"If"

"If"

Amy Carmichael (1868-1951) ministered as a missionary in India for over fifty years, writing thirty-five books. Perhaps her most "famous" and powerful book was the concise "If." In "If," Amy asks brief questions about our spiritual life and personal relationships, then asks whether our lives are reflecting Calvary love.

In studying "If" for my book on the history of women's soul care, I saw a number of striking examples of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding. I share just a few snippets and samplers with you to whet your appetite.

Sustaining Ifs

"If I have not compassion on my fellow-servant, even as my Lord had pity on me, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

"If I sympathize weakly with weakness, and say to one who is turning back from the cross, 'Pity thyself'; if I refuse such a one the sympathy that braces and the brave heartening word of comradeship, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

These are powerful challenges. I am asking myself, "Do I sympathize weakly with the weaknesses of others, or do I weep deeply with those who weep?" "Do I empower others to have a brave heart through spiritual comradeship, or do I shrink away from them and their struggles?"

Healing Ifs

"There are times when something comes into our lives which is charged with love in such a way that it seems to open the Eternal to us for a moment, or at least some of the Eternal Things, and the greatest of these is love."

"If the care of a soul (or a community) be entrusted to me, and I consent to subject it to weakening influences, because the voice of the world--my immediate Christian world--fills my ears, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

I am asking myself, "Am I listening to and speaking the voice of the Eternal Word, or am I listening to and speaking the voice of earthly things?"

Reconciling Ifs

"If I am perturbed by the reproach and misundertanding that may follow action taken taken for the good of souls for whom I must give an account; if I cannot commit the matter and go on in peace and in silence, remembering Gethsemane and the cross, then I know noting of Calvary love."

"If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, 'You do not understand,' or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other's highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

I am asking myself, "Do I have the courage to confront my brother or sister in love or am I blunting the truth out of selfish fear and thus refusing to speak the truth in love?"

Guiding Ifs

"If I do not look with eyes of hope on all in whom there is even a faint beginning, as our Lord did, when, just after His disciples had wrangled about which of them should be accounted the greatest, He softened His rebuke with those heart-melting words, 'Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations,' then I know nothing of Calvary love."

"If I have not the patience of my Saviour with souls who grow slowly; if I know little of travail (a sharp and painful thing) till Christ be formed fully in them, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

I am asking myself, "Do I see the buried image of God in my spiritual friends and patiently fan into flame the gifts of God in them, or do I impatiently believe the worse about my spiritual friends?"

Counsels of Perfection

Some have "accused" Amy Carmichael of being guilty of "counsels of perfection" with these "if/then" statements. That is, they think that she was being too hard on herself and her readers; driving them to perfectionistic Christianity.

I disagree. I would call them counsel of perfections in the same sense that the Apostle Paul used the word "perfection" to mean "the pursuit of Christ-like maturity."

Amy was passionate about pursuing Christ-like maturity personally and about helping those to whom she ministered to do the same. Am I?

If not, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

My Story of Spiritual Friendship

My Story of Spiritual Friendship

In many ways, I entered the ministry of spiritual friendship "kicking and screaming." In fact, I entered the "people-helping" field in that resistive fashion.

Three decades ago, I entered seminary on the typical pastoral track of preaching the Word. Unfortunately, that track often meant, and meant in my case at the time, that I would preach the Word from the pulpit, but then stay comfortably far enough away from using the Word personally with individuals.

Christ's Plans

Christ had other plans. And He does work, as they say, work in mysterious ways. My older brother, an agnostic at the time, learned that I needed money to pay for seminary (what a novel need). He said, "Bob, you're going to be a pastor-person. Pastor-persons work with people. Why not work at the local psychiatric inpatient unit?"

The rest, as they say, is history. But quite a jagged, ragged, criss-crossing history.

Four years of work on a "psych unit" altered the course of my life ministry. However, it took another trail of tears to move me from "psychological people helping" to spiritual friendship.

During the last of my four years in seminary, "counsel wars" erupted between rival factions at the seminary. They debated the proper way to offer Christian counseling (though their debates were far less "Christian" than one might have hoped).

I kept thinking during these debates, battles, skirmishes, and wars, "But no one is talking about what happened for 2,000 years before the advent of the modern Christian counseling movement!" That question, once again, altered the course of my life's ministry.

Spiritual Trek and Sovereign Stumbling

Starting then, and continuing for over a quarter-century (and still continuing), I began examining the history of spiritual friendship. I sovereignly stumbled upon the twin concepts of soul care and spiritual direction and the four core spiritual care concepts identified as "sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding." Once alerted to their existence, I found them everywhere in every "model" of people helping. Together, they offer a "balanced," comprehensive, and comprehendible approach to helping people spiritually.

Sustaining

Working with these historic spiritual friendship motifs, I developed a thread or theme for each. Sustaining: "It's normal to hurt." It highlights biblical care through empathic connection, soul-to-soul, with another image bearer. I picture it as "climbing in the casket," the macabre image reminding me to enter the death-like separation and despairing soul situations of my directees.

Healing

The thread of healing calls out: "It's possible to hope." If sustaining climbs in the casket, then healing "celebrates the empty tomb." Healing is scriptural care through encouraging communion, soul-to-soul, with another human being. It works with the Spirit of God to shepherd people to move beyond the suffering to a place of healing hope.

Reconciling

The theme of reconciling expresses the human cry for redemption: "It's horrible to sin, but wonderful to be forgiven." It "speaks the truth in love." Reconciling is spiritual friendship through exposing the awfulness of sin and the separation that it brings, while always remembering that where "sin abounds, grace superabounds."

Guiding

The motif of guiding, perhaps most often associated in people's minds with spiritual direction, says "It's supernatural to mature." Every directee is ultimately motivated by the desire, the passion, for spiritual growth. What promotes such growth? Not what, but Who?

God.

He supernaturally works within the human soul. The work of the director is summarized by the image of "fanning into flame the gift of God." The directee, already in the process of sustaining, healing, and reconciling, has all that he or she needs to live the spiritual life. Those gifts simply need to be fanned into flame.

Life Changing

The ministry of spiritual friendship has changed my life. This "model" is what God "uses" in my own spiritual walk. Thus, through Him, I am being transformed bit-by-bit, day-by-day as He sustains, heals, reconciles, and guides my faith.

The ministry of spiritual friendship has changed my ministry. This "model" allows me to restfully engage directees confident that there is a God-ordained path to follow. Not a GPS that tells me when and where to turn at every intersection. Rather, a map with compass points. These directional markers of SHRG (sustaining, healing, reconciling, guiding) provide directions for this spiritual director to confidently, calmly head, under the direction of the ultimate Spiritual Director.

What's Your Story?

What's you story of spiritual friendship? Feel free to e-mail me your story (bob.kellemen@gmail.com), or to post your story in the comment section below this Blog entry.

Converging Streams, Mighty River

Converging Streams, Mighty River

Biblical counseling today is moving onto the right path. Perhaps a little history lesson (stay with me, history can be fasincation, honest; and I did say little") would be helpful.

One Anothering Spiritual Friendship

Long before our current debates about what makes biblical counseling "biblical," New Testament writers spoke about "one anothering." Every believer was to love one another, encourage one another, confront one another, disciple one another, etc.

Biblical counseling is nothing more, nothing lss, than biblical one anothering.

In the long stream of Church history, for centuries this one anothering became known as spiritual friendship. Not only did pastors and theologians provide spiritual friendship for lay people, but lay people provided it for pastors and theologians.

Various streams of spiritual friendship converged and merged into four mighty tributaries along two prominent rivers (to continued our river analogy):

*Soul Care: Comforting the Suffering

*Sustaining: Empathizing--"It's Normal to Hurt"
*Healing: Encouraging--"It's Possible to Hope"

*Spiritual Direction: Challenging the Sinning

*Reconciling: Exhorting--"It's Horrible to Sin/Wonderful to Be Forgiven"
*Guiding: Empowering--"It's Supernatural to Mature"

Other Flowing Rivers

Throughout Church history, Christians faced and interacted with non-Christian ways of people helping. At times, Christians rejected all such "worldly" ways of helping. At other times, they chose to use the language of the day, while keeping the biblical concepts. At still other times, they decided to merge certain principles from the world with principles from the Word. (This is an all-too-broad summary, but I did say a "little" history lesson.)

Beginning with modern secular psychology, many Christians leaders replaced historic one anothering with secular theory. (This is another very broad generalization. However, unlike the preceding 1850 years, history does demonstrate a major surrender of historic bibical counseling themes from 1850 to 1950, especially among American and European White Protestants.)

The Modern/Post-Modern Thread

Here's where the story gets really fascinating.

In the 1960s and 70s, several biblical counseling movements launched attempts to reclaim the mantle of people helping. Unfortunately, like many such movements that are a reaction against something, they tended to be unbalanced.

One such movement tended to focus predominantly on reconciling and guiding through confronting sin. It was biblical in that exhorting people to escape sin is biblical. However, what it gained on the truth side of one anothering, it lost on the love side.

Another such movement tended to focus on sustaining and healing through comforting the suffering. It was biblical in that encouraging suffering people is biblical. However, what it gained on the love side of one anothering, it lost on the truth side.

Counsel Wars

For the next half century, these two competing models did just that--they competed. Often, they did so with less civility than the on-looking secular world. To this day, these counsel wars continue . . . sadly.

Go to the Internet, read Blogs, type in certain names, and you will find each side claiming that the other side is filled with "psychoheretics."

One side accuses the other side of the psychoheresy of the failure to love the suffering. They call them "relational heretics." They say that their opponents fail the test of orthopraxy (biblical love).

Another side accuses the other side of the psychoheresy of the failure to confront the sinning. They call them "theological heretics." They say that their opponents fail the test of orthodoxy (biblical truth).

Converging Streams

Fortunately, the two side, at times, are merging and bringing the best of both worlds while losing the worse of the world.

Why is this happening now?

Mainly because history is in vogue once again among Christians. Protestant Christians in particular, who for nearly 500-years avoided history and traditon for fear (terror) that it might smack of "Romish Ritual and Human Tradition," are now recognizing that the Holy Spirit has a history.

Returning to the Bible and Church history, Protestants are unearthing the embedded stream of spiritual friendship with its twin tributaries of soul care and spiritual direction.

Once again, one anothering that values truth and love, that focuses on suffering and sinning, and that appreciates sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding is rising to the surface and winning the day.

How incredible!

In other words, biblical one anothering spiritual friendship is flowing again like a mighty river.

So What?

What does this have to do with you? I did, after all, call this Blog a history lesson. A few questions to ponder can help us to apply today's history lesson.

1. As you evaluate current models of people helping, ask, "Does this model exhibit all four streams (sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding)?"

2. As you think about the church where you are a member, ask, "Does it exhibit all four streams? If not, what could I do to help?"

3. As you reflect upon your own way of offering spiritual friendship, ask, "Do I exhibit all four streams?"

4. As you interact about current models of people helping, ask, "Am I interacting in a spirit of speaking the truth in love?"

Let's finally "get it right" by practicing orthopraxy and orthodoxy in our one anothering spiritual friendships by speaking the truth in love through biblical and historical soul care and spiritual direction.

Musings on Biblical Counseling: Teaching an Old Dog, New Tricks

Musings on Biblical Counseling

In seeking to launch the Biblical Counseling and Spiritual Formation Network (BCSFN), I’ve invited over 100 “experts” from various backgrounds. Many e-mails have been quite encouraging.

However, one, from a leader in the field, who has never met me and really did not even know of me until my invitation, was disappointing. I wasn’t so much disappointed in what he said about me. I was more disappointed because what he said spoke volumes about his practice of his model of counseling. I won’t even go into what he said. Let’s just say that it was negative and confrontational.

I began to ponder this e-mail from a biblical counseling perspective. Step one in any biblical model of communication involves earning the right to communicate. Solomon reminds us that the wounds of a FRIEND are faithful. The Hebrew word for “friend” literally means “lover”—one who has demonstrated love for you. I was not “feeling the love” from this stranger. Not having established a friendship with me, biblically, his words were not “faithful wounds.”

Another common “step” in biblical counseling is data collection. After opening his e-mail with the words, “"I did not know of you before your e-mail,” he continued by confronting the motives behind the launch. Mind you, he did not interact about the lengthy document attached. It made me think, “If I had some questions about a complete stranger’s motives, would I drop them like a bomb? Or, would I ask questions to clarify, before confronting from a lack of knowledge?”

Another core aspect of biblical counseling is humility. Paul warns that those who seek to help a stumbling brother should do so in a spirit of meekness. They should demonstrate a conscious awareness of their own frailty, failings, and fallenness (Galatians 6:1-3). In this, Paul amplifies the words of Jesus regarding looking at the two-by-four in my eye before pointing out the sawdust in my brother’s eye. So, I thought, “How would I have wished for this brother to have responded to me, if he had questions about the motivation and sincerity of the BCSFN launch?”

First, if it were me, I doubt that I would have used e-mail which is notorious for miscommunication of tone and tenor. Second, whether by e-mail, phone, or in person, I would have liked for the brother to say, “Wow, what an intriguing endeavor. More power to you in trying to develop a network of biblical counselors and spiritual friends. However, I have some questions. Some things that potentially raise some red flag. I don’t mean to be judgmental nor condescending, so, could we dialogue a bit—some good old fashion give and take?” That would have been inviting. And humble.

Additionally, true biblical counseling is “holistic.” It seeks to sustain (“It’s normal to hurt”), heal (“It’s possible to hope”), reconcile (“It’s horrible to sin, but wonderful to be forgiven”) and guide (“It’s supernatural to mature”). My sense with this e-mail was that the approach was only one-half of one aspect of true biblical counseling. Its focus was on “It’s horrible when YOU sin!” There wasn’t any reconciling grace. Nor any guiding grace.

The approach of this e-mailer actually clarified further, even after a quarter-century of biblical counseling, the goal of biblical counseling. The goal of biblical counseling is NOT to spot sin. That is one sign post along the journey, not the destination itself.

The ultimate goal of biblical counseling, spiritual formation, and of life, is to fulfill the Great Commandment: to love God and love one another. We glorify God as we exalt Him BY enjoying Him and His children.

In biblical counseling, we glorify God as we help others to become more like Christ by exposing grace: we are to “spot grace.” In Romans 5-6, Paul reminds us that where sin abounds, grace superabounds. Counseling that has as its main goal to “spot sin” falls short of the glory of God. It falls short of glorifying God.

When we expose sin, it is an intermediate step toward exposing the grace that forgives, which in turn is an intermediate step in exposing the grace that guides—that empowers us to supernaturally mature. Biblical counseling with Christian seeks to stir up the grace-gift of God that God has placed in His regenerated children so that they love God and others better so that God is rightfully glorified.

So, what mood could the e-mailer have set if his goal were to “spot grace” and stir up the gift of God? What biblical and historical “method” could he have followed if his goal was to glorify God? Maybe something like this. . . .

“Wow, I bet launching this BCSFN is a wild and difficult endeavor fraught with risks” (sustaining).

“I’m praying for you that by God’s grace and by clinging to His Word, you and the team that God calls together will find His hope and peace and power” (healing).

“I do wonder if I see some red flags. If so, could we talk about a more godly way to go about this, and about God’s grace to forgive any sinful ways that might have crept in?” (reconciling).

“Most importantly, could I join you in the journey, as a co-laborer, if not with the BCSFN, at least in your life, helping you to be the most loving leader of the BCSFN that you can be?” (guiding).

“Because, more than anything, I want to see God glorified as you and your team love Him and love others well, and as you equip others to disciple people to love well” (the ultimate goal of true biblical counseling).

It’s amazing what an e-mail about biblical counseling can teach a biblical counselor. I guess that you really can teach an old dog (me) new tricks. You can even do it by throwing some rather distasteful bones at the old dog—because God can take our bones and use them for His best—to nourish us so that we glorify Him.