My Theological Worldview, Part 2

Took a QuizFarm quiz a while back about my Theological Worldview. The results from that original assessment are here.

So here’s what my answers from tonight’s re-taking yielded:

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern, in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern		82%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		79%
Neo orthodox		61%
Classical Liberal		54%
Roman Catholic		54%
Reformed Evangelical		50%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		43%
Modern Liberal		36%
Fundamentalist		14%

What’s your theological worldview?
(created with QuizFarm.com)

So how have I changed?

• Emergent/Pomo … +9%
• Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan … +11%
• Neo-orthodox … -7%
• Classical Liberal … +11%
• Roman Catholic … +4%
• Reformed Evangelical … -4%
• Charismatic/Pentecostal … +14%
• Modern Liberal … -7%
• Fundamentalist … -11%

Biggest change: I’m 14% more Charismatic/Pentecostal than I was 9 months ago. Didn’t see that one coming.

Catalyst 2007 - Rick Warren

“God’s Agenda”

• If you want God’s blessing on your life, then you have to get with God’s agenda. 1st line of PDL: “It’s not about you.”
  • Stop praying “God, bless me.” Instead: “God, help me to do what you’re doing.”
• The Kingdom is the single biggest image in the New Testament.
  • Where is it? Wherever Jesus is king… Heaven, earth, within you…
  • What is it? God’s people fulfilling God’s purposes on God’s planet for God’s glory
• Cf. Matthew 25: If you want Christ to come back just get out and start sharing your faith
  • The disciples always wanted to talk about prophecy and signs; Jesus wanted to talk about evangelism.
• God’s agenda is the church.
  • What if someone said, “I like you but I just can’t stand your wife (or body)?”
• God created the entire universe just so He could create a galaxy just so He could create a solar system just so He could create a planet just so He could create an ecosystem… just so He could create a human that would choose to love Him and He could love the human back.
• Your parents may not have loved/wanted you, but God did, and he made sure you had the ability to love them back, and in turn love Him.
• God is a creator. You are most like God when you are creating. So stop trying to change culture. Create it.
• The Moses “Staff to Snake to Staff” story
  • Why is that in the Bible?
  • Hint- When God asks you a question, it’s not for His benefit.
  • Likewise, when God does a miracle, it’s to teach a truth.
  • Moses’ Staff
    • His identification as a shepherd. Who he was
    • Symbol of Moses’ income. What he had
    • Symbol of Moses’ influence (over sheep :P). What he did
    • Take your ID/influence/income and throw it down.
    • God: “And if you surrender it to me I will make it come alive like you’ve never imagined. And every time you pick it up again, it’ll go dead.”
    • From that point forward, Moses’ staff is always referred to as the Rod of God… it pops up in the 10 Commandments, the Red Sea, Pharaoh, simply all over the Pentateuch
    • So: What’s in your wallet hand?

Warren’s Response to the Moses’ Staff Story

• After writing Purpose Driven Life, an AIDS trip where he accompanied his wife really turned him around.
• “What’s in my hand?” - Affluence
  • I Corinthians 9 - “It’s ok to get paid for preaching, but I wanna do it for free so no one can doubt my motives.”
  • Not gonna spend the money on myself
  • Not gonna take a salary from the church
  • Gonna give salary back for 25 years
  • Gonna set up AIDS and poverty charities
  • Gonna become reverse tithers (give 90%, live on 10%)
  • “There’s a bumper sticker that says ‘Honk if you love Jesus!’ Well I wanna make one that says ‘Tithe if you love Jesus, any fool can honk!’”
• “What’s in my hand?” - Influence
  • Psalm 72 - “Solomon’s prayer for more influence. It sounds more selfish than good ol’ Jabez! Solomon was already the wealthiest, wisest man on the planet.”
  • But it’s only selfish until you read the purpose: “So that the king may help the orphaned and marginalized…”
  • “I want to use my power for these people to speak up for those who have no influence.”

Catalyst 2007 - unChristian

A moderated discussion with Tri Robinson, Chris Seay, Dave Kinnaman, and Gabe Lyons, on Kinnaman’s & Lyon’s new book unChristian.

• Why does our revelation to others that we’re Christians bring such rejection?
• unChristian set out to scientifically document perceptions of and attitudes towards Christians. Over 10,000 interviews were conducted.
  • Top perceptions: Anti-gay, Judgmental, Hypocritical, Sheltered, Too political, Proselytizers
  • NonChristians 16-29 years old are 8x less favorable about Christians than their Boomer parents
  • unChristian is not an opinion poll to see how we should act… we still have the Bible for that.
• “We’re not hated for righteousness, but for self-righteousness.” Dave Kinnaman (DK)
• “On ‘Oh, this is nothing but media bias…’: Research shows that 16-29 y/o’s have 5 Christian friends, 6 months experience among a church community, a majority have at least considered what it means to follow Christianity, etc. They’ve been up close and personal and have some very real things to say.” Gabe Lyons (GL)
• “They have personal stories to back up their perceptions of Christians as hypocritical, shallow, etc.” (DK)
• “This generation is slipping away from us. If we sit back and assume our world’s going to Hell, and just leave it alone… well, we just can’t be like that.” (GL)
• There’s been a surge of people identifying themselves as ‘Christ-followers’ and other similar terms, instead of ‘Christian’. “We need to be redeeming the term ‘Christian’, showing all the things we’re for.” (DK)
• If Jesus were physically among us again, “his focus would not be on morality… it would be on God and the Creator. If you focus on morality, Romans ultimately tells you you won’t get morality. unChristian is not despair of where we’re at, but hope of where we can be.” Chris Seay (CS)
• “Before we’re gonna change our culture, we’ve gotta change our own hearts.” Tri Robinson (TR)
• “It’s wrong to preach a message about social justice or giving water or feeding the poor without providing an outlet for people to go and put it into action. We need a path to run on and it’s the role of the church to provide that path.” (TR)
• “Christians today are waiting for their leaders to say its ok to care for the environment.” (TR)
• “It comes down to our character. So far, the right answers have produced the wrong character. We have to own some of that.” (CS)
• “In those perceptions are tremendous opportunities. They [nonChristians] are smart & savvy. They do remember. They’re begging for chances and deep conversations to wrestle with their doubts. They’re absolutely waiting to be awakened to God’s purposes. They could change the world, we just have to get out of the way.” (DK)
• “Spirituality is at an all-time high, but they’re not finding it in Christianity. It’s not just an image problem. It’s not that you have to five yup the truth. You just have to hold it in tension as you engage people that are different than us, that are anti-us.” (GL)
• “I feel that there is a major major trend coming. Let’s talk about the things we agree on. There are so many organizations that are on the same page that don’t know each other exist. Let’s draw the gifting into one place.” (TR)
• “They don’t recognize the ‘fruits of the Spirit’ in Christians. The generation is skeptical of us. What will we do? Will we hole up? Do we draw a line in the sand? How could we embody that grace and truth that Jesus tells us he is?” (DK)