Showing posts with label evangelicals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evangelicals. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Therapy as defined by James

In chapter seven of his book, The Great Giveaway, David Fitch writes...

“Evangelicals, like all Christians, need therapy. We need a therapy as defined by the epistle of James: “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed…” We need therapy to unwind our pasts, uncover our sins, receive forgiveness, and then forgive.. We need therapy that intervenes by speaking the truth in love into our lives when we are blinded from seeing our own sinful patterns, interventions akin to the old Christian Anabaptist practices of “binding and loosing” where two or three gather to confront on truth (Matt. 18:15-20).

“To do this kind of ‘therapy’ we need safe and confidential places in our churches to confess, discern, receive scriptural admonition and wisdom, and support and edify one another…

You can read more from this chapter here. One of Fitch's concerns is that we've replaced true pastoral counsel (which knows what sin is) with therapeutic models from a variety of sources.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Cosmopolitan Evangelicals


In an article in the latest Out of Ur newsletter, Skye Jethani mentions, Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power, who refers to many current Christians as "Cosmopolitan Evangelicals."
They...
  • reject signifiers of "populist" Christianity, such as the Left Behind books and Thomas Kinkade paintings.
  • are less involved in local churches, but highly involved with parachurch organizations.
  • may not theologically agree with same-sex civil unions, but they don't see them as an assault on the culture.
  • remain definitively pro-life.
  • are more engaged with matters of local and global justice. AIDS, poverty, and human rights have been added to "traditional family values" in their set of concerns.
  • recognize the legitimacy of environmental matters and view them through the theological lense of "creation stewardship."
Does this sound like the sort of people you have - or would like to have - in your church? Or are these the sorts of Christians you know don't come to church in your area?