A Brit friend of mine Jason Clark is starting a new journey toward a PhD. He just finished his DMin. at George Fox University in 2006. His interest: TheoConsumerism. He wrote a post on his blog, back in June ‘06, about how the narrative of a lot of folk’s lives is “Happiness,” and that God has become a consumer choice.

When I read that, a bit late I must admit, it was written in June ‘06, I thought: Instead of Christian, the new cultural religion could be called “Happian,” and one could become part of “Happianity.” Just adding the little suffix “ian” to Christ makes it take on the meaning: “Of, relating to, or resembling” the main word. This may go all the way back to Antioch (Acts 11) where the populous of Antioch simply added a Latin suffix to the Greek word christos and the word Christian, in English, was born.

So today, I offer a new word, at least I can’t find in in Google, “happinity” and christen it as the official religion of the West, maybe even including the Western Church with its many “How to Be Happy in…” sermon series. (more…)

I know, I know. I don’t look a day older than 64. And as of this writing and the picture to your right, I’m not. This has been a wonderful year. Several great events happened. First, I made it another year, heart stints and all. During the early part of the year I finished my Doctor of Ministry project and then graduated from George Fox University in April. Actually, today in 2003 I started that doctoral journey.

I have always liked helping others and one of the great delights has been to coach a fellow cohortian from GFU through his dissertation. His penultimate will be turned in August 28, the deadline, Lord willin’ and the creeks don’t rise! In addition, I helped two other friends get their book finished for their publisher and now it’s out.

In addition, I have been added to the part-time faculty of Bakke Graduate University in Seattle. So all in all, it has been a pretty good year since I last had a birthday.

I am on all kinds of mailing lists and receive lots of emails a day peddling the wears of the sender. Some good offers and some not so good. Today, I received an email offering a huge collection of sermons, some in the form of sermon starters. Most of what was advertised in the advertisement was topical, which gives rise to topicalitis, a common and somewhat contagious “preacher disease” that has engulfed the American clergy and is often the sum total of what is fed to the congregants on “any given Sunday.” We seem to have a penchant for minutia!

Here’s an example of topicalitis from the free download from the email I received:

God The Father
Text: Psalm 25:2

Introduction

1. All our needs are supplied through God: Phil. 5:19
2. All our enemies are defeated through God: Psa. 7:1
3. All our safety is found through God: Psa. 17:2
4. All God’s light is given to us: Psa. 17:28
5. All God’s healing is bestowed upon us: Psa. 30:2
6. All our worship is renderedm (??): Acts 24:14
7. All thirst is satisfied through God: Psa. 63:1

Conclusion

What a hodgepodge (a mixture of dissimilar ingredients; a jumbling of mixed passages) of Scripture. A presentation like the one above, preached all across USAmerica every Sunday, is often based on the presupposition that every verse in the Bible is equal to every other verse in the Bible. This is just wrongheaded thinking. Verses are not inspired in and of and by themselves. As an example, the main text for the “sermon starter” above is Psalm 25.2. If you check it out in your Bible, it is only part of a sentence. No wonder folks don’t trust the God of most Christians when all they do is quote Scripture, in most cases misquote Scripture, by only quoting a fragment of the text. What is one to think? God can’t talk in complete sentences.

What have all the verses listed in the “sermon starter” have in common. Nothing! This very subjective way of handling Scripture is why, in my opinion, many of God’s people live fragmentively, because the food they receive is fragmented.

Well, some may call this a mini-rant. Nope, it’s just a pet peeve. So on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best, I would rank this “sermon starter” and all such sermons that produce topicalitis as a -100,000,000 and add as many zeros as one wishes. It is simply a “sermon stopper!”

BTW: if you are a topicalitis preacher, Stop it! If you are a pew sitter who has to listen to such on a regular basis, ask your preacher to Stop it! If you are a weekly topicalitis Bible teacher, Stop it! If you are a listener to this kind of fragmented teaching of the Scripture, Stop listening to it!

Instead, find someone who is willing to invest time and energy in telling you the whole story of God and is not content with offering you fragments. Topicalitis produces anemic believers. Are you anemic? Let story be your antidote.

Well, I am at it again. I have started another blog called Heart-Stint.com. You should drop by and give it a look. There’s some pretty neat stuff there already.

Here’s a cute set of instructions that my sister-in-law forwarded to me on How to Clean Your House.

1. Open a new file on your PC.
2. Name it “Housework”
3. Send it to the Recycle Bin
4. Empty the Recycle Bin
5. Your PC will ask you, “Are you sure you want to delete housework
    permanently?”
6. Calmly answer, “Yes,” and press the mouse firmly…
7. Feel better? Works for me!