Yep, The cool Dr. Todd Hunter is back online and from the looks of him he has taken the pill. From the bowls of Boise, he has created a new ministry called Three Is Enough (TiE). He envisions TiE groups to take shape form Boise to the ends of the earth. He has entered the TiEtrix.

He states in his welcome post:

In one way TiE (Three is Enough) is the culmination of a lifetime of thinking about the intersection of The Gospel, culture, church, kingdom, spiritual formation and evangelism. In another, more humble way, it comes from the closing chapter of my upcoming book from IVP—Christianity Beyond Belief: Following Jesus for the Sake of Others. In CBB, I try to lay out some of the practical outcomes which surround one’s understanding—or misunderstanding—of the Gospel. Much of the conceptual work for the first section of the book comes from my D.Min. dissertation which was titled: Re-hearing the Gospel: Toward Improved Practices for Evangelism and Spiritual Formation.

So go ahead at take a look. Click here and you will be on your way. Don’t forget to take your pill before you make the leap.

The traditional Christian view of life is get right with God by saying a sinner’s prayer, then wait for him to rapture you away from this awful, sinful world, or die and go to heaven. Sound familiar? This story has captivated the church and is the story that many, many Christians live in.

There is another story and it is well articulated by Tom Wright in his article from Time Magazine. Go ahead, take a look, which story do you want to live in? It’s your choice.

I echo Tom Wright’s view in my book God’s EPIC Adventure:

If you went to the streets today or within the corridors of the church and asked what Jesus meant by “repent and believe,” you would most likely hear that he meant “Give up your private sins (most likely sexual, alcohol, and drug abuse) by accepting Jesus and gain some “inner peace” by believing a body of dogma and joining the local church at the corner of walk and don’t walk so you can go to heaven when you die.” God’s EPIC Adventure, 187.

AND

With the resurrection of Jesus, God created a new world and sent Jesus’ followers off to announce it to the world. If you go to the resurrection chapters in Luke 24, or in Matthew, or Mark, or John, and say, “What do the evangelists think this stuff means; why are we telling this story?” The answer is not, “Jesus is risen again, therefore, we can go to heaven when we die and be with him.” It’s interesting they never say that, those resurrection chapters. Rather, they say, “Jesus is risen from the dead. Therefore, God’s new creation has begun, and you are commissioned to go off and make it happen.” That’s the emphasis. And it’s a new world of justice and freedom; it’s the exodus world, the return-from-exile world, the world where Jesus already reigns as Lord, it’s the world with good news for all, especially, as in the New Testament, for the poor, 213.

Also see Tom Wright’s Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

As a biblical thinker I must admit that I have some problems with what seems to me like a list of practices or disciplines that must be accomplished in order to be an authentic believer. A new kind of “pull yourself up by your spiritual boot straps” or “how to become more like Christ with ten easy disciplines.” This appears to me to be a new set of “boundary markers.” I am not against moving toward Christian maturity by putting into practices certain disciplines. What I think should be the focus is practices that are clearly mandated in Scripture as the priority then other “disciplines” that may be proposed. (There is no agreement on what a list of spiritual disciplines should be). We use the word “spiritual” as an adjective to specify what kind of disciplines one is speaking about. The term “spiritual” is not used in this way in the New Testament. Rather spirituality is defined in terms of the Spirit. A person is spiritual to the degree that he or she lives in and walks by the Spirit within a community of faith.

I believe that Biblical practices, those that we are admonished in Scripture to follow, will form people in a way of life. Our churches have been lax in providing such instruction for its community because our culture holds a deep-seated belief in the freely choosing, autonomous individual who out of rational self-interest forms his or her own way of life. Spiritual disciplines seem to lean heavenly on individualism in the sense of gaining some “inner” strength that makes the outward person stronger. The conduct of a Christian is not the result of simply an effort to become better. Rather, by incorporation into the Body of Christ, our individual growth takes shape. It seems that God’s intention is that Christian behavior is to be reinforced and upheld by the friendship, company, teaching, counseling, and loving criticism of other Christians (by alleloning). To try to be an individual working on becoming spiritual is not a sign of becoming truly human, but is a sign that the old life of bondage still dominates. Paul has argued in Colossians that the Colossians were free to follow Jesus. Jesus had defeated the principalities and powers to deliver freedom to his people.

In Colossians chapter 3 Paul provides a refreshing program of living for Jesus. The prohibitive list is twofold: the abuse of sex and speech. The new life has no more sexual immorality, no anger or violence. However, there is a catch, trying to stop the old lifestyle without recognizing that the old powers have been defeated only brings failure. Living the “new life” stands squarely and firmly on the work of Jesus in his life. The reality of living between the times is played out in this and other like passages.

Put to Death (3.5-6). Paul’s imagery moved from death and life to putting clothes on and off.

Put to death . . . whatever belongs to your earthly nature. The Greek tense in this command suggests a decisive action, as if Paul said, “Mortify it! Do it now! Do it resolutely!” The list of evil activities flowing from humankind’s earthly nature includes

• Sexual immorality: Sexual intercourse outside of the marriage relationship (Illustration: 1 Cor. 5.1ff).
• Impurity: The general word for immoral activity, which shuts a person off from God’s presence. The opposite lifestyle is found at Matthew 5.8
• Lust (pathos): Uncontrollable passion which leads to sexual excesses
• Evil Desires: Illicit craving
• and Greed (or insatiable desire; sexual greed), which is idolatry

Rid Yourselves (3.7-9). Though the Colossian Christians used to walk or live in these evil ways, before they came to know Christ, Paul commanded that they do so no more. Now you must rid yourselves of all such things. The word “rid” (apothesthe) means “to put off” like a suit of clothes. In its ethical use here it means “throw it off like a dirty shirt.” Repulsive habits—anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language–do not fit or suit the community of faith. They are unbecoming to followers of Jesus (cf. Eph. 4.17, 31).

• Anger (orgen) is a chronic attitude of smoldering hatred
• Rage (thymon) is an acute outburst. Thymos elsewhere is rendered “outbursts of anger” (2 Cor. 12.20), “fits of rage” (Gal. 5.20), and “rage” (Eph. 4.31).
• Malice (kakian), the deliberate intention to harm
• Slander (blaspheian), “railing or evil speaking, defamation of character”
• Filthy language (aischrologian) is shameful or abrasive speech.

Put on New Humanity (3.12-17). Because of their new lives in Christ all believers are called on to clothe themselves in virtue, letting Christ’s peace rule them. His Word should dwell in them richly, and they should do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Again Paul called on believers to take a decisive action:

Clothe yourselves (endysasthe). We must remember when we read these passages that the “you” is plural. Paul did not have the individual in mind first and foremost, he had the community in mind. Again, it is fair to say that God’s intent is for us to be formed in his image within a community where our individuality can truely become all it was meant to become. Because they have “put on (endysamenoi) the new self” (v. 10), they should live accordingly, with appropriate attributes and attitudes. Paul listed the abuses of sex and speech and now in contrast to them, Christians—as God’s chosen people (cf. Rom. 8.33; Titus 1.1), holy (”separated to God”; cf. Col. 1.2) and dearly loved (cf. Rom. 5.8; 1 John 4.9-11, 19)—are to have several virtues. These include

• Compassion (splanchna oiktirmou). Concreate acts of mercy
• Kindness. Benevolence in action; or generosity
• Humility, A lowly attitude toward God; cf. Phil. 2.3; 1 Peter 5.5,
• Gentleness(prauteta). Meekness, a consideration for others and a willingness to waive one’s rights.,
• and Patience (makrothymian), long suffering which endures wrong and puts up with the exasperating conduct of others rather than flying into a rage or trying to get vengeance.

We don’t want to make spiritual disciplines another religion of this “present evil age” when in reality we live in the “age to come” becoming what God has created us to be as his people (community and individually) for the sake of the world.

Here are two audio presentations presented by Tom Wright from Reformational-UK, June 2007. I based my first book God’s EPIC Adventure on his five-act-play model. The second recording starts off a bit low in volume, give it a moment and it will brighten up.

Thinking about God in Tommorrow’s World

Whatever did St Paul do with the Kingdom of God

Here’s a short video clip of Brian McLaren asking me a question about God’s EPIC Adventure. Enjoy.

Two important events have occurred this week. My first book, God’s EPIC Adventure, is in print and I’ve been Simpsonized!

It has been and interesting process starting a publishing company HarmonPress and publishing my first book, God’s EPIC Adventure through that imprint. It’s an interesting feeling to hold a book in your hand and seeing your name on the front cover. For years I have researched and written lots of material. I was used to writing things like, Sweet says, or McLaren says, or Wright says, but when I saw my name appear in that context in the ForeWord which is written by Len Sweet, Griffin says, it seemed a little strange. Brian McLaren wrote the Afterword. You can read all about it at HarmonPress.

Secondly, I received an email from someone who had been Simponized and followed the link to see how that happened. It was kind of fun and you can see the results to the above.