Summit Ministries - Interview w/ John Stonestreet
By Israel Wayne | June 16, 2009
I wanted to introduce you to the work of Summit Ministries and in particular a popular speaker / worldview teacher named John Stonestreet. If you have not yet heard of him, just hang in there. You are going to be hearing a LOT more from this guy! He is becoming one of the most in-demand experts on the topic of developing a Biblical worldview. Check out his work, and consider sending your teenager to a Summit Worldview Conference.
Israel Wayne: What motivated you to teach Christian worldview to others?
John Stonestreet: Really the difference worldview teaching made in my own discipleship motivates me in teaching to others. I was a typical Christian “lifer” - church, Sunday school, Christian school, Christian college, etc. But I never really understood how Christianity was, as Francis Schaeffer called it, “true Truth” and “total Truth”.
Seeing the implications of Christianity for all of life was profoundly impacting and freeing! Faith was no longer about getting to heaven when I die, but about life now. Also, learning about other worldviews removed the fear I held about them.
Israel Wayne: How would you describe the work of Summit Ministries?
John Stonestreet: Summit exists to counter the alarming trend of students who walk away from their faith when they enter their teen or college years. Our work is in four main areas: (1) Teaching students the Biblical Worldview, (2) Teaching students about the other main worldviews fighting for their hearts, minds, and cultures. (3) Training students to defend and champion the Biblical worldview. (4) Christian Leadership
Israel Wayne: Why do you feel it is it important for teens to attend worldview conferences such as http://www.summit.org/conferences/student?
John Stonestreet: Students need to know why they believe what they believe, and they need a vision for how they can take their faith into the world. The Summit has been used by God for 47 years to do this. In two weeks, students hear over 70 hours of teaching, instruction, and challenge about taking their faith seriously. The results are amazing. I often meet skeptics who say that teenagers today need entertainment. We fully disagree. We challenge the students to think deeply about their faith, other worldviews, and the culture. We treat them like intellectual adults, and they rise to the challenge. Summit can be a terrific catalyst for students to emerge as leaders.
Israel Wayne: What do you feel are a couple of the most dangerous worldview trends affecting Christian youth today? (i.e. Postmodernism, Socialism, Universalism, etc.?)
John Stonestreet: I think that the allure of secular humanism is still very strong because it is so deeply imbedded in academic culture. If students are not equipped to defend their faith in every area, then the socialism, atheism, and Darwinism of the secular academic experience can be quite compelling. I also think that postmodernism is the most dangerous popular challenge because it is our cultural ethos. Students that are swimming in pop culture and lack discernment will often find themselves assuming much of what our culture assumes such as no one really has the truth, it is intolerant to suggest one way of thinking is better than others, beauty and truth are subjectively determined, etc.
Topics: Israel's Thoughts | No Comments »
Biology 101 - Conversation with Wes Olson of Westfield Studios
By Israel Wayne | April 13, 2009
Wes Olson and his family, of Westfield Studios, are producing a line of educational documentaries that impress me. I’ve had a chance to watch the Biology 101 DVD set and it is excellent. It is the best “in-a-nutshell” overview of Biology that I have seen. If you have school-aged students in your home, or you want to finally understand Biology yourself, this is a painless way to go!
Israel Wayne: How did you get interested in film production?
Wes Olson: My interest in film production really started in high school when video tape was put on reel-to-reel spools. I later went to the University of Southern California to attend their film school, but only lasted one semester because I ran into God. I jumped in His car and we went on a long detour together where He sort of explained why my life was a complete mess and how the program was actually supposed to run.
Several years later, I was actually doing pretty well in the corporate world as a loss control consultant but was missing my family and wanted to see my children grow up. So I left the economic safety of that world, bought a little video camera and a couple of video decks. For the next 15 years or so I made corporate videos.
Israel Wayne: What gave you the idea to do a project on Biology 101?
Wes Olson: It was becoming increasingly clear that my time with corporate video was coming to a close. They wanted more and more advertising “sizzle” and I hadn’t watched television in over 25 years! I hated the hype. I finally handed the last project over to a competitor of mine and said enough was enough. Tammy and I had been homeschooling for nearly 16 years at that point and Tammy was looking for a particular kind of biology curriculum but couldn’t find what she was looking for. At the same time, the very first San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival was asking for film entries. So I made a 12 minute short called “From Genesis to Genes” about the world of genetics and won first place in the Creation Category. Based on that success, my family produced Biology 101. It took about 3500 hours to complete it.
Israel Wayne: In what ways does your Christian worldview influence the way you go about making films?
Wes Olson: Well that was the real issue for me. I was well aware of the responsibility in producing a film that would instruct families and the next generation. I was also well aware that I would stand before God some day and He’d ask for an accounting. My number one question was, “How would Jesus teach biology?” He would, and did teach biological origins according to the days of creation revealed in the book of Genesis. How was I supposed to argue with that?
I believe that God created life by a spoken word and did not evolve it through genetic mutations over time. Second, I believe that all life forms were created largely as we see them today. They aren’t related to each other in the way that modern taxonomy teaches. They aren’t all part of the same family tree. I took modern taxonomy (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species) and made this system subservient to the over arching truth that all life was created on either the 3rd , 5th or 6th day of creation.
Israel Wayne: What are some of your future projects?
Wes Olson: I was going to do World History 101 but we have received hundreds of emails from people who want to see chemistry and physics. So I am about half way through the script on Chemistry 101 and hope to have that out by the end of 2009. After that, we are planning on Physics 101.
Topics: Intermediate, Interviews, Movie Reviews, Reviews | No Comments »
The Story of a Bible Smuggler -”A Simple Witness,” by Wesley E. Smith
By Israel Wayne | March 22, 2009
There is a story behind this book review. The year was 1993 or 1994. My sisters and I were taking a walk in our quiet neighborhood in Winona Lake, IN. We passed by a couple of young ladies in their teens or early twenties who were trying to pack up the remains of a yard sale.
Seeing the heavy boxes they were toting I walked over and asked if they needed a hand. Somehow I convinced them to allow us to help. Within a few minutes we had nearly everything put away and the lawn was almost back to normal. Suddenly a man, the young ladies’ father, emerged from the house, wearing (as I recall) an almost Hawaiian style shirt, shorts and flip flops. He looked around the yard, got the gist of what was going on, and walked up to me. With all the sincerity in the world he asked me, “Are you angels?!”
I just stared at him incredulously. (Blink, blink.) I assured him that I been accused of a lot of things in my life, but that was NEVER one of them!
As I got to know my neighbor over time, I soon discovered that Wesley E. Smith did not fit into any nice, tidy little boxes (and neither does his God!). As I visited his home one day, I began asking him questions about his life. I discovered that the love of his life, his wife of 28 years (her beautiful name was Primrose), had recently died, leaving Wes and his five daughters to find their way through life without her.
Wondering about his employment I asked, “So, who do you work for?”
“I work for Jesus,” was his honest reply.
(Blink, blink.) “Uh…yeah, but I mean, um…what type of work do you do?
“I do whatever the Lord tells me to do.”
(Blink, blink.) “And, um…what does the Lord usually tell you to do?”
“Oh, lots of things. Most recently we have been smuggling Bibles into China.”
(Blink, blink.) I want to say this as nicely as I possibly can, but my impression of my neighbor was that he would be voted least likely to smuggle anything anywhere. He just seemed like a very…you know…plain sort of guy. (Outside of his rather unconventional responses to ordinary questions that is!)
“Well, obviously doing big projects like that requires a lot of money. How do you raise money? Are you backed by a major ministry, or do you send out fund-raising letters?” (My marketing mind was already kicking in.)
“Oh no,” Wes answered. “We just wait until the Lord tells us where to go, and then we wait for him to supply the need.”
“Like George Mueller?” I replied.
“Exactly.”
“But, um…how do people know that you have a need if you don’t tell them?”
Wes just smiled at me with this look that seemed to say, “You poor boy. You just don’t get it, do you?” He didn’t say that. That’s just how I felt.
Anyway, that was my introduction to the amazing world of Wesley Smith. Months later Wes finally tracked us down after riding his bicycle all over the neighborhood trying to remember where we lived. Through a series of events, his youngest daughter, April, spent a few months working with us part time at Wisdom’s Gate. I have a lot of fond memories of our time with them.
Flash forward over ten years later. My wife and our children were visiting my old stomping grounds in the historic, former Bible conference town of Winona Lake (where we lived when I was born). I showed her Billy Sunday’s home, Homer Rodeheaver’s home and museum, told her stories of J. Wilbur Chapman, Ken Taylor, George Younce, John Whitcomb, Ken Anderson and so many other great Christians who lived or worked in Winona Lake.
As we were walking along, I saw a man sitting on a park bench and immediately knew it was my old friend, Wesley Smith! I introduced him to my family and we chatted with him and one of his daughters who was with him.
My son Benjamin still remembers that Wes gave him a dollar bill. Wes would be pleased to know that Benjamin wanted to send that dollar bill to World Missionary Press in New Paris, IN to buy 25 scripture booklets to send to China! (WMP was originally started in the 1950s by Watson & Rose Goodman in Winona Lake. They have gone on to print over 1 billion scripture booklets in nearly every known language!)
We swapped emails and kept in touch a bit better. It was great to see him again.
Fast forward a couple of more years and I was at a Christian book trade show in Atlanta, GA. The booth across the aisle from us was run by Steve Spillman of True Potential Publishing (based in NC). Steve, I soon discovered, is another brother who doesn’t fit in a small box. I have enjoyed working with him on various levels over the past few years. Steve is one of the true bright spots in the Christian publishing world. (Here is a recent blog he wrote on the importance of a Christian Worldview.) Ironically, I found out recently, that he also had a Winona Lake connection years before, as his father graduated from a seminary there.
One day Steve and I were talking and he told me about a new book he had published. It was a book entitled, A Simple Witness, by Wesley Smith! “How in the world did you meet Wes?” I asked. This again was a God thing. This book tells the amazing and dramatic story of Wes’ life.
My wife, children and I laughed and cried our way through this astounding story of God’s grace and power. I don’t think it would be any exaggeration to say that this story is on par with classic titles such as, The Cross and the Switchblade, by David Wilkerson, Run, Baby Run, by Nicky Cruz, or God’s Smuggler, by Brother Andrew.
I truly hope that a Christian filmmaker will make a movie of Wes’ story soon. It is that good. Wesley Smith is not a great man. He is a very average man. But he has a great faith, and an even greater God. He has served God in more than 45 nations, preached in stadiums of 50,000 people, worked with street kids in inner cities, met with house churches in China, been in terrorist neighborhoods in the middle east and even shared God’s love with people who stopped at his yard sales. You will be blessed by this book (and this brother if you ever get to meet him), I promise!
Learn more about Full Life Crusade and Wesley Smith by visiting: www.ASimpleWitness.com and www.FLC7.com
True Potential Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9767811-2-8
Copyright 2008. 104 pages.
On a scale of 1-5, I’d give this a 4.5 overall.
Topics: Beginner, Book Reviews | 8 Comments »
Four Ways Our Culture is Brainwashing Us
By Israel Wayne | February 20, 2009
This is a guest column from J. Lee Grady. He expresses well some concerns I’ve had for a while. –Israel Wayne
Four Ways Our Culture is Brainwashing Us
By J. Lee Grady
Forces in our culture want to rip the foundations of Christian faith right out from under America. Here are four lies we must challenge.
This past week I spent four days preaching at Emmanuel College, a Christian liberal arts school in northeast Georgia. I love speaking to college students because they are spiritually hungry, they love passionate worship and I don’t have to wear a tie.
On the third night (after a young man got saved and delivered of drug addiction—yeah God!) I told the kids I needed to get brutally honest. They gave me permission to shoot straight. Because I genuinely care about them—and because they will be spiritual leaders before too long—I warned them about four lies they must confront.
Every Christian in this country must learn to dissect these lies using the Word of God. The devil is working overtime today to gain control of our nation’s soul. We are in a life-and-death struggle. This is not a time for Christians to be squishy in their faith or spineless in their convictions. We must plant our feet on the bedrock principles of the Bible and oppose each of these lies:
|
“We must start preaching about hell again instead of worrying about who might leave our church or how it might affect our TV ratings.” |
1. Hell does not exist. Jesus preached about hell more than anyone in the Bible. His words dripped with love, but He didn’t soft-pedal when addressing the eternal consequences of sin. When He began His ministry, he read from the book of Isaiah, announcing that He had come not only to “proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” but also “the day of vengeance of our God” (Is. 61:2, NASB).
The real gospel is a double-edged sword that offers both the “kindness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22, emphasis added). That’s why hell is one four-letter word we should use more often—not to condemn people in mean-spirited judgment but to warn them that mercy has a time limit.
The world rejects the concept of hell because it’s too exclusive. Our Oprah-ized culture insists that everyone deserves a warm and fuzzy life free of consequences. “How can a loving God send anyone to hell?” people ask. If we truly love them we will explain that hell is not a metaphor—it is a real place of dreadful separation from God that sinners choose when they reject Him. We must start preaching about hell again instead of worrying about who might leave our church or how our unpopular message might affect our TV ratings.
2. God didn’t create the world. 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, so you can be sure the scientific community will bombard us this year with more “proof” of this sketchy theory. The mainstream media and academia insist that evolution is pure fact. Anyone who dares to challenge it is considered a religious idiot.
What people don’t realize is that Darwinism, besides being laughably lacking in scientific basis, has roots in spiritualism. Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace shared many of Darwin’s beliefs and encouraged him to publish his book. Wallace believed in spirit guides, participated in séances and was intrigued by all things paranormal. He promoted the “science” of evolution because it supported his anti-God views. Is it any wonder, then, that this doctrine he and Darwin propagated has been used to undermine Christianity ever since?
The world does not want to believe in a Creator because if He is real, then He has ultimate authority over His creation. On the flip side, man has no moral responsibility if he crawled out of a primordial soup, grew fins, then legs, and then became a talking ape. Evolution is not really about science at all—it is about rebellion against God’s rule over us.
3. All religions lead to God. This isn’t a new lie, but it is enjoying a revival today. President Bush has obviously flirted with the idea, since he has told reporters that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Barack Obama attended a church for 20 years that teaches that Jesus is not the only way to salvation—and he has publicly acknowledged that he believes this.
The doctrine of universalism—which states that all people will ultimately gain salvation and enjoy heaven—has become the religion of the masses. Even some charismatic and Pentecostal preachers such as Carlton Pearson of Oklahoma and D.E. Paulk of Atlanta have abandoned biblical orthodoxy to embrace this heresy. They are now on a crusade to rewrite Christian theology—and they have allies in some mainline denominations (such as the Episcopal Church) where the authority of Scripture is denied.
Christians who embrace universalism are like the prophets of Baal in Jezebel’s court who had been neutered. They preach a powerless message that cannot change anyone. We must arise in the spirit of Elijah to confront this deception and prove to the world that the one true God answers by fire.
4. Man can redefine morality. This is perhaps the most deadly lie of all. Everywhere we look today, leaders in media, politics, education and entertainment are plotting the virtual overthrow of conventional morals. They want a hedonistic world with no rules and no guilt. This was most obvious last month when Newsweek published a cover story brazenly claiming that the Bible approves of same-sex marriage.
A lying spirit has invaded many mainline churches and is convincing weak Christians to change their views about homosexuality, abortion and fornication. Evil is called good while those who stand for the biblical values of purity and traditional marriage are labeled bigots.
If we ignore these lies they will engulf us. We need a zero-tolerance policy for spiritual compromise. While we must demonstrate overwhelming compassion and love for sinners, God requires us to oppose cultural brainwashing. We cannot be silent on the issues the devil is attacking.
If you are wavering in your faith on any of these four fundamentals, get honest about your doubts, repent of your lukewarmness and dig in God’s Word until your mind is renewed. Don’t become a brainwash victim.
J. Lee Grady, Charisma’s editor, has been involved in Christian journalism since 1981 and has faced a monthly deadline ever since. A native of Atlanta, he has been with Charisma since 1992, serving as news editor, managing editor and then becoming editor in 1999. He and his wife, Deborah, have four daughters. Lee has won three first-place reporting awards from the Evangelical Press Association, and his monthly column in Charisma, “Fire in My Bones,” has won awards from the Florida Magazine Association.
Topics: Guest Columns | 1 Comment »
Christian Filmmaking - Interview with Rich Christiano
By Israel Wayne | January 19, 2009
Rich Christiano, of Five & Two Pictures is a follower of Jesus Christ who makes quality films for the glory of God. His movie Time Changer is one of my all-time favorite movies. It is a very solid, God-honoring film that is great for audiences of all ages. He is also the producer of Unidentified, another very popular Christian film. Rich was gracious enough to spare some time to share with me about his views on filmmaking and also his new feature film, to be released later this year.
Israel Wayne: How did you first get involved with film making?
Rich Christiano: In the late 70’s, when I was only 20, my brother Dave and I went to Hollywood. We wrote a script and tried to sell it. We got two offers but never made a deal. In 1980, I became a born-again Christian that totally changed my life. My brother did also.
Israel Wayne: What inspired you to make Christian films rather than working in the secular film industry?
Rich Christiano: A lot of people think that when they become a Christian, they need to move to Africa or something to minister. My brother and I wanted to make films and we felt the LORD saying to us to make them for HIM! We left California and went to graduate school for Radio-TV-Film at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, AR. My brother Dave eventually got a teaching job in San Antonio where he met a guy who was making Christian films and encouraged us to do the same. We made our first film in 1985 and now have produced 12 movies between us.
Israel Wayne: What are your primary goals when you make a film?
Rich Christiano: First, to please the Lord. John 15:5 is my film making verse. Jesus says ”Abide in Me and you will bear much fruit because without Me, you can do nothing.” I believe this. If we really want to reach people for Christ with our ministry, we must first please HIM. Second, I want to make films that will motivate, challenge, and inspire the believer. Give him some food for his soul. Third, I want to put the gospel in our films so that a non-believer may consider Christ as a result of seeing the movie.
Israel Wayne: What are your thoughts on the new Independent Christian Film movement?
Rich Christiano: I think there are some major issues. It seems most Producers are just wanting to make films that are family oriented with a God message. I call them crossover films. They say they want to hit the mainstream and to try to “reach” the non-believer so they water down the message. But this doesn’t work, especially if you believe that only God’s Spirit can reach people and HE must be pleased first. There are very few filmmakers that want to put a real message for the Lord in their films. And to me, this is what a Christian film really is, a film with a message that points to Jesus Christ. Other films may be wholesome and family oriented but that does not make them Christian. Mormonism is wholesome and family oriented but surely NOT Christian. It is sad to me to walk into a Christian bookstore or to go to Christian websites and see some of the movies being sold as “Christian” films.
Israel Wayne: Tell us about your latest project.
Rich Christiano: We are super excited about our new film called THE SECRETS OF JONATHAN SPERRY. We really believe this film is going to make a real impact and do well. This will be our biggest release to date. We are hoping to release this film into hundreds of theaters coming Sept 18th. It’s a story set in 1970 about a 75 year old man named Jonathan Sperry (played by Gavin MacLeod) who starts talking to three 12-year old boys about the Lord and mentoring them. This film has tons of heart and we have received great response in the screenings we have done. And this is not false hype either, this film is delivering. We are very confident about this movie and what it can do. People can check out the trailer and more info at www.SperryMovie.com
Israel Wayne: What are some ways that average Christians can help to support Christian film making?
Rich Christiano: We are looking for churches to sponsor the Sperry film in their local theaters. We charge a fee and then we bring the movie in just as a normal theater run. If the movie does well, it could play several weeks. The church then gets their fee back PLUS a percentage of the box office. This would be a good way to offer an alternative to what Hollywood puts out but more importantly the movie will be an effective tool to share the message of Christ. Too often the church just plays defense and we just react to what the world offers. This is going on the offense putting something out there that the Lord can use to change lives. We do offer free previews of the movie so churches can see it first. They can contact me at rc@christianmovies.com and we can set this up.
Israel Wayne: How can God’s people be praying for you right now?
Rich Christiano: Pray that the Lord will raise up Christians and churches that will sponsor our new film and help us get the word out. We do plan some national promotion but we need the local grassroots to be really effective. We are trying to set up a network of Christ-centered churches and believers that want to get behind solid Christian movies so I would ask for the Lord to raise up these believers and churches that will partner with us. It can be a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Topics: Interviews | 1 Comment »
Interview with John Fuller of Focus on the Family
By Israel | December 17, 2008
Israel Wayne: As a father, how do you intentionally and practically transmit a Biblical world and life view to your children?
John Fuller: At the outset here, let me run a few disclaimers. I’m a dad. I’m not an expert. I have plenty of failings. I can talk about the ideal plenty, that doesn’t mean I always do it. So with all of that out of the way, some of the things I’ve picked up along the way, as far as passing on a Biblical worldview:
I think we in the homeschool community have greater opportunities in some senses to have those “as you walk” conversations with our children. I’m very aware that plenty of public school families and private school families have those kinds of opportunities, and I’m referring to that passage in Deuteronomy which admonishes us to keep those words on our lips as we walk, as we lie down and in everyday life. All that to say that I think we in the homeschool community have greater opportunities because our children are with us regularly throughout the day. One of the things we try to do as a family is to go to some of those harder conversations, in regards to worldview. To ask questions like, “Why is that right?,” or “Why is that wrong?” or “Why do we believe this?”.
It’s all age appropriate, of course, and we typically in the early years, as all parents do, tend to pour into our children, but we’re trying to makes sure that we don’t leave our kids unchallenged mentally. It’s important to my wife and I that our children are aware of what’s going on in the world. Certainly there’s plenty of life that allows that to happen. They play with neighbor kids who might introduce something that we may not want introduced into our family’s thinking and we process that. We see news stories that we want to talk about and we do that age appropriately. Our family tends to be a bit different than some of the families that our kids hang with in regards to media choices and levels of family activities and such. As they process those out loud we tend to inject a worldview that is Biblically formed as to why do this or don’t do that.
Beyond those “as you walk” opportunities that we have, there certainly are things we do with the curriculum that enhance, inform and foster a Biblical worldview. Our kids are doing Bible, they are, in their Social Studies, learning about other cultures they are exposed to other sources of thought so they can kind of understand, as a reference point, what the Bible is saying, and why it is alike, or why it is different from something else out there. There is one other thing that we’ve done that I think has proven to be very fruitful for us as a family, and this is not a homeschooling thing (any family can do this), and that is when the kids reach an old enough age to be able to process, write and think freely on their own, we get away with them on a one-on-one basis and talk through life with them, figure out what’s going on in their lives, process their life-experiences, their thinking, the things that are happening in the world in general, and help them filter that with the Biblically informed view.
Israel Wayne: How has homeschooling helped you with the process of training your children to love the Lord and live according to a Biblical worldview?
John Fuller: Well, beyond what I’ve said, those “as you walk” opportunities and the fact that we have contact with our children consistently through the day, not exclusively but consistently, through the day and the night, beyond the curriculum… there has been the opportunity to directly teach and engage them, especially as they get older as I’ve said, challenging them with why do you believe what you believe and surrounding them with like-minded kids and families has been an important part of that process. Field trips for my kids aren’t what they were when I was groing up. When I was a kid we would get on a bus, and we’d go off somewhere and we’d come back and it was a fine time, but field trips for my kids are that their riding in the van with other friends and parents and the fact that the parents are there to help even as they drive to educate, and the knowledge that some of these families that we’re hanging with during this process are enforcing our perspective is very affirming and a very positive aspect of homeschooling that isn’t thought of a whole lot.
Israel Wayne: Do you feel that there is a culture that is more conducive to passing on the types of values that you are hoping to instill in your children?
John Fuller: I want to be very careful because there are plenty of committed Christians who are passing on their faith to their kids and their kids are actively engaging other children in the public schools or private schools. For us, it works well for our family…yes, to have that reinforcement of values as we get together with other families so that educationally my kids are seeing other kids in educational settings and they are learning together about some things, but then even socially that broadens out to be a social activity oftentimes and I am glad for my kids to spend time with many of these homeschooling families because I know that they share similar values that they share similar concerns about the culture, about exposing kids to too much too early, that they share certain commitments to spiritual development so there is a pretty freeing dynamic there that allows us to rest knowing that what is being taught in their family is similar to what is being taught in our family. So even in those non-educational moments, I know that my kids are around others that are having share experiences and shared values.
Israel Wayne: Since you are a father and you work, as most fathers do, and you have a busy schedule, what do you see as your role in terms of your participation with your children? What do you do that is intentional as you engage your children?
John Fuller: I see a spectrum of levels of involvement for dads in the homeschooling process. On one end you have dads who basically just offer moral support and encouragement to their wives as they carry it out. On the far other end, you’ve got dads who are actually doing the schooling for whatever reasons. They are able to be in the home doing the school to a greater or lesser degree with the children. Personally, my job demands have never been light enough for me to be on that second end of the spectrum, so I’m down here on the end of the spectrum that says, “You know, I want to be involved in selection of curriuclum and decision making.” (Because there are decisions to be made about what to do or is this the right avenue or approach). I see a critical part of my role in this process of educating our children at home as moral support, prayer covering, encouraging my kids to keep at it and offering emotional backup for my wife when she’s had a tough day with the kids. I don’t engage them on a formal level, for the most part but there are some things. I tend to be the writer in the family so I tend to work with the kids more on their more serious writing projects, like when they get to middle school age. I’ve tried to train them in the ways of getting a good paper, of being good with your references and your structure and your case so that hopefully in the high school years and beyond they’ll be able to function at a level that would be beyond acceptable at the college level.
I do engage them in that one on one time each week when they hit ten. I take them out each week for a bagel and some talk time. That’s a little more of the informal, but again that’s one of those “as you walk” times I mentioned earlier.I’m not engaged on a regular basis on the science, in latin, in the math. My wife carries the bulk of that and that arrangement seems to work pretty well for our family. I would hasten to add that if I could be at home a day a week to do more with the kids I would welcome that, and I know my wife would too, but as with most homeschooling families, I’m at work five days a week.
Israel Wayne: How can homeschooling fathers help their wives to stay on course and not get discouraged?
John Fuller: Here’s an anecdotal answer for you. Early on, I semi-jokingly told my wife, look I’d rather have well-adjusted kids in a messy house, than a clean house and kids who are really ill-adjusted for life. For some reason she thought I was serious. (Laughter) No, seriously, my wife is really a good housekeeper but she keeps the focus on the kids and character. I think as the dad and husband I’ve got to help her remember the big picture here. It’s a training process. We are not going to have instant success. Our children are going to be prone to the same issues other children are; in terms of attitudes, a leaning toward laziness and not productivity, confusion about, “Why do I need to know this?”, and about “Am I any good at that?”
So I think as the dad (and frankly this is the easier part of homeschooling. She’s got the harder part, goodness! to run the home and keep the kids educated is a tremendous responsibility), from a distance if you will, because I’m not in the day-to-day routines, I can perhaps help her to remember, “You’re doing great,” I mean, I’ve got to be her cheerleader. I’ve got to be her “vision coach, ” suggesting to her that today might have been a bad day, but tomorrow is a new one, and guess what? I’m confident that what is happening today can turn out to be a very good thing. So, seeing that vision of the big picture. I think we need to be able to come home from work ready to give, not ready to sit down and distance. In some respects I see myself as a sort of cavalry, offering the emotional reinforcements that my wife needs after a day. It might have been a fine day but still, she’s tired.
Now, my wife has done some really good things that have made her role easier, although it’s harder at first. Things like: Assigning the kids a different meal, or a different chore for the day or the week. So even that part of the training process requires a lot of supervision at first. I’ve had to step back and say I’m going to be comfortable living with a certain level of clutter and mess in the home because it’s all temporary and my kids’ character is far more important.
I think it is important for a dad if he can arrange it to be able to:
a. Go home early or unexpectedly.
b. Go into work late because of something.
Be there for her when she hits those walls or when she has a problem. There are days when my wife will call and say, “I need you to come home early.” The tone of here voice tells me all I need to know. She doesn’t need to explain it further, I know that there have been some emotional clashes at home and she is at a place where she needs me to be able to come in and support her. That’s another important aspect of dads helping moms. I’ve got to support her and not fight her on this. So I’ve actually left work early on occasion to do that. Or in the morning I perceive that this is going to be a hard day if I can’t at least help manage this particular issue. So I’ll try to step in a calmly mitigate some of that emotional energy that happens when you have a number of kids in a smaller home with lots going on.
Something we have had to deal with when I travel, and I travel probably ten or twelve times a year for work, is that every time I’m gone, something happens. Things like the pipes breaking last year when I was at a radio conference, and she had to manage all of that. You know, that points to something else the homeschooling dad can help mom with and that (and this is not going to work with every homeschooling mom because there is a breadth of temperments here), but my wife is the type of person who isn’t uptight about having to work through “all this stufff” today. We see a lot of life lessons occur, so it is important for me to support and encourage that. In other words, it’s ok that you didn’t do the book-work today. You did something else.
Another anecdote would be that we just came back from a time where she spent the better part of a week of “real life” with her parents, who needed some physical assistance with some things. Some of my kids went with her. They did some formal schooling, but not the full gammut of a day’s schooling everyday, because there were a lot of real-life lessons along the way. For example, a physical therapist came into the home, financial discussions that took place that my kids were privy to. As my children saw the realities of what growing older means, they were learning something that maybe some kids don’t learn. They don’t have the opportunity to say, “I’m going to be gone for a week from this school so I can help my mom out with my grandparents.
That’s some real-life living that my kids really need to know and I’m glad that they had that opportunity. My part in that was to say, “That’s a good idea. I see the value of that. It’s ok. We’ll finish the book stuff. It’ll happen, but this is important.” That’s a matter of even modeling priorities in life isn’t it? That happens day in and day out.
As I model for my kids; through my choices, through my words, my deeds, my activitites, they’re catching that in a way that some kids wouldn’t because they’re not in the home being educated.
Israel Wayne: Obviously, the world in which you are raising children is very different than the one in which you were raised. Think forward twenty years to the time when your children are parents. What would you like to see in their lives, being lived out in the way they raise their own children, that would indicate to you that you were successful as a parent?
John Fuller: The answer has much less to do with academic acheivement than it does with heart and character. If my kids are walking with the Lord and they understand and know Him, as Jeremiah wrote about in Jeremiah 9:23-24. If they are living a life that affects others for Christ. If they are making wise choices. If they have a heart for people and are engaged in the lives of others. Then I’ll consider the parenting process successful. Homeschooling is a part of that. It’s just one part, yet it is a crucial part. Again, what we’ve tried to concentrate on is homeschooling not just because of academics. We see the value of homeschooling and we see test scores and such, but more because of the character development and the spiritual training of our kids. That is something we don’t want to entrust to anyone else. That’s something we want to build ourselves. So if they grab onto that baton of faith…Dr. Dobson has written about this eloquently that the kids have to grab onto that baton and make that faith their own. If my children do that, and they are walking with the Lord on a daily basis, and they know Him, then I’ll be very thankful to the Lord, and grateful for all that we as a family (and my wife in particular), have poured into them through homeschooling.
Israel Wayne: Is there anything that you would share with homeschooling parents to encourage them in the task of raising their children to know and love the Lord?
John Fuller: For me (and we’re not done with that parenting process by any standard; my oldest is a junior in high school and my youngest is two, so we have a long way to go), I don’t think I can over-emphasize the importance of praying for your children. I picked up along the way…and I think it was Dr. Dobson who talked about praying for his own children for someone to be there at that critical juncture. In other words, when they hit fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, asking the Lord to put people in their lives who will reinforce what I’ve been telling them, what we’ve been teaching them and modeling for them. So far, with our oldest two, we’ve seen Him answer those prayers generally in many ways, but that one in particular He has answered in very specific ways. We have seen for my two oldest, men of God who have stepped in, and who are not supplanting what we’ve done, but they are encouraging what we’ve done, in my kids. They are reinforcing those values, that character and that approach. So I guess the encouragement would be to pray generally for your children, and with them, in regards to their gifting and in regards to their role in God’s kingdom. Pray big prayers for them. And specifically pray that as they get older God will bring along others who will reinforce the things you’ve been helping them to see in the scriptures and in God’s kingdom.
John Fuller is vice president of Focus on the Family’s Audio and New Media division, leading the team that creates and produces more than a dozen different audio programs. Married since 1984, He and his wife Dena have 6 children.
Reprinted with permission from the Home School Digest magazine V18#1.
Topics: Interviews | 2 Comments »
Josh McDowell Interview
By Israel Wayne | September 25, 2008
Israel Wayne: Josh, you’ve become known as someone who promotes the concept of absolute truth, and many of our readers would already be familiar with many of your materials devoted to that subject. However, you’ve brought out a different dynamic in some of your newer materials, and that is the aspect of relationship. Can you explain to us why it is important to cultivate a relationship in the transmission of truth?
Josh McDowell: Well, there are many reasons. First of all, that’s how God created us. Science now shows (see Josh’s executive summary of the study by Dartmouth Medical School) that a baby’s brain from the time they are born, and this is amazing, is physically, biologically hard-wired to connect in relationships. I thought, come on, how can science…but then I thought, wait a minute, God created us. God says in Exodus 34:14 (NLT), “You shall worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you.” Then it makes sense that God would create us to desire to have a relationship and need a relationship with Him and others. So God created us for relationship. Second, God’s dimension, God’s program for truth is in the context of relationships. All truth is relational. Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” Most people have no idea what that meant.
What is truth? Webster defined it, “Truth is that which has fidelity to the original.” Fidelity means the same as “equal to.” So truth is that which is the “same as” or “equal to” the original. What does that mean? Let’s suppose that I say have a liter of water. You say, “No you don’t.” I say, “I do too.” You say, “You do not!” Now is my statement true and yours false, or is your statement true and mine false? We would catch a flight and fly to Paris, France. We’d go to the far out suburb where there’s the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, where they have all the original measurements in metrics. Linear, liquid, solids, everything. We would like my bottle, my liter of water, and we would compare it with the original. Remember, truth is that which has fidelity to the original, same as, equal to. If the water in my bottle equaled the original measurement of a liter then my statement is true. Why, there was fidelity to the original. But if there is a little more or less water then my statement was false. Why, because there was no fidelity to the original. Now, picture this, Jesus said, “I am the truth” in John 14. What did He mean by that? He meant that he had fidelity to the original, or Jesus said, “I am the same as, equal to, the original.” Who is the original? God the Father. It’s probably the boldest claim to deity that Jesus ever made. You see, Mohammed could never say that, Buddha couldn’t say that, no one. Only Jesus. Others say I have the truth, I teach the truth, I believe in truth. Jesus said, “I am the truth.” Why? Because “I am the same as the original, God the Father.”
Do you know why in that context he said, “Why do you say you do not know the Father, when you know me? For if you know me, you know the Father.” Why? Because “I am the same as, equal to the original.” He said, “Why do you say you believe in the Father, but you don’t believe in me? If you believe in me you’ll believe in the Father.” Why? Because “I am the same as, equal to, the Father, the Creator.” And it says there, “Why do you say you haven’t seen the Father?” Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.” Why? Because “I am the Truth.” This is why he said, “I am the visible representation of the invisible God.” Why? Because “I am the truth.” Christ is the truth. Why? Because he is the same as, equal to, the Father. Now that becomes our standard for everything. Why is lying wrong? Because God is truth. Why is hatred wrong? Because God is love. Let’s put it this way, why is lying wrong? Because there is no fidelity to the original. God is truth.
Jesus intended truth to be relational. He became man. God became man, as truth, and he related to people. So He has created us to understand truth in relationships. That if it is true, it will work. This is why I think the scripture is so dogmatic about relationships. For example, “I have been constantly aware of your unfailing love, and therefore I have lived according to the truth.” I’ll tell you this with homeschooling, just like everything else, but especially more in homeschooling, because they become the source of the very truth they teach, if those kids do not believe, in their hearts of hearts, “My dad and my mom loves me,” they will walk away. It’s the relationship that engenders the belief. I believe part of a Biblical worldview is relationships. If you don’t have relationships incorporated in there it’s not a Biblical worldview. It’s isolated, it separated. We’ve got to teach that all truth is relational. Therefore, no matter what part of our worldview, we’ve got to show that it’s relational. Like with the deity of Christ: what do I learn about the incarnation? Who I am. What do I learn about the resurrection? Where God wants to take me. What do I learn from the Scriptures? What God wants me to be like. All these scriptures are relational. God wants to show us what we need to be like, to relate to Him. Anyone who says, “I believe in a Biblical worldview” has to incorporate relationships in it. Where we are falling down today, and often in homeschooling, is where there is not that loving, intimate relationship. Now, I admire homeschooling. I think homeschooling and Christian schooling is the future of the Church. I don’t know how any kid can come up through all school: elementary, junior high, high school, going to a secular university and in the future really become a Christian leader, unless they had the most phenomenal parents and church. They won’t be able to. It’s too anti-Christian and secular oriented. It’s not public education, it’s secular education, it’s anti-Christian education. But so many of your homeschooling families come from a very narrow, fundamentalist perspective. Now I’m a fundamentalist, if by fundamentalist you mean you believe in the fundamentals of the faith. Yeah, the deity of Christ, the resurrection, the holy life, etc. Oh, I’m a hard-core fundamentalist when it comes to that, but not when it comes to the rules and regulations.
Here’s the principle, rules without relationships leads to rebellion. Truth, the truth of God’s word that we are so sold on in homeschooling…we want our kids to know truth, to be embedded in truth, truth to change their life. Truth without relationships leads to rejection. Relationships is part of God’s plan.
Israel Wayne: So just as Jesus modeled truth, as he discipled his followers, parents have the same responsibility. The children are to imitate them as they imitate Christ.
Josh McDowell: In John 13, Jesus says, “Imitate me, follow my example.” In 1 Thess. 1, it says, “Many of you are following our example,” and “Follow the example of those who follow Christ.” Oh yes! Especially today, if we don’t model that truth, they will reject it. There are two cultures now for the first time ever, and homeschoolers had better realize that. Kids do not process truth the way their parents do. Parents process truth through their minds and flow them through the scriptures. Kids process truth through their feelings, their emotions or relationships…called their experience. That’s why when a parent hears a true statement whether it’s the deity of Christ, the incarnation, the resurrection, or whatever, their mind is, “Well, if it’s true it will work.” For the kids, “If it works, it is true.” It’s totally different. For kids you create truth, for adults you discover truth. You can’t communicate the same way to them.
Adults see hypocrisy and say, “They’re not living the truth.” Kids see hypocrisy in their parents and say, “It’s not true.” That’s how the process. Wow! That’s devastating if parents don’t model that very truth. It’s very interesting that Dartmouth Medical School came out and said, you want to pass you values on, and you talk about homeschooling, then model that very truth.
Israel Wayne: What is the difference between belief and conviction?
Josh McDowell: It would be better to ask, “What is the difference between belief and faith?” You can believe something, and I think in the scriptures belief is the same as faith. In the scriptural belief, pisteuo, means not just to adhere to something intellectually, to know it. It means to adhere to it, to grab on, rely in. Probably the best description of that is the Amplified Bible, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…that he who believes (adhered, relied in, grasped a-hold of). So true Biblical belief is what we see as faith. It is committing to that truth. I would say that when you commit to it, that’s when it becomes faith. It’s like, there could be a big gully here with a rickety bridge going across it, and I could say, “I believe that bridge will hold me. In fact, I know that bridge will hold me.” But that’s only belief. It becomes faith when I commit and walk across that bridge. Then I’m living by faith. It’s taking the belief and committing your life to it and living it out. The difference between belief and conviction is that belief basically in our mode, in our culture, not eastern culture, but in our culture, is to adhere to a set of cognitive facts or something. Conviction is to not only adhere to those facts but to know why you hold on to those facts, and to experience it. Faith is experiential. Faith means to live out what you believe. We need to lead our kids to a life of faith, not a life of belief. Because it goes one step further to experiencing that very faith. But here again, the parent can say all they want to the child, and it’s even more devastating in homeschooling if they don’t do it because they’re around that parent more, if that parent isn’t living by faith, with their money, everything, then those kids are going to walk away. That’s the downside of homeschooling.
Israel Wayne: Do you a message for homeschooling leaders?
Josh McDowell: If there is any hope (and this is just apart from spiritual things), if there is any hope for any morality in this country, the leaders are going to have to be homeschoolers. It’s going to have to be. They are not going to get it in public school. It’s going to be difficult in Christian schools. Now Christian schools are getting better and better. Thank God. They really are. If my son (Sean McDowell) has anything to do about it they’re going to get a lot better!
But I’m just thrilled that homeschoolers win the spelling bees and everything else…what a testimony. But there has got to be those relationships, or ultimately homeschooling will fail.
Visit Josh McDowell at www.Josh.org
To more info on Homeschooling, visit the Home School Digest magazine.
Topics: Interviews | No Comments »
The Faith of America’s Presidents - interview with Daniel J. Mount
By Israel Wayne | September 6, 2008
The Faith of America’s Presidents is a book written by Daniel J. Mount. Here is an exclusive interview with the author:
1. Can you explain the difference between a Christian, a Theist and a Deist?
I’d be happy to. In fact, that’s a good question to start with. When we discuss this topic, it is really easy to talk past one another unless we start out by defining our terms. In particular, there are several different definitions used for the term “Christian” in American culture. Properly used, the term denotes one who has accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, and one who accepts the basic, foundational teachings of the Christian faith. However, the term is also used in our culture to denote one who attends a Christian church, at least on occasion, and would identify himself as a Christian instead of a Jew, Muslim, or Hindu. While I’d love to reclaim the term “Christian” to its proper meaning and use it without qualifier, in recognition of the inroads the second definition has made in our culture, at times in the book I use the term “orthodox Christian” in its place. When people ask if our earliest presidents were deists, they’re often working from a similarly careless definition of the term. While pop culture historians might use the term “deist” to signify anyone who was not an orthodox Christian during the 1700s and early 1800s, that view is erroneous. A deist is someone who believes that God set the universe in motion but left it by itself to run itself. A deist believes that there is no way to supersede the laws of nature, that all history was determined at Creation, and that humans are just a part of the clockwork of the universe. Under that definition, none of our early presidents was a deist. But while some were indeed orthodox Christians, others were not; to define these, we use a third term, “theist.” A theist is someone who believes that God created the universe and remains actively involved in it. All Christians are (or ought to be) theists, but not all theists are Christians.
2. Why do you think so many of the American presidents claim to be Christians, even when they were not openly religious in any way?
Whether or not the secular left likes to admit it, America was a Christian society. Enough Americans were Christians that it was expected that our elective leaders would be Christians.
3. Can you name a few presidents who were very vocal about professing faith in Christ?
James Buchanan, James Garfield, William McKinley, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush.
4. Have any presidents made strong statements about the importance of faith in how men govern nations?
Yes. As one example, John Adams said in a 1798 national call to prayer:
As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty or of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation; and as the United States of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredation on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged in their lawful business on the seas–under these considerations it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants.
5. Who are a couple of your favorite presidents? Why?
James Garfield—Garfield was the only preacher to become President. I admire his zeal for the Lord in his youth. He would preach at several churches every Sunday, and also preached at Disciples of Christ camp-meetings. Calvin Coolidge—You just have to admire someone who never used a word more than he had to and still managed to become president!
6. Do we have examples of presidents who became more committed to their faith once they were in the White House?
Two that come to mind are Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Lincoln became more privately committed to the faith during his presidency. While it’s disputed whether he became a Christian before his death (I’m inclined to think he did), the pressure of the Civil War and the 1863 death of his son definitely caused him to draw closer to God. Eisenhower became more publicly committed to the faith. Though he did not want to join a church and make a public profession of faith in Christ during his presidential campaign, lest it was said he did it for political effect, he did it once he had won. He told Billy Graham that he believed America was a Christian nation and wanted a Christian leader.
7. When you wrote your book, what methods did you follow to make sure that you were being objective and not bringing a wrong bias to your writing?
I set myself a rule at the start: Tell the truth. It is easy to fall into the temptation to selectively present evidence to portray a president as more, or less, religious than he really was. Several previous books on the topic fall into this trap, in one direction or the other. I went back to original source material to the greatest extent possible, and read interpretations from liberal, conservative, and moderate perspectives in an attempt to present as balanced and accurate an account as possible.
8. Why is it important to know about the connection between faith and leaders in American history?
These forty-two men have shaped our history. Studying their faith gives a window into one of the biggest factors that shaped them. To give just two specific examples: William McKinley’s missionary zeal played into his expansionist policies, particularly in regard to the Philippines. Granted, I think his specific policy application may have been a little misplaced, as guns are rarely the most efficient method of spreading the Gospel, but I have to give him credit for good intentions. Another specific example is that the faith of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush has shaped the pro-life positions they’ve taken on the abortion issue.
To order your copy of The Faith of America’s Presidents, visit: www.DanielMount.com
Topics: Interviews | No Comments »
The Bravehearted Gospel
By Israel Wayne | August 23, 2008
I recently caught up with my friend Eric Ludy to talk with him about his new book, The Bravehearted Gospel.
In your book, The Bravehearted Gospel, you say that the current version of the gospel being presented in America has “lost the manly stuff.” What do you mean by that statement?
When you study Christian history and stand the church of ages past next to the anemic church of our day, it’s not hard to see that something has gone awry. As a group, we modern Christians are soft, mushy and lax. There seems to be a serious shortage of the majestic, intrepid, daring, just, and durable qualities the Church once possessed. The steel of a man is strangely lacking. Or, as I often say in my book, “the manly stuff is missing”.
For instance: Whatever happened to the idea of sacred honor; unvarnished nobility; and unwavering allegiance to a King? What happened to the quake-in-my-boots Fear of God; the lay-it-all-on-the-line commitment to the cause of Christ; and the die-if-I-must attitude toward defending truth and Scripture? Where did the radical abandon to seek and save the lost disappear to; or the once glorious idea of martyrdom? Or how about the burning need to stand against evil, to break the jaws of the wicked in order to ransom the oppressed, the orphaned, the widowed and the enslaved? Where is the holy boldness, the courage, and the daring needed to birth the Truth of Christ into this God-forsaking culture? What happened to the once noble idea of preaching with both authority and conviction? Where has the vanguard, the mighty men, the fiercely loyal regiment of King Jesus vanished to? Because we need them, and we need them now!
What do you feel are some of the greatest enemies of the true church today?
To be honest I think one of the greatest enemies we, as the church, are facing today, isn’t external, it’s an internal slumbering feline within our souls known as apathy. For some reason we have bought the notion that we are at a time of peace, when in fact, we are at a time of war.
I also believe that the church has been infiltrated with serious doctrinal error that has slowly, over time, whittled away our confidences in Scripture and ultimately dismantled our expectations of God building His church into a mighty company of “more than conquerors.”
And I believe that the modern Emergent Church movement poses one of the greatest threats to historic, Christ-centric, Spirit-empowered Christianity that the church may have ever seen.
How do young people fit in to The Bravehearted Gospel?
The church has literally lost an entire generation. Multitudes of youth group bred kids are abandoning the church when they leave home for college. The statistics are staggering, some as high as 8 in every 10.
Young people want something real and authentic, and unfortunately, they haven’t seen that in the church. But I believe that we are at a time in history where the nerve of longing has been exposed. There is a felt need within the younger ranks to leave dry and dusty religion in their wake and “emerge” into something different.
Of course, the Emergent Church is offering a “real” and “new” Christianity that is very effectively capturing the imagination and heart of this vast demographic. But the “Emergent Church”, whereas it is loaded with the irreverence, the worldly hip-ness, and the fleshly license that the younger crowd loves, it is absent the power of the Gospel to set free from sin. And whereas, this younger demographic is strongly antagonistic toward the traditional church system they grew up in, it’s important to note that they still are hungry for something that works. The bravehearted gospel isn’t “traditional” Christianity, it’s “historic, biblical” Christianity full of authenticity AND power. The key appeal to the notion of “bravehearted” Christianity is that it actually works in the human life and actually changes the world in which it lives.
I strongly believe that it will be young people that respond to The Bravehearted Gospel most heartily.
Tell us about your passion for reaching orphans with the love of Jesus.
My wife, Leslie, and I began to ask for something very specific from God nearly two years ago now. For close to twenty-two months we have asked over and over again every day that He would give us His heart – that we could feel what He is feeling and carry the burdens that He is carrying. He knows that we couldn’t possibly carry such a thing, but as a loving father, He has gently begun to acquaint us with his grief, his love, his compassion, and his indignity over injustice.
I tell you what – when I think of orphans it stirs me deeply. I remember talking with a missionary woman from Liberia and she was telling me about a young boy who was starving on the side of the road – with no one to help him, no one to feed him, no one to protect him.
That night I woke up in the middle of the night and the thought exploded in my mind, “what if that were Hudson (my son)?”
If that were Hudson I would move heaven and earth to come to his aid, and if I couldn’t come, I would call every single person I knew and beg them to take the first flight to Liberia to rescue him.
This is when God spoke to me and said, “Eric, that little boy is MY Hudson.”
Leslie and I have spent nearly fourteen years standing for issues of the Christian life (purity, holiness, and full-surrender), but we feel strongly that this next season is to be one dedicated to cause of the vulnerable. And this is, in its very essence, the Bravehearted Gospel. God’s not just speaking this message through us, He’s making sure it’s working in us.
Does the Bravehearted path have a place for women?
Absolutely! Just as I was always told growing up that I needed to get in touch with my feminine side, this book is a call to the church, both male and female, to get in touch with their manly side. The gusto and grit of true martyr-ready Christianity is not something merely for the men, it’s the stuff of Jesus Christ and should be drilled into the bedrock of every believing soul.
Some of the most powerful spiritual influences in my life have been women who walked the “bravehearted path.” Amy Carmichal, Gladys Ailward, Viba Perpetua, Sabina Wurmbrand, Elizabeth Fry – these were all women that didn’t prance through their Christian journey like ballerinas, but rather, marched it out as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. They didn’t forsake their femininity, but rather, allowed their femininity to be fully completed by the strength, boldness, courage, and fortitude of Christ. These were women that lived the Gospel with power, with victory, and with epic grandeur.
What are the most dangerous aspects of the Emergent Church movement?
The Emergent Movement is kind of like Jell-O. Try and nail it to the wall and it slips and slides away. And this is precisely one of its most dangerous aspects – it’s total lack of definition. In fact, obscurity and mystery is all part of its ethos.
The Emergent Movement really IS saying something clearly, but they throw in a thousand disclaimers to make sure that you don’t realize that they are saying something clearly. For instance, they constantly diminish the authority, integrity, and majesty of Scripture, but then after they do, they make a statement about how much they love Scripture. They cast doubt on the historic claims and beliefs of the Christian faith and then proceed to say things like, “Oh, don’t get me wrong, I believe in the virgin birth, I was just posing a few questions.” They make it clear that they believe Mormon, Muslims, and Buddhists can all go to heaven and then say, “However, I’m not a universalist.”
The Emergent Movement is laboring to re-define the entire idea of Christianity. It’s a Christianity defined as a result of cultural sensibilities and sensitivities and not as a result of the clearly defined revelation of God as given in the Bible.
It’s a wolf in a sheep’s costume. But not just any sheep costume – the most brilliant sheep costume I have ever seen.
These “emergent” guys are brilliant. They know what they are doing. And they are currently laboring inside the sheep pen of the church with hearty sanction from many pulpits.
In your book, you coin the phrase, “Wikibiblia.” What does that mean?
Wikipedia is the online world-wide phenomenon of Truth as defined by community. All the definitions on Wikipedia are given by everyday people and edited by everyday people. It’s the community that is responsible for keeping the definitions as presented accurate.
This concept is the essence of post-modernism – and it’s not bad in and of itself. For instance, it builds connectivity and engenders a deeper sense of commitment for all those involved in the project.
However, when post-modernism entered into the corridors of Christianity it carried this notion of “truth by committee” with it. This has led to what I refer to as “Wikibiblia,” or Truth as determined by community.
Biblical Truth is being manhandled these days by men and women who view it as “open ended” and “free for new interpretation.” However, the Truth as revealed in Scripture is not from men, to be critiqued by men, or to, God forbid, be edited by men. But this is exactly what is happening in our day and age.
Emergent writer, Rob Bell, makes a case for “re-imaging” Christianity in his best-selling book, “Velvet Elvis.” Without any holy apprehension he claims that it was God’s intent that we alter and adapt our understanding of Scripture in our modern age based on the opinion of community. Thus saying that though God may have expressly forbidden homosexuality in times past, in our day and age the community can overrule such an incorrect notion and free the church to accept a new morality. This is Wikibiblia, and this is one of the scariest things the church is facing today.
How did nice guy Eric Ludy, end up sounding like a sanctified, Christian version of a Viking warrior in this book?
God has been working on me. I told God a few years back that I wanted the “full package” and not the “partial package” of the Christ-life. So, for better of for worse (I’m convinced it’s for the better), I’ve found a lot more of the “manly stuff” of Christ emanating out of me. I used to be Mr. Nice Guy, and I still am in a lot of ways, but it’s sort of Mr. Nice Guy with a whip in hand now. I really used to really be uncomfortable with Martin Luther’s bombastic behavior during the reformation. I used to think to myself, “It seems to me that he could have handled this with a little more love and sensitivity”, and now, surprise, surprise – I’m feeling the same sort of indignity rushing through my bloodstream that he must have felt. I must admit that it is a bit uncomfortable allowing this politically incorrect stuff to find its way into my nature, voice, and disposition, however, the glory of Jesus Christ is at stake in our modern world and I can’t just sit back and remain silent as the Truth of the Gospel is falling in the streets.
Tell us about your current ministry in Colorado related to discipleship and community.
For years we have been asked to set up a discipleship project. There are countless young Christian men and women who want to go deeper, they want to troll the depths of Scripture and find the fullness of what Christ promised. Well, after turning people away for years saying, “We are so sorry, but we just aren’t set up to pull it off,” as of March of this year we have opened the door and said, “Okay, come on out!”
In many ways we are still figuring things out regarding structure, but all in all, it has been a fabulous thing. The depth of discipleship, the depth of teaching, and the vision for living is a great strength in what we are doing.
We are still small (less than a hundred), and in many ways that is preferable. However, I’m fairly confident that this community will really begin to grow in these next twelve months. It’s exciting, world-changing stuff, and it’s fun to be a part of it.
If you could, through the power of God, accomplish a handful of major goals in the next thirty years, what would they be?
I really ache over the vast number of orphans and street children in the world today. The latest numbers are showing near 145 million. That number is so big that we very easily cloud over and wave a dismissive hand within our souls. I would love to see that number evaporate in my lifetime. We will always have the poor and always have the orphan this side of heaven, however, I wish to move and mobilize the Body of Christ to practically become the hands and feet of our Heavenly Father to these precious ones.
I want to see the Church be the Church in this world. I want to see us once again threaten the powers of Hell and awaken the venom of the Evil one. I want alarms sounding in Hell without reprieve. I want to take back all that has been plundered from my King – I want souls, men and women captured by the power of the Gospel for the pleasure of my God.
I know it’s a lot to ask, but I want to see the Church of Jesus Christ once again bear the purity, the holiness, the love, and the epic grandeur of our Captain. Simply put, I want to see the Bravehearted Gospel of my King echo in the hearts of His people once again.
Topics: Book Reviews, Interviews | 2 Comments »
Betrothal featured in Wall Street Journal
By Israel Wayne | April 11, 2008
The Wall Street Journal (April 11, 2008) featured an article on betrothal that featured my wife and I as well as some other couples who discuss betrothal.
The Wall Street Journal article that feautured us.
So as not to be confused with anyone else’s ideas of what betrothal is or is not, I should direct you to visit our site www.BiblicalBetrothal.com to read our articles or click on “TERMS” to see how we personally differentiate between Dating / Courthship / Betrothal.
Topics: Israel's Thoughts | 1 Comment »
« Previous Entries