Lantern Road book review chapter 9

Spirituality, one of my favorite topics. Spirituality outside of community is one of the most dangerous exercises a human being can attempt. Deception is almost inevitable. Without the counsel and accountability of community we all drift toward self indulgence and that includes the arena of spirituality. Jesus greatest expression of spirituality is found in the statement concerning him in the Psalms and Hebrews, "In the volume of the book it is written of me, I come to do your will O God." The proof is in the doing, the going, not the being. Being spiritual is one thing, but living spiritual is another ball game.
Page 142 is excellent on the topic of spirituality and the Word of God. I love the statement that "God reveals himself by his Spirit through his word." Far too often our concepts of spiritual encounter are not rightly compared to the Word of God and are tainted. I liked the balance concerning the leading of the Spirit that begins at the bottom of page 142. In many circles, there is such a craving for prophetic words to direct lives that it has become like a Christian fortune telling center in some churches. I do not discount the prophetic, but I do believe we are becoming addicted and remaining infantile in our spiritual growth due to our reliance on prophetic input. I do disagree with the argument on page 143 that all we need is Jesus. For certain any instruction, whether by teaching or prophetic etc. must conform to the words of Jesus himself or as given through the writings of the New Testament, but Jesus did give the ministry gifts and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help instruct us and to train us into His will.
The thoughts on "Spirituality and the Gospel Mission" are helpful. Gnosticism is addressed and certainly that is a major issue in the church today. The points about John 15 on page 146 are definitely part of the discussion. I also liked the section on passionate prayer. I think that the theology of corporate prayer is a much needed topic today. Much of the Old Testament pictures national petition and gathering to seek God and it almost seems assumed by Paul in the New Testament that there are times of petition prayer happening in the churches. The statements on page 150 about concentration in prayer being helped by corporate praying are definitely true. I will say that the statements on page 148 that seem to discourage praise and thanksgiving as a needed component for prayer are wrong. It is true that petitioning God is a form of humility and need for God, but it also is first centered in myself and not God. And, there is definitely a clear teaching in scripture concerning petitioning according to the will of God which is likely best found in first focusing upon Him.
Lastly, for me the final section is the key principle of the chapter. Any time we begin our approach to God as if it is only about God and me I think we abuse the Lord's intention to redeem a people. It automatically isolates me when I think in terms of my need for God without regard to the people He has joined my life to. The emphasis on page 150 about not separating ourselves and the reference to the scriptures that point to sins that separate us from God are very insightful. Also, the concept that the scriptures urge us to live in relationship where we are encouraging and exhorting one another imply clearly that part of our spiritual growth is dependent upon relationship. Exhortation is so lacking in most of the churches relationship instruction. We are not often taught how to "speak the truth in love", in fact we are seldom encouraged to do so but rather most of the time we are actually encouraged not to do so for the sake of unity. How twisted we are to think that there could possibly be God glorifying unity where there is no confrontation happening in the spirit of love and meekness. As simple as it sounds, the sentence on page 151 that sums it all up for me is, "We need to be sharing our lives." Sharing is a concept our parents taught us from the start, how did we find ourselves so wounded and hardened by sin that somewhere along the way we forgot that it is wrong to keep things to ourselves and it is always right to have a heart to share. Paul said it this way in I Corinthians 6:19-20, we are not our own but rather we were bought by a price. Paul also encourages us in Romans 12 to present our bodies as living sacrifices. We belong to Jesus and he is an unselfish and generous giver. Our lives are to be shared with others.

Total Church review chapter 8

There is little doubt that pastoral care has more and more moved into the arena of the professional counselor. There is a great deal of intimidation and even projected condemnation when pastors attempt to do counsel or worse yet encourage small group leaders to wade into the lives of their members. A certain aura of self proclaimed success is projected by the professional field that is just not reality. Most people are not helped aside from healthy strong relationships outside of the counseling sessions. At the end of the day the people who are helped often are set free more because of the relationships which grow strong walking together through crisis, than they are from the counseling. I agree with the comments at the bottom of page 128 that as "people are encouraged to define themselves as victims" and "are encouraged to seek out professional counseling", they "become disinclined to depend on each other in the normal routine of relationships". I also love the bold statement on page 129 "It is our conviction that the gospel word and gospel community do not fail us when it comes to pastoral care." We are often paralyzed by our speculation of the worse case scenarios of failure if we attempt to deal with people's problems. Our concern is misplaced. Professional counseling fails just as frequently as other methods of help and with just as horrible consequences. Recent reports by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, which performs the government studies for suicide, state that suicide among Hispanics is half as much as the general public and the study indicates that the reasons are, religious teaching that suicide is a sin and the closeness of their family units.

Another point that I see being made on page 129 under the chapter heading "The Sufficient Gospel Word", is concerning the supposed dichotomy between teaching the Bible and counseling. To think that a sermon is a generic safe means of addressing people's need through scripture but that personal counseling using the scripture is crossing a line of safety, is to say that the Bible is not sufficient. If we truly believe that Jesus is the answer to social as well as personal issues, then He is sufficient for the needs of crisis. In every personal crisis transformation is the solution and transformation always occurs through application of the scripture through interpersonal relationships. II Peter 1:3-4 is true and has been made available to all who are in Christ. Two books I would highly recommend on this concept are "How People Change" by Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp and also "The Peace Making Pastor" by Alfred Poirier. Both books should be required reading for all pastors. They also deal with the God ordained ability or pastoral gifting promised as an unction from the Holy Spirit to all those who are called Christians.

On page 133 is a powerful statement of truth that when I turn in on myself, I am turning away from God!!! From the first full paragraph on page 133 through the end of the chapter I highlighted pretty much all of it and covered the pages with asterisks. It is vital that we deeply imprint into our hearts and minds the principles of relationship before we enter crisis or we will through our fallen nature drift into a place of dark loneliness purposely isolating ourselves from the only true help we have which is community. Because of our fallen nature we fall towards self pity and only want sympathy when in crisis. We absolutely do not want the confrontation of truth even though that may be our best help. Other than physical need, when people came to Jesus with crisis, most often, he addressed the issues with challenges concerning heart. The 4 keys for life changing truth about God on page 138 are tremendous applications for addressing issues in each others lives and really are true points of consideration when dealing with each others issues.