MIA

I'm taking a class the next two weeks in Dallas and plan to be pretty sporadic updating the blog. But I have to tell you about something my wife did for me yesterday.

For my birthday she got my a journal that she started writing in for me. The first several pages are filled with the things she loves about me. She left several pages blank so she can continue filling them in.

Ladies, if you want to give your husband one of the greatest gifts he'll ever receive, you should give this a try. It was a good birthday.

Why "Plain?"

Yesterday I talked briefly about a "plain" understanding of Scripture (hermeneutic). The day before that I made the claim that the way we understand Scripture is the most important theological question facing the Church today. Today, I want to give five quick reasons I think we must understand Scripture in a "plain" way - the way the original audience would have understood the same words.

1. It seems to have been Jesus' method.

Just one example: In Matthew 22:23-33, Jesus argues for the Truth of resurrection on the basis of verb tense. God says "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" rather than "I was." When Jesus interpreted Exodus 3, he believed God meant what He said in a plain sense.

2. The Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy

When prophecy was made in the Old Testament, it was specific. When prophecy was fulfilled in the New Testament it was fulfilled in light of a plain understanding of the prophecy. As readers hundreds of years before Christ read Micah 5:2, they would have had a specific village in mind when they heard "Bethlehem Ephrathah." Even the Magi from the East pointed Herod in the right direction (Matthew 2:3-6). Micah 5:2 is just one of hundreds of prophecies concerning Jesus which was fulfilled according to the plain sense of the original prophecy.

3. The Proper Use of Human Language in Relationship

If words do not have plain meaning, they are worthless. If I should not or cannot interpret your words in a specific way, you might as well not talk. God chose language to communicate to us and gave us language for us to communicate to each other. Any understanding of words other than a plain understanding makes the use of language pointless.

4. Objectivity Demands It

If words cannot be understood plainly, objectivity is impossible. If every word is up to individual interpretation, words mean whatever the audience wants them to mean.

5. Plain Interpretation is Core to the Gospel

If sin does not really equal literal death (Genesis 2:17), Jesus did not have to die on the cross. In fact, the temptation preceding the fall itself was a temptation from Satan to take God's words in a way that was something other than their plain meaning (Genesis 3:2-5). If a plain understanding of God's words with regard to the consequence of sin is not possible, we cannot be sure that we are understanding God's solution correctly.

Plain Understanding

Yesterday I mentioned that I think the question of how to understand Scripture is the most significant theological question that will have to be answered by the Church in the coming years. Although in a real sense our faith is in God, not the Bible, the Bible is one of the primary ways God reveals Himself to us. So, it's important that we understand it in the way God intended.

I believe in a "plain" hermeneutic (understanding of the Bible). That is, I believe our goal should be to understand the Bible in the way it would have been plainly understood by the original audience. This takes into account literary genre and figures of speech but tries to understand Scripture the way a carpenter in the first century would have understood it so that we can apply the principles to our lives.

I don't say I believe in a "literal" method because misinformed people take that claim literally. There are figures of speech, hyperbole, and poetry in Scripture that we should understand like we would understand any other figures of speech, hyperbole and poetry. The plain understanding of the poetry in Psalm 17:8 is not that God is a bird. The plain understanding of Jesus' use of hyperbole in Matthew 18:9 does not tell us all to become surgeons but does challenge us to take drastic action in avoiding sin. Jesus clarified Nicodemus' misunderstanding of his figure of speech in John 3:4 - "born again" does not mean we go back in our mother's womb.

When we interpret and apply Scripture our goal is to understand what the author intended us to understand.

The Bible doesn't contain some hidden secret code. It is not subjective. The Bible does not change with time, culture, or emotions. It is not primarily an allegory, illustration, or fable. It is God's revelation of Himself containing propositional Truth claims. We don't get to evaluate Scripture in light of our emotions, beliefs, and cultural trends. Scripture was written with a specific "plain" meaning for a specific "plain" purpose and our decisions, feelings, emotions and beliefs should be based on that.

Tomorrow I'll try to give you 4 reasons I think we have to use a "plain" hermeneutic when we interpret Scripture.

Theological Issue?

I had coffee yesterday with one of McKinney's mission partners who is serving in Japan. During the course of the conversation he asked me what was in my opinion the biggest theological question we (as a Church) would need to answer in the coming months and years.

I think it's the question of hermeneutics - how we study and understand the Bible.

I could have said "postmodernism," but when it comes right down to it postmodernism within the Church is a belief about how we should understand and apply the Scripture. It's a hermeneutical question before it's a question about worship styles, extent of the atonement, or social justice.

The issue of homosexuality in the Church is a significant issue. The Church is going to have to figure out pretty quickly what it believes about homosexuality and learn to address it in a Christlike way. But that issue is an issue of how we understand the Bible. Homosexuality is not the issue at all - Scripture speaks clearly about homosexuality. Any question we have about homosexuality is a question about how we understand Scripture.

There are some big questions facing the Church this century, but most of them only mask the real question which is a hermeneutic question.

Tomorrow I'll try to talk a bit about how I'm trying to answer the question. But before then, I'm interested: do you agree? Are there other questions you think are bigger questions that the Church will need to answer in coming months and years?

Love to Win or Hate to Lose

I had a great time last night at a meeting of some of the leadership at our church to plan for the fall. It's fun to get a bunch of people together who love their church for the purpose of dreaming about the future.

About a year ago I heard Dan Reeves (a former NFL football coach) give some advice to leaders: "You have to have people on your team who want to win. If you can't find them, find people who really, really hate to lose."

At McKinney, "winning" means developing Christ-centered people who make a difference. Last night, we had a lot of people who love seeing that happen, and a few who just hate the alternative. Either way, it's fun to be a part of a team who is excited about keeping the ball moving forward.

Perception

I read a quote by Ben Arment the other day that I think is significant for leaders - especially pastors. In one sense, what he says is obvious. In another sense, it's profound.

He said: "In your mind, you probably spend 90% of your time leading. But to your congregation, you spend 100% of your time communicating."

His quote, of course, is a bit over-simplified. It insinuates that communicating and leading are mutually exclusive, and they aren't. But Arment has a point.

Perception is everything. If a leader feels like he can lead without communicating well, he is in trouble. The vast majority of the people you lead may not ever sit with you in a strategic meeting. They will never get lunch with you or be on a board with you. They will be affected by the ripples of your leadership, but will not see your leadership.They will only hear what you say.

How does what you preach connect with where you're going? Can people connect the dots, or are you just assuming they'll "get it?" Do they understand the importance of Mark 6 to what they're trying to becoming as a Christ-centered person, or do they just understand how Mark 6 fits in the context between Mark 5 and Mark 7?

There's a big difference.

The direction has to be rooted in the Truth of the Scripture. But the Truth of the Scripture has to be lived out in the life of the believer, or your leadership is sunk. And you have to help people connect the dots.

Beach Balls

One of the toughest challenges for leaders is what I call the "Beach Ball Mentality" (The idea isn't new to me, but I've forgotten who I stole it from).

Imagine your office, home, church, or wherever it is you serve as leader as a multi-colored beach ball. Each department/location/ministry/family member represents one of the colors.

When you live life in the blue section, you see everything through shades of blue with the exception of times you move to the edge of blue and can catch just a glimpse of another color. All your decisions, wants, and desires are colored by your understanding of reality, which is blue. In the beach ball to the left, someone who lives in blue will have a hard time ever even knowing that yellow or pink exist, much less be able to understand things from their point of view. This is an unavoidable reality; the leader cannot just command blue to see yellow or pink.

The challenge of the leader is making decisions that affect the whole ball while considering the effect of those decisions on each color on the beach ball. This is particularly hard because the larger the organization, the more likely it is that the leader's own reality is separate from the reality of others in his organization. Leadership begins to be its own color.

This is why communication is vital for the leader in any organization. Although he can't touch every color, he has to touch those who do. Every decision that he makes must be with the entire ball in mind and must be framed in such a way that the person who lives entirely each color can understand and hop on board.

I'm convinced the beach ball mentality is at fault for the majority of our problems with music in the church, morale in the marketplace, and conflict at home. It isn't a problem with the people first and foremost; it's a problem with the leader.