Crossless Christianity

“A God without wrath brought man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” (H. Richard Niebuhr)

I had the opportunity to visit the “Cathedral of Faith” Sunday.  They are a Pentecostal, Word-of-Faith church.  This week they started a new series, “Treasure Hunters”.

Key words:  “self esteem”,  “abundant living”, “finding your dream”.

this week’s lesson - what is stopping you from reclaiming your dreams is fear.  The speaker said several times that the “greatest - ahem…the commandment given most often in the Bible is ‘not to fear’.

If only we would stop being afraid, there is nothing that we could not accomplish.  Let go of our fear, grab onto the power within us and remember our dreams!

“Star Wars” theology.

No mention of the cross, of Christ’s finished work, of redemption, repentance.

Only “get out of the boat”, “expect to get wet”, “Jesus won’t let you drown”.

“We are saved, after all that we can do.”

It’s all about what is within us, helped by the “genie in the bottle”, Jesus.  The “stuff” that we have forgotten how to access can be ours once again.

“A God without wrath brought man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” (H. Richard Niebuhr)

For those for whom the terms of that sentence are well nigh incomprehensible, English biblical scholar T. W. Manson’s spoof may strike closer to home: “Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to give a course of lecture-sermons on the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and then becomes the victim of an unfortunate miscarriage of justice.” Substitute one or another therapeutic banality (”I’m O.K., you’re O.K.”? “Follow your bliss”?) for the subject of the talks, and Manson’s jibe still tells.

“The Heart of a Servant Leader” - C. John Miller (intro)

This book is a collection of letters from one leader to another - it’s not a “how to” book, but there is some very good stuff in there.

The letters deal with:

• ministry issues
• overcoming sin
• physical suffering
• learning to forgive
• spiritual warfare

I’ll be commenting as I go along -

The introduction was written by Miller’s daughter, Barbara.  Miller was a man who was constantly moving, and taking a crowd along with him.  He believed and taught that the chief leader was also the chief servant…not always front and center, but rather the one who worked to make sure that those under his care were successful.

The bedrock of Miller’s Christian leadership was the belief that all the organization, all of the techniques, all of the planning made no difference if Christ was not center.

It starts with the heart.

The planning and organization must come after the leader’s heart was humbled before God.

And that is the message this book conveys.