It's also weird how online Christian culture has created an atmosphere where men and women want to be a Pastor or Theologian. Everyone feels the need to be molded by theology and come out the other end looking like Tim Keller: winsome and a scholar. I think the obsessive focus on theology combined with a pietism that avoids the goodness of the material world in pursuit of something better has created that super gullibility, fed by well-intentioned Pastors who talk about their calling as if it is the most important thing in the world.
It’s refreshing and real, there is a lot of fake and phoney people. Becoming authentic tip to tail is rare. I’m 63 and have been a Christian for forty years, being authentic takes practice, knowing God helps. But, there’s a lot of people that claim to know God and are along way from facing reality as it is not as they would like it to be all shiny and clean. A lot of life can be dirty cold and dull that’s why we need the light Jesus provides so we can press on to our true self in Christ, learning what the true, good and beautiful really is in this life and the life to come. Thanks bro, you being honest is worth a lot.
Good reminder. When my wife and I were first married we had already been an active part of our minister's Sunday lunches where members and family would gather to eat and spend time together for a few hours. Out of that hospitality grew increased trust and knowledge of the faithfulness of the minister to what he preached from the pulpit. It also allowed him to know us better. It also meant it was easier for us to seek and receive counsel from him because we knew we could trust him. Consequently, we grew up more than we would have doing things by ourselves. Hospitality cannot happen online. Placing all of one's energy and hopes into online groups is like C.S. Lewis's comments (in Abolition of Man) about cutting out aesthetic judgments from education: "We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
It's also weird how online Christian culture has created an atmosphere where men and women want to be a Pastor or Theologian. Everyone feels the need to be molded by theology and come out the other end looking like Tim Keller: winsome and a scholar. I think the obsessive focus on theology combined with a pietism that avoids the goodness of the material world in pursuit of something better has created that super gullibility, fed by well-intentioned Pastors who talk about their calling as if it is the most important thing in the world.
It’s refreshing and real, there is a lot of fake and phoney people. Becoming authentic tip to tail is rare. I’m 63 and have been a Christian for forty years, being authentic takes practice, knowing God helps. But, there’s a lot of people that claim to know God and are along way from facing reality as it is not as they would like it to be all shiny and clean. A lot of life can be dirty cold and dull that’s why we need the light Jesus provides so we can press on to our true self in Christ, learning what the true, good and beautiful really is in this life and the life to come. Thanks bro, you being honest is worth a lot.
Good reminder. When my wife and I were first married we had already been an active part of our minister's Sunday lunches where members and family would gather to eat and spend time together for a few hours. Out of that hospitality grew increased trust and knowledge of the faithfulness of the minister to what he preached from the pulpit. It also allowed him to know us better. It also meant it was easier for us to seek and receive counsel from him because we knew we could trust him. Consequently, we grew up more than we would have doing things by ourselves. Hospitality cannot happen online. Placing all of one's energy and hopes into online groups is like C.S. Lewis's comments (in Abolition of Man) about cutting out aesthetic judgments from education: "We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."