“What a Saviour” vs. “What a Preacher” [cross-post]

What a Saviour vs.What a Preacher

When I was in Seminary, I took a course in homiletics. During that semester, each of the students was required to preach a sermon to the rest of the class. When it was my turn, I was ready! My points were clearly defined, and I thought I gave good expression to the meaning of the biblical text from which I had developed the sermon. I had given careful attention to the choosing of illustrations that would clarify what I was trying to say. Even my humor was timed as it should have been to relieve any distracting tension that might have built up in my listeners. In preaching that sermon, I though I gave it my best.

Later, when I received a written evaluation from my professor, I was stunned by what he had written across the top of the report sheet. In bold, red letter under the grade were the words, Tony. You can't convince people that you are wonderful and that Jesus is wonderful in the same sermon. I have never forgotten those words. Before I prepare a talk, I ask myself how Jesus can be lifted up through what I say.

Little more than a century ago, the British Isles were blessed with one of the best communicators of all the time, the great Charles Spurgeon. So extensive was Spurgeon's fame that those who lived in and around London made hearing him preach a "must-do" event. Even Herbert Spencer, the prominent sociologist and somewhat infamous agnostic, took time one evening to go and hear Spurgeon preach at his famous Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle. Following the sermon, Spencer's assistant asked him, Well? What did you think of him?

As though coming out of a hypnotic trance, Spencer responded, "About whom?"

“About the preacher—Charles Spurgeon,” his assistant replied.

Still awed by the way in which Spurgeon had connected with him, Spencer answered, “Oh, Spurgeon! I haven’t been thinking about him. I’ve been occupied thinking about Spurgeon’s Jesus!”

Oh, that all preachers could connect with their congregations like that, so that when the sermons end, people would say, “I can’t tell you much about the preacher. I was too preoccupied with thinking about Jesus.”

Then there is the story of a man who, after hearing one of the other great Christian orators of the day, was overheard saying to a friend, “What a preacher! What a preacher!” The following week, this same man, having heard Charles Spurgeon, was overheard to say “What a Saviour! What a Saviour!”

In my own case, it is not until I have spent time in prayer asking God to help me point people to Jesus instead of myself that I focus on how I will actually deliver my message. Doing what makes you Christ centered in your speaking does not render unnecessary the use of all the best delivery techniques that Jesus and other master communicators have used to stir pathos in the hearts and minds of listeners. That’s why it is important for you to intentionally consider and also practice key aspects of delivering a talk. The best material can get lost in bad delivery.

This blog post is an excerpt from Connecting Like Jesus by Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling: Jossey-Bass Press, 2010.

Was Jesus a Passive Doormat? [cross-post]

Was Jesus a Passive Doormat?

by Margaret Benefiel 04-18-2011

This past Palm Sunday marked the beginning of Holy Week for Christians — a week of remembering Jesus’ suffering and death. Upon reflecting on the circumstances surrounding Christ’s death, I found myself asking: Was Jesus a passive doormat or a strong leader? What leadership lessons did Jesus teach as he walked toward his death?

The two most common human responses to threat are flight or fight. Flight is the passive response, and fight is the defensive response. Many Christians have interpreted Jesus’ willing acceptance of death as a passive response.

Yet there is another interpretation. According to biblical scholar Walter Winkin his book Engaging the Powers, Jesus demonstrated a “Third Way,” a way of responding to threat that was neither fight nor flight:

Jesus, in short, abhors both passivity and violence. He articulates, out of the history of his own people’s struggles, a way by which evil can be opposed without being mirrored, the oppressor resisted without being emulated, and the enemy neutralized without being destroyed.

The Third Way includes both respect for oneself and respect for the best self of the one who is attacking. It includes compassion for oneself and compassion for the attacker. It includes the ability to see beneath the surface, to see the humanity of the attacker.

The Third Way is just as challenging in everyday life as it is in large socio-political arenas, and Jesus calls us to live it in both places. We progressive Christian activists are prone to practice the Third Way in the larger arenas while neglecting it in daily life. For example, when my husband points out that I didn’t follow through on something I agreed to do, my natural response is defensiveness. In that moment, I can easily feel attacked. If I respond defensively, my husband is likely to turn up the volume on the criticism, resulting in my feeling even more defensive, creating a vicious cycle. If instead of responding defensively, I can take a deep breath and see the humanity of my husband and the truth in what he is saying, I can respond with compassion. I can listen deeply. I can respond from my heart. When I choose the Third Way, the cycle of criticism and defensiveness is more likely to be interrupted, resulting in more satisfaction for both me and my husband.

Leading by the Third Way does not mean being a doormat. It involves discerning when and how to confront. It involves compassion at all times. It involves refusing to be manipulated. It involves unmasking the attacker. It involves calling forth the best in the attacker.

When Jesus stood before the religious leaders of his time, the chief priests and scribes, he responded to their entrapping question, “If you are the Christ, tell us,” creatively, by saying, “If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask you, you will not answer.” Jesus refused to be manipulated. He turned the question back on the religious leaders, challenging them to face themselves and to face truth. When they refused, Jesus maintained his own dignity and his own identity.  He did not allow the religious leaders to define him.

Because Jesus met violence with love, even to the very end (praying for forgiveness for those who condemned and crucified him), the violence was undone. The rulers, both religious and secular, were unmasked, revealed for all to see who they really were.

Responding to perceived attacks with defensiveness only exacerbates the vicious cycle, whether it be in the workplace, in the home, or in the larger world. Responding to attacks through the Third Way opens up the possibility of transforming the vicious cycle through love. Jesus was not a doormat. Instead, he modeled the strong leadership of transforming love.

Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., author of Soul at Work and The Soul of a Leader, works with leaders in health care, business, churches, government, and nonprofits to help them stay true to their souls. Visit her website.

Can’t Forgive ... [cross-post]

Can’t Forgive Your Dad, Mom, Ex-Wife, or Friend? Well, Forgiveness is a Choice

by Ken Fong 04-20-2011

Our ability to love others who have sinned against us flows out of our real experience of Jesus forgiving our own sins. If we find it impossible to love one who has hurt or wronged us, it is probably because we refuse to forgive that person.

It shouldn’t surprise us, but Jesus had it right all along. Throughout his brief tenure of public ministry, Jesus demonstrated and emphasized the power and necessity of forgiveness. In Luke 7, as a woman with a sinful reputation wept unashamedly at his feet, he declared to the scandalized guests at the party, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47). With his very next breath, Jesus reiterated that given the extravagant and selfless extent of her love for him, her sins had indeed been forgiven.

Have you ever considered how much our ability to love someone else is often tied directly to our ability to forgive that person? The essence of what Jesus is saying, I believe, is twofold. First, our ability to love others who have sinned against us flows out of our real experience of Jesus forgiving our own sins. Second, if we find it impossible to love one who has hurt or wronged us, it is probably because we refuse to forgive that person.

Notice I said “we refuse to forgive that person” rather than “we are unable to forgive that person.” No doubt, there are extreme cases, but as a matter of fact, most people possess the power to forgive nearly any trespass. So the failure to forgive is because we typically lack the desire or motivation, not because we lack the ability.

Many of you reading might be asking, “Why should I forgive my father? His addiction destroyed my mother and ruined our home life.” “Why should I forgive the person who raped me?” “Why should I forgive my pastor? He or she violated my trust.” “Why should I forgive those people when they declared war against innocent people?” “Why should I forgive my spouse for cheating on me?” “Why should I forgive my parents for divorcing each other?” “How can I forgive myself for being the one who broke the trust, who violated another human being, who victimized others, or who was simply too weak or too imperfect?” Or any other variation on the theme.

Why Forgive?
There clearly is a theological reason for choosing to forgive: Since Jesus died to forgive us our sins, who are we to refuse to forgive the sins of others? That should be all the motivation we need, right? However, even though we know what the Bible teaches about this, we still choose not to forgive. And in failing to forgive, oftentimes for years and years, we unknowingly poison our own souls and sabotage our own happiness.

As author and seminary professor emeritus Lewis Smedes reflected on the gospel, it jumped out at him that “forgiving fellow human beings for wrongs done to them was close to the quintessence of Christian experience” (Forgive and Forget). Even more, he concluded that the refusal to forgive other people was a cause of added misery to the one who was wronged in the first place. In the past, he writes, “human forgiveness had been seen as a religious obligation of love that we owe to the person who has offended us. The discovery that I made was the important benefit that forgiving is to the forgiver.”

Recent psychological research on forgiveness is beginning to substantiate that this giving of grace and release to another promotes personal, relational, and social well-being. Dr. Glen Mack Harnden of the University of Kansas enthusiastically trumpets the benefits of forgiveness. “It not only heightens the potential for reconciliation, but also releases the offended from prolonged anger, rage, and stress that have been linked to physiological problems, such as cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure and other psychosomatic illnesses” (Christianity Today, January 10, 2000).

Practical Steps
Sound good? Okay, so how does one go about forgiving? Here is a practical outline of the process of forgiveness:

1. Don’t deny feelings of hurt, anger or shame. Rather, acknowledge these feelings and commit yourself to doing something about them.
2. Don’t just focus on the person who has harmed you, but also identify the specific offensive behavior.
3. Make a conscious decision not to seek revenge or nurse a grudge and decide instead to forgive. This conversion of the heart is a critical stage toward forgiveness.
4. Formulate a rationale for forgiving. For example: “By forgiving I can experience inner healing and move on with my life.”
5. Think differently about the offender. Try to see things from the offender’s perspective.
6. Accept the pain you’ve experienced without passing it off to others, including the offender.
7. Choose to extend goodwill and mercy toward the other; wish for the well-being of that person.
8. Think about how it feels to be released from a burden or grudge.
9. Realize the paradox of forgiveness: as you let go and forgive the offender, you are experiencing release and healing.

(Adapted from Robert D. Enright, in Scott Heller’s “Emerging Field of Forgiveness Studies Explores How We Let Go of Grudges,” Chronicle of Higher Education, July 17, 1998.)

All of this is not to claim that forgiving others should be automatic and easy. However, as Jesus pointed out, it is absolutely essential for reconciliation to occur and, in light of recent studies, for all of us to be freed up to embrace others once again.

And while we’re at it, let’s not forget to forgive ourselves.

Ken Fong is the Senior Pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles, and author of a number of books, including Secure in God’s Embrace: Living as the Father’s Adopted Child and Pursuing the Pearl: A Comprehensive Resource for Multi-Asian Ministry.