Strategic Christian

Excellent words from “The Constructive Curmudgeon,” an excellent Christian thinker.

Posted by Tom Gilson under Culture & The Heart | No Comments »

Steve Turner is a new name to me, but I’m impressed by this interview in Infuze magazine–”Art, Entertainment, and Faith”–which is also new to me (I found it via Pro-Existence.) Turner has written books including Imagine: A Vision for Christian in the Arts and The Gospel According to The Beatles, the second of which has an intriguing title, to say the least.
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Posted by Tom Gilson under Culture | Comments Off

In a comment over on my other blog, Charlie Scott linked to a podcast by J.P. Moreland on the Stand To Reason radio broadcast. It was in reference to miracles done by God–not Moreland’s usual topic, because he’s known more as a philosopher and apologist. But what an encouraging talk it was. (You’ll have to go about halfway into the show before Moreland arrives.)

Moreland’s topic was the phenomenal growth of the church worldwide in recent decades, something that most of us in the West have hardly been aware of. Two examples:

• In 1970, a research group was able to identify about 77 million “radical” Christians–Christians who fully believe the orthodox, evangelical message of Christ and seek to share it with others. In 2005, the number was up to around 707 million. That’s 11% of the world’s population.
• In 1980 there were two White Christians for every one Nonwhite. Now there are four Nonwhites for every White. This indicates the way the gospel is growing in the southern part of the globe and in Asia.

More than that, though, Moreland shared numerous documented stories of God working through signs and wonders: healings, dreams, and other miracles. It’s thrilling listening. God’s kingdom is advancing!

(Follow-up: similar information being reported by the Orange County Register)

Posted by Tom Gilson under Missions | 1 Comment »

Strategic Christian is now on its first ever Christian Carnival. Thanks, “Nerd Family.”

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Yes, you too can be a guaranteed success! Just follow this proven, can’t-fail formula, and your dreams and goals are just waiting for you!

Well, that sounds cheap–not something you’d expect about being a Christian with impact on the world, is it? Amazingly, though, in terms that are (ahem) a bit less breathless, there’s a promise just like this in the Bible. You can be guaranteed effectiveness, fruitfulness, never stumbling, and a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of God.
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Posted by Tom Gilson under The Heart | 1 Comment »

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Book Review

It was several years ago that I read Phantastes and Lilith, George MacDonald’s fantasy novels. I had looked him up on the written recommendation of C.S. Lewis, who considered him one of his great spiritual mentors–though only through MacDonald’s writings, for he lived much earlier, 1824-1905. These novels, Lewis said, “baptized” his imagination, bringing virtue and righteousness into the realm of fantastic literature. They were neither obvious nor easy reads for me, but certainly very enjoyable.

So I felt a sense of real anticipation as I settled in to read a new anthology of MacDonald’s non-fiction: The Truth in Jesus: The Nature of Truth and How We Come to Know It, edited by Michael Phillips.

The book includes 15 essays–”Unspoken Sermons”–by MacDonald, each one re-composed in modern language and followed by an analysis by the editor. If MacDonald is indeed, as many have said of him, a light to true and deep knowledge of Jesus Christ, it would be in chapters like “The New Name,” based on Revelation 2:17, which says:

“To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”

In this essay MacDonald carries the reader into an appreciation of intimacy with God, of God’s special relationship with each of his own, of the true humility that each person knows who knows how truly unique and special he or she is in God’s eyes. He asks whether there is danger of spiritual pride in this, and answers,

“Here there is no room for ambition. Ambition is the desire to be above one’s neighbour, but here there is no possibility of comparison with one’s neighbour. No one knows what the white stone contains except the individual who receives it.”

Perhaps it is the symbolic nature of the stone that, to me, has allowed this writer of highly symbolic literature to speak with such beauty and insight. Phillips says in his analysis of this chapter,

“I am struck again with the quiet depth and profound implications of this amazing sermon. It cannot be ‘analyzed’ in any accurate sense of the word.”

And yet this is the best “analysis” Phillips writes in the book. Other analyses, especially in early chapters, were disappointing for their lack of additional insight; they amount to repeating high points of the MacDonald text. Some of Phillips’s contributions provide biographical or historical insight, but their quality and worth is uneven. There were chapters in which I thought, “It was much better–and no less clear–just to read MacDonald.”

The book is about “The Truth in Jesus.” MacDonald says,

“Truth is truth, whether from the lips of Jesus or Balaam. But, in its deepest sense, the truth is a condition of heart, soul, mind, and strength toward God and toward our fellows.”

Here we see his characteristic view of truth in one brief nugget: it is about one’s condition of soul, and about one’s relationship with God. Propositional truth was probably important to MacDonald, yet he was suspicious of theologians and their systems. His theology was unorthodox; as Wikipedia correctly says, he rejected Reformed doctrines of the substitutionary atonement and imputed righteousness. I actually learned more from Wikipedia than from the selections in this book about what MacDonald proposed to replace those doctrines; from the book alone, all that shows is that MacDonald held an iconoclastic, and rather undefined, position.

And also that, in spite of that, the book reveals that he absolutely loved Jesus Christ and insisted that following Christ includes radical faith and obedience. This is the best message to be discovered from this set of his writings. Let the unorthodox theology be a matter of unanswered questions; let the editorial comments be what they are; there is still much to encourage and to inspire here. There is much to provoke thought. Some of what’s here must, after reflection, be set aside; but for a chapter like “The New Name,” it may nevertheless be worth the digging.

The Truth in Jesus: The Nature of Truth and How We Come to Know It, by George MacDonald, edited by Michael Phillips. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2006. 251 pages, paperback. $14.99; Amazon price $10.19.

(Cross-posted from Thinking Christian blog)

Posted by Tom Gilson under Book Reviews | Comments Off

After two years of writing Thinking Christian I’ve recognized a need for a different blog, one whose purpose is to encourage fellow believers who want to have a real impact for Jesus Christ.

Thinking Christian has become, for the most part, an apologetically-oriented blog, a place for lively discussion about whether Christianity is true as claimed. I’m not planning to slow down on that discussion one bit. But there are topics worth thinking about among those of us who are already quite satisfied with the truth of Jesus Christ.

My “day job” is as a strategic planner for a mission agency. My inclination is, almost constantly, to write. This is a place for writings on Christian strategy. It will not always be about “how to do it,” though, for the heart of Christian strategy is the heart of the Christian.

Thanks for visiting here, early on in the life of this blog. I hope you’ll be back often.

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