Got slammed...

While I was blog surfing the other day, I came across a post that kind of puzzled me. Apparently some anti-evangelical church movement website went after Corey Mann about something he said (I think), you can read it here. In response to all that, what I will say from all the bible classes, lectures, and seminars I've attended at Bethel from the deep exegetical theologians who teach there, I don't see a single one of them throwing up flags about teaching with stories, including men who actually translated the versions of the bible that they are quoting from. Any scripture taken out of context can be used horribly. The jewish culture at that time put such a high priority on scripture memorization and study that maybe Jesus was talking about the fact that while his disciple's were used to extensive scriptural investigation, the gentiles he was speaking to were not, so he choose not to go over their heads. His disciple's already knew who Jesus was, and were in fellowship with him, but these people were not, so these parables were what it took to get through to those who "will be ever hearing, but never understanding." There's no way I could believe that Jesus was intentionally trying to hide truth from his children. Whether you're and EC'er or a Liturgical church person or an emerger or a whatever you are, we can't go around qouting one verse like that without a historical context and just say that's the deal. I don't want to slam people who come from churches who teach by diving into scripture and teaching from it like there's no tommorow. I grew up in one of those churches, and I still do if anyone's ever been to GCC on a thursday night. I just don't understand why we can't all see that Jesus taught different ways, so churches naturally will all teach different ways. Jesus wasn't just the story teller, or the theologian, or the "really nice guy" and somebody mentioned. He formed his speaking based on who he was talking to. Our church has a target people group it tries to reach, so we base our speaking that way I guess. Same thing with my church back home. And if you compare the two, they are completely different, yet they are both getting the work of the kingdom accomplished. I wouldn't expect Dr. Carpenter or Dr. Meister or any of our Religion and Philosophy prof's to come to a place like GCC for teaching. However they've got a little more bible know how than the average Johny "I work at the gas station but I love my family and my kids and I want some God too" Churchgoer does. And ya know what, sometimes those wise old folks sacrifice getting fed on sunday morning to serve a church that's helping others. They don't have to, but it's a choice they make. I agree with both sides on which way to teach, it doesn't have to be so black and white all the time. What I don't want to see is the comment one man made about people teaching with stories becasue they're too lazy to dive into scripture. That should never be the case, and I pray to God that it's not the case anywhere. But on the other side of that coin, I don't want to go to a church where they're digging into deep deep scriptural interpretation because the pastor and his cronies want to show off how much they know, or because they feel like they're too smart to sing "I love you Lord" a few times in a row. Phillipians 1:15-18 seems to address this idea of why people do what they do pretty clearly, but as long as Jesus name does not get dragged through the mud, and people can see that God loves them, that He pursued them, and now He wants us to recognize that and pursue Him, then it's all good baby.