Trends

I've started reading The Papa Prayer by Larry Crabb. I'll periodically report to you about what God is teaching me.

In discussing the need for such a book Larry Crabb makes these points.

"At no time in history has learning to pray relationally been more important. I see three trends in Western Christianity that make it so.

First, in record numbers, Christians are living for this world and thinking they are living the Christian life. We plan for tomorrow with personal comfort in mind, and we review yesterday with healing from pain as our goal. It's sheer narcissism. It's relating with ourselves, not with God or others, except where it serves our purposes of self-fulfillment, self-promotion, and self-realization.

Second, never before has managerial religion been more plausibly misrepresented as Christ-centered Christianity. And the church is largely blind to its deception. Making things happen, whether growing a church or organizing small-group ministry, has displaced spiritual formation in spiritual community as the real reason we gather together. We gather to achieve a useful purpose, not to meet. Achievement trumps encounter as our primary value. Connecting to share Christ is no longer the point. Reaching goals is the focus. The effect is agenda-driven lives full of cooperation and conflict, devoid of community.

Third, division among Jesus followers, though nothing new, is now dealt with more by principles of conflict resolution and anger management, and less with profoundly spiritual resources. The idea of union with Christ by the Spirit in His tension-free relationship with the Father is dismissed (if it's thought about at all) as religious rhetoric for old-timers. We no longer depend on union with Christ for the power to transform bitter combatants into self-denying saints who love like Him."