If we are to get the message out, we had better get it right.

Theology does not seem to be necessary to many believers because they associate it with the abstract speculations of an academic elite far removed from their situation. This is unfortunate, because in actual fact it is the proper activity of the whole people of God reflecting on their faith, and it is of the utmost practical significance. Christianity is a missionary religion, and if we are going to get the message out, we had better get it right!

The apostles often remind us that the church needs mature minds. We need to grasp the central vision of the Good News, and communicate it in a relevant and coherent way to those both inside and outside the kingdom. We have not only to describe the theology of the biblical witnesses, but also to explain what the truths they conveyed might mean for our generation. For this task God has given the Spirit to be the teacher of the people of God, and to bestow gifts of knowledge and discernment to those charged with the care of the flock of God.

There are three obvious functions that good theology can perform. First, it edifies the church, which is founded on and lives by the Word of God. The church must be constantly reminded of its truth basis in the inscripturated Word. The function of theology is to keep the church’s memory fresh and to rouse it from the lethargy of forgetfulness with respect to important features of God’s revelation. The true church must be apostolic, rooted in the soil of the biblical witness.

Second, theology is summoned to preserve the truth, because the church is always in danger of losing it. In this world, where evil powers are abroad, the truth is never safe, and we are charged with guarding the gospel (2 Tim. 1:14). One thing that worried Paul was the possibility that Satan might deceive the church by his cunning and lead it astray from a pure devotion to Christ (2 Cor. 11:13). Vigilance is required because we stand in constant danger of twisting or losing the truth of God. We dare not lower our guard or relax our watchfulness.

Third, theology is the art of communicating the gospel in all its richness. Karl Barth once wrote that for him the best apologetics was always a good theology. If we would just display the beauty of God and the gospel, and show it for what it is—the pearl of greatest price—hungry souls would be attracted to it. Biblical answers are relevant to contemporary questions; the work of theology is to show how they are.

But how is good theology achieved and what is its method? It helps to think of theology as a form of translation in which we are conveying the original message given in the idiom of an ancient day and deposited in the Scriptures, and translating it into the more familiar language and idiom of our own time and place. There are two things translation is not: (1) It is not a mindless repeating of the original message without regard for the explanation that may be needed to understand it. (2) It is not a transforming of the gospel to make it fit contemporary presuppositions. Theological translation involves fidelity to the original message and text of Scripture, and creativity in the face of the contemporary hearers and their context.

Theology is in essence a bipolar activity that strives to integrate the biblical text and the modern context so that the revealed message may be understood by people who hear it. It is a dialectic that requires a faithful stewardship toward the Word of God on the one hand, and a cultural sensitivity to modern hearers on the other. Theology must be conservative and contemporary; it must guard the gospel while communicating it intelligibly in the contemporary world. It can never be finished for two reasons. For one thing, we can never exhaust the Word of God so that there is never anything else to learn; for another, the contemporary contexts are legion and constantly changing. There is always more truth to break forth out of God’s Word.

It is impossible for one theological system ever to gain the supremacy and then never lose it. That is as it should be. And lest we think we are left to our own resources in this bipolar activity, let us recall that the Spirit has been given precisely to enable us to penetrate the truth and apply it to fresh situations (John 16:12–15).

What do we find when we apply this insight about method to contemporary theology? Basically, we see the familiar polarization between liberal theology with too much human creativity and too little theological fidelity, and conservative theology with a defensive fidelity and a timid approach to translation. In the case of liberal theology, we have John Cobb’s admission in his reply to Pannenberg’s essay about his Christology (published in Cobb’s Theology in Process) that what is crucial for Pannenberg is what was originally revealed, while for him contemporary perceptions are also of decisive importance. One need not try to be slavishly faithful to the New Testament, Cobb believes, when it does not seem appropriate. Liberal theology then breaks the theological dialectic and ceases trying to be consistently faithful to the Scriptures.

In the case of our conservative and evangelical theology, the problem lies on the other side of the bipolar ellipse. For understandable historical reasons, we tend to adopt a defensive posture in relation to the biblical pole, and are quite anxious about developing confident, positive visions of God’s truth for our generation. We are more comfortable with producing theologies that answer the errors of liberal work than in venturing forth with relevant proposals that would cause people to take notice.

It may be that the conservative evangelical movement has been called chiefly and precisely to raise a voice in this century against easy accommodation to the culture, and is not expected to do much more. Even a voice against error can have a positive effect if it saves the church from apostasy. But ought we to settle for such a limited role? Do we not have a vision of the grace of God that is both congruent with the biblical witnesses and culturally dynamic and compelling today? Surely we do, and surely the initiative in theology need not stay in the liberal circles, but can pass once again to classical Protestantism.

How can we make progress? We can go back to the psalmist: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (119:18). God has not stopped illumining the Bible’s significance for every person and situation. Guarding the gospel is not all we are called to do. We are also called to give a good account of it before a needy world. We are not called to advance our sectarian empires, or to pull down the strongholds of our fellow Christians’ witness. We are called to stand together, pleading with God for the insights that will enable us to communicate his precious Word effectively to a lost world.

May the new generation of evangelical leaders who are swelling the ranks of biblical Christianity in North America be faithful enough and creative enough to defy the proud obstacles of our age which resist the knowledge of God, and bring every thought captive to obey Christ. Then we shall see a mature and effective Christian church in the year 2000, which will be strong enough to complete the Great Commission and usher in the king.

CLARK H. PINNOCK¹Dr. Pinnock is professor of systematic theology at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

MARC issues the twelfth edition of its mission handbook.

The North American overseas missionary force is growing at an adjusted annual rate of 6.8 percent—almost three times that of the United States population. But financial support in real terms (adjusted for inflation) grew only half as fast, at an annual rate of 3.4 percent. These strong vital signs emerged as the missionary enterprise based on this continent got a reading on its pulse for the first time in four years.

This encouraging overall picture emerged from a study of the twelfth edition of the Mission Handbook, due for distribution early next month. Prepared and edited by the Missions Advanced Research and Communication Center (MARC), a division of World Vision International, the handbook has earned its niche as the directory and statistical sourcebook in its field: North American Protestant ministries overseas. The new edition documents the shifts that have occurred since the 1975 survey (on which the eleventh edition was based) and late 1979, when mission agencies were surveyed for tabulation in the new volume.

The size of the overseas missionary force in 1979 far exceeded any previous figure: an estimated total of 53,494 as compared to 37,677 four years earlier. Thus, while the U.S. population increased during the same period by approximately 2.3 percent annually, the increase in missionaries increased at an average yearly rate of 9.7 percent. During the previous six years, the number of overseas personnel had only managed to grow at about the same rate as the general population.

These figures, however, included anyone who was overseas for any part of the year as a missionary. While short-term missionaries had accounted for less than 5 percent of the total a decade earlier, and 15.6 percent of the total force in 1975, in 1979 they constituted a full 33 percent of the total force. With these numbers, since many serve for less than a year, counting limited-term missionaries the same as career missionaries tends to inflate a realistic count of how many missionaries there are at any one time.

When short-term missionaries are set aside for reckoning purposes, a somewhat less optimistic pattern emerges. The number of career missionaries had actually declined from a 1967 peak through 1975, but has now thrust upward to just above the 1967 high-water mark. Career missionary growth averaging better than 3.5 percent for the four-year period recouped the earlier losses, which had been statistically camouflaged by the swelling numbers of short-termers.

(To deal with the statistical bias caused by counting short-term missionaries serving for less than a year, MARC devised what it calls the person/year equivalent, factoring the totals to describe how many individuals might be serving overseas at any one time.)

A number of countries receiving an influx of missionaries are in Europe, perhaps indicating their acceptance as mission fields and their popularity as short-term destinations. Numbers swelled in English-speaking countries such as the Philippines and India, and exploded with a stunning 218 percent increase in the United Kingdom (Great Britain plus Northern Ireland).

MARC analysts noted that the healthy growth spurt for the period appeared to be due less to an increased rate of entry into missionary service than to a decreased rate of exit. In other words, the rate of so-called missionary casualties has dropped significantly. And, just for the record, it should be noted that the bromide about there being twice as many women as men in missions just ain’t so. The actual figures: women, 55 percent; men, 45 percent.

When missionary numbers are studied in relation to the affiliations of their agencies, interesting dynamics surface. The decline in personnel in agencies affiliated with the National Council of Churches Division of Overseas Ministries (and its Canadian counterpart) continued a decline first noted in 1960. The Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association (IFMA) boards did little better than hold their own. Evangelical Foreign Missions Association (EFMA) agencies grew a robust 89 percent. But the strongest growth was registered among a few of the unaffiliated agencies—increasing the missionaries with that category from 44 percent to 60 percent. (The tiny Fellowship of Missions and the Associated Missions of the International Council of Christian Churches were also included with this category.)

Income for overseas missions surged dramatically, moving past the $1 billion mark for the first time. The estimated income climbed from $656 million in 1975 to $1,148 million in 1979, or an apparent 75 percent increase. Corrected for inflation, that works out to real growth of 13.7 percent for the period.

This should be seen, however, against the rapidly rising costs of maintaining missionaries overseas. The total average expenditure per missionary rose by more than 21 percent. Also, much of the increase was channeled into the operations of the burgeoning relief agencies and the Bible smugglers, such as Evangelism Center. Inc. (a corporate name assumed by Underground Evangelism).

New mission agencies continued to be formed at the rapid rate characteristic of the postwar era. But the number of missionary-sending agencies formed tapered off, while those support agencies with no career personnel overseas mushroomed—accounting for 60 percent of the new groups.

Nearly half of the total missionary force now belong to missions founded since 1921. But they have gravitated to fewer and larger boards. One-half of all personnel belonged to only 15 agencies.

In the 1979 survey, agencies were asked for the first time to report the number of unreached people groups among whom they are active. Three-quarters of the reporting agencies responded, indicating evangelism activity among a cumulative total of 2,714 groups. But MARC staff admits that the question was widely misunderstood, and that the data received will be valuable primarily in refining the questions asked in future surveys.

Publication of the twelfth edition of the handbook, edited by MARC director Samuel Wilson, was slowed by the financial necessity of bringing the computer data base in-house. This meant that the 1975 data had to be reentered.

Nicaragua

Believers Ask Yankees To Remove Cold War Blinders

Ronald Frase, chaplain at Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington, and a former missionary to Latin America, recently completed visit to Nicaragua. His report:

“I don’t believe it,” exclaimed Sheila Heneise in exasperation as she hung up the phone. She had just finished talking with her parents in the States.

Sheila, her husband Steve, and their two young sons, live in the rural town of Juigalpa, Nicaragua. They are Baptist missionaries who were looking forward to the visit of Sheila’s parents and a friend who is a carpenter. The two men were going to help Steve with some necessary plumbing and carpentry work. Sheila’s parents had just informed her that the carpenter had changed his mind because of news reports of conditions in Nicaragua.

Sheila and Steve live only a one-and-a-half hour drive from Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, and have easy access to U.S. magazines and newspapers. They feel that much of the reporting on Nicaragua misrepresents the actual situation. Managua is as ordered and peaceful a city as one will discover in Latin America. Reconstruction work has progressed so rapidly that one searches in vain to discover traces of the fighting that occurred 18 months ago.

This same unease about the message being disseminated in U.S. mass media is shared by officials of the new Sandanista government that toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. This government faces formidable obstacles. Nicaragua, a nation the size of the state of Wisconsin, with a population of 2.4 million, experienced a catastrophic earthquake in 1972 that completely destroyed downtown Managua and claimed 30 thousand fives. Just six years later the civil war claimed another 50 to 60 thousand lives and left the economy in shambles. The new government inherited from the Somoza regime a debt totaling $115 million.

Sandanista leaders recognize that U.S. support is critical to the survival of the nation and want to avoid confrontation and isolation at all costs. In an interview, Carlos Chamorro Coronel, chief of the cabinet for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed this concern by displaying some clippings from the U.S. press which, in his view, significantly distorted events and reflected an alarmingly hostile attitude.

Many Nicaraguans believe the strategy of the new administration in Washington is to identify Nicaragua as a lackey of Russia and Cuba and as a principal conduit of arms to the rebels of El Salvador. It therefore discredits the revolution by implying that the present government has sold out to Communism and that it is only a matter of time before Nicaragua becomes a totalitarian state that will suppress freedom even more effectively than Somoza did. This strategy, if it succeeds, will justify cutting off U.S. aid to Nicaragua and force it into the arms of the Soviet Union, repeating the Cuban scenario of 20 years ago.

Such charges frustrate Nicaraguans on at least two scores. First, the Nicaraguan revolution, unlike the Cuban one, has a strong Christian presence. Chamorro declared that he is not a Sandanista, although he actively supported their struggle, and that he is not a Marxist but a Christian. He recognizes the presence of Marxism in the government but said, “I believe that the revolution is more a Christian revolution than a Marxist revolution.” He went on to explain that Nicaraguan Christians do not share the North American fear of Marxism. The nine-member Sandinista directorate, the real power behind the five-man governing junta, published an official communique on religion last October 7. It stated that religious freedom is “an inalienable human right guaranteed by the government” and recognizes the right to propagate one’s religious belief publicly.

Nicaraguans also resent the implication that the revolution has been “stolen” by a small, elite group of radicals. The revolution, they argue, was a popular uprising that witnessed the participation of virtually the entire population and is fiercely nationalistic. The new government will remain friendly to Cuba, and to the rebels in El Salvador who have strongly supported its struggle, but it will chart its own course.

(Nicaragua’s Sandinista leadership has been closely linked to the flow of arms to Salvadoran guerrillas. One member, Bayardo Arce Castaño, has been singled out as particularly involved.—Ed. note)

Opposition press, radio, and political parties function in Nicaragua, but the very strong presence of the Sandinistas has raised fears about the future of pluralism. Chamorro says that a strong military organization is required because the neighboring governments are not friendly and harbor approximately six thousand of Somoza’s national guard who fled there after the revolution.

On the morning of Chamorro’s interview, word was received in his office that six Nicaraguan soldiers had been ambushed on the Honduran frontier by ex-guardia.Chamorro pointed out that the young North American colonies created a militia for protection against Indians and the British. He expressed the opinion that the U.S. can afford a great deal of pluralism today because its government is so strong that no internal group even dreams of overthrowing it. He argued that this has not been the case in Latin America, and that as the new government becomes stronger and more secure, the degree of pluralism will increase.

Chamorro admitted that elements of the private sector had become disenchanted with the new government because it had consciously chosen “the option of the poor.” The old elite had lost its position of privilege and was faced with the prospect of paying taxes it had avoided under Somoza. The government had cut rents in half and placed curbs on profits. The Nicaraguan business community still controls about 60 percent of the economy, and Chamorro made clear that the junta intends to support a market economy, allocating 64 percent of the long-delayed U.S. loan to the private sector.

Frustration over the image of Nicaragua being projected in the U.S. mass media is shared by many sectors of the evangelical community, which supports the new government with varying degrees of commitment. The annual convention of the Nicaraguan Baptist Church, meeting in late January, invited one of the Sandinista comandantes to address a session. He spoke in a forthright manner and the messengers (delegates) appeared satisfied with his answers.

Many pastors and lay people are actively supporting the process of national reconstruction made necessary by the devastation of the civil war. Gustavo Parajon, a U.S.-educated medical doctor and Baptist layman, has played a critical role as founder of the interdenominational Evangelical Committee for Help and Development, CEPAD, an organization created in response to the 1972 earthquake. During the civil war it organized refugee centers across the country, with food, medicine, and shelter.

The current CEPAD director is Baptist layman Gilberto Aguirre. He explained that he supports the new government because it has made the poor its first priority and has taken concrete measures to improve their lot. He referred to the rent reduction and pointed out that food is cheaper in Nicaragua than in any other Central American country, and that education is free at all levels. The government also has sponsored a massive literacy campaign that saw many evangelical young people move into remote rural areas for several months as teachers. The presence of the gospel in Nicaragua today is seen in Scripture verses and slogans on walls, billboards, and public buses. One such billboard promoting the literacy campaign showed a young boy writing a letter: “Jesus, I can write your name.”

Aguirre is also a member of the National Commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights. He points with pride to the restraint the Sandinistas have demonstrated toward the captured members of Somoza’s National Guard, deeply hated for their indiscriminate lawlessness. He acknowledges that there were some regrettable human rights violations in the days immediately following Somoza’s defeat. But it is remarkable that they were not more widespread. In December, in honor of the United Nations Human Rights Day, 503 prisoners were released; 200 more are to be released soon. Both the International Commission of Jurists and Amnesty International give the government high marks for its human rights record.

Aguirre believes the government’s policies are designed to secure a wider measure of freedom and justice for all members of the society. They believe that this is consonant with the values of the gospel and that the church should support the government at this crucial stage against its critics, both internal and external. The future of the nation, confronted by staggering economic and political problems, is in doubt, and it is too early to trace the shape Nicaraguan society will take. They are willing to run the risks presented by evangelical community involvement in this struggle.

World Scene

Colombian guerrillas killed Chester Bitterman III, the 28-year-old Wycliffe Bible translator they had held hostage for a month and a half. His body, with a bullet lodged in the heart, was located in Bogotá on March 7. A full report is scheduled for next issue.

Believers within the Catholic charismatic movement in Colombia are under intense pressure to break off their associations with evangelicals or leave the movement. At least in the department (state) of Cordoba, the local hierarchy is leading a drive directed against Manuel Meneses, pastor of the evangelical church in the capital city of Montería that belongs to the Association of Churches of the Caribbean (related to the Latin America Mission). Pastor Meneses was instrumental in introducing aspects of renewal to Roman Catholics in the region.

Ireland is not so monolithically Roman Catholic as feverish Ulster orators would have their audiences believe. (Militant Protestant Ian Paisley, in a political rally in Northern Ireland last month, called Ireland a “priest-ridden banana republic.”) A case in point: Baptists opened a new 120-seat church building in Letterkenny recently—the first building to be erected by Baptists in the Republic since 1904. Some 300 gathered to celebrate the event with pastor Clive Johnson and his 16-member congregation.

A third church building belonging to evangelicals has been burned down in the French city of Lyon. Correspondent Noreen Vajko (who reported the first two attacks in CT. March 13, p. 64) says these acts of violence have for the first time built a general awareness that evangelicals are not merely a cult. She quotes one newspaper that even declared. “It is very hard to understand what motivated those who burned down the churches of such dynamic believers.”

A remarkable growth of unofficial church activities in Czechoslovakia is leading to countermeasures by the authorities. Secret agents in the eastern (or Slovak) half of the country have been trained to track down clandestine gatherings such as Bible study groups or retreats for young people. The West German Catholic Information Agency, KNA, reports that 30 such agents operate in Bratislava University alone. Reports suggest that 200 secret police have been recruited from the western (or Czech) half of the country to help comb the mountainous Slovakian countryside for prayer meetings and discussion groups inspired by the “Oasis” youth renewal movement in Poland.

There were 307 Christian prisoners in the Soviet Union at the beginning of the year. The computation comes from Keston College, the research center in England that gathers and disseminates information on the condition of religious believers in Communist lands. The largest groupings were Baptists, with 94, Adventists, 53, Orthodox, 36, Pentecostals, 35.

Christians in Jos, Nigeria, gave a cash offering of nearly $100,000 at a service launching new seminary. The January offering was for an initial construction phase to accommodate 40 students for the seminary, sponsored by the Evangelical Churches of West Africa (churches of Sudan Interior Mission origin). “We must forget foreign aid!” admonished ECWA treasurer Bala Angbazo. “Not the government, not the missionaries—ECWA will finish this seminary in one year!” The ECWA Women’s Fellowship sang a song composed for the occasion, beating on clay pots and shaking bead-covered gourds.

South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church (NGK) has officially rebuked nine of its prominent theologians for their indictments of the denomination’s defense of apartheid. Best known of the critics is F. E. O’Brien Geldenhuys, who resigned his position as director for ecumenical affairs at the end of last year because he found it virtually impossible to establish ties with other churches. In an interview with Rapport magazine, he charged that the NGK is “in a moral crisis and is internally paralyzed,” leading it to isolation. A regional synodal commission replied that Geldenhuys’s statement was “unbrotherly and irresponsible.” It reiterated its belief that racial separation is justified by Scripture, and that the primary task of the church is reconciliation between God and man, not man and man.

The Anglican Church will no longer be allowed to function in Iran. That was the announcement made by Iranian Prosecutor General Ali Qoddousi last month at the same time he announced the release of the three Anglican missionaries wrongly held for six months. This latest anti-Western move by Iran would appear to have limited effect, since most Anglican churches had already closed during the course of the revolution. Back in England, Jean Waddell revealed that her captors had choked her unconscious and then shot her in the arm. The three said they were treated well in confinement, and John Coleman said of himself and his wife Audrey, “Our feelings toward the Iranians have not changed one iota, and our great desire is to return eventually.”

Election last month of a Jordanian to be the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem carried strong overtones for church jurisdiction and politics. The Greek Orthodox church is the largest Christian church among the Arab population of the region. Israeli officials favored Archbishop Vasilios of Caesaria for the post, made vacant last December by the death of Benedictos I. But election of the Jordanian Archbishop Deodoros was expected to stem pressures in Jordan to separate the Greek Orthodox community from the patriarchate in Israeli-controlled Jerusalem and to join the patriarchate in Damascus.

Transcendental Meditation’s claim that it is not a religion is a deliberate falsehood designed to give TM entrance into public institutions in the West. That is the conclusion of a study group of Christian students of neo-Hindu movements that met recently in India. The leader of TM, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was in India, they reported, with some 3,000 of his followers to establish work there. In the programs conducted in Delhi, Hindu rites were followed and Indian staff was seen worshiping fire, the phallic symbol, and a photograph of the Yogi. A Western TM disciple was quoted by the Indian magazine Onlooker as saying, “The entire purpose of this enterprise [the inauguration of full-scale work by TM in India] is to push back the demon of Christianity.”

Christianity is flourishing in India. Some specifics, reported at the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s thirtieth annual conference in January at Mudurai, Tamil Nadu: The Friends Missionary Prayer Band has 163 Indian missionaries and forms new churches at the rate of one every 15 days. Churches in Northeast India have now sent out 352 missionaries (not including wives). The EFI Commission on Relief supplied drinking water to villages in South India by drilling 86 wells. As an indirect result of such efforts, 145 families were baptized in those villages.

Pope John Paul II hewed a moderate line in his visit to the Philippines, the Asian country with the most Roman Catholics. He let President Ferdinand Marcos know that even in exceptional situations, there is no justification for violating human rights. And he called on sugar plantation owners to provide just and fair wages instead of exploiting workers in order to compete and accumulate wealth. But he also reminded antigovernment priests and nuns that their main duty is to serve the gospel and not to engage in social work. In a country where many men keep “minor” or “second” wives, the Pope came down hard on polygamy. He also disclosed that the Vatican is exploring recognition of the independent Catholic church in China and establishing diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic.

Government aid to private schools in Australia has been vindicated by its high court. The 6-to-1 ruling last month rebuffed an eight-year effort by a coalition of groups that favor strict separation of church and state. It argued that such tax support violated the constitution by “establishing” religion. The chief justice replied that a law which may “indirectly enable a church to further the practice of religion is a long way from a law to establish religion.”

IV Press widens access to Spiritual Counterfeits’ critique.

After delaying about a year, InterVarsity Press (IVP) has released a book that criticizes a Los Angeles religious leader, Witness Lee, whose followers do not take criticism lightly. The book is entitled The God-Men: An Inquiry into Witness Lee and the Local Churches.

Lee was a disciple of Watchman Nee in China, and came to Los Angeles in 1962. There are about 70 congregations in the United States with some 7,000 followers, and about 35,000 followers elsewhere, organized into “local churches.”

Lee’s followers filed a sizable lawsuit against Thomas Nelson Publishers and author Jack Sparks last summer for a book entitled The Mindbenders: A Look at Current Cults, which criticized the group. They have also threatened legal action against Moody Monthly and Eternity magazines for publishing statements with which the local churches disagreed. Unable to afford a lawsuit, Eternity printed a testimony signed by 30 local church members, which denied some of what the magazine’s article contained.

The IVP book was written by Neil T. Duddy and the organization for which he works, the Spiritual Counterfeits Project.

The material appeared in a different form in Switzerland in 1979, and the local churches filed an unsuccessful libel suit against it in that country. Another suit filed in the U.S. against that version is still pending, according to IVP.

Upon release of its edition of the book last month, IVP editor James Sire said, “People need to know what this religious group is teaching and doing. Inter-Varsity decided to publish only after it was convinced that the book represented sound judgment based on careful research.”

InterVarsity Press hasn’t been sued—at least not yet—but the group is not happy with the book. Here is some of the material about Lee contained in The God-Men:

• “Lee’s theology is based on human sensation. The predominant source of authority for his teachings and policies is the experience of internal impressions.” Duddy calls this Lee’s “sensuous theology.”

• The local church publicly endorses the authority of Scripture, but actually, only Lee’s interpretation of Scripture is used, and he regards himself as having the authority of one of the 12 apostles.

• Lee believes “the words of Scripture arc deadened if studied with the mind … the Bible is not principally for man to understand, but for man to receive and enjoy.”

• The local churches substitute preaching and teaching with “pray-reading.” that is, repeating Scripture phrases aloud and punctuating them with cries such as “O Lord Jesus” and “Amen.” A characteristic of pray-reading is that it is “mindless, irrational and mystical.” The book quotes Lee as saying. “There is no need for us to close our eyes when we pray. It is better for us to close our mind.… Forget about reading, researching, understanding, and learning the word. You must pray-read the word. Then eventually you will really understand it.”

• Lee’s ethics are based on the ability to “sense” the experience of God, and not on conformity to his written Word, and followers are obligated only to sense the leading of the Spirit within their own spirit.

• Lee and his followers believe theirs is the only true church. The book says Lee believes that “All Christians not in the local church [Lee’s church] arc in captivity, in the wilderness of Babylon, and without much regard from the Lord.” Lee further believes non-local church Christians will not recognize Christ’s Second Coming.

The book is plainly written and devoted more to Lee’s theology than to the characteristics of local church life. It says. “We take no delight in publishing this assessment. We would be glad if we could answer our inquirers with assurance that Witness Lee’s teachings do not differ from the teaching of God’s Word. But we are convinced otherwise and we believe that the dangers of his system should be made known.”

The local churches vigorously deny any contention that their doctrine is unorthodox. A statement issued last summer stated in part:

“We believe and have always taught that Jesus Christ is the perfect God and a complete man as well: that both his divine nature and human nature, each being complete, concur in his one person—without separation, without confusion, and without being changed into a third nature.”

This is contrary to what Duddy says in the book—that Lee teaches “modalism.” that is, the Son is really a mode of the Father. The book says, “Lee’s incarnate deity was neither quite God nor quite man: he was a third entity, a ‘mingled’ God-man.” and hence the title of the book.

The local church statement last summer contradicts that. Believers are “God-men” in the sense that “we have a human nature and also by regeneration partake of the life and nature of God.… But this does not mean that we are the same as Christ in his unique position as the God-man.… “The local church further professes that the three persons of the Trinity are all “distinctly three and uniquely one”: in other words, it says it has an orthodox conception of the Trinity.

Estranged Churches Are Reconciled

An Encouraging Word Is Heard In Wichita

“We felt we needed to say a good word. The last word the public needed to hear had to be a good word.” said Phil Lineberger, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Wichita, Kansas. He was talking about something that started with more than a few bad words.

Wichita’s First Baptist Church was one of the city’s strongest in the early 1960s. It had 4.300 members and was regarded as one of the most important congregations in the American Baptist Convention—until 1962. Then, said the present First Baptist pastor, Roger Fredrikson, what happened was “one of those ugly, notorious Baptist fights.

The fight was precipitated by the ABC’s decision to support the National Council of Churches. There were court battles for the building, nationwide press coverage, and finally a First Baptist split, with a majority becoming Metropolitan Baptist.

The aftermath was hard feelings on both sides, with members in the two churches reluctant to associate. To some, the thought of worshiping together again was unthinkable.

Late in February, however, exactly that happened. More than 900 members of both churches crowded into First Baptist and had what they called a “service of reconciliation and praise.”

Fredrikson said the impetus for the reconciliation began with the Leighton Ford evangelistic campaign in Wichita last September. A long-time friend of Ford, Fredrikson was chairman of local organizers and thus met an influential Metropolitan Baptist layman, Preston Huston.

Working together, they became friends. Fredrikson, who is said to have “the pastoral gift of reconciliation” wanted to see the old feud buried. Huston and Lineberger agreed. In December, the two curch boards considered formal reconciliation.

Then Huston, chairman of the board of deacons at Metropolitan Baptist, attended a morning service at First Baptist and accepted for his church the invitation to worship together on February 22. The congregations were uncertain as to what would happen or how many persons would attend.

“So many came,” Fredrikson said, “that we ran out of almost everything—name tags, worship bulletins, and even song books. Our faith had been too small.” Some of the churchgoers had not seen each other for years. When they greeted one another, “It was kind of like a party, kind of like Pentecost,” Fredrikson said.

The service included hymns (“Blest Be the Tie that Binds” being particularly appropriate), a sermon by Lineberger, and prayers. Many who were members of First Baptist before the split (First Baptist now has about 700 members, Metropolitan Baptist, 2,400) prayed together.

The second half of the affirmation of reconcilation occurred March 8 at Metropolitan Baptist, with Fredrikson occupying the pulpit. A formal merger is not planned, since the churches have separate buildings and Metropolitan is in the Southern Baptist Convention. But both pastors believe the reconciliation was helpful. Neither Lineberger nor Fredrikson were at the two Wichita churches when the split occurred, but both were made aware of the problems when they arrived.

Fredrikson noted that on his pastoral rounds he often sensed remaining acrimony. “My emphasis was that we pray about it, give it to the Lord, and stop dwelling on the past,” he said. Lineberger believed the lingering negative feelings “sort of gave a negative spirit” to his church. He said a comment he often heard on neighborhood visits was, “Metropolitan Baptist—isn’t that the church born of the split with First Baptist?” He thus felt it important to heal the rift publicly.

Now, said Lineberger, “All suspicion is removed.” Although the churches currently plan no cooperative ministries, he added, the avenue for such ventures is now open. For laymen like Preston Houston, who was embroiled in the long dispute from the beginning, the reconciliation was especially meaningful. “He said,” reported Lineberger, “that God allowed him to live this long to see a reconciliation take place.”

RODNEY CLAPP

The Mark of the Beast

The Faithful Fall For Another Far-Fetched Fable

A news story that has jarring significance for Bible prophecy is being reprinted in small newspapers and denominational publications, mostly in the South.

According to the news item, the Internal Revenue Service sent out a number of social security checks last July and August, with highly unusual check cashing instructions on the back. Banks were not to cash the checks unless the bearer had the proper identification, which was a “mark in the right hand or forehead.”

When banks contacted the IRS, officials said the checks should not have been circulated because that requirement was not to go into effect until 1984. Clearly, the Mark of the Beast is coming soon, and this news item no doubt is being used in prophetic sermons in many pulpits.

The only problem is, it isn’t true; at least the IRS denies knowing anything about it. “The whole thing is totally ridiculous.” said a spokesman in the IRS public information office in Washington D.C. “Someone is obviously trying to put the IRS in a bad light.”

Besides that, the IRS doesn’t have anything to do with issuing social security checks. That’s done by a separate branch of the treasury department, the disbursing office. The IRS administers the nation’s tax laws.

Personalia

Canadian Reginald Teows will become the Mennonite Central Committee’s executive secretary in January 1982. Teows is now associate executive secretary for the committee’s administration and resources. He will also serve as interim executive secretary.

Theodore M. Hesburgh, president of Notre Dame University, has announced he will retire in 1982. By then Hesburgh will have served 30 years—the longest term of any current president of a major U.S. university.

Roy D. Bell, a well-known Canadian pastor and vice-president of the Baptist World Alliance, has been appointed principal of Carey Hall, following its recent affiliation with Regent College. Both schools are located at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C. The affiliation agreement, completed last spring, introduces a clergy education element into Regent’s program, which has become widely known for its graduate lay emphasis. Carey Hall has existed as a Baptist Union of Western Canada men’s residence at UBC for 25 years.

Bailey Smith, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, wants to slow fragmentation in his denomination. He said he will seek to do so by appointing a “cross section of Southern Baptists” to important committees. Although his election was attributed to the influence of inerrancy advocates, Smith said “my whole desire is that the Southern Baptist Convention as a whole love one another.” Smith is scheduled to make committee appointments by April.

Patriarch Maximos V Hakim escaped an assassination attempt last month in Lebanon. Gunmen opened fire on the car of the head of the Greek Catholic-Melkite Church as he passed through a Lebanese town en-route to Damascus. Although Maximos has remained aloof from communal strife, he has been criticized by militants in Lebanon’s majority Maronite Catholic community for his “good relations” with Syrians and Palestinians.

Deaths

Everett L. Cattell, 75, former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and Malone College (Canton, Ohio), missionary to India, teacher at China Evangelical Theological Seminary, and author; March 2, in Columbus, Ohio, of heart failure.

Russell DeLong, 79, former president of Northwest Nazarene College and dean of the Nazarene Theological Seminary, author of several books, evangelistic speaker, and broadcaster; January 29 in Saint Petersburg, Florida, of cirrhosis of the liver.

The Heng Samrin regime shuts down the last of the house churches.

A correspondent who regularly visits Kampuchea filed this report after his latest visit.

Two years after liberation from Pol Pot’s genocidal brand of Communism, the church in Kampuchea (Cambodia) once again finds itself being driven underground. After months of harrassment, the Vietnamese-controlled government of Heng Samrin has forbidden Christian groups to hold house meetings. No churches have been open since the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975, and buildings are either closed or have been turned into workshops or houses.

The last-known public house meeting in the country, a Sunday morning service held in the Phnom Penh suburb of Takhmau, was interrupted by authorities from the Ministry of Cults on January 25. They read an official document to the 80 people in attendance, forbidding all worship services.

The Takhmau meetings were held in the home of Sieng Ang, one of the two Khmer pastors outside the country when it fell in 1975. He was in South Vietnam, where he had been sent by the Khmer Evangelical Church in 1973 as a missionary to the Cambodian minority in the Mekong delta.

(The other pastor outside Cambodia was San Hay Seng, in the Philippines recording radio programs in the Khmer language for the Far East Broadcasting Company. Today he continues that ministry at FEBC headquarters in Whittier, California.

(At the time of the Khmer Rouge takeover, there were only 15 Khmer pastors and evangelists in the country. One of them, Kuch Kong, became a refugee shortly after the country capitulated. Of the remaining 14, all but 3 were killed in the bloodletting period between 1975 and 1979. Many lay leaders were also killed, including World Vision’s deputy and child-care directors, Minh Tien Voan and Taing Chhirc, killed while distributing Bibles less than a month after the Communist victory.

(When Pol Pot was overthrown by the Vietnamese army in 1979, the three remaining pastors, fled to Thailand with other believers. Under their ministry in the camps, thousands of refugees have come to faith in Christ.)

In June 1979, Pastor Sieng, almost 65, returned from Vietnam as the only pastor in the country and tried to gather the remnant. With him came his sons and their families, together with a few Khmer believers from the church he had founded in Vietnam. With no means of support, the elderly pastor’s wife and daughter started selling bananas in the market. The daughter was the wife of a pastor killed in 1977, leaving her with three children.

A visitor who attended the weekly meeting before it was shut down said it was held in the open air under a thatched roof next to the pastor’s house. The service was informal, with songs, testimonies, and a sermon. Laymen usually led the service, and the testimonies told of God’s protection and leading during the Pol Pot era.

There was also a youth choir that somewhere had found a guitar and accordion. An evangelistic invitation was given each week, and conversions were witnessed in nearly every service, usually among those brought by a relative or friend, and spiritually prepared.

Early in 1980, as many as six house groups were meeting in and around the capital. Attendance exceeded 500, with new people coming each week.

The Christian activity apparently alarmed the Communist government. In late 1979, just a few months after people started to return to the deserted capital, it began a systematic effort of intimidating and punishing the leaders. This occured in spite of a constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.

In November of that year, evangelical Christians meeting at Tomnop Tuk in the suburbs were surrounded by armed people who confiscated their Bibles. The group stopped meeting.

A Khmer layman invited local Christians and a few foreigners to his home for a Christmas Eve service. He was arrested four days later and accused of being a member of a political faction known as Khmer Serei (Free Cambodians). He was imprisoned in Phnom Penh central jail under conditions of extreme privation. His tiny cell was kept in complete darkness, and he was permitted to use the toilet only once a day and to shower only once every five days.

After four months of confinement, he was so sick that he was taken to a hospital, where a member of the medical staff helped him escape. He went into hiding in the area of the port city of Kompong Som until late November of last year, when he heard he was being sought by the Vietnamese army. He returned to Phnom Penh, but, when his security was again threatened, fled to Thailand in early December.

In January 1980, evangelicals meeting at Tuk Thla, near Phnom Penh’s airport, had their Bibles taken by armed intruders. In May, an old believer disappeared after attending a house meeting. He returned a month later and reported that he had been arrested and questioned about the meeting. Last July, another leader, whose house was used for worship on Sunday afternoon, with between 50 and 80 in attendance, was told by authorities that if the meetings were not stopped, he would be arrested.

Since that time, only a small Pentecostal meeting and the house worship at Takhmau have continued.

The Takhmau Christians say they will continue to meet, but in much smaller groups so as not to attract attention. It is estimated that there are currently about 300 evangelical Christians in and around Phnom Penh. One group of about 30 is composed almost entirely of the members of one extended family.

Pastor Sieng has become an itinerant preacher, going throughout the provinces encouraging the small groups that gather. There are about 50 Christian families in Battambang province, and another important group of believers some 30 miles southeast of Siem Reap. A small group of believers meets irregularly in Kampong Cham. Pastor Sieng has visited Takeo province and reports that the people are open to the gospel. “When I went there before 1970,” he said, “the people wouldn’t open their doors to me. This time they received me. The next time I go, they will receive the Lord.”

Protestant Christianity was brought to Cambodia in the early part of the twentieth century by the Christian and Missionary Alliance. It proved a difficult field, with the Buddhist government periodically persecuting the church. In 1965, Prince Norodom Sihanouk expelled the missionaries, and all but one church in Phnom Penh was closed.

The churches reopened in 1970 when Marshall Lon Nol came to power. It is estimated that in 1975, Christians in the country numbered at least 20,000. A tide of conversions accompanied and followed evangelistic campaigns conducted in 1972 by World Vision president Stanley Mooneyham.

Some people surfaced as converts even during the Pol Pot era. One young woman working for a government ministry told a visitor that she had heard the gospel before the Khmer Rouge takeover, but had not believed. “My whole family believed during the time of Pol Pot,” she said, “but I had no chance to tell anyone about it before I met you.”

There are no known Roman Catholic meetings being held. Most Catholics are Vietnamese who lived in Cambodia and fled back to their homeland after a 1970 massacre.

Buddhism is being practiced again on a limited basis. More and more monks are seen in public.

Many of the country’s Muslims fled after 1975 and have been settled in Malaysia, a nearby Muslim country. At least two mosques have been reopened by the Heng Samrin government, however—one on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and the other in Kampong Cham.

Asked why Christians are discriminated against, one knowledgeable observer said, “It might be fear of too many people turning to Christ that prevents the government from recognizing the church.”

The head of one international agency working in Kampuchea has on two occasions urged the Foreign Ministry to permit churches to reopen. The stock answer: “People are free to believe or not believe. We do not force religion on anyone.” When it has been pointed out that Christians need not only freedom to believe, but also to worship together, officials merely shrug their shoulders.

The New Right

Listen America! by Jerry Falwell (Double-day-Galilee, 1980. 266 pp., $9.95), is reviewed by Carl Horn III, director of estate planning at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and legal counsel to the Christian Legal Society, Oak Park, Illinois.

Reviewing Listen America! is tantamount to reviewing Moral Majority and the complex issues raised by the recent resurgence of conservative Christian involvement in politics. This is a noteworthy book precisely because it represents a significant movement signaling a return of fundamentalists and more conservative evangelicals to active participation in public life.

While it might be fair to call Falwell’s book a 266-page tract for Moral Majority, there is more depth to the convictions expressed in Listen America! than in the news media’s generally inadequate treatment of the man and his views.

There is much about Listen America! that even a moderate evangelical can and should affirm. Who can argue with the conclusion that our public law and policy have wandered far from their historical and ideological foundations? Elton Trueblood has observed, “Only by terrific moral recovery are we going to keep the world from becoming a dark age.” Harold J. Berman, Story Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, has warned that the radical separation of law and religion has brought us to the point that, “Our whole culture seems to be facing the possibility of a nervous breakdown.” Moreover, the specific moral issues addressed in Listen America! should also be of great concern to the evangelical. These include abortion, pornography, homosexuality, the pervasive reign of secular humanism in public schools and public policy, and various issues affecting the family.

There are certain aspects of Falwell’s approach to mutual concerns that many evangelicals will find problematic. First, there is the assumption that conservative, free-enterprise capitalism is a biblical rather than a political system, and the attendant characterization of the perceived need for a strong national defense and for a balanced budget as “moral” issues. Second, there is a general failure to recognize that there are some moral absolutists who nevertheless remain unconvinced that the law in a secular society should reflect any moral position. Third, there is an unrecognized distinction between public support of traditional values (for example, heterosexuality) and the requiring of public religious practices (for example, prayer or Bible reading in the public schools).

Evangelicals should be thankful to Falwell for bringing to the surface crucial issues that have been submerged and festering for many years. This book raises complex issues that must now be thoughtfully addressed without resorting to ad hominem arguments about fundamentalism.

The Worldwide Church Of God: Pro And Con

Against the Gates of Hell, by Stanley R. Rader (Everest House, 1980, 400 pp., $12.00), and Herbert Armstrong’s Tangled Web, by David Robinson (John Hadden Pub., 1980, approx. 270 pp., $10.00 pb), are reviewed by Joseph M. Hopkins, professor of religion at Westminster College, New Wilmington. Pennsylvania.

These two books, both privately published (Everest House is owned by Worldwide Church of God), deal with a common topic—Herbert W. Armstrong and his religious empire—but from radically different perspectives. Rader, although a baptized convert (from Judaism) for less than six years, has been in the church’s employ since 1952 and has been its treasurer and legal counsel as well as the founder’s constant companion in jet junkets to heads of state around the world.

The focus of his book is the church’s battle with the State of California, which on January 3, 1979, imposed a receivership on the organization in response to charges by six dissident members of financial mismanagement and corruption at the hands of its chief executives, Armstrong and Rader. With the passage of the Petris bill (severely limiting governmental intrusion into church affairs) by the California legislature a few months ago, and the subsequent termination of the state’s investigation of the WCG and 11 other religious groups, the relevance of Rader’s spirited defense has diminished.

Nevertheless, the volume, which documents the conflict and provides useful background on Rader, Armstrong, and the church, is of historical significance. Inevitably, the author’s treatment is colored by his personal involvement in the drama, and the careful reader will want to turn to more objective sources for balance.

Robinson’s book lacks the impressive format and literary finesse of Rader’s. Nevertheless, the former air force pilot, who was for 30 years a member and for 10 a pastor and junior executive in the WCG, writes with apparent forthrightness and conviction. Expelled from the church in 1979, reportedly because he advocated compliance with the California investigation, he launched a devastating attack upon Armstrong and other WCG officials. Drawing on recollections of private conversations with Armstrong when the latter’s tongue was allegedly well lubricated with liquor, the author portrays the 88-year-old “apostle” as unscrupulous, vindictive, given to drunkenness, fits of rage, extravagance, and carnal lust. In the final chapter he alleges that Armstrong was involved in shocking sexual behavior. Not surprisingly, the church sought to suppress the publication—but a temporary restraining order was overturned and copies were released for distribution last summer. A $2 million lawsuit by two WCG executives is pending.

Authentically Christian Growth Strategies

Planning Strategies for World Evangelization, by Edward R. Dayton and David A. Fraser (Eerdmans, 1980, 537 pp., $14.95), and Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth, by C. Norman Kraus (Herald Press, 1980, 176 pp., $5.95 pb), are reviewed by Stuart R. Imbach, director of public ministries, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Robesonia, Pennsylvania.

Planning Strategies for World Evangelization has brought together in one handy volume much of the latest thinking from the Pasadena missiologists. It claims to be “the confluence of a number of different streams” and it is a gold mine of helpful charts, diagrams, graphs, and models.

This is an American management “how to” book—a manual about the process of planning mission strategies. It is an approach to thinking rather than doing. Recognizing each situation as unique, it suggests a ten-step model to analyze and plan any specific mission endeavor. We are encouraged to be thinking (planning) about the future. Goals help us communicate to one another how to believe God is leading us. In this sense, goals become “statements of faith.” This book seeks to present a navigational device that will help us take advantage of the winds of change. It is both a training and an operational tool.

Missions, Evangelism, and ChurchGrowth is a symposium of addresses given in the Discipleship Lecture Forum series at Goshen College. Six men investigate in seven chapters the history and theology of missions. They evaluate recent ideas and experience, gathering helpful insights to stimulate discussion. Written from a denominational perspective (Mennonite), it will challenge many with its high view of the church.

Our changing concept of mission, culture, role, and relationship are traced through the major features of the modern missionary movement. Even our concept of salvation is changing, says Kraus, after carefully analyzing our changing view of the world, our use of social sciences, our understanding of the Bible and missionary experience.

Howard Snyder’s chapter is worth the price of the book. Before sharing seven key propositions for developing an evangelistic lifestyle for the congregation, he evaluates recent mass media evangelistic campaigns. Peter Wagner’s chapter, “How Churches Grow,” got me so excited with its practical characteristics of growing churches that I almost rushed out to join a local Mennonite church! Six probing implications for congregations are drawn out of a summary of Donald McGavran’s church-growth principles. I admire this team’s eagerness to learn and its willingness to ask fundamental, critical questions related to church, kingdom, evangelism, and discipling.

While all will not agree with the theological implications of this book, all face the same realities. This book records the struggles of experienced missionaries in the hurricane of past experience, biblical mandate, popular theories, and practical problems so as to refocus on the true goal and achieve a more vigorous, authentic witness to Jesus Christ.

Differing in scope and perspective, these books make a great pair. Don’t read one without the other.

Relating The Gospel To The Whole World

Down to Earth, by John Stott and Robert Coote (Eerdmans, 1980, 276 pp., $7.95), is reviewed by Pete Hammond, director of specialized ministries, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.

Down to Earth is an exciting book that consists primarily of 17 papers delivered at the Willowbank Consultation on the Gospel and Culture held in January 1978. The meeting brought together 33 leaders for six days of thinking and debate focusing on issues growing out of the Lausanne Covenant’s section on culture. A report of these meetings is provided at the end of the book. The 17 papers are grouped in three sets: Focusing on Culture and the Bible; Culture, Evangelism and Conversion; and Culture and Ethnic Ethics.

John Stott linked his gifts of solid thinking and international leadership with Bob Coote’s skills as writer and critic to put this collection together. Individual authors include familiar Western names like I. H. Marshall, Charles Taber, J. I. Packer, Harvie Conn, Charles Kraft, and Allen Tippett. One limitation is that only five pieces come from Asian, Latin, or African leaders. This was also a problem at the meetings.

The value of Down to Earth is as a resource to help us learn how to relate the gospel to various systems and units of human history. It views culture as something to be engaged and appreciated rather than as something that ought to be fought or escaped. Those who are still wrestling with the ways faith applies to, takes shape within, and opposes elements of our societies will find help here. As stated on the cover: “It was once commonly assumed among missionaries that in the encounter between the gospel and culture, only culture changed. Many missiologists, however, have discovered that transformation occurs in two directions: not only are cultures reshaped and redirected by the power of the gospel, but the gospel inevitably adapts itself to different cultures.”

This volume highlights the need to move with determination in asking hard questions of ourselves if we are not to hinder reaching around the world to those who have yet to hear and see the good news. We must constantly seek to develop our ability to love and learn, and to link up with leaders whom God is using for the sake of his kingdom throughout the world. This book may also drive us to read Scripture with a sharper lens to the end that our hermeneutical skills are being constantly developed and refined. This is a valuable volume for those who want to continue the struggle to think more like God: with greater breadth and increasing humility.

Christian Historiography

Patterns in History, by David Bebbington (InterVarsity, 1979, 204 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Thomas R. Peake, chairman of the social sciences division, King College, Bristol, Tennessee.

In eight, compact, well-structured chapters, David Bebbington has provided a refreshingly purposeful study of basic historiography. Though obviously familiar with the literature of historical analysis, Bebbington has done more than produce just another book about the history of history.

Rather, he has probed the basic content of the major approaches to history and has directed the reader to a consideration of the distinctive elements of a Christian view of history and historiography. It should be read by all students of history who have sought to understand how one’s faith affects understanding human development. It will make valuable reading material for courses in historiography, as well as other disciplines concerned with comprehensive synthesis. It is interesting enough, too, for personal enrichment.

On the surface, Bebbington’s approach is rather traditional. He begins with the typical delineation of the problems of the historian’s task. History as occurrence and history as written can never be precisely coordinated. The historian’s own mind and limitations of knowledge preclude perfect selection or evaluation. In the actual literature of history, five basic schools of historiography have emerged and Bebbington analyzes each: cyclical, Judeo-Christian linear, progress view of the eighteenth-century philosopher, historicist, and Marxist.

Bebbington is at his best in cutting to the heart of the issues dividing the positivist and idealist approaches to history. Positivism derived from the progress view, idealism from historicism. The former sees man as part of a mechanism that operates according to laws, the latter as a free agent consciously seeking goals within history. To the historicist, history is all there is. Within it, each nation has unique features and challenges. Marxism, which shares features of positivism (especially under the impact of Engels) places specific focus on production as the key determinative of history.

A bold incisiveness marks Bebbington’s efforts at reconciling the positivist-idealist tension. Having carefully presented each school of historiography, he seeks to describe a Christian perspective on them, and particularly on this tension. He sees the value of both the positivist and idealist, and correctly takes the problem back to the realities of human nature. This is the point missed by many who have sought to understand history. Man is both the product of “laws” (that is, his behavior is determined) and a free agent (can act to shape his own, and general, history). This amounts to an antinomy, which the Christian historian must accept. Depending on his audience, the Christian historian may specifically allude to God’s providence in human affairs, or implicitly present it consistently in the overall product of his analysis. What counts is that he can discern it.

Recent Books On Pastoral Care

Recent books on pastoral care are reviewed by William F. Hunter, D. Min., registrar and director of admissions at Rosemead Graduate School of Professional Psychology, La Mirada, California.

As with other disciplines and specializations, publishing continues at an accelerated rate in the field of pastoral care—some of it good, some not so good. The field continues to struggle for identity, practicing a kind of brinkmanship between theology and psychology and between theory and practice in general. One wonders at times if pastoral care is in reality a confused set of practices in search of a supporting theoretical base.

A few attempts continue toward providing the field with an underlying raison d’être to guide its practice. Charles Gerkin’s Crisis Experience in the Church (Abingdon) distinguishes pastoral care as different from other helping sources because it is the means by which moderns can recover “a powerful sense of God’s providential care in times of crisis and vulnerability to the awareness of infinitude.” The pastor is urged to adopt an “incarnational style” in helping persons through crises, accidental and anticipated, throughout the life cycle. Leaning more to the psychological is Donald Capps’s Pastoral Care: A Thematic Approach (Westminster). Capps pulls together Erickson’s familiar list of psychosocial themes, with contributions from others (Murray, White, Lifton) as a theoretical base for the practice of pastoral care and counseling. Thematic analyses are meant to capture the basic intentionalities of the human personality. Capps’s concern is to clarify the pastor’s role in helping individuals change the characteristic and unproductive ways they respond to life situations. The book contains a creative integration of psychosocial themes with the theological perspectives suggested in the work of Paul Pruyser’s The Minister as Diagnostician (Westminster). Gerkin and Capps could profitably be read together.

So much for theory. The random selection of volumes here reviewed is far more oriented to the practice than the theory of pastoral care and counseling. Varying approaches and emphases are to be found in this recent literature. David Augsburger’s Anger and Assertiveness in Pastoral Care (Fortress) targets a major area of concern in the minister’s own personal awareness. It urges constructive management of anger as a significant aspect of the minister’s professional development. It is one of the best of the volumes in Fortress’s Creative Pastoral Care and Counseling series and shows Augsburger at his best as a communicator. George Bennett’s When They Ask for Bread (John Knox) is a practical discourse emphasizing the importance of knowing what people want—the ability to hear the secret meanings found in their spoken messages and behaviors. He encourages recognition of the need for similar skills and attitudes in informal or formal pastoral helping.

Helping, not as an option but as a given item on God’s agenda for the church, is the thrust of C. W. Brister’s Take Care: Translating Christ’s Love into a Caring Ministry (Broadman). Helping is viewed here as the driving force at the center of Christian character: being is a necessary qualification for doing. In The Religious Care of the Psychiatric Patient (Westminster), Wayne Oates urges pastors to avoid prescriptive techniques with those who have severe emotional disorders. He affirms that professionals in theological as well as health care disciplines can inform and correct each other in the process of arriving at sound diagnostic and treatment decisions. This, of course, requires an interdisciplinary appreciation and insight regarding the psychiatric patient’s religious background and concerns. Oates can always be counted on for first-class writing on pastoral care, and this book is no exception.

Psychiatrist William Oglesby, Jr.’s Referral in Pastoral Counseling, second edition (Abingdon), encourages accurate assessment and awareness of the minister’s own unique resources for helping, and an equally accurate knowledge of referral resources available in the other helping professions. In this regard, Robert Mason, a physician, and Carl Currier and John Curtis, psychologists, collaborated in Clergyman and the Psychiatrist (Nelson-Hall) to help ministers know when and when not to refer. The authors fault ministers who, anxious to be credible in a skeptical and scientifically oriented world, surrender much that is at the heart of theology and at the core of their uniqueness as ministers who are members of the team helping in the treatment of human emotional ills.

Several books are directed not so much to the professional minister as to lay people in the overall context of the church’s helping ministry. Judith Shelly’s Caring in Crisis (InterVarsity) is a study course designed to prepare lay people to meet the spiritual needs of people in crisis. Shelly emphasizes meeting spiritual needs as an integral part of Christian caring. Harold Burchett’s People Helping People (Moody) takes the position that pastoral care is a body function rather than merely a professional specialization. Building up of another person is seen as a basic expression of one’s own spiritual life. Burchett suggests the use of “seasonable, fitting words,” heavily laced with biblical passages, as the means of restoring perspective, challenging the rebel, undeceiving the mind, helping break the bonds of habitual sin, and breaking up the argument cycle. Well-intentioned, but tending to oversimplification of the helping process, the confrontational style implicit in this model could turn out to be a kind of spiritual one-upmanship in the hands of those seriously lacking in therapeutic attitudes and skills.

Robert Somerville’s Help for Hotliners (Presbyterian and Reformed) is a training manual for telephone crisis counselors in which an overly confrontational style also may be criticized. The author cues his methodology to the literature and technique of Jay Adams’s “nouthetic” model, again emphasizing confrontation at the expense of therapeutic process. Much of what goes by the name of pastoral care in evangelical circles is too often characterized by “bomb” rather than “balm.”

Other volumes focus on pastoral care for specific groups or subgroups often neglected in the church’s priorities for caring and helping. Editor Geiko Müller-Farenholz’s Partners in Life: The Handicapped and the Church (World Council of Churches) is a useful compendium surveying the theological basis and practical outworking of ministry to the handicapped. Disability is viewed as an immense global problem affecting people of any class, sex, race, or nation. An insightful theological perspective concludes that the church itself is not whole without the handicapped.

Lowell Colston’s brief treatment of Pastoral Care with Handicapped Persons (Fortress) proposes an abiding advocacy on behalf of the handicapped, encompassing “a continuing, unfailing, persistent standing by, or moving with, or entering into” their sufferings. Colston suggests that most handicapped persons appreciate thoughtful and considerate, even confrontive, interactions with people who demonstrate trust and faith in their capacity to overcome the limitations imposed by their handicap. Edgar Lawrence’s fine little manual. Ministering to the Silent Minority (Gospel Publishing House), works at raising the consciousness of the church concerning ministry among the deaf, and expands the possibilities and directions in which caring and helping may be expressed. Ronald Hunt’s The Church’s Pilgrimage of Pastoral Care in Mental Retardation (Vantage) helps direct the attention of the church to the needs of the developmentally retarded.

Concern for the aging is another evidence of the expanding dimensions of ministry. Henry Rightor’s Pastoral Counseling in Work Crises (Judson) adds the vocational area for consideration by pastoral counselors, Rightor insists that the work crisis of a healthy, aging person facing retirement does not differ from the work crisis of a younger person.

This sampling from the current literature does not provide a comprehensive view of contemporary pastoral care. It may, however, be suggestive of two trends that will become more apparent with the passing of time. First, even a cursory glance at these titles makes it clear that the church has no intention of surrendering its traditional helping role to the proliferating secular human services agencies; and second, the real crisis in pastoral care is in its inadequate theoretical base. The latter makes the effort to meet the needs of people a patchwork of practices and approaches that are strongly influenced by psychology but do not have a creative integration of that discipline with theology.

Patience and a planned strategy are key ingredients.

“My next church will be one I start myself. I’m tired of fighting with established churches.” That lament by a discouraged pastor sums up a prevailing attitude. The current literature on church growth does little to alleviate the problem. It usually deals either with churches that were founded by the present pastor, or churches that were all but dead and started fresh under the leadership of the current pastor. Their ideas are usually good and obviously work for them, but often they are not accepted by people in established churches used to doing things their way. How do we get these people to change so that their churches can also grow?

Four basic areas of change are necessary if an old, established church is to grow. At least some progress in one area is the prerequisite for moving to the next.

First, there must be change in the focus of the church. A stagnant congregation is almost always self-serving. Little thought is given to reaching out to the community. People whose habits are different from those of the church people are probably viewed nervously as intruders, rather than as opportunities. Members can be shown how important it is to have a concern to win those who are outside the family of God. That focus can begin to infect the people: through Spirit-anointed preaching, the showcasing of those who are having a ministry of outreach, and the personal example of the pastor.

Once progress is seen in the church’s change of focus, organization can be tackled. By design or default, many older churches are so organized that it is almost impossible for new leaders or ideas to emerge. A negative minority often becomes entrenched, courtesy of the machinery of the church government. Gently, but persistently, there must be creative pressure to change that.

Possibilities for such change will vary according to the particular form of church government. In almost any setting, however, change is possible. Forming new committees, rewriting the bylaws, instituting rules of tenure for officers, setting up advisory groups, calling together ad hoc task force groups—all of these are ways to shake up the organization in a positive way.

Patience is the key: change may take months or even years. Pastors who want to improve organizational structure should study the subject. Whether one reads in business literature (Peter Drucker is an excellent author for starters), or in the emerging field of church management (Norman Shawchuck or Lyle Schaller are worth reading), it is possible to learn.

Having seen movement toward outreach, and having achieved some changes in organization, one can move on next to changes in church leadership. As openings occur, work to put new, positive people into those positions. But remember, one or two key changes that do not disrupt the unity of the body are worth more than a whole new church board with a church split.

Of course, not all church leaders will be convinced. Some will not like the new direction, no matter how patient you are. If an older church is to grow, there must be gracious opportunities for some unhappy people to leave quietly. Others will move to the sidelines because they are not sure they agree with what is happening. Keep loving them—but let them rest. The change of pace may help them; they may even turn to a new area of service in the church that will excite them anew.

The fourth area of change is in style. Wait patiently for the right time to introduce such changes. For example, “body-life” services can be inspiring and helpful, but they can be disastrous if introduced before people are ready. New ideas abound to help an established church start a pattern of ongoing growth, but if they are to work, they must be founded first on new attitudes and leadership.

Can positive change come to an established church? Definitely. Here is what happened in one such church in a small, midwestern town:

In the late 1960s this church was averaging just over 200 in its morning worship service. A new pastor was called: he was the only paid staff member. Several years earlier the congregation had voted against a building program, even though there were some hints of growth. Now the people were again considering building, even though attendance had been slipping and there was not unanimous enthusiasm for the project.

Following the steps outlined above, the new pastor spent the first two or three years setting a new tone through his preaching and example. He spent much time encouraging outreach. While overseas missions had always been strongly emphasized, the people needed that same sense of mission to the growing area in which the church was located.

The first step toward changing the focus of the church came among the leaders. When a congregational vote on the new building barely met the two-thirds majority necessary, the leaders courageously decided to press ahead with the project. The construction of that building became, in itself, an important symbol of the new focus of the church: it was expanding to reach its community for Christ.

After three years of ministry, the pastor suggested a committee to rewrite the church bylaws. Organizing the church into departments, with new department committees, gave an opportunity to include newer people among the leaders. None of the old leaders had to be let go. The new leaders accelerated the interest in outreach. New staff members were added to expand ministries (youth, nursery school, music, etc.). This worked to reach new people, and in turn it started a positive growth cycle.

After four or five years of this pastor’s ministry, a distinct shift in style took place. Music, for instance, took on a wider range of styles to accommodate the influx of young people, while serious attempts were made to include music to satisfy the tastes of the older members as well. With a spirit of outreach now characterizing the church, such give and take was possible.

The test of change is what happens over a period of years. This church passed that test. Today, even though the pastor has moved to another ministry, that church continues to grow. Recently a second worship service and Sunday school program were added.

Remember: patience is the key. In older churches one cannot introduce change as boldly or dramatically as you can in a new work. But you can follow this suggested sequence.

It is not right to put all our church-growth focus on starting new churches. We must also look at the tremendous potential in already established churches. We need patience and persistence to lead them into change and growth. Over the next decade we may be surprised at what will happen in this way to church life in America.

DONALD GERIG¹Mr. Gerig is the senior pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois.

LeGuin feels that fantasy may say more about what is real than “realistic” literature.

One of the best science fiction writers today is Ursula Kroeber LeGuin. She has twice won both Nebula (by science-fiction writers) and Hugo (by readers) awards for The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), and The Dispossessed (1974). In addition to science fiction, she has published a collection of short stories, a contemporary novel of two adolescents in love, and a body of fantastic literature. She won a Hornbook Award for A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), Newbery Honor Medal for The Tombs of Atuan (1971), and a National Book Award for The Farthest Shore (1972). This trilogy, written about the coming of age of three young people in the island landscape of Earthsea, may be the best crafted fantasy work since C. S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles.

LeGuin feels that fantasy may say more about reality than “realistic” literature: “We who hobnob with hobbits and tell tall tales about little green men are quite used to being dismissed as mere entertainers, or sternly disapproved of as escapists. But … readers are [beginning to accept] the fact that an improbable and unmanageable world is going to produce an improbable and hypothetical art. At this point, realism is perhaps the least adequate means of understanding or portraying the incredible realities of our existence. A scientist who creates a monster … a wizard unable to cast a spell … may be precise and profound metaphors of the human condition. The fantacist, whether he uses the ancient archetypes of myth and legend or the younger ones of science and technology, may be talking as seriously as any sociologist—and a good deal more directly—about human life as it is lived, and as it might be lived, and as it ought to be lived. For, after all … it is … by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope” (National Book Award acceptance speech).

What are LeGuin’s “incredible realities?” They are, by and large, the same as they have been for other writers: love, the meaning of life, coming of age, the meaning of personhood, death. She adds another which is less common, however: the role of man as a species, and she isolates some of the old realities in remarkable ways. She writes, according to her own statements, as neither Christian nor post-Christian, but out of Taoist philosophy.

Pervading the Earthsea trilogy is “… the interest in the I Ching and Taoist philosophy evident in most of my books …” (Dreams Must Explain Themselves, 1975). It is the working out of LeGuin’s statement: “The Taoist world is orderly, not chaotic, but its order is not one imposed by man or by a personal or humane deity. Its true laws—ethical and aesthetic, as surely as scientific—are not imposed from above by any authority, but exist in things and are to be found—discovered” (Dreams).

In LeGuin’s own words, the subject of Wizard is “coming of age.” That of Tombs is “sex” or “more exactly … feminine coming of age.” Farthest Shore “is about death, which is why it is a less well-built, less sound and complete book than the others. They were things I had already lived through and survived. The Farthest Shore is about the thing you do not live through and survive” (Dreams).

In Earthsea, the chief means by which man achieves mastery over his environment is not through science, but through art—the art of wizardry. “Wizardry is artistry. The trilogy is then, in this sense, about art, the creative experience, the creative process” (Dreams). The development of the wizard Ged, from village boyhood until his last creative act and retirement, is the thread that ties Wizard, Tombs, and Farthest Shore together.

All the magi of Earthsea are trained in a school for wizards. There, they are taught various wizardly arts, such as changing into animals. The most important lesson, however, is to do only “what is needful” (Farthest Shore). It is taught by spending time in a grove of trees, discovering “true laws” by such investigations as watching a spider spin a web. The Taoism is obvious. The wizards are seeking to discover the tao, the Way, and to follow the advice of the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching: “action without deeds” (Lin Yutang translation).

The most compelling aspect of the magi’s life appears not to be Taoist. It is the world of the dead, the dry land. Magi enter this, and return, at some times for specific reasons, but at others because they are drawn into it. As LeGuin says, her imagery of death is not perfectly worked out, but it is awful and desolate: “They came then into the streets of the cities that are there and … saw … with quiet faces and empty hands, the dead … the dead moved slowly and with no purpose … no marks of illness were on them. They were whole and healed. They were healed of pain and of life.… Quiet were their faces, freed from anger and desire, and there was in their shadowed eyes no hope … [they] saw the mother and child who had died together, and they were in the dark land together; but the child did not run, nor did it cry, and the mother did not hold it or ever look at it. And those who had died for love passed each other in the streets. The potter’s wheel was still, the loom empty, the stove cold. No voice ever sang” (Farthest Shore).

The Earthsea trilogy has a happy ending—in fact, to use Tolkien’s word, a eucatastrophe. Yet it is a strange one. The eucatastrophe is the healing of a breach. But it is a breach in the dry land. A mage (magus) who seeks immortality has found a way to come back to the real world from the dry land after death. Not content with mere discovery, or doing only “what is needful,” he has tried to change the order of things, to achieve immortality. (This errant mage may be a Christ figure.) In so doing, he appeals to the people of Earthsea, through their dreams, to attempt to do the same. They leave off their normal pursuits and cannot achieve anything worthwhile, because the meaning of life has been lost to them. Even the magi lose their power. Ged goes into the dry land with the errant mage and heals the breach, spending his power in the act, and retires to solitude. The errant mage, restored to the true way, remains in the dry land.

Christians may agree with LeGuin, and/or Taoism, on our need to treat our world carefully and to understand what we are doing as fully as possible before we do it. But Taoism is not Christianity. God expects us to act positively to right the wrong in the world, and his mandate to man in Genesis 1 includes more than just observation.

Fantastic literature is an expression of the philosophy of the writer. While it may portray “the incredible realities of our existence” even better than realism, it can be a dry land for the soul. Though it can truly describe, it does not always properly prescribe. There is only One who can close the breach: he who is truly dead yet alive. Like the psalmist, our soul longs for him, in this dry and thirsty land.

MARTIN LABAR¹Dr. LaBar is chairman of the division of science, Central Wesleyan College, Central, South Carolina.