Josh Benner

Category: Culture

  • Best of 2018. #4 No matter how terrible things seem, the gospel shows that there is always hope

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    As 2018 comes to a close, I am sharing some of my top posts from this year. 

    Andrew Stoecklein was pastor of a megachurch in California who took his life last week. I’ve seen many stories shared about this man this week. I’ve seen articles about social media posts his wife has made in the wake of the loss of her husband.

    It’s an incredibly sad story. Successful young pastor. Growing megachurch. He had struggled with depression and anxiety. Stoecklein had actually taken a four month sabbatical as he was battling these mental health issues and had returned earlier this month. (more…)

  • Best of 2018. #5 Parents allowing children to decide their gender: why?

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    As 2018 comes to a close, I am sharing some of my top posts from this year. 

    A recent article from NBC talks about a Massachusetts family who are raising their twin boys without a gender. The idea behind this parenting philosophy is to allow the twins to decide for themselves when they’re older.

    In the story, the mother made the fair point about how we do have ways how we stereotype little boys and little girls that aren’t always helpful. Many raise girls to be prissy and “girlie,” while boys are raised to be tough and to not cry. These aren’t necessary aspects of masculinity and femininity, on that point, I agree. However to combat those stereotypes, we don’t need to raise children without gender. There are other, healthier approaches. (more…)

  • God’s truth is true. Even if we don’t like it.

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    I was recently reading a profile on a popular singer. The profile said that she had been raised going to church but she had stopped going because she disagreed with the church’s teachings on LGBT issues. Because the church didn’t agree with her, she left.

    We try to dictate what truth is, based on preferences.

    LGBT issues are a hot button political topic right now. Many don’t like the idea of a God who disapproves of those lifestyles and so, just like the singer, people decide that God affirms it. They overlook clear Biblical teachings and concoct arguments based on feelings.

    God is awesomely holy and perfectly righteous. We are not.

    And because we’re not, there can be times where we read something in the Bible, where our initial gut reaction is to dislike what God has done or to dislike his moral will.

    There are people who don’t like that God is just and a judge. So people simply decide to ignore those texts. They throw out the true notion of God for one that accepts everything they want to do.

    Some people want to believe that a person doesn’t have to have faith in Jesus to be with him, and so they decide that being a good person is the basis on which God judges the human soul. But that’s not a Biblical idea. Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me” (John 14:6).

    There are people who like to speak for God and suggest that God is too distant. That such an infinite God wouldn’t care about the world, therefore it doesn’t matter what we do. That’s an assumption which contradicts the Bible. These people still often assume there’s a heaven. So they believe in a God who made the world, but doesn’t care about it. Yet, he made a paradise for people from the world that he didn’t care about?

    Based on what?

    Based on nothing! Based on what a person wants to believe. Based on the god a person makes up in their own mind.

    We’re created in God’s image, he’s not created in ours. And it’s tempting to believe in a God who only believes in what you believe in.

    Or people pick and choose which teachings of the Bible they want to apply to life and disregard the others. All sorts of ways that humanity tries to speak for God.

    It can be really hard for us to not want to create these caricatures of God.

    Even for people in the church. We might not talk about it. We might not say it in Sunday School or in a small group. But is there something about God, where you see it in the Bible but have a justification for why it’s not true?

    If you believe in a God who never disagrees with what you think, you might be worshipping a god you’ve made in your own image rather than you worshipping the God in who’s image actually you’re created.

    There can be times where we don’t understand a teaching, perhaps we don’t like a teaching. In those times, let us walk by faith, to trust that his ways are good. That his ways are higher than our ways.

    Do you have any areas of your life today where you struggle to not justify a certain sin?

    It’s so tempting to want to believe in a God who only believes in what you believe in. But God’s truth is not up for a vote.

    It’s so tempting to undermine the gospel and to say it’s really about how someone lived, regardless of what they believe.

    It’s about trusting in Jesus.

    That is how the unholy are made holy. Jesus is the great high priest who gives us access to God. And that is true, regardless of what we want to be true. Salvation is entirely the work of Christ.

    People undermine the morality of the Bible. They suggest that it’s just teachings created by men. Or suggesting that God doesn’t really care how we live.

    Again, that’s an assumption people make based on what they want.

    The God of the Bible does care. Because he’s a Holy God. And he made us for Holiness and righteousness. Maybe you have an area where you struggle to accept something about God’s word. I pray that the Holy Spirit would convict you of that. I pray that you might know that God is good. When I say his truth is true, regardless of what we want, that it’s not up for a vote, my point isn’t that it’s just a top down dictator imposing things upon us.

    Thanks for reading my 500th post! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • John Crist jokes about customizing church

    Comedian John Crist is crushing it. He’s become a social media sensation. Next year, he’s launching his Human Being tour that has 40 shows and is quickly selling out. He has a great eye for contemporary WASP culture in the American church.

    Today, he released a satirical video on a new product: Virtual Reality Church, which was essentially virtual reality glasses which allowed a person to entirely customize a church service. This is said in jest, but I found this video to be a striking commentary on the church in America.

    In the video, it allows for all of the aspects of a church service to be customized: the denomination, what your virtual reality avatar wears, the fashion of the worship leader, whether or not you have to interact with people, the of the worship leader, the style of the message (and the subject of the message).

    In the video, Crist says: “Feeling a touch of white guilt? Add a minority worship leader.”

    “No more having to endure songs that you don’t like. With Virtual Reality Church, you’re in charge.”

    There are so many churches that the whole experience is like Starbucks. You can customize it whichever way you want. People pick (and stop going) to churches based on the style of preaching, the style of music, the programs they offer, the youth group, the look of the building. There are hipster churches, contemporary churches, traditional churches. There are popular churches where other churches mimic the same gimmicks.

    The underlying issue with this is that it sends this bad message: church is about you and for you. Crist touches on this point too. At the end of his video he says, “Finally, an answer to the question: how can I make Sunday morning even more about me?” The video signs off by calling virtual reality “the future of church attendance.”

    Sadly, that humor isn’t too far off from reality. With the popularity of mega church pastors, there are people who podcast famous pastors and value those over involvement in a local church.

    And churches are largely part of the problem in feeding into this culture. In America, where we have so many options with everything, every business with which we interact lives and dies on our satisfaction.

    And we often treat churches in much the same way. Like it’s just another business that we’re patronizing. Where if you’re not happy with a church, if you decide you don’t like something about a church, it’s become so easy just to uproot and go to the next church.

    Ask not what the church can do for you. Ask what you can do for the church.

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    Crist has done other satire videos. One was a spoof of popular shows like “House Hunters,” but where they were listing the features they wanted in a church. In another parody video, Crist pretended to be an executive for a Christian music record label and poked fun at the predictability and shallowness of many popular Christian songs.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

    Let’s connect!
    Facebook
    Twitter
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  • Political correctness shows why we need the gospel

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    Comedian Kevin Hart. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

    Last week, it was announced that Kevin Hart would host the Academy Awards in February. But then some Tweets were unearthed that used the word “gay” in a negative light. The Tweets were several years old, but as a result of the backlash, Hart withdrew from hosting the awards show two days later.

    I notice several theological themes in our current social discourse.

    Law 

    With modern political correctness, there are a dizzying amount of rules. And there is no consideration given to historical context or accepted norms. The rules are treated as universally binding. In June, an award named after famed writer Laura Ingalls Wilder was changed due to the fact that Wilder used terms for Native Americans that were common in her time and vernacular.

    The modern PC movement reminds me of the Pharisees in the gospels. The Old Testament had laws, but then the Pharisees added laws on top of laws. So many rules and laws that it became impossible to follow. It was crushing. Jesus railed against the pharisees for placing crippling burdens upon people. Constantly changing language. (more…)