Josh Benner

Category: Culture

  • What’s the greatest danger to the church?

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    There are 300,000 churches in America.
    There are many wonderful churches that boldly proclaim the gospel and faithfully teach the Bible every week. There is no perfect church in the world, because every church is full of members who are imperfect people.
    I think that the biggest issue the American church faces today is related to truth and love.
    Love that undermines truth and truth that doesn’t practice love. I’ll briefly explain what that means.
    Love that undermines truth 
    Love is important. The greatest command in scripture is to love God and to love people. God is love.
    But some churches can emphasize love to the point where it undermines truth.
    For instance, there is a temptation in some Christian circles to consider the love of God and reason that: “since God is love, his love extends to all people, whether or not they believe in God and whether or not they want or accept his love.”
    God is love. But that is just taking a slice of the character of God and acting as if that’s the whole pie. God is love. But he is also just, and righteous, and holy. He judges, he has wrath towards sin. God has all of those qualities at all times.
    God is love. But the idea of love is not only exclusive to what our culture defines love as.
    We tend to value acceptance and tolerance as what it is to love. And it’s true that God meets us where we are, but Jesus doesn’t save us to keep us the same. God is a perfecting God. We sin. We sin so much that we needed a savior, and the gospel is not a message that teaches us that we’re ok and we should just keep doing what we’re doing. We need to live for God and pursue him.
    Making love purely about acceptance and tolerance is not the full Biblical scope of what love is. And so it undermines the truth of scripture. And it runs the danger of undermining the inerrancy of scripture (taking the Bible as practical wisdom rather than the infallible word of God). And this view runs the risk of undermining the gospel itself.
    Assuming that love and  demand for justice are mutually exclusive.

    I observe this being the great risk in more liberal denominations.

    Truth that doesn’t practice love

    I think this is more of a danger in conservative and evangelical circles. We place a high value on the scripture and theology. And well we should because both of those are hugely important.

    But we can get so preoccupied with having the right answer that we lose sight of actually living out what we know. This is very similar to the failure of the Pharisees in the gospels. They were very well studied and trained in theology, but they missed the heart of the message.

    It can be easy to know the right answer but it’s difficult to live it out in practice.

    Truth and love. It comes down to belief and practice. We need both.

    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.

  • Having an “all things to all people” ministry mindset

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    Originally published April 6, 2016

    In 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul gives an insight into how he approached ministry. After discussing how he related to Jews, gentiles, and those whom society had looked down upon, Paul sums up how he related to each of these groups by saying that he became “all things to all people.”

    For the Jewish people, they had the Law. In the early church, there was still some uncertainty over which (if any) aspects of the Law people were required to follow.

    Paul was respectful of Jewish customs. He had been born and raised Jewish. And for the sake of building relationships, in certain circles, he would still participate in accordance with various Jewish customs. In Acts 16, Timothy is a young minster who begins doing ministry with Paul. Knowing they would be traveling in heavily Jewish areas, Paul actually has Timothy get circumcised.

    All things to all people.

    People needed to understand that adherence was not what saved a person. Faith is what saves. But it’s also important to understand that, for Paul, in ministering to Jewish people, the purpose wasn’t to get them to give up every aspect of their former life. Practicing things like circumcision or still eating in accordance with the Jewish dietary restrictions were not things that people needed to give up.

    Paul’s purpose was to preach the gospel, the salvation through faith and the work of Jesus at the cross.

    From Jews to Hindus 

    I was at a missions conference a few weeks ago and one of the presenters was talking about barriers missionaries face in evangelizing Hindus in India. India has a billion people, but is only about 2.3% self-identified as Christian. And those numbers haven’t really changed in the past 50 years, in spite of all of the money and missionary efforts in that country.

    Part of the challenge is that Hindus who convert to Christianity often times make radical changes. Not simply Spiritually, but external changes: things like changing their names, changing how they dress, essentially separating themselves from anything that has to do with Hinduism.

    Many American Christians might think that’s a good thing.

    But is it?

    Think about it like this: you know someone and they start going to a new church. And then they start dressing differently. And then they tell you they’ve changed their name….would you think “well that’s wonderful.”

    Of course not.

    You’d think they had just joined a cult!

    Coming to faith in the gospel of is always a spiritually transforming event. But depending on a person’s background, it can also be a significant social change as well. There can be stigmas in certain circles. It can be at the expense of relationships. While the gospel is worth whatever the cost, it does not need to be at the cost of lifestyle decisions that aren’t matters of sin. It can be easy to have extra-Biblical expectations of what a real Christian should act like or do. We should encourage and exhort people to turn away from sin, but not from things which are morally neutral, things like style of dress, tattoos, piercings, and smoking.

    For the Hindus, with things like the style of dress or their first name, or like the Jews to whom Paul was ministering who still practiced circumcision, these weren’t sin issues. These weren’t things that were inherently wrong for the people to be doing.

    While this passage is not an exhaustive manual on how to do ministry, I do think that it is providing an important bedrock example of how we are to spread the good news of the love and forgiveness of Christ in our world.

    All things to all people.

    We have a God who meets us and loves us where we are. And we are to love other people where they are. It’s not about a person getting things together so that we can find them lovable.

    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.

  • Beth Moore letter addresses misogyny in evangelicalism

    Over the last generation, Beth Moore has been one of the most prominent female leaders and speakers in American Evangelical circles. Her Bible studies are hugely popular among women. She’s the founder of Living Proof Ministries, a ministry for women based out of Houston.

    She’s not a pastor. She’s an author and speaker.

    Although she’s popular in Evangelical circles, she’s not universally supported. Some of the criticisms of her theology include that it’s a prosperity gospel or that it’s intellectually light theology.

    My purpose in writing today is not to argue for or against the merits of her theology. Agree or disagree with her, she’s hugely influential. And today, Moore posted an open letter on the blog for Living Proof Ministries “A letter to my brothers” where she discusses some of her experiences as a prominent speaker in circles that are generally dominated by men.

    The subject of women in ministry is one that is debated within Christian circles. Can a woman be a pastor? Can a women ever preach a sermon? Can a woman teach men in the church? People have different opinions on these issues. Some would say yes to all three, some would say no to all three. Others are in the middle.

    It’s complicated.

    In writing, Moore talks about some of the misogynistic treatment she’s received over the years. Considering the divergent opinions within Christian circles on women in leadership, Moore’s letter talks about how she had chalked up some of her treatment as being a byproduct of deeply rooted Biblical convictions among sincere Christians with whom she simply disagreed.

    From the letter:

    I accepted the peculiarities accompanying female leadership in a conservative Christian world because I chose to believe that, whether or not some of the actions and attitudes seemed godly to me, they were rooted in deep convictions based on passages from 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14.

    As Moore continues to elaborate, she talks of coming to a realization that it wasn’t simply about differences in opinion.

    I came face to face with one of the most demoralizing realizations of my adult life: Scripture was not the reason for the colossal disregard and disrespect of women among many of these men. It was only the excuse. Sin was the reason. Ungodliness.

    Our culture largely disrespects women. The #metoo movement showed the rampant sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood. As the movement spread, more and more areas of life came to light that were stained by the mistreatment of women. The #churchtoo movement showed further examples of assault and harassment from within the church. Obviously we knew that there were issues but these movements have created a national dialogue.

    While Moore’s post dealt more with misogyny than sexual assault, both are a reflection of a culture which far too often devalues women.

    The church is meant to be a light in a dark world. But we also live in society and the world is sinful. For too many Christians, misogyny and sexism are overlooked blindspots.

    I hold to a complementarian theology where I believe that preaching and teaching is reserved for men. Theologically, it’s how I see God having designed his created order. I think that’s the best way to interpret the applicable Biblical passages. I think that complementarianism can (and should) be honoring to women. Women are created in the image of God and are precious. But with a theological belief that there are certain things that men can do within the church and that women can’t do; with beliefs on submissiveness (without also understanding the self-sacrifice to which men are called), it can be easy for an Evangelical Christian male to develop a misogynistic view of women. Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that the Bible is misogynistic. I’m saying that sinful men can distort the Bible and become sexist within our culture that often accepts sexism and misogyny. The default is just to do what the rest of the world is doing unless proactively living out a different set of values.

    Again, we can agree or disagree with what Beth Moore believes and teaches. But we shouldn’t dismiss her points. The church needs to be a leader in our society in showing honor and respect to all women.

    At the end of her letter, Moore makes a simple request:

    I’m asking that you would simply have no tolerance for misogyny and dismissiveness toward women in your spheres of influence. I’m asking for your deliberate and clearly conveyed influence toward the imitation of Christ in His attitude and actions toward women.

    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.

  • Feel sorry for the victims, not Bill Cosby

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    Legendary actor and comedian Bill Cosby was convicted of sexual assault this week.

    More than 60 women have claimed Cosby raped or sexually assaulted them. 45 of them say that he drugged them. Many taking a drink or other pill offered by Cosby and waking up hours later.

    These accusations go back to assaults as long ago as 1965. There are several more women who have acknowledged assaults by Cosby but who are not allowing their names to be revealed to the public.

    It’s hard to go after someone who’s rich, and famous, and beloved by millions. It’s hard to be one voice against someone powerful. There actually had been women who had told the police about Cosby’s actions, but evidence can be difficult to find in these cases. There had been women who had mentioned it to reporters but the stories weren’t published. Research indicates that the vast majority of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported. Many victims fear that their story won’t be believed (especially when it’s an accusation against Cliff Huxtable, someone who has a public persona of being wholesome). Many blame the victim.

    Considering that a number of Cosby’s accusers were unconscious when assaults happened and weren’t necessarily sure of what had specifically taken place.

    And over and over and over again, the story is the same. He would give a woman something to drink, or give her some type of pill for pain or anxiety, and they would black out. Horrifying and monstrous.

    In October of 2014, comedian Hannibal Buress referenced the allegations against Cosby in a stand up routine. Within the next five weeks, some 45 women came forward with accusations against Cosby. This was not the first time Cosby had been accused of sexual assault. One victim talked about it in a 1996 interview that was never published. In 2000, Lachele Covington came forward saying that Cosby assaulted her when she was an extra on his show Cosby.

    In 2005, seven women came forward. This was the first time Cosby’s allegations were made known publicly. He settled in a civil suit for an undisclosed amount. In legal documents from that suit, Cosby admitted to using drugs as sedatives for the purposes of sexual encounters with women. But he argues that they agreed to it.

    This week, he was convicted in the 2004 rape of Andrea Constand. Cosby’s conviction in this one case is a victory for all of his victims, where many of the crimes occurred long enough ago that criminal charges cannot apply due to the statute of limitations.

     

    Even after Cosby has been convicted, many still struggle to accept that Cosby is guilty.

    Why?

    Because it’s Cliff Huxtable! And Cliff Huxtable is a wise and wholesome family man. He’s made us laugh, his characters are lovable.

    Don’t feel sorry for him. Feel sorry for his victims. No matter how kindly his public persona is, he’s a serial rapist and a predator.

    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.

  • Alfie Evans and the value of human life

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    Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons @rodhullandemu

    Alfie Evans is a British baby who is fighting for his life with a rare medical condition.

    There is a hospital in Italy that will treat the child. Italy has arranged to transport the child from Britain.

    But British courts are disallowing this. Instead, they’re scaling back treatment on Alfie which will result in his death.

    I heard a chilling argument today. The logic of it was that the parents are biased (after all, it’s their kid) and that they’re not really in a position to objectively evaluate this decision.

    The problem with that argument is that it’s assuming that if they were in a position to be more levelheaded, they would see what makes sense and just let their son die. But that goes against the instincts of any good parent. Furthermore, it’s not as if most sets of parents who aren’t in this situation look at it and think “Of course they should let him die.” For most parents, they would fight for their child to get treatment, as a moral absolute.

    The other part of the argument that I found disturbing was that it argued that since the parents wouldn’t be good judges of what was best to do in this situation, courts and panels would be better equipped. After all, they have educated professionals who are able to evaluate the case.

    But groups of educated professional people have concocted some of the most egregious evils in history.

    This shouldn’t even be a debate. This literally costs the United Kingdom nothing. Another country is paying and willing to transport Alfie.

    A civilized and free country should not interfere with this. It’s evil.

    Pray for Alfie and his parents.

    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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