Glocal Christianity

Intuitives for Jesus, Unite!

I was just reading Christianity Today's book review of Introverts in the church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture, which you'll find under the heading of Introverts for Jesus, Unite!

Now, as an introvert I'm only too happy to see personality differences being recognized. But as someone who's been researching personality types in new religious movements for many years, I have to say, I think Adam S. McHugh's has picked the wrong type pair. Because my researches have led me to conclude the intuitive - sensor gap is far more significant.

Many years ago I conducted a number of informal spot poles amongst emerging church folk and invariably found 80% were intuitives, that only 20% or less were sensors. This gave me pause for thought, given you'd expect the figure to be 30% in the general population. Moreover, more recent studies have found that people drawn to mysticism tend to be intuitives. And you know, the deeper I looked the more clear it became to me that the emerging church in many respects represented a revolt of intuitive Christians against suffocatingly sensor Christian institutions.

But this personality type split is not healthy, not healthy at all in my opinion. Balanced community requires both sensors and intuitives. The problem is intuitives are not feeling respected. This is a challenge for sensors but also intuitive Christians as well. As an intuitive Christian myself, I have found discipleship of intuitives is very different to discipleship of sensors. Christians need to learn to adapt discipleship to the needs of different types.

Lay Theologians

As part of an assignment for my Christian counseling course I am reading “The Other Six Days: Work, Vocation and Ministry in Biblical Perspective” by R. Paul Stevens and I am enjoying it immensely. This morning I was helpfully reminded that the following people were all non-clerical, non-professional theologians: Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Socrates of Constantinople, Sozomen, John Calvin and C. S. Lewis. Nice to be reminded I'm amongst good company.

Unconscious of the Gospel

Carl Jung once said:

"The Christian missionary may preach the gospel to the poor naked heathen, but the spiritual heathen who populate Europe have as yet heard nothing of Christianity."

I find this statement all the more interesting given the fact Jung was not a Christian.

Hillsong In Trouble Over Mercy Ministries

Hillsong hit the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald this morning with an exposé of Mercy Ministries.

In an article entitled, "They sought help, but got exorcism and the Bible", it was said:

A SECRETIVE ministry with direct links to Gloria Jean's Coffees and the Hillsong Church has been deceiving troubled young women into signing over months of their lives to a program that offers scant medical or psychiatric care, instead using Bible studies and exorcisms to treat mental illness.

Government agencies such as Centrelink have also been drawn into the controversy, as residents are required to transfer their benefits to Mercy Ministries. There are also allegations that the group receives a carers payment to look after the young women.

Read the SMH article on Hillsong for more.

I then took a peek over at the Mercy Ministries website which said:

Mercy Ministries is a national non profit organisation dedicated to providing homes and care for young women suffering the effects of eating disorders, self harm, abuse, depression, unplanned pregnancies and other life controlling issues.

Mercy Ministries is a structured residential based program that provides professional support from psychologists, dieticians, general practitioners, social workers, career counsellors and daily education from program staff to support the young women in our care.

We provide a holistic program that addresses all aspects of a young woman’s well being; physical, spiritual and emotional. Mercy Ministries is a faith based organisation dedicated to the support of young women in crisis.

I am left wondering what to make of this. There has been a lot of scare mongering about Hillsong in the past which, in the fullness of time, turned out to be grounded in only the loosest of facts in a sea of innuendo.

In fact (and this is pure co-incidence) only last night I was having a laugh with my brother-in-law, a Hillsong member, about the Today Tonight's last exposé on Hillsong's alleged manipulation of Australian Idol votes. This exposé turned into a farce once it became apparent that no Hillsong members were actually in the competition - hence my mirth.

So, despite some misgivings that I do have about the way Hillsong operate (I am no apologist for them by any stretch of the imagination) I have learnt not to take these journalist outings at face value. For instance, how "secretive" is a ministry that has a flashy web page? And, would a "holistic" ministry pushing New Age style spirituality have coped the same flack as one pushing Pentecostal style spirituality? So I am left wondering what the real truth of this matter is.

Christian Counseling Results

Just thought I'd share this. I got my results for the semester back just the other day and I was pleased to see I'd been awarded another distinction. Feeling rather chuffed. And I've lined up an interview for January with the course supervisor at Morling College to formally transfer from the Graduate Diploma of Divinity to the Graduate Diploma of Christian Counseling next year. So, all going very well.

Powering Down After Counseling Exam

Well, I finished my Christian counseling exam yesterday and am feeling rather flat now I’ve relaxed. Think I’ll have a relaxing time to myself once the kids go to bed and Donna goes out to her cell group. Maybe get out some incense, candles and the Bible and meditate a bit.

Christian counseling study hiccups

How’s this? I was studying for my Christian counseling exam at Morling College tomorrow evening when my laptop died yesterday. Not sure at this stage if it can be resurrected or not, but it’s looking pretty, well, unresponsive. I’ll keep laying hands on it. Could be looking at an expensive new Christmas present! Fortunately I have plenty of hard copy notes but it’s annoying all the same.

This semester we have been brushing up on different therapy models, such as psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, Rogerian and family systems, as well as the Christian therapy models of Cloud and Crabb. As part of the course we’re been looking at them from both a practical and theoretical standpoint as well as exploring the theology issues. Guess I’ll be cramming in a less technological way this evening.

Grace and Truth: Towards True Intimacy

One of the things I like about the Christian counseling course I am presently working through is the way it brings both theology and psychology together in both a practical and theoretical way. The course is specifically aimed at helping us develop practical experience and a working theology in concert with one another, an approach that gels very well with own my holistic orientation.

This weekend I was studying my class notes on Dr Henry Cloud in preparation for my upcoming exam, and one of the key issues Cloud raises is the way both grace and truth apply work in the counseling process. I particularly remember one comment, that both grace and truth are necessary for true intimacy. Without grace, truth only brings experience of judgment and shame. But without truth, there is no meeting of the true self.

I have long held that legalism (truth without grace) and license (grace without truth) are equal and opposite errors, and have been critical of those who regard the first as the lesser evil, but this comment about finding true intimacy really struck home. Separating truth from grace and grace from truth is not just a theological error; it is also a practical error of the most serious kind. In a sense, we cannot find true love unless there is truth in love. This takes me back to the beginning of the gospel of John: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Simple words, profound impact.

• Have you experienced loveless truth?
• Have you experienced truth-blind love?
• Have you experienced the qualitative difference?

Christian Counseling

My wife handed me my academic record thingy from Morling College this morning. It has finally arrived. So I opened it and seems Ive earned a distinction for my first semester's work in Foundations of Christian Counseling. Not bad for a first effort methinks. Feeling quietly chuffed. :-)

Oh, I should mention if I haven't already that I have taken the next counseling subject this semester, as I am looking at transferring from the Graduate Diploma of Divinity across to the Graduate Diploma in Christian Counseling.

Counseling and different models for change

Well, this is the final entry for my reflective journal before I submit it for examination.

In finishing off transactional analysis and Egan stage III on Tuesday I took note of the comment, "The instinctive pull is often the wrong one." This takes me back to discussions I've been having with others online over the past week about the limitations of purely intuition based approaches in local mission. An interesting synchronicity. Maybe what I need to work on developing is more of a reverse intuition; a sense for what feels wrong in a right kind of way.

This transactional analysis approach speaks to me on so many levels cause I can now see the dynamics in so many of my personal relationships. Putting it into practice, not reacting to the transition crosses, is the hard part.

So, now were on to some alternative models for facilitating change: attachment theory and development theory. I haven't finished reading all the handouts yet but so far am finding them equally fascinating. Attachment theory has some really wonderful things to say about the healing power of relationships, of just providing warmth and contact and companionship. Of course it also has some pretty horrible things to say about the trauma ripping those things apart causes, but the thing that has struck me is how just bonding with others is inherently healing. It causes me to pause and reflect: how deeply do I truly understand my relationships? There's a magic in them that transcends understanding. It's like a Mandelbrot set, the more I look, the more I find.

Note: This thread, College Reflections, is to be submitted for assessment as part of my coursework in The Foundations of Christian Counseling at Morling College at the end of Semester 1, 2007. If you would like to speak to me about issues I raise in this thread, but are concerned about privacy, please email me privately  instead of leaving a public comment.