A $10.00 investment recoups memories June 23, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Uncategorized , add a commentWe were at a friends moving sale a couple weeks ago and I bought one of their old computers for 10.00, mainly because it had an “a” drive for floppy disks.
When we first moved to Estes Park, almost all my pix were on 35mm and we had them put on floppys, so we have been enjoying some of the lost photo series
Above the treeline, about 13, 200 ft.
Slip and its sudden death
Near Rainbow Curve
Tundra in Summer
Two Miles High
Mom’s recovery June 1, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : Uncategorized , add a commentI just wanted to take a second and thank all those people who prayed for my mom after she broke her hip Memorial Day.
She had surgery on Wednesday and was released to rehab on Friday. She is 85 years old. Sounds like answered prayer to me! To God Alone be the glory!
Me and mom 5/24
My son and mom 5/24
Amazing Jets March 5, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : Government, Uncategorized , add a comment|
http://wcbstv.com/slideshows/jet.fighter.fighterjet.20.228729.html?rid=0# |
A thanks to Reformedblogs ! February 11, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : Media, Uncategorized , 1 comment so farI have read a few complaints lately from bloggers on reformedblogs.com and was quite disappointed in the lack of appreciation from Christians for this service being provided to us at no charge.
I just wanted to say, “thank you”. I do appreciate the forum you provide.
John Balliet
Chain letter reply- The italics are words I changed January 15, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Uncategorized , add a commentHello, my name is John and I suffer from the guilt of not forwarding 50 billion freaking chain letters sent to me by people who actually believe that if you send them on, a poor 6-year-old girl in Arkansas with a breast on her forehead will be able to raise enough money to have it removed before her redneck parents sell her to a traveling freak show.Do you honestly believe that Bill Gates is going to give you, and everyone to whom you send “his” email, $1000?
How stupid are we?
“Ooooh , looky here! If I scroll down this page and make a wish, I’ll get laid by a model I just happen to run into the next day!”
What a bunch of bullcrap.
Maybe the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my house and sodomize me in my sleep for not continuing a chain letter that was started by Peter in 5 AD and brought to this country by midget pilgrims on the Mayflower.
PLuck ‘em.
If you’re going to forward something, at least send me something mildly amusing. I’ve seen all the “send this to 10 of your closest friends, and this poor, wretched excuse for a human being will somehow receive a nickel from some omniscient being” forwards about 90 times.
I don’t freaking care.
Show a little intelligence and think about what you’re actually contributing to by sending out these forwards. Chances are, it’s our own unpopularity.
The point being? If you get some chain letter that’s threatening to leave you shagless or luckless for the rest of your life, delete it. If it’s funny, send it on.
Don’t piss people off by making them feel guilty about a leper in Botswana with no teeth who has been tied to the ass of a dead elephant for 27 years and whose only salvation is the 5 cents per letter he’ll receive if you forward this email.
Now forward this to everyone you know.
Otherwise, tomorrow morning your underwear will turn carnivorous and will consume your genitals.
Have a nice day.
P.S. Send me 15 bucks
——————————————————————————–
Violence, like it or not, is indispensable to societal order January 12, 2008
Posted by reformedville in : culture, Government, Uncategorized , add a comment
New Secretary-General of the UN mistakenly calls current demand for peacekeeping unprecedented. Rather, the acquiescence to such demand is without precedent. Countries and tribes always clashed; civil and border wars are historical routine. Competition in power is the only way for international readjustments. Twenty-first century borders are no more fixed or eternal than the first-century ones. No country or tribe willingly gives away land or influence, but only in war or under a threat.
Peacekeeping operations proved utter failure: at most, the empires arbitrarily redraw the borders to everyone’s discontent; usually, they only quash the violence and leave the fundamental problems to boil and eventually erupt. Frequent small clashes are replaced with huge bloody wars. Violence, like it or not, is indispensable to societal order. Would the US government like the UN peacekeepers to stop IRS from repressing tax evaders?
The losing parties and weak, unsupported governments appeal for international help in preserving status quo. That could not work. They already lost, and foreigners could not sustain the obsolete order of things. Losers want the UN-brokered “conflict management,” but the ascending parties disagree. History knows a single way of managing conflicts: fighting them or threatening to do so.
Pax Romana offers a different lesson. Rome wasn’t merely an arbiter, but the only power in its zone of influence. If the West wants to pacify the Earth, it needs to substantially disarm the vassals. That is incompatible with economic objectives of major arms exporters which are incidentally the major peacekeepers. Also, Rome did not routinely involve itself in minor conflicts between the vassals. Dependent rulers were expected to deal with local threats, and allowed to do so by any means, short reportedly of disgusting long-term cruelty: Romans did not want accumulated discontent among the peoples and preferred reasonable rulers. In modern terms, that means allowing civil wars to run their course but adjudicating border conflicts. The West, unlike Rome, is not prepared to exert exemplary punishment on the countries which violate the imposed peace. Short of such resolve, the UN peace efforts would continue to be futile.
Ki-Moon takes a dangerous approach when says that no country alone could solve the crises like in Darfur or Kosovo, and pronounces them UN responsibility. It seems that UN, typically for a bureaucratic organization, appropriates for itself spheres of influence regardless of its ability to deal with them. The UN is worthless and could be responsible for nothing. NATO, not UN, quashed the Yugoslavian crisis. UN peacekeepers are notoriously lame - witness Sinai and Lebanon, among other places.
Should the UN perhaps stop large atrocities? It could not stop the Iran-Iraq war or Rwanda massacres. Even Darfur region is too big to be passively policed, and peacekeepers are not paid to fight guerrillas. The bigger question is, whom to fight? Who are the perpetrators and who are the victims? Conflicts are almost always entangled, with both sides intermittently committing atrocities against each other. If the UN steps in to stop large conflicts, then everyone would understand that the proper strategy is to start a war and quickly beat opponents before the UN intervenes and stops them from retaliating.
Saddam’s execution in the hands of Shiites showed that even simple attempts at establishing the rule of law often benefit one side in tribal or sectarian conflict. Moralists cause wars, not establish peace.
Plan B -Chuck E Cheese December 31, 2007
Posted by reformedville in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farPlan B worked out much better than Plan A.-Hershey Park-freezing rain.
CJ
CJ & Chuck E Cheese
CJ and Madison
My kids
3 generations
16 bells December 21, 2007
Posted by reformedville in : Uncategorized , add a comment|
16 years of marriage |
Never Call Them Jerks: October 12, 2007
Posted by reformedville in : Uncategorized , add a commentHealthy Responses to Difficult Behavior
by Arthur Paul Boer
Excerpt from Arthur Paul Boer’s Never Call Them Jerks: Healthy Responses to Difficult Behavior
A man drove through an unfamiliar neighborhood that he considered shady. Its residents were of a different race and class than he. And sure enough, as soon as he drove down the first block (having carefully locked his doors), he noticed that people on the sidewalks were yelling and gesturing at him as he drove along. The further he drove, the more outraged and outrageous their angry communication sounded. This behavior confirmed all that he had suspected and disliked about “these kind of people.”
But then he realized he had been driving the wrong way down a one-way street! People were trying to draw his attention to his unsafe wrong-way driving. If only he had paid more attention to his own actions!
It is tempting to blame or feel attacked by others, to assume that others or their behavior are our problem, to believe that our well-being or peace of mind could be assured if only others would cooperate. All that we have studied shows us that ultimately we are primarily responsible only for ourselves.
Appropriate Focus on Self
Focusing on and blaming other people and claiming the role of victim is an insidious form of anxiety. While we may recognize the difficult behavior of parishioners, leaders often play this game too. Pastors tell many martyrdom stories. I know, because I have often done so. [Alban Sr. Consultant] Speed Leas believes that when a terminated “pastor places blame entirely on other persons or groups,” he or she shows a major sign of interpersonal incompetence.1
Seeing oneself as a victim inhibits growth. We refuse responsibility and attribute blame elsewhere. With such an attitude, we block our capacity to grow. Moreover, when we regard ourselves as victims, we often act destructively and hurt ourselves more. But life does not have to be this way. We can make choices. We do not have to remain mired in the past. Bad and malicious things may happen to good people, but we must make choices about what we do with those events.
The flip side of victim behavior is to see others as enemies. Focusing on others indicates fusion rather than differentiation; it assumes that the other controls our reactions and emotions. In family therapy, focusing on others is not helpful or productive. Seeing others as enemies is a way of blaming them when our hopes or ideals are not met.
A victim mentality and an other-focused outlook are anxious and irresponsible. They often involve triangling: A victim/martyr complains to a rescuer about the persecutor. Rather than look to others, we should more appropriately examine ourselves.
Leas encourages us to analyze what we gain from conflict. Why are we in it? What is my role? This difficult work may require the help of a therapist or a close, trusted friend. We need to ask ourselves what the payoff is for us in this conflict. Why do we keep it going? Perhaps because we cannot bear to see a relationship end, we stay in a conflictural relationship. Perhaps we do not know or believe that there can be anything better than a conflicted relationship. Women who return to abusive marriages may feel that being in a relationship is more important than not being hurt. Perhaps we enjoy seeing others as villains. Perhaps we enjoy exerting power…
Rather than act like victims or complain about enemies or oppressors, we can make the choice to grow and change. One of the most important lessons we can learn in relational difficulties is that we can not change or control others. We are capable only of changing ourselves and caring for ourselves. By refusing to expect others to change, we take away one more anxiety-inducer.
Our work is not complete until we understand how we contribute to undesirable situations and how our behavior can be changed.
Reorienting Our Perspectives
One great challenge in appropriately focusing on ourselves also involves taking responsibility for our attitude toward others and their behavior. Beware of concluding too quickly that the beloved (or not-so-beloved) antagonist in your church is pathological. Have you made every effort to understand what makes an adversary “tick” and why he or she acts out?
Once I was preoccupied with how a certain church family treated me. I could not let go of the memories of what that family did. Worried about my anger and resentment, I wondered whether I was getting stuck in bitterness. Alas, I could not try to forget these people because I drove by their house every day! (Avoiding it would have meant adding unnecessary miles to my daily driving.)
At a conference with church consultant John Savage, I had a meal with him and shared my dilemma. He led me through a simple exercise by asking these questions: Can you describe how you perceive them? Can you describe how they perceive the world, you, and others in church? Can you describe how others perceive them? Such distancing perspectives help us to be more objective and less reactive…
The Need for Self-Examination
Being differentiated means taking responsibility for oneself and staying focused on oneself. When we feel as though we are the uncomfortable focus for others’ difficult behavior, out temptation is to focus on others and blame them for troubles. But the challenge is for us to work on our own growth and self-awareness.
We must ask ourselves whether in fact we are the cause of the problems… When we encounter disruptive behavior or our emotionality is rising, the first thing we need to do is pay attention to ourselves.
We can grow more self-aware by paying attention to those whose behavior we label “difficult.” They tell us more about ourselves than anything else. We need to ask, “What is it about this behavior that pushes my buttons? Does it remind me of someone who troubled me in the past? Am I afraid I may be or become like them?”
Early in my years as a pastor, I got into a fierce conflict with a parishioner. My therapist kept asking an irritating question: “Why do this person’s actions bothers you so much?” I was annoyed because it seemed obvious what was troublesome. Would not anyone be bothered by it? In fact, no. Something in my composition was unsettled by behavior that did not necessarily bother others. The challenge was for me to learn and grow.
Just as we try to turn critics into teachers, even the most difficult behavior can become a learning experience. People who behave in a difficult manner can teach us. As we understand ourselves and others better, we can grow in compassion.
Preoccupation with certain parishioners is an alarm signal that it may be time to seek help. Others include sleeplessness (especially that caused by preoccupation with the problem), talking incessantly about the situation with family or friends, depression, anger, indecisiveness, fatigue, weight gain or loss, fearfulness. All these are signs that something is amiss and that is may be appropriate to enter therapy. Self-awareness can be increased by conversations with trusted friends, supervision from a mentor, participation in a supervised clinical experience, work with a peer group, or sessions with a spiritual director…
Warning Signs and Perceptions
While the need for self-awareness cannot be overstated, I do not advocate or recommend naive navel-gazing. A savvy leader pays attention to what is going on and may notice early warning signs of trouble ahead.
Often an early sign of serious unhappiness is a dramatic change in the involvement of an active member. John Savage’s work as a consultant began first with his study of inactive, bored, and apathetic members who withdrew for a host of reasons. People start on the dropout track after an anxiety-provoking event (which may or may not be church-related).
Next, they signal their anxiety in some way. If the signal is not responded to, then they display anger in the form of either apathy or boredom. Next, they withdraw. After their withdrawal, a six-to-eight-week period of opportunity remains when it is still possible to connect with such folk and help them to re-engage with the church.2
If someone’s pattern of participation changes dramatically, the pastor or some other church caregiver needs to respond promptly. (Keeping track of Sunday attendance is one way to detect changes in attendance patterns.)cWhen people start to withdraw, they are already indicating some possible anxiety. Thus how we deal with them is important. By asking sincere and interested questions and showing interest in the other’s situation, one can have a calming effect…
Withdrawing from church can be a passive-aggressive way of dealing with hostility or anger. Rather than confronting directly, members withdraw. In heavily enmeshed churches or in small “single-cell” congregations, withdrawal is sometimes used as a threat to get the group to behave according to the disgruntled person’s wishes. In the small churches I have worked with, the worry that someone might leave has consistently been one of people’s greatest fears.
While we need to connect with and visit those who withdraw or threaten to withdraw, we must be firm with such tactics. To cave in to ultimatums about leaving is to err on the side of fusion rather than moving in the healthier direction of differentiation. Differentiation includes the ability to let others go.
There can be good, healthy reasons to withdraw. That is another reason why follow-up “exit interviews” are helpful. Until we check with someone, Daniel Bagby suggests, we cannot know why they left, whether the reason is healthy or not, or whether they might come back…
There are other danger signs that we might note: decline in financial giving, strident positions taken by key people, rumors of dissatisfaction, circulation of petitions, anonymous letters of complaint posted on bulletin boards or sent to the church office, lobbying efforts for the pastor’s dismissal, and the snubbing of one parishioner by another.3
Warning signs are all only alarm signals or “presenting problems”; i.e., symptoms of problems. They alert us that problems exist and need to be addressed.
It is not enough to pay attention to what we perceive or think is happening. It is important to test perceptions with reality checks. When one family stopped attending, I wondered whether they were angry about something. Perhaps so, but my anxieties were allayed when I learned that they now attended a Mennonite church much nearer their home, a church that had children in the same age range as their own children.
There are several reasons to check perceptions. For one, perceptions are often self-fulfilling. Too often what we think we see is what we end up getting, and our perceptions helped make this possible. Not only our perceptions but also our reactive descriptions and language can become self-fulfilling.
Another reason to check perceptions is that even with our facts right, it is notoriously easy to get our perceptions and interpretations wrong. So often dissent, unhappiness, and anger are expressed in ambiguous ways. Pastors are often not especially good at interpreting symptoms. Early in my pasturing, my mood would swing up or down with Sunday-morning attendance. I assumed that each Sunday’s attendance (never mind holidays, vacations, illnesses, and travel) was a commentary on me. It took me a long time to convince myself that routine fluctuations in attendance are not about the pastor.
As you see warning signs, remember not to be caught up in the anxiety-provoking potentials of specific details. Rather, look at the congregation as a system, and study what the warning signs tell you about the system as a whole.
A systems approach reminds us not to take everything personally. When our Sunday attendance swelled by 40 percent, I was tempted to take credit. When, a few years later, attendance returned to approximately its former size, I was tempted to take the blame. Systems analysis showed that the reduction in size was a homeostatic response. A major conflict immediately after the increased attendance was a mechanism to regulate our size. Systems perspectives call us to look not so much at the specifics of what seems wrong as to understand why this incident happened now. While our church needed to address the conflict, the conflict was part of a larger systemic picture…
More than ever, when difficult signs loom on the horizon, leaders need to take the stance of researchers, trying to understand the situation. The very process of trying to understand, a “research stance,” calms down the whole system. Simply asking questions helps everyone to get away from emotionality and reactivity. The purpose is to move us away from our instinctual and unthinking emotive reactions.
Self-Care
We are subject to many demands and expectations, internal and external. Without proper self-care and a strong sense of direction, we are in deep, deep trouble.
A leader’s work is stressful. That is a given. What is not given is how we choose to respond to it. Stress taxes us, but responsible professional clergy will be mindful of good ways to care for themselves.
Self-care is particularly important in relation to the subject at hand because dealing with difficult behavior and intense conflict can be especially draining. Health and stability should not be assumed or taken for granted. It is imperative that pastors practice self-care to protect their ability to continue being empathic in their work. This is particularly important when we feel attacked by difficult behavior. When I spoke to Henri Nouwen about some of my frustrations in pasturing, he bluntly said: “If people are using you, find your center.”…
In the face of difficult behavior and conflict in the congregation, several elements are crucial for a pastor’s self-preservation and care.
- Have clear job descriptions and get expectations out on the table. Many churches operate without clearly stated expectations. It is a pastor’s responsibility to get expectations named and negotiated.
- Maintain good family relationships and clear communication. Do family-of-origin work if you have not done so before.
- Keep good and open working relationships with officers and informal leaders in the congregation and with fellow staff.
- Nurture friendships outside the congregation so that you are not wholly dependent on the church for socializing and support.
- Take regular vacations. Many pastors do not take even the vacation time to which they are entitled!
- Meet with peers, either in your denomination or ecumenically, for prayer, sharing, or recreation.
- Build a support system when things are calm: I have found that this task is more difficult during crises…
- Keep a fresh perspective by engaging in further study or continuing education.
- Nurture your spiritual life: Pray regularly, see a spiritual director, and go on retreats.
- Get regular exercise.
- Keep plenty of options open, both for how you act in the church and for moving elsewhere if necessary. We act more calmly when we have more options…
- Relax and get new perspectives through hobbies, art, recreation, and music.
- If things feel overwhelming, see a therapist.
- If the church seems overwhelming, bring in an outside consultant.
- Find safe places to listen to yourself: with a friend, on a walk, during prayer.
- We also need a sense of mission to motivate and direct us, especially when things are not going well. It helps us deal with failures, risk failures, and make corrections when we fail, and it gives us the freedom to change and try new things.4
Self-care is vital in dealing with difficult behavior in the congregation. It keeps us vital and versatile as we face various changes.
Nourishing a Relationship with God
At bottom, the problem of difficult behavior is a spiritual issue and calls us to care for our own relationship with God.
During a devastating church conflict, I relearned something I had always claimed to know: I came to a deep realization of God’s love. Such a rediscovery may sound strange. After all, as a pastor, I am supposed to be an expert in God’s love: proclaiming it to others and knowing it in my own life…
Much of my early ministry was based in something other than love. I worked hard to please God as if to win salvation. But ministry is a grateful response to God’s love. I do not need to win God’s love; I need only to live it.
I worked hard to win approval and affection from others. But the only ultimately important affection is God’s love, and that is already settled. It was achieved not by my merits but by God’s grace. Resting in God’s love, I detach myself from the traps of relying on the approval or affection of others. In doing so, I begin to love more freely and so am a better pastor. For a long time I prayed that my children would grow up to be disciples and that they would know joy in that service. Later, I added another petition: “May they always know that they are deeply loved by you.”
When I was four, I attended my first vacation Bible school. Ever since, I have been deeply aware of God’s relationship with me and have been conscientious about the faith. The song that I learned then, four decades ago, is one that I soon knew by heart, but whose message still nurtures me: “Jesus loves me! This I know.”
When I met Henri Nouwen years ago, I talked to him about an experience with burnout. He told me:
God is calling you to a deep spiritual life… Tenderness can destroy you because you can just be pulled apart, burn out, and the whole thing. But you can also be a mystic. That’s what you obviously have to be. To be a mystic, I don’t mean anything more than that God is the one who loves you deeply. And that’s what you have to trust. And keep trusting, keep trusting, keep trusting.
It seems ironic that my bitter failure better enabled my ministry. Perhaps I should not be surprised: Paul learned this long ago when the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
Arthur Paul Boer is a Mennonite pastor and writer. His work has appeared in publications including Reformed Worship, Christian Century, and Christianity Today. He is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology and Director of the Spiritual Formation Program at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.
Notes
1. Speed Leas, Should the Pastor Be Fired? How to Deal Constructively with Clergy-Lay Conflict (Washington, D.C.: The Alban Institute, 1980), p. 9.
2. John Savage, The Apathetic and Bored Church Member (Pittsford, N.Y.: LEAD Consultants, 1976), pp. 68-69.
3. Leas. Should the Pastor Be Fired?, pp. 5ff.
4. Ronald A. Heifetz, Leadership Without Easy Answers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), p. 273.
RELIGIOUS HUMANISM, PSYCHO BABBLE, AND THE SELF ESTEEM CULT. October 4, 2007
Posted by reformedville in : Uncategorized , 2commentsIt seems that the Church has been waylaid. She has been seduced. A time is coming when she will go up for witness before kings and rulers. The afterwards her Bridegroom is coming for her. But our would-be bride, the Church in the west, doesn’t seem to care. She is too busy “relating” to herself, looking in the mirror and spending much time and money with her high priests of psychology. She is hard at work with her own agenda and formulating her own “purpose driven life”. The love she might have had for her Betrothed is now fading into the mists. Slowly and sadly the would-be Bride is drifting away from her Bridegroom. Are we seeing the beginnings of that prophesied ‘great falling away’ from the faith? Let us hope not.
Most Christians are indifferent to this impending drama. They take the current comfortable situation for granted. They think nothing will change. Church to them has become a psycho-religious smorgasbord. It is “all about me”. And so they do not want to be disturbed by anything too challenging. They sideline the Great Commission and consider the way of the cross “negative”. They are inclined to characterize these basic Christian mandates as “negative” or “exclusivist” . They also imagine that their great and unprecedented prosperity worship party will go on and bring them into world dominion. But it cannot. And it will not. (See Daniel chapters 7 and 12)
Most Christians are ignorant of Israel’s history, Church history, and European history. They are quite unaware of what God has done so far with His covenant people. There is, in fact, an information war being conducted against the Word of God. Few have sought the face of God and done their homework in the Holy Scriptures to inform themselves of what He intends to do, even through them, in times to come. They do not understand blood covenant. Nor do they realize that a bride is more than just a purchased concubine. A true bride will always be a witness to her Bridegroom. The ‘post-modern church’ has almost completely neglected the call to blood covenant devotion. The popular Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine is a case in point. It says in effect, “Don’t worry. We’re outta here”. This is a doctine of abandonment and desertion. And yet this faithless and unscriptural doctrine has now become the established dogma in the evangelical family. Is this because it is scripturally true? No. It is because it is popular with the Christian masses. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture media industry has now become a multi billion dollar a year religi-business.
This is a shameful thing. In essence this Pre-Tribulation Resurrection/Rapture doctrine is an escapist eschatology pure and simple. The established Western Church has laid out a “cut and run” agenda for themselves in the end time just like the sailors in the shipwreck of the Apostle Paul. The Church is not being informed of the reality of the true end time bridal witness. They are drifting among the narcissus flowers on their way towards another “Great Disappointment”. But Christians are not being warned to turn away from this great doctinal error. Nor are they being properly prepared and built up in the faith for their witness in times to come. This is a very real concern. This critical weakness and vulnerability of the Western Church is precisely what Miss Corrie Ten Boom has warned us about.
Christians today have a significant attention deficit when it comes to the Holy Scriptures. They don’t want to be “hassled” or bothered by any teaching on “deep” issues . But they do not have ADD. (Does that mean “Acute Discipline Deficit”?) When it comes right down to it they are like a teenager distracted by their own personal video game. They are in fact quite capable of focussing in on their own “purpose driven life”. All too often, that “purpose” is drawn up by “me, myself, and I”.
“Self esteem” is the new mantra for Christians in the west. Let us put the boogeyman of “secular humanism” aside for a moment. That spirit is an obvious enemy. We can all see it. But the new god inside the Western Church is subtle and far more sinister. Like a serpent in the Church the spirit of religious humanism is slithering along the pews. It has now installed itself inside the Church.
Religious humanism is more dangerous than secular humanism. It is dangerous because it is unrecognized. The western Church has been taken over by a quasi-christian pop psychology. And that psychology is essentially godless. It is ruled over by a man centered humanistic Luciferian selfism. That is why western Christians are in a moral tailspin. And it explains why Christians are now actually more amoral/immoral than non-Christians.
But the Church feels good about herself. So she is unaware of this. Church today is less a place of worship and Bible study than an entertainment center. And the pew has been slowly and insidiously transformed into a couch for a churchy form of group psychotherapy. The Western Church is pouring out her heart to her new champions, the gods and goddesses of psycho-ministry. They listen carefully to discover what she wants. Then they taylor their church ministry accordingly. The church attendee loves this. The psycho-Church knows her needs! They are in touch with her feelings. And the Church leaders are so nice. They agree with everything she says!
The new post-modern psycho-church has downgraded the scriptures. In place of sound doctrine we now have a host of programs for personal development. But these “self help” and motivational programs neglect the basic tenets of the faith. In an age of “unity” and “tolerance” sound Biblical teachings are often deemed “divisive”. So they are dropped from the church program. We do not hear much about the Great Commission, holiness, and the high calling in Christ. Nor do we hear much about the necessity of the “final witness” of the Church in the end time. This has been neglected in favor of programs that pander to an empty narcissism. The western Church has been eating the poisoned apple of false psycho-religion. Now she has gone to sleep. Like the Lady of Shalott she is slowly and sadly drifting down the river towards Camelot/Babylon.