Author: Lisa Spencer

A Sure Word (Pt 1)

Lisa Spencer7 Comments

Deere and SamraIn working through my thesis, I’m interacting with some popular level books that advocate seeking the voice of God, hearing God speak regarding whatever dilemma we are facing or just to give encouragement or direction. And this seems right to so many because we ARE in relationship with the living God who continues to move by the Holy Spirit, right? Well not so fast.

I’m addressing the fact that God already spoke through Scripture and explaining why that is so. Of course, we need to define what it means for God to speak, which is his verbal revelation. Whatever propositional knowledge of himself he wanted to convey, has been conveyed progressively through the Old Testament as he spoke through word and historical acts in establishing a covenantal relationship with his people. Both word and deed get accomplished through the Son, through whom the words of the Old Testament are validated and the New Testament explains.

But I’m also reminded of the fact that we do face uncertainty, difficulty, confusion or fear. We do face times of doubt and discouragement. Being in relationship with an invisible God can cause us to ache for the tangible. We are humans after all.

So many do what these writers I’m interacting with advocate, seeking out that tangible need in he form of soft whispers or signs, words of comfort and affirmation that we long to hear.  Somehow the Bible seems deficient and words spoken by others meet the needs of the immediate, especially when there is a claim attached to it that the Lord has spoken. Who doesn’t want a word right now for what we are going through? Continue reading →

Where is your boast?

Lisa Spencer3 Comments

blurry_visionAs my seminary excursion is headed for a close  next semester, I find myself with an increased inability to describe exactly how these past five years have been. Juxtaposed to new friendships, great opportunities of learning and rich fellowship has been some pretty intense personal upheaval. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if I had a picture of how rocked my boat would have been I probably would have stayed anchored in Rhode Island. It has been the best of times and the worst of times.

Disappointments, failure, broken dreams, uncertainty, unanswered prayers.

While I am immensely appreciative of the shake down I received to cut loose some long-held baggage, it’s left me a bit shaken. Shaken in my ability to make sound choices, shaken in certainty of my direction. An unfortunate employment situation has left me even more shaken in my confidence in my abilities. Shaken as a face unemployment, downgrading my resume and trading off some long held components for something else more suitable, hopefully aligned with seminary pursuits. Maybe I’m not as smart, or articulate or as accomplished as I thought. I’m walking that fine line between critical evaluation and crashing confidence. Surely, I have much to offer but also wanting to be honest.

And I cry to the Lord, ‘what has all this been about? Why is there so much uncertainty so close to graduation? Why all this loss and failure? Where are you taking me? Why have you not answered my many prayers, turned things around by now and restored the years the locust have eaten?’ I weep. I grope. I question. I battle feeling like a loser.

But the one place I find solid ground is the resting place in Christ.  I’m learning this is where I win, because he already won.  In my imperfection, I can rest on His perfection that yields fruit over time. In my uncertainty, I can hope in his certainty that the Father knows exactly what is going on and exactly what he is doing and exactly how this will work out. I can only see through a very dim glass that at times has fogged to minimal visibility. But at the same time with clearer vision. Continue reading →

Governance and Ghostbusters

Lisa Spencer2 Comments

Stay-puft-marshmallow-manI’m going to attempt to briefly sketch out a thought I had in the aftermath of the Strange Fire conference, which frankly I’m quite tired of hearing about. And just when you think the fire has died down, up pops little brush fires here and there. Anyways, bear with me for a minute while I sketch this out and explain where I’m going with the title. And to be clear, I’m merely using Strange Fire as an example to leverage a broader thought on this issue. I personally don’t think there’s anything further that can be said about the conference itself. Let sleeping dogs…you know the rest.

I came across this document the other day, which was a statement issued by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in 1975 titled A Pastoral Letter Concerning the Experience of the Holy Spirit in the Church Today. Not only did it affirm my position on cessationism, but I also appreciated the leniency that was provided to those who hold a differing position. It also busts those persistent caricatures of cessationist that keep getting regurgitated no matter how many attempts to correct are made.

But even more compelling to me was the fact that it was issued by the governing body of this denomination. Now, I’ve been in the PCA for only a year and have tried to read up as much as I can on its history and particulars, which gives some more details from the church history courses I’ve taken in seminary. The transition into the PCA was a few years in the making, though I didn’t really realize it until last year. And I say “in the making” because of increasing disconnects that I was having with independent, non-denominational and Bible churches I’ve been apart of and also some theological wrestling. The disconnect had to do with on one hand, seriously examining the nature and purpose of the church, and on the other seeing incompatibilities with and her actions towards the very people she was designed to serve. As I wrote about here, the pragmatic and experience driven nature of independent churches in general (I’m sure there are exceptions) seemed to turn these  microcosms into their own little machine, navigating through a maze of strategic planning and latest thoughts on how this church thing is supposed to work with little accountability. Continue reading →

Does Calling-Out Apologetics Really Work?

Lisa Spencer5 Comments

Well I don’t know if that is an actual apologetic category, but as I’ve watched internet discussions ignite over John MacArthur’s Strange Fire conference and its polemics against Charismatics, I’ve been reflecting more broadly on this approach of using a conference platform as a polemic against certain teaching. And in this case, its against a broad swatch of folks who identify as Charismatic, some of whom are genuinely orthodox. Rightfully, they are really hurt by this approach. In my opinion, the approach is problematic more so than the content, which I pretty much agree with.  It’s not so much that there is some strange doctrine and practice that needs to be addressed.  For the abuses on the fringe that are deceiving a lot of people, yes absolutely. And the pushback I’ve heard validating this kind of approach is that false teaching needs to be called out.

To be fair, I’ve engaged in this myself when shai linne released Fal$e Teacher$. He called some prosperity/WoF folks out specifically by name. It was bold but got much support from people who agreed with him. And I did, so I chimed in here and pepper my blog from time to time with the intent to demonstrate that there is some teaching a lot of Christians are claiming as truth, is actually non-Christian.

man-shouting-megaphoneBut there’s a question that keeps popping up in my mind – are the ones who really need to hear this listening? You can blast false and distorted teaching all day, calling out its teachers. But those who adhere to the teaching are generally convinced of its truth. And I couldn’t help but think that this tactic probably has the opposite affect. The more you call out names and movements, the more its followers will probably tune out. What’s left is raising a megaphone to people who already agree with you. How fruitful is that, especially when unnecessary division has occurred because of failure to make proper distinctions? Continue reading →

Cessationism, Charismania and Criticism

Lisa Spencer16 Comments

shouting guys_anger managementMy heart was a bit heavy as I witnessed the blogosphere light up today over John MacArthur’s Strange Fire conference and the broad brush stroke polemics against Charismatics. I appreciated Michael Patton’s thoughts on the subject.

Now to be clear, I am not a Charismatic. But I used to be and commitedly so – third wave, direct experience (direct communication is better; we all should have some kind of experience), charged atmosphere, seeking signs and wonders (or what I thought were signs and wonders). But seven years ago I stepped away due to a challenge by a friend on the disjointed and fragmented way I was reading Scripture. As I studied and considered Scripture from a holistic perspective and learning how to read stuff in context, I transitioned into soft-cessationism. This was not due to any negative experience but as a result of a formulation of a robust view of the doctrine of Scripture and how God sufficiently spoke through it. In other words, when I considered how the 66 books fit together and pointed to God’s redemptive work through the Son and how everything pointed to him, it made me re-evaluate how I understood continuation of gifts, prophecy, hearing from God directly and an over-reliance on experiential phenomenon as proof of God’s Spirit at work.

It was not like I didn’t read the Bible, didn’t believe in essential Christian truths, or didn’t have a commitment to Christ’s church.  In fact, many in my circles genuinely loved the Lord, sought to serve and please him and recognized that he had paid the price for their life. Although, I went to extremes after my conversion away from Charismania, I came to rest in kind of a tense area.  In fact, I have said on a number of occasions, that I went from being a crazy charismatic to a crusty cessationist and now live in a place called tension.

Why tension? Because I discovered that there are actually thoughtful, well read and even scholarly Charismatics who believe in the authority of Scripture and allow it to interpret how to consider God’s work in the world today. I ran across guys like Wayne Grudem and Sam Storms, scholars, pastors and authors. I encountered Vineyard guys like Luke Geraty and others who took the Bible and discipline of theology serious. These folks are not the experience driven, ignore the Bible, anything goes step-child fringe that rightly deserves critique.  In Michael’s article, I appreciated his statement that you can’t judge all Charismatics by the ugly red-headed step children. Continue reading →