Christian living

Rise of the Christian Ideologue

Lisa SpencerLeave a comment

I don’t think any Christian would want the claim of an ideologue. But as I observed discourse in the past several years related to social and political engagement, unfortunately I do believe there is a place where this happens.

What is a Christian ideologue? According to Webster’s dictionary, an ideologue is “an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.” Another definition: an impractical idealist; theorist. So here is my working definition;

A Christian ideologue is one whose Christian faith is so entwined with a particular social or political paradigm that becomes the chief lens and expression of Christian faith and judges how life should be according to this lens. The Christian ideologue is drawn to earthly solutions and sees them as the vehicle for Christian solutions. 

Now in fairness, I don’t think anyone who claims Christ as Savior and Lord, who submits to the authority of Scripture, and strives to live a faithful Christian life, signs up to be an ideologue. Rather, I see it as something happening over time, drip by drip, precept by precept, until a captivation has occurred. Continue reading →

On checking boxes and bible reading plans

Lisa SpencerLeave a comment

I confess, I have a love-hate relationship with checking boxes. On one hand, it gives a sense of accomplishment as I find with the logistics of event planning I have to do for my job. And who doesn’t love checking off that fun item from their bucket list?

But on the other hand, it’s a symbol of routine, something that needs to be done even though we’d rather not do it. Sadly, I held this perspective when it comes to Bible reading plans. So I wanted to share my own journey and change of heart, not as a prescription, but hopefully encouragement to those who share similar views.

I’ve been a student of Scripture for many, many years. From day one, back as a freshman in college in 1982 when I came to Christ, no one had to tell me to read the Bible. Before I even knew 2 Timothy 3:16, I instinctively knew that the Bible is how we learn about God, his character, his work, and his commands. Unfortunately, after a few years of zealous following, I embarked on a 13 year rebellious period from 1986-1999 (more about that here). When the Lord drew this prodigal home, the very first thing I did was go directly to the Bible. I even went to seminary in 2008 and earned a ThM!

So I write this as one who has a firm, strong commitment to learning Scripture, to knowing what thus has said the Lord. In the past 15 years, or so, I’ve had the conviction that knowing the narrative of Scripture is just as much, if not more, important, than random Bible versus. The compilation of 66 books tell a cohesive story of God’s creation, his plan for it, and rescue of it through his Son. We learn what salvation means! So I’ve been a strong advocate for understanding Scripture in context of each book, its genre and where it fits into the redemptive-historical narrative. Continue reading →

Some encouragement for 2025

Lisa SpencerLeave a comment

Despite my best intentions of keeping up with regular writings in this space, I have now come to the end of the year without posting anything since the beginning of the year. A few weeks ago, I had started on an end of year reflection and hope to have that out soon. But in the meantime, this quote struck me as  something to seriously reflect on as we head towards a new year.

As I’ve finished up another chronological reading plan, naturally the year ends on the book of Revelation. I decided it would be good to read through Triumph of the Lamb by Dennis Johnson. I love how the commentary is written in a narrative style and is so doxologically rich. As I wrote here several years ago, my perspective on the book of Revelation has changed drastically. I no longer see it as a chronological rendering, where are events and times are literal telling of what will happen in a defined end period of time that includes a pre-tribulation rapture and seven year tribulation period. Rather, I see the rich symbolism pointing out cycles of activity and judgements, the forward movement of Christ’s church amid cosmic tensions, turmoil and outright opposition, and Jesus’ ultimate triumph to bring everything back to the right order as was intended from the beginning of Genesis.

Regardless of your interpretation, one thing should be crystal clear–Jesus is at the heart of it. He wins! This is after all “a revelation of Christ” given to John about God’s ultimate outworking of his creation. I’m actually coming to the conclusion that ending the year with this reading, regardless of the reading plan, is a worthy endeavor especially as I observe the landscape of our current culture and it’s pulls on the Christian faith in varying ways. Continue reading →

We are all human afterall

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Well it’s been several months since I’ve written but nothing like a controversial movie to draw me back to the keyboard. I initially had no interest in seeing it, Barbie the Movie. The thought of it just struck me as lame and trite. And seeing ladies going out in droves decked out in pick was even more of a turnoff, to be honest.

Then the negative reviews came: it was a feminist screed that made men look like morons. Ok, I definitely don’t want to see that. It’s not that I don’t have any interest related to feminism (or rather women given full validity for who they are and what they bring to the table). That certainly shouldn’t come at the expense of bashing or belittling males.  No thanks.

But then I saw something interesting, from pastors I respect, none the less–commentary that suggested maybe something was missed in the easy target of pro-feminism. But it was reading this review from Amy Peeler, aptly named, Neither Ken nor Barbie, that piqued my interest. Now that I’ve actually seen the movie, I don’t think I could write a better review or rather a better interpretation of it. Because really, every review and commentary can get the facts about a movie right, but not necessarily interpret it’s meaning according to what it was intended to convey.

Now in full disclosure, I have not read any interview with Greta Gerwig  and what she intended. But Peeler does note that there is an explicit nod to the Genesis narrative, but reversed to make a point about men and women’s interdependence on one another.  Let me expound on this a bit to convey an important message I believe the movie was making. Continue reading →

Freedom that’s really free

Lisa Spencer1 Comment

There has been a lot of mention of freedom in recent years. There are those who tout the concept in relation to liberation of black people as if the shackles of slavery and Jim Crow still pull weight on the flourishing of black and brown people. They’ll speak of the persistent oppression that must be exorcised and prescribe remedies for this to happen: equitable policies, reparations, just policing, etc. They will conclude this is a freedom worth fighting for.

Then there is the freedom granted to us Americans in our Constitution, particular the freedom of Christian expression and to live in a pluralistic society without encumbrances  to Christianity.  Some will even argue that this freedom was packaged in our Christian founding as a nation and we shouldn’t relent to preserve it under the rubric of promoting a moral and just society. They will conclude this a freedom worth fighting for.

And while there can be merit (not to mention some challenges) in each of these “freedom” fights, I am struck by the freedom spoken of in Scripture, particularly in the book of Galatians.

It is for freedom that Christ set you free…(Gal. 5:1)

We would do a disservice to this simple passage by imposing the above categories as if Paul is making room for our contemporary concerns. Rather, his statement must be considered in the context of what he is addressing in this book. And I think it’s pretty important in light of these temporal areas that seem to get so much attention today. Because, if we’re not careful, we’ll allow the  the freedom that referenced here rises far above. Continue reading →