When Smart People answer Simple Questions

Process theology, as it appears to me, is the result of very smart people attempting to answer a question I have heard asked in innocence by much simpler, less well-trained minds:
Is God good?
Yes.
Is God strong?
Yes.
Is God stronger than the devil?
Yes.
Then if God is good and stronger than the devil why doesn’t God just kill the devil and be done with evil?
So we apply logic and human genius and presume to announce that God is . . .

Emerging church, as it appears to me, is the result of very sincere people beginning to see that behind and beyond and above all they have ever known is a God that loves them, and they come to believe they have discovered something so new that they must begin all over building the church from the ground up.
Emerging church…from where?
Who is building the church?
Where has the Builder been for 2,000 years?


Agreeable God! Never, ever says “No!” Grace for the asking, off-hand, even. God of excitement and good times. Who needs to study? Why split hairs over any doctrine? God of the beautiful, young and strong. Worship in cliché and celebration.
A caricature, perhaps, of homogenous worship.
But the challenge to sacrifice, to leave, and follow often is missing.

Old people like me-- who never have known anything but the church and hymns and scripture-- can and do get to thinking that while other Christian groups or understandings of the Way of salvation may stumble through because of grace, it is really WE who know the best. WE understand who God is and what God is REALLY “like.”

What all us sincere people have in common is the danger of “creating God in our image” . . . we know so much it is hard for God Himself to get through our (MY) dullness or ignorance or carnal pride or obscurantism to lead us onwaqrd and upward.
Elijah thought he was the last one left . . . and I sympathize--no, empathize with him in my weaker moments. I wonder what I can do to help my little corner of the church find its way.

Then I fall back into a promise
That if I can and do really believe that God IS
(not God is “like”, or God is “here”. Or God is (anything but God IS!)
..if I can believe God IS-- then I have a great gift! It is FAITH!
The rest of that promise is to take my gift of FAITH and diligently
Begin to SEEK God!

A very wise man and maybe one of the best preachers I ever knew said in a memorable sermon in a church I once pastored:
“I know God! Oh, I know God! He has saved me! He has forgiven my sins! God loves me!
“But sometimes it seems I hardly know Him at al!!”
He was saying that our lives are enriched as we seek God, seek to know Him and let Him know us to the depths of our beings.

I am concerned about many things. I want to do what I can to see God’s kingdom come and God’s will be done on earth. But I am convinced it begins and ends when people seek God diligently. It is so naïve to think thoughts like this, I know. But I’m beyond analyzing and seeking to provide answers. I need to know God. I want God to help me pray the Lord’s Prayer with you and with all who call Jesus “Lord”-- pray it all the way through!