An Open Letter to My Mormon Missionary Friends

Dear Elders,

Open letters are not my preferred method of communicating. They are usually not-so-clearly-disguised ways of humiliating an opponent publicly in a forum where he cannot easily defend himself. That is certainly not my purpose here. I write now as we spoke face to face—as friends.

In this case, an open letter seemed to be a helpful way to provoke future reflection and conversation, and especially to encourage my Christian friends to engage LDS missionaries and members with some potentially fruitful topics of discussion. Many of my friends feel that talking to you is a waste of time. I do not. Clarifying truth is never a waste of time, and I think we accomplished that to an extent. My hope is that others will do the same.

With that in view, here are a few high points from our discussions, as I recall them.

Test of a Prophet

Several times when we talked, you correctly pointed out that “It all comes down to whether Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.” This might raise some eyebrows among my Christian friends, but I would have no problem accepting Joseph Smith as a true prophet, provided that I am shown that he meets the same requirements that every prophet of God has always met. No prophet has ever been accepted solely on his own word. When Moses said, “Thus says Yahweh,” he backed up his claim with appropriate support. Even Jesus Himself saw it necessary to provide verification of His claim (see John 20:30-31).

Nature of God

You explained to me the LDS teaching that God was once a man like us, who has become God. As you quoted one Mormon prophet, “As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become.” I won’t labor this point here since I’ve emphasized it in our conversations. But it is worth repeating a good observation that you made from Malachi 3:6, “I am the LORD; I change not.” That would require that God has never been anything in His essence that He is now and will always be. There seems to be a conflict here that hasn’t yet been resolved.

Restored gospel

Another key LDS claim is that it teaches the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Again, I would have no trouble accepting that claim, so long as I am shown that LDS teachings about the gospel were in the gospel originally. So, for example, if Jesus’ gospel originally included certain requirements, such as baptism in an authorized temple by someone with priesthood authority, then it should be fairly simple to find that requirement plainly stated somewhere in the Bible. Only in that case would LDS teaching be a true restoration rather than an innovation.

With further study and being truly open to the Holy Spirit and His Word, I think that issues such as these can be resolved. I look forward to more truth-seeking conversations.

Grace to you,

Stephen

Beyond Clapping and Shouting in Church

Annual special gatherings at our church each February have given a taste of what worship might look like if we accepted God’s invitation to more freely express our worship to Him. Recently, there has been unusual energy in the singing. Many, especially guests, are not shy in worshipping in outwardly expressive ways.

The first night of worship this year was especially fervent. My 10-year old daughter had never heard or seen anything like that before. As worship concluded, she turned to me with a sparkle in her eyes and said, “Daddy, this is how church should be every week!”

She had caught a glimpse of the intriguing possibility that church worship could, at times, be fun as well as reverent. I want to feed and guide that feeling, not squash it. I am ashamed to admit that I have squashed it by suppressing instead of expressing my emotions in worship. But I am ready for change.

Based on responses to “Clap and Shout in Church,” many readers are ready too. Still, we hesitate. One reader wrote, “The only person in our service who does this is mentally challenged!” Well, it is surely a kindness of Jesus that mentally retarded persons can enjoy expressive worship, but why can’t the rest of us?

We know what’s in the way: fear of what others will think, fear of distracting, fear of wild emotionalism, fear of being irreverent. How can we overcome these fears to worship freely in Biblically appropriate ways?

I am learning that open and reverent worship is a natural result of seeing God as the treasure. Raising His treasure value in our minds is not done by repeating theological facts during the service. It is done when each of us becomes much better acquainted with Him by reading Scripture well for ourselves, becoming growing learners.

Here’s an example of the status quo. We usually assume that Jesus did miracles mainly to prove that He is God, not considering that Jesus might be showing us a lot of other stunning things about the kind of person He is and how He interacts with us. If we assume that Jesus is flashing His “God card” every time He does a miracle, then we stunt our growth in knowing Him. If reading Scripture that way is a habit, then our worship becomes more of a duty-driven reaction to a few doctrines about Him, or perhaps a mere emotional reaction to the music.

Here’s a sample of how it could go, drawing from what I am learning. While reading       John 17, I notice that Jesus says to the Father, (vs. 23), “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” Wait Jesus, run that by me again. The Father loves us as He loves You? Wow, I never noticed that before. So the next time we sing something like, “How Great the Father’s Love for Us,” my most reverent and natural response will be to joyfully worship the Father with all my being, body included. Worshippers doing this together are unlikely to distract each other or worry what others are thinking.

Our children are watching us. Many of them will decide not to worship the way we do now. That could be good. It depends on what drives their worship. They might decide that expressive worship requires drums and electric guitars. Or, the Holy Spirit might lead us and them to rich, vibrant worship by showing God as our treasure.

Resources for Adversity

When Jesus takes someone from us to Himself, it’s natural to think about the meaning of that person’s life and of its end. That is what I did two days ago, when I learned that Todd, a 16 year old boy in our church, had just died of cancer. As I tried to absorb this heavy news, my thoughts turned to my sister Ruth, who died of cancer shortly before Thanksgiving last year, not long after this young man himself was diagnosed.

I have previously written reflections on the meaning of Ruth’s life and death. If you missed them, you can read them here and here.

After I wrote these reflections, my other sisters updated Ruth’s ministry website with some resources that Ruth left behind. One is a tool for giving witness to unbelievers who question God. The others offer practical guidance on how to minister with wisdom and love to those who are suffering physical and other kinds of adversity, and on how to cultivate a life that will withstand adversity.  You can download these resources, summarized below, under the “ministry” tab at the Bright Hope website.  

Rise. Above. My story of finding the Reason to overcome                                             

This is Ruth’s personal testimony brochure, which can be downloaded or requested in multiple copies. It speaks in a way that many of us cannot, in effect allowing someone who suffered greatly to say, “I know what it is like to suffer and still trust God’s goodness.” It is a helpful approach to opening Gospel conversations with unbelievers, one that I have used myself.

“Ministering in Crisis: Forging beyond ‘Call me if you need anything’”                                                         

Practical counsel on how churches, individuals, and communities can be truly helpful in ministering to those with immediate needs or even long-term, chronic illnesses.

 Preventing Spiritual breakdown when trouble comes                                                                                                                

This is foundational teaching on forming a theology of suffering, and the spiritual disciplines that the Holy Spirit desires to be in our lives before we think that we need them. Ruth lived her theology of suffering, a theology that was forged by the Holy Spirit deeply imprinting His Word into her personal experience.

Though from our perspective Ruth and Todd’s lives were cut short, God knows the true pattern that He wove in them. Because of that, their lives and their deaths are not without purpose. Part of that purpose is our unfinished task to share God’s grace in their lives to those without hope.

Meet the Skeptic (with confidence)

You’re at the gym and you strike up a conversation with the person near you. For some reason, the conversation turns religious. He makes the remark, “The Bible was fine for people thousands of years ago. But to intelligent people now, it’s outdated.”

How would you respond? You could quote a Bible verse. You might toss out a church phrase such as, “You have to take it by faith.” If you’re feeling ambitious (or defensive), you might try to refute his statement with an argument that you heard somewhere, if you could remember it. Or you might switch to another topic because you can’t think of anything convincing.

Let’s face it. Most of us are not ready to engage skeptics in a meaningful conversation about God. We assume that to answer them we must, a) think fast on our feet, b) have an encyclopedic mastery of right answers or, c) both.

Bill Foster’s new book, Meet the Skeptic, shows that “none of the above” is the correct answer. This highly readable book is not another apologetics treatise. With an easy-to-follow format, it offers practical approaches for moving confidently into meaningful conversations and speaking truth.

A new way of thinking about skepticism

Foster lays out a simple framework to understand unbelief. He sorts out the tangle of seemingly random objections into four patterns or categories: spiritual, moral, scientific and Biblical. For each category he includes a chapter explaining the root idea that must be brought to the surface and how to use a probing question to do it.  

Consider the objection in the opening scenario, “The Bible is outdated for intelligent people now.” As an example of Biblical skepticism, this statement is rooted in the assumption that the Bible is manmade. Foster suggests digging up that root idea by asking a probing question: “If God gave us a book, how would we know it really came from Him?”

Few if any who dismiss the Bible have ever considered that question. Unbelievers are much more accustomed to playing what Foster describes as “fetch the objection.” This is a game in which the unbeliever throws out one objection after another, which the Christian thinks that he must chase down and refute. That is an unwinnable game.

The game changer is to see that when unbelievers launch objections, they are making truth claims. Therefore, it is they who bear the burden of proof. By asking probing questions, we can prod them in a friendly way to reflect on how thin their claims really are. We can then offer a positive case for accepting the Bible’s claims. Meet the Skeptic offers very substantive but uncomplicated and memorable ideas on how to present truth for each skeptical category.

A new way of communicating with skeptics

As the owner of a brand image and design company, Foster is attentive to how unbelievers hear church jargon. Phrases that sound convincing when we talk to each other at church seem to limp in the “real world.” He devotes a  full chapter to tuning our ears and minds to how church talk is often misconstrued, and how to speak truth in plain, everyday language, as Jesus did.

Unbelievers often use loaded words instead of reason and evidence to make their claims. Because they have been socially conditioned to repeat them, they often do not know what they themselves mean by the words they use. Meet the Skeptic offers simple ways to recognize and disarm these “Red Flag words.”

Boldness comes from the Holy Spirit, not techniques, and Foster is keenly aware that it is the Holy Spirit who draws people to Jesus. For that reason, he reminds us that “our task is not to convert or even to convince them; it is to communicate truth.” Meet the Skeptic is a valuable tool to help us do that.

Clap and shout in church

This past Sunday evening, my wife, daughter and I took our monthly turn caring for young children during the evening service. I had been looking forward to being in the auditorium to watch the baptisms, but that didn’t seem possible. I regretted that until Jesus gave us a little lesson in joy.

Since we were caring for only two boys, ages 2 and 3, we decided to take them to a nearby lobby to watch the baptisms on closed-circuit TV. The last person to be baptized was a friend with some special needs. In the past year, several of us have ministered to him, and have delighted in Jesus’ change in him, and in ourselves as well. Like me, many in the auditorium were silently celebrating, savoring the sweet moment.

Our friend testified of that grace. Then, as he came up out of the water, there was a ripple of applause, a rarity in our services. Hearing this, one of the little boys with us joined in with a joyful, exuberant “Yeaaaa!”

“Out of the mouths of babes,” we often say when a young child says something cute with an unintended meaning. But this was beyond cute. It was exactly the right response to great things Jesus had done! (Fittingly, the child who made this joyful noise is named Asher, which means, “happy”).

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if more of our worship were like Asher’s? Why isn’t it? Are we too worried about what others might think? (Maybe they will think that we’re too excited about Jesus).

Do we fear becoming too Charismatic? We should worry less about being Charismatic and more about being automatic—as in routine, scripted, worship-as-usual. Please don’t misunderstand. I am a strong advocate of reverent worship that respects the awesome character of God. 

But there are too many invitations to joy in the hymnbook of the Bible (the psalms), to think that our emotionally tethered worship has captured the exuberance, as well as the reverence that befits God’s awesomeness. Repeatedly in Scripture, God essentially invites us to ”cut loose” when telling Him how we feel about Him.  Consider a few examples:

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth! Psalm 66:4

O come, let us sing for joy to Yahweh,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation! Psalm 95:1

Shout joyfully to Yahweh, all the earth,
Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises! Psalm 98:4

O clap your hands, all peoples;
Shout to God with the voice of joy! Psalm 47:1

I sometimes wonder if God grows weary of us holding back on him. I’ll confess that I’m among the most guilty. But those days might be numbered. As Jesus continues to raise His treasure value in my mind, the invitation to respond accordingly is becoming less and less resistible. If there’s a joyful shout sometime soon in church, it might be coming from my corner.

How about joining me?

How to handle missionaries

Ding-dong. At our door were two sharp-looking young men. The Mormon missionaries were here.

What do you do when they visit you? Pretend you’re not home? Tell them “no thanks” and shut the door? I decided on a different approach in order to find out what Jesus might do. The results so far have been interesting.

I kept this visit with the elders short and friendly. (All Mormon missionaries insist on being called elders, though most are older teenagers). Come back next Sunday afternoon, I told them, and we can talk longer. I decided to explore Mormon teaching on the nature of God with them and compare it with the Bible. That sounded simple.

When the missionaries came the next Sunday, it didn’t seem that simple. Being in the shiny place on the buckle of the Bible belt, they apparently do not discuss certain teachings until later. To my surprise, my Mormon friends affirmed that there is one God. That was their story, and they were sticking to it. So I suggested that they give some further thought to the nature of God, and we could pick up the subject next time. They agreed. I invited them to talk for a while and give their major points. I listened and learned.

When they returned three days ago, one of the missionaries showed me his “homework.” True to his word, he had carefully written out notes with as many of God’s attributes as he could think of, along with appropriate Bible references, (none from the Book of Mormon). To my surprise, he included in his list that God is unchangeable, citing Malachi 3:6, the verse that I would have used.

The conversation moved to one of their booklets. I asked them to elaborate on the booklet’s use of the term “gospel.” They explained their teaching on “exaltation.” The LDS church teaches that in our pre-existence we were all created by God as spirit children, were sent to earth to receive bodies so that we could learn to make right choices by fulfilling various requirements, and thus earn our way to the highest degree of glory, “become like God” and live with him.

“Elder,” I said, ”if what you just said is true, then God has changed. But you have showed, and I certainly agree, that the Bible teaches that God does not change. How do you reconcile your belief with the Bible?” The missionaries thought silently about my question.

I continued: “You also said that we may become like God. “Does that mean you believe that we can become gods also?” They acknowledged that belief and elaborated on it a bit. As the conversation drew to a close, they assured me that they usually don’t get into questions like these from an “investigator,” their term for someone who is listening but not yet convinced.

Here are a few ideas that made this conversation calm and truth-seeking. I recommend them to you.

Keep it friendly—Listen carefully and respectfully. See them as people, not as enemies.

Aim for the bull’s eye—Try to stick with a single key topic and keep aiming for it. That will help prevent arguments about side issues.

Ask questions—Find out how they think as well as what they think. If you hear a statement that seems to be a problem, don’t accuse. Instead, ask questions that seek to bring truth to the surface. Listen attentively to their answer.

Have a modest goal—I gave my missionary friends a question that they could take away and think about.  I prayed for truth to be clear. We can all do that much, can’t we? It is the Holy Spirit who will illuminate the truth.

The missionaries had to go, so I asked them to read Isaiah 44:6-8 and invited them to come back this coming Sunday afternoon. It will be interesting to see what Jesus might do.

Making Opportunities

Sometimes things are not as they appear.

She dressed in rags, drove a battered automobile and begged for cigarettes. Neighbors often saw her rummaging through trash cans. Police found out where all that trash was going after questioning her at the garbage bin behind a shopping center. They took her to her cheap apartment, where they found all manner of junk—on furniture, in the sink, stove, refrigerator, bathtub, cabinets.

As they made their way through paths carved through the piles of trash, police made their most surprising discovery: stock certificates from Mobil Oil, U.S. Steel, Squibb and Uniroyal, titles for oil fields in Kansas and passbooks for eight very large bank accounts. It turned out that she had over $1 million to her name. Her name was Kathleen Colley. Her not-so-nosy neighbors “knew” her as “Garbage Mary.”     

Under the surface of lives around us there is brokenness. It might not be as unusual as Kathleen Colley’s, but it is there.  As followers of Jesus we have opportunities to offer healing to others. By being attentive and prepared, we can take advantage of opportunities to show them reason for hope.

This need was brought closer to me recently. A few months ago, a friend told me about a co-worker who had taken his own life not long before. A few weeks ago, news came about a young man in a community group in which one of our children is a member. That boy also took his own life.

Know Him

Our awareness of these tragedies reminds us that we might be in regular contact with others who are on their way to losing hope. Being prepared to help them requires us to learn to see and know Jesus as the treasure of our lives. We know Him this way when we read Scripture well, and then begin to experience life with Him as He intended. We must listen carefully to Jesus and learn to talk to Him during each day about what we are hearing Him say in His Word. This is the way to know how He discerned the heart needs of others, and how He acted to meet their needs.

Know them

Ask the Holy Spirit to change the way we see others. He will show us how to value others for who they are. Occasionally I walk up and down one of the streets in my neighborhood and pray for the people living in each house, whether I know them or not. Sometimes, if I know the people inside, I linger briefly and pray more specifically.

 Another idea is to make a list of the three people at work with whom you have the most contact, then pray for each of them during a work break. Your interactions with those workers might begin to take on new significance. You might begin to notice things that you missed before. One recent morning someone gave me the usual, “how-are-you-doing” greeting. I replied, “Blessed as usual; how are you?” She said, “Not as blessed as you are.” I might have overlooked her comment except that I knew that she had just gone through her second divorce. That comment alerted me to be sensitive to the lingering pain and how I might minister to her.

Show Him to them

Our greatest opportunity is to show Jesus’ treasure value to others. That does not require us to make Him look good. He already does. It means that we should get out of the way and make Him prominent by our actions.

A recent incident illustrates how that can happen. A few months ago my co-workers were engaging in one of the most beloved workplace pastimes: complaining about wages. Later I confided to one of them that I needed a raise too. But I was going to ask Jesus for a raise, and offered to ask Jesus for him too. The offer was difficult, because that co-worker has a lot of brokenness, and has repeatedly despised the goodness of God. Also, we had recently been told by a higher level manager that raises would not be happening. But in less than a week, my co-worker and I were among the few in our company to receive raises. When we did, I took the opportunity to remind him that Jesus had just showed Himself as his treasure!

I invite readers to share your experiences and ideas.