Decision-making

OK, so I'm going to solve the problem of how to make decisions in 300 words or less. OK, so ... maybe not.

The process of making decisions compresses thousands of years of theology into a single moment. In making a decision, you bring in the theology of God's sovereignty, the theology of man's freedom to choose, the theology of the role of the Holy Spirit, the theology of the wisdom of the Bible, and several other theologies all into the practical, daily activity to choosing A instead of B. Whew!

So, how do we do this well? Do we wait on major decisions until we believe the Spirit reveals His will to us? Do we just go with our best guess and ask the Lord to bless it? Do we make minor decisions one way, but major decisions another way? If we make a wrong decision, are we outside of God's will? And if so, how do we get back "in"?

First, I recommend a book co-authored by a friend of mine called Decision-Making and the Will of God (found on Amazon here). The authors take the approach that 1) if God has a specific thing He wants you to do, He will not encrypt it into a puzzle that you have to be clever enough to decipher by reading events like tea leaves, and 2) the wealth of wisdom literature in the Bible is there for a reason - when He does not have one single specific thing He wants, He gives us wisdom to make one of many possible God-pleasing choices.

Second, our own personal experience has taught us a few things along the way. When making a decision, of course we do all the things we know to do: pray over many days or weeks (and listen!), seek out several wise counselors, read His Word for guidance, discuss together, praying some more, patiently weigh our options  using wisdom to evaluate everything, and praying yet some more. On several occasions, we have eventually come to the point where the choice we should make becomes clearer and clearer. The question for us changes at that point from "What should we do?" to "Do we have the courage to actually make this decision?" The question goes from wanting information to a matter of the will and of trust.

But, there are times that even through all this process, the best decision was still not clear to us. What do we do then? If we have earnestly pursued all these avenues with openness and patience, and still we're not sure, we have on several occasions tried an approach that has been very helpful to us.

We eventually conclude that we need to make our best-effort decision. And then we pray, "Lord, we're not sure what to do, but this is our best decision we can make. We're going to take a step forward in faith. If we're on the wrong path, please stop us." Then we take a step forward on faith. Then we pray again, "OK, Lord, here we go ... stop us if we're going in the wrong direction." And then we observe.

What we have found on several occasions is that after taking that step of faith and checking back with the Lord, He will then either affirm the decision or show us it's not a good step. It seems that He does not, however, affirm or contradict our decision until after we take the step of faith. If we don't step out, we don't get any more clarity. If we do, He has often at that point let us know His will.

At times, it means we need to retreat and try something else. Other times, He has clearly affirmed the choice, and it become even clearer that it is a direction that He enjoys for us to take.

It's important to remember, though, to hold your decisions with an open hand and earnestly ask Him if you're walking in the best direction, allowing Him to redirect you. If you're not really willing to be redirected, then asking anyway just makes a sham of it. That willingness to accept whatever He wants is crucial!

I believe that doing all you can to make the right decision, checking before and after with the Lord, and especially by taking a step of faith, we have discovered His will for our lives on particular decisions. It's important not to leave out any aspect of this practice.

I would love to hear from others who approach decisions this way and how that has resulted for you.

The NET Bible

I like to use several different translations of the Bible, depending on my purpose. I like the New American Standard Bible (NASB, Update 1995) and the English Standard Version (ESV) for study, although I sometimes use others. I like the New English Translation (NET) for personal reading, and sometimes for study. Some translations are more word-for-word ("literal", such as NASB, ESV, NKJV, NRSV), and some are more thought-for-thought ("dynamic equivalent", such as NET, CET, NIV).

The difficulty with translating is that a strict word-for-word translation often comes out very difficult to understand in English. For example, a very literal translation of Romans 5:8 is "But demonstrates his own love into us God that yet sinners being we, Christ for us died"! We get the point, but you wouldn't want to read an entire Bible like that! Every translation makes it more readable in English than this, but some go further than others to smooth out the language. But, the further one goes to smooth out the language, the further from the original it gets.

There are several websites that have many translations available for reading, comparison, and study. I particularly like Logos, YouVersion, and Biblos. They allow you to compare translations, make personal notes, even share your notes with others, and investigate the original language versions (Greek and Hebrew). There are many others: The Unbound Bible, StudyLight, BibleGateway, and so on. Many versions have their own on-line versions, like the ESV.

One of my hands-down favorites is the website for the NET. The NET is a translation that's meant to be a little easier to read (it's more of a dynamic equivalent than a literal), but it stock-full of thousands and thousands of footnotes. But the footnotes in the NET are different than in most Bibles, giving you the best of both worlds in translation.

Most footnotes are commentary about the text or something about the ancient copies of Scripture. The footnotes in the NET, however, are mostly about the translation choices made by the translators. In other words, most of the extra comments are about why the translator translated the passage as he or she did, what other options were available, and so on. If the NET chooses a phrase that is more clear in English, there's often a footnote telling you what the Greek or Hebrew phrase is literally. So you get the best of both words - a very readable translation, but also information about what the original language says quite literally.

The NET website also has tons of other study tools: You can get to the Greek and Hebrew easily. There are commentaries, lists of hymns and artwork that go with the passage you're reading, and a way to compare several translations at once. And of course, you can search for just about anything - and it will find what you're looking for in not just the NET translation, but in any of the 10 translations it supports.

Give the NET a spin. Just click here. And if you want to really have fun, the main website that hosts the NET Bible is called Bible.org, which has online articles, audio, video, self-study courses in theology, and so on. (And for super Bible nerds, my newest favorite website is BibleArc.com, which is a great tool for analyzing the structure of a passage - watch the helpful instructional videos to watch how it's done.)

Wise Investments

Thanks to all who helped with the Carnival last weekend! We had well over 500 guests, more than double last year - which is why we ran out of prizes, frisbees, pucker powder, sno-cones, and so on. Because of you investing your time, we all had a blast. The weather was as good as we could expect for mid-August, and a lots of kids (and parents) had a great time.

And a super "thank you" to Susan and Susan! They did the lion's share of the work - it was far easier for us because of them. Thank you, ladies.

My friend Jim took pictures, which you can view here.

Please pray that the informational packets we sent out would intrigue those who don't already attend church to consider attending a good church, whether it's ours our not.

Take a breath. A quick one.

AWANA starts this Monday! Jim has an impressive crew of volunteers, and already I'm extending my thanks to all of you (including those who have committed to pray consistently for AWANA throughout the year). AWANA boils down to a great excuse for adults to talk to kids about Jesus, and to model His character before them. All the games, lessons, Scripture memory - the most important feature of AWANA is adults investing into kids.

The AWANA leadership material is clear as it coaches each volunteer how to execute their part of the big picture. Jim still needs a handful of volunteers to round out the teams. We've adults for every group, but a few need one more person. Would you please pray a simple prayer: "Lord, do you want me to help AWANA this year?" That's it. Pray that prayer sincerely, listen, and if the answer is "Yes," please contact Jim.

Investing in kids has a much better ROI than investing in the stock market or 401k's - I give it a maximum "5-star" rating. There are other things you could do on a Monday night. There are few things you could do that are better investments.

Thanks for an easy start

Moves are exciting, exhausting, stressful, and refreshing ... all at the same time. Our move to KC had all these attributes with far more intensity that any of our previous moves. And we're not exactly sure why.

But through all of the ups and downs of moving, one thing has been consistently positive about the whole ordeal. You.

You have welcomed us in, helped us to move, helped us get oriented, checked on us to make sure we're OK, invited us to share a meal, prayed for us, given us grace, allowed us to make novice mistakes (I hope to soon to be making veteran mistakes!), and listened to our crazy ideas with patience. You have given us verbal encouragement, written encouragement, and even the encouragement of just being able to laugh together. You have treated us more like people than like a pastor and a pastor's wife - we so much need to be more than my title with you.

So ... thank you.

We love being here. We're beginning to see the size of the task ahead, and we are anxious to be moving forward with you. We will have bumps and challenges and differences of opinions. We will have joys, hard work, and celebrations.

There are still some of you that we have not been able to connect with as personally as we would like. It's only been 10 weeks, but we feel a little behind on spending more individual time with each of you. We're working on it, but we invite you to not be shy. If you would like to get some more "face time" with us, too, then you should know that we love coffee!

In all seriousness, in the coming months, we would relish the opportunity to spend time with each family, somewhere, somehow. I don't know if it's even possible, but we're willing to fail trying!

Men and Women of God

I am in the home stretch of pursuing my thesis. As part of that thesis, we are offering a class on gender issues starting August 22. This is a controversial issue, but after having taught this material before, I have found that we have a lot of ideas in this course that many Christians have never been taught before.

Are there unique roles in Christ based on gender, and if so, what are they? Under the Christian umbrella, the entire spectrum is presently being taught – from a strict hierarchical view to a total egalitarian view, and everything in between. And each end of the spectrum claims to be teaching merely what the Bible teaches. How do we navigate through all the noise? Our course charts a somewhat unique path through Scripture, finding a clear, consistent model that challenges both the traditional and modern teachings.

One of the most common criticisms of the evangelical church is that they teach the suppression of women. In some cases, that charge is sadly correct. In other cases, the church doesn’t know how to articulate their view in a convincing way to those outside the church, which only leads to misunderstandings. The Bible does not teach the suppression of women – and yet it does teach some differences in our roles based on gender. How do we understand the differences without suppressing anyone? How can we articulate to a skeptical world that the church is the place for women who have many strengths without jettisoning Biblical teachings? This course should help us formulate this ideas clearly.

What do we teach women about their godly responsibilities in those cases when the man is not fulfilling his? Do we take the small-minded view and tell her to “submit anyway?” Do we find a escape clause for her that’s not found anywhere in Scripture? Do we declare the Bible out-of-date and tell her to ignore what “used to be taught” in the church? The Bible gives us simpler answers than these.

What do we teach men about their role in those areas where their wives are better gifted than they are? Do we enforce headship anyway? Do we abdicate headship in those areas? Again, the Bible has better answers than these.

The gender issues are clearly pertinent for those who are (or soon will be) married. But what about singles? Are there gender-specific teachings in Scripture for single people, too? Yes!

Please plan on joining us in starting August 22 for this twelve-week course. The class will be taught during the Sunday School hour, and then repeated at a second venue during the week (to be determined) - pick either one. If you have a preference on which night to have the second venue, please get your votes to me.

I'm asking to have at least 12 couples sign up to take the survey (twice) and answer a few direct questions in order to gather the data I need to finish my thesis. Please prayerfully consider participating in this survey data as well.