Posts Tagged ‘pastors’

Mar
14
2012

5 Reasons Why Pastors Should Write

I’m a pastor who writes, but I know I’m not alone. In fact, many, many pastors around the world supplement their teaching ministry with a writing ministry. God blessed me with a writing ministry before I assumed the pulpit at Gages Lake Bible Church almost four years ago, but it has only been enhanced as I’ve now got the perspective of a pastor and increased time in the Word of God.

But not everyone is sure pastors should write books. There are legitimate reasons perhaps. Maybe it takes time away from the ministry (though it doesn’t have to). Maybe it confuses the vocational calling (are you a pastor or a writer?). I’ve had pastors tell me I shouldn’t write another book. I’ve had pastors tell me I shouldn’t stop writing.

I’m a bit biased, given my years in publishing prior to the pastorate, but I happen to think writing, in some form or another, is good for every pastor. Here’s five reasons why I think pastors should write:

1) You join a long traditional dating back to the early church. You could argue that the first pastors were writers. James, whom many believe was the pastor of the church at Jerusalem, wrote the book of James. Obviously He was under the inspiration of the Spirit of God (and we are, most certainly, not). But perhaps James is a better book for us today because James wrote from the perspective of a pastor. Read Paul’s epistles. They echo the heart of a pastor/church planter. And then you just continue the line from the Apostles thru the Church Fathers and to the Reformation and continue on through today. If pastors never wrote anything, our theological libraries would be 90% empty. We’d have no commentaries, no classics, no great works. We’d have no sermon anthologies, no great quotes from men like Spurgeon and Tozer to supplement our preaching. Check the commentaries you frequently use in your study. Yep, most of those guys were pastors. So, yes, I’m glad pastors have always been writers. I’d be stuck if they weren’t.

2) You preserve God’s work in you beyond your generation. Perhaps you won’t be the next Wiersbe or MacArthur or Hughes. Maybe nobody would publish your exegetical thoughts as a commentary. Still, if you organize your writings and work, somebody in the next generation will benefit. It may be the intern whose notes you lend. It could be your grandchildren who will glean gospel truth from your study. You never know how God will use the work He did in you beyond your lifetime. Did Spurgeon know he’d be valuable resource, even in the 21st Century? Did Wesley and Luther and Calvin? Even though you’re preaching is not creating something new–you’re continuing the line of orthodoxy–you’re unique perspective and God’s unique shaping of your soul can inspire others in future years to pursue Christ. So write.

3) You inspire others in this generation

Again, not every pastor has the talent or time or desire to write full-length books or articles. But perhaps you might blog or even create a newsletter or something in which you can send short, Scripture-laden thoughts to inspire others. You never know how God may use you to inspire others in your generation. I have to say that I regularly read the blogs of several pastors and their work is valuable to my ministry. These are men who have some years in the ministry. They write with a keen sense of the calling that you can’t find outside of pulpit ministry. Men like Ray Pritchard, Brian Croft, Jared Wilson, Paul Tautges, and others are helping this young preacher today. Most of the contributors to valuable content such as The Gospel Coalition or Leadership Journal are active pastors. Some young pastor or ministry leader might read a blog you wrote and find new direction. Some struggling young teen might be led to repentance and faith. Some single mother might find a dose of inspiration to get her through her day. Writing is a way you can use the study and prep you already do for ministry and extend it in such as way as to bless others in the body of Christ.

4) You find better clarity of thought

I find that writing helps me clarify my thoughts. In this way writing helps my preaching and preaching helps my writing. I happen to preach from a full manuscript (though I adlib and self-edit as I deliver). Completing a full manuscript takes extra time and much work every week, but it is rewarding because I feel that my thoughts are well organized before I get into the pulpit. Now that may not work for you, especially if you (unlike me) are good on your feet. However, you may consider doing what guys like Ray Pritchard have done and writing out your full sermon the week after you deliver it.

Getting words on paper really helps clarify your message and your thoughts.

5) You can better communicate with your own people

Let’s face it, you can’t say all you want to say to your people in a 30-45 minute sermon once a week. There are notes and research and study and application from every text that will stay on the cutting room floor. So something like a blog or newsletter is a way of communicating those ideas as well. Writing is also a great way to express ideas that may not fit into your message, but may be good for the life of your church. So you might consider starting a blog or using social networks like Facebook or Twitter or even creating a church newsletter.

There are a thousand other reasons why I write and why I think its a good idea for pastors. These were just the five that made the most sense to me. 

 

Mar
09
2012

Friday Five: Paul Tautges

Paul Tautges is a renowned pastor and biblical counselor. He has served Immanuel Bible Church in Sheboygan, Wisconsin as pastor-teacher since 1992. His preaching and teaching ministry often takes him overseas for the equipping of national pastors for the work of church-based ministry. He is also the author of several excellent books on counseling and pastoral ministry, including Counseling One Another and Counsel Your Flock. Paul is a biblical counselor certified with the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC) and the International Association of Biblical Counselors (IABC). Counseling One Another, is a highly recommended source for Scriptural insights on the ministry of counseling and pastoral leadership.

Paul was kind enough answer a few questions for today’s Friday Five:

How did you discern your call to the ministry? Was it something that happened immediately after your conversion? 

Within a couple months after my conversion in the spring of 1984, I sensed a desire building within me for vocational ministry in some form, though I had no idea what that would look like. About two years later, I married and moved to another state to attend Bible college for the purpose of being equipped theologically and practically for ministry. It was in my second year there that the Holy Spirit narrowed down my call through involvement in my local church. The more teaching opportunities the Lord brought along, beginning very small and then leading to occasional preaching in a country pulpit, the more the people of God confirmed my internal call by their encouraging comments. As I saw the Lord working in people’s lives through my teaching of His Word He gave me an insatiable desire to preach full-time and care for one of His flocks. Twenty years ago, He led me to return to Sheboygan, Wisconsin where I’ve been pastoring Immanuel Bible Church ever since.

Your pastoral role has a special emphasis on counseling and you write extensively about it in your books and on your blog. Why is biblical counseling so important in the life of the Christian? 

Making disciples of Jesus Christ is the Great Command given to the church (Matt 28:18-20). Obedience to Christ is the very heart of the content of our marching orders. Obedient describes the product we are called to reproduce, obedient followers of the Word of God. A disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is committed to a lifelong process of growing in obedience to his Master’s commands and, by doing so, becomes like Him (Rom 8:29). Therefore, we must consciously use the terms counseling and discipleship interchangeably, or even together (discipleship counseling), in order to communicate that counseling is not the specialized ministry of a few professionals, but rather an intensely focused, personal aspect of the discipleship process for all believers. That is, it is disciple-making targeted at specific areas of a person’s life where biblical change is needed for that follower of Christ to move forward toward the goal of being fully remade into His likeness.

Many pastors, especially young guys, might feel as if they are ill-equipped to counsel some of the big issues their people face. What advice would you give them? 

Every pastor, especially the young and inexperienced, needs to maintain a teachable spirit and prayerful dependence upon the Lord. He should always be studying the Word with the intention of applying it first to his own life then to those he teaches (Ezra 7:10). He should also be steadily reading solid theological, pastoral, and biblical counseling books and journal articles, thus learning from his peers and men who have gone before him. Alongside these published mentors (authors) he should ask his church leadership to provide funding for him to attend at least one ministry conference per year, which could include the kind that emphasizes the personal ministry of the Word we call “counseling.” Additionally, if his heart desires further help and training then he should look into more counseling-specific training. A good place to start is the website of the Biblical Counseling Coalition.

Would you say that not every pastor has the skill set and gift mix to effectively counsel in all issues? And if so would you recommend he refer people to qualified, biblical counselors outside his church? 

Since “counseling” is the personal ministry of the Word to believers’ lives every pastor must counsel at some level. He is a shepherd; counseling is not an option. For a pastor to fulfill the biblical model of personal ministry laid out in Colossians 1:28, he must remain attached to people. This demands that pastors be involved in others’ lives far beyond preaching to them each Sunday, and it discourages us from keeping a distance from our people, especially from those we may consider to be “special-needs” disciples who require a large investment of time and energy. This is not to say a pastor must be an expert on every issue. The church is rich with untapped resources and he should involve others in the discipleship process. However, if these people resources do not exist in his own local church then he must be sure any outside counselors to whom he refers his members will minister to them in a way consistent with biblical beliefs. At the same time, he should also be training and equipping others in his own church to come alongside for this important ministry. It is the pastors and elders who are accountable to God to keep watch over the souls of the sheep (Heb 13:17).

Your ministry also emphasizes “counseling one another”? This is really part of discipleship isn’t it? 

Yes, everything the local church does should ultimately fall under the command to make Christ-loving, obedient disciples (Matt 28:18-20). Counseling that is truly biblical is merely an intensely focused and personal aspect of the discipleship process, whereby believers come alongside one another for three main purposes: first, to help one another to consistently apply Scriptural theology to life in order to experience victory over sin through obedience to Christ; second, by warning one another, in love, of the consequences of sinful actions; and third, by guiding one another to make consistent progress in the ongoing process of biblical change in order to become spiritually reproductive disciple-makers. Biblical counseling is helping one another, within the body of Christ, to grow to maturity in Him.

Feb
17
2012

Friday Five: Jim Rodgers

 

Perhaps nothing challenges church leadership more than the use of their facilities, specifically knowing how, when, and where to allocate resources toward expansion. That is why I appreciate so greatly the ministry of my friend, Jim Rodgers. Jim is an “architectural pastor”, consulting churches on the use, expansion, and renovation of their facilities. He spent nearly 20 years in the pastorate and before that was a licensed architect. So he brings both practical and theological experience to bear on church facility usage.

Jim works for Church Building Consultants in Wheaton, IL, a firm that provides churches, Christian schools, and ministries the full spectrum of services to assess, initiate, plan, design, and construct ministry facilities. He is also a Visiting Professor in the DMin program at Grace Theological Seminary.

Jim has written articles for Leadership Journal, Your Church, Discipleship Journal, Preaching, Contemporary Drama Service, and Focus on the Family’s Pastor’s Family and is a regular teacher at pastoral conferences, seminaries, and ministry events. At the 2010 conference of the Evangelical Homiletics Society he presented a paper for peer review on: “The Heart of Worship and Facility Stewardship.” He regularly blogs on church health and facility stewardship here.

At Gages Lake Bible Church, we recently consulted Jim Rodgers about some potential projects with our church building. I thought it would be great to feature him on a Friday Five and expose more pastors and church leaders to the valuable service he provides:

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Feb
15
2012

5 Ways to Pray for Your Church

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog, How to Help Your Church. It was one of the most popular posts of this year so far, perhaps because it struck a chord with pastors and church leaders working hard to serve God’s people. Interestingly, I wrote a similar post a few years ago.

However it occurred to me that neither of those posts mentioned perhaps the best way to help your church: prayer. Perhaps this speaks to my woefully inconsistent prayer life or the tendency among leaders in my generation to rely on our own strength to do God’s work.

But I’m realizing ever more the need, my need, for God’s help in serving the church. I’m realizing the need for us to fall on our faces before the Lord. Only God can grow the church. So, as you consider how to make your church better, here are five ways to help your church:

1) Pray for your pastor. I know this is clique. I know people pray for me. But I really, really need prayer. And your pastor does too. He may not ask you for it. He may seem strong and courageous and “with it” all the time. But underneath that is a fragile, desperate soul often squeezed by the pressures of serving God’s people. So pray for faithfulness, refreshment, wisdom, creativity, humility, people skills. I never fully realized the need to pray for pastors until I actually became one.

2) Pray for the pastor’s wife. This is a tough role. There is really no template for the pastor’s wife. She’s thrust into a role that often asks more of her than she can handle. She’s the one keeping the home life somewhat normal and consistent. She’s the one holding things together when the pastor is at the bedside or meeting with someone in crisis. And sometimes the pastor’s family has their own crises that need prayer. Pray for your pastor’s wife.

3) Pray for God’s spirit to move in the hearts of people in the community. In our community, something like 85% of people are unchurched, likely unconverted. That’s a huge mission field. And it seems that with every passing day the church is becoming less of a factor in people’s lives. Pray that your church would be a lighthouse, a place where people discover the eternal truths of the gospel, where the Word would shine and the Spirit would convict hearts to repentance. Sometimes we get so program-oriented that we forget to pray for a mighty moving of the Spirit.

4) Pray for unity among God’s people. The devil loves to divide and conquer. He loves to sow seeds of strife in a church. He loves to prey on the natural, human, sinful tendencies of God’s good people. Unity has to be intentional. It’s not natural. It must be a spirit-connected thing. It’s fragile. And here’s a secret. If you are praying for church unity, you will be spending less time focusing on the hurts and faults of others that moves to destroy that unity.

5) Pray for the church staff and leadership. Don’t just pray for the pastor, as if he’s the only one who is on the frontlines, as if he’s the only important, exalted member serving your local body. He isn’t. Pray also and earnestly for the paid and volunteer staff, for the leadership team–elders, deacons, team leaders. Pray for their families, their spirituality, their faithfulness. Pray for God to enrich and refresh them and give them strength for His work.

 

Oct
11
2011

Will Pastors’ Influence on the Political Process Decline?

Over the last few days, the issue of Mormonism and Christianity has been front and center in the news media, thanks to the controversy created by Pastor Robert Jeffress of 1st Baptist Church of Dallas. If you missed the dustup, Dr. Jeffress endorsed Texas Governor Rick Perry in his race for the White House and subsequently told reporters he’d have a hard time voting for Mitt Romney, because of Romney’s devout Mormonism.

I’ve been thinking about this controversy for a few days, waiting to respond. It’s a complicated issue for a few reasons. One the one hand, Dr. Jeffress was only articulating what both Mormons and Christians have always affirmed–that Mormonism is not orthodox Christianity, but (according to the Mormon view), a repudiation of Christianity and and improvement. This article by Dr. Al Mohler brings clarity to the issue. So Dr. Jeffress is not guilty of bigotry, he’s guilty of thoelogical precision. And asking the question about Mormonism isn’t unfair. It’s a right question, especially considering that weighty matters of eternity hold in the balance. In this, pastors must not retreat from Christian orthodoxy. People’s souls are at stake.

However, I do think Dr. Jeffress comments, while true, were inartful in their context. The third chapter of the book of James reminds us that a pastor’s words carry much more weight than he realizes. A seeking world is watching. Pastors should step into political arguments with caution and precision. It was fully in Dr. Jeffress right to endorse Rick Perry as his favorite for President of the United States. But he should be cautious for two reasons: 1) People might get the wrong message that the church doors are only open for Republicans and 2) Christians think non-Christians are unfit for office. Jesus said we were to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” In recent years, pastors have clumsily waded into public discourse and have caused damage to the cause of the gospel. Pat Robertson and others come to mind.

Hindsight is 20/20 and being in a leadership position often puts a person in a situation where he’s forced to answer tough questions. But Dr. Jeffress might have said something like, “I have great respect for all of the candidates in this race, but I personally believe Rick Perry is the best option,” and left it at that. And he might have explained that his goal isn’t simply to elect any Christian, regardless of their competence, but someone who has the competence and will agree to uphold values closest to the Scriptures.

But I think a more troubling aspect of this controversy may be the growing split between pastor and politician. It’s not just the candidates’ beliefs that are held up to scrutiny, but the pastors under whose teaching they sit. This began, I believe, with the 2008 election. Barrack Obama was a longtime member of the infamous Reverend Wright’s Church in Chicago. Reverend Wright’s theology is far outside the mainstream of orthodox Christianity and seemed threatening to the American judeo-Christian ethic. So people were right to be concerned how Wright’s worldview might have shaped Obama. But when Republicans made a big deal about Rev Wright’s teaching and went combing through his sermons to find more offensive material, I worried about the long-term effects of this. Because while Wright’s teaching is highly offensive and unbiblical, will this give the other side the permission to comb the sermons of evangelical pastors under whose teaching conservative politicians sit? There is much of the Bible’s central teaching that offends the culture today, starting with Jesus’ exclusive claims to deity (John 14:6) as well as the labeling of lifestyles like homosexuality and extramarital heterosexuality as sin.

And sure enough, the views of a pastor like Dr. Robert Jeffress, a mainstream evangelical, a Southern Baptist, are now fair game. I’m not as worried about the media criticizing our faith as I am about what this will do to cause political leaders from attending church, from being influenced by Bible-preaching men of God. Simply attending a church will give their opposition a reason to hang the unpopular, but true teachings of Scripture around the necks of anyone who attends. And will this mentality seep into business and the rest of culture? Will attending an evangelical church pastored by a faithful man who delivers the true, but difficult Word of God be considered a liability? And worse, will this cause pastors to soften some of the harder sections of the Scripture in order to not be so controversial?

Let’s hope not.

Jul
15
2011

Friday Five Interview: S. Michael Houdmann (Gotquestions.org)

This is the last of three classic Friday Five interviews I’m posting while our family enjoys some vacation time. This is with S. Michael Houdmann, founder and proprietor of Gotquestions.org, one of the most heavily trafficked Christian sites online. And believe it or not, this interview continues to be one of the most popular pages on my blog:

Last year, while attending the annual gathering of the IFCA, I stopped by a booth and met S. Michael Houdmann, a graduate of Calvary Bible College and Seminary. He introduced me to his powerful website, gotquestions.org. I remember thinking, “Why hadn’t I discovered this before?” Since that time I’ve regularly visited gotquestions.org. Its a unique ministry idea. Essentially they answer Bible questions every week, not just easy questions like “Who is Jesus?” but tough theological questions. And every single question is answered with Biblical precision and accuracy. I can’t tell you how many times I was preaching or counseling on a narrow theological idea and just needed a sort of launching point in Scripture and turned to gotquestions.org. They have an archive of thousands of questions and even have a page of FAQ, what they consider their most important questions about God and the Bible.

By the way, Got Questions is now available as an iPhone app.

I think gotquestions.org is one of the most profoundly useful tools to the Christian today. Today, we have the privilege of talking about gotquestions with its founder, S. Michael Houdman.

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Jan
30
2011

What Every Pastor Should Say in the Mirror . . . Repeatedly

This morning, as I was praying and preparing to preach, I listened to a an incredibly rich and convicting sermon, “The Pastor’s Charge” by C.J. Mahaney delivered at the Gospel Coalition Conference in 2009. I love listening to a variety of messages from a diverse group of speakers, so recently I subscribed to the Gospel Coalition podcast.

CJ said something that is hitting me as a pastor. I’m paraphrasing, but he reminded pastors that even though they serve in a distinct, God-given role as shepherds of their flocks, they must remember that it is Jesus who is the chief shepherd, and not them. In fact, CJ said a human pastor is more sheep than he is shepherd and must remember that he must be shepherded by the Chief Shepherd, Jesus, more often than he is shepherding others. His sermon was taken from the great spiritual leadership passage in 1 Peter 5.

It called to mind a passage from John 3:22-28 and the story of John the Baptist. What’s happening is the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist are passing like two ships in the night. Jesus is increasing in popularity and John’s ministry is slowing down. This was by sovereign design of God before the word began. John was the forerunner, Jesus the Messiah.

Except the followers of John the Baptist were jealous. Over there Jesus is getting more people to follow and we’re getting less. They saw their movement shrinking and were scared. You’d think this wouldn’t happen in ministry, right?

Think again. It does.

The new church down the street does things a bit differently and suddenly people flock to them. You’ve been working hard “doing it right” (you tell yourself) and you’re not as popular. The human tendency for a pastor is to think that’s not fair.

Of course, we’re not as blunt as John’s disciples. We hide behind methodology that we’ve confused as doctrine and say things like, “Well, they’re not doing it biblically.” or “Well if I had music like them, I’d grow too. I won’t build my church that way.” or “Well, he doesn’t preach as strong as I do on sin.” (Though we don’t know that to be the case). We find someway to cut down that “more successful” man or woman of God. Because we can’t admit that maybe, just maybe, God is using them.

This attitude among pastors what my good friend and mentor, Pastor Bill calls “professional jealousy.”

I’m humbled by John’s response to the growth of Christ’s ministry. “I am not the Messiah.”  Powerful words.Essentially, John was acknowledging the sovereignty of God in his ministry. John was not the Messiah. John was John, a man born to fulfill a special purpose for God in his time. But John was still a man.

Every pastor should look in the mirror and say, “I’m not the Messiah.” In other words, yes, God called you to a special ministry. But you are not the answer to the world’s problems. Jesus Christ is. We, like John, just point the way. Or do we? Do we sometimes point to ourselves as the way? Our methods, our unique take on Scripture, our wonderful (to us) example?

The thing is, if we’re not careful, we’ll surround ourselves with people who will constantly tell us we are the Messiah. Not in those terms, but they will flatter us. We’ll push away people who can speak truth into us. Who can tell us the reality of who we really are. And we begin to harbor jealousies and treat other ministries as if they are competition.

When we do this, we’re saying to people, “I am the Messiah?” Don’t go to the church down the street. You don’t find what we’ve got here. Don’t listen to that radio preacher with the golden voice. Listen to me. Please listen to me.

Pastors, let’s not get so full of ourselves that we can’t stand up and say, about other ministries and other churches, “Praise God. They are growing and God is working.” Let’s be like John the Baptist, who said, “Hey, I”m not the Messiah. I just point the way.”

Sep
17
2010

Friday Five Interview – Trevin Wax

Today I’m honored to chat with Trevin Wax, a popular blogger,  associate Pastor at First Baptist Church in Shelbyville, TN, and author of the new book, Holy Subversion.

Trevin is a frequently contributer to publications, such as Christianity Today. He is currently working on a second book,Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hopes.

Trevin received my bachelor’s degree in Pastoral Theology from Emanuel University of Oradea in the country of Romania, where he was involved in mission work in several village churches from 2000-05. He received a Masters of Divinity at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY.

1) You’re recent book is titled, Holy Subversion, can you explain what you mean by this term?

1. Yes, the title is meant to catch your eye. The words “holy” and “subversion” do not typically go together. There are two ways to understand the word “subvert” or “subversion.” The first definition refers to “overthrowing” or plotting the downfall of a kingdom.

The second way that “subverting” something is commonly understood refers to “undermining” or “pushing something back down into its proper place.” In the book, I use the term “subversive” in the second sense. Most of the time, the idols in our lives are not bad things. They are good things that have become idolatrous because we have placed them above God himself. The goal is not merely to destroy our idols, but to return the gifts of God to their proper place where they can be enjoyed once again to the glory of God.

So our job as Christians is first to identify and unmask some of the often-unnoticed idolatries that seek to muzzle our message and demand our allegiance. Then, we must think through specific ways in which the Church can counter our culture by subverting its prevailing idolatries and pushing them back to their rightful place, under the feet of Jesus.

2) Popular evangelical methodology says that we need to be like the culture in order to win them over, but it seems your book is a bit of a push-back against that. Do you think in our attempts to blend in, we diminish our ability to make a difference?

2. There is no way to solidly critique the idolatries of our day and not run up against current cultural manifestations. There are two poles moving through this book – the Church as a counter-culture that provides an implicit critique of the culture we live in, and the Church as a culture-creating institution that actually displays a culture of its own. At times, the critique of culture comes out. Other times, it’s the church as its own institution, creating a new way of life for the world to see, a way that stems from the power of Christ’s resurrection.
3) I’m sensing a movement back to more expository, substantive preaching in our day. A tilt back toward an emphasis on doctrine. Is this a trend you’re seeing and if so, why?
3. Yes, and I think it’s a good move. Doctrines matter because they reflect truth about who God is and what he has done. The reasons for the trend toward doctrinal, expository preaching are too many to list here. At a fundamental level, Christians still believe God speaks to us through his Word and so we shouldn’t want to mute or muzzle his message to us.
4) You’ve been blogging and writing since 2006–how has the experience enriched your ministry?
4.  I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was six years old. When I started blogging (back in 2004, and then regularly at my current site in 2006), it was just a hobby that helped me keep up my writing skills.

A couple years ago, a friend of mine challenged me to wake up and realize that the blog was an important extension of my ministry. The blog is like writing, or speaking, or any other avenue of communication. The goal should be to serve others well in the name of Christ and bring glory to his name.

5) You spent significant time doing ministry in Romania. What did that experience teach you and how has it informed your work and ministry today?

5. For five years I served in Romania, a formerly Communist country where evangelicals were the minority. The majority of Romanians were Orthodox, but most were Christian in name only. So there were clear lines of distinction between evangelicals and the rest of society. Once we returned to the American South, we discovered the situation was completely reversed. I was ministering in a context in which everyone seemed to be Baptist, but the name was just a name.

So living in one context as part of a beleaguered minority and then being thrust into a different context where we were part of the “majority” opened our eyes to the way evangelicalism mirrors the world in the West. Holy Subversion is an attempt to call the Western church away from cultural captivity, and to shine light on the blind spots that we often miss.