Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

No Silver Bullets

3 Ways to Normalize Bible Reading

By

Growing up, my favorite sermons were the ones where the preacher would get into the Greek or Hebrew and explain to us common folk what the Scriptures really meant.

In the Greek, this word is translated, pistis, and it means…

In the Hebrew, this word is translated as hesed, and it means..

Those were the moments where I felt like I was being fed “meat,” rather than “milk.” Those were the moments when my ears perked up. Those were the moments that made the sermon worth it…since I couldn’t get that sort of insight on my own. Reading the Scriptures in the “simpleton language” of English just didn’t cut it. Unless I knew the Greek or the Hebrew, I could never attain the level of depth in my relationship with God that my pastor had.

How did that last paragraph make you feel? Did something feel off to you?

In my pastor’s pursuit to be exegetically sound, and to provide “meat,” depth, and insight into the Scriptures, he unintentionally made the Scriptures inaccessible to the congregation.

Without verbally saying it aloud, he was basically saying that the English language wasn’t adequate to understand the true intent of the Scriptures. In his desire to be helpful and shepherd us toward spiritual growth, he was actually going against the point of the Reformation—to make the Scriptures accessible to all.

The point the Reformation? To make the Scriptures accessible to all.

Click To Tweet

Ouch.

Who else is guilty of this? As a pastor myself, I know I am…

[Read more…] about 3 Ways to Normalize Bible Reading

Echo Chambers in Discipleship

By

What do you think would happen if a black man became an undercover spy in the alt-right?

Could it work? What would that even look like? How would a black man have to dress to “fit in” as a white supremacist?

In a recent TEDxTalk, Theo E.J. Wilson shared how he did just that…via Facebook.

In this talk, he shared how he was not only a survivor of police brutality during the height of Black Lives Matter, but also how he woke up one day to more racial slurs, internet trolls, and white supremacists than he had ever experienced before. These people treated him like he wasn’t even human. To the alt-right, he was “an idea, an object, a caricature.”

After reflecting upon this experience, Wilson shared on the TED stage,

I also began to notice that a few of my trolls actually had brains, which made me even more curious and what to understand them even further. And although these supposed morons engaged in what appeared to be original thought, I said to myself, “Um, these guys are highly misinformed, at least according to my knowledge.” Where are these guys getting these arguments from? Like, was there some kind of alternative universe with alternative facts?

Was history and gravity optional over there? I don’t know. But I needed to know. Like, I wanted to know. And as it turns out, I had no idea about digital echo chambers. That same target marketing algorithm that feeds you more of the products you like to buy also feeds you more of the news that you like to hear. I had been living in an online universe that just reflected my worldview back to me. So my timeline was pretty liberal. I had no Breitbart or Infowars or Fox News. No, no, I was all MSNBC and The Daily Show, CNN and theGrio, right? Well, these trolls were hopping the dimensional doorway and I needed to figure out how.

After this realization, Wilson decided to setup a profile on Facebook as a white supremacist in the alt-right, in order to personally experience the echo chamber that these trolls lived in. In the online world, he switched identities and became Lucius25—the white supremacist lurker. He friended white supremacists, he liked American Renaissance and the National Vanguard Alliance, and he began talking bad about Black Lives Matter and Al Sharpton.

Guess what happened? He entered into another reality—the echo chamber of the alt-right where all he began to see was other viewpoints, ads, and comments that perpetuated this worldview.

Isn’t that scary?

Just think about the recent American election. Why was the media so surprised that Trump won? Especially when they were convinced that Clinton had it in the bag?

Two words: Echo Chambers.

Marketing, media, and technology are conditioning us for highly specified, focused, and personalized messages that we’re more likely to comment on, like, and share.

As a result, we’ve learnt that the more general something is, the less likely it is going to relate to me. So we just skip over it and let it go in one ear and out the other. In other words, if it’s for all, it’s not necessarily for y’all.

The more general something is, the less likely it is going to relate to me.

Click To Tweet

So what does it look like to leverage these cultural shifts in your church? And for the way that you disciple?

[Read more…] about Echo Chambers in Discipleship

Systemic Issues in Discipleship

By

Is discipleship directional or about getting to a destination?

Do you ever “arrive” on this side of eternity? Or is it “a long obedience in the same direction,” as Eugene Peterson so aptly put it?

These are the types of questions and tension that I pose in my newly released book, No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry. As I’ve continued to think through, speak on, and coach/consult churches on this direction/destination spectrum as it relates to discipleship, I’ve begun to notice something…

It’s actually quite frightening.

While most pastors and church leaders would agree that discipleship is directional by quoting passages like Hebrews 12:1-2 or Philippians 3:13-14; unfortunately, when you take a look at how discipleship happens in a typical church, we’re not practicing what we preach.

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (‭Hebrews 12:1-2, CSB)‬‬

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14, CSB‬)‬

Our messaging and our methods do not align.

Since culture and normative behavior is highly shaped by what’s communicated, emphasized, and celebrated, have you ever considered what your bulletin and announcements are saying to your church?

[Read more…] about Systemic Issues in Discipleship

How Do You Disciple Others?

By

When was the last time you reflected on the way that you personally disciple others?

  • Are you more of a teacher or a shepherd?
  • Do you like to take people through formal curriculum, or do you use their life situation as the starting point?
  • Do you like to disciple one-on-one, in triads, in small groups, or in classrooms?
  • When are people most apt to change?
  • What role does the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and prayer play in the discipleship process?

Unless you have intentionally spent time studying the way people learn and different methods for discipleship, you probably disciple others the way you were discipled (or in the exact opposite manner). This is because our natural bias is to start with what we already know and have personally experienced.

Our natural bias is to start with what we already know and have personally experienced.

Click To Tweet

If you are a parent, have you ever caught yourself saying or doing something to your children that your parents use to say or do to you?

I catch myself doing this all the time.

When my children are not listening, I just begin counting down from the number five. It’s not like my parents told me this is what I should do, but it’s what they did to me, and it worked.

When I stop to think about it, I don’t even feel like this is the best method for discipline; in fact, my wife, Christina, and I agree that it’s not! But I often catch myself still doing it because of that natural bias.

[Read more…] about How Do You Disciple Others?

A Both/And Approach to Sharing the Gospel

By

I remember walking through my college cafeteria with the Four Spiritual Laws in hand looking for people who might be interested in having a spiritual conversation with me.

Sometimes I’d open up the conversation with, “If you were to die tonight, do you know where you would go?” Or I’d ask, “On a scale of 1–10, how interested are you in spiritual conversations?”

I was often rejected…

Other times, I was met with skepticism. And on the odd occasion, I was actually able to share the gospel and see that individual discover a new life in Christ.

While evangelism strategies that rely solely on the verbal proclamation of the gospel still have their place, they are definitely waning in influence.

The solution is not necessarily to swing the pendulum the other way and just live out the gospel and love people to conversion, either.

Tim Keller frames it well,

If the gospel were primarily about what we must do to be saved, it could be communicated as well by actions (to be imitated) as by words. But if the gospel is primarily about what God has done to save us, and how we can receive it through faith, it can only be expressed through words. Faith cannot come without hearing.[1]

Since the gospel is more about what God has done than what we can do, it needs to be proclaimed through words.

But since crusades, street preaching, and spontaneous evangelism are waning in their effectiveness and influence in many parts of the West, we need to figure out different ways to invite non-Christians into the types of environments where they can hear the gospel proclaimed to them.

This is why we need a both/and approach to sharing the gospel!

There needs to be something different about the way Christians live that forces non-Christians to ask questions. If a non-Christian looks at your life and sees the same fruit, or lack thereof, as theirs, they will see your faith as mere empty religious behavior. Isn’t that why Peter urges us to live as “foreigners and exiles” and “to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul” (1 Pet. 2:11)?

We need to live as outsiders and be distinctly different from society. We need to “live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Pet. 2:12)!

[Read more…] about A Both/And Approach to Sharing the Gospel