Author: Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn

When I was a young Christian my relationship with Jesus was based on his atoning sacrifice on the cross, to rid me of my sin problem. I talked much about a personal relationship with Jesus. I had a personal relationship with Jesus. That relationship was based on gratitude for his atoning death on a cross. Jesus Christ was my substitute. I should have been on that cross. This relationship with Jesus was fortified by the nature of Jesus as both God and Human: God became human and died like one of us. Christ was sinless, and that made his atoning sacrifice “perfect” because Jesus was the only sinless human, and thus his sacrifice was effectual. My understanding of Christianity was further fortified with a hope that when I die some day I will go away to heaven to be with Jesus for all eternity. My Calvinist Reformed Theology told me salvation was “a grace,” a gift I never deserved nor earned. I still believe all this. But these days it feels rather thin and cool – not very relational for all my prayers and thoughts about a personal relationship with Jesus. Something shifted within me. I grew old. In my first half of life “faith” meant “belief.” “I believe in Jesus Christ” was my very loaded faith statement. When I said those words, I meant everything I just said...

In Lakeland’s context, a Redemptive Community is a midsize group – around 20 or 30 people. Redemptive Communities accommodate families, especially families with younger active children. A Redemptive Community has three features: Common CauseCommon MealCommon Prayer “Common Cause” is the most powerful of the three features. Other groups, small groups may gather around information like a book or a teaching. They may gather around relationships and attempt to gain some meaningful friendships to do life together. But a Redemptive Community (RC) begins with a cause. In Lakeland’s case, there are two active Redemptive Communities that fit this definition: Anapra’s Rice and Beans Community and the China Redemptive Community. Each RC begins with a called passionate pastor or pastor-equivalent leader. They rally the vision and keep the flame burning for the cause. Others join who embrace the cause. A typical meeting of the Redemptive Community includes updates about the cause and strategies to build the cause and do something productive for the cause. Laurie and I help lead the China RC. As a part of our ongoing effort to support Jack and Hannah Liu in China, and their training up of young emerging leaders, the group members take turns and Skype the class on Sunday evenings. So we talk about how the classroom teaching time is going. “Common Meal” is a theological point. Food is fellowship. So we break bread...

I continue to study and apply John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory to church, spirituality and relational health. I am re-reading A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development, 1988. Attachment Theory is based on the idea of a child’s dependency upon its mother. Like a duckling’s dependent attachment to its mother figure, all of us attach or do not attach appropriately to our family of origin, namely our mother. Originally psychologists, from Freud’s era (1920s) thought dependency was a sign of weakness and pathology. Bowlby thought the opposite. Dependency is good.This is a good God thought I believe. A secure child (let’s say an 18 month old) should feel comfortable exploring and then returning to its parent for “refueling” – that is, security (secure base). This is good and natural. A secure child should be upset when its mother leaves the child at the sitter’s, doctor, daycare, hospital, etc. They want their mom. When the mom returns they should want them, cling to them and then finally feel comfortable exploring again. Insecure children will have a variety of reactions to their mother leaving: a) they could be very anxious, inconsolable, and be angry and mourn the loss. Or they could have no reaction. Upon the mother’s return they could ignore them; or they could “punish” their mom. The insecure child may remain inconsolable with their mother. Bowlby and other...

Yesterday at the office I tossed around a link to an Attachment Inventory, which I learned about while in DMin class. Please feel free to take the inventory. Here is the link: http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl  It takes about five minutes. Be careful: you can fake it (skew it) if you so desire to fool yourself and others – but there is nothing helpful there. (Then you’ll need to take the I-Lie-To-My-Self-And-Others  Inventory.) Just so you know, this relates to my doctoral thesis. I am beginning to chase down some types of survey metrics regarding “how close to g-d are you?” This is very slippery data to collect. Most Pew, Gallup and Barna measure satisfaction with g-d or church – but not closeness. The typical survey may pursue spiritual formation practices and habits. That’s good. But measuring moral behavior is NOT really a measure of closeness to g-d. Still, it may be as good as it gets. Unless there is another approach. There might be. I am pursuing the idea of “attachment” to g-d. There is another inventory called The Attachment to God Inventory. I have it, but haven’t set it up yet as a test with the appropriate profile questions… “Age, gender, denomination, etc.”) The results will briefly explain the measurements. Of course we all know there are “lies, damn lies, and then statistics.” But we are left to attempt to...

He has risen indeed! A far cry from merely a non-physical “spiritual” rising, Jesus’ physical body actually rose from the dead.  Jesus was NOT just resuscitated like his friend Lazarus.  No, Jesus took up his life again in a new re-created body (Jn. 10:17).  He still had his wounds (Jn. 20:27).  Yet his wounds seem to cause no pain and certainly were not fatal any longer.  What kind of body did Jesus have?  We cannot truly say:  it was still his same flesh even though some thought he was a ghost (Lk. 24:39); but Luke uses this moment to demonstrate Jesus’ real physical flesh and bone. I am surprised how many Christians think Jesus rose only spiritually and that we too will float off to some far away place called heaven as disembodied spirits.  Remember this:  Jesus comes back to earth (Acts 1:11).  He returns.  Paul says we shall all be changed… the perishable becomes a new imperishable flesh (1 Cor. 15:42 Cf. v.52).  Some uninformed Christians think this earth will be swept away, burned up and gone.  They are partly right – 2 Peter 2:10ff says the earth will be burned, but it is not a vanquishing fire, but rather a purifying fire – more like purifying gold, refining a precious metal.  The world’s evil “amalgam and dross” must vaporized.  “But in keeping with his promise we are...