Dr Paul Allen

Before you establish what the church is, you have to define what it isn’t. You have to clear away some of the rubble before you can build and construct something. There are four misconceptions about the church that are worth mentioning. 1. One misconception is that the church is merely a metaphor. It’s a term that gets thrown around—almost like Camelot—for some vague sense of community and fellowship. The church is more than that. 2. Another misconception is that it’s simply coffee with friends—that any kind of spiritually intentional gathering is replicating or doing what the church is called to do. Again, that would be inaccurate or insufficient 3. A third would be that the church is a human project. That might sound weird to say because it really is. Churches have staff and elder boards loaded with people. It’s not like angelic beings are running our churches, but the reality is that church is more than a human project. Christ himself says, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). Th...

Do you believe empathy can be spiritually dangerous? I do, and I have tried to explain why and how. And as I have, I have received some criticism (some of it quite fierce). The criticism is not surprising. Most of us have categories for the way that certain passions (such as fear or anger) can become sinful; articles about “the sin of anger” or “the sin of fear” make sense to us. But in the modern world, empathy is viewed as an almost unalloyed good, and therefore the notion that it could be dangerous, and even sinful, may be shocking. Nevertheless, the interactions and criticisms have been both illuminating and instructive. For instance, one group of responses sounds like this: How can you call empathy a sin? Empathy is Christlike care for suffering people that seeks to deeply enter into their pain in order to help them. By criticizing empathy, you must be advocating for an aloof, uncaring, and unchristian response to suffering people. At a basic level, this criticism of my argument i...

At some point today, someone will probably compliment or praise something you do or say. If not today, it will happen tomorrow, or sometime next week. How will you respond? How do you typically respond ? How we respond to praise from others, especially over time, reveals how highly we really think of ourselves. I’m not talking about every specific email or conversation or social-media update, but about the trends in our emails and conversations and social media.  Is our default reaction — our gut heart-level response — to give God credit and glory for our gifts and achievements at work, at home, and in ministry? Or, are we more likely to privately savor that moment for ourselves, to turn the praise over and over slowly in our minds, like a piece of caramel in our mouths? Every compliment or commendation we receive comes charged with potential for worship. When we quietly, even politely, enjoy affirmation or praise without even thinking to acknowledge God, we’re not onl...

English: William Tyndale, Protestant reformer and Bible translator. Portrait from Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Česky: William Tyndale (portrét ve Foxeově Knize mučedníků) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." ( Proverbs 10:12 ) There is an old familiar cliché to the effect that we should "hate the sin, but love the sinner." This may sound a bit trite because of overuse, but it is nevertheless both biblical and practical. It is easy and tempting to be critical and condemnatory toward someone who has sinned (especially if the sin has affected us directly), but such an attitude seldom, if ever, produces repentance on the part of the sinner. As the above proverb reminds us, it will more likely generate an angry, defensive response and further strife. An attitude of loving concern, on the other hand (not of condoning the sin, but of personal understanding and sincere interest in the person) will much more likely lead ...

Image via Wikipedia "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels , and have not charity , I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." ( 1 Corinthians 13:1 )   It is well known that this word "charity" (Greek  agape ) is translated as "love" in most modern translations of the Bible . In fact, even in the King James Version , it is translated "love" more than three times as often as it is rendered by "charity."  One wonders why these scholarly translators of the seventeenth century did not translate agape  by the word "love" here in this very familiar "love chapter," as it has been called. They certainly knew the word did not mean giving to the poor, for they translated verse 3 thus: "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, . . . and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." How could anyone exhibit greater charity than to give everything he owns to the poor?   They evide...