This morning during our teacher collaboration time, a group of us were doing item analysis on a standardized test that is given every year to our tenth graders. While discussing one of the questions and questioning why so many students got it wrong, a fellow teacher remarked, "sometimes we get so stuck on asking what the text means to us that we forget the author's intent..."


What struck me when the comment was made is that it is the same with God's Word. I have no problem discussing how a Scripture touches us or what God speaks to us through His Word, but we can't forget that there was an original meanting or intent for the Scripture, God did place it there for a purpose and it had meaning to the author of the text. That message definitely has gotten lost in "Bible" studies in the Western Church.

I've been thinking a lot about the latest buzzwords of community transformation and the call for the church to get out in the community and be an agent of change. I have a few thoughts on this that I want to get down for discussion:

1) Obviously, if we are just going out and raking leaves and serving food and painting walls without connecting it to Jesus, no change will happen, we will do no good for the Kingdom.

2) It seems like this is the "in" thing to do so everyone is jumping on board. But sometimes churches need to worry about feeding their own sheep before going out and recruiting some more, otherwise we've got more confused sheep wandering around than we had in the first place.

3) I'm all for community development, love what John Perkins is all about and what he is doing/did in Mississippi and Pasadena, so don't let my cynicism cloud the fact that I am agreement with this issue.

4) Community development must flow from a heart to love and serve God's people, it must be nurtured and prayed over and result from a clear call from the Lord, not just something we think is the right thing to do or everyone else is doing is.

Those are just a few thoughts for now that will help me frame some discussions I want to have in the near future with a few people.

I received this about a week ago from a former pro and enjoyed it, began a little correspondence with him, and included his response below.

The Discipline of Secrecy

Religious living often deteriorates into false piety. Our best intentions to read Scripture, serve well, give generously, and pray faithfully can quickly degenerate into exercises of self-promotion and self-glorification.

Jesus, however, warns us that anything we do to draw attention to ourselves -- whatever we do to be noticed by others (Matthew 6:1) -- negates any reward from our Father in heaven. But if we act quietly and non-publicly “Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:4)

As we ponder spiritual disciplines, have we considered the discipline of secrecy?
When Jon Bon Jovi appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s popular daytime television program in the first week of 2006, he presented a check for $1 million towards Hurricane Relief. That generous act thrilled the audience. But, at the same time, Bon Jovi was promoting his musical albums. Did the check come from his marketing budget or from his heart? The public generosity made it very hard to tell.

We must delineate between sin-empowering secrecy and this spiritual discipline of secrecy.
Sin thrives on secrecy. When NBC Dateline set a sting for online sexual predators and then filmed men coming to the home of an underage girl, it became very apparent that those men, for the most part, lived horrifying double-lives. Rabbis, pastors, lawyers, doctors, tradesmen, and others all fell into the net. It cost many of them their marriages and did irreparable harm to their families. That kind of secrecy steals, kills, and destroys everything that the Father intends for us. (John 10:10)

On the other hand, Jesus advocates secrecy over acts that lead us not into shame but potentially into pride. His teaching, however, has few advocates in our self-honoring society.
Our culture teaches us to build a resume, and we do the same with our faith.We drop hints about our spiritual efforts. We mention our sacrificial service and leadership honors. We assist the poor and find ways to let others know about it. We tell stories of our spiritual achievements, victories and good deeds. But a fine line exists between sharing our life stories to encourage others and sharing the stories to enhance our own reputation.

The discipline of secrecy prohibits the building of any spiritual resume. It restrains us when we want to compare ourselves with the next person. It restricts our attempts to advance our own standing in the eyes of the world.

Any of us who would pray “Your Kingdom come” must consider this discipline with utmost seriousness. The coming of His Kingdom means the lessening of our kingdom, and godly secrecy guides us in that direction.

The discipline of secrecy may be one of the least practiced spiritual disciplines of our day – yet one of the most rewarding!

My response to him was that I agree with his premise, but said that in the world we live in, this is almost impossible, great idea, but very impractical. I found that out in my interview process with Life Promotions. His responded:

Perhaps the "spiritual resume" might be better replaced by "spiritual references" -- i.e. refusing to speak for ourselves but only receive what others might say about us. And if they say nothing? So be it. Might selling ourselves may be the ultimate expression of spiritual insecurity?

Very cool! How about going into a job interview and simply giving a list of references instead of having to sell outselves, let others say what we are about, they'll probably be more truthful anyway. I like that!