Sublime

Modernity’s wager means that God has been made a useful element in our own agency.

God doesn’t stand for a leader who is doing things his own way, disregarding the good of the people, betraying the God of the universe, and seeking selfish gain.

The Protestant pastor particularly is to help people’s longing heart find rest in God. Whether with words or practices, the pastor’s job is to shape people’s inner life, sending them further inward to find the presence of God.

Here is the ultimate mark of our decline. Because the church has largely lost its theological orientation in the wake of the Enlightenment and the ascendancy of a consumer culture, we have, perhaps unwittingly, redefined our God and what it means to know Him.

This is not an entirely modern discovery. John Calvin begins his theology with the assertion that wisdom in religious matters consists in perceiving the interconnectedness of self-knowledge and the knowledge of God.

Again, pastor, your church is not your church, but Christ’s church. Peter makes sure we know that the flock of God among us is “the flock of God” (1 Pet. 5:2).

And if the pastor can’t do this, completely shaking off the what in favor of the how, then she is always under the threat of being perceived, ironically, as a blockage to people’s genuine (authentic) spiritual journey (more on this below).

People experience human flourishing when they serve as priest-kings, using their mind, affections, will, and body to enjoy loving relationships with God, self, others, and the rest of creation.