Hello my friends!

I hope you've had a great week. The last string of newsletters have been focusing on Christian repentance. I wanted to conclude this "series" on a bit of a personal note.

Before we get to that, here are some resources to consider.

RESOURCES TO CONSIDER

-Some of you have asked where you can find my sermons. We actually have our own podcast where they are uploaded weekly. Here is the link to last Sunday's sermon: "Where Religion and Politics Meet."​

-A book I am reading again right now is called "A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing" by Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer. It is a powerful book reflecting on actual situations of abuse within the church in the United States and gives such an insightful, biblical response to how to form a culture of goodness and healing that resists abuses of power. I highly recommend it.

-Another great timely read is called "The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More than Our "Correct" Beliefs" by Peter Enns. With compelling and often humorous stories from his own life, Bible scholar Peter Enns offers a fresh look at how Christian life truly works, answering questions that cannot be addressed by the idealized traditional doctrine of "once for all delivered to the saints. It is such an encouraging and insightful read. Enns offers a model of vibrant faith that views skepticism not as a loss of belief but as an opportunity to deepen religious conviction with courage and confidence. This is not just an intellectual conviction, he contends, but a more profound kind of knowing that only true faith can provide.

-I am also about to start reading "Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times" by a fellow pastor in my denomination, Adam Hamilton. Let me know if you plan to read it as well and we can do so together.

Alright, on with the newsletter.

My deepest wounds were not caused by those outside Christianity, but from those within.

I have been following Jesus since I was 5 years old and felt called to be a pastor at 7 years old. I was born into Christian fundamentalism, moved on to Evangelicalism for the majority of my teens and early ministry, and now I am serving at a Methodist church.

Over the years, there has been a lot of healing and goodness from those within the church, but there have also been so much wounding as well, not even to mention the wounding on an institutional and political level that has happened as well, all seen by the public eye.

I think this is why so many Christians like myself and probably many of you who are reading this, are so baffled by the obsession with fighting "culture wars" from so many within the church. There is so much language of condemnation and bitterness towards those that do not fit neatly within an often absolutist set of “Christian values,” all while there is so much sin that needs confessed, repented from, and healed among ourselves as Christians and within our own institutions.

This preoccupation with “culture wars” have left so many Christians externally obsessed with how our culture might be sinning, even pursuing political power to confront it ourselves, all while neglecting the sin that is happening internally and causing ongoing harm to others and ourselves. This dynamic advances the misguided belief that the sin in our culture is somehow worse than the sin within the church. This is where hypocrisy comes from. Our culture often sees it more clearly than we do ourselves.

To me, hypocrisy is the greatest threat to our Christian witness in the world. The greatest threat to our Christian witness has never been an external one. Rather, it has always been those who claim to follow Jesus who misuse the power of his name to secure, maintain, and enforce their own control over others by any means possible, rather than embody his love in the world. This includes repenting from our own sins.

We must repent from this dynamic. We must choose humility rather than pride as if we have all the answers and soberly reflect on how we Christians have contributed to the problems of the world, both within and outside the church, present and historically.

We must choose compassion towards others rather than control, rooted in the understanding that simply because we call ourselves “Christian” doesn’t make us better than others in the world. In fact, it should make us understand even deeper how deeply important grace and understanding is in the work of healing and restoration.

My deep and continual prayer for years now has been to see this kind of honest, humble, and sober attitude take deep root among us Christians, confronting the sin within our own religion. For only then will we be able to see everyone in our culture, not as our enemies, but as our human siblings, created in God’s image, deserving of the same love, respect, dignity, and grace we have been given by Jesus. No matter what. For that is truly who they are.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” -Jesus (Matthew 7:3).

May we have ears to hear and the courage to make a difference.

As always, I really appreciate you reading. I always love hearing from you, so please feel free to drop me an email whenever you like. If you know someone who would enjoy being involved in these conversations, you can invite them by sending them this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/​

Speak with you soon!

PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS:

​What do you mean by "Christian?"​

​The Gospel Comforts the Disturbed and Disturbs the Comfortable​

​A Wrestling Faith​

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