"RenewaNation" Is A Fitting Name

The new home of Worldview Matters.

A couple of years ago, as Kathy and I approached our 70s (yes, it’s true), I spoke with our board about searching for an organization that would carry Worldview Matters into the future.

We are pleased to inform you that a like-minded organization we greatly respect, RenewaNation, will be taking over Worldview Matters as of January 1. 

"RenewaNation" is a fitting name, and we could not be more pleased with this development!

To learn more about RenewaNation, and its vision for renewal, we urge you to visit www.renewanation.org. You will see why I say this organization is "like-minded," and why we welcome this acquisition so much.  

RenewaNation was founded by Jeff Keaton, who works with a superb team of associates we have grown to love and respect.

I (CO) will be working with RenewaNation over the next 2 years to assist in the transition, as we explore the best use of the services of Worldview Matters, and how these services can strengthen already existing initiatives of RenewaNation. The name “Worldview Matters” will be owned and controlled by RenewaNation.

We encourage all of our financial and prayer partners to become on-going supporters of RenewaNation. Their vision is our vision!

Kathy and I want to express our deepest appreciation and thanks for the support we have received over these nearly 20 years. We covet your prayers as we work together with RenewaNation to facilitate the transition process over the next 2 years.

A word from Jeff Keaton, President of RenewaNation:

A few years ago, I came across the weekly blog posts by Dr. Christian Overman. I was so intrigued with his writings that I made sure this was the one post I read every Friday. In the years since, I have been privileged to sit under his teaching, and better understand the practical tools he has developed to help teachers integrate biblical worldview into their classrooms.

Because his teaching has literally changed my view of work and many other subjects, I count it an honor for RenewaNation to carry his life’s work into the future.

In no way can we replace Dr. Overman, but we will do our best to introduce a new generation of Christian thinkers, leaders and teachers to the powerful concepts he has shared with so many.

We look forward to getting better acquainted with those of you who have partnered with Worldview Matters.


Thank you, Jeff!

Jeff Keaton, the Founder, President and CEO of RenewaNation, and author of The Life of Radical Faith.

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

The World's Greatest Christmas Gift

It has been my tradition to celebrate the carol Joy To The World each Friday before Christmas. Today I carry this tradition on with an added note (or two) from Kanye West.  

Photo by Jeff Weese (Flickr: Nativity) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Joy To The World is based on Psalm 98: "Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth, break forth in song...for He is coming to judge the earth, with righteousness He shall judge the world, and the peoples with equity." 

Some say this song is not about Bethlehem, but about Christ's second coming, and the joy which will occur when He comes to set all things finally straight, in that full manifestation of His Kingship.

While I look forward to the second coming, Joy To The World makes as much sense to me as a celebration of Christ's first coming. While anticipating His Kingdom-yet-to-come, we can celebrate His Kingdom-already-here. 

Before Bethlehem, I Chronicles 29:11 asserted: "...all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all," and Psalm 103:19 declared: "The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all." 

Before His second coming, Acts 10:36 places Jesus' universal authority in the present: "He is Lord of all." 

It's true Christ's Kingdom is not universally recognized on Planet Earth right now. There are weeds in His field, which He did not plant (see Matthew 13). They will be bundled and burned someday, but the domain over which Christ is King (that is, His "King-domain"), includes both heaven and earth, right now. 

The whole field is His. The fact that not every human heart has received Him as King doesn't alter the fact that He is.

This is the world's greatest Christmas gift: that Christ came in human form "to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found." When will this start? At the second coming?

These blessings are intended to flow through people today who are reconciled to God and reconciling all things to Him, including the things of earth, far as the curse is found. Earth's curse will not be found after the second coming.  

So by God's grace, let's occupy until He comes again, pulling up "bramble bushes" and planting "fruit trees" before the second coming arrives.

Joy to the Earth! The Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy!

Far as the curse is found. 

For some Jesus-Is-King-Today music ala 2019, watch this sublime rendition of Kanye West's Hallelujah, Salvation & Glory:

https://youtu.be/yXlu-2VcGW4

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

Life In The Next

What will we be doing in the next life?

I received a startling message from my British friend David Oliver, author of Work: Prison or Place of Destiny. David told me of his family’s brutal journey with his son Joel, who died following an immensely courageous fight with cancer. From diagnosis to death was just 17 days.

The entire family and two friends were present for Joel’s final hours in this life. There were blessings over Joel’s children, and prayers. Then David declared final Scriptures. “As the last Scripture left my lips,” wrote David, “Joel’s last breath left his.”

This whole experience led David to ponder where Joel went, and what he is doing now. David also wondered why so little is written about life in the next, and what we will be doing in heaven.   

Having written over 14 books, David is no stranger to putting his thoughts on paper. But this book, David said, “was strangely different. I was apprehensive about what I would discover. Nervous because having just lost my best friend, inevitably this had an emotional as well as an intellectual importance.”

David committed himself to writing, and his latest book, All About Heaven is the blessed result.

In twelve chapters, David takes an uncompromising and accessible look at the place Christians arrive at after departure from earth. “This book will answer questions,” David says, “allay fears and have your hearts skipping at the thought of being there.”

David's book includes a chapter on work in the next life, titled, "Paradise At Work." Work in heaven? Yes. The Scripture tells us we will reign with Christ, rule and judge angles, and have authority over cities and nations. Cities and nations? David writes about these matters, and much more, with great insight.   

Rich Marshall, author of God@Work and God@Rest, says about David’s book:

”Like so many of you: I have many friends and relatives who have ‘gone on to heaven.’ And while my belief in the eternity we will spend with God is solid, my understanding of what heaven was really like was weak. That is why I ordered multiple copies of David Oliver’s book, ‘All About Heaven.’ This is a powerful, useful, encouraging, and comforting resource for both those who experience grief, and for those who minister to the ones who are impacted by the death of a loved one."

All About Heaven is available through www.davidoliverbooks.com and through Amazon.com here.

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

Can Sunday Be A Time For Activist Training?

Training requires trained trainers.

Can Sunday be a time for activist training?

Let's see... 

Step 1: Trainer talks, trainees listen.

As mentioned last week, telling is not training. But telling provides a necessary foundation for training to follow. The pulpit is a natural place for telling.

Pastors, why not gear some Sunday morning messages toward cultural activism? Why not focus on specific opportunities for cultural engagement (great or small) that could be implemented during the coming week, or month?  

Take the Thanksgiving dinner that just passed.  

Cultural activism starts with opening our mouths when natural opportunities to speak regarding significant issues arise. But we need to know what to say, and how to say it. 

John Stonestreet, President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, recently shared tips on how to prepare for Thanksgiving conversations around "difficult" cultural issues. John's instructions could easily be adapted into a 20-minute Sunday-morning message: click here. 

Step 2: Trainer shows, trainees watch.

A dinner table prop is brought onto the platform with 5 chairs around it. Well-rehearsed participants take their places around a rubber chicken. Here, a true-to-life demonstration takes place, following a Thanksgiving dinner script written in consultation with the pastor. This practiced demonstration takes another 20 minutes. The "showing" part is as important as the "telling" part. 

Step 3: Trainees do, trainers provides feedback.

Trainers work with congregants in groups of 5-6 people. Groups form in the sanctuary. Trained trainers join each group. Visitors only observe. 

Trainers role-play non-believing relatives bringing up "difficult" cultural topics. Participants take turns engaging in conversation. Trainers provide constructive feedback. Without feedback, people are never trained. They may be entertained, but never trained. Step 3 takes 20 minutes. 

Training of trainers would be essential. I recommend my friend Keith Webb, of Creative Results Management. If 20% of the congregation were to participate in a weekend of training, a church could be in business. Ask Keith to customize the training for the above purposes. 

Step 4: Trainees do again--in real life.

This step can only be done outside the four walls of the church. Reports on how it went could be given at the following Sunday morning service, like Jesus sending His disciples out two by two, and having them come back to report how it went. 

A suggestion for Christian schools: start an after-school "Cultural Activist Club."

Difficult? Yes. Necessary? You decide.    

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

But Telling Isn't Training

Firefighting skills require not only telling (verbal instruction), but guided practice (training). Telling isn't training. It's only the beginning, and not even half the job. Training is standard fare for good schools. But in church, it's exceedingly rare.

How can people think it's OK for male athletes to impersonate females and compete against women in sports? No word better describes this than "delusional."

Delusional thinking comes from delusional starting points. People with high IQs professing themselves to be wise become fools. God "gives them over" to their self-imposed absurdities (see Romans 1).

Delusional thinking starts here:

• animate life came from inanimate things and inanimate things self-developed out of nothing

• since there is no Creator, we create our own "right" and "wrong"

• God's Word is Truth for some people, but not for all people

• Jesus is not King of everything (just Sunday service, and my personal life)

In 1994, Randy Phillips wrote: 

"When Alexander Solzhenitsyn sought an explanation for the devastating revolution that destroyed his native Russia, he recalled what those who had lived through the Bolshevik takeover had said: 'Men have forgotten God, that's why all these things happened.' Solzhenitsyn admitted that after decades of study he could not offer a better explanation…Solzhenitsyn's conclusion is certainly a lesson to heed: when men forget God, some very terrible things happen. Leadership becomes corrupt. Marriages end. Families suffer... Eventually, an entire nation crumbles." (Men of Action Newsletter)

Can the U.S. continue to "forget" God and not collapse from within?

If we think so, we too are delusional. 

Let’s understand what we’re up against here. We’re dealing with strongholds of the mind that can only be brought down through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, in cooperation with the Acts of Believers. 

We’re not fighting against flesh and blood, but against "principalities and powers of the air." Yes, real demons. 

Nothing else accounts for the uber-irrationality of Critical Theory. 

In 2 Cor. 10:5, Paul declared: "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

Paul knew the minefield is the mind-field.

This is where training comes in. "Taking thoughts captive to Christ" is a learned skill requiring guided practice. We desperately need students, parents, teachers, business leaders, film-makers and civil servants who are trained in how to "take thoughts captive to Christ," and practiced in the art of "demolishing arguments and pretensions." 

But telling isn't training.  

What's training?

1. Trainer talks, trainees listen

2. Trainer shows, trainees watch

3. Trainees do, trainer provides feedback

4. Trainees do again--in real situations

Stay tuned.
  

Am I an alarmist?

I hope so.

Our communities are on fire. Our nation is on fire.

Followers of Christ need activist training now. Forget the "seeker sensitive" stuff. Perhaps people seeking meaning for their lives would like to find a group of people committed enough to use their prime time on Sunday morning for activist training. Maybe a lot of young people who are currently leaving the church might decide to stay.

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

Observant Jews Messaging Sleeping Christians

It's time to wake up.

In the past month, two compelling pieces have come across my screen written by observant Jews messaging sleeping Christians with appeals of urgency. 

The first piece was written by rabbi Daniel Lapin, author of America's Real War. The rabbi urges Followers of Christ to heed the warning signals of anti-Christian sentiment currently on the rise in the US. 

"Without a vibrant and vital Christianity," the rabbi writes, "America is doomed, and without America, the West is doomed. Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in. Many of us Jews are ready to stand with you. But you must lead. You must replace your timidity with nerve and your diffidence with daring and determination. You are under attack. Now is the time to resist it."

Rabbi Lapin's post is titled, "A rabbi's warning to US Christians." Please read it here:

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/persecution/a-rabbi-s-warning-to-u-s-christians.html?fbclid=IwAR2t82gH02Kb4HOoJI3V496Xtf8SgdW7Ako5Hkip8cIBNyAdg6Mnj2z70tQ

The second piece was written by Melissa Langsam Braunstein, a senior contributor to The Federalist. Her post is titled, "I'm An Observant Jew. Here's Why I Want More Americans To Come To Jesus." 

She wants the "nones" [claiming no faith] to re-awaken to the Christian faith of their past, and she spells out many compelling reasons why this is needed for the sake of our nation. 

Ms. Braunstein writes: "America, it's time to come to Jesus." 

In fact, she wants to see another Christian "Great Awakening" taking place in this country. 

Read the full post here:

https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/12/im-an-observant-jew-heres-why-i-want-more-americans-to-come-to-jesus/

When Jews send Christians the kind of earnest messages we see here, you know it's time to wake up. 

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman 

  

The Notre Dame Address

Was William Barr's speech a signal to people of Christian faith, for such a time as this?

Attorney General William Barr, head of the US Department of Justice, recently delivered a speech to the law faculty at the Catholic University of Notre Dame that should be required reading for all US citizens, especially high school students. 

The Notre Dame Address has caught a lot of artillery shelling. That's a good sign these days. Critical Theorists hate any hint of activism coming from the other side, and criticism is their lifeblood. Being critical is what they live for. It's the heart of the Theory itself: tearing down whatever can be torn down. 

Critical Theorists believe social "progress" will only occur when traditional norms of moral behavior are torn down to make way for a new social order to arise from the ashes. This requires relentless criticism of traditional moral structures, with the goal of total collapse from within. It's recycled Marxism. 

Mr. Barr not only explained in plain English what the American “experiment” was all about, but he put his weighty finger on the heart of the present threat of this great experiment failing, making it clear the current DOJ is fighting that threat.

He said: "I will not dwell on all the bitter results of the new secular age. Suffice it to say that the campaign to destroy the traditional moral order has brought with it immense suffering, wreckage, and misery. And, yet, the forces of secularism, ignoring these tragic results, press on with even greater militancy..."

He later declared: "The problem is not that religion is being forced on others. The problem is that irreligion and secular values are being forced on people of faith."

There's where the current DOJ comes in. 

Barr then referred to the schools as "ground zero" in the battle. That's the truth.

Is his speech a signal to people of Christian faith? I suspect it is. I also think this window will not stay open long. 

Let's not waste more time. If the next presidential election goes a certain way, we may have five years to act. If it goes the other way, we may have one year.   

The Notre Dame Address is not a quick read. I suggest you print it out and read it while taking a long bath, allowing it to soak in slowly. 

This speech may turn out to be as timely and significant as Lincoln's at Gettysburg, if people of faith will take Barr's cue: 

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-law-school-and-de-nicola-center-ethics

Posted by Dr. Christian Overman