Jeremy L. Berg

I lead an amazingly grace-filled little church who have learned to embrace the mess of real-life relationships. Our church is driven by 3 main priorities: Community, Discipleship and Mission. We’re doing well facilitating ‘community’ and I go to bed each night knowing people at our church will be cared for by one another. We’re making some improvement on serving beyond our walls and supporting God’s global mission around the world.

What keeps me awake at night is the fear that we could successfully form a tight nit community who are doing lots of good in the community and world, but we’re still not being formed into Kingdom disciples who think, act and love like Jesus. I’m preaching my guts out each Sunday, but are we producing disciples?

I’m using Ephesians 4 as a standard to aim for in my pastoral efforts, and spilling some unfiltered thoughts and burdens I have for the church today. We continue with 4:17.

17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

I’m feeling called to more boldly challenge our people “with the Lord’s authority” to live a radically countercultural kind of life, noticeably different from the “hopelessly confused” world around us. Neither “challenge” or “authority” are very popular ideas in many churches today. We want winsome leaders who inspire and positive leaders who influence. We tend to run from anything reeking of an authoritative summons.

I believe our education system has for generations now neglected to teach wisdom. As they say, people have been told what to think but not taught how to think for themselves.

The university was originally built on the grand notion of teaching students the broad spectrum of viewpoints, and championing an open-minded approach to learning and the various disciplines. Now they are bastions of closed-mindedness, censuring more traditional beliefs and putting forth only the ideals of the far left — all the while marching under the banner of tolerance. Hypocrites!

The ancient motto for higher learning was, “Revering God as God is the first step toward gaining wisdom” (my paraphrase of Prov. 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”). So, remove reverence for the Creator from higher learning and you get generations of wandering cynics, hearts hardened toward all moral authority, a herd of people indulging animal cravings and living for “lustful pleasures” with “no sense of shame.” This is essentially Paul’s diagnosis in Romans 1:21-25:

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself…”

You want to know what kind of people our educational institutions are producing? Watch the latest scandal on tomorrow morning’s news. Paul says bluntly what too many thin-skinned preachers won’t say today, “Their minds are full of darkness” and they’ve “wandered far from the life God gives.” The Apostle of grace knew when to put his foot down on lawlessness run rampant!

20 But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. 21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Now, the clarion call to the church! Let’s stop merely trying to fill seats and advancing our organizational goals. Let’s stop entertaining people with hip music and catering to their consumer mindsets. Let’s stop measuring fruitful ministry by counting butts, budgets, buildings and baptisms. Instead, let’s count how many are learning to “throw off their sinful nature” and “former way of life” with all its baggage, and redouble our efforts to teach “the truth that comes from Christ.”

Lets start recovering an “ancient wisdom culture” in our churches.  Let’s start teaching people how to think again, since the university is failing to produce character and virtue and the pursuit of wisdom. Our people need more than a ticket to heaven; they need a higher wisdom for navigating today’s stormy seas!

This means we also need pastors committed to study and deeper learning themselves. We need churches that values ministries aimed at “renewing thoughts and attitudes” just as much as valuing ministries that help the poor. We need to love the Lord with “all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

If we’re going to recover a Wisdom Culture in our churches, then we’ll also need wise sages to return to their place in the company of God’s people. We need pastor-theologians with beards and book-filled studies to come alongside pastor-CEOs in their conference rooms with org charts and strategic visions written out on whiteboards. We need a church built upon the wisdom of the ages, not merely current corporate business models.

So, where are the wise sages today?

I’m spending 4 years doing doctoral studies exploring the role of teachers and sages in the ancient Jewish world of Jesus and the early church. I think the robust Christian faith of the early centuries saw Jesus as not only the perfect example of self-sacrificial LOVE, but also perfect embodiment of the WISDOM from God.

What keeps me up at night? I worry we’re preaching the love of Christ while ignoring the wisdom of Christ. I worry we’re raising up a generation of Christians shaped by the shallow and spineless gospel of the Beatles: “All you need is love, love, love.”

Yet, take away wisdom and all you have a bunch of “foolish lovers” driven along by fluctuating emotions and trendy causes. Love must be accompanied by wisdom. Wisdom guides us to love rightly. Wisdom enables us to speak the truth in love, while a wisdom-less love driven by the spirit of the age will look for ways to eliminate any truth that makes loving more messy, difficult or unpopular.

I want to be part of a church that is forming disciples who are growing in both the love and wisdom of Christ! Paul’s pastoral heart is captured in Col. 2:2-3 where we find both love and wisdom:

“I want [the church] to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of LOVE. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In Christ lie hidden all the treasures of WISDOM and knowledge” (Col. 2:2-3).

Well, that’s enough for now. I’m going to try to get some sleep now…