Is this the big one?

Modern culture is going through the river of relativism in a dramatic way in this new century. It takes many forms. Sometimes it is a passionate appeal by another to live and let live. Other times it is a reasoned argument from a different perspective that calls into question what we believe. Whatever the source, many believers are surrounded by uncharted waters. While most believers grew up with a strong sense of certainty about their core beliefs, these times can rock any ones understanding of truth. In our book we called these moments Great Disturbances. They are the moments that can change how you view truth. You might go from a person who believes that all truth is knowable to a person who decides that there is no truth or that truth is a personal reality. You might also move, as we did, to the other side of the river where there is truth we know and truth we are learning. But how do you know when you are entering a Great Disturbance in your life? Let us share with you a few indicators: 1. You come up against something in your life that your current truth lens cannot explain or deal with. 2. You loose the ability to control your world and how you view truth and you are forced rethink your world. 3. You realize that the assumptions you based your life on are not as solid as you realized and you reconsider those assumptions given your situation. 4. You find that the answers that used to satisfy you no longer do and you invest in seeking clarity amidst the uncertainty. Does this describe you? If so you are probably going through a great disturbance and you have the opportunity to reconsider your assumptions about truth and ask God to give you clarity about how He wants you to know His character, His world and His plan for your life.

Telling Worldview from Personality

When we talk about your truth lens (see previous posts) many times people assume that someone has a particular view of truth based on how they interact. But many times I have found that our social skills do not necessarily define our truth lens.

For instance, if someone is dynamic and excitable, you might think that they are a Rock Dweller (a person who believes they can understand truth completely and usually defends that position strongly). But people who live on the Islands or in the Valley can also have this personality.

So how do you distinguish personality from worldview? You have to get down to motive. A Rock Dweller is always sizing up what you are saying and deciding if it is true or untrue. An Island Dweller is not interested in whether it is true because truth is personal. A Valley Dweller believes in objective truth but views it as a learning process with those around them.

No matter what their personality, you have to find out the motives that drive their truth search and through those motives you will get a sense for where they are coming from.

An Island Dweller's greatest motive is harmony without dealing with the deeper issues. So they will always strive to equalize their surroundings and allow things to be "true enough." The Rock Dweller will affirm and praise what they agree with and try to dismantle what they disagree with. The Valley Dweller will define whether the idea being presented is part of the truth they know or if it is something they have to investigate and learn from.

Look below personality to get a sense for these ways of viewing truth.

Leading Through Disagreement

If you are a leader then you have had to negotiate between people on your team who disagree. When there are two people together in a room there will always be moments of disagreement. Very few leaders handle these situations well. In fact, over the years some of the biggest complaints I have heard about leaders is their handling of conflict.

Well, conflict has a lot to do with your Truth Lens (the concept from our book Through the River). The way you understand truth defines how you will negotiate between two people who claim they have the truth on their side. In our book we have three communities along a river. The Rock Dwellers believe that all truth is knowable and that there is one way to view everything. The Island Dwellers believe that truth is personal and they do not try to impose their understanding on people from other islands because their are no bridges. The Valley Dwellers live in community and believe there is truth we can know and truth we are learning. That learning requires humble dialogue.

As you can imagine leaders from these three communities will approach conflict in very different ways:

• Rock Dwellers will assess the two warring factions, weigh the information, side with the one they think is right and negotiate a surrender from the other side. This always leaves the other group defeated and disempowered.
• Island Dwellers will look for a pragmatic solution that gets people working together again without being too concerned about trying to get to the bottom of the situation - since they don't believe that one answer is attainable.
• Valley Dwellers will look for the piece of truth that is known and affirmed in Scripture and then build from there to have those in disagreement process their struggles and learn together. They will sacrificially stand in the middle and create an environment of humble learning because the process is just as important as the resolution.

We believe that Leading from the Valley represents a way forward for leaders who have been beat up and torn down by conflict in their organizations. What do you think of the way your Truth Lens might impact your ability to lead in conflict?

Looking at the World through a Both/And Lens

As we continue to discuss the concept of a truth lens, it is important to develop simple tools to help us understand them better. I came across one of these recently. I call it the "Both/And Tool". This is a way of thinking that allows us to avoid the over-simplified truths that the rock dwellers (or positivists) rely on and allows us to think more deeply about truth. It allows us to consider both options and see the the truth in each of them.

Now the challenge is that island dwellers (instrumentalists) and valley dwellers (critical realists) both like the "Both/And Tool" for different reasons. The island dwellers who only believe in personal truth, view this tool as a way to coexist with everyone without having to define truth in any particular way. They hack this tool for their own purposes when they do this.

On the other hand valley dwellers (critical realists) use the Both/And Tool in a differnet way. It is not designed to keep people from having a foundation of solid truth, but it is used as a way to engage the community in learning together. That means that critical realists will acknowledge the truth they know and then use the Both/And Tool to interact about the truth they are learning in community.

I recently wrote a blog post about this for Lausanne called "Are you a Both/And Thinker?" Take a minute to read this great example of using the Both/And Tool.

Visualizing Truth

Recently we recieved an email from a "Through the River" reader. This is what she had to say:

"I was conversing with our Music Pastor's wife, and 2 other home school moms and we were talking about your visual picture of world view lens and the River Town. They all got out their blackberries and touch screens and wrote down the title of your book so they could go get their own copy. Because of your explanation I understand so much why were are so focused on world view. At our homeschooling convention - the theme of everything was world view.

I am contemplating teaching a class on your book to highschool students. It is so powerful. Thanks so much for writing it.....I am just so amazed at God's timing....right when I needed a book to explain it visually in a vivid way to Jacob. JT just picked it up today and is reading through it."

What a great testimony to the power of a word picture! It is amazing what can happen when truth takes on different forms. We have been so trained to read truth in arguments and propositions that we fail to remember that God is so much bigger than linear logic. God can use images, imagination, history, art, memories, and the list goes on and on.

We would love to hear from others of you who have read the book. How has God used the visual image of River Town to bring this truth into perspecitve for you?

Growing in Humility as we Live in Community

I just wrote a blog post for The Lausanne Movement. As many of you know I am helping coordinate the Lausanne Blogger Network, social media and the Lausanne Blog. This week I wrote about truth and the Lausanne Global Conversation - especially about what happens when believers in community disagree. Take a minute to read the post and get involved in the Global Conversation!

Surviving the Commute

I rushed to each light, only to wait in the hot car, listening to the radio chattering on. It was the morning commute and I learned to endure it—even enjoy the liminal time between my worlds. It’s was a time to think ahead to the coming day; a time to prepare. I needed this time. Life at work was so different from life at home. At home it was secure, sure, steady. I knew what to expect, and I knew the rules. Work was full of uncertainty. Different personalities and ways of thinking created conflict, discomfort and frustration. I never quite got used to these feelings.

Why is it that we think so differently? Why when I talk to some people do we just miss each other’s meanings completely? Could it have something to do with our ideas of truth? Maybe the foundations of our thinking are made out of very different materials. Maybe we live on two sides of the same river.

Through the River describes what it’s like living on the rocky shore of the river where people believe in a firm truth and rely on logic to get there. Many people today grew up in a world where this was the primary way of thinking. But then people began to get into the river and swim out to the sandy islands to live. They left the rocky shore because they could no longer believe that logic was the only way to truth. But they began to believe in a totally personal truth and became isolated from each other. Not happy with the sandy islands, some people returned to the rocky shore, but others swam onto the other side of the river. These people began to believe in truth that not only can be found through logic, but can be found in other ways—like personal experience and history.

In our lives, we can all think of people who live in one community along the river or another. Perhaps we live on one side and work on the other—commuting back and forth along the river. When I didn’t understand what the difference was, it was discouraging, disorienting and frustrating. But once I understood what the difference among people was in their view of truth, it became much easier to deal with.

One thing that helped me in relating to people in different parts of the river is realizing that it is not my job to change their perspective—to convince them of another way. Your assumptions about truth are not like your eternal salvation. You can be a Christian and live on either side of the river or on the sandy islands. So it is not imperative that I try to win people over to my way of thinking.

But though I may not need to convince people to think like me, understanding how others think helps my relationships and understanding. For instance, if I live on the rocky shore and work in the river, I know that pragmatism drives the decision-making of the people I am working with. Logic will not reach them, but relationships will. I know then that is important to build good relationships and to hear the stories of people in order to understand where they are coming from.

If I live in the river and go to school on the rocky shore then I know it will be important to have arguments for why I believe certain things. I will understand why truth comes first in all conversations, why the story behind things is secondary and why conversations turn to debate more often than not.

If I live on the far shore and come to visit either the sandy islands or the rocky shore, I may always feel at least a little out of place, but I have an advantage. I both affirm the belief in logic of the rocky shore residents and hold valuable the importance of story and personal experience of the sandy island residents. I can begin to build relationships with either person because we have something in common.

So the commute can be hot, frustrating, and tiring, but it can be done. By understanding how others think about truth I have the ability to work with people who think very differently than I think.

Shining a light on Truth

I have just returned from the MAI Board meeting in Chicago. Serving with MAI is one of my great joys. The ministry trains and equips thought leaders – most of whom are authors or publishers in countless countries around the world.

When the chairman of the Board, Mark Carpenter, opened up our meetings he shared a story that impacted me and is a great example of the truth lens we highlight in our book. Here is how it went:

Mark shared how he and his son attended a city-wide cultural event held in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. One of the sponsors who hosted a part of the event was a local art museum that had a large sculpture garden as a key exhibit.

This museum’s event was a walk through the sculpture garden at night with each participant holding a flashlight. The participants would shine their lights on a sculpture when the guide was sharing about that particular work. Mark also mentioned that some of the sculptures were so big that the group had to work together with all their lights to bring the entire work of art into the light.

Mark went on to share how each of us on the board brings various experiences, ideas, etc. to the work of MAI. Each of us are shining our light onto the vision and mission of the organization to bring it into full view.

What an amazing analogy for truth!

In our book we share about the three communities along the river who view truth differently. The third community that we focus on is the Far Shore of the river and they believe that there is absolute truth but much of it is still unknown to us and has to be learned in humble community.

As I thought about Mark’s flashlight story, I realized that it is a wonderful example of the Far Shore of the river. The fact that the sculpture existed was not in question. Everyone knew it was there because the guide was talking about it. But the many visitors could not see it in the dark. To remedy this, they had to each shine their light on the sculpture to bring it out of the darkness.

That is the way it is with truth. We know that truth exists and that God is the master of it. He is our guide in the sculpture garden. But many times that truth is not clear or easy to see. But as we learn together in humble community and shine each of our lights on that piece of truth, it becomes much clearer.

Think back on this week and consider a moment when you and a friend, co-worker or family member were wrestling through a topic or idea. What light did you shine on the idea – what light did they shine on it? How did your interactions in community bring the idea into focus for both of you?

What the Bay Bridge Can Teach Us About Truth

That iconic bridge in San Francisco that many people have seen in movies or as tourists is a powerful example of the change in how people understand truth. We got this insight after watching 60 Minute's segment about the new bridge currently being built.

The show focused on the race against time to build the new bridge before a major earthquake strikes the area. According to geologists it is time, but the bridge is far from done. There was the usual drama over time lines and budgets, but that is not what caught our attention.

When they were interviewing one of the builders, he explained how in decades past people thought that the best way to help a structure survive the earthquake was to build it as solid and sturdy as possible. But after a major earthquake hit the area and damaged many of the sturdiest structures, they are now focused on buildings that can sway and move. During the piece, they showed how one particular section of the new bridge had at least 6 feet of sway built into the structure.

What does this say about truth you ask? Well, in the last century the truth lens of positivism ruled the thinking of scientists, builders and financiers alike. This way of thinking said that all truth was knowable and claimed that the job of mankind was to build the most solid foundation possible by accumulating truth in an effort to collect it all.

But just as an earthquake shattered the illusion of safety in sturdy buildings, post-modernity and relativism shattered the idea that all truth was knowable. People began to look at those towers of truth they had built and realized that there were many hidden holes and cracks.

Today a new truth lens is emerging called critical realism (the one we share about in our book "Through the River"). This new way to look at truth says that there is a common foundation on which we can build, however the key to stability is having plenty of give in your structure that will allow for the tumult of the 21st century. Just like the new bridge, those constructing the framework for truth today are creating an environment that establishes the truth we know, but then realizes that there is much truth that we are learning together. The new bridge is dug deep into the San Francisco Bay so that the bridge is anchored firmly in the ground. But the rest of the bridge is attached to the solid tower and is designed to learn and adjust to each earthquake that might come.

So are you building your understanding of truth as a solid structure that strives to defy the earthquake of relativism or are you building a structure that is designed to hold fast by leaving room to grow and learn?

Why Truth is Important . . . its not what you think!

I listen to certain Christmas songs all year round. Does that surprise you? Well, it certainly surprises me. Sometimes I wonder why I turn my Ipod to these specific songs when they are very much focused on the Christmas season. But as I listen to them I remember why and those songs bring my faith to life. They speak about Truth in a person . . . the Christ.

But thinking about Truth as a person is a very odd thing to do, isn't it?

Ever since Christianity's growth began to challenge the ideas and power structures of their day, the quest for what is "the Truth" has been at the center of wars, nation-building and cultural upheaval. Truth with a capital "T" has been our goal and we have taken extreme measures to discover it, define it and monopolize it.

But how have we defined and understood Truth? For the most part we have done so through a series of propositions. Ideas that are observable and reproducible. We developed the scientific method as a way to document and categorize these ideas as our understanding of our surroundings grew more and more complex.

In reality we have done the same with our faith. We have created volumes full of statements about what we believe and how they impacts our lives and actions. Those volumes become truth with a capital "T" and we use them as foundational for our understanding of truth.

There is definitely a place for this kind of knowing, but I want to stress for you another kind of knowing that is equally important . . . Truth incarnate. In Isaiah 48:17 God says "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go." We all believe that God is the source of Truth and the one who can direct us and guide us. But that is a pretty comfortable idea since God is this supreme being out there that never became something that we could touch or feel. Never, that is, until Jesus came as the incarnation of God to this Earth to bring salvation and redemption.

All of a sudden truth with a capital "T" has a name, wears sandals, eats fish, has nightmares and eventually died on the cross. That is the idea that I keep coming back to with these Christmas songs. The idea that all that is real, true and right was among us! People like you and me saw the God of the universe in human form and we have records of what He said and what He did. I love how Jesus says in John 14:6, "If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well."

What this means is that the things that Jesus chose to care about represent Truth. The people He spent time with and the stories He shared represent His values and His presentation of God's character to us. Every time I read the Gospels, I am amazed that I am able to see into God's mind through the actions of Jesus.

But if you truly believe that we can see truth with a capital "T" when we look at Jesus, then the next thing that God did is even more amazing. Once Jesus had left the disciples, the Holy Spirit descended and came to live in all those who believed. In fact, thousands of years later, we as Christ-followers still have the blessing and honor of having the Holy Spirit in us.

So does that mean that truth with a capital "T" lives in us . . . you . . . me? Does that mean that when I respond to the Spirit and not to my flesh that I am representing the God of the universe and showing His mind and His heart to others?

If so than our lives are incarnational and our actions can reveal the character, values, ideas, desires of God. And because God's Truth is so much larger than anything we as humans can fully grasp, when we represent God and put aside our sin and selfishness, we are revealing things that God wants others to see and know. Could it be that God might use you to reveal a new idea that fills out what He has already provided through thousands of years of other believers and through His Word?

That changes how I view my preparation for tomorrow. My thoughts, attitudes and actions could be used by God to bring Truth to those around me, or they could be used to satisfy my sin nature and the Prince of Darkness who plagues this world and torments so many.

Will my life be a tool for God to bring Truth into this world?

I cannot think of a question with more practical and immediate implications than this one!

The Journey of Truth as Tourism

This month we continue to respond to the excellent articles being posted on the Lausanne Global Conversation site about pluralism and the struggle to understand truth. This is a key topic and was the focus of our book - Through the River.

Today we want to highlight one of the official responses to the article by Krish Kandiah who serves as executive director of Churches in Mission for the UK Evangelical Alliance. What I love about the response is the use of the analogy of tourism to talk about our truth journey. This ties in so well with our analogy of going through the river of relativism as people interact with truth.

In this response the author challenges us in two key ways:

1. There is a challenge not to be "tactless tourists" that simply ignore what those searching for truth are going through and demand that they understand truth the way we do. Here is a quote that I love, "The tactless approach to pluralism can lead the church to retreat into arrogant absolutism." This is so true. What we have seen as we have studied the way people view truth is that many fight away the uncertainty of relativism through arrogance. This is easy to understand because people are trying to reduce the uncertainty around them but it is a huge mistake because it makes Christianity so irrelevant to the larger community who is struggling with truth.

2. There is also a challenge not to be "reluctant tourists" that cower in the face of the pluralistic approach all around us. In our book we call the "reluctant tourists" the "island dwellers." They live out in the river of relativism on sandy islands where there is truth but it is completely personal. Unfortunately most believers in the West live in this world of personal truth where there are no bridges to others. I agree with this great quote from that section, "A fast-food message cannot compare to the nourishment offered by a local flavoursome organic church." What a powerful way to combat the idea that truth can no longer be anything but personal. In our book we talk about a third way that is very compatible with how this article approaches the subject. We talk about a humble approach to truth that is derived in relationship to God and in community with believers.

Our prayer is that this global conversation hosted by Lausanne will be a catalyst to bring that kind of truth discussion to the forefront.

Truth in a Human Context

I am very excited about the upcoming Lausanne Capetown 2010 conference in South Africa. It is a key moment in the life of the 21st Century global church. You can follow Capetown on twitter at www.twitter.com/capetown2010.

This month the Global Conversation leading up to the event is focused on how our world understands truth. This is a key topic for this century and it needs some fresh thinking. I want to focus on one paragraph from Mark Chan's article in Christianity Today and on the Global Conversation:

"Our common humanity is a good starting place to share the truth of Christ. It is in the safety of genuine friendship, where trust is earned and respected, that we may honestly question assumptions. Christians can learn to sow seeds of subversion in the field of relativism by raising questions about the adequacy of moral relativism as a guide for life."

What I like about his approach is that he is starting from a position of human relationship when he talks about truth. The mistake we make so often is to force truth into an objective and sterile world. The age of modernity pushed this as the ultimate goal. But in making the truth sterile they also made it completely without meaning to humanity. It was a bunch of numbers and facts on a page without any context.

In the context of relationship we can validate the truth that we know and understand and commit to learn the rest of the truth in humble community. Mark did not really go there and I wish he would have taken that next step and challenged people not just to fight against relativism but to actively learn truth together.

One of the great challenges that we run up against in the "fight for truth" today is that people think they have to defend the truth. One of the things that Mindy and I have realized as we wrote the book with Dr. Paul Hiebert about our truth lenses is that the best defense for truth is a strong commitment to learning in community. It provides accountability and it also allows our understanding to be framed by what God is telling people across many backgrounds, cultures and experiences.

As we share about in our book, relativism is a natural progression from the short-comings of modernity. The key challenge I would like to throw out there is that the answer is not to pull people back from the raging river of relativism to the rocky shore of modernity. There is another side to the river where absolute truth can exist within the context of learning in community. That is what will appeal to those tired of being buffeted by the waves of relativism.

Is God bigger than your village?

In Tom Steffen's book "Reconnecting God's Story to Ministry," he shares about the "blinders" that we can have when our worldview shapes our theology.

"Worldviews influence the development of theological categories of convenience; they also automatically create blinders to other themes of the Storybook. All theologies are local theologies, but Western theologies tend to conceive of themselves as containing the fullness of the truth. In fact, many Westerners don't believe that culture impacts ones's questions and interpretations of theology. They argue that one is able to remain cultureless while interpreting Scripture." (pg 87)

This idea of blinders is a significant one. Each worldview has a truth lens, as we talk about in our book, and many times those who hold a certain worldview believe that their understanding of truth is the only acceptable way to view it.

Tom does a wonderful job here jolting us out of that understanding and daring us to think that there could be more than one way to view something as deep and intricate as theology - the study of God. Paul Borthwick described this so well in the introduction to our book when he speaks of an encounter with an Ethiopian Christian and their disagreement. Here is what Paul said,

"We disagreed, but as we walked towards our next meeting, he (the Ethiopian believer) turned and said, "We must have these conversations, for if we do not, we will each end up with our own village God." (pg 4, Through the River)

That is powerful! Because many of us have the tendency to focus on our own beliefs and understandings of truth as the only way to view the world, we become isolated and we make God as small as our understanding and our reality. God is much bigger than a village, but for our comfort and security we confine Him to a space that we understand.

Now the opposite is no option either. Many people swing open the gates of their village and say that God is whatever you want Him to be. This is the prevalent way of viewing truth in our culture today. And those who have a village God fight it with all their might. But the tide is too strong. Why would you ever believe that God is as small as a village when you could set God free to be whatever anyone wants?

So that is where we (and Dr. Paul Hiebert) present a third way. We call it "the truth you know and the truth you are learning." In our book we share how those who have liberated their village God and have now found that a God without any absolutes is no God at all, have another truth lens to consider.

This truth lens we share as an third way is simply that there are absolute truths that we have identified throughout Christian history and can be confirmed within our setting. These are the undeniable truths of the faith. But there is also a huge amount of truth about God that we have not yet understood. That "truth we are learning" is slowly uncovered through our experience with God, through other cultures and through the unfolding of history. Slowly God is revealing more and more of Himself as we engage with other believers and humbly learn together in community.

So what truth lens do you have? Do you believe that all truth is knowable and that your village represents all of what God is? Do you believe that God is everything to all people and that personal experience defines who God is? Or do you believe that there is truth we can know and truth we are learning in community?

What you believe about truth matters? It colors your faith, your relationships and your outreach. Pray about it and share where you are in your journey of truth.

Understanding Truth within a Global Conversation

As each of you are on your truth journey, we would like to recommend a specific exercise to strengthen your understanding of truth and challenge your thinking. We are involved in the Lausanne Movement and they have launched a Global Conversation leading up to next years Congress in South Africa. This is the largest interaction of evangelicals in the world and it is a wonderful opportunity to see how our brothers and sisters understand truth as it applies to key topics.

Take a minute to visit the Global Conversation page, read the key articles and jump in on the conversation. Click here to begin!

Why is this so important? We are convinced that unless you are asking questions from the larger world, challenging your assumptions and humbly listening to others, you will never grow as Christ intended you to. It is easy to become more and more entrenched in our own ways of looking at the world, but it takes courage and strength to reach out.

Now we are not saying that it doesn't take courage to stand for what you believe and to not be swayed by deception. But what we are saying is that we need to be always learning, always asking questions, and always open to what God may have for us today.

Blessings as you join this global conversation!

Understanding "the truth we are learning" through Stories

I came across a great speech by a Nigerian author the other day thanks to a friend of mine from Kenya. The author's name is Chimamanda Adichie and she told the TED conference that one of the great mistakes that we have made as people is to promote only one story.

She shared how when she was a child she only red European children's books and so when she began to write as a young person, her books were filled with snow, tea and other European things even though they were not part of her daily experience.

This happens so often. We tell a single story and expect it to accurately represent truth across thousands of languages, geographies, relationships and experiences. What I love about Adichie's challenge is that she is asking people to expose themselves to more than just the story that is most common to their experience.

Now as we think about truth, the key is what we share in our book. The three truth lenses have very different perspectives on the stories that we interact with. The rocky shore (positivism) believes that we should identify the one true story and help everyone get on that page and enjoy the richness of it. The islands (instrumentalism) believe that we should allow for countless stories to exist at the same time without any need to harmonize them. The far shore believes that there is a core story that runs through our lives as believers that we can share in common with everyone and that other stories add richness to the core story as they bring their experiences, cultures, relationships and history to the community of learners.

Take a minute to watch this powerful presentation and ask yourselves these questions:
1. What story is dominant in my life?
2. When other stories come into my path, how do I respond?
3. What can I learn from other stories that are not my own?

Maps

Maps are wonderful truth tools to explain life on the far shore with the Valley Dwellers (critical realists). The map represents some portion of reality, without representing the whole thing. A map of my neighborhood may have the fences drawn in, but a map of my whole town would omit that truth. It doesn’t mean that the truth of the fences does not exist, it just means that it is not part of the map.

So for the Valley Dwellers, you can understand truth without having the whole truth. A map can omit truth and yet still be true. This illustrates the truth we know and the truth we are learning. The truth we know may be the street names and the distance from one place to another. The truth we are learning may be the fences or the color of the mailboxes. We are not given an infinitely detailed map of reality. We only have maps to help guide us as we navigate our world.

An Intentional Journey: Thoughts after KKMS Interview

So I (Jon) recently did an interview on KKMS in Minneapolis, MN. Great station and wonderful hosts for afternoon drive time. One of the things we talked about was the difference between evangelism from the Rocky Shore where people believe they can know and represent all truth to the Far Shore where people believe there is truth you know and truth you are learning.

As we talked about it a cool thought came out of the discussion. Really the main difference is that on the Rocky Shore you are trying to convince people that you can know all truth and if they accept your ideas you will lead them to a fuller understanding. A Rock Dweller holds out to people the idea that this is a key piece of truth that they must know as they strive to know all things completely.

Many times, those in the river of relativism or the Island Dwellers who represent isolated personal truth, feel that this is very arrogant. They have experienced other ways of knowing truth beyond reason and logic and are convinced that the people on the Rocky Shore are delusional.

Now on the Far Shore the Valley Dwellers do believe there is a foundation of truth. But the basic assumption about truth is different. They believe that a foundation of truth is possible in community and through the study of God's Word, but the rest is a process of learning together and trusting God. So when a Valley Dweller engages with a non-christian about faith, they explain the foundation but readily admit that there is so much to learn and so many things to know. They will even say that many of these things won't be known till we are in Heaven with God and that this is OK.

This approach to truth is seen by those in the river as much more humble and approachable. They still have to come to an understanding that there is a common foundation of truth, but it is easier for them to take a step out of the river towards the Valley Dweller's community rather than the harsher reality on the Rocky Shore.

The Valley Dwellers have a foundation but are very happy to go on a journey with non-believers as they study, think, talk, learn. This doesn't mean that the Valley Dweller's have given up their foundation of truth, but it does mean that it isn't a simple yes/no dialogue.

The greatest challenge with the Valley Dweller approach is that it requires deep relationships with non-believers and an investment that may never pay off in a salvation prayer. It requires a deep love and commitment to the person and an investment in their growth. This is a great sacrifice in our "microwave culture" where we want results quickly. That is the great challenge of life on the Far Shore - nothing is quick.

It is an intentional journey!

Opinion or positivism (Rock Dwellers)?

On a radio interview today, the show host, Bob Dutko from WMUZ, asked a very good question. To summarize the idea: What is the difference between holding an opinion and being a rock dweller in our analogy of River Town? Like many things, the answer is a heart issue.

An opinion by definition is a view that’s held at arms length, knowing that there is enough evidence to invoke doubt. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/opinion The question of truth lenses runs deeper. It asks about knowledge and the nature of that knowledge.

Positivism, or the truth lens held by the rock dwellers, tells them that they can know truth and know it fully, if they just work hard enough. It’s more than holding opinions, it is the belief that you are right without doubt or room for more information outside of logic and reason.

An Island Dweller and a Valley Dweller can hold opinions, but what their truth lenses tell them about their knowledge is very different. The Island Dwellers believe that their opinions are only applicable to themselves. The Valley Dwellers believe that they cannot know the whole truth fully in this lifetime, so an opinion remains an opinion as they discover truth in community.

Then comes the question. Can you be a Valley Dweller and believe in undeniable truth? The answer is yes. There exists undeniable truth, but we will never in ourselves be able to understand that truth fully in this lifetime. We can, in community, learn more truth than we know today, but we still “see through a glass darkly.” We do, however, as Christians believe in the One who does understand undeniable truth and have faith in Him and what He tells us in the Bible. In our book we share a great story and application about faith, hope and love . . . make sure to check it out.

When Humility Becomes Tolerance

We were on WMUZ in Detroit today and the show's host Bob Dutko asked a very good question. I'm going to paraphrase the idea. He wanted to know the line between humility that leads to learning and truth and tolerance that leads to relativism and a destruction of truth. Great question.

The reason it is such a good question is that the line is very thin. In our book we talk about three truth lenses (ways to understand truth) that define most people in America today. Most of modernity focused on people who live on the rocky shore. They believe truth is completely knowable. However in the past 75 years or so people have gotten frustrated with this way of viewing truth. They moved to the islands because they wanted to allow for personal truth and they rejected the idea that logic and reason were enough. The Island Dwellers defined tolerance. They said that we can know truth but it is personal. This means that my truth is not something that can be transfered to you but is only applicable to me. In that situation there is no sharing or learning. All we can do is "live and let live."

But the islands became places of isolation so people moved to the far shore where people built a community that understood truth and had a foundation but realized that much of God's truth was not yet known. The Valley Dwellers focused on the truth they know and the truth they are learning. On the Far Shore, a common foundation of truth makes it so that you can learn together in humility. It is not "live and let live" it is "live and learn." In this community humility creates a posture where we can admit when we are wrong, set aside preconcieved ideas and allow others to help us see truth more fully in the context of relationship.

So the Islands allow for tolerance and the Valley focuses on humility. Both groups might use the same language, but their motives or reasons for what they say are very different. When you are interacting about our foundation of truth, Island dwellers will try to say that the discussion doesn't matter and people can believe whatever they want. I know, I was one. But Valley Dwellers will validate truth, discuss it, understand it and then move on to deeper things that they desire to know about their world, their faith and their God.

So as you are on your truth journey, be looking out for the fine line between humility and tolerance and be serious about pointing out the differences.

Foundations of Truth

Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."

So many times in life we settle for the basic truths of the Gospel. We stop at the things that we hear every Sunday. We ponder them but don’t ask, “What does God want me to learn next?” In doing so we miss out on what God really has for us.

It is vital that we understand the foundations of our faith. Nothing can be more important. But the foundations are just that. They are the beginning, the base. The question we have to ask ourselves is “What does God want us to build on that foundation?” The fruit of righteousness Philippians talks about is the result of what we build on this foundation.

We love this passage because it marries love and knowledge so seemlessly together. As we know more about God we are compelled to love others. And as we love others and humbly engage with them, God promises to be faithful and reveal new truth. That is what authentic relationships are all about.

Think about the last time you learned something new. What was the situation that surrounded your insight? Most likely it involved someone sharing something that they were learning and you then were able to grapple with a new idea in a new way. It might have been an author through a book, a speaker at a conference, a friend over coffee or a teacher in a classroom. The setting doesn't matter.

They key is that as we love God and love those around us, God uses our posture of learning to reveal His truth in powerful and life-changing ways.

So here is the question. What are you doing with the solid foundation you have received in Christ? Are you seeking deeper insights as you grow closer to God and reach out to others? What is God teaching you that is transforming your life for His glory?