The man in the video is Matt Chandler. He’s the lead pastor at The Village Church in Texas. I’ve always enjoyed his wrestling and passion to bring the life giving message of the Bible into the Bible belt. It’s an interesting thing to think of the Bible belt as an obstacle, but in many ways, it certainly is an obstacle. I’ve also enjoyed his thoughts on moralistic deism (mentioned in this particular video). My experience is that this concept is spot on today, and I see it most frequently exhibited during premarital counseling sessions. Specifically I see this when asking how the couple plans on raising their children. I often hear church life brought into the conversation regardless of if they themselves currently are church attenders. I’m told the answer for them doing this is because they want their children to learn morality and learn how to be “good people.” This is a slice of what moralistic deism is all about. It’s not about Jesus, the cross or anything of this sort, it’s about morality. Their conception of God is a bit foggy, undefined, or unexamined. But it seems as though their adhering most closely to a conception of a distant God like one which a deist would describe.
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Great post! What saddens me the most is I think most young adults want God at a arms length away. They want Him on their terms and when they are in trouble and as long as they live by a set of rules on what they can and can’t do – they believe they are in the right standing with God. But as we know this is not the case, God not only wants our heart but He also wants to have a meaningful relationship with us, where He is involved in our everyday lives.
I think you have distilled this down and really put your finger on an unfortunate reality. It’s a reality for any of us regardless of age, and we have to be careful to watch our heart on these issues. I see this within myself far too often…”my wanting God on MY terms.” Yes, I am in the ministry and yet my living often insults God with such a backward way of thinking trying to make God subordinate to me. As I craft my own set of rules in which to live by I lull myself into a spiritual sleep forgetting the lifestyle of a Jesus follower.
That is so easy to do, “make God subordinate to us,” especially those of us in the ministry. It is as if we believe that just because we do ministry for God that He will bless whatever we do and that just isn’t the case is it. We still have to seek the Lord first. And as I get older and hopefully a little wiser, I have experienced that being a “Jesus follower” is a daily commitment, sometime an hour-by-hour commitment to Him.