Author Archives: Maxie Dunnam

We are in the midst of the Advent season. It’s Christmas time. Let’s stay with the story…at least reflect seriously for a bit. 

A central figure is Joseph. He is perplexed, deeply perplexed. The woman to whom he is engaged is pregnant and he knows the baby is not his. He is wrestling with what to do. Will he expose her, making her a public example? He can’t do that; he loves her too much. He takes the only course acceptable to his conscience. He decides to divorce her quietly, privately, hoping to cause as little a ripple in the community as possible.

That decision, though it came out of the love and justice of his heart, didn’t set well. He continued to wrestle with it. In the deep midnight watches and wakefulness of his wrenching heart, an angel appeared with the astounding news:

“Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20—23 RSV)

Jesus will be his name. It had been declared by the prophet, Isaiah, centuries before. The angel had announced it to Mary at the time of her Annunciation: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High…and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:31-32, 33 RSV) So, the question, what’s in a name? 

“You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” That is Good News only when we are willing to admit the bad news about ourselves. The bad news is that we are sinners.

So let’s be very specific, name our common bondage and claim our deliverance.

Do you feel burdened down by guilt? Have you started to realize that the guilt may be from unconfessed sins?

Do you feel pain in your heart because there is a severed relationship that needs reconciliation?

Do you feel helpless because you are held in the tenacious grip of a debilitating habit? Alcohol? Drugs? Gambling? 

Is your energy being drained because you live too close to the line of moral compromise —cheating in business? Preoccupied with sexual lusts?

Does your pride often put you in the position of thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think, of looking down your nose at others?

We could go on and on, but you’ll have to do that personally.

Painful though the process of confession and repentance may be, the joy that comes as a result is “unspeakable and full of glory.” For the one whose birthday we are celebrating these days is JESUS. He will save us from our sins.

A minister friend told a story of a couple who had been married for twelve years when the woman was stricken with cancer. Medically, the situation seemed hopeless. But each day in the hospital the couple read together the stories of how Jesus healed so many people in his earthly ministry.

As they read, their despair turned to hope, and they began praying together earnestly, knowing that the Lord who loved her would also heal her. But she was not healed. After her death, her husband wrote a letter to his friends describing how their faith brought them through the long days of suffering. Even to the end their trust never wavered. They believed that God’s way is perfect, and that there is a greater miracle even than healing: resurrection.

There is nothing distinctively Christian about belief in immortality; many religions – and many people with little or no religion – believe in the survival of the soul, the Greek philosophy that regards immortality as an inherent attribute of the human spirit. When we address the issue as Christians, we either have to talk about Christian immortality or restrict ourselves to using the phrase “eternal life.” Christian immortality, or eternal life, is different from the natural wish for survival. Our faith in personal immortality is anchored in the resurrection of Jesus. We rely on Jesus’ promise: “Because I live, ye shall live also.”

As Christians, we believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. We do not go along with the Greek philosophy of drawing a sharp distinction between soul and body. We look upon a human being as an integrated whole. The “body” to which the Bible refers is spiritual rather than physical, thus the biblical language, “spiritual body.”

Jesus’ resurrection and his promise of eternal life speak to our feelings of worthlessness, our lack of self-value and self-esteem. The raging materialism of our day tends to reduce us to numbers. To our lack of confidence and feeling about value and worth, the promise of resurrection speaks a powerful word. Jesus is saying to us, ‘you are important, so important that I gave my life for you, so important that I offer you eternal life.’

Though we may not be able to explain the resurrection of the body and life everlasting, we affirm and proclaim this life-changing promise of Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”(John 11:25-26 NIV).

Healing we are not always promised, but the miracle of the resurrection gives us life anew. The mystery is profound, yet in faith we live with mystery in joyful anticipation until the full experience comes.

Prayer means that no one of us can ever say, “There is nothing I can do.”

I first went to the Soviet Union in 1981 and came away frustrated and confused. I experienced pain to see beautiful churches turned into warehouses, factories, and communist meeting halls. For a long time after that, the picture I had of the Russian church was of old women, clad in heavy sweaters and coats, sitting in the dark corners of the churches we visited, sometimes dusting the furniture, or praying before the icons. I kept asking myself, “What can these grandmothers do? How can they keep alive the faith of the church? Where are the young people?

A few years after that, at the celebration of 1000 years of the church in Russia, when someone asked a Russian priest whether it was healthy for the church to be composed of so many aged mothers, he replied with a story: “In the early days of communism, many churches were blown up and the priests, monks, and nuns were executed. Lenin argued that once the grandmothers died, nobody would remember that there had been a church in Russia. But now, Lenin is long dead, and the church is still full of grandmothers who were children when he was alive.” Then he concluded, “As long as the Russian church has its grandmothers, it will survive.”

I experienced the truth of that dramatically in the Czech Republic in 1991. Freedom had come a short time before. I was in Pilsen at the Maranatha Church. It was one of the most exciting experiences of worship and church life in which I’ve ever participated. The sanctuary of the church had been turned into a lecture hall of the university by the communist regime, but now the government had returned it to the church. Over 500 crowded in. At least 75% of them were younger than thirty—and all of them had become Christians in just the past three or four years.

That congregation had been kept alive by a few praying people. For over 30 years, eight elderly women gathered each week and prayed—week in and week out. As a result of the faithfulness of those “praying grandmothers,” a dynamic congregation was making a powerful witness. I never witnessed such joy, such hope, such confidence, such powerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Keep that picture in your mind, remembering the word of that priest: “As long as the Russian church has its praying grandmothers, it will survive.” Add to that picture my assertion, “prayer means that no one of us can ever say, ‘There is nothing I can do.’” We can pray, for prayer is one of the greatest works that Christians are given to do.

Somewhere I read that Darwin kept a notebook to jot down the contradictions that he came across, contradictions against his theories. He knew that if he didn’t jot those contradictions down, he was so committed to his theories that he would forget them. 

It’s so easy to forget. It’s easy to lose touch with the source of life… how we got to where we are; all the blessings that have been poured out upon us. It’s easy to think that we are where we are today because of our own efforts. We’re like that man who was being honored at a banquet for things he had done. He stood to receive the award, but got his tongue twisted, and said, “I don’t appreciate this, but I certainly deserve it.” 

We may not verbalize, or even be explicitly aware of it, but we see our success, our achievements and accomplishments, as the result of our own doing. Maybe we need to keep a notebook and record those things that we have received, things that have been given to us, things that have been done for us, blessings that we had absolutely nothing to do with them coming to us. That would give us a perspective which would change our lives.

Notebook or not, I need to continually remind myself of how blessed I am. Though I was born in rather severe poverty in rural Mississippi, in the context of our world situation, that poverty in Mississippi would be considered rich.

Then I, I go from there. I did not earn – I simply received the gift of parents who loved me, who sacrificed for me, who encouraged me and supported me. I did not earn – I simply received the gift of a public school education. I didn’t earn – I simply received the right of citizenship in this great country, where I have the freedom to vote, and the freedom to speak out, and the freedom to enter into the political process that shapes the destiny of this nation. But I could have been born anywhere else. 

In my reflection on the bold fact of my being the recipient of so much, I have continued to think about what I started expressing in my article last week: Deliverance Through Thanksgiving. It all began with my devotional reading of Psalm 50, and being captured by verse 15, “and call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.” The condition for the fulfillment of that promise of deliverance is in verse 14, which expresses the first part of the sentence. “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the most high, and call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.”

The words sacrifice of thanksgiving got my attention. Sacrifice and thanksgiving don’t seem to go together. Sacrifice and thanksgiving. I don’t know all that means, but it means at least this – even when we are not in the mood for thanksgiving, even when we have not recorded in our notebooks that for which we need to be grateful, we need to express gratitude. 

Gratitude can transform our life. No matter in what condition we find ourself, or in what depression we might be; no matter what’s going on in our life at this moment – IF, if we can get in touch with the God of the universe who says to us, “offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving,” and do that, our life will be transformed. A sacrifice of thanksgiving means that the surface circumstances of life don’t have to merit it. Still we do it. Whatever the circumstances – our lives are to be an offering of gratitude.

But there’s more here. Another condition that we are to meet if we are going to appropriate the deliverance of the Lord, and it’s there in the text. ”Pay your vows to the most-high God.” 

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving. That’s the first condition to meet if we’re going to appropriate God’s deliverance. And the second is – pay your vows to the most-high God.

Are there commitments that you made which you haven’t kept? Are there vows to the Lord that you have not followed through on? This is what the Lord is saying to us today – listen – Do the things you promised when you received my love and forgiveness. Keep the vows you made when you accepted my salvation. 

It’s one of the most fantastic promises in scripture: call upon me in your day of trouble, and I will deliver you. But remember, the promise is based upon two conditions – One, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving; and two, pay your vows to the most-high God. We can keep both of those promises today.

One of our big failures as Christians is our continual refusal to discipline ourselves in living with the word of God. We need to study the Bible. It is the shaping source of our Christian faith and way. In it we find the revelation of God which God provided through God’s Son, Jesus. It is food for our souls, direction and strength for our journey.

But not only do we need to study the Bible, we need to read the Bible devotionally, and there is a difference. Here’s the way I do it. In a time of quietness, reflection and prayer, I simply begin reading a pre-selected passage of scripture. With an open mind and heart, I read until some word grabs my attention. I stay with that word, allowing it to tumble around in my mind. I seek to taste the word by reflecting upon it in my mind and heart. I ask the word questions and I allow the word to ask me questions. Then in that moment and out of that reflection, I form the prayers I want to offer to God in response to his word.

A while ago I was doing this with the 50th Psalm. Verse 15 stopped me, “And call upon me in your time of trouble and I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.” I don’t know what was going on in my life at that particular time which caused that verse of scripture to be so significant, except that I am like most people … trouble is often my lot. Maybe I was concerned about one of our children; maybe I was wrestling with some problem; maybe I felt that someone or something was after me, and I was being tested. I know it wasn’t a huge earth-shaking thing or I would remember it. Nevertheless there it was, God’s word for me in that particular situation and I needed it. “And call upon me in your time of trouble and I will deliver you and you shall glorify my name.”

What a promise. Deliverance. None of us will pass through too much of our life without needing to lay hold upon that promise, because none of us will pass through too much of our life without being confronted with trouble. But as I reflected upon this staggering promise, I became aware of the fact that it was not complete within itself. Though it’s a separate verse in the Bible, it begins with the word and. If you look back at verse 14, you will find the beginning of the sentence: “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the most high.”  Then comes the promise: “and call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.”  

That set me to thinking all over again. And the word of the Lord came to me in a powerful way. God is not making a wholesale promise here. There are conditions we are to meet if we’re going to appropriate the promise of the Lord to deliver us.

I had never thought of it before. Deliverance comes through thanksgiving.

The promise of deliverance is especially beautiful if you see it in its entire Scriptural context. If you go back to the 10th verse of that reading, you’ll see God talking about all that he is and all that he has, and then in that beautiful 12th verse he says, “if I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.” What does a God like this, an omnipotent God who created and owns the whole universe – what does a God like this want? What does a God like this require of us? There it is. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Wow! God’s hunger is satisfied by our love and gratitude.

Does that make you stand at attention inside? The deepest longings of the God of the universe, the one who created and owns the world, is satisfied by our praise and thanksgiving?

Deliverance through thanksgiving. What a way to think and live, especially during this thanksgiving season.

This is the sixth and final article in a series of articles Maxie is writing about the beliefs behind our views of evangelism. Check out the prior articles on Wesleyan Accent (first, second, third, fourth, and fifth).

Natalie Sleeth has given us one of the most popular hymns written during the past fifty years, “Hymn of Promise.”  The last two lines of the hymn gives the core message:

In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory, 

unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

She wrote the hymn for her husband, the late Ronald Sleeth, who was professor of preaching at the Iliff School of Theology. He lived only twenty-one days from the day he got the diagnosis of a malignancy to death. Natalie wrote that hymn for him before he died.

A personal friend of the Sleeths told me a moving story:

For several years Natalie had battled multiple sclerosis, which ultimately took her life. Before she died she wrote a beautiful statement for her grandchildren in which she told of how she began to realize that she was growing older and that her body was beginning to wear out. She talked to God about the situation and asked God to help her.

God heard her and said, “My child, when I made the world and filled it with people, I had a plan. I wanted my people to have life for as long as they could, but not forever because then my world would be too full with no room for anybody. I planned it so that when it was time to leave the earth, my people would come and live with me in heaven where there is no pain or sadness or sickness or anything bad.”

Natalie said softly to God, “Is my time to come and live with you getting closer?” 

And God said, “Yes, but be not afraid, for I will always be with you and I will always take care of you.” 

Natalie said to God, “But I will miss my family and my friends, and they will miss me!” 

And God said, “Yes, but I will comfort them and turn their tears into joy and they will remember you with happiness and be glad of your life among them.”

Slowly Natalie began the journey to heaven and day by day drew nearer to God. In the distance she could see light and hear beautiful music and feel happiness she had never known before, and as she moved toward the gates and into the house of God, she said to herself with great joy in her heart, “That’s good! That’s good!”

Natalie Sleeth claimed one of the central truths of the Christian faith – the promise that death is not the end. The resurrection of Christ gives credence to his claim, “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19). The heartbeat of the gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus. Natalie Sleeth experienced the meaning and hope of this powerful reality that Jesus died but was raised by God and offers us the same glorious possibility.

The driving power behind the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus. In the  beginning, as the faith was being experienced, expressed and celebrated in community, to be an apostle meant you were an eyewitness to the Resurrection. In the four Gospels there is the picture of Jesus that could have been shared only by those who had experienced him as the risen Christ. 

The Resurrection dominated the theme of every Christian sermon. The New Testament is filled with line after line affirming what Natalee Sleeth sings and concludes, 

In our end is our beginning
In our time, infinity
In our doubt, there is believing
In our life, eternity
In our death, a resurrection
At the last, a victory

Unrevealed until its season
Something God alone can see

She had affirmed it week after week in worship:

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic* church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body

and the life everlasting. Amen.

This is the fourth article in a series of articles Maxie is writing about the beliefs behind our views of evangelism. Click here for the first article, here for the second, and here for the third.

In my reflection on evangelism I have made three bold claims.

1. What you think about Christ determines what you do about evangelism. If we don’t have confidence in the gospel, and if we are not solidly convicted about the uniqueness of Christ, it is not likely that evangelism will have much priority in our personal ministry and/or in our church.
2. What we do about evangelism is shaped by what we think about grace. If we think that grace is limited, or that all people are automatically saved, we will not be likely to proclaim the message of grace with any urgency to all people. If, on the other hand, we realize that grace is unlimited, and that salvation can be rejected, we will share urgently and with all.
3. What you think Jesus can do for a person will determine what you do about evangelism. This is one of the greatest motivations possible to share the good news with others. Do we really care not only about our own family and circle of friends, but our neighbors we don’t even yet know even though they have been “neighbors” for two or three years? The question has a more expansive focus. Jesus talked about “the uttermost parts of the world.”

So I move my reflection beyond “What we think about Jesus” determining our expression of evangelism. I move beyond the level of evangelistic content with this bold assertion: What you think about evangelism won’t matter much unless the Holy Spirit empowers you.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus gave us the charter of the kingdom when he announced his mission:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19). 

At the close of his ministry, he commissioned us for kingdom work:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of age” (Matthew 28:19-20)

At the center of his charter and his commission for the kingdom is the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … Go … make disciples … baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Not only are the charter and the commission of the kingdom centered in the Spirit, his commitment to provide us power is Spirit-centered.

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

He said to them:  “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts l:608 NIV)

It’s too clear for us to miss. According to Jesus, at the heart of kingdom business is evangelism, and the power source of evangelism is the Holy Spirit. What you think about evangelism won’t matter much unless the Holy Spirit empowers your effort.

Pictured: Painting by Kerry Dunnam Peeples

This is the third article in a series of articles Maxie is writing about the beliefs behind our views of evangelism.  Click here for the first article and here for the second.

In a previous article we focused on the uniqueness of Christ, insisting that ideas have consequences. What we think about Christ determines what we do about evangelism. If we are not solidly convicted about the uniqueness of Christ, it is not likely that evangelism will have priority in our personal ministry and/or the church.

Recall Archbishop William Temple’s definition of evangelism: “Evangelism is the winning of persons to acknowledge Christ as their Savior and King, so that they may give themselves to his service in the fellowship of the church.” Reflecting on the uniqueness of Christ Christ as Savior and King leads to another theological issue: the nature of grace.

Grace is the heart of the Gospel. Beliefs matter. Ideas have consequences. Grace. Amazing, yes! What we think about it shapes our evangelistic message and determines our evangelistic urgency.

The apostle John captured it in this encompassing word: 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).

And this is what Paul argued about so convincingly with the Romans:

“Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith” (Romans 8:23-25).

John Wesley did a great service and provided a distinctive emphasis by talking about grace impinging upon us and working in three specific ways: prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace. Prevenient grace is the grace of God going before us, pulling us, wooing us, seeking to open our minds and hearts, and eventually giving us faith. Justifying grace is the forgiving love of God, freely given to us, reconciling us, putting us right with God, making Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf. Sanctifying grace is the work and Spirit of Christ within us, restoring the broken image, completing the salvation, which was begun in justification, and bringing us to complete newness of life and perfection in love.

Certainly, our understanding and experience of grace impacts our witness and determines in large part the way we do evangelism. If we believe that God loves us and all people, seeking us and them before we seek God, we can witness with confidence, but also in humility, knowing that we cannot limit the saving love of God, and that we don’t do the saving work – God does.

It is not free only for those whom God has ordained to life, but it is like the air we breathe, or the wind that blows in our faces. The big question is, have we sincerely accepted that gift? Or, have we sought to live as though we could earn God’s favor and salvation?

In the first five chapters of Romans Paul gives his reason in the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. We have absolutely nothing for which to boast, and we can do nothing to earn the favor of God. Everything is grace!

But we can do something, in fact we must do something. We must believe that God lovingly and passionately wants us to have the salvation he offers. Believing that, we confess, repent and receive the gift that is ours

Our calling is to do everything we can to assure that everyone hears that message.

That is the reason Wesley sounded so clearly the note of repentance. God’s prevenient grace works in our lives to lead us to repentance which is a necessary response for salvation. Repentance is both a step and an ongoing response. God’s grace is universal, but prevenient grace is not sufficient for salvation. A person may suppress or ignore this grace. If so, scripture warns that we may experience hardness of heart, so that the stirrings of the Spirit within will go unheeded.

Our preaching, teaching, and witnessing must make the nature of grace clear. Grace is always available, but we must make a personal faith commitment to receive it.

This is the third article in a series Maxie is writing on the beliefs we hold about evangelism. Come back to Wesleyan Accent next week for the fourth installment.

This is the second article in a series of articles Maxie is writing about the beliefs of evangelism. Click here for the first article.

For most of my ministry life, over 70 years, my calling has been expressed as a pastor in a local congregation. Evangelism is a matter of the Christian community sharing the good news of a Savior with those who do not know him. So, evangelism is neither Christian proclamation alone, nor Christian presence alone. It is both. Thus my understanding, reflecting, and teaching on evangelism is focused in the local church. It is essential then that we first reflect on that which shapes the church.

The Church is God’s idea – the continuing incarnation of Christ in the world. But your church, my church, is a community of folks who have a specific identity at the corner of Poplar Avenue and Grove Park in Memphis. Sometimes what shapes our church and the church is quite different.

The degree to which our church looks like the church is dependent upon our whole being – our ideas and how we put those ideas into action.

The relation between what we think and what we do, what we say and how we live, is a very important one for us as Christians. This relation between word and deed is one that generates a great deal of debate. Some, like the great theologian Karl Barth, have said that evangelism, and thus faith and conversion, can only begin with what we know, say, and preach about Christ. Others, like some contemporary liberation theologians, argue that the words of the evangelist are empty unless they are preceded by deeds which meet the needs and bind up the wounds of those who suffer as they watch and listen.

Much is at stake in this debate. There are dangers on every side. Some fear that if we concentrate on doing deeds of mercy and justice, we will lose the unique focus on Christ which gives us our identity. Others point out that a concern only with preaching and right dogma can render our words empty, meaningless, and irrelevant.

No one has solved every riddle that resides at the heart of this debate, but we can’t simply cast it aside. I recognize the importance of the debate, and I want to address pastors and laity of local congregations about where I believe we must take our main bearings. The fact to keep in mind is this: ideas have consequences.

To underscore that fact I begin with this dogmatic assertion: What you think of Jesus Christ will determine what you do about evangelism. I believe the greatest theological barrier to evangelism today is a diminished belief in the uniqueness of Christ. What we think of Christ determines what we do about evangelism.

This has been the ongoing debate of the World Council of Churches for years. In 1968, on the eve of the WCC Assembly, Donald McGavran asked, “Will Upsala betray the 2 billion?” He charged that the World Council had given up concern for the 2 billion people of the earth who had neither heard of Jesus Christ nor had any real chance to believe in him as Lord and Savior.

Philip Potter, who was then secretary of evangelism for the WCC, addressed similar issues in 1967 when he asked the central committee, “Is evangelism at the heart of the life and work of the WCC? What does the WCC mean when it speaks of evangelism? What is to be done to manifest more evidently the central concern of the WCC and its member churches for evangelism?” 

Both Potter and McGavan were raising the question of ‘where is Christ in what we proclaim?’

It continues to be good for every level of the church to ask itself, “Is evangelism at the heart of our life and work?” 

Again, ideas have consequences. No matter where we begin, or how we pursue the notion that evangelism is the core mission of the church, the central issue is the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. He is the incarnate love of God offered as God’s saving grace for lost humanity. What we think about Jesus Christ determines what we do about evangelism.

This is the second article in a series Maxie is writing on the beliefs we hold about evangelism. Come back to Wesleyan Accent next week for the third installment.