Pope Francis: TIME Person of the Year..Rick Warren & Joseph Prince

I took this off my daughter's copy of Time magazine. This is much better than the odd looking cover page that is on display everywhere.

It was obvious he would be the guy to be TIME person of the year. None of the other candidates came close. He has shown how many hungry people there are for the Christ. In other words the churches were failing. He is drawing them out like his boss had long ago. At the personal level, he had given me more confidence in my simple theology. Ah, just like Pope Francis I often tell my children during our Sunday evening BS.

The Pope also offered me a contrast to two interesting and very successful pastor characters, Rick Warren and our own home grown Joseph Prince. These two pastors and others like them had to limit their Gospels or they will lose their success and prosperity. Both had successfully repackaged self help into the Gospel and they have done it with finesse. Their theology is spot on, only that they refused to go beyond and God honors them with success. The price they are paying is to avoid the sick and poor. I didn't sell ignore or push them away, but limit their attention with no risk to their wealth and matching lifestyle. Their self seeking congregation are not ready to go the next step.

I prepared this two days ago but had no heart to blog about it. Rick Warren has grown from the wildly sucessful, "The Purpose Driven Life" to closer to the mark self help themes. His latest is achieving weight loss and done with typical American marketing savvy: the Daniel Plan.

I never cared for his, "The Purpose Driven Life" until my old friend bought me a copy of his book and suggested that we worked through it together via email. Thinking that it would be helpful to her I agreed. Even then I noticed the emphasis was overwhelmingly on the self and not on others. Well if you have problem coming to terms with yourself and loving yourself, how do you love others? You have to be able to stand before you could jump. They are an extraordinary huge group of Christians mostly in rich societies and I don't think they are attracted to Pope Francis message.

Pastor Joseph Prince's message is similar. He taught his congregation not to be weighed down by guilt because of God's amazing grace. Then he repeats often and creatively that as children of the most high they have everything, slipping effortlessly into self help genre. It was faultless and it also stayed there. They are waiting for God to bless them so much until it overflow to others. Last I know they are filling nicely but not overflowing yet. Might take a very very long time to happen.

I do not decry these two pastors, I only feel sad for them and their kind. I get that uncomfortable feeling that for many of them this will not lead to anything good in the end. I wrote my impression of  Day 40 of the Purpose Driven Life to her a couple of years ago that given our environment, our job may just be if the Father is so gracious as to allow us to stand with him and wait for the prodigals to return. Please do not let us become like the other brother who stayed at home. So I thank God for Timothy Keller, Philip Yancey etc., and of course Pope Francis.

This Pope continues where Mother Teresa left off: that there are no slums in heaven. TIME has put it well that Francis did not change the message but the music....so many especially successful pastors have gotten it so right and also so wrong!

I told my daughter CS Lewis Screwtape letters was kindergarten stuff compared to the diabolical struggle that is really going on. How would we ever cope without the Cross? You will not see Francis in public without that cheap Iron Cross. The days will make clear why the monk returned as a Pope in our times. Who among us could detect and feel the pangs of childbirth the world is in today and what it is birthing?