John Morehead has posted our Lausanne Issue Group Report from our recent trip to Hong Kong on his blog.
For more on Lausanne see here.
For more on our issue group, which seeks to develop creative approaches to reaching new spiritualities, visit here.
In part-one of this interview Phil Wyman shared with us how he was kicked out of the denomination he was involved with for the last two decades because of his ministry with Neo-Pagans in Salem, Massachusetts.
In the final part of our interview Phil shares how these events have impacted him personally, and how Pagans in Salem have responded to these events.
SMULO: How has this situation impacted you emotionally, physically, and spiritually?
WYMAN: Check out my blog [Editorial note: Phil has a second blog here]. It is my observations on the emotional impact of treachery, and stress over the last year. I theorize that the same mental disorders which afflict those struggling with mental and emotional diseases effect all of us in heightened times of stress. I have found that I have had moments of feeling bi-polar. I've dealt with minor post traumatic stress symptoms. I have had short mental/emotional lapses which felt like I was autistic. These strange phenomenon come upon most of us in deep seasons of stress. It is unfortunate, and scary to consider that failed, and sometimes self-serving Christian leadership could potentially bring such disorders upon people. I have a new appreciation for the many people I have heard say over the years, "I love Jesus, but I hate the Church."
Of course during this same season this has not been the only stress. Our son Elijah came down with a life threatening kidney disease, and may soon need a kidney transplant. This happened while the National Board was discussing our situation without my knowledge, and of course, none of our "friends" came to visit.
The sense of treachery, and disenfranchisement has been deep, but through it all we gently attempted to defend ourselves without threat. Some people think we should have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit for libel, and wrongful termination, but we even worked diligently to follow the procedures of Matthew 18, and tried to help the denomination do the same.
Spiritually things have been a struggle as well. Prayer is different than it used to be. I read the Bible differently than I used to. I find myself praying less, reading less, but practicing lectio divina scripture meditation and journaling far more. It is taking a bit of time for the joy of serving God to rekindle in my heart, but I can feel it beginning to surge once again - after a year of this struggle.
SMULO: How have these events impacted The Gathering, and you as a pastor?
WYMAN: Well, we are non-denominational for now. I have been re-ordained under John Paul Jackson's Streams Ministries, and we are navigating our relationships with other churches, and other Christian groups. I have a new name for my closest friends - the Hill Men. These are the guys who stood by me through the hardest times, and even were willing to sacrifice their own reputations on our behalf. They took a stand on the hill with me.
The gang from Streams Ministries did that. Our friends from an emergent house church called Sinners and Saints did that for us. Some of the guys from the church I pastored in Southern California did that. A few people inside Foursquare did that as well.
Our church is filled with Hill People. No one left the church, in fact we've gained people since that time, and our little church is growing bit by bit through it all.
Among the positive things it did is make us less fearful of pushing the edge of radical loving ministry. The best shot against us has been taken, and now we're free to serve God unrestrained, and uninhibitedly. We've faced the Pharisees. We've seen the teeth of the lion, and as threatening as it has been we are still here.
Our big hurdle for this year is finances. We signed a lease in a new space to establish a postmodern evangelism outreach and training center, and we knew it would take about three years to make it happen. After year one, our former denomination has abandoned us, and we still have this dream location with a pretty high overhead, and a small church which was stretched by a grant to start it off. So, this is the year we cry out for God's provision to help us finish what we started, and help us survive this lease we initiated under Foursquare's encouragement.
SMULO: How has the media responded to this story?
WYMAN: We love Suzanne Sataline from the Wall Street Journal! I can not say enough good about her. The media in Salem has been great as well.
SMULO: How has the Neo-Pagan community reacted to this?
WYMAN: On Samhain eve, a group of Witch friends who had been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal before the story broke came down to The Vault (that's what we call our meeting place), and spent time late into the night with us.
I have received e-mails from Pagans all over the US, and even from other countries telling us how they appreciate our stand, and how they are appalled by the treatment we've received.
SMULO: You have been judged and ex-communicated for loving and developing friendships with Witches. As we’ve discussed previously, I’ve also had similar responses to my friendships and research with Witches and also Satanists. Why do you think Christians have responded this way?
WYMAN: We have had many Christians write in support of us. In fact, not one Christian has written to tell us of our errors following the Wall Street Journal Story. So, I know that there is a groundswell of believers looking for a more sensible way to navigate relationships with our generation, and its plurality of spiritual paths.
Yet, this could not have happened to us without a serious dose of superstition filling the heads of Evangelical, and Pentecostal minds. Many people in the church have believed lies spread by evangelists and Christian teachers who have told tales about Neo-Paganism only worthy of grocery store tabloid newspapers. The church has sucked up these tales about Halloween, Witches, and devils, and pastors have believed unsubstantiated (and sometimes clearly disproven) stories, and spread them in their teachings over the last 30 years. The result is that we are afraid, superstitious, and consequently offensive in our actions toward Neo-Pagans.
It is a tragedy that the very denomination which ex-communicated us on one hand, endowed us with a grant on the other hand to begin helping us teach the church that there is a better way to reach Neo-Pagans than with fear, and anger.
SMULO: Your love, friendships, and involvement with being a Jesus-follower amongst Neo-Pagans is to be commended. If Jesus were walking the earth today I have no doubt he’d be interacting with Pagans and others that Christians have, more often than not, wrongfully shunned. I greatly appreciate your willingness to share with us your response to what I believe is a shameful situation that you should have never had to experience.
WYMAN: Thanks John. I appreciate someone who has been there - done that - bought the T-shirt like you. If you ever want to mix it up and have some fun together you've always got a place in Salem. We are looking for people who think, and walk like you do bro.
In this two-part interview I talk to Phil Wyman. Phil is the Pastor at The Gathering in Salem, which has a creative ministry to Witches.
I've followed what Wyman has been involved with over the last several years, and have been greatly encouraged to see a local church that contextualizes the Gospel to those who aren't followers of Jesus in their area. And when you live in Salem, Massachusetts, who else better to contextualize to than Witches?
In recent times, however, Phil got into hot water from people in his (former) denomination who apparently would have been happier to see him not share the Gospel with Witches. Apparently some think its acceptable to discriminate when it comes to who hears the gospel and who doesn't.
SMULO: Phil, please tell us about yourself—family, ministry experience, any hobbies—that sort of thing.
WYMAN: I'm a 48 year old California boy. I grew up in North San Diego County. Did the California stuff - competitive swimmer, waterpolo player, surfed some. My only experience in church as a kid was the Christian Science Church. So I don't have a Christian upbringing. I went to school for music, and later to Bible College at Cathedral Bible College (connected with the Foursquare Church) in Escondido, CA.
I'm married to Bev, and have been for 23 years. Bev is a Dental Hygienist, and has been an unbelievable lady in some tough ministry circumstances over the years. She plays the flute, and is a very funny public speaker. My only son Elijah is married, and is 21. He is a musician also, and you can find him at elijahwyman.com. He and his wife Rhonda have just moved in with us, because Elijah has a kidney disease, and may need a kidney transplant soon. We have two rescue greyhounds from the tracks, and one got hit by a car on Halloween morning. He is recuperating, but lost a back leg. I know it sounds like a bad country song, but that's what's happening right now.
I play guitar, mandolin, and a few other instruments. I write music as well, so I could write that bad country song, if I liked country music, but I don't so that won't happen. I'm learning to speak Welsh, because I have Welsh heritage, and because I love Wales, and the Welsh speaking community. I try to get to the U.K. at least once a year. I haven't surfed much lately, but I need to get back out into the cold, winter New England waves this year.
I became a Christian after some radical interactions with God back in 1980, and within a few years I was helping run a Christian drug/alcohol rehab program. In 1985 I began pastoring in Carlsbad, CA, and was there for 14 years. In 1999 we moved to Salem, MA to plant The Gathering. I have always pastored a small experimental church. Since 1980 I also have studied a variety of religious groups outside of traditional Christianity - Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, New Age religions, Neo-Paganism....
Because our church life has been experimental over the years, we find ourselves identifying with the emergent community these days.
SMULO: You’ve recently been ex-communicated by the Foursquare denomination led by Jack Hayford, including having your ordination revoked. This occurred in spite of the fact that you’ve been a pastor with them for twenty-years. This serious, and I trust rare, occurrence within Foursquare suggests that you’ve been involved in gross immorality or heresy. Would you please share the events leading to your dismissal?
WYMAN: On Halloween The Wall Street Journal, and The Salem News ran our story on the front page. Yet the story began in October of 2005.
October 2005 I became the recipient of a grant from the Foursquare Foundation based upon two things: 1) our success in developing an outreach program during the Halloween season here in our city of Salem, MA, and 2) relationships, and outreach efforts we had made toward the Neo-Pagan community. The grant was given to develop a postmodern evangelism training and outreach center in a high visibility location in downtown Salem.
At our District Conference that year I was lauded as the hottest, cutting-edge thing in evangelism, and was asked by our District Supervisor to invite our District churches to join us for our October outreach events.
Two weeks later the same District Supervisor (a position similar to a Bishop) who sang my praises, sent me an e-mail with a letter attached. It had 27 accusations asserting aberrant theology and practices, and included accusations of practicing Gnosticism, and dabbling in Witchcraft. The letter called me to a council meeting at which time I would be corrected, and the situation was "not open for discussion." This letter came without warning, and without previous discussion.
Unfortunately this Supervisor did not send this letter to me privately. He simultaneously sent it to the District leadership, and up the ladder to Foursquare denominational authorities.
At question were two main points: 1) a photograph of myself on a Pagan website, and 2) our website which included a page with links to Pagan sites for the purpose teaching an anthropological missiology.
The gross inaccuracies of the accusations in the letter were so broad and sweeping that it took us 55 pages to even begin to respond to them.
Myself, my wife Bev, and our assistant pastor Jeff Menasco and his wife Diane attended the council meeting. Once we arrived at the District Council meeting our documentation was rejected with the District Supervisor's statement, "I'm driving this meeting not you." The council meeting was 3 hours long, and included such items as taking 45 minutes to challenge us on, "How could you be friends with Witches?", a defense of the photograph which was quickly understood to be completely innocent (Diane Menasco had been an eyewitness to the event), the insinuation that we were promoting Tarot because one could buy Tarot cards through a Pagan site by following links from our site, and accusations that we neglected the 90% of the non-Pagan population in Salem to try and reach Witches. The meeting eventually descended into an abyss of personal accusations against me such as: I did not mention the name Jesus frequently enough during the meeting, I did not lift my hands high enough in worship during the most recent District Conference, and that I was learning Welsh because it was the language of the Druids.
Some of these people were our friends, or so we thought, but only three people out of 13 even gave a remote hint of defense of our position.
We politically survived this meeting, but our reputation, and our relationships were seriously harmed by a meeting which was as close to an Inquisition, or a Witchtrial as anything could come in America today. The few sane thinkers on the Council were apparently afraid to speak up, and contradict the agenda of the District Supervisor.
It was a full three months later that we attempted to speak to the District Supervisor personally about the unbiblical, and offensive manner of his actions toward us. He refused to speak with me, and instead threatened to have me removed from the church. At this point I was counseled by a Vice President of the denomination to appeal. Yet my appeal was ignored, and before anyone even spoke with me I received a certified letter on March 24th of this year informing me that effective March 8th (16 days earlier!), our church had its non-profit status as a Foursquare Church removed, and that my ordination was revoked by the National Board. No one even told me that the issue was before the National Board! I appealed, as per the bylaws, to the General Supervisor, and once again the appeal was ignored. Without discussion, or representation, or any kind of fact finding they refused to consider the appeal.
At this moment the board actually holds another request to reconsider their actions in their hands.
I suppose the gross immorality I was involved in was that I was too friendly with Neo-Pagans, and the heresy was believing that they were real people worthy of being respected like anybody else.
Stay tuned. Part two tomorrow. Until then, why don't you prayerfully consider supporting the ministry Phil leads? You can find a donation link at the bottom of The Gathering website.
I contributed two articles to the Encyclopedic Sourcebook of Satanism about two years ago. I've just discovered that it has recently gone live according to Amazon, but my editor thinks it may be awhile longer.
Encyclopedia publishing projects seem to take forever from start to completion.
I contributed about a dozen articles to another encyclopedia project two years ago that has only shown recent signs of nearing completion--which likely means at least another 6-months.
The first article I contributed to the Encyclopedic Sourcebook is on Spiritual Warfare Profiles of Satanism, which originally appeared in the Lutheran Theological Journal.
It was also in the first edition of Sacred Tribes Journal, but the issue appears to be down at the moment. This article surveys evangelical and charismatic spiritual warfare literature treatments of Satanism asking if they accurately reflect either of the two main forms of Satanism. The answer is a resounding "no"!
The second article is on Mike Warnke. Warnke became famous telling his story about being a Satanist high priest in comedy routines. He literally made millions of dollars from this. Sadly, he (not to mention more than a few others) have been exposed as lying, not only about their involvement with Satanism, but also about the beliefs and practices of Satanists. Jon Trott has been at the forefront of these exposes, and his and Mike Hertenstein's Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke is a must read on the subject.
Some, okay most, of you are probably wondering why I'd use my time to research Satanism for a secular academic religious studies Sourcebook, as well as other publications. Here's the beginning of an answer.
Sadly, fellow evangelicals have often mistakenly spoken and acted as if the Great Commission only extended to upper-middle class Republicans (in America anyway, though I had a parallel experience living in Australia). What's more, we've often put ourselves in God's place--choosing who hears the gospel and who doesn't. In my opinion, this is blasphemy of the worst type.
When I lived in Australia I regularly was invited to speak to church groups about Wicca. Because evangelical literature about this spiritual path is so inacurrate, I knew that most Christians listening to me would come with completely false stereotypes and understandings.
Before agreeing to speak, I would clarify that I would give an introductory explanation of Wicca, and then share a Christian apologetic to Wicca based on the Wheel of the Year.
Over time, I found that there would be at least a few Christians in attendance who responded to me in a very hostile manner. In one charismatic Baptist church I even had people join in prayer circles to cast out the demons that were allegedly released during my talk!
I changed two things. First, I stopped speaking on this subject at churches unless I knew they were sincere in their desire to further understand Wicca. If they wanted someone to build a straw man that could be knocked down and make Christians feel smug about themselves, they had plenty of other options.
Second, I began starting off with two questions. The first was, "When you think of a witch, what do you think of?" There would always be a loud conversation with answers like "broomstick" "spells" "Satan worship" "Harry Potter" and on and on.
The second question I would ask was, "When God thinks of a witch, what do you think comes to mind?" What was a loud and boisterous conversation at this stage always transitioned to an atmosphere where you could hear a pin drop. I got the impression that either they had just answered what they think God thinks of, or they had never thought of that question.
I would always give them a biblical answer: "When God thinks of a witch, he thinks of someone that he loves. When God thinks of a witch, he thinks of someone made in his image. When God thinks of a witch, he thinks of someone created to have a relationship with him. When God thinks of a witch, he thinks of someone that Jesus died on the cross for. When God thinks of a witch, he thinks of someone that you should respectfully share your faith with."
Jesus-followers are called to follow in Jesus' steps. In Sally Coleman's moving words, we're to connect with our spiritual other, not create barriers with them.
When you think of a witch, what do you think of?
Today in our Lausanne gathering Philip Johnson and Michael Cooper shared on phenomenology and contextualization respectively. Their thoughts, as well as the discussions that followed, prompted me to reflect on what mission to adherents of new religious movements looks like for me.
I've jotted down a list chronicling a typical journey. In everyday life this is a highly relational process.
This contrasts with what has been more typical for evangelicals, and especially traditional forms of evangelism and apologetics. A list in this context would look something more like this:
It's my hope that evangelicals and the emerging church will spend considerably more time reflecting on what dialog, interaction, and relationships with adherents of new religious movements should look like.
I'm almost half way through my time in Hong Kong with our Lausanne issue group. Over the last two days one of the things we've done is share a little of our personal stories and involvements. In order to accomplish this, we answered three questions:
As I took notes, I discovered that there are some discernible patterns weaved through our stories. Most of the following points were shared with most of the participants in some form:
It's been a pleasure to hear everyone's stories.
I've been enjoying the discussions with everyone in Hong Kong. Our issue group was more diverse when we first met in Thailand, but we still have several people representing Denmark, England, Australia, and America. Everyone has an important contribution to make.
I've enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people involved with new religious movements, as well as to catch up with old friends. Today several of us shared our stories, and what we've been involved with. Tomorrow the rest will share.
Tonight we had a great discussion (debate, dialog, argument!) about contextualization, and the challenges that flow from stepping out of our secure worlds and into mission.
I've arrived at our Lausanne issue group meeting place in Hong Kong. I probably won't be able to put up photographs until I'm back in California, but they'll be worth the wait. The location we're meeting at is beautiful.
We're meeting to develop apologetic and evangelistic methodologies to reach new religious movements. Recently I mentioned that I've focused my research and writing in this area on Paganism and Satanism. If you're interested, here are a few links to some of my on-line articles about Satanism.
Spiritual Warfare Profiles of Satanism: Are They Misleading?
Christ's Advocate: An Incarnational Apologetic to Satanism
Methods and Perspectives in Understanding and Reaching Satanists
Marilyn Manson: Antichrist Superstar or Creation of Institutional Christianity (some explicit language)
These articles deal with contemporary Satanism in particular. I am aware that this subject raises a lot of issues for many people. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to be in contact with me.
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm flying to Hong Kong today (this is being sent on automatic pilot) to meet with my Lausanne issue group. We're meeting to discuss new religious movements, and how to effectively develop apologetic and evangelistic approaches to reach them.
I've especially focused on researching and writing on Paganism and Satanism. Below are a few of the on-line articles I've written on Paganism, or related topics.
The Quest For A Holistic Ecological Ethic: The Pagan Challenge to Christianity
Animals and Morality: Four Views
Symbolically Foreshadowed: The Gospel and the Wheel of the Year
If you get a chance to read any of these I'd appreciate your feedback.
Not the band, the real life inspiration. Every year Manti, Utah hosts the Mormon Miracle Pageant. It's a significant time in the Latter-day Saint calendar.
It's also a significant time in the counter-cult calendar. It's time for a bit of old time in-your-face street-preaching, put-down signs, and heated conversations. See a recent video of what this looks like here.
In an earlier post I talked about being invited to a Mormon Temple Opening and my struggle with the approach fellow Christians took to protesting this event. There were two types of comments in response to this post. Here's the gist of them:
1. What are they thinking?! This kind of "evangelism" is totally contrary to Jesus' approach, and can only be a catalyst for people to dig their heels in against considering the gospel.
2. If we don't show up to Mormon events, how else are they going to hear the gospel?! It's better to be confrontational and crash their party than let them go on their merry way to the number one hot spot.
I definitely struggle with the second type of approach. It suggests that we can use inappropriate means to work towards commendable ends. Discussions like this tend to be polarizing, so I'll leave you with a third reaction that shares some of my heart on the topic.
3. We need to be more like Jesus. We need to share the gospel in word and deed; we need to be clear about sin, and the need for forgiveness and redemption found only in Jesus Christ.
But we need to recognize that when we share the gospel using confrontational and disrespectful methods, that people don't hear the gospel's message of grace, love, mercy and forgiveness. They hear angst, rudeness, disrespect, and judgment. It will only be when our methods are consistent with the gospel that we will have found an appropriate evangelistic approach.
Thanks to Mormon Info for the link.
I went with a group to the Grand Opening of the Sacramento Mormon Temple last night. One of the people who showed us around was a Mormon bishop and lawyer. I met him through a friend, and appreciated the opportunity to get to know him.
Overall it was an interesting and worthwhile experience. There was a very large crowd, and it was organized professionally. Somewhat surprisingly there were no overtly evangelistic overtures. They even said very little about Mormonism. What little they did say revolved around an 11-minute video that taught about the Latter-Day Saint trek to California and beyond.
At the same time as this event was occurring, there was another group doing their thing. They were fellow Christians who were stationed just before the entrance to the Mormon Temple. They were waving banners with the Sacred or Secret website on them.
I struggle with the two different scenes occurring simultaneously. This is my take:
1. While Mormons invited the public to their celebration, Christians crashed their party.
2. While Mormons were professional, Christians acted without tact.
3. While Mormons created the kind of buzz that leads people to ask for more information, Christians created barriers through confrontation.
Though both faiths are often overtly evangelistic, I'm troubled by old school forms of evangelism that create negative impressions of Christians, and by association a negative impression of the Christian faith.
We need to start thinking about the long-term consequences of our actions before we use confrontational approaches to share our faith. A little salt creates thirst for more; too much salt causes repulsion.
Tonight I watched 30 Days, which this week revolved around the topic of New Age. This episode involved thirty-seven year old Tom Collett from New Jersey. Though he seemed to be a fairly laid back guy, Tom says he struggles with stress and anger management, and claims that he'll blow-up without warning. Tom says he has no spiritual life. However, his girlfriend Misti is a Christian, and at least initially struggled with what he was participating in.
For 30 days Tom sought to reduce his stress by getting a life coach and spiritual mentor who exposed him to a variety of New Age techniques. Some of them were overtly spiritual, but many of them seemed to simply involve dealing with what was going on inside of Tom that caused his anger and stress.
What I've appreciated about other episodes of Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days is that they've involved one person living in the shoes of another for 30 days. Tonight's show had elements of this format, but not to the same extent of previous episodes. Because of this, there seemed to be far less critique from an alternative perspective. This was disappointing.
Significantly, in Morgan Spurlock's commentary on this episode, he mentioned that Americans spend nearly 50 billion dollars per year on complementary and alternative medicine alone. This statistic doesn't include the many other New Age practices where individuals are spending their money. New Spirituality is big business.
For those wanting to get a better understanding of New Spirituality I'd strongly recommend Philip Johnson and Ross Clifford's book Jesus and the Gods of the New Age, as well as the Sacred Tribes Journal, which includes some articles I've written.
Tonight on 30 Days an atheist moved in with a Christian family. Overall I think it was a positive and worthwhile journey on both sides of the imaginary fence. But I found myself cringing a number of times with the response of the Christians.
It seems that many Christians are really awkward around people who don't share their faith convictions. I've tried to reflect on why this is the case. Some possibilities that come to mind are:
1. Many Christians live out their faith in a Christian "ghetto" and feel awkward around those who live on the other side of the tracks.
2. Many Christians are most comfortable in the land of black and white. When someone goes into gray territory, they feel unsure what to do next other than to argue for the truth of black and white.
3. Many Christians feel they must answer every objection to Christianity immediately, rather than be sensitive to timing and where the relationship is at.
As I question whether or not I'm being too critical, I'm quickly reminded of the common perceptions people have of Christians in perhaps the majority of places around the world. It's worth taking the time not only to think about what we believe and why, but how we communicate this.
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