Fulfilling the Promise of the New Life

“The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge in the 20th Century.” I don’t mean that it doesn’t exist. I mean it is not accessible.

The issue as it especially affects the church - the disappearance of Jesus the teacher and the emergence of Christianity without discipleship. This is a major part of the overall story.

The first key activity of the Moral Knowledge Initiative was an academic symposium held at Biola University’s Center for Christian Thought in La Mirada, California, on May 14-15, 2019. The aim of the symposium was to generate interdisciplinary conversation and actionable next steps that focus on the restoration of moral knowledge within our institutions and culture. Twenty-two participants discussed how to engage universities and institutions in a way that honored Dallas’s intentions when he was writing The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge.

During two invigorating days in February of 2020, approximately 20 friends, pastors, scholars, professors, and practitioners gathered at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, CA, to discuss two pertinent topics for contemporary life today: how do you know what is true and do what is good? These two questions were derived from the ground-breaking work of Dallas Willard in The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge. This summary of "Knowing What's True. Doing What's Good." has been provided by Rich Gregory of Oaks Christian School.

Notes for a presentation at the Association of Christian Character Development in 2012.

This interview is available to subscribers at the Christianity Today website.

This article is published at Leadership Journal.net: Christianity Today

This interview is available to subscribers at the Christianity Today website.

Question: Do Spokespersons for Christ (“Pastors”) bring unique and indispensable knowledge of how people, including society as a whole, can live in economic wisdom? The position taken here is that they do.

The keys of the kingdom also unlock the joys of your calling.

Every pastor, sooner or later, faces the contradictory demands of being a professional and being in ministry.

A professional has a schedule to keep, credentials to maintain, a career ladder to ascend. Urgent details crowd out solitude, service, and the deepening of a relationship with God. A life of simplicity and ministry to souls is elbowed aside by ambition and expectation.

Like doctors, lawyers, and other professionals today, pastors often feel their working conditions conflict with their calling. Heightened frustration leads to decreasing strength, peace, and joy.

But it does not have to be so.

Human beings have a vital interest in the direction of human development. It often is focused upon dysfunctionality and its remediation, but can also be directed toward the positive development of persons and their flourishing.