Spiritual Warfare

Last Sunday we visited "The International Church" which holds it's meetings at the Nuart Theatre here in Moscow. It turns out to be the latest in a string of about a dozen or so churches started in Moscow and Pullman since 1971 by Jim Wilson. The service was informal: some a Capella singing from a broadly-sourced traditional hymnal; a children's homily (with cookies) that was sincere, appropriate, and affectionate; prayer requests taken and then immediately dealt with; communion; an adult sermon by the same guy as preached to the kids and by adult I mean vague and overly introspective (guy is not Jim Wilson, it wasn't his week); another hymn and then the Benediction.
   Afterward I got to chat with Jim for a while. He's 84, lost his wife a year ago. Walks with a cane. Two of his sons are pastors of daughter churches of his. Christ Church and All Souls, but his sons have very different theology from his. I told him I'd visited Christ Church. He explained why he didn't like Reformed theology, and I nodded. I explained why I didn't like Pietism, and he nodded. It was very pleasant, he gave me a copy of his testimony, a copy of the sermon he preached at his wife's funeral (she' asked him to) and a couple of pamphlets he'd written. I asked him if he'd had a purpose for coming here, to Moscow. He told me he had.
   Jim joined the Navy as soon as he graduated from High School in April of 1945, and while in boot camp, applied to the Naval Academy Prep School. He got in, earned his appointment and entered the Naval Academy in June of 1946. He became a Christian during his Plebe year. After graduating he spent eight years as a Naval Officer. He gave me another book that he'd written in 1964, and has been updating regularly up to its current 2009 fifth edition. It is titled "Principles of War: A Handbook on Strategic Evangelism."  He said that he'd looked around for an objective that was both feasible and winnable. New York was neither, but Moscow/Pullman was both: Pagan, liberal College towns where he could have a broad and deep impact on the culture and future of two states. I think that he is doing just that.
   I have always kind of scoffed at the phrase "Spiritual Warfare," as being a nearly oxymoronic cliché, an inappropriate metaphor. But how am I supposed to become the person I am meant to be? Do I think that I'm going to get even part way there without a struggle? I can barely deal with my day-to-day concerns: getting some food, succeeding in class, the success of my wife and children, not becoming incapacitated by depression or anxiety. Gosh am I over my head.
  I liked and admired Jim Wilson immediately. I've started reading his book. Also, I'm starting to wonder what's in the water over here.