Q&A with Mike Erich

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I have been reading Mike's blog for several years. He and I have had rich conversations about biblical interpretation and theology. Mike and I both post at the Daily Prayer blog. Here is my Q&A with the Mad Theologian.

What is the name and URL of your blog?

I am Mike Erich, and I blog at mikeerich.blogspot.com.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I have continued to blog in spite of my present struggles with pancreatic cancer. I call myself the mad theologian. By this I do not mean the angry theologian, though there are some things that tend to made me angry. I mean, rather, a theologian who is somewhat off the wall. I believe we have taken God’s true message and have complicated it with unnecessary baggage. Those who want a full list of my concerns, along with the detailed support for them, should go to my blog.

Share a few sentences about your blog.

Here are four of my basic issues.

In am opposed to all sorts of quick fixes and magic formulas for living the Christian life or improving the Christian church. I believe that growth in Christ is a lifelong journey, full of ups and downs, and there are no short-cuts. I also believe that serving Christ in whatever capacity is a process of learning that takes place over time. And I hold that the way to accomplish these is through trust in God and not reliance on our methods.

I am convinced that we in the United States live in a post-Christian nation and that we cannot go back simply by passing the right laws and electing the right politicians. Rather, we need to start again at the beginning and convince people of Christian principles on the personal level before we can have any real political influence. This means being people who know what we believe and why we believe it.

Christ has redeemed us from sin apart from our good works. Therefore, the people of God must be people of grace who reach out in love to those who are in need. We need to lay aside self-righteousness and recognize that we are sinners saved by grace. Therefore, our focus should not be on condemning people, but on helping them to find God’s love.

The Christian church is the body of Christ, which consists of all believers of all time, and which He works through to achieve His purposes. The function of the church organization is to work for the good of the people in it, to bring them to Christ and help them to grow in Him, so that they may accomplish Christ’s purpose in the world. But it is easy for the organization to think it is there to grow and perpetuate itself and to view the people as being there to build the organization, rather than the other way around.

But the bottom line is that I believe the work of serving Christ is reaching out to and loving people, so that they may live and grow in Christ, and not promoting “my group” or “my gimmick.”

Thanks to Mike for sharing. Send me an email if you are a blogger and interested in participating in my Q&A.

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