You’re Gonna Have ‘Em
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Our Guests
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B.A. (Philosophy), Univ of MN
M.Div. Yale Divinity School
Ph.D. Princeton Theological Seminary
Senior Pastor - Woodland Hills Church (1992-present)
President/Founder - Reknew Ministries
Adjunct Professor - Northern Seminary (2017-present)
Professor of Theology - Bethel University (1987 - 2004)
Author/CoAuthor of 23 books
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Author of Fire By Night: Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament and How To Have An Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace. Pastor, parent, and pollinator gardner
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Cameron McKenzie is the lead pastor at Fort Garry EMC in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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Carol Penner teaches and writes in the area of practical theology and after many years as a pastor in various Mennonite congregations, she joined the faculty at Grebel. Her research interests include feminist theology and Mennonite peace theology, and abuse issues. She has a popular blog of her worship resources at www.leadinginworship.com.
Travis, Stephanie, Jennifer and Deborah from Many Rooms Church Community, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Links and Resources
Books
The Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Greg Boyd
How to Have an Enemy, by Melissa Florer-Bixler
Music
First Communion, Dane Joneshill
(Spotify | YouTube Music)
Be Heard, Brandon Post
(Spotify | YouTube Music | Apple Music)
Other Links
Notable Quotes
Loving our enemies assumes we will have enemies – why is that significant?
We don't usually think about people in our family as our enemies. The irony is that the children will keep loving you even though you hurt them because that's what children do. But loving your enemy could mean loving your family member and not hurting them, because as soon as you abuse someone, you're treating them like an object. You're not treating them like a child of God. ~Dr. Carol Penner
The state of animosity is the normal state of the world caught in sin, so it doesn't surprise me that we have enemies. Jesus assumes we'll have enemies. Paul assumes we'll have enemies. ~Cameron McKenzie
The church has never existed in a place of complete equilibrium with everybody around them. And in fact, if you look at the history of the church, more often than not, different groups within the church have been the most virulent enemies of other groups within the church. ~Cameron McKenzie
Our battle, our struggle is never against flesh and blood, never against other human beings, it’s always against the principalities and powers, and dominions and rulers and authorities and those in dark places… those are the fallen powers that are always trying to get us to identify other human beings as enemies… ~Dr. Greg Boyd
An acknowledgement of animosity or having an enemy doesn't automatically mean that there needs to be sort of open conflict coming from both sides. ~Jesse Penner
The minute we identify the kingdom of God with a nation, boom! It's not going to be beautiful; it’s going to be a quote-unquote ‘Christianized’ version of the kind of nationalistic impulse that people have always had, and the thing is… In my opinion, when you fuse the Christian faith with the interests of any nation, well, all you've done is just paganized Christianity. ~Dr. Greg Boyd
If I find that my common sense is in violation to Jesus, I have to assume that the problem is with me, not Jesus. ~Dr. Greg Boyd
I think that every day we should be praying for our quote-unquote enemies. My congregation, I instruct them, remind them all the time to be picking out the three to five people or people groups that you have the hardest time loving. Think of the politicians that drive you the most crazy, make you the most angry, pray for them every day. You know, it's interesting that – and I didn't notice this until just this last year – but ‘enemies’ is the one group that Jesus specifically tells us to pray for. Pray for the Romans and pray for the Samaritans, pray for your enemies. ~Dr. Greg Boyd
We won't naturally grow into loving our enemies if we're not intentional and loving our enemies continually and forming our character in that direction. ~Dr. Greg Boyd
Jesus is comparing their persecution to the ancient prophets. We might look at that and … think, well, yeah, the prophets were persecuted and just think it's the world. But no, the prophets were persecuted by the people of God. … And sometimes I wonder, are we the biggest persecutors of one another and then it causes me to wonder as well. Have I been someone who has been needlessly persecuting another Christian instead of being someone that is loving my enemy? ~Kevin Wiebe
Currently, for the people that really don't like me, it is interesting for me to think like “How do I best love them?” because I do sometimes greet them and you know, let it be known that “Hey, if they ever want to change their stance on their thinking of me, then I'm open to that. I'm still a neighbour. I'm still a friend.” And yet I think sometimes that just stings for them... because I think they're wallowing and they're in a situation where they're feeling that I'm this terrible person and they would like me to have those same negative feelings towards them. ~Travis
The family of God has many parts. The body of Christ has many parts, and so when one part is unable to love right now, there are other parts and Christ is in that. ~Jennifer
It's not complicated—it's challenging. It's really hard, but it's not complicated to go into the quiet place where you go and actually pray for the people that you're angry with. ~Cameron McKenzie
Can we admit that in the Christian church that when there are power differentials, we are tempted to violence? We are tempted to make the people we love into our enemies. ~Dr. Carol Penner
When we talk about enemies, we're really naming that there is catastrophic sin, destruction and death that impacts our world... The relationship of harm where one person has the ability, is able to execute harm over another person in a persistent way is a relationship that we call enmity. Once we begin to sort of think more intentionally about what that relationship means, we can also then open ourselves up to a God who wants to redeem even our enemies. ~Melissa Florer-Bixler
