Larry Crabb
February 7, 2003
2:30 pm
Message Summary
Christians need release more than restraint, Larry Crabb said in his third and final afternoon address during Founder’s Week. According to Crabb, by developing a deep passion to experience the Trinity, we can free ourselves for holiness rather than struggling under legalistic guidelines. Thus, our love for God, borne out of admitting inadequacy and dependence on the Spirit, develops holiness that rules only make us want to break.
Living what Crabb calls this “new way,” we then become qualified to practice soul talk, what Crabb defines as “the language of holy vision and holy passion for another person to commune deeply with God.
Crabb then described three characteristics of soul talkers. First, these people begin with brokenness instead of diagnosis. However, true brokenness is neither merely hurting nor admitting felt pain. Rather, it is recognizing our guilty position before God because we value something above him in our hearts.
Secondly, soul talk leads to repentance not treatment. The person equipped to speak powerfully into another’s life never arrogantly calls God dry and empty. The person does, however, recognize that sometimes God seems that way. And the soul talker allows those experiences to reveal his or her deep desire to truly experience God.
Lastly, the soul talker can risk moving deeply into other peoples’ lives because he or she is anchored in Christ. “The life of Christ is in my soul whether I bomb or do amazingly well,” Crabb noted. So, trusting God for support and taking the risk of reaching out to help others commune with the Trinity, the soul talker can join the battle of identifying the old way that seems like Christianity and replacing it with the new way.
Student Response
I feel so inadequate to carry burdens for people. I wish I could offer the right stock phrase and make things better. But all my wisdom sounds trite and rings about as true as a cliché in the really difficult situations of life. Maybe I can’t make everything better. Maybe the pain of life will always sting. Maybe I’m realizing that I’m not the savior. But I know that I have a Savior. Somebody desired me enough to bind eternity in a human shell and loved me enough to suspend the holy on a gory tree. And maybe nobody really needs my wisdom anyway. But I’m guessing I would do well to point them to communion with an awesome Savior and life-sustaining Lord.
—Dale Harris, Senior, Pastoral Studies major