Theology
If you haven't seen the ABC news piece on the XXXChurch.com's Jesus Loves Porn Stars Bible, you should. I find this issue fascinating and important. Craig Gross and others in this ministry go to porn expo's and give away Bibles that have some Christians displeased, including Al Mohler (as the video shows). More from Mohler at his website.
Please watch the segment and let me know what you think.
Joe Thorn: Drinking With Jesus.
Justin Taylor emailed me this brief video clip of Tim Keller talking about Scripture and foundations. Thanks for the love JT. More videos from Desiring God Conference speakers are online as well, including Driscoll on Emerging/Emergent distinctions.
Tim Keller has a new article up over at The Movement: "Ministry in the New Global Culture of Major City-Centers, Part IV."
Read the whole series of articles: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV.
Also note a reading list on contextualization from the current issue of The Movement.
I find it both frustrating and hysterical that after a landslide victory onthe alcohol resolution we have a couple of unthinkable things happening. To use the words of a very recent SBC President, it's one of the most unthinkable things imaginable.
1. Those who champion the alcohol resolution are quick to admit the resolution and biblical teaching on alcohol don't match. I'm sure they wouldn't like the way I've worded that. Whatever. It's true and they seem to feel a great motivation to admit it.
Jim Smith (Florida Baptist Witness): "As noted in the debate on the resolution, it’s clear from Scripture that wine was consumed during biblical times — and that it is even encouraged in moderation in select passages of the Bible."
Danny Akin (SEBTS): "Does the Bible by direct command condemn the use of alcohol in every instance? The honest answer is no it does not. Jesus clearly turned water into wine (John 2)."
No matter what else these guys say, it's clear that they are supporting what they consider to be an extra-biblical resolution. How hilarious is that? And the bigger problem is that these ideas are not just extra-biblical, they are anti-biblical.
For example, Danny Akin also says, "I have observed for some time a growing emphasis on our 'liberty in Christ' that I fear neglect of our 'responsibility in Christ.'" Sure, we get his point on responsibility. Let's not try to trump responsibility with our liberty. There are certainly times to abstain for the sake of others, and any faithful Christian of any stripe will strive to live that way.
But both responsibility AND liberty are Jesus things. We cannot act like responsibility nullifies our liberty, or why have liberty? They both have their place, and anyone who interprets our responsibility as totally abstaining from a liberty has misinterpreted responsibility. That's why when these guys say that all should abstain all the time we have moved into the realm of absurdity.
Of course there is one, clear biblical warrant for this kind of thinking: the Pharisees. Yes, those "strong conservatives" knew how to take seriously all the "contextual and principle considerations" behind their extra-biblical rules. I'm sure their intentions were often good, desiring Scriptural fidelity and a "holy life." But they were condemned because they missed the grace that sets us free, opting rather for their own interpretations and additions to the Law.
Now, let me be clear. (Unfortunately, I have to spend time on this because so many of our leaders not only have a poor understanding of liberty and responsibility, but they also have a poor understanding of biblical conservatism and liberalism.) I’m an inerrantist & Calvinist. I’m an expository preacher who regularly has people leaving our services telling me that they are feeling terribly convicted over some sin. And I submit that our so-called “strong conservatives” are actually less conservative than me on this issue. The most conservative conservatives (biblically speaking) are sola scriptura-ists, and anyone who pushes extra-biblical rules that disqualify Jesus for SBC service is less conservative because they are NOT sola-scriptura-ists.
Let me move on.
2. Those who champion the alcohol resolution seem to be speaking as if they lost the vote, yet they had like 85-90% of the vote! This is remarkably queer. Their massive "win" on this resolution is strangely only a small comfort.
Do you believe it? They propose a resolution that has no biblical backing and are surprised that some want to debate it. Then they win by a landslide and feel the need to keep pushing the issue as if they lost. Why is this happening? I think for at least two reasons, though probably more. First, they need something to celebrate after getting pummeled at the poles on nominations. Some will now put me in the ranks of some who pushed hard for other nominations, but if you read my blogs you know I’m in disagreement with them on this issue.
Second, they are disturbed that there was even a conversation to be had on alcohol! From Jim Smith's article...
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson…nicely summarized the alcohol resolution debate when he told me, “Sadly, I would never have believed that I would see a 45 minute debate at the Southern Baptist Convention on a resolution on abstinence from beverage alcohol. When one considers that the alcohol industry devastates more lives and homes today than any industry other than the pornography industry, such a question is doubly unthinkable. Positively, the resolution was adopted by 90 percent of the messengers, a critically important resolution in light of some pastors who now openly boast of imbibing alcohol.”
This much is clear: the Southern Baptist establishment is terrified of more than just abused liberty. They are terrified of even responsibly exercising biblical liberty. Why else would they push for extra-biblical rules? Liberty allows churches to be autonomous, and Christians to be responsible to God for their use of liberties, and even *gulp* allows some people to blog. So some have been making new rules and resolutions on baptism and tongues and blogging trustees and alcohol and who is able to serve as a convention leader and who is not. Fear causes people to do very strange things, like make rules that would disqualify Jesus and the Apostles and Old Testament saints from SBC service.
The sad thing is, fear is what led the Pharisees to seek the death of our Savior. Fear of a political takeover. Fear of losing power and authority and privilege. It seems the SBC "strong conservative" leaders have, like the Pharisees, turned a blind eye to the Scriptures they say they love so dearly. In that stance they continue to vilify and isolate brothers who enjoy the things Jesus enjoyed, even in a responsible and thoughtful way.
I strongly disagree with Dr. Akin, Jim Smith, and their lot. I think their position is hurting our convention, our witness, our mission work, the outworkings of the conservative resurgence, and more. I think they are pushing away from our convention our best and brightest young pastors because of extra-biblical resolutions like this. I think they are showing the world that the SBC and Jesus aren’t as close as we hoped.
And at the same time I would NEVER, EVER say these men are unregenerate. I love them both and spoke briefly with Smith and Akin at the convention. I have great respect for the work they do and the many wise things they say. But in this case they are both working against the Savior they love.
New Tim Keller audio at The Veritas Forum (MP3). The quality isn't very good, but the content makes up for it. (All Tim Keller Resources)
Justin Taylor uses the words of John Piper (from 25 years ago) to question the wisdom of the newest SBC resolution on alcohol use. A blurb...
I want to hate what God hates and love what God loves. And this I knowbeyond the shadow of a doubt: God hates legalism as much as he hates alcoholism. If any of you still wonders why I go on supporting this amendment, after hearing all the tragic stories about lives ruined through alcohol, the reason is that when I go home at night and close my eyes and let eternity rise in my mind I see ten million more people in hell because of legalism than because of alcoholism. And I think that is a literal understatement.
Tim Keller's article from Christianity Today is up: "A New Kind of Urban Christian." A must read if you are urban or not. I've also added it to my Keller resource page.
(HT: Justin Taylor, who emailed me in order to shame me since he found it first)
A few blurbs...
Once in cities, Christians should be a dynamic counterculture. It is not enough for Christians to simply live as individuals in the city. They must live as a particular kind of community. Jesus told his disciples that they were "a city on a hill" that showed God's glory to the world (Matt. 5:14-16). Christians are called to be an alternate city within every earthly city, an alternate human culture within every human culture, to show how sex, money, and power can be used in nondestructive ways.
[...]
This is the only kind of cultural engagement that will not corrupt us and conform us to the world's pattern of life. If Christians go to urban centers simply to acquire power, they will never achieve cultural influence and change that is deep, lasting, and embraced by the broader society. We must live in the city to serve all the peoples in it, not just our own tribe. We must lose our power to find our (true) power. Christianity will not be attractive enough to win influence except through sacrificial service to all people, regardless of their beliefs.
[...]
So we must neither just denounce the culture nor adopt it. We must sacrificially serve the common good, expecting to be constantly misunderstood and sometimes attacked. We must walk in the steps of the one who laid down his life for his opponents.
A couple of nights ago I finally finished Breaking the Missional Code, a new book by Ed Stetzer and David Putman. I found it to be a worthy read and I wanted to offer a somewhat brief review of it.
I expected this to be a good intro to missional thinking. I'm not sure that's what I'd call it. I would call it a good intro to the outworking of some missional thinking. It's not about the "missional code" but about "breaking" it. That's why it's a book of stats, helpful stories, charts, and plenty of simple, practical ideas based on solid missional foundations.
I must admit that I'm a little concerned that some guys who don't get missional theology could apply much of this book as church growth advice. Joe Thorn seems to make similar observations. It's hard to break the missional code if you don't get "missional." So I wish the book had a little more space dedicated to something more foundational in explaining "missional."
One of my favorite aspects of the book is the pervasive help concerning thinking on culture and contextualization. The church should "spring forth out of the soil in which it is planted" (p 91). "We must look for those cultural bridges to every people group, population segment, and cultural environment" called "redemptive analogies" (p 97). All good stuff.
There's plenty on planting, on models and methods. Lots of good questions on vision, networking, and readiness.
I really liked Chapter 12 on emerging networks. It's mirrors much of what I've been personally desiring and encouraging among Southern Baptists. They have recognized the backwards work of denominations and parachurch ministries and recommended a helpful approach to getting denominations thinking about their role in a healthier way. My favorite advice is that denominational agencies need to "learn to 'dance' with other organizations." Can I get a witness?
For me the chapter on the practices of leaders who break the code was crucial to the book. Maybe it's just because of where I am and what I'm wrestling with in ministry, but it's very helpful nonetheless. They said we need to ask the right questions of the right people to understand the culture we are in. We must be willing to pay the price physically, emotionally and in so many other ways. Getting culture and making an impact will take real risk. According to the authors it will also take great teams, so leaders need to "inspire people to take overwhelming risk" (p 201). We need focused visionaries who work on their churches and not just in it. These are not just brief statements, but all thought out and explained. Very helpful.
The absolute best thing to me about this book is you don't get through it and think there is one way to "do church." It's a book about asking the right questions based on the right biblical principles and hopefully seeing an indigenous church raise up that reflects the culture in the right ways and is different than the culture in the right ways.
When we talk about missional churches we are not referring to a certain form, expression, model, type, or category of church. We are talking about a church that seeks to understand its context and come to express that understanding by contextualizing the gospel in its community. Over time the church becomes an indigenous expression of the gospel within that culture, eventually removing all extrabiblical barriers. The truest expression of this mission church is that is fully represents Christ in its context, maintaining biblical integrity so that gospel moves unhindered. (187-188)
I really enjoyed and recommend Breaking the Missional Code. For biblical/theological foundations many of us will need Bosch, Guder, Newbigin, Van Gelder and others. But for the how-to outworkings of missional theology, Breaking the Missional Code is very worthwhile and has already caused me to make some plans this summer to implement a few great ideas. I see this book as mainly helpful for practitioners and those in training, but it is also the most accessible book for local church leaders. May it find a wide readership.
Joe Thorn: "Worship Incarnate"
There is a blog tour (interesting idea) for Scot McKnight's new book Praying With The Church. I hope to have a review up on the book in the not too distant future (I've been sent a copy), but I'm too bogged down with stuff right now to take part in the tour which begins Monday.
Other books I'm reviewing soon...
Breaking the Missional Code by Stetzer and Putman (I hope by next week)
Pocket Guide to the Bible by Jason Boyett
Bonhoeffer Speaks Today by Mark Devine
Driscoll wonders, Is Jack Bauer a Type of Christ?
I really enjoyed Robert Webber's article in the Spring 2006 Criswell Theological Review: "Narrating the World Once Again: A Case for an Ancient-Future Faith." If you get a chance and can find a copy of the CTR, read it. My "tight" evangelical readers may shiver at all the uses of the word "story" or "narrative," but hey, our existence and ministry is rooted in, concerning, and continuing The Story. So there. :)
A couple of quotes...
I want to articulate three very specific paths for the Emerging church to follow in order to restore the ancient biblical and historical narrative from which to minister in a post Christian world: 1) deconstruct the current accommodation of ministry to the cultural narrative, 2) recover the story-formed nature of the good news, and 3) re-situate ministry in the divine narrative. (p 16)
Evangelicalism is so thoroughly conditioned by the culture in which it seeks to minister, that it has the appearance of the commonplace. It has become what people want to hear, not what it is that God wants to say and do. This indictment of evangelical Christianity--that it is culturally conditioned--is only the surface problem. The deeper problem is that by allowing itself to become conditioned by the "surface culture," it missed the point of the deeper cultural crisis. This crisis is that our world has become storyless. There is no unified story that gives meaning to life and history. Everything has been reduced to "my" story. But there is no universal story in which my story is situated. (p 19)
The task of the next generation of leaders is to disassociate themselves from the culturally conditioned practices of the evangelical church, and recover the divine narrative in which all ministry is situated. (p 20)
This is a must read by Michael Spencer for anyone who has been reading the online junk about Mark Driscoll's new book Confessions of a Reformission Rev. and Driscoll's "vulgar" stories and colorful language. By the way, does anyone know what "confessions" means? (That was rhetorical.)
**DISCLAIMER** >> I will delete comments intending to rehash the discussion here. It's been overdone elsewhere.
Philip Ryken considers the words of Tim Keller on the New Perspective at a Pastor's Colloquium at Trinity Evangelical in Deerfield, IL.
Donald Miller is interviewed at Out of Ur: "Donald Miller Isn't Hip." A clip...
You've said that the church "uses love as a commodity." What do you mean?
Miller: We sometimes take a Darwinian approach with love—if we are against somebody's ideas, we starve them out. If we disagree with somebody's political ideas, or sexual identity, we just don't "pay" them. We refuse to "condone the behavior" by offering any love.
This approach has created a Christian culture that is completely unaware what the greater culture thinks of us. We don't interact with people who don't validate our ideas. There is nothing revolutionary here. This mindset is hardly a breath of fresh air to a world that uses the exact same kinds of techniques.
Okay, it's VERY late. So this will be very short. I may expand on some stuff later, and I don't claim to be able to make sense of stuff so late.
Smokin' guns, Tim Keller just rocked. I'll explain this talk a bit, but the rest will be brief.
Keller's third and last session was up first this morning, "Doing Justice." Geez. A friend said it was the highlight of the conference. It certainly was one of the most important talks I've ever heard on ministry. Keller described injustice as that which damages the fabric of shalom. Shalom is the way things ought to be. When the body is healthy, it has shalom. All bits and pieces are harmonious. So with culture, as the bits and pieces do well together, there is cultural/city/neighborhood shalom. But when that fabric is damaged (as it always and often is) then we do justice, or reweave shalom.
Keller said that power has to be given to others if we are going to do anything good. Our job is to enable flourishing. We are born in certain circumstances we didn't look to be in. People haven't asked to be where they are. And Christians should give away power to those who don't have it as the work of justice. Keller said that biblical righteousness is about being willing to disadvantage yourself for the advantage of the community. His question for us: Does your city rejoice that your church is there? If they don't then we aren't working justice.
Matt Chandler of The Village Church of Dallas was next. I first heard Matt in Dallas last summer at Acts29, and he was great. But today, it may have been the most important message I've heard. I said Darrin Patrick's message was really good for me, and Matt's was like picking up where Darrin left off and pressing even harder toward Jesus. I wrote in my notes: "I would gladly let Matt start again and say it all over again." It was that good.
Eric Mason talked about reaching the hip-hop generation. Good, solid stuff. We heard a couple of rap songs. Very interesting on contextualization.
Mark Driscoll batted clean-up by talking about the Gospel, the Cross, and mostly about penal substitution. It was a "hot" talk, and he was pretty fired up. Good, biblical stuff.
Last things...We were able to hang at the Driscoll house for 1 1/2 hours tonight with about a dozen other guys. The conference audio should be online in a couple of weeks. And please pray for our trip back. We fly out at 2:30 central time. It has been a great, great trip but we really miss our kids.
What a great day in Seattle. The temp was nice, the sun was out, and day two of the the Reform & Resurge conference was fantastic. I'll go speaker by speaker with a few brief (it's really late and I'm really tired) comments. All quotes are as exact as can be after trying to understand my fast and sloppy writing. You may not understand the context of something, but consider yourself blessed for what you do understand. :)
First up, the second and final session taught by Ed Stetzer. Much came from his new book Breaking the Missional Code (see Driscoll's new interview with Stetzer about his new books). I won't give all the info, including a couple sets of lists. But I will say the first list includes 10 shifts for moving people toward culture and the second includes steps to understanding culture. Good stuff. He also gave good advice on how to get beyond demographics in knowing culture.
Josh Harris followed Stetzer and talked about a "humble orthodoxy." It was very good. I've heard Josh speak before and I always learn much from him. He taught from 2 Timothy 2:14-26, 1. Teach the truth faithfully, 2. Live the truth faithfully, and 3. Represent the truth humbly.
Quotes: "We are to avoid controversy that distracts people from the gospel." "Living Truth becomes a living lie when we don't embody it ourselves." "You should be suspicious when the voice in your head says, 'You don't need counsel on this decision.'"
Tim Keller gave the other two messages of the day. The first was on "Being the Church in Our Culture." He provided a paper/article for the talk. Here's his six-fold model for the church relating to culture. They can read as one sentence.
1. More Christians living long-term in cities
2. ...With a better understanding of the gospel
3. ...Living as dynamic counter-cultures in the city
4. ...Integrating their faith and their work
5. ...Radically committed to the good of the city as a whole
6. ...Contextualizing the Gospel message
Quotes: "Christians are to be alternate cities in every city." "People in our churches need to understand the theological meaning of ordinary work." "We are taught how to raise up church leaders, not culture leaders." "Christians are supposed to live in the city as a counter-culture, but are not supposed to take power." "Unless you are radically like [the culture] and radically unlike [the culture], they are going to shrug."
Keller's second talk was on "Preaching the Gospel." He said you can understand the Bible diachronically (through the story) or synchronically (topically). Some new evangelicals try to focus on the former, older evangelicals on the latter, but both are needed. He focused on the Gospel as the agent of change in both unbelievers and believers as it tears down our idols and leaves us with Jesus.
Both talks by Keller were excellent and well received. I was able to ask about suburban/rural incarnational ministry during QnA, since he focused on urban ministry. I was also able to talk with him after the last session. He speaks again in the morning.
I had the chance to meet Mark Horne and Dan Cruver today, and shared lunch with several friends I mentioned yesterday plus Drew Goodmanson. Drew is a great guy and an elder at Kaleo in San Diego who knows more about the internet than the founder, Al Gore. I had a nice chat today with Shaun Garman of Red Sea Church in Portland. Shaun is a godly young pastor who we first met at the Acts29 conference in Dallas last year. I also had a brief 'hello, love your books' with Donald Miller after he showed up for Keller's first talk.
I've met several guys who recognized me from this blog and decided to say 'hi.' I love making these sorts of connections, and many of these guys seem to find my blog because they are looking for Tim Keller resources. One of those guys is Darren Larson from Wheaton, IL. He only lives an hour from me but we meet for the first time in Seattle. Strange world. Check out his blog.
I failed to mention yesterday that I talked for some time with Scott Thomas, who has been the Acts29 replanting guy and is now heading up the whole dealio. Very cool for everyone because Scott is a great guy. He always listens like you are the most important guy in the world and has great penetrating questions and insights. We hope to talk more with him tomorrow. Read a great "replanting" article by Scott.
FYI, I believe the conference audio and video will be available for free at some point on the Resurgence site. How cool is that?
The Reform & Resurge conference is on full force. Three speakers today. First was Darrin Patrick of The Journey Church in St. Louis. Darrin is an SBC'r and a church planter with Acts29. His talk was just perfect for me, exactly what I needed.
He said that your biggest challenge in ministry is yourself. He used James 1:1-4 to talk about how those who walk with God will be a mess because God wants to build our character through trials. The process of going through trials is painful, but we need to focus on the product of trails not the pain of trails. Why would we want to avoid trials when it's the trigger to God's power?
The second speaker was Anthony Bradley. I didn't like it. Seemed like a good guy with something to say, but he didn't get it out.
The third speaker was Ed Stetzer, the church planting and church researcher with NAMB. Great missional stuff. He used Acts 17 to make four points. 1. Acknowledge spiritual questions in culture, 2. Understand culture, 3. Acknowledge the positive and rebuke the negative inside the culture, and 4. Proclaim Christ.
Stetzer said that the HOW of ministry must be determined by the WHO, WHERE, and WHEN of culture, but that the church is currently answering questions that no one in the culture is asking. The church has then become a culture in itself. But what the church needs is to hold two truths in tension, that we mus be contending for the faith (Jude 3) and contextualizing by becoming all things to all men (1 Cor. 9).
Great quote: "Preaching against culture is like preaching against somebody's house. It's just where they live."
Second great quote: "The stumbling block of the cross has too often been replaced by the stumbling block of the church." Most people aren't being recruited by other religions, they are being repelled by ours.
Today I was able to sit with Kevin Cawley and Brian Brown. We had some discussion after the day ended with Kevin, Brian, Bruce Chant, Bill Streger, and Pete Williamson. I also met a handful of other bloggers and blog readers.
Sidenote: I'm reading and planning to blog-review Stetzer's new book Breaking the Missional Code soon. The book is about how Tom Hanks finds the code for missional theology in the glow of Thomas Kinkade paintings. Okay, not really. But it's very good so far.
For lunch we had it catered by a local barbeque restaurant, Porter's Place. Wow, was it good. We were told to be sure to "meet the man." So we saw a guy who we figured was "the man" and asked if he was. He said no but went and got "the man." "The man" is no man, but one of the most powerful hot sauces I've ever experienced (and I've experienced a couple of very hot ones). That's "the man" that I tasted a drop of on the toothpick (see pic). Literally burned my mouth and made my eyes water for 15 minutes or more.
Tomorrow, more Ed, Josh Harris (who I met tonight at the hotel), and Tim Keller. It's gonna rock. For now, the donger need sleep. G'nite. Oh! And be sure to keep up with my Seattle pictures.
Dang, great Desiring God promo video. You need to see it. I'm planning on going. (HT: Thorn)
