"reformission is not about abstention; it is about redemption. We must throw ourselves into the culture so that all that God made good is taken back and used in a way that glorifies him. Our goal is not to avoid drinking, singing, working, playing, eating, love-making, and the like. Instead, our goal must be to redeem those things through the power of the gospel so that they are used rightly according to Scripture, bringing God glory and his people a satisfied joy." (152)
In chapter 7, Driscoll writes about 7 demons of postmodernity. Demon 1 is the Sky Fairy:
"Jesus is not a nice old man in a button-up cardigan sweater and loafers singing happy songs while loading everyone onto a trolly headed to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe to meet King Friday like some Mr. Rogers clone. That god is the neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that wants to bless everyone, does not care what you call him/her/it/they, never gets angry, and would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell. This mythical Sky Fairy is increasingly mistaken for Jesus, however, by many young pastors and Christians I have met who don't want the gospel to be the offensive and foolish stumbling block that it is. So they remake Jesus into a feathered-hair fairy in lavender tights and take the sword of revelation out of his hand, replacing it with a daisy." (166)
Taken from The Radical Reformissionary by Mark Driscoll.
11.30.2005
11.29.2005
All of Life is Repentance
Today I read an article by Tim Keller. He is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC. I had the privilege of visiting his church when I was in NYC for a mission trip this past summer. He is brilliant. I highly recommend that you become familiar with his ministry, especially if you are considering church-planting or ministering in the city. Those from the bible belt will have to keep in mind that his context is NYC, which is a tad bit different than west Texas. It is called "All of Life is Repentance," and is brief so you should check it out. He compares 2 kinds of repentance. I will leave you with a few excerpts:
"In 'religion' the purpose of repentance is basically to keep God happy so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers. This means that 'religious repentance' is a) selfish, b) self-righteous, c) and bitter all the way to the bottom. But in the gospel the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God's heart."
"In religion our only hope is to live a good enough life for God to bless us. Therefore every instance of sin and repentance is traumatic, unnatural, and horribly threatening. Only under great duress does a religious person admit they have sinned - because their only hope is their moral goodness. But in the gospel the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed (because we know we won't be cast off if we confess the true depths of our sinfulness.) Our hope is in Christ's righteousness, not our own - so it is not traumatic to admit our weaknesses and lapses. In religion we repent less and less often. But the more accepted and loved in the gospel we feel the more and more often we will be repenting. And though of course there is always some bitterness in any repentance, in the gospel there is ultimately a sweetness. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God's grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God's grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions of your sin. The sin under all other sins is a lack of joy in Christ."
"In 'religion' the purpose of repentance is basically to keep God happy so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers. This means that 'religious repentance' is a) selfish, b) self-righteous, c) and bitter all the way to the bottom. But in the gospel the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God's heart."
"In religion our only hope is to live a good enough life for God to bless us. Therefore every instance of sin and repentance is traumatic, unnatural, and horribly threatening. Only under great duress does a religious person admit they have sinned - because their only hope is their moral goodness. But in the gospel the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed (because we know we won't be cast off if we confess the true depths of our sinfulness.) Our hope is in Christ's righteousness, not our own - so it is not traumatic to admit our weaknesses and lapses. In religion we repent less and less often. But the more accepted and loved in the gospel we feel the more and more often we will be repenting. And though of course there is always some bitterness in any repentance, in the gospel there is ultimately a sweetness. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God's grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God's grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions of your sin. The sin under all other sins is a lack of joy in Christ."
11.28.2005
Radical Reformission
"In fact, if all the unchurched people in the U.S. were to establish their own country, they would form the eleventh most populated nation on the planet." (18)
"As our people function as missionaries, evangelism is done by the whole church instead of through the dated evangelistic routine of relying on the ministrries of professionals, programs, or large formal events. Reformission requires that every Christian and church realize that missions is about not something they do but something they are. We are all on a mission with Jesus every day, and we are either good missionaries or bad." (66)
"Reformission Christians and churches exist to perpetuate the gospel and should be swift to change their cultural forms if they are notthe most beneficial for achieving that goal. This is what {aul told the Corinthians about being all things to all people and using all means to see as many people as possible saved (1 Cor. 9:19-23). Reformission churches have to continually examine and adjust their musical styles, websites, aesthetics, acoustics, programming, adn just about everything but their Bible in an effort to effectively communicate the gospe to as many people as possible in the cultures around them." (100)
"This point is important because too often the evangelistic task of speaking about Jesus is promoted as a work or something we must do, rather than as an overflowing of joy within us that explodes out of us because we have met God in Christ. Jesus then prayed that we would live a reformission life of tension, holding the gospel in one hand and the culture in the other, furiously refusing to let go of either so that we might be simultaneously faithful to the text of Scripture and to the context of our ministry." (143)
Taken from The Radical Reformissionary by Mark Driscoll
"As our people function as missionaries, evangelism is done by the whole church instead of through the dated evangelistic routine of relying on the ministrries of professionals, programs, or large formal events. Reformission requires that every Christian and church realize that missions is about not something they do but something they are. We are all on a mission with Jesus every day, and we are either good missionaries or bad." (66)
"Reformission Christians and churches exist to perpetuate the gospel and should be swift to change their cultural forms if they are notthe most beneficial for achieving that goal. This is what {aul told the Corinthians about being all things to all people and using all means to see as many people as possible saved (1 Cor. 9:19-23). Reformission churches have to continually examine and adjust their musical styles, websites, aesthetics, acoustics, programming, adn just about everything but their Bible in an effort to effectively communicate the gospe to as many people as possible in the cultures around them." (100)
"This point is important because too often the evangelistic task of speaking about Jesus is promoted as a work or something we must do, rather than as an overflowing of joy within us that explodes out of us because we have met God in Christ. Jesus then prayed that we would live a reformission life of tension, holding the gospel in one hand and the culture in the other, furiously refusing to let go of either so that we might be simultaneously faithful to the text of Scripture and to the context of our ministry." (143)
Taken from The Radical Reformissionary by Mark Driscoll
Dr. Ron Sider
Today I read a disturbing article from Christianity Today. It is an interview with Ron Sider on the state of evanelicalism. He is a professor at Palmer Theological Seminary, formerly known as Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the author of The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (Baker Books, 2005). This small part of the interview could serve as the thesis:
"The heart of the matter is the scandalous failure to live what we preach. The tragedy is that poll after poll by Gallup and Barna show that evangelicals live just like the world. Contrast that with what the New Testament says about what happens when people come to living faith in Christ. There's supposed to be radical transformation in the power of the Holy Spirit. The disconnect between our biblical beliefs and our practice is just, I think, heart-rending."
Amen.
"The heart of the matter is the scandalous failure to live what we preach. The tragedy is that poll after poll by Gallup and Barna show that evangelicals live just like the world. Contrast that with what the New Testament says about what happens when people come to living faith in Christ. There's supposed to be radical transformation in the power of the Holy Spirit. The disconnect between our biblical beliefs and our practice is just, I think, heart-rending."
Amen.
11.27.2005
Beyond the Gates of Splendor
This afternoon, me and my girlfriend watched Beyond the Gates of Splendor. It is the documentary of the missionary journey of Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youdarian. Their families are prominent in the documentary. These men were speared to death in Ecuador. I really enjoyed the film. It is good to get reminders that there are other people on this earth besides Americans. We tend to forget that. I learned some things that I didn't know about their journey. I don't meant to be critical, but one thing I was disappointed with was the lack of Christ-centeredness. In fact, I do not remember hearing the words Jesus or Christ in the entire film. I remember hearing God and Lord a couple of times. I thought they were a little too vague. I think that if any of the five men martyred were here, they would be upset that the gospel was not central in the movie. They didn't lay down their lives so that some Indians would stop spearing each other. They laid down their lives trying to get the gospel to a tribe that had no knowledge of Jesus Christ. I did enjoy it though, and whole-heartedly recommend it. There is a movie coming out based on the story. It is called "End of the Spear" and should release on January 20.
Barry Keldie
On the drive to San Angelo, I listened to a 3 message series by Barry Keldie. He is the pastor of Providence Church. I am pretty sure that this is a church plant from Matt Chandler's church. The three sermons were called The Weary Soul 1, 2, & 3. They were a blessing to me and stirred my affections for King Jesus. Check them out if you have the time.
11.26.2005
On Reformission
Yesterday I read Mark Driscoll's book The Radical Reformission. About a month ago, I got sucked into the world of the emergent church. I really just wanted to get a definition for it, which is very hard to do. Anyway, I began reading a lot about it. Most of what I read was nauseating due to the extremely low view of scripture held by some. Not all of what I read was nauseating though. I ran across Driscoll's name and checked into it a little. He is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. This church has drastically grown since he founded it in his living room, from around 10 to 4,000 weekly. He is a voice for the emerging church (not Emergent). In this book he says, "I am presenting this book as a contribution toward the furtherance of the emerging church in the emerging culture" (17). But later he says, "..the emerging-church massage-parlor antics of labyrinth-walking by candlelight will do little more than increase the pool of extras for televison's Will and Grace" (184). The context of that quote is talking about raising up Godly men. What is different about Driscoll though is that he is committed to expositional preaching and is a reformed theologian. That is my type of guy. This book is very insightful. It is basically about being a missionary in the U.S. He points out that, "if all the unchurched people in the U.S. were to establish their own country, they would form the eleventh most populated nation on the planet" (18). Don't get me wrong, there were places that my eyebrow was raised though. He is a bit crass for some. Fundamentalists will hate it. He is pretty humorous and very sarcastic, which I can appreciate. Over the next week or so I will post some quotes from the book that you may resonate with, or hate. All comments welcome.
11.25.2005
Go Horns!
The Longhorns played pretty bad, but pulled it off, thank the Lord. Hats off to McGee. He ran all over Texas. Final was 40-29.
The Mystery of Marriage
I just finished reading Mike Mason's book called The Mystery of Marriage. Several friends of mine spoke very highly of this book. Packer speaks of his own giddiness about it in the foreword, and Elisabeth Elliot said she doesn't need to read another book on the subject. Obviously my expectations were high. It was a good book. It is very sobering. I really appreciate Mason's honesty. He is very real. He speaks of the wonders of marriage, but he doesn't hold back from speaking of the pains of marriage. I would really recommend it to those who think that marriage will be all warm fuzzies with no work. Let me share some quotes from him concerning this:
"there is nothing in the world worse than a bad marriage, and atthe same time nothing better than a good one." (34)
"It can be a very great shock for a couple to discover how quicklyromantic love is exhausted, how little they really know or understand one another, how deeply estranged it is possible to become from the person youthought you were closest to." (38)
"What was most glamorous and exciting seems to insist, now, on beingthe most ordinary thing in the world." (65)
"No one has ever been married without being shocked at the enormity ofthis price and at the monstrous inconvenience of this thing called intimacywhich suddenly invades one's life. (89)
"A marriage is not a joining of two worlds, but an abandoning of twoworlds in order that one new one might be formed....It is a vocation oftotal abandonment." (113)
"For marriage is intended to be an environment in which he will belovingly yet persistently confronted with the plainest and ugliest evidence ofhis sinfulness, and thus encouraged on a daily basis to repent and tochange.....It is a radical step and is not intended for anyone who is notprepared, indeed eager , to surrender his own will and to be wholeheartedlysubmissive to the will of another." ( 166)
"Is it not a bitter and ironic truth that the very person we love mostin the world may appear to us, from time to time, to be the only thingstanding between ourselves and our happiness?" (170)
So you can see that he is painfully real, but that is what we need. He also addresses 1 Corinthians 7 in a different manner than I had ever heard. He says that in this instance we should not focus so much on what Paul was trying to say, but rather what the effect of his words will have on the reader (132). Therefore people will pray, think, and examine themselves to be sure they are ready for marriage.
On sex he says:
"Sex is a powerful outward symbol of the inner temper of a maritalrelationship. It is an arresting and self-evident truth that the qualityof a marriage in all of it facets depends upon a wholesome and mutuallysatisfying sex life. And the corollary is also true, that the partners'feelings about the marriage as a whole will almost always be reflected inthe quality of their sexual relations." (151)
It was a thought-provoking and sobering book. I recommend it.
"there is nothing in the world worse than a bad marriage, and atthe same time nothing better than a good one." (34)
"It can be a very great shock for a couple to discover how quicklyromantic love is exhausted, how little they really know or understand one another, how deeply estranged it is possible to become from the person youthought you were closest to." (38)
"What was most glamorous and exciting seems to insist, now, on beingthe most ordinary thing in the world." (65)
"No one has ever been married without being shocked at the enormity ofthis price and at the monstrous inconvenience of this thing called intimacywhich suddenly invades one's life. (89)
"A marriage is not a joining of two worlds, but an abandoning of twoworlds in order that one new one might be formed....It is a vocation oftotal abandonment." (113)
"For marriage is intended to be an environment in which he will belovingly yet persistently confronted with the plainest and ugliest evidence ofhis sinfulness, and thus encouraged on a daily basis to repent and tochange.....It is a radical step and is not intended for anyone who is notprepared, indeed eager , to surrender his own will and to be wholeheartedlysubmissive to the will of another." ( 166)
"Is it not a bitter and ironic truth that the very person we love mostin the world may appear to us, from time to time, to be the only thingstanding between ourselves and our happiness?" (170)
So you can see that he is painfully real, but that is what we need. He also addresses 1 Corinthians 7 in a different manner than I had ever heard. He says that in this instance we should not focus so much on what Paul was trying to say, but rather what the effect of his words will have on the reader (132). Therefore people will pray, think, and examine themselves to be sure they are ready for marriage.
On sex he says:
"Sex is a powerful outward symbol of the inner temper of a maritalrelationship. It is an arresting and self-evident truth that the qualityof a marriage in all of it facets depends upon a wholesome and mutuallysatisfying sex life. And the corollary is also true, that the partners'feelings about the marriage as a whole will almost always be reflected inthe quality of their sexual relations." (151)
It was a thought-provoking and sobering book. I recommend it.
11.24.2005
Altar Calls
Today, especially in baptist circles, the altar call is an essential and expected part of the worship service. In fact, you are more than likely going to be regarded as non-evangelistic if your worship service lacks an altar call even if you are being faithful in evangelistic ministry. I am sure that the motives of the pastors who practice the altar call are pure, but it is still harmful. The tendency for non-believers is to equate walking an aisle with genuine conversion. People assume that if they are to be saved, they must go to the front of the church. This has undoubtedly led to thousands, if not millions of people having a false assurance. I remember as a youngster feeling pressure on a continual basis to walk that aisle. Now I am all for invitation, but let's invite them to Christ, not the altar. Let's just preach the gospel and believe that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. It is sufficient to save, without our tactics. Altar calls tend to divert attention from Christ and to the front. They inevitably cause false assurance.
On a lighter note, today, I ran across one more reason why preachers should eliminate the altar call. This brother was given the right hand of fellowship...to the jaw!
Be sure and check out the video.
On a lighter note, today, I ran across one more reason why preachers should eliminate the altar call. This brother was given the right hand of fellowship...to the jaw!
Be sure and check out the video.
The World of Blogs
Well, I finally gave in. I have been flirting with the idea of starting a blog for a while now. I am not sure how consistent it will be, but it will probably mostly consist of random ramblings on theology, church, books, and hoops. We'll see.
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