celebrating his providence

Sunday, me and Kevin Peek drove from Dallas at 8:30 am and arrived in Louisville at 12:30 a.m with the time change. It was good. We had lots of edifying conversation and memorized a psalm. We went for Dustin and Jamie's wedding. It was great to celebrate what the Lord has done. It is great to look at how the Lord works in your life. I thought I would write out his providence in the last couple of years:

I am at Temple Jr. College confused about which university to attend. I wasn't fond of Angelo State, but ended up there anyway. Turned out that all of my classes transferred. I met my boy Dustin in the weight room. We got involved in the Baptist Student Ministry under the leadership of Lee Floyd. Due mostly to Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, there were many calvinists at the BSM. I decided to prove the calvinists wrong because they were anti-evangelistic. Turns out calvinists really like the bible, and I couldnt prove them wrong. I finally understood the gospel of grace. That sends me to read many Piper books, which was great for the soul. I feel led to go into ministry, so I begin to look at seminaries. It doesn't take long to find the best in the nation - Southern. I go to visit and don't have a ride so I go to the weight room and bump into Oren and Cindy Martin from Texas, who recommend that I go to South Side in Abilene for some good expositional preaching. I visit, and love it. That summer I was mentored by the pastor, and later that summer I met Alicia Mattox, who is now Alicia White, who has been a blessing that words cannot describe. My mom is now a faithful member of South Side. Alicia and I are now at Southern. Starting this fall, 3 of my friends from Angelo State and their lovely new wives will be attending Southern: Dustin, Eron, and Chance. I deserve only the wrath of God. But he is merciful and good.

Influential Churches

The Church Report has released its most recent list of the 50 most influential churches. It is a pretty sad list but I was encouraged by seeing Keller at 16, Driscoll at 22, MacArthur at 31 (right behind Paula White at 30..I think I need to vomit), Kent Hughes at 37, and Piper at 42. I am not sure how they determine the amount of influence. I would be curious though.
I will not be posting for about a week because I am heading to Texas for my boy D and his sweet fiancee Jamie's wedding. Me and Peek are taking a greyhound there, and driving back. Should be fun.
(HT: JT)

Common Grace

In the kindness of God, and with a clear manifestation of common grace, there is another Rocky movie coming out. It is called 'Rocky Balboa.' Thanks to D for posting the trailer. I have already watched it 4 times, going on five. It brings tears to my eyes. Peep the blog.

ChurchNext by Eddie Gibbs

I just rounded off the summer reading list with Newbigin's 'Trinitarian Faith and Today's Mission', a book arguing that the synoptic gospels were a Greek translation from the original Hebrew story, and Eddie Gibbs' 'ChurchNext'. I am now going to start on seminary stuff, most of which will be technical reading. I plan on doing much less blogging, maybe once a week or so. Anyway, I wasn't too impressed by any of these. The subtitle of ChurchNext is 'Quantum Changes in How We Do Ministry', so obviously it is a very practical book. If you are looking for something practical, I would first read 'The Shaping of Things to Come' by Frost and Hirsch, which I rambled about here. Gibbs was very insightful on some things though. And as a disclaimer, neither of these books have everything right. None do, except maybe Piper. I will leave you with 12 indicators of a missional church that Gibbs ganked from the Gospel and Our Culture Network:
1. It is a church that proclaims the gospel.
2. It is a community where all members are involved in learning to become disciples of Jesus
3. The Bible is normative in the life of the church.
4. The church understands itself as different from the world because of its participation in the life, death, and resurrection of its Lord.
5. The church seeks to discern God's specific missional vocation for the entire community and for all its members.
6. Christians behave Christianly towards one another.
7. The church is a community that practices reconciliation.
8. People within the community hold themselves accountable to one another in love.
9. The church practices hospitality.
10. Worship is the central act by which the community celebrates with joy and thanksgiving both God's presence and God's promised future.
11. The church is a community that has a vital public witness.
12. There is a recognition that the church itself is an incomplete expression of the reign of God. (p52)

Missional FAQ

For those interested, the center for parish development has a helpful list of frequently asked questions about the missional church.

The Chruch Between Gospel and Culture

Before the summer began, I had a reading list of about 10 books that I wanted to knock out before seminary. Then I found out that the average reading requirement per class at Southern is about 1000 pages. Then I saw my syllabus for Schreiner's class. I had to cut my list to about 4, and 'The Church Between Gospel & Culture' edited by Hunsberger and Van Gelder was on that list. It is from the Gospel and Our Culture Network series. I am very glad I read it. I had heard lots about it. It is broken into 4 sections: Focusing the Mission Question, Assessing Our Culture, Discerning the Gospel, and Defining the Church. I would say that the first 2 chapters were worth the price of the book, but for some reason this book is expensive. My lovely wife bought me my copy. There is much to commend in this work. There was much in the 'Assessing Our Culture' chapter that was over my head, but I still enjoyed it.
The thesis of the book is more or less that the North American culture is no longer a churched culture, and we need to start living as missionaries where we are at. Christendom is over. We are living in postmodern times. The church needs to de-Americanize itself, and start acting like the people of God sent on a mission (to steal the words of Bosch). We must exegete Scripture, and culture. I wish I would have counted the number of times the authors quoted Lesslie Newbigin. I really wish I had more time to read more of him. One of his small ones is on the pre-seminary list. The book was insightful, and made me really excited about Dr. Wellum's class 'Christianity in a pluralist and postmodern society.' Peace!

snapshot of my theological persuasions