A Symptom of Our Collective Narcissism

This is from a very well read sports blog on ESPN by Bill Simmons. A section from a post where he responds to questions from his readers:

Q: Why can't Hollywood make a movie about a guy who doesn't get married, keeps his friends, loves life, dates hot girls up until they get crazy. But also show his old college roommate married with kids, a nagging wife, a crap job he can't quit because of the kids and mortgage. This should be made and mandatory viewing for any single male by the time he hits 18. At least he would have a fighting chance. If you have a great marriage awesome. But I would tell you that nine of 10 married guys I know are in the old college roommate state of life right now. Good luck all you engaged men. (Suckers.)
-- Gabe B., Waterloo, Iowa

SG: And that wraps up this month's installment for "Fellas, Don't Get Married!" By the way, I'd like to give a special shout-out to my buddy Sully, who's already trained his two young sons to answer the questions "How old will you be before you can think about getting married?" and "Where are you going to college?" with the answers "35" and "South or West." Now that's great parenting.

Sad. I pray that we can model a more winsome picture of Christ-exalting and satisfying family life for our culture. Do you have friends that could see this in your life? If not, we should probably find some and live it for them. This implies that we know the gospel and live it. I say we give it a whirl.

The Kingdom is For Those Who Know How to Die

Jared Wilson posts a great reminder for today: The Kingdom is For Those Who Know How to Die.

Just read it.

How Children Come to Faith in Christ

Ryan Kelly:

In an earlier post I pointed to some resources for wrestling through the issues of the gospel, conversion, and assurance with our kids. One of the best resources I’ve found is the the Family Life Today radio interviews with Jim Elliff, “How Children Come to Faith in Christ.” You can purchase the series on audio CDs here, which I already mentioned. However, in addition I discovered that six of the sessions are available online for free:

1. Genuine Salvation: More Than a Prayer

2. How Children Come to Faith in Christ

3. Taking our Children to Church: Is that Enough?

4. How to Deal With Doubt

5. Observing Salvation in Your Child: What Does it Look Like?

6. The Family: No Better Place to Come to Know Christ!

Transcripts are also available at the bottom of each of these pages’ links.

I cannot recommend these talks enough to any parent wanting to be thoughtful, careful, and prayerful in the salvation of their children.

Jesus-Centered Apologetics

Tony Reinke with an interesting post on one way to approach apologetics that I had not considered before. You might want to take look.

Facebook Meets Wisdom

Stephen Altrogge with a reflection on Facebook for the glory of God. He writes:

I’m on Facebook. You’re on Facebook. Your kids, mom, youth group, and dog hang out in Facebook world. The site can be a useful tool, allowing you to chat with friends, post pictures of your “Anakin Skywalker” themed birthday party, and send little notes to your pals like, “Haha, LOL, C U L8TR” (I’m being a bit sarcastic – I do like the site).

But Facebook (or Myspace, Twitter, etc.) also poses unique temptations, and we must think biblically about how we and our children use the site. Each of us needs to answer the question: How do I use Facebook for the glory of God?

Read the rest.

With Good Friday In View, Ponder This

"In conclusion, it is tempting to look upon the crucified Jesus with condescending pity and feel sorry for his brutal suffering. Yet, out of respect for Jesus’ dignity we must resist that temptation, because Jesus did not die as yet another helpless victim. Rather, with the cross on the horizon of his life, Jesus said that no one would take his life from him in defeat, but rather he would give it and take it up again in victory (John 10:18). Furthermore, Hebrews 12:2 encourages us to “[look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” In dignity and triumph, Jesus endured the cross because of the joy that awaited him on the other side of his resurrection, where the Father is glorified in heaven and sinful people have been atoned for on the earth. Today Jesus sits upon his throne in heaven, smiling as he rules over all creation and prepares for the day of his final coming to establish his eternal throne upon the earth. This triumphantly joyous Jesus is not served by our pity but by our praise."

- Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Death By Love, p. 30

Church Exodus: What Do We Do?

Michael Patton:

It would seem that many people are seeking to renounce their faith in a more official way. Reports out of England tell of over 100,000 people downloading a De-Baptism certificate. Yes, that is right. Read it for yourself—a certificate to make their departure from Christianity a black and white matter.

Read the rest of his post as he considers why this is the case and what to do about it.

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A Tale of Christian Road Rage

Ben Witherington:

A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy street. Suddenly, just in front of him, the light turned yellow. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and repeatedly honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, while also, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very stern looking police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her
personal effects. He said, 'I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. 'I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' window sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker and the chrome-plated Christian fish
emblem on the trunk; naturally... I assumed you had stolen the car.'

This Is Insane

(HT: JT)

Shaping Culture by Creating Culture

A good reflection upon and application of Andy Crouch's book, Culture Making can be found here.

A Good Section from "The Satan Debate"

Obama at Notre Dame

Here is an interesting interview with Dr. Francis Beckwith about all the hype and controversy surrounding Obama speaking at Notre Dame. It involves more than just his stance on abortion.


(HT: JT)

Sobering Sunday Quote

Shaun Groves:

On your first day on the other side of the grave, do you think you’ll look back on this life and be flooded with gratitude for hours spent watching episodes of American Idol and Lost? Do you think you’ll look back fondly on the effort and money spent remodeling the kitchen? Do you think you’ll be glad you were up-to-date on the juicy details of celebrity lives? Will you be thankful for the hours, days, weeks, years you lived feeling victimized and sorry for yourself? Will you regret not spending more time at the office? Will you wish you had been more of a people pleaser? Will you miss your caffeine, porn or Facebook?

Me neither.

This Is Why I Love March Madness

This was one of the best college basketball games I have ever seen.

If Corporations Used Our Worship Songs

Rethink Your Television Consumption

Joseph Gleason:

Poisons come in many flavors. Many of them directly damage the body.

Chlorine gas, for example, combines with water in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid. This acid damages the lungs, causing sickness or death. Radiation is another example of something that can damage cells within the body.

But not all poisons do this. Carbon monoxide does not destroy any cells within your body. So how does it hurt you?

Your blood contains a substance called hemoglobin, which carries oxygen throughout your body. But hemoglobin bonds to carbon monoxide 234 times more powerfully than it bonds to oxygen, according to the October 2002 issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

If your hemoglobin is bound to carbon monoxide instead of oxygen, then it cannot carry oxygen to the cells of your body. Your cells suffocate.

Television works in much the same way. It doesn't necessarily hurt you directly. You can watch nothing but "Little House on the Prairie" and "Leave it to Beaver" and go months without seeing sex or violence. So how could TV be bad?

The real question is, "What else could I do with my time if I wasn't sitting in front of the TV?" We only have 24 hours in a day. And two hours spent watching TV equals two hours spent not reading, not hiking, not having a conversation with neighbors, not romping with the children, not baking a cake, not playing a musical instrument and not making love to your spouse.

Read the rest.

(HT: Doug G.)

The Commodification of Culture and Christianity

"In our modern world the rain that falls freely from the heavens and the molecular building blocks of life have become commodities.

Like so many elements of our consumer culture, commodification is not the problem but rather its pervasiveness. In a commodity culture we have been conditioned to believe nothing carries intrinsic value. Instead, value is found only in a thing's usefulness to us, and tragically this belief has been applied to people as well. Divorce rates have skyrocketed as we've come to see marriage as disposable. When a spouse is no longer useful he or she can be abandoned or traded. Abortion, the termination of an "unwanted" pregnancy, is believed to be morally justifiable because an unborn child is not a person. Personhood is a legal status reserved for those who are deemed useful. Pornography, prostitution, and child sex trafficking are the result of sexuality being commodified. Modern people may express outrage at the horrors of the African slave trade or the Holocaust, but in truth the commodification of human begins that made those atrocities possible is more prevalent today than ever before.

The reduction of even sacred things into commodities also explains why we exhibit so little reverence for God. In a consumer worldview he has no intrinsic value apart from his usefulness to us. He is a tool we employ, a force we control, and a resource we plunder. We ascribe value to him (the literal meaning of the word "worship") based not on who he is, but on what he can do for us."

- Skye Jethani, The Divine Commodity

(HT: Jared Wilson)

Phriday Phunnies - The Song Steven Curtis Chapman Should Have Written

I heard the SBC might make this their official theme song.

So good. So funny.



(HT: MMI)

A Little More of Simon

Mark Roberts thinks most of us need a Simon Cowell in our lives. (I think Simon needs some more of Simon in his life!) He writes:

To be sure, Simon is sometimes unkind in his choice of language. But I must say that his basic judgment often seems to me to be spot on. There’s a reason why Simon is such a success as a producer of pop music. He usually knows what he’s talking about, and he doesn’t waste anyone’s time in getting to the point.

Though Simon can be rude at times, his bluntness could be seen as a gift. Some of the contestants in the early rounds seem to think they’re great singers when they are, in fact, embarrassingly bad. Without confronting the truth of their lack of talent, they might very well waste years of their lives pursuing their impossible dreams. Simon might very well keep some people from squandering their young adult.

I wonder sometimes if I need a Simon Cowell in my life. I wonder if you do. As hard as it may be to hear the truth about ourselves when it isn’t nice, sometimes we do need to hear this truth.

Read the rest.

(HT: Trevin Wax)

A Verbal Smackdown (And Even Better With A Cool British Accent!)

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For All I Care
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If you like jazz you'll dig this interesting band. I wrote about them a few months back here.

The Demise of the Big Family

The NY Times has an interesting article about larger families becoming more and more rare these days. Of note:

"...in 1976, census data show, 59 percent of women ages 40 to 44 had three or more children, 20 percent had five or more and 6 percent had seven or more.

By 2006, four decades after the Supreme Court declared a constitutional right to use birth control (and the last year available from census studies), 28 percent of women ages 40 to 44 had three or more children, 4 percent had five or more and just 0.5 percent had seven or more.”

Recently when my wife was out at the store with our four kids a well-meaning lady remarked to her, "Oh, you must run a day care." Uh...no.

Seems like Christians and Muslims are the only ones having kids these days!


(HT: Erik)

The City of Death - Iowa City, IA

My friend Eric Schumacher writes about a sad statistic concerning my former hometown of Iowa City, IA:

The little college town of Iowa City boasts some big statistics.

Informed Choice of Iowa reports that of the 6,175 abortions performed in Iowa in 2005, almost 3,000 of those were in Iowa City. Kim Lehman, president of Iowa Right to Life points out that this puts Iowa City in the position of having the highest rate of abortions per capita in the US.

That comment led me to a short and admittedly unscientific study in per capita murder rates.

Last year, New Orleans was reported to lead the nation in per capita murders. (The population of New Orleans was 324,000. 179 murders were reported that same year.) They had 1 murder for every 1810 persons.

Iowa City's 2005 population was 62,887. Using just the estimate of abortions quoted above (3,000), excluding reported murders of born-persons, Iowa City had 1 murder for every 21 persons in 2005. (This compares to a national ratio of one abortion per every 245 born-persons.)

I'm not a statistician. This is an unscientific survey. There are likely errors. Nevertheless, the numbers are close to accurate...and staggering. In Iowa City, one person in the womb is killed for every twenty-one persons outside the womb.

If there were a city anywhere in the United States that saw one of every twenty-one born-persons murdered, the city would call for help. The story would be relentlessly covered by the news media. Martial law would be declared. Order would be restored.

When this rate reflects unborn persons slaughtered, they have a celebration.

What To Do About All Those Meetings

If you work in leadership at a church you know you are bound to have many meetings. I am more task-oriented, thus meeting for me sometimes can be a drag. These days I am in a role that does not demand too many, but in the past I have had to attend more than my fair share. Seth Godin gives some advice about what to do about all those meetings:

Some folks are going to eight hours of meeting a day. At Ford, they used to have meetings to prepare for meetings, just to be sure everyone had their story straight.

If you're serious about solving your meeting problem, getting things done and saving time, try this for one week. If it doesn't work, I'll be happy to give you a full refund.

1. Understand that all problems are not the same. So why are your meetings? Does every issue deserve an hour? Why is there a default length?
2. Schedule meetings in increments of five minutes. Require that the meeting organizer have a truly great reason to need more than four increments of realtime face time.
3. Require preparation. Give people things to read or do before the meeting, and if they don't, kick them out.
4. Remove all the chairs from the conference room. I'm serious.
5. If someone is more than two minutes later than the last person to the meeting, they have to pay a fine of $10 to the coffee fund.
6. Bring an egg timer to the meeting. When it goes off, you're done. Not your fault, it's the timer's.
7. The organizer of the meeting is required to send a short email summary, with action items, to every attendee within ten minutes of the end of the meeting.
8. Create a public space (either a big piece of poster board or a simple online page) that allows attendees to rate meetings and their organizers on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of usefulness. Just a simple box where everyone can write a number. Watch what happens.
9. If you're not adding value to a meeting, leave. You can always read the summary later.

This is all marketing. It's a show, one that lets your team know you're treating meetings differently now.

Satan Debate

Mark Driscoll:

The ABC Nightline debate with Pastor Mark and Annie Lobert versus Deepak Chopra and Carlton Pearson is up online now. Watch it here.

Must Have Dashboard Widgets

I am a huge Mac guy as most of you know by now. Anyone who thinks their PC is better needs to repent and get saved.

One of the Mac features that I have not really used that much is The Dashboard. It looks really cool, but I just don't find myself gravitating towards its use. I might start though in light of this post: 12 must-have Dashboard widgets for the average Mac user.

There is also a follow-up post: 8 more must-have Dashboard widgets for the average Mac user

I found some of these widgets provide functions that are quite useful. If you are a Mac person, you might want to check it out.

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8 Things to Know About Nightline’s Satan Debate

Mars Hill Pastor, Jamie Munson writes 8 Things to Know About Nightline’s Satan Debate:

If you’ve been paying any attention to Mars Hill Church online, you know that the big Satan Debate will air tomorrow night on ABC Nightline (the unedited version should be online tomorrow too).

Last Friday, I was able to enjoy the live taping of the debate as a normal observer with no additional responsibilities to help run the event. With the kids away for the weekend, Crystal (my wife) and I had plenty of time to hang out and discuss the “Faceoff.” Our top eight observations:

1. The debate was more about Jesus than Satan.

Both are important, but Jesus is the main character. He got the first word, thanks to Pastor Mark’s courageous, compassionate, and clear presentation of the gospel.

2. The hospitality of the Mars Hill volunteers.

They were everywhere, creating a warm and welcoming environment for all the guests and ready to help out in anyway necessary. The crew from ABC was floored by the warmth and competence of our volunteers. Thanks to those who served.

3. There were lots of laughs.

Moderator Dan Harris did a good job and made the potentially awkward “tape breaks” not so awkward. The whole experience offered a fun and educational peak into the world of TV production.

4. Mars Hill folks engaging non-Christians in conversation.

I saw and heard many conversations about Jesus between those on both sides of the issue. It was really cool to see Christians sharing Jesus in word and deed, and to hear so much open discussion. In fact, the whole experience was a lot like what used to occur at the original Mars Hill.

5. Annie Lobert demonstrated a heartfelt love for Jesus.

Her story was effective and moving; she has clearly been changed by Jesus and is using her life to help others experience the same grace and redemption.

6. Deepak Chopra admitted he cannot trust his own mind.

Unfortunately, he does trust his own spirit and not The Holy Spirit. I was grieved by the amount of faith that he puts in himself and the ambiguous way in which he spoke.

7. Bishop Carlton Pearson quoted a lot of verses, but…

Though he knows a lot about the Bible, Pearson picks and chooses which parts he likes and wants to believe. In doing so, he ultimately places himself in authority over Scripture as the one who gets to decide which parts are true and which are not.

8. God’s Word was the closing argument.

As his final statement, Pastor Mark read from 1 John 5:19–20, giving Jesus the last word. Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life. I hope and pray that some who were in attendance and others who will tune in on TV or watch online will come to know Jesus in this way.

Where The Wild Things Are - Trailer

(HT: Los)

Preview of the "Satan Debate"

Mars Hill Blog:

The debate with Pastor Mark and Annie Lobert versus Deepak Chopra and Carlton Pearson will air this Thursday March 26th at 11:30pm on ABC. The debate topic is “Does Satan Exist”, please be praying that many people would believe in Jesus because of this.

Watch the preview here.

Read more here.

Dave Hunt - "Love Abounds"

When we moved to Nashville a few years back, one of our first objectives was to find a church. I am not a huge fan of taking 3 years trying out all different sorts of churches (believe me, you could take that long in Nashville) so we tried a few and then by faith decided to pick one.

At that time, Dave Hunt was the music leader at the church we picked and he was one of the biggest reasons we decided to stay. He had an authenticity and rawness about him that was very attractive to Kim and I. He loves God and seeks to glorify him with his music. This fact will come through clearly if you spend some time with his music.

Soon there after I got to work with Dave at the church and he became a good friend.

Dave just released a new CD called, "Love Abounds" that you might want to check out (AmazonMP3 or ). Thus far my favorite songs are "Nothing Can Separate Us" and "Grace To Lead Us Home". Seems like these are ones you could easily use right away in church.

Click here to check out some of Dave's past recordings.

How Big Are Your Hands?

This is kind of silly, but some of you might find it interesting.

You can click here to see how the size of your hand stacks up to that of NBA player, Al Jefferson. He has insanely huge hands. I am a tall guy compared to most people and have very long skinny fingers. (Good for piano playing!) I don't know many people who have bigger hands than me. Below is a picture of how I stack up. My hand looks like the hand of a hobbit compared to his.

Click here if you want to see how you stand up.

The Real Population Threat

Al Mohler writes a sobering post about depopulation. Go home and make some babies!

He writes:

For well over a century, many prophets of doom have predicted world overpopulation would lead to ecological disaster, famine, poverty and other woes. As Philip Longman points out in the March 24, 2009 edition of USA Today, the world's population is expected to hit 7 billion by 2012, up from the 6 billion mark set in 1999. So, is overpopulation a real threat?

Not hardly. Though population density can threaten sustainability in some areas of the globe, the far greater danger for our future is what Longman calls "depopulation." On a global scale, we are seeing the population of older persons exploding and the numbers of young persons falling.

The trend toward depopulation started in Europe, spread to Asia, and is now detectable even in Latin America. The United Nations now predicts that total world population may begin falling as early as 2040, and much of the surviving population will be very old indeed.

Read the rest.

What The Church Is For

Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

The primary task of the Church is not to educate man, is not to heal him physically or psychologically.... I will go further; it is not even to make him good. These are things that accompany salvation; and when the Church performs her true task she does incidentally educate men and give them knowledge and information...she does make them good and better than they were. But my point is that those are not her primary objectives. Her primary purpose is not any of these; it is rather to put man into the right relationship with God, to reconcile man to God. (Preaching & Preachers, 30)

(HT: David Mathis)

Loving Your Wife As Christ Loves The Church

Mark Altrogge reports on this new book:

My friend Larry McCall recently wrote Loving Your Wife As Christ Loves the Church, a thorough, doctrinal, and practical book for husbands. Each chapter begins by focusing on how Christ loves his bride, the church, then teases out practical applications for imitating Jesus in loving our wives.

Great quotes from teachers like Alistair Begg, John Piper, and C.J. Mahaney pepper the pages, as well as real-life examples from Larry’s own marriage. He teaches us how to encourage, equip and romance our wives and avoid such pitfalls as lust, flirting, and divorce.

Here’s a quick overview of a few chapters:

Chapter 1 – The Perfect Husband. Though many lack a role model of a godly husband, God provides his Son, who models sacrificial love for his bride for us to imitate.

Chapter 2 – A Predetermined Love. God chose us in eternity knowing we’d always be utterly unworthy of his love. So we too must love our wives unconditionally.

Chapter 4 - A Peerless Love. Adultery begins in small ways in the heart. Larry explains how to repent if we’ve been hooked, how to resist temptation, and develop a “good offense” by cultivating love for our wives and enjoying marital intimacy

Chapter 5 - A Practical Love. We should regularly say, “I love you,” and show it as we serve, share the load at home, and actively listen to our wives. “Our wives don’t want us to fix them. They want us to care…about them and how this issue might be affecting them.”

Chapter 9 - A Passionate Love. Romance involves talking, time, touching, and thoughtful actions. Sex is a matter of giving, not just getting.

Chapter 12 – A Pardoning love. Christ is patient and forgiving. We too must forgive as Christ forgave us.

Every chapter ends with discussion questions and action steps for private devotional use or with a group. I just ordered it for our church book store. You can get it at Amazon.com.

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"Why I Don't Understand Church Planting"

Dan Edelen asks some hard, but probably needed, questions about church planting. You can read his post here.

What The Church Can Learn From Dunkin Donuts

Michael Kelley with a good reflection here on what the church can learn from Dunkin Donuts. He writes:

Dunkin Donuts is creaming Starbucks right now. Dunkin won the taste test, it’s 3 times cheaper, and the company is actually expanding whereas Starbucks is closing stores every day. Dunkin is about to roll out a $100 million marketing campaign to trumpet the results of the taste test and try and put the dagger into the heart of Seattle. Some people are saying that Starbucks has seen its better days, and that this is just the beginning of the downhill slide.

I would propose that the church has something to learn from Dunkin Donuts.

Read his application here. I, for one, am on the Dunkin D train. It does kill Starbucks.

Church Planting in the Wall Street Journal

Here is an interesting article from The Wall Street Journal about church planting. Mike McDaniel shares a summary:

A couple of our campus pastors directed me to a great article in the Wall Street Journal that I wanted to share with you. In it Fred Barnes, a political contributor and former White House correspondent, shares the story of how he became involved in a recent church plant. It’s a great example of how your average person (albeit famous in this case) can be a part of planting a church.

We often fall into the mistake of thinking that church planting and missions is just for pastors or the “super-spiritual.” The truth is that it’s for “normal” people, too. In fact, there are many ways that your average person can play a crucial role in planting a church. I work for a church. That places me in a pretty small niche. You have all kinds of skills and talents that I don’t have, and you can use those skills and talents for God’s kingdom in ways that I never could. You have access to people and relationships that I’ll never have access to. And building relationships through which the Gospel can be shared is really the foundation of planting a church.

Here’s the article. If you’re interested in learning more about church planting, I would encourage you to check out our monthly SendRDU Forums.

The Life and Teachings of Jesus - Dr. Dan Doriani

When people ask me to reflect upon my experience in seminary usually one of the first things I tell them is that seminary has just showed me all the books that I need to read (or reread). What I mean by this is that oftentimes for seminary students you receive huge reading assignments and unfortunately amidst the challenges of work and family sometimes the reading is not the first priority. You do what you can to get by. So I have skimmed over books and content that I really should seek to incorporate into my theological thinking and ability to articulate in an understandable way to others.

One of the ways that I reinforce my seminary education is to go back and listen to seminary classes that I took many years ago. One of my favorites was Dr. Dan Doriani's, The Life and Teachings of Jesus. He is a very gifted teacher. He has the unique ability, that is essential for any good teacher, to articulate complex concepts in a way that makes it understandable for the average learner. You will be blessed if you listen to this class.

You can find it here as a podcast from iTunes, or here from the seminary. Get a seminary education in the car on your way to work!

If you missed it, I did an interview with Dr. Doriani a few months back. You can read it here.

Musical Typing

Here is a good follow up post to my iPhone post from yesterday. Not sure that I'll be leading singing at church with anything like this in the near future, but it still is cool.



(HT: Scooter)

A Theology of Church Extinction

Here is an interesting interview from CT with Philip Jenkins. Dr. Jenkins is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities at Penn State University.

I found the final three questions to be the most interesting.

You argue that we are lacking a theology of church extinction. Why do we need one?

I sometimes ask audiences how many people have ever read a book on the growth or establishment of a church, and many people raise their hands. Then I ask how many people have ever read a book on the death or extinction of a church, and virtually nobody does. But in history, church death is a very common phenomenon. Christianity moves from one area to another, but it also dies in areas where it has been strong. That fact violates a lot of what we expect about Christian growth. We have a theology of mission, not a theology of retreat. So do we explain these episodes as the churches doing something horribly wrong? Do we regard them as a natural part of historical development? Do we think that if Muslims replaced Christians in a country like Iraq, the expansion of Islam must be within God's plan? How Christians actually deal with things like the destruction of the church in Iraq is by not talking about it. We pay no attention to it because we don't know about it.

So our ignorance is both a product of our own historical situation and maybe a willful turning of our eyes from the carnage?

It's something of that. But I don't want to criticize Americans who, for example, are very conscious of the suffering church. And they try to alleviate that suffering and intervene politically. But suppose churches do vanish. Across much of the Middle East, the last century since 1915 has been catastrophic in terms of the destruction or annihilation of churches. I really don't know people who are writing about that or trying to address that theologically.

How do you relate that need to the obvious spread of Christianity around the world?

I suppose coincidence is not a word that should be used by anyone who has any sense of Providence, but 1915 marks the beginning of the end of Christians in the Middle East, and the beginning of mass Christianity in Africa. It's almost as if one door closes and another one opens elsewhere. I would not say God closed one eye and opened another, but when Christianity is at its weakest in one area, amazing new opportunities open elsewhere. My concern is that when we write Christian history, so often it's a matter of, "Let's look at this expansion, and let's look at this growth and new opportunity." We're not really seeing the doors that are closing—which would have been a great title for the book.

Read the whole thing.

Philip Jenkins is the author of The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — and How It Died (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008).

Other books by Dr. Jenkins.

A Kindle Review

Chris Brauns reviews Amazon.com's Kindle 2 after 11 days of use. He lists some great positives and negatives. I don't think I'll be jumping into the Kindle world anytime soon, but use his questions below as a grid for whether or not you should:

Bottom line:

I would suggest that, those considering a purchase should focus on two questions.

(1) Do you purchase and read a lot of books?

(2) Do you travel?

A solid “yes” to either question means purchasing a Kindle 2 could well be for you. If your answer is “yes” to both questions, then I would recommend it, criticisms notwithstanding.

Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith

For my Masters presentation I drew heavily upon Robert Gelinas' new book, Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith. It was recently released on Amazon.com and I thought many of you might be interested in it if you enjoyed my presentation.

Here is a description:

“A jazz-shaped faith … balances freedom with boundaries, the individual with the group, and traditions with the pursuit of what might be. I have discovered in jazz a way of thinking, living, communicating—a way of being … a groove.”

You don’t have to be a jazz musician, or even a jazz connoisseur, for this book to speak to you. If you love God and his Word, and if you’ve longed to follow Jesus Christ outside the slick corporate structures that some American churches erect, this book is for you. If you want to discover a freer, more genuine expression of Christianity, Finding the Groove will be music to your ears, your heart, and your mind.

Using brilliant metaphors from the world of jazz, Robert Gelinas reveals breathtaking possibilities for the body of Christ. What might a “jazz-shaped faith” look like—and how could it help us fulfill the message of the gospel in a way no method, movement, or structured program ever could? How can understanding the beauty of jazz help you better understand Jesus, his vision for those who follow him, and his heartbeat for a world that is badly out of sync?

But this book isn’t about music. It is about a passionate, biblical, fully integrated way of looking at life and salvation that will free you to find your own unique groove in the kingdom of God."

The Idol of "Impact"

Shaun Groves reports on an interesting story from Skye Jethan's new book, The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity. He recounts the testimony of Veggie Tales CEO, Phil Vischer:

“The Christians my grandparents admired - D.L. Moody, R.G. LeTourneau, Bill Bright - were fantastically enterprising. The Rockefellers of the Christian world. Occasionally I would read about different sorts of Christians that would confuse me, like, say, Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa seemed like a great woman, but her approach struck me as highly inefficient. I mean, she was literally feeding the poor. One at a time. Didn’t she see that her impact would be much greater if she developed some sort of system for feeding the poor that could be franchised around the world? She could be the Ray Kroc of world hunger! Wouldn’t that be better?”

After the financial collapse of Phil‘s company Big Idea Entertainment, makers of Veggie Tales, Phil explained the belief system that had driven him to make the motion picture that caused it all:

“God would never call us from greater impact to lesser impact! Impact is everything! How many kids did you invite to Sunday school? How many souls have you won? How big is your church? How many videos/record/books have you sold? How many people will be in heaven because of your efforts? Impact, man!”

He began questioning this belief system:

“The more I dove into Scripture, the more I realized I had been deluded. I had grown up drinking a dangerous cocktail - a mix of the gospel, the Protestant work ethic, and the American dream… The Savior I was following seemed, in hindsight, equal parts Jesus, Ben Franklin, and Henry Ford. My Eternal value was rooted in what I could accomplish.”

He eventually concluded that the Christian life “wasn’t about impact; it was about obedience.”

Thanks, Skye, for telling Phil‘s story. As I guy who backs up to one measuring stick after another, I needed to hear it. Again. And again.

If you haven’t yet ordered Skye’s book The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity, I highly recommend it. It’s helped me understand what consumerism is and exactly how it affects my/our understanding of God in Western culture. It’s very well written, never dry, conversational and not academic, full of beautifully told stories and never wanders off into cynicism and needless negativity. It’s re-inspiring for anyone who’s discontent with America’s Jesus...and anyone who actually believes he’s the real thing.

My comment:

I think this post is probably for certain personality types. Some people need a swift kick in the rear and should be exhorted to pursue greater impact because they are simply lazy. Other people with tremendous energy will make an idol out of "impact" and quantifiable results. This post certainly should be taken seriously by them.

(HT: Jared Wilson)

This Is A Great Idea

John Piper:

This is a plea that all of you would build into your lives both personal devotions and purposeful study of God's word.

Both:

Daily prayerful meditation seeking personal application of God's word to your own heart and life.

And:

Regular study in a class or with a book where the (living or dead) teacher has seen more than you have and can give you insight in 30 minutes that might otherwise take you ten years to see.

The reason I plead for both is that without a book or a class about what some part of the Bible means and a teacher who is ahead of you, your devotions will probably flatten out at a low level of insight.

Year after year you will go over the same biblical ground and find it as perplexing as before. There will be little advance in understanding. This will tend to take the heart out of devotional reading, because the lack of growth cannot sustain the joy.

Seek out preaching, books, and classes which take you further in grasping what various books and texts in the Bible mean.

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My Blackberry Can't Do This

iPhones are cool.

Great Question

Jill Stanek:

With news this week 2 more Planned Parenthoods have been added to the list of those covering up child rape comes this question from reader yor bro ken:

If a minor female is not mature enough to consent to sex with an adult male, how is she mature enough to consent to the elective surgery of abortion?

Our Greatest Need

“If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.”

- D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation

(HT: OFI)

Is Adoption the Answer to HIV/AIDS in Africa?

Melissa Fay Green answers this question in her book There is No Me Without You:

“Adoption is not the answer to HIV/AIDS in Africa. Adoption rescues few. Yet, adoption illustrates by example: these few once-loved children - who lost their parents to preventable diseases - have been offered a second chance at family life in foreign countries; like young ambassadors, they instruct us. From them, we gain impressions about what their age-mates must be like, the ones living and dying by the millions, without parents, in the cities and villages of Africa. For every orphan turning up in a northern-hemisphere household - winning the spelling bee, winning the cross-country race, joining the Boy Scouts, learning to rollerblade, playing the trumpet or the violin - ten thousand African children remain behind alone.” pp. 24-25

(HT: Jason Kovacs)

Did He Really Say That?

I certainly know that I have not been perfect in every way with my speech, but I hope he would at least apologize to The Special Olympics organization.

YouTube Slam Dunk Contest

This is a great idea. Another reason why YouTube is a genius invention. All you closet dunkers need to get after this. This is bound to turn out some crazy nasty funkalicious dunks.

John Piper Book Sale

DGM Blog:

In celebration of Spectacular Sins winning a Christian Book Award, we're offering it for $5 through Sunday.

On Reading Calvin This Year

I have been trying to keep up with the reading of Calvin's Institutes in 2009. It has been going well and I am on pace. Though it can be tough reading as times, I have been feeling an overall sense of fruitfulness from it.

Ray Ortlund reflects on his experience and I would say Amen to his reflections:

A number of us are reading through John Calvin's Institutes this year, the 500th anniversary of his birth. Yesterday morning I finished. But I did get a head start. In 1981. So it's about time.

Calvin can be tiresome when he goes off like this: "This is what, indeed, certain fanatics who delight in unbridled license shout and boast . . .," referring apparently to Anabaptist conviction (4.20.2). Smackdowns do not edify.

But there is so much about Calvin's thinking I receive and love. I found myself agreeing with almost every conviction he proposed. Not everything. But disagreement was rare. I have been instructed and enriched by this study. My Bible is now marked in many passages with a marginal note: "See Calv, Inst, x.x.x."

Why does John Calvin still matter today? Above all else, Calvin understands what it means to take into account, first and foremost, in all things, God: "The Christian must surely be so disposed and minded that he feels within himself it is with God he has to deal throughout his life" (3.7.2). Every moment of every day is a God-moment.

For us, that way of thinking is an adjustment. An adjustment big enough to be called repentance. We think piecemeal. We compartmentalize. We diminish the reach of God's grace into the moment-by-moment of our lives. But like a prophet of old, Calvin calls us back to God.

I thank the Lord for this fallible but precious gift, my brother, John Calvin.

Religious People

J.D. Greear:

What exactly does religion replacing the Gospel look like? Jesus gives 7 woes... I would describe them in these 5 categories:

• Religious people are obsessed with recognition (vv. 5-6). They love conventions, titles, and public praise.
• Religious people focus on external conformity to tradition and not inward transformation (vv. 25-26). It's not to say that they don't also teach inward transformation, just that they are defined more by the externals than the internals. As D. A. Carson says, "Error is truth out of proportion."
• Religious people focus on the sins of other rather than on their own sins (vv 2, 28).
• Religious people esteem secondary traditions over a love for God (vv 16, 23-24). If you conform to their traditions, they consider you godly. If you don't, there's no way you possibly could be. They strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
• Religious people are generally judgmental and angry in their tone (v. 23)

Raise Your Hand

Q&A on the child in the ad here.

Summing Up The Pastoral Epistles

Kevin DeYoung reflects on the pastoral epistles:

First off, we see that anyone who says they have a church with no doctrinal center does not have a Christian church.

Second, we see that the early church believed orthodoxy was very important, and it was more than just living the right way, it involved holding certain truths about God, Christ, and salvation.

Third, we see that orthodoxy is not a moving target. There is no indication that Paul wanted his young pastors to repaint the Christian faith for a new generation. On the contrary, there is every indication that he wanted the apostolic deposit of truth to be passed on untouched and uncorrupted.

Fourth, we see that this apostolic message was to be declared boldly and confidently, and anyone who preached a different message or led others away from this core message were to be gently opposed and strongly rebuked (somehow, I guess, we can gently oppose and strongly rebuke at the same time).

Fifth, and more to the point of this series of blog posts, we see what the essentials of the faith looked like. The gospel message that Paul preached and expected all Christian to adhere to looked something like this: God is glorious; we are sinners; and Jesus Christ is our Savior and God. Jesus Christ is the son of David and God in the flesh; he died and rose again; he ascended into heaven; he is coming again. Salvation is by sovereign grace, according to the converting power of the Holy Spirit, through faith, not according to works. Jesus Christ saves us from sin, saves us for eternal life, and saves us unto holiness.

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