"This is not a teaching that is very acceptable to vast numbers in western Christendom today."

Not everyone recognizes Jesus’ authority; others sense the power but do not respond with faith. Even some who naturally belong to the kingdom, that is, the Jews who had lived under the old covenant and had been the heirs of the promises, turn out to be rejected. They too approach the great hall of the messianic banquet, lit up with a thousand lamps in joyous festivity; but they are refused admission, they are thrown outside into the blackness of night, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (8:12). The idea is not that there will be no Jews at the messianic banquet. After all, the patriarchs themselves are Jews, and all of Jesus’ earliest followers were Jews. But Jesus insists that there is no automatic advantage to being a Jew. As he later says to those of his own race, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (21:43). An individual’s faith, his or her response to the authority claims of Jesus, will prove decisive. The alternative to entrance into the kingdom is painted in horrible colors: literally the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, to emphasize the horror of the scene, the former suggesting suffering and the latter despair. The same authority of Jesus that proves such a great comfort to the eyes of faith now engenders terror in the merely religious. 

This is not a teaching that is very acceptable to vast numbers in western Christendom today. It flies in the face of the great god Pluralism who holds much more of our allegiance than we are prone to admit. The test for religious validity in this environment is no longer truth but sincerity—as if sincerity were a virtue even when the beliefs underlying it are entirely mistaken.

- D.A. Carson, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World, 166

(HT:  Aaron Armstrong)

"As Christians, one of the most loving things we can bring to society is an advocacy for genuine civic pluralism."

A very interesting proposal here from Andrew Walker.

On Evangelical Polarization

Derek Rishmawy:

...when progressives talk about millennial exodus from Evangelicalism and hopefully predict the imminent death of its conservative expressions, they ignore how much of that movement is not to progressive forms, but to conservative communions like Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and other confessional traditions. What’s more, these prognostications seem a bit parochial in their focus on the Western, American context at the expense of the growth of robustly conservative Christianity in the Majority world and Asia.

Now, for a final note that may undermine all of my ramblings: we Evangelical/Post-Evangelical Twitteratti (and yes, I do include myself in the mix now), often-times have an over-inflated sense of the importance of our own conversations. For every blog post shared, thousands wouldn’t think to waste their time reading one. Not that it’s right, but more American Evangelicals probably know about Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow breaking up than they do about the World Vision (non-)decision this week. Every once in a while, it’s good to step back and take a breathe on this stuff.

Read the rest. Great food for thought here.

Hope On The Horizon For A Contentious Issue

If this cultural discussion could have thoughtfulness and nuance like this on a broader scale, we'd all be much better for it.

After reading his piece, I get the sense that he and I would walk away with different conclusions but still respect and honor each other.

Maybe it's actually possible!

On The Wisdom of Learning From Church History

Michael Haykin:

Ah, one good reason to read the history of the church is to avoid the follies of the past. With the passage of time, the folly is patent, though at the time when it was committed, it may well have passed for wisdom. One thinks of the defence of slavery by God-fearing men and women in the 18th and 19th centuries and further back, the “learned’ ripostes by Christians to the new science of Copernicus. In the realm of worship, we Baptists can learn a lot from the conflict that ripped apart the London Particular Baptists in the 1690s. So fierce was it, that eventually some of the pastors called a halt to the treatises being written and so attempted to find a pax Baptistica.

I am old enough to remember a wise pastor making the following statement in a public worship setting, and I quote, “There will be no rock music in heaven.” Yet, fifty years after the rock n’roll of the sixties, is it not true that in many of our worship settings, some of the music by which we worship the Lamb could not be envisioned without the rock revolution? Are we to regard this way of combining chords and rhythms as sinful or is it better seen as part and parcel of the creativity that God has packed into the human frame? And is it not true that some of the music that we like in worship or that we don’t like has more to do with personal preference than divine fiat?

Read the rest.

Disrespect and Facebook

Trevin Wax:

Sometimes, evangelical Christians do more harm than good on Facebook. 

Under the veil of “taking a stand” for our values, I fear we are letting loose all kinds of dishonoring, uncharitable speech. We need to stop.

Read the rest.


Books by Trevin Wax:

• Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope
• Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals
• Gospel-Centered Teaching: Showing Christ in All the Scripture

"There are many out there who see Christianity as being mainly about teaching us how to be better people."

Amy Hall:

There are many out there who see Christianity as being mainly about teaching us how to be better people. Sadly, this includes a large number of pastors who are passing on this too-common theology of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. There’s a good possibility that many of these pastors are not doing this purposely, but because their preaching focuses on moral lessons, their congregations learn that the moral lessons are what’s important.

I’m convinced that this moralistic focus is a major contributor to a relativistic view of religion amongst Christians. After all, if the goal of religion is to teach us to be good people, one religion can do this as well as another. What reason do we have to say one is right and the other wrong if they’re all right in the way that matters?

This is why I think the religious relativism of Christians is but a symptom pointing to a much deeper problem—a lack of understanding of the Gospel, a lack of knowing that Christianity depends on something objective happening outside of ourselves rather than being just a set of good rules to live by.

The Christianity of the Bible, when it’s explicitly taught, leaves no room for relativism because it depends on an objective event that accomplished a particular purpose for us.

Read the rest.

"Materialism, the worship of the god “Mammon” as the greatest good on earth, may well be the biggest competitor with the God of Jesus Christ for the allegiance of human hearts in our world today."

Materialism, the worship of the god “Mammon” as the greatest good on earth, may well be the biggest competitor with the God of Jesus Christ for the allegiance of human hearts in our world today. It is easy to demonize other religions or aberrant offshoots of Christianity because we do not accept their theological tenets; it is much harder to see the weaknesses of the worldviews in which we ourselves are enmeshed. Like the Israelites of old who believed they could still worship Yahweh under the guise of a golden calf, Christians in more well-to-do nations or parts of the world think they can serve Jesus while still worshiping money and material possessions even more. They quickly deny that their attachment to those possessions comes anywhere close to worship, but when one compares the time and energy expended in working for it, managing it, protecting it, longing for more of it, and deciding how to spend it with the time and energy put into kingdom activity, the denials often ring hollow. 

Unlike those ideologies that find the material world inherently evil, biblical Christianity recognizes the fundamental goodness of property and possessions. God created the entire universe as good. Despite human sin bringing many damaging results to all of God’s creation, a decent standard of living is something almost all people appropriately desire. Being materially poor is not a virtue, nor does it by itself bestow any level of spirituality. Precisely because helping the poor is such a pervasive principle in the Bible, we can recognize that extreme forms of self-denial are not particularly Christian forms of spirituality. God wants his people not to live in poverty, so those who are well above the poverty line must be generous in helping those who have less so that as many people as possible can enjoy his good, created gifts….  

…Because of sin, material possessions do not always function as God intended them to. In many contexts, they may seldom function as he wishes. There is no biblical support, however, for the notion that money, since the fall, is inherently corrupting.  But possessions or the desire for possessions does frequently serve as a seduction to sin. Those who amass great riches are tempted to use them to wield power over others in inappropriate, heavy-handed fashion. They may think that people owe them favors in return for their patronage or benefaction. They readily imagine that money can buy happiness, health, and even salvation — if, indeed, they think they have anything to be saved from. They are naturally tempted to imagine that they don’t need God or even that there is no God. They often live in subcultures that shield them from having to encounter the most desperately needy people of the world, so that they can assuage their consciences that they have helped the poor even when they offer a much smaller percentage of their profits to that end than they might have otherwise. 

The best way, therefore, to maximize the goodness of material possessions and minimize their negative effects is to give a generous, even sacrificial amount of them away.  Philanthropy, in and of itself, saves no one, but it can do a huge amount of good for hurting people. The best forms of philanthropy, however, grow out of a Christian worldview. Sacrificial giving cannot be fixed at a certain percentage of one’s gross or net income or worth. Qualifying levels vary from person to person and from one set of circumstances to another. But they always involve giving up something that a person values considerably. 

God normally does not ask the rich to trade places with the poor, merely to give from their surplus. But they must be ruthlessly honest about just how much is surplus. Savings, investments, insurance, retirement accounts, and leaving money behind for one’s closest
relatives after one dies may also exemplify good stewardship under various conditions. But they cannot automatically be said to be appropriate for everybody. In fact, there is no one-size-fits-all-stewardship; all Christians must regularly reassess their finances and determine what God will be pleased with in their specific contexts. 

- Craig Blomberg, Christians in an Age of Wealth, p. 243

"What happens to a country when its young people stop having sex? Japan is finding out…"

There is wisdom in the command to "be fruitful and multiply."  It blesses culture.  When you go the other way huge problems can and will ensue.  Japan is starting to feel the consequences of a culture that doesn't embrace a biblical doctrine of creation.

(There is a bit of crassness in the link article.)

The Church is not dying. It is just being more clearly defined.

Important post here from Ed Stetzer.

He writes:

As I see it, the numbers of people who those of us in the church would say are actually committed Christians—those who are practicing a vibrant faith—are not dying off. The Church is not dying. It is just being more clearly defined. 

The "Nones" category is growing quickly, but the change is coming by way of Cultural and Congregational Christians who no longer feel the societal pressure to be "Christian." They feel comfortable freeing themselves from a label that was not true of them in the first place. Convictional Christians are not leaving the faith; the "squishy middle," as I like to call it, is simply being flattened. 

So for those who really don't have any skin in the game, shedding the label makes sense.
As Christians find themselves more and more on the margins in American society, people are beginning to count the cost. While it used to serve Americans well to carry the label "Christian" in most circumstances (think about running for public office, for instance), it can actually be polarizing or considered intolerant now. So for those who really don't have any skin in the game, shedding the label makes sense. 

As the trend continues, we will see the "Nones" continue to grow and the church lose more of its traditional cultural influence. Christians will likely lose the culture wars, leading to difficult times ahead for us. But we do not need to lose hope. This is not cause for despair. It is a time to regroup and re-engage. 

Christianity may be losing its top-down political and cultural influence, but Jesus spoke of His followers making an impact in a very different manner. He taught that God's kingdom was subversive and underground. He used examples like yeast, which changes things from the inside, and mustard seeds, which are small and must be planted in order to grow up and out. 

As the distinctions between Christians and an ever-growing post-Christian culture emerge, we will have to set aside any nominal belief systems and become active agents of God's Kingdom. The answer is not found in waging cultural wars incessantly, or in making a theological shift to the left to pacify a culture offended by the gospel. The answer is in all of God's people, changed by the power of the gospel and propelled by love, moving into the mission field as agents of gospel transformation.

Read the rest.

Books by Ed Stetzer:

• Planting Missional Churches 
• Compelled: Living the Mission of God
• Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation
• Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations
• Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them
• Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too
• Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community
• Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series)

Social Justice and Young Evangelicals: Encouragements and Concerns

Anyone Ever Left Your Church Over Lack of Mission?

Convicting quote here.  My experience bears this out as well.  

Church members are very forbearing and forgiving regarding the neglect of the lost, while extremely impatient and unforgiving regarding the neglect of the righteous.

Think of a continuum on which the left end represents an extremely effective ‘home’ function of a church, and the right end represents an extremely effective ‘mission’ function.  After journaling these thoughts, I decided to evaluate the church I pastor in light of this continuum.  Believing a healthy and balanced church would find its X placed in the center, I had to honestly admit that our X was placed well left of center — being far more effective as a home to God’s people than as a mission to the unchurched.

Through the years, we have had numerous people leave our church feeling that their needs as believers had not been met, and frankly, many of them had legitimate complaints.  Yet what grieves me the most is that never during those years has anyone so much as complained about our ineffectiveness as a mission.  Many have left for personal reasons; none have departed because we failed to care for the lost.  When have you ever lost a member because your church was failing to effectively reach the lost?

- Randy Pope, The Prevailing Church, page 33.

(HT:  Ray Ortlund)

Why ARE millennials leaving the church?

Recently, Rachael Held Evans wrote a post for CNN entitled, "Why millennials are leaving the church" that has received a lot of attention.  She raises some good issues but certainly some follow up questions would be in order. Alastair's Adversaria recently wrote a blog post that interacts with her piece and does just that.  You can see his questions below and click through to read his explanations/interactions. 

• What weight should we give to self-reporting?
• What about the churches that fit Evans’ wishlist?
• Do they really want a less ‘political’ Church?
• What about those occasions when we do have to choose?
• Are evangelicals really obsessed with sex?
• Do millennials want a place to wrestle with doubt, or a place to coddle scepticism?
• Why are millennials drawn to high church traditions?
• Do millennials really want an institutional Church?
• What is meant by the desire for an end to the culture wars?
• What exactly do millennials stand for?
• Are millennials prepared to call themselves and their questions into question?
• Do millennials really wish to be ‘challenged to live lives of holiness’?

"Temptation clobbers you from the outside and lures you to do its bidding. Sin makes temptation a house pet, gets it a collar and leash, and is deceived to believe that it can be restrained by impositions of civility."

Amazing article here from Rosaria Champagne Butterfield.

"I Don't Stand With Wendy Davis"

Kristen Powers, writing for The Daily Beast, composes these powerful and tragic lines:

Human-rights movements have traditionally existed to help the voiceless and those without agency gain progressively more rights. Yet in the case of abortion, the voiceless have progressively lost rights at the hands of people who claim to be human-rights crusaders. Abortion-rights leaders have turned the world upside down. They want us to believe that a grown woman is voiceless, that she has less agency than the infant in her womb who relies on her for life. A woman has so little agency, we are told, that she is incapable of getting an abortion before the fifth month of her pregnancy. To suggest she should do so is a “war on women.” It’s an insult to women dressed up as “women’s rights.”

On ABC’s This Week, Peggy Noonan responded to the chants of “I stand with Wendy” by noting, “What she is ... standing for is something we would recognize as infanticide, late-term abortion, the taking of a little child’s life.” Standing for that is not heroic, and it is not something to be cheered.

Read the rest.

Top 15 Ways To Know You Are In Christian Culture

Nailed it.

Can You Articulate The Gospel?

The term "gospel" is, as Matt Chandler likes to say, becoming a "junk drawer" term for anything and everything in Christianity.  It is very important that we don't implicitly teach our people to enable this dysfunction.  This article will help immensely.  Don't use the word "gospel" without helping people know what it really means.

If Your Complementarian Culture Boarding on Crazy?

Trevin Wax offers some diagnostic questions.

• a reticence or hesitance to affirm and celebrate women’s contributions in local church ministry, particularly contributions that are more up-front and visible.= 

• a warped vision of manhood that focuses on calloused hands and physical labor and ignores other kinds of work. 

• the assumption that marriage is always better than singleness, so that singles feel like their identity is wrapped up in not having a spouse. 

• unwillingness to celebrate any evidence of gospel ministry or fruit among those with a more egalitarian viewpoint. 

• an unexpressed expectation that the godliest women have quiet and introverted personality types, and cannot be assertive and outgoing. 

• a competitive tendency that leads to unhealthy individual comparisons and rushed judgments, rather than extending grace to one another. 

• a spectrum of “holy” and “holier” choices with regard to a child’s education (from public school all the way to homeschooling).

Read the rest of his post that touched on some larger issues.  


Books by Trevin Wax:

• Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope
• Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals
• Gospel-Centered Teaching: Showing Christ in All the Scripture

The Church Should Be A Taboo Free Zone

Stephen Altrogge:

There are certain things we don’t talk about much in church. Like eating disorders. Or cutting. Or depression. Or same sex attraction. Or sexual enslavement. The list could go on, but you get my point. The reason we don’t talk about these things is because, frankly, they make us uncomfortable. If we struggle with a “taboo” issue we feel very uncomfortable talking about it with others. If someone else confesses a “taboo” issue to us we’re not quite sure how to respond. We usually feel at least somewhat uncomfortable, which means we probably won’t follow up with the person, which means they will continue to flounder in their struggle. It shouldn’t be this way in the church.

Now, just to be clear, I don’t think that every person should tell every other person about their most intimate struggles. There are wise ways to confess struggles and there are stupid ways to confess struggles. I’m not advocating a total transparency policy, in which we tell everyone everything. That’s just stupid. But, every person in the church should have at least one or two people who know their most difficult battles, sympathize with their battles, and can help them overcome their battles through prayer, fellowship, and encouragement. Otherwise, how will any of us overcome these things?

But how do we get to this place, both personally and as churches? Let me give one simple suggestion.

Read the rest.


Books by Stephen Altrogge:

• The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence 
• Create: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff 
• The Last Superhero 
• My Friend, My Hero, My Dad

Missing the Mission: Looking for the Right Results While Loving the Wrong Things

Helpful reminders here from Ed Stetzer.


Books by Ed Stetzer:

• Planting Missional Churches 
• Compelled: Living the Mission of God
• Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation
• Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations
• Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them
• Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too
• Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community
• Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series)