Learning From The Mormons

David French:

As a Calvinist member of the Presbyterian Church in America, I've got my theological differences with the LDS church. But if we evangelicals don't believe we have anything to learn from our Mormon friends, then we're foolish. Our churches will not grow by conforming, by shedding the last remaining distinctions between Christians and the secular world. That route is well-traveled by the imploding mainline denominations. Instead of asking less of our families and youth, let's ask more by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit. Instead of giving less, let's give more. Instead of believing we're unique theological snowflakes capable of discerning truth on our own, let's teach church doctrine early and well. And let's not be afraid of church discipline.

Read the rest.

Engaging Without Watering Down

Can you imagine if the church was known for this all around the world? Would it not create a great platform to speak truth and build relationships?

You may disagree.  That's ok, but if so, what is your method for structuring yourself to be around those who don't know Jesus in such a way that they know you are there to love and serve?

(RSS may need to click through to view)



(HT: Todd)

Media and Celebrity in Christian Culture

Thabiti Anyabwile:

If we’re going to work against any latent or expressed tendency toward celebrity-making in Evangelical circles, we’re going to need an Evangelical media committed to creating alternative narratives that undermine celebrity.

Great article dealing with an interesting issue in Evangelicalism today.

A Safe Jesus is Not the Real Jesus

“I confess to the church, I know I have backed away from certain things because of my arrogance I thought I could attract more people to Jesus by hiding certain things about him.”
— Francis Chan

Jared Wilson:  And the irony is that when you hide certain things about Jesus to attract people to him, it's not Jesus you're attracting them to.

Well said.  

A New Divide is Emerging

Jimmy Spencer writes about how there is a new stark divide emerging in Evangelicalism and we'll look back at these current days (with Rob Bell at the center) as quite defining.  I think he is right.

He comes at this issue with a different perspective than the one I hold, but in terms of the divide, I hope that he is correct.

More doctrinal clarity will be beneficial.  Many churches need to be more explicit about Biblical doctrine and this book and current hoopla that accompanies it will serve that well.

Is This The New Face of American Evangelicalism?

What do you think of this?  Agree or disagree (I have some concerns) this is probably something that needs to be thought through.  I am sensing that the type of Christianity mainly expressed here is becoming more and more popular.  I could be wrong, but this type of discussion seems to imply the old "deeds not creeds" mantra that creates an extremely problematic false dichotomy.  Unfortunately, I didn't hear much about the message of The Gospel.   (RSS, you might need to click through to view.)

Reaching The Next Generation

Kevin DeYoung:

Reaching the next generation—whether they are outside the church or sitting there bored in your church—is easier and harder than you think. It’s easier because you don’t have to get a degree in postmodern literary theory or go to a bunch of stupid movies. You don’t have to say “sweet” or “bling” ” or know what LOL or IMHO means. You don’t have to listen to…well, whatever people listen to these days. You don’t have to be on twitter, watch The Office, or imbibe fancy coffees. You just have to be like Jesus. That’s it. So the easy part is you don’t have to be with it. The hard part is you have to be with Him. If you walk with God and walk with people, you’ll reach the next generation.

Read the rest to see him unpack this more fully.

25 Evangelical Myths

Jared Wilson:

What are the myths we persist in believing?

The first five come from Michael Spencer, in response to a question asked of him on his site. The rest are a mixture of my own thoughts and inspirations from the #evangelicalmyths trend on Twitter yesterday.

1. The "victorious Christian life"

2. Biblical principles make things work better

3. Non-Christians are bad

4. Jesus is all about church growth

5. Well known pastors and preachers are telling the truth

6. The Bible exists to help you be successful and happy

7. God will bless America (again) if we'll only get a godly president, put prayer back in schools, repent of homosexuality/abortion, etc.

8. Worship = music

9. We have lots of people, so God must be blessing what we're doing

10. The reason we don't have what we want is because we're not praying hard enough

11. Making "Christian" versions of popular music, games, movies, clothes, etc. is an effective evangelism tool

12. Jesus taught in parables so that everyone would understand what he was saying

13. If you aren't happy, you aren't a good Christian

14. Lost people sense a void in their life

15. Teenagers think youth ministers are cool :-)

16. We will help the poor in our community by spending $25 million on a new building

17. Jesus would vote Republican/Democrat

18. I can't worship if there isn't a rockin' band

19. Asking Jesus into your heart after walking an aisle gets you the insurance so you can go on living any way you please

20. Hurting someone's feelings is a sin

21. Ten alliterative points in a fill-in-the-blank outline is effective for sermon retention

22. Abstinence pledges are an effective means of preventing premarital sex

23. We don't need to pay attention to anything that happened in Christian history before the 19th century. Everything before that was Catholic or something

24. If you make a decision that blows up in your face, you stepped out of God's will for your life

25. Type-A leaders with dynamic speaking abilities make the best pastors

There's more. Feel free to contribute your own in the comments . . .

Preach the Gospel at All Times; It is Necessary to Use Words

Jared Wilson shares this link and comments wisely:

Mark Galli debunks a treasured evangelical urban legend:

I've heard the quote once too often. It's time to set the record straight—about the quote, and about the gospel.

Francis of Assisi is said to have said, "Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words."

This saying is carted out whenever someone wants to suggest that Christians talk about the gospel too much, and live the gospel too little. Fair enough—that can be a problem. Much of the rhetorical power of the quotation comes from the assumption that Francis not only said it but lived it.

The problem is that he did not say it. Nor did he live it. And those two contra-facts tell us something about the spirit of our age . . .

Go read the whole thing.

It is true that too many churchfolk are all talk, no action.
It is also true that the Bible never ceases to command us to speak boldly, to preach the gospel, by which it means with our mouths.

It's a two-fisted gospel, folks.

Getting Our Focus Correct

At the close of his book, The Divine Commodity , Skye Jethani quotes Phil Vischer of Veggie Tales fame:

I am growing increasingly convinced that if every one of these kids burning with passion to write a hit Christian song or make that hit Christian movie or start that hit Christian ministry to change the world would instead focus their passion on walking with God on a daily basis, the world would change... Because the world learns about God not by watching Christian movies, but by watching Christians.

The blog tour starts tomorrow. You might want to check it out here and on the other blogs I linked to who are participating. Skye sent me the answer to the question that I posed to him and I think he gave a great answer. Here was my question:

Imagine you are talking to a new church planter. What are some practical things that you might communicate to him that boil down what you have learned in the process of writing your book that could help him guard against building a consumer church?

Tune in tomorrow for the answer.

The Decline and Fall of Christian America - A Response

Dan Kimball responds to the Newsweek article on "The Decline and Fall of Post Christian America":

So I think maybe there is a decline of a certain shape and sub-culture(s) of "Christian America" as the article states. But at the same time, there is a rising and surging of missional church leaders, church planters, and Christians who have already recognized that we are in a "post-Christian" America as the article states. But that recognition has simply fueled creativity, prayer and passion for mission and because God is God, people are coming to a saving faith in Jesus. So it is ironically quite an exciting time period in the midst of this gloomy title and cover. It feels as though some expressions of church and Christianity maybe is fading out. But at the same time there is excitement and energy and hope as churches who have already recognized what this article says about being in a "post-Christian" country - and have made changes to become churches on mission.

Also read a great response here from Al Mohler.

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.

Doug Wilson On iMonk's Now Famous Piece on Evangelical Collapse

Seems like everyone is responding to iMonk's piece about the coming evangelical collapse. I have seen probably 10 or more come through my Google Reader. I think my favorite thus far has been Doug Wilson's. He writes:

Michael Spencer has written a thoughtful article on the coming evangelical collapse that has gotten some good circulation, and you can take a gander here.

Only two quick comments. First, he is absolutely right that the evangelical movement is in the process of collapsing, but only in the sense that the banks that are all full of balloon juice are collapsing. There are (at least) two kinds of disasters. One is when an asteroid lands on the most beautiful albaster-gleamy city we have. This is disaster straight up. Then there is the disaster revelatory -- it was a disaster all along, and now we know about it. The banks, the insurance companies, the financial institutions, Medicare, and the Social Security program, and all those other guys in Washington with quick hands, are all just a ginormous Bernie Madoff. What a name, and right out of a Tom Wolfe novel! "Where did all your money go?" "Bernie Madoff with it."

The coming evangelical collapse will be the disaster revelatory. Some of us have been telling the evangelical SEC about these skylarkers for decades, and had there been an evangelical SEC, maybe somebody would have answered the phone. I am starting to piece it together now.

After all the financial dust settles, we will still have banks, and there will be money in them. A lot less money, but at least it will be real money, at least mostly. And we will have evangelical churches too -- a lot fewer churches, but they will be the real ones. And we should remember that it didn't bum Gideon out when the Lord got him down to three hundred men. Part of the plan, as it turned out.

The second point is probably my most significant disagreement with Spencer -- he chides evangelicals for being too "conservative," in the political sense, with special reference to our battles against homo marriage and in defense of the unborn. But our problem was that, in these senses, we weren't nearly conservative enough.

"Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence."

But in my experience, those Christians who know the gospel up and down, backwards and forwards, are usually the ones who understand most clearly that the resurgent paganism we are battling is a paganism that requires a blood sacrifice, and that it is the kind of paganism that will not be satisfied with a couple more sacrifices and then they are done. Are you kidding me? And when the helpless are being led off to slaughter, the appropriate response is not to leave a tract down at the laundromat, not even one that articulates the gospel with coherence. We must oppose all this, not by lobbying in a way that plays their game, but with the gospel. Our age needs a prophet in the worst way, one who can get into Obama's head the way Elijah got into Ahab's, and the way John Knox got into Mary's.

And, on the flip side, those evangelicals who can't articulate the gospel for beans are usually the ones who get muddled when Obama, in dulcet tones, describes his ghoulish policy of creating human embryos for purposes of experimentation and subsequent murder as a policy that respects both "sound science" and "moral values." Oh, good. For a minute there, I was worried. These evangelicals can't make it go anymore. Their ethics and theology machine has got a ninctobinkus broke on it, and it really won't go anymore. Nobody at Fuller Seminary knows what to do about it, so they hired an ox cart from the Philistines and they carry it around that way.

(HT: Frank Turk)