"So I do not think that Ken Ham–style creationists should get to rewrite biology textbooks..."

Michael Dougherty:

So I do not think that Ken Ham–style creationists should get to rewrite biology textbooks according to their very peculiar reading of Scripture. But I admire their bullheadedness. They have gotten lost in the woods while trying to protect the big truths of Christianity: that God created the world, that we are dependent on him, that we owe him everything, and that he loves us even though we are sinful. In the world most of us inhabit, day to day, the world of lovers, wriggling kids, disease, war, and death, the sureness of God's love is relevant in a way that the details of early hominid fossils never will be, glorious as they are. Have some perspective, people. 

In protecting thaebig truth of creation — that we are all made in God's image and all endowed with supreme dignity — fundamentalists zealously guard things that follow logically from that. Things like the commandment "Thou shall not murder." Anti-evolutionists often set themselves against "Darwinian theory" because they deplored social Darwinism, eugenics, and other evils that seemed to spring forth from minds overexcited by the latest theories of man's origin. 

If Ken Ham is getting rich telling things he knows to be false, he's a shameless fraud. But the bulk of creation's fundamentalists are deeply sincere. And, better than that, they are willing to be, in St. Paul's words "fools for Christ's sake." They do not live for the world's esteem. And so when the world next discovers a sophisticated ideology to get around "Thou shall not murder," I'd rather have one cussed fundie next to me than the whole army of eye-rolling Christians lining up to denounce him. (my emphasis)

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Ditch the "Outreach Program"

Mack Stiles:

I was at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. The pastor, Juan, had asked me to do a seminar on developing a culture of evangelism. I talked and people asked questions. Then someone asked an elephant-in-the-room type of question: "Many Vietnamese are moving into the community around our church; what is the church going to do to reach out to them?" 

On the one hand, this was a wonderful question. A member recognized that she had the privilege and responsibility to reach out with the gospel, and she saw an opportunity to do it. On the other hand, the way the question was phrased seemed to imply that reaching out was the responsibility of the church, not the person who noticed the opportunity. 

But in a culture of evangelism the work is grassroots, not top-down. In a culture of evangelism, people understand that the main task of the church is to be the church; they understand that church, just being biblical church, is a witness in and of itself. The church supports and prays for outreach and evangelistic opportunities, but the church's role is not primarily to run evangelistic programs. The members are sent out from the church to do evangelism, the church does not do evangelism. 

I know this point may seem a bit picky, but it's really important. If you don't get this point right, you can subvert the church. We want church to be church, and members to be seeker friendly, not the other way around. 

Here's how I responded to the question at High Pointe: "It's really not the best thing for 'the church' to set up programs for Vietnamese outreach, but rather for you to think how you can reach out. So I would recommend you learn something about the Vietnamese culture, maybe by learning some greetings in Vietnamese, trying their food, and learning about the struggles they face living in the majority culture. Reach out and invite the friends you make to come with you to your homes, a small-group Bible study, or church. Then, perhaps, some of you should even think of moving into the Vietnamese community with the purpose of commending the gospel among that community." 

In return I saw from the faces in the room many blank stares and great relief on the face of Pastor Juan, who was grateful that I had not just singlehandedly set up an outreach program for him to run.

Read the rest.

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Al Mohler

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Making a Difference in Preaching

Haddon Robinson

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Dining With The Devil

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The Science Behind Changing Body Types in the Olympics

4 Indicators That You Shouldn't Respond to a Critic

Thom Rainer:

1. When you have already repeatedly responded. For some critics, a response is not sufficient. They will not stop until they have gotten their way. There comes a point where further communication becomes an exercise in futility. It’s time to move on and do “the great work.”
2. When the critic intends harm. An occasional critic is not so much interested in communicating his or her issue as causing you harm. Their issue is not actually the issue. They want you hurt in some way. Further communication will only cause problems.
3. When the critic will not reason. Many critics have very valid points. Whether we agree or disagree, we need to listen to their perspective. Other critics simply want to rant. There is rarely a good outcome when meeting with the very unreasonable and ranting critic.
4. When the criticism becomes an ad hominem attack. An ad hominem attack takes place when a person attacks your character. The issue is peripheral, and is only used to assail you personally. There is often no need to deal with the critic because he or she really doesn’t care about the issue.

Read the rest.


Books by Thom Rainer:

• I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference
• Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them
• The Millennials
• Breakout Churches: Discover How to Make the Leap
• Essential Church?: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts
• Simple Church

Lessons from the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye Creation Debate

Helpful thoughts here from Rick Phillips.  I found his third point to be quite instructive.  There is certainly an impulse in me to not look like one of the "fringe weirdos".  "Please accept me!" as a guiding emotional compass will eventually lead one down a path that leads to great despair.

There certainly is a place for a worthy critique of Ken Ham and his ministry, but at the end of the day whether you are a literal 6 day, 24 hour believer or not, all Christians are going to have to come to terms with the fact that many will write us off as wackos, unworthy of the simplest respect, unless we adhere to the reigning cultural narrative of blind, cold materialism.  To the incoherence of this position may we never bend the knee.  There are worse things than cultural ostracism.

How To Engage The Neighborhood

Great thoughts here from Jeff Cavanaugh.

He writes:

I serve my local church as deacon of community outreach, and our strategy for reaching the neighborhood around us is mainly one of long-term, patient faithfulness. Our goal is to build relationships with our neighbors that, over time, will make it easier for us to have spiritual conversations with them. These relationships also make our neighbors more willing to attend services and other events aimed specifically at engaging unbelievers with the gospel.

The basic principle behind this strategy is simple, and it's one any church can follow: engage your neighbors by taking an interest in what they care about. Building common ground is easy when you participate side-by-side in community organizations, service projects, family events, block parties, yard sales, and the like. Common interests are one of the most powerful tools for building friendships that can enable spiritual conversations to take place.

My church is located in a historic urban neighborhood that has a well-defined identity, and many of our neighbors have common interests. Neighborhood associations are popular and prominent in the life of the community, and events like street fairs, art shows, music festivals, park cleanups, and community yard sales are common. We engage our neighbors by having church members volunteer for these events, host booths, and attend neighborhood association meetings. We also invite the community to a couple of evangelistic events at Christmas: a service of lessons and carols with a brief evangelistic sermon, and a sing-along production of Handel's Messiah.

But even if your church doesn't have the advantages that my church's neighborhood affords, you can still engage your neighbors by showing you care about what's important to them. Just devote some time to thinking about what your neighbors value, what they spend their time and resources on, and ways you can build relationships with them through those things.

Read the rest.

I would recommend this book as well.

Fun Music Video of the Day

A 90's classic + a really talented dude + some great technology = fun.

4 Lessons From The School of Suffering

Darryl Dash:

Suffering is real, and it is a very good teacher. Okay, I knew this, but I knew it in a new way last year. There is something about experiencing an intense period of suffering. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but I’m the better for it. What Spurgeon said is true: 

Do we not profit most in stormy times? Have you not found it so -- that your sick-bed -- your bereavement -- your depression of spirit, has instructed you in many matters which tranquility and delight have never whispered to you? I suppose we ought: to learn as much by joy as by sorrow, and I hope that many of my Lord's better servants do so; but, alas! others of us do not; affliction has to be called in to whip the lesson into us. 

Christianity has rich resources for suffering, but Christians often don’t. The Psalms and other writings became real to me in new ways. My prayer life was deepened even as my prayers contained fewer words. The consolation from knowing that Jesus was no stranger to suffering became even more precious. 

At the same time, I found that there’s a stigma to certain kinds of suffering in the church. We aren’t always comfortable when the answers aren’t easy. Perhaps it’s an over-realized eschatology (complete victory is ours now!) or a lack of experience, but I wish we were better equipped to stand with those who are suffering. 

There’s a secret group of sufferers. Begin to speak about your suffering and you will find a lot of people who say, “You too?” I was amazed by the number of people who understood what we were going through, because they’d been through it too. 

Weakness is the way. One of the things I’ll never forget is Charlene’s reminder that weakness isn’t a distraction from ministry; it’s often in our weakness, not our strength, that God most powerfully works. God seems to love using weak people. As J.I. Packer writes: 

For all Christians, the likelihood is rather that as our discipleship continues, God will make us increasingly weakness-conscious and pain-aware, so that we may learn with Paul that when we are conscious of being weak, then— and only then— may we become truly strong in the Lord. And should we want it any other way? (Weakness is the Way) 

At some level, the suffering continues, as do the lessons, although at a completely different level. I pray I’ll never forget the lessons I’ve learned in the school of suffering.

Donald Miller and the Culture of Contemporary Worship

Of all the responses I have seen to Donald Miller (certainly some better than others) this one has been the best.

Mike Cosper writes:

As James K.A. Smith argues in Desiring the Kingdom, all of our gatherings are formational – even the gatherings that aim at spectacle. Where a more traditional approach aims at an orientation towards hope in the coming kingdom and patience in affliction, the contemporary model often aims our hope in the institutions, leaders, and experiences of Church. Our hope is built on the coming sermon series, or the upcoming evangelistic push, or the ability of the pastor to inspire us, or the ability of the worship leader to "usher in the Spirit of God." Practiced regularly, week-in and week-out, these efforts shape us to love and hope in a particular way, and like any idol, it will ultimately disappoint us.

To this, Miller, like so many others, has said, "No thanks. Doesn't work for me." And in this sense, I don't blame him. But his solution is no less tragic. His new liturgy will orient his life around himself or around his work, and these masters will be as cruel and disappointing as any mega-church or celebrity pastor has ever been.

So yes, I think Miller needs to be challenged and corrected. But I also think his comments reveal the tragic lack of spiritual formation in many of our churches today. They remind us that many Christians have no meaningful vision for why the church gathers; for why we sing, preach, and pray.

Read the rest.


Books by Mike Cosper:

• Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey 
• Rhythms of Grace: How the Church's Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel

Dunk of the Day

10 Hot Tips For The Christian Life

#10 - Stop looking for "hot tips".

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Reflecting On The Cultural Event That Is The Super Bowl

Good thoughts here from Walt Mueller.

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Nebraska Football Gets Pranked!

Say what you want about Coach Bo Pelini (he hasn't exactly been a media darling) but this is AWESOME.


(HT: Blazing Center)

Increase Your Reading! But How?

David Murray:

I struggle to find time to read. Yes, I read plenty during working hours for lectures, sermons, etc, but in terms of reading books of choice in my leisure time, I confess I often go to bed disappointed in my use of the evening hours. It’s so much easier just to tap around on the iPad or read blogs. So here are a few strategies I’ve recently been trying to follow to increase my reading.

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Making Sense of Old Testament Law - How Does it Apply Today?

Geoff Ashley:

Many have traditionally pointed to distinctions between civil, ceremonial and moral elements of the law and posited that the former two were abrogated, while the latter is binding. Though there is perhaps some value in such distinction, it is somewhat arbitrary and does not find solid biblical support. For example, are Sabbath regulations moral, civil or ceremonial? I think a better option remains than attempting to apply the three-fold dimensions theory.

As Christians reading the Old Testament, rather than simply applying the literal content of the law (or certain aspects of the law) or dismissing it entirely, we should instead seek a better approach consisting of a few steps:

1. By diligent study of the text and context, interpret the original intent of the law to the original audience to whom it was directed.
2. Determine the various substantial (not merely superficial) differences between the original audience and modern audience.
3. Determine the underlying universal principle from the prescription or prohibition.
4. Filter this principle through the progressive revelation of the gospel and New Testament clarity.
5. Apply the modified universal principle to life today.

Read the rest.

Recommended resource: 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law by Thomas Schreiner

Church = Not "What" but "Who"

Some Transparent Honesty from Richard Dawkins!

STR.org:

A reaction of “Tell us what you really think, Dr. Dawkins” in response to his famous quote about the character of God (see below) turns out to not be as rhetorical as one might think. Dawkins clarified his position a bit on a recent episode of the Unbelievable? podcast in the midst of his conversation with a rabbi and a Christian:

JUSTIN BRIERLEY (host): “The God of the Old Testament,” you said, “is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully”…. Do you still stand by that description of the God of the Old Testament? 

RICHARD DAWKINS: Yes, I do…. 

RABBI JOSH LEVY: There is also a deeply, deeply ethical God, who 3,000 years ago is saying to the Israelites, “You have to care about the vulnerable in your society. You have to do your business honestly. You have to look after your workers. You have to care about the immigrant who comes into your society.” So to only describe the God of the Old Testament in that way, I think, is actually just simplistic and doesn’t help us to really engage with the Old Testament as a whole. 

RICHARD DAWKINS: Yeah, I accept that, of course. It was a passage that was semi-tongue-in-cheek actually, because, well, when I do public readings of my books, I do it with my wife, and we usually try to get a laugh from the audience early on in our performance because it sort of lightens up the atmosphere. And that passage, we always used when doing The God Delusion readings right at the beginning, because it does get the audience roaring with laughter…. So it was a sort of humorous passage, and I do accept that if you look through either the Old Testament or the New Testament, you can certainly find passages of wisdom, passages that one would ethically approve of tucked in amongst the others that one wouldn’t ethically approve of…. 

CHRIS SINKINSON: The problem, though, I think…is that, Richard, you are very good with rhetoric. You have a very powerful mastery of the English language, and that rhetoric can be very bullying sometimes. And…in terms of the passage, it’s clearly a very slanted view of how to read the text of the Old Testament. Most of us would take the clearer passages to interpret the harder passages. We would be talking about Leviticus 19—“love your neighbor as yourself”—before we’re looking at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So, we would have an approach to Scripture that would weight things in such a way that that description of God just does not sound like the God who I believe in, or the God who I worship. So the rhetoric, I think, can generate a lot more heat than it does light. 

RICHARD DAWKINS: That’s probably fair, yes.

Cynicism Doesn’t Reach a Lost World

Good reflections here from Ed Stetzer:

Walt Disney World specializes in catching your attention—it's a paradise for people with ADD like me. There's something interesting everywhere you look. But the day I visited, there was one thing every person in the resort was certain to notice that wasn't part of the theme park. 

I was in EPCOT at the time—trying to raise girls who know about a big world and about more than just princesses (or maybe just make them nerds like their dad)—when people around me started pointing to the sky. Being a dutiful sheep, I turned and looked as well. 

What I saw were the letters "T-R-U-S." Like most anyone else would if they saw the smoke take shape, I assumed it would say to "trust" someone. Then a "J" was formed, and I joked out loud that it might say, "Trust Jess." But eventually, I figured out that it was "Trust Jesus"—I'm clever like that.

My reaction—and the reactions of others around me—seemed worthy of reflection.
First, my own instinct was to watch how others around me were responding. I have a high "hokey meter" and I wonder how people will respond to things that I perceive as hokey. 

I tend to be skeptical of the effectiveness of barns painted with "For all that sinned and fall short of the glory of God," skywriters who write "Trust Jesus" in the sky, people who have T-shirts with catchy Christian phrases, and—as you may have noticed—church signs that I publish every week on the blog. So for me, both interest and some mild cynicism kicked in. 

What I found most intriguing was the response of people who obviously were Christians. One couple nearby looked to one another and sort of rolled their eyes, then spoke aloud about how there are better ways to share the faith. 

To some degree, I resonated with them. But since the skywriting went on for so long, I got to see the reaction of many people. In doing so, I was challenged-- and perhaps chastened.

Read the rest.