What is Manliness?

If you read Christian blogs you have probably already seen this by now. You can read about it here.

I get where Mark is going with this. I agree that we do have a lack of male leadership in most American churches (if not worldwide) and our vision of gentle Jesus meek and mild is perhaps a bit too ubiquitous. Any serious reading of the book of Revelation will show that Jesus is the all-powerful Lord of history and will conquer over his enemies on the last day with surety and finality. Jesus it as powerful as it gets. Jesus was the ultimate man, given that our definition of "man" is defined by him from his Word and not ESPN.

In light of Mark's comments I have to ask...

What is "manly" (in the hairy chest thumping, beer pounding, sense that Mark seems to advocate) about a lamb to the slaughter?

Yes, Jesus was not a "hippee in a dress" singing sentimental love songs to God, but I feel like Mark paints him as an a#$ kicking kind of guy who would love to jump in the ring to contend for the UFC title belt. I love Mark's teaching, but when he talks about this issue, it doesn't sit with me very well. Maybe, it's not what he says in terms of the idea, but the words he chooses to describe it. I'm not sure. I get where he is going, but would phrase it much differently. Maybe it's just simply overstatement to make a point and to raise awareness. As with most issues, this is also a function of Mark's personality and that needs to be taken into account as well.

Maybe I'm just a wuss.

Trueman in Ref 21

Carl Trueman is a wild man. I love the way this guys writes. His most recent article in Reformation 21 is called: Escaping Vanity Fair:A Word of Encouragement from Nietzsche. I would quote from it, but there are way to many juicy tid bits for me to choose from. Just read it for yourself and tell me what you think.

Wheelchairs in Cameroon

Noel Piper has a very moving piece about serving on a team giving wheelchairs away in Cameroon.

Too busy?

From this post:

Yesterday afternoon, my family attended a wildflower walk hosted by the Audubon Society. Jack in the Pulpit, Spring Beauty, Blue Phlox, Trillium, Yellow Ragwort. Flowers. In the woods. For hours.

Driving home, I wondered how many people would consider that time ill-spent because the dividends don’t leap out. Or how many have so scheduled their lives they can’t possible find the time to stop and consider a fragile flower not even a quarter inch across.

I’ve got to believe that a culture that hurtles here and there loses its soul. If we’re living our lives under the mantra that it’s never enough until our hearts stop beating, then perhaps we’re already dead.

Someone has to stand up and oppose this performance-oriented frenzy of activity. And more than just one of us. We can’t do this alone or else we simply won’t generate the inertia to change our culture.

Yes, it’s a matter of prayer. But more than that, it’s Christians playing the counterculture card and doing so with their very lives.

We want to see Christ lifted up, to win the world for Him, yet we’re either stuck in the spin cycle or sidelined by shellshock.

Something’s gotta give.

I don't think the question is really, "are you too busy?" The better question is, why are you so busy? What is it that motivates you to push so hard? There is potentially a huge difference between pouring yourself out for the gospel for it's own sake, and say, trying to stay on par with the neighbors who have perfect grass in the front yard.

Motives are key...

Alanis

Remember the record "Jagged Little Pill", from Alanis Morisette? She hasn't done much lately until recently. You can read about it here. I think this is pretty cool.

Here is a good commentary from Think Christian.net.

Generational Worship?

I have been posting a lot of iMonk lately. What can I say, I like the way this guy writes. He just posted this essay on the need for our churches to quit paying so much attention to a generational approach to worship services in the church. I like what he says here,

I’m a great believer in the wisdom of Ecclesiastes: there’s nothing new under the sun, and whatever is today’s big breakthrough has probably been around before, maybe several times.

I don’t reject all the insights of sociology or its implications for church planting, worship and ministry. I simply believe that human beings have always been more alike than they have been different. Absolutizing generational characteristics makes more focused leadership, and it often gives a ready defense for all decisions that might be vetoed by traditionalists. But it also moves us towards kinds of practices that are exclusive, judgmental and bizarrely narrow.

I’m not surprised that anyone who studies the likes and dislikes of the present moment and shapes a church around those characteristics experiences a fair amount of success. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I’m sure not endorsing the way things used to be done as superior per se.

I am, however, ready to challenge notions that deny important truths of human nature and what it means to be made in the image of God.

For example, the famous short attention span of recent generations seems to be a rather flexible item. What’s happening in churches like Mars Hill, where the sermons are more than an hour? Is that a “generational fluke,” or is it evidence that humans are a lot more adaptable and flexible than we think?

I know a lot of Americans who have spent significant time in Africa. There “generational characteristics” are laid aside and they adapt to the culture and community they find themselves in. I have yet to hear one say “I couldn’t worship over there without a video projector.” (If I hear one more person say “I can’t worship without projection,” I’m going to do something illegal and embarrassing.)

Read the whole thing.

Steve Sensenig talks to iMonk about music in church

Steve is a guy with a lot of experience in all things church and music. I have not heard of him before, but he brings up some interesting thoughts for discussion in response to these questions posed to him from iMonk:

Question 1. Here’s what I think: Contemporary evangelical churches have entirely too much music going on in the average worship service. It’s exhausting to prepare, distracting from other needed elements of worship and is now dominating many churches in ways that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago.

What do you think? Am I right, wrong, partly one or the other, or just grumpy?

2. Second statement: The current music scene has allowed entities and forces outside of the local church to have far too much influence in worship. In many churches, there is an almost complete abdication of pastoral leadership in the music program.

3. Third: The tendency of the current worship scene is to use music aimed at a younger and younger audience, and this is causing the loss of a priceless heritage of church music.

4. The church culture I grew up in used a lot of choirs. Today, those are fading, and the type of worship leader churches are looking for as a result is typically less trained, younger and more of a performer. What do you think of the shift from Minister of Music (trained musician who can work with choirs, etc.) to the younger, guitar-playing worship leader? What gifts are needed to serve the church with music?

Read his answers here.

More Cho Info

"Cho Bullied By Rich Kids At His Church Youth Group"

Read the whole story here from Newsweek.

(HT: AB)

A Missionary Heart

John Piper reports on a recent letter that he read from a book speaking of Southern Baptist missionaries that have recently been martyred. This letter is from Karen Watson who was killed a few years back in Iraq. She wrote this letter to be read if she was killed:

Dear Pastor Phil and Pastor Roger,

You should only be opening this in the event of death.

When God calls there are no regrets. I tried to share my heart with you as much as possible, my heart for the nations. I wasn't called to a place; I was called to Him. To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected, His glory my reward, His glory my reward . . .

The missionary heart:

• Cares more than some think is wise
• Risks more that some think is safe
• Dreams more than some think is practical
• Expects more than some think is possible.
  

I was called not to comfort or to success but to obedience. . . .

There is no Joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving Him. I love you two and my church family.

In His care,

Salaam, Karen

Let the Python Eat Its Tail

John Piper has a powerful article here in response to the recent Supreme Court ruling banning partial birth abortion. He writes,

Barack Obama worries that “this ruling will embolden state legislatures to enact further measures to restrict a woman’s right to choose.” The Supreme Court erred, he said, because partial birth abortion is “a matter of equal rights for women.”

This use of catch phrases is surely tired. “Right to choose.” “Equal rights for women.” The grandchildren of the sixties are waking up to the vagueness and danger of those phrases. Right to choose what? Anything? All laws that protect children limit the rights of moms (and dads) to choose. You can’t choose to starve them. You can’t choose to lock them in closets for three weeks. You can’t choose to abandon them. You can’t choose to strangle them five minutes after they are born.

And “equal rights for women”—equal with whom? Equal with the irresponsible dad. Dad has sex and bears no responsibility for the baby. Mom should be equally able to have sex and bear no responsibility for the baby. Young people are looking at this and saying: Something is wrong with this picture. Maybe our lives are as broken as they are because our parents have twisted their hearts and minds so deeply to justify equality in irresponsibility.

Frivolous Post of the Day

Ok... I am officially switching teams.

I am jumping ship and swimming to the new island of caffeinated pleasure.

Down with Starbucks! From this day henceforth, I will be a partaker in Dunkin Donuts coffee. I have chosen to subscribe to the G.C. Schneebergian tradition and have repented of my former ways of patronage of the Starbucks nation.

Ok, ok, I guess if you want to get a foo-foo drink with extra whipped cream and coconut shavings then you can go to your local Starbucks, but when you decide to take the skirt off and have some real man-coffee, hit me up for a quick trip to the local Dunkin' Donuts. I'll drive.

To disobey conscience is neither right, nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other.

How do YOU pray?

From this guy's blog. Pretty funny stuff on how we pray as Christians...

Your basic evangelical (version 1.0a): "Lord, we just pray that you would just, Lord, just be with them"

* Soft charismatic extension pack (1.1a): "Kiwimaschulhumbaba muschkarleevangol mahashrolsohomka bananananananananananananan. Lord, we just pray that you would, Lord, just be with them"

* Hardcore charismatic package (1.1b) "Kiwimaschulhumbaba muschkarleevangol mahashrolsohomka banananannananan Kiwimaschulhumbaba muschkgol mahashrolsohomka banandhduiujsinksnann Kiwimaschulhvangol mahashrolsohomka. Lord, Kiwimaschulhuamuschkarleevangol mahashrolsohomka bananananananananananananan, we just pray that you, Kiwimaschulhumbaba muschkarleevangol Kiwimaschulhumbaba muschkarleevangol mahashrolsohomka bananananananananananananan, would, Lord, just be with them. Kiwimaschulhumbaba muschkarleevangol mahashrolsohomka"

* Pentecostal upgrade: "Lord, *insert dance* we just pray that you *insert jig* would, Lord, just be with them. AMEN and AMEN to JEEEEEESSSSSSSUUUUUSSSSSSS. Yeeeeaeaaaaaaaaaa woooooooooo *congregation explodes in a fit of enthusiasm"

* Emergent: *Lights a candle* *mutters something about the return from exile and the mystery of God* *blows out candle* *rises and continues in unashamed compromise against the Gospel according to John MacArthur*

* Conservative evangelical: *prays for a long time all about scriptural inerrancy, absolute certainty and penal substitution* "oh yes, and we just pray that you would, Lord, just be with them"

* Faith-Word: "We just ask you be with them based on Matt 28:20, and we just proclaim this is reality now, we just speak this into reality by faith" (can also be mixed rather effectively with the Pentecostal upgrade).

OK, I'll stop now before I insult the whole planet, but readers of Chrisendom surely now realise that much of what I write is to be taken in jest. I would add, however, that I make these caricatures as an evangelical who, with a conservative evangelical operating system, has at one time or another downloaded and installed a charismatic/Pentecostal, faith-word and emergent patch – despite the numerous incompatibility problems that ensued.

Two Basketball Clips You Have To See

Best Dunk I Have Ever Seen:


Best Shot Ever:

How Rich Are You?

Every Christian in America should check out this site for a healthy dose of realism in terms of wealth.

Go here and enter you annual income. It will show you where you rank in the world in terms of wealth.

(HT: Relevant Mag Blog)

The Chuch and "Cool" People

Their names were Patrick Crane and Tony Dutcher.

Patrick was a poor kid who was raised by his Dad. I remember his Dad always wore an old jean jacket and smelled like cigarettes. For some reason I remember one specific cold Iowa day when some kids where standing around before school and Patrick didn't have a winter coat that was sufficient to withstand the cold. His Dad probably couldn't afford to buy him one.

Tony was a chubby kid with chronic bad breath. He would cry easily when he got a stomach ache and his least favorite day of the year was when we had to run the mile in the gym class.

We were in the third grade and these two boys were the ones we mercilessly picked on. It was natural selection at it's finest. They were always the last ones to have a partner in gym class, they were always the last ones picked for kickball teams at recess and they were the brunt of the game we played in the hall where if you stepped on a crack then you "loved Patrick Crane". We were cruel and I would give anything to have the opportunity to see those two boys (men now) and apologize to them. They probably have scars that will never heal from all the emotional hits they took from us.

In the wake of the VT shootings it has come out that the shooter was a loner and was probably
picked on quite a bit. He was different. Did this cause him to do what he did? Probably not. That is a very complex question that we'll probably never know the answer to, but we have to remember that we have people like him in our churches. Not that we have murderous people waiting to riddle others with bullets, but we have many people who don't fit the perceived social norms for engaging in true community. My schoolyard past and the recent shootings have caused me to reflect on my life, 1) as a parent and 2) as a minister.

As a parent:
How can I foster the Biblical ethic of love in my kids so they don't make the mistakes I did? I can't begin to tell you how angry I would be if I saw my kids treat other kids like I did when I was in elementary school, but also how sad I would be if in a few years when they are in school that they receive this kind of emotional and verbal abuse from others. All we can do it pray, teach, and model. But my past and the recent shootings have served to be a sobering reminder of how important those three (pray, teach, model) are for my kids.

As a minister:
"Do I love those who are hard to love?"

"Am I building a ministry of "cool" people?"

"Do I gravitate toward those who will validate my sense of status?"

"In the church where I work, do we foster a culture of love for those who are unlovable or do we use the world's standards for entrance into community?"

I have to check my heart here. We all need to be ministered to, but I find that it's so much easier to minister to those who I like and would want to be friends with than I do with those people who are more awkward and different. This is only natural, but what is natural is often sinful and counter to God's call for his church and his leaders of that church.

Where do people like Tony and Patrick go to experience the universal need of love? They usually can't go to the world. If our churches are living the great commandment to love and heeding James' admonition to not show favoritism I would hope that The Church would be the place where they find refuge. Is it?

The Family Room

Covenant Life Church (Joshua Harris) has a blog called "The Family Room" that you can read here . It mainly deals with family issues from a Christian perspective.

I found this post most helpful. It deals with questions you and your spouse should be discussing in terms of the spiritual formation of your children. Looks like a great discussion for a date night!

(HT: Doug E. Fresh)

DGM Conferences and A Plug for Johnny Mac

Recently the guys at Desiring God have posted all the audio (for free!) for the pastors conferences that they have done for the past twenty years. I'm not a huge John MacArthur guy (I just have not been exposed to that much of his stuff), but I distinctly remember that his messages from the conference in 1997 when he was the main speaker were significantly encouraging to me. He deals with how to deal with suffering as a minister of the gospel. Any pastor or full-time church leader should have these and break these three talks out on those days of trial that are sure to come for anyone leading in the church.

You can find these three messages here.

You can get all the messages from twenty years of conferences here.

(HT: DGM Blog)

Is Reading THAT Important?

A few days ago I posted "six reasons why you should be reading if you are a Christian" or something like that. It was an article by Tony Carter. You can find it a few posts down below.

Dan Edelen has some helpful thoughts that serve as a good qualifier to what was written there. Here is a bit of what he says:

No, what troubled me more than anything was Carter’s reasoning for why all Christians should be avid readers:

[Reading] is the primary means through which God has chosen to communicate to his people.

In short, no. Not even close.

Now before I get a hundred Scripture verses tossed my way, let me make a very simple (and historically) accurate statement: The reason that reading CANNOT be the primary means through which God has chosen to communicate to His people is that for most of human history, very few people could read. Illiteracy is the primary state of most humans throughout civilization, and only the cultural and governmental elite possessed a literacy rate worth mentioning.

Read Dan's whole post here.

Music Monday - Lovedrug - "Everything Starts Where It Ends"

I just bought this CD on iTunes. I have to say it's one of the coolest bands that I have heard in a long time. (I know I say that all the time... this time I mean it!) Lovedrug has been around for a long time as a cool "indie" type band. I remember then always coming through Nashville and playing at the Exit Inn when I lived there. I wish I would have gone to their show!

I wouldn't be surprised if this new CD launches them to a new level. These guys are the real deal. It's starts with an amazing vocalist, check. Then you move to some great songs and hooks, check. Then all rock and roll demands an amazing drummer, check. Then you have to have some great production to make it all sound great, check.

Think Radiohead meets Switchfoot, sort of, but not really....uh... just buy it. If you like great rock music you won't be disappointed.

You can get it here on iTunes.

Here on amazon.com.

This is Sad

"Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism."

From, Letters to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris.

For those of you who don't know, Sam is a very outspoken atheist who has been receiving a lot of media attention lately. I don't doubt that the above quote is true.

Three Good Posts from iMonk

iMonk has had three interesting posts lately:

1. Two Thoughts On The Tragedy - Some reflections on the shootings at Virginia Tech.

2. Who and What are Forming You? - Some good comments on spiritual formation.

3. Review: "Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches" - A good summary of this new book dealing with new trends in Christianity.

Worst Album Covers Ever

Bon Jovi and Prayer Requests

Brant Hansen reports on a pressing prayer need.

VT Shootings - A Response

John MacArthur has some wise words here in response to the shootings at Virginia Tech.

If you don't watch this show you need to start

From next week's episode...

Read!

Six reasons why you should be reading if you are a Christian.

(HT: Challies)

Atheism and The Shootings

Doug Wilson writes,

My point is that atheists disapprove of this kind of thing, but their disapproveal cannot be derived from the premises of their atheism. It must therefore come from somewhere else. This means that Harris, Dawkins, et al. are as much opponents of the logical consequences of atheism as I am. They like to portray themselves as courageous "facers-of-the-consequences." If logical consequences were a bracing autumn breeze, the upper right hand corner of Dawkins' blog would have a picture of himself standing in it, chin out, hair swept back, and a steely resolve in his eye. "Bring those consequences on."

Okay. Here is one. Given atheism, the Virginia Tech shooter is now in the same condition as Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, John Paul II, Ted Bundy, John Lennon, and Dolly Madison. The nirvana of non-existence is now his, and he successfully escaped to that haven from every claim of justice. That rampage is an atrocity which Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens all believe will never be put right. Justice will never be applied to it. And this lack of justice is just the way it is. So what is wrong with this lack of justice now? Given atheism, nothing is wrong with it.

But even the new atheists cannot bring themselves to acknowledge this. This is because they are created in the image of God, and they know better. So my charge is not that they approve of such things. Of course not. Not a bit of it. My charge is that they are purveyors of an impotent disapproval. The shooting has stopped, the shouting has died down, the bullets are all spent, and the shooter has begun to decompose. And the infinite concourse of atoms that constitutes all reality continues to roar by us heedless, continuing, as always, to not give a damn.

Read the whole thing here.

Real Men of Genius

Click here to listen to 66 different ones! That is genius!

A.I.

"Predicting what will happen this season would be more challenging than making a seemingly tone-deaf 17-year-old boy sound good covering Bonnie Raitt." (referencing last night's show)

From this story.

(HT: JT)

Rat Dung, A Good Depression Hymn, and The Witch of Endor

This morning I watched a powerful talk from Tommy Nelson. Tommy is known for his Song of Solomon study on Love, Sex and Romance, but is also the Senior Pastor of Denton Bible Church in Denton, TX where he serves as Senior Pastor. He is an extremely gifted communicator, but in recent months Tommy was diagnosed with severe depression. He has since come out of it and in this video you can watch him discuss his ordeal with hundreds of students at Dallas Theological Seminary. If you are in full time ministry I would greatly encourage you to check this out for two reasons:

1. It will help you deal with those under your care who are going through it. (There are probably many more than you know of)

2. He has some great admonitions concerning the dangers of full-time ministry that can cause this type of thing to occur in your life.

You can watch the video here. After you watch it you'll get why I titled this post the way I did. Tommy is a pretty funny guy. Great to see him not lose his sense of humor in this process.

(HT: JT)

Air Guitar Nation

Unfortunately, this is for real. Ok, I guess I'll be sure to watch it. Oh yes, I'll watch it.

Bob's Reflections

Bob Kauflin posts some reflections from the recent Sovereign Grace Leadership Conference. Helpful stuff!

The Two Christianities

Dan Edelen (quickly becoming one of my favorite bloggers) has a great post that is very worthy of your reading and discussing with others. He submits for our consideration what he believes to be one of the main reasons why the American church is not growing too much these days. He says it is found in the difference between two different camps, 1) Externally Motivated Christians and 2) Internally Motivated Christians.

Read his whole post here. I found it very enlightening and one that I think we all should think through and consider if he is one to something here.

You can't have it both ways

C.S. Lewis in his book, The Abolition of Man attacks the notion that there can be no such thing at universal norms. For example, some would say that we can't claim to have any real knowledge of universal truth, we can only state our feelings. In response to this C.S. Lewis says,

And all the time-such tragi-comedy of our situation-we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more "drive", or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or "creativity". In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.

The Final Exchange - This is long, but might be worth it for you

Here is the final exchange between Tim and I (see a couple posts down for the back ground and to get a link on the whole exchange). We both agreed that we needed to stop this because we weren't really getting anywhere.

This is his email that I got this morning:

Zach -

This is going to be my final e-mail on this topic because this is no longer a good use of time. As I said in a previous e-mail, we are not going to gain any ground, because we have a fundamental difference of opinion on whether or not my words to Bob Ryan were ''gentle.'' You suggest that my arguments are ''void of anything Biblical.'' That is absurd. We do not disagree on the efficacy and authority of the Bible passages you have quoted, as I have said at least twice (maybe three times) already. We disagree on whether or not my words violate the standard laid out in those passages.

You say that we should talk less about social theory, but your entire argument is predicated on social theory and perceptions. The basic premise of your argument is that my words weren't ''gentle.'' Your categorization of my words is based on social perceptions or social "common sense" that phrases like 'you're clueless'' simply cannot be ''gentle.'' To me, gentleness is an overall character trait reflective of love, meaning that a gentle person acts out of concern for where others stand in relationship to God. I believe my view of gentleness is consistent with Scripture, while yours is better grounded in the research of a sociology professor at, say, Berkeley.

What is saddest to me about this situation is that all the time you have spent critiquing my approach would have been much better spent critiquing those who never take a stand against the crap spewed by the Bob Ryans of the world. And that is why I believe that over-caution about what qualifies as ''gentle'' could ultimately destroy Christian influence. 95% of Christians lack the zeal to take a hard public stance against anything. Unfortunately, it's the other 5% who bear all the criticism - often even from fellow Christians - as maybe once in a while they step over the line. But which group had the guts to speak up?

I don't feel the need to defend or explain myself any further. Even as our back-and-forth has been happening, several other people have either called or e-mailed thanking me for my words to Bob Ryan. I don't need additional feedback from other seminary professors or even my local pastor...I have enough feedback already. Without you having the chance to stand in my shoes and understand the impact that my e-mails have had on those who read them, you can't fully understand why I'm glad I said what I said as well as how I said it. As I have said before, the hope of influencing Bob Ryan was a distant peripheral goal to me. More important to me was encouraging and influencing the believers and non-believers who read my e-mails. And, I can tell you unequivocally that the influence has been positive.

So, I'm calling it quits on this discussion. Thanks for the give-and-take.

Tim

This is how I responded:

Tim,

Ok, fair enough. I see that this needs to stop. This will be my final crack at it! I think it is very important to think through these kinds of issues though, so I would encourage you to keep seeking counsel on this matter from others.

You said:
"You say that we should talk less about social theory, but your entire argument is predicated on social theory and perceptions. The basic premise of your argument is that my words weren't ''gentle.'' Your categorization of my words is based on social perceptions or social "common sense" that phrases like 'you're clueless'' simply cannot be ''gentle.'' To me, gentleness is an overall character trait reflective of love, meaning that a gentle person acts out of concern for where others stand in relationship to God. I believe my view of gentleness is consistent with Scripture, while yours is better grounded in the research of a sociology professor at, say, Berkeley".

Here is how we define the word “gentle” in English - gentle |ˈjentl| adjective ( gentler , gentlest ) 1 (of a person) mild in temperament or behavior; kind or tender : he was a gentle, sensitive man. • archaic (of a person) noble or having the qualities attributed to noble birth; courteous; chivalrous. 2 moderate in action, effect, or degree; not harsh or severe : a little gentle persuasion | a gentle breeze. • (of a slope) gradual : a gentle embankment.

Now, I assume we agree that in order to understand the Bible rightly we have to have a shared agreement on what words mean. (If you have a different take on language theory then let me know.) If we don’t, then we are swimming upstream in our attempt to come to any conclusions together in terms of the Biblical text. We can’t just redefine words however we want. This would cause our society to devolve into chaos. We both know this is true. So when the Bible says the word “gentle” I assume it’s adhering to the above definition, unless someone who is knowledgeable in Greek can show me otherwise (which is often the case). I assume you are not a Greek scholar, thus I think we have to both submit to the agreed language of our culture (unless it can be demonstrated differently from the greek) and see that using the three phrases that I have continually quoted would not be able to be categorized under the term “gentle”.

You continue to appeal to the fact that Bob should have his own category in terms of evangelism. Can you demonstrate Biblically what the warrant for this is? I’m not saying that there is not one, but I just can’t think of what it would be. Jesus calling the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” does not work because they were the religious elite who had zero care for those like Bob who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep with out a shepherd”. Jesus is also in his own category with this one. He knew hearts completely, we don’t. He did things all the time that we can’t do (forgive people sins, completely redefine the assumed meaning of a Biblical text or command, etc) He had the goal of going to the cross and he knew the Pharisees would be the ones to put him there. He had a much bigger picture in mind (basically the whole center of redemptive history) when he was talking with the Pharisees (who were the supposed “believers”), thus we can’t always say “Jesus said some crazy stuff, thus I can too!”.

You said:
“You suggest that my arguments are ''void of anything Biblical.'' That is absurd”.

You have yet to quote any scripture (other than Jesus in the temple, which is loose at best) in your defense of your position. You continue to claim that your position is Biblical, but have yet to demonstrate this Biblically. Give me texts baby! :)


You said:
“95% of Christians lack the zeal to take a hard public stance against anything.”

I agree. I think there are ways to take a “hard public stance” without resorting to insults in the process. This is my only problem with your initial email.

You said:
“I don't need additional feedback from other seminary professors or even my local pastor...I have enough feedback already”.

If I was to be most honest with you, I would say that this statement above is the most dangerous of any that you have said thus far. To say that you don’t need spiritual guidance in this matter from those who you have choosen to be in authority over you spiritually is very bad place to be in. If you don’t need their thoughts, then maybe you should find a church where you really desire to have the input of your pastor in spiritual matters. I know this is of utmost importance for me. Maybe you have a different view of ecclesiology, but my view is that God has placed the church in believers lives for many reasons, but one of the biggest ones is for spiritual guidance and direction on the part of pastors for their people. If you choose to think that you don’t need your pastor’s “take” or feedback in dealing with the topic of correctly dealing with unbelievers for the sake of the gospel, then that means you pretty much feel like you have all the answers or, you feel like you have something to hide from your pastor. Both are dangerous places to be in my opinion. This is not a humble position and the Bible has so many warnings against a lack of humility that I couldn’t begin to list them all here. Proverbs is full of them and 1 Peter 5:5-7 is one of the most common.

You said:
“As I have said before, the hope of influencing Bob Ryan was a distant peripheral goal to me.”

I seems that we have a different view on the correct approach to evangelism. If you think you have a correct belief system and that Bob’s is wrong (which is my assumption as well) then I think he would fall in the “lost” category Biblically. This being the case I would challenge you to see read your Bible over the next few months and see how God deals with lost people (Not the religious elite, that’s a different category for Jesus, which one could say me and you fall into... That’s even scarier, be humble or get thrashed!!). If Bob is in the “lost” category, then I think the Bible shows over and over again how compassion with truth telling needs to be the norm and not insults. (See the Parable of the Lost Son, Paul in Acts 17, “I came to seek and save that which was lost”, etc and on and on)

I think maybe the goal you had in my might be bit off. As I read the Bible, encouraging believers and modeling good behavior is very important. But of equal (if not more) importance is the goal to “Go into all nations, make disciples and teach them to obey everything I have commanded”. If this was NOT your goal with Bob, I think you should have a Biblical warrant for that, assuming he is an unbeliever. Why with this not your goal with Bob? Why is he in a unique category of unbeliever? The Bible does not make this distinction.

This could be broken down really simple... Do you like it when people call you clueless? Would you like it is a prof of yours wrote on one of your term papers that “unfortunate is what happens every time you put pen to paper”? I assume that if you are being honest, you would say, “no, I don’t like that”. If that is the case then I would say you are breaking the great commandment to “do unto others as you would have them do to you”.

Let me close by saying this. In spiritual matters, it’s the Holy Spirit that changes hearts, not wise and persuasive words. I could be wrong in my stance here. I am open to that. But you could be wrong too. I’ll pray that God humbles us both and enlightens both of our hearts. If I am wrong, then the Biblical promise is that God will discipline me (Hebrews 12). If you are wrong then he will do the same for you. To me this truth should humble both of us in this conversation. I pray that God will give you much grace in the future as you deal with unbelievers for the sake of God glory and your joy. Email is a dumb way to go about talking about things that matter. Not having non-verbal communication is really bad. My intent was not to offend you in anyway, but I just felt that this issue needed to be address. It’s that important. I hope to see you in CF sometime! I’ll take you to Starbucks and buy you a coffee and we can talk about it more if you want.

zach

Calvin on Covenant

"It pleases God by His infinite goodness to enter into a common treaty. He mutually binds Himself to us without having to do so, enumerates that treaty article by article, chooses to be our Father and Savior, receives us as His flock and His inheritance. It is as if God said, 'I set aside my right. I come here to present myself to you as Your Guide and Savior. I want to govern you. You are like my little family. And if you are satisfied with my Word, I will be your King. Besides, the purpose is not to take anything from you, rather I procure your well-being and your salvation.

-John Calvin, Sermons on The Ten Commandments

From this link.

Doug Groothuis Chimes In

In keeping with my post directly below on the appropriate way to interact with unbelievers, Doug Groothuis had this post today entitled, Monk, Ambiance, and Apologetics, where he draws a comparision between listening to jazz piano genius, Theolonius Monk, and what kind of environment we should seek to have when communicating with a dying culture.

Zach Johnson, Bob Ryan, Tim Larsen, and Me

Unless you have been under a sports rock for the last week or so you have heard that Zach Johnson (Iowa native, Yes!) recently won the Masters. After he won he was rather outspoken about his faith on national TV and gave the glory to Jesus. As you can imagine many in the media did not really apprciate his explict comments about Jesus. One of the most outspoken was columnist Bob Ryan (frequently seen on ESPN's "Around the Horn"). Basically, Bob's take was that Zach just needs to shut up about this faith on national TV.

My friend from back in Iowa, Tim Larsen, wrote an email to to Bob in light of his comments about Zach (are you following this?). Here was his initial email to Bob:

Mr. Ryan -

As a long-time diehard Tiger Woods fan, I never would have anticipated 36 hours ago that I would eventually be happy that Zach Johnson won the Masters. But after reading about your ignorant, pathetic, disgraceful comments today in regards to Zach Johnson, I now am. Even though you and people of your ilk shouldn't be dignified with this type of importance, I can now honestly say that I am glad Zach Johnson won the Masters because of people like Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe.

Earlier today, you referred to it as "unfortunate" that Zach Johnson chose to mention his faith following the Masters. What I find to be more unfortunate is that the self-appointed PC police (generally wanna-be elitists from the northeast) like yourself continually look down your nose at people of faith without even making a serious attempt to understand what motivates us. Zach Johnson had just experienced the greatest success of his life - winning the Masters - on the most important day of the year to a Christian - Easter. Why is it so hard for you to understand the emotion and meaning involved in that? Why is it so offensive to you when Zach Johnson says that his faith helped him keep his composure during an intense pressure situation? And why, most importantly, do you think that Zach Johnson has an obligation to keep his faith to himself? If you even care to understand the teachings of Christ, you would know that our obligation is quite the opposite, that our responsibility is actually to NOT keep matters of faith to ourselves.

People of your persuasion have spent the better part of 2 1/2 years wondering why a "simpleton" like George W. Bush beat John Kerry in the 2004 election. And now you are confused about Zach Johnson's statements following his round yesterday. All I can say is that there is a large segment of this country that you don't understand. To put it more bluntly, you are clueless. You and your fellow people from Massachusetts can continue to mock and deride simple, "ignorant" people of faith from "fly-over" country all you want, but we're going to continue to be here, and we're going to continue to have an influence, and we're not going to compromise our beliefs. So, from me to you, I would like to say that "unfortunate" is not what happened when Zach Johnson spoke yesterday. "Unfortunate" is something that happens virtually every time you open your mouth or put pen to paper. You aren't nearly as smart as you think you are, and you sure don't understand people of faith.

You might be surprised what you'd learn if you actually tried to look into Zach Johnson's soul and genuinely sought to understand what motivated him to say what he said. You may want to dismiss him as some crazy religious extremist. But believe me when I say that there are millions of others in this country who proudly believe exactly what Zach Johnson believes. Our beliefs are grounded in reason and historical fact and truth, not in myth and superstition. And we sure aren't going to be quiet just because Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe says we should. We answer to a much higher Being than you can even conceive.

Tim Larsen

Usually I wouldn't speak up on something like this, but I felt compelled to email Tim and address some concerns that I had with his email, namely his use of insulting comments in response to an unbeliever. Though I commend his boldness, I fear he is doing more harm than good here. I would submit that comments like this from his email above are very problematic in terms of evangelism.

“To put it more bluntly, you are clueless”.
"Unfortunate" is something that happens virtually every time you open your mouth or put pen to paper.”
“You aren't nearly as smart as you think you are”
“We answer to a much higher Being than you can even conceive”

His take is that evangelism was not his goal and that his comments were extremely appropriate in light of the fact that Bob is a "thickheaded" writer from the arrogant and post-Christian NE part of the country. He would say that we need to say sharp things like this to get the attention of guys like Bob.

What is your take? I would love to hear what you think. If you want to read my take you can go to Matt Reisetter's myspace.com blog and read the comments there. He has posted our whole email exchange. Some of you might find it very interesting. I think these are very important matters to think through and I would love your take if you want to give it.

Preacher Predators

Blob.worship.com has a disturbing post about the 20/20 special that was recently aired about pastors abusing their positions in predatory ways. They also give a good list of advice for how to approach hiring new staff in light of these realities.

Sad, but true...

"The immense tragedy of the contemporary church is that most people worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship."

- Kent Hughes

(HT: Eric James Hansen)

Darfur up close

A closer look at the Darfur crisis.

Hermeneutics - Why Should I Care?

Graeme Goldsworthy says this as to the importance of hermeneutics. From Chapter one of his book: Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation.

Christians with a diversity of views will come together under the common umbrella of evangelicalism if they think they have sufficient reason.In less challenging times,however,differences can become matters of potential and real division, and even hostility, being expressed under that broad evangelical umbrella. Suddenly the clarity of Scripture seems to mean, ‘It’s quite clear to me: why can’t you see what is obvious?’ Throwing proof texts at each other like so many grenades only results in unseemly shrapnel and much suspicion and hurt. But if I as an Anglican am to understand my Baptist brethren;ifI as a Calvinist am to understand my Arminian brethren;ifI as an amillennialist am to understand my pre-millennialist brethren; and if they are to understand me, then we must try to
understand each other’s starting points and theological assumptions. This is where hermeneutics should play an important part. Even more basic is the desire of all of us simply to know and understand what God says to us in his word. We are concerned to be Christians in an alienated world, and we desire to see Christ glorified in this world. We want to hear and know God through his word.

Kindness in Action

Dr. David Clyde Jones says this in his 8th lecture from his class on Christian Ethics:

The biblical example that most effectively shows us kindness in action is the parable of the Good Samaritan. It has been established in that narrative that the two most important commandments that summarize God’s will are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. The question then arises, who is my neighbor? Instead of giving a technical definition of the term “neighbor,” Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. At the end of this parable Jesus asks, “Which of these three was a neighbor to the one in need?” He changes the question from, “Who is my neighbor?” to “Whose neighbor am I?” or “Who do I act toward in a way that a neighbor acts?” You can almost hear the grudging answer, “Well, I guess it is the one who showed mercy on the Samaritan.” Jesus then commands, “Then go and do likewise.” The importance of this is that there was not any prior existing obligation to which the men in the story were to be faithful, no prescribed rule like, “If you are traveling down the road from Jericho and you meet any men in the ditch, it is your obligation to stop and help them.” In fact, the only relationship that existed between the beat-up Samaritan and the Jew who acted as his neighbor was a hostile one because of the long-standing hatred between Jews and Samaritans. The kind of excellence the Jew showed in caring for the Samaritan who was beaten and robbed was to take full care of him. He bound up his wounds, took him to the inn, provided for him, and told the inn-keeper to keep a tally of any additional expenses and he would pay him back. This was out of his sheer kindness. You cannot put that in a rule. It is out of his sheer kindness that he had compassion on a fellow human being. And we are called to that kind of amazing response as we have received mercy. Matthew 5:7 says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Luke 6:36 says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” That is our Christian calling.

John Piper on Friday the 13th

He writes,

Consider two biblical truths in relation to this kind of fear.

1. God governs the lives of his children—not fate and not the devil.

One in-your-face example from the life of Jesus: “At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ And he said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox, “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course”’” (Luke 13:31-32). In other words, sly as he is as a fox, and powerful as he is as king, Herod can’t trap me till it is my Father’s time for me to be trapped. My father rules my life.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)

2. God lets no curse against his people stick.

Remember Balaam. King Balak hired him to curse God’s people. It backfired. God commanded the opposite. Here’s what Balaam said to Balak:

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? 20 Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. . . For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel; now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, 'What has God wrought!' (Numbers 23:19-23)

The bottom line answer to the superstitious is: There is no divination against Israel. So go out today, Friday the 13th find a black cat and cross her path, find a ladder and walk under it, and open your mouth and tell of the triumphs of the Lord.

Eugene Peterson on The Kingdom of God

"Jesus' metaphor, kingdom of God, defines the world in which we live. We live in a world where Christ is King. If Christ is King, everything, quite literally, every thing and every one, has to be re-imagined, re-configured, re-oriented to a way of life that consists in an obedient following of Jesus. This is not easy. It is not accomplished by participating in a prayer meeting or two, or signing up for a seven-step course in discipleship at school or church, or attending an annual prayer breakfast. A total renovation of our imagination, our way of looking at things---what Jesus commanded in his no-nonsense imperative, 'Repent!'---is required."
---The Jesus Way, p.9

(HT: Groothuis)

Shift Happens

This is pretty interesting. We live in crazy times.



(HT: SHLOG)

Interesting Placement in Advertising

(HT: Relevant)

The Future of Preaching

(HT: JT)

Imus commentary

Mikey at ThinkChristian.net had this to say about it all:

Yes, Don Imus is an idiot. And he deserves the worst fall-out for his insensitive remarks. Period.

BUT…is this nation so hard-up that this story takes up the first 10 friggin’ minutes on the NBC Nightly News? C’mon…

With a litany of serious issues with much deeper consequences (say…poverty, health care, gay marriage, Darfur, etc.), we have to focus on the idiotic ramblings of a man who makes his money offending people (and has for years)?!

Okay…stepping off soapbox.

Had to pass on an Imus analysis with a great slant on this mess, from Al Menconi. Here’s a little tease: “Maybe Mr. Imus should have rapped his remarks and no one would have said a thing.”

Evangelism That Works!

Is it better to buy or to rent?

Here is an interesting interactive graph that can help you make the decision. I wish we had this when I was younger and stupider!

Choosing Your Canaan

As my wife and I try and figure out what we are going to do with our kids and schooling (New Mexico public schools are about at bad as it gets, or so I'm told) this post from Dan Edelen was very helpful. This excerpt is my favorite:

Fourth-graders putting condoms on bananas OR materialism. Which one damages the soul more? Which is harder to root out? When the Lexus SUVs pull up to drop the kids off at the private Christian school, are the kids aware of their privilege? When they’re all equipped with the latest iPod, the swankest TI graphing calculator, and the non-stop message that it’s all about them, how can they NOT be?

Worse still, how can they possibly see through that gray fog when their own parents can’t?

I’m no master of discernment, but I think I’m fairly capable of dealing with whatever the public school Canaanites can throw at me. The kids I truly worry about are those in the private Christian school who may very well be materialists at the core, yet surrounded by a highly polished veneer of Christianity or—in keeping with an age when truth is now truthiness— what I like to call Christ-iness.

We can’t drop out of Canaan because it’s all around us. We have to choose which Canaan we’ll dwell in. Some do so consciously, while other get sucked in by osmosis.

TTMM - $4.95

I just saw that you can get Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" as an audio book right now on iTunes for $4.95. That's a great deal. Check it out here. (iTunes link)

Bill Really Needs to Chill

A New Troelstchian Typology?

What the heck does that mean? Well, Sean Michael Lucas has an interesting post dealing with trends in ecclesiology that you might want to check out.

I have been talking with some folks online lately who have either completely left the "institutional church" or are really struggling with it and I think this post deals with what we have been talking about in an indirect way.

The Way It Is

Remember Bruce Hornsby's classic #1 from the 80's "The Way It Is" dealing with societal problems, namely racism, homelessness, etc? Here is an extremely cool solo piano version of that song (iTunes) from a new 4 disc box set that he just released.

Cool Music Tueday - Gonzales - Solo Piano

This CD is a gem. It's one of the top selling "jazz" (it's not really jazz) CD's on iTunes. I would classify this as mainly classical (think, poor man's Debussy or Chopin) with a few splashes of jazz. These 16 short pieces are really thoughtful and sensitive. It would be great music to "chill" to with a glass of wine and a big comfy chair. Check out the clips on Amazon or iTunes. It's great stuff.

This Gonzales cat sounds like an interesting guy. Here is his description from Wikipedia:

Gonzales (real name Jason Beck) is a Canadian musician currently residing in Paris, France. Though most well known for his first MC and electro albums, he is also a pianist. He regularly collaborates with the Canadian musicians Feist, Peaches and Mocky. Additionally, he has collaborated with Jamie Lidell on the album Multiply, and Buck 65 on the album Secret House Against the World.
In the 1990s, he was the leader of the alternative rock band Son before embarking on his solo career. He has worked as an MC in various European cities, and lived in East Berlin.

Check it out here on Amazon.

And here on iTunes.

Wilson on Christian Liberty

Doug Wilson writes,

Christian liberty has been learned when a man can heartily dislike something, and yet, where the Bible is silent, refuse to legislate.

Read the whole post.

Ignoring Beauty

To anyone who love music and beauty, this is a disturbing story, yet in my opinion, it' s not that surprising.

It does beg the question... who defines what is beautiful?

(HT: Desiring God Blog)

Saturday Night Easter

Easter weekend was a bit different for me this year since we had three church services. One on Saturday night and then two on Sunday morning. Saturday was weird because we had Easter service on Saturday night. I had never done that before. I don't have any big theological objection to it, but it was just odd since I always think of Easter as a bright and sunny Sunday morning. To cap things off, it snowed a bit on Saturday here in Albuquerque. I had never experienced that on Easter

All in all it was a great weekend, but what do you think? Would you go to church on Saturday night for Easter?

What Will We Be Like In 30 Years?

Here's an optimistic new vision for the future of our world.

(HT: Relevant Mag)

The Reaping

Christianity Today reviews "The Reaping" starring Hillary Swank. The reviewer says,

For all of its God-talk, The Reaping is just the kind of "faith-based film" we don't need. What hath The Passion of The Christ wrought? With only a few notable exceptions, it hath wrought a plague of exploitative, superficial, theologically confused, audience-abusing movies like Constantine and this big-budget howler.

This movie is also getting killed over at Rotten Tomatoes.com.

Rick's Presentation

If you have 20 minutes to spare check out Rick Warren's talk here given at a high power conference of (I assume) unbelievers in CA dealing with technology, education and design. Think what you will about Rick, but I think it is interesting to see him interact with this group of mainly rich, intelligent and powerful people. (You have to pay $6,000 to go to this conference). He is a very gifted public speaker and he shares honestly about a variety of topics.

He doesn't share the gospel. Do you think one such as him is obligated to do this every time he would get up in front of a group like this?

(HT: Think Christian)

That's My King!

(HT: Shlog)

iPod in Iraq

Yet another reason why Apple technology is far superior to PC.

5 Things

More iMonk....

I love this guy. I don't agree with everything he says, but his blog is great.

Here are his five things that are wrong with your run of the mill evangelical church today.

1. Eliminating All Hymns

2. Goofy Youth Minister Style Preaching

3. No Church Membership

4. The MegaChurch Agenda vs The Healthy Church Agenda

5. Too Much Music

Read the whole post. It could be a good conversation starter with people in church leadership.

Good Friday Meditation

iMonk with a great Good Friday meditation.

It's Friday

(HT: Shlog)

Good Friday

The Ringing Bell

Brad at relevintage.com has a good review of Derek Webb's new record here. Sounds like it might you one you'll want to check out.

This is mainly true in my opinion...

How to make money as a rock star:

Science and Faith

Scientist Dr. Francis Collins (MD, PhD) writes for CNN.com about why he sees no contradiction between faith and science.

(HT: Timmy B., Relevant Mag)

Ever wanted to play guitar?

Learn how to play guitar for free. Check it out.

House's Baby

World Magazine reports about last night's episode of "House" on Fox:

Last night's episode of "House" solidified my fanhood of the medical mystery show: a woman's 21-week-old unborn child is killing her, but she refuses to have an abortion. Eventually House performs fetal surgery, in which the baby's hand pops out and clasps his proffered finger. The scene recreates the 1999 photo of baby Samuel Armas. (Armas's surgeon, by the way, says the baby was anesthetized and could not have moved; the photographer still says he saw the little hand grip). By the end of the show, the ever-skeptical House has discarded the word fetus for baby. If you saw the show, what did you think of it?

You can watch the clip from the show here. Looks like it was a very pro-life statement from a mainstream TV network. It's pretty amazing to think this actually got aired.

The Church I Want

Shaun Groves has an interesting post about the church he wants to be a member of.

The Vets Daughter

(HT: Scooter)

Beards

I wish this was a joke, but I don't think it is.

http://usabeard.blogspot.com/ - check this out as well

(HT: JT)

Soular Show

Last night I went to the Soular show here in Albuquerque. These guys really have a great thing going. They are on their way up, thus you probably have not heard of them yet, but you probably will soon. Simply put, is just really cool rock music. Each guy in the band has carved a really cool niche that shines as each of the four members bring something cool to the table. Soular is hitting the road really hard right now. You can see their tour schedule by going to their myspace page. Check them out. You won't be sorry you went to their show.

Here is link to them in iTunes.

Their CD can be found in stores on Tuesday.

Some Rich People Aren't Rich Anymore

He is a wild article about a bunch of famous rich people who lost it all.

Moreland on Moral Relativism

J.P. Moreland writes on moral relativism. It's a good read.

(HT: Evangelical Outpost)

Passover Parallels

Seth Ward writes an interesting post concerning the parallels between The Passover and the final Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples. He writes,

The point is that what Jesus said and did that night would have been mind blowing to the disciples. In this moment Jesus set the stage for the Christian service forever until he comes again. In my opinion, it is a crying shame that we choose to observe this only when convenient and in some churches it is non-existant altogether. Early Christans would have never thought to come together without this. In the Last Supper, Christ fully explains what He is about to do and fulfills an age-old observance that was to symbolize God's deliverance and hope for the Messiah.

Toxic Culture

Brant Hansen with a great commentary on Britney Spears.

MuteMath DVD

The MuteMath DVD has been released. You can get it here. A Christianity Today reviewer says this concerning the DVD,

Those who have seen Mute Math in concert know exactly what to expect, and thus will be clamoring to pick this video up. It also makes the perfect introduction for the uninitiated. Though the band has distanced itself somewhat from the Christian marketplace, there's still plenty of spirituality and soul searching to be gleaned from songs like "Typical," "Chaos," "Plan B," "Stall Out," and "Control." The musicianship is stunning from start to finish, particularly the instrumental finale "Reset," and viewers will feel like they're watching it all first hand from a bird's-eye view of the stage. Terrific lighting and pure showmanship only add to the proceedings, along with a well-produced behind-the-scenes feature, a segment taken from drummer Darren King's personal camera, and an acoustic rendition of "Reset."

EMI and iTunes

For all of you out there who are iTunes users, this is sort of exciting news.

Image and CCM

Nichole Nordeman has penned (or should I say typed?) in interesting article called, Skin Deep: Image & Authenticity, dealing with the issue image presentation for women and men in CCM.

Could a sex-offender join your church?

What would you do if a sex-offender wanted to join your church? You can read about one church dealing with this issue here.