“A leader is an ordinary person who has understood that they are grasped by God for a purpose. That sounds like anyone who responds to the call to ‘follow Me.’ These days I see leadership development as following immediately after the basics of the Gospel are grasped in both heart and mind.

After a basic level of healing and faith, all followers of Jesus should be on a richer track of growth and understanding. We all need to be equipped for priestly service in the world, for missional life wherever we are located in the world of culture.”

- Leonard Hjalmarson (NextReformation)

Related posts:

1. Defining “Unchurched” and “Dechurched” (Renov8 #rv8) (All of my posts from Renov8 can be found here) At Renov8 this week we’ve talked a number of times about the categories of “dechurched”...
2. Are Isa and Jesus the Same Person? The Rick Warren-Inaugural Prayer Redux When I wrote about Rick Warren including Isa as an equivalent name for Jesus in a previous post, a decent discussion erupted. What a learned...
3. D. A. Carson: The Sheep, The Goats, and The Least of These For those of you who aren’t aware (I wasn’t until last week), renowned theologian and scholar D. A. Carson posts regularly on his blog at...
4. Martin Luther – “This life…” “This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not...
5. The Social-Action Driven Church (Renov8 #rv8) (All of my posts from Renov8 can be found here) After the day’s events ended I spent a lot of time talking to a number...

Not long ago, when I was being awakened to my calling as a Pastor, I was so excited by this awakening that I sometimes mistakenly saw the same thing in others. Because of this, when I would see similar qualities in a friend or co-worker, I would often interpret it as a sign that they too had been called to pastoral ministry.

I no longer believe that every one of them is so called (although I do still believe that some of them are). My friend Kevin Abell was instrumental in this realization. In his journey of discovery, as far as he can tell, he is called to live as Christ and to write about him while being the best auto mechanic in town. That more people are called to the same than are called to pastoral ministry is likely closer to the truth.

Today I came across this quote (via JT) that expresses the same:

From Dorothy Sayers’s essay, “Why Work?” in  Creed or Chaos (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1949):

The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.

. . . Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade—not outside of it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meant they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meant for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word.

The official Church wastes time and energy, and moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do Christian work—by which she means ecclesiastical work. The only Christian work is good work well done. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery or sewage-farming.

We are not all called to work in a vocational capacity within the church, be we are all called to work as the church. We are all called to minister.

Related posts:

1. The Church as Religious Cushion Kevin DeYoung has me pegged: “No one enters the ministry to further the status quo. Every evangelical pastor, every enthusiastic young Christian for that matter,...
2. Onward Christian Soldiers? Kevin DeYoung offers some thoughts on Memorial Day – an American holiday that commemorates U.S. soldiers who died while in military service. There are two...
3. The Subversiveness of Love Rick McKinley (Imago Dei – Portland) doesn’t blog much, but he should make an effort more often. Here are six things about ministry he posted...
4. Paid Professionals on Pedestals (a.k.a. Pastors) Rick Warren describes a church ministry philosophy that I’ve been privileged to learn about first-hand since coming on staff at AEMMC. This article is right...
5. Making an Idol of Ambition John Starke dishes out four things every Pastor I know (myself included) needs to hear. These are a few things for the ambitious — those...

Jesus speaks of the words and ideas we accumulate in our hearts as treasures. Whichever treasure is dominant in our hearts, be it evil or good, will make its way out of our hearts, through our mouths and into the world revealing exactly what kind of treasure we’re accumulating.

Without the active intervention of my will, the types of things my heart most easily treasures are funny quotes. More specifically, funny quotes that have double meanings. Even more specifically, double meanings that are often far from innocent in nature.

I find a show like The Office very appealing to my treasure-seeking senses.  At the same time, I know that when I watch it I am storing up the wrong kind of treasure in my heart and that this treasure will work its way out of my heart, revealing to those around me exactly what I’m storing up in there.

Dropping “That’s what she said…” into a conversation at opportune times – of which there seem to be an abundance – is hilarious, yes, but what does it reveal about what I’m storing up in my heart? In Matthew 12:34 Jesus says that the mouth finds things to say out of what is most dominant or most treasured in our hearts. Sometimes the dominant treasure in my heart is all too easy to see.

It’s almost like my brain has a checklist it goes through before responding to a statement or question:
* First Option: Is there even a remote chance that replying, “That’s what she said…” will make sense as a reply and turn an innocent statement or question into an opportunity for a laugh? If yes, reply. If no…
* Second Option: Can I reply with something else that will get a laugh? If yes, reply. If no…
* Third Option: Answer the person’s question or statement directly.

That’s really quite pitiful and reveals more about my heart than I wanted to know. Chances are you haven’t heard me reply to a question this way because I only really do it when conversing with another person I know is familiar with The Office and is in on the “That’s what she said…” game.

But this is one of the many ways scripture serves us: written thousands of years ago, it comforts us in current afflictions, gives light to current events, and yes it even convicts us about current TV shows that it would probably be better for our souls not to watch.

Read Matthew 12:33-37 and tell me what it says to you. These words from that passage are ringing very loudly in my ears right now: “On the day of judgment people will give account of every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

“That’s what He said…” and it should probably scare us a little bit.

Related posts:

1. 22 How-they’re-made Videos (Totally stole this from Abraham Piper. Watch “Hot Dogs”… very, um, enlightening. 1. Crayons 2. Globes 3. Frozen Pizza 4. Pedal Steels 5. Hot Dogs...
2. Prosperity Theology vs. Poverty Theology I love finding little nuggets of clarity. The idea of either the poor or the rich being more naturally virtuous has been a point of...
3. Douglas Wilson – Leveling the Monks of High Art I will quote here (at length) from Doug Wilson’s recent piece called “Humbling the Arts”, but you really should read the entire thing for yourself...
4. Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” (2) – I AM THE PROBLEM I have to tell you that Don comes off as a bit of a political and religious lefty, so we disagree on a few things,...
5. Rejection By Silent Majority – The Fate of Many Modern Worship Songs Chris Vacher gets it so right in his post here about the “weird love/hate/love relationship between worship leaders and Chris Tomlin in the church today.”...

Consider this quote from his masterpiece on preaching, “Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today“:

“Consider the time and trouble we give to composing a message we want to send by cable [read: "Twitter"]: because the number of words is severely limited, we go over it again and again, changing a word here, adding or deleting a word there, until we are sure not only that we shall be understood, but also that we shall not be misunderstood. The same should be true of sermons.”

Related posts:

1. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Primacy of Preaching I am finding this to be true in my (so far limited) experience as well:“People say that the preachers stand in their pulpits and preach...
2. The Message: Valid Translation or Useless Paraphrase? Translation - the process of translating words or text from one language into another. - a written or spoken rendering of the meaning of a...
3. Three Things About Preaching 1. Pastors, if you become one of these… RUN! Run far away… possibly into a desert: (Image courtesy: http://www.nakedpastor.com/) 2. “It is important to remember...
4. I AM THE PROBLEM “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:14 Last spring I read Donald Miller’s...
5. John Piper on “Emerging”, “Emergent”, and “Missional” John Piper has a handle on what these terms mean, and shows it in this post. I’m not in total agreement with his analysis but...

Michael Spencer, who is a Protestant but blogs under the name The Internet Monk, wrote an excellent piece on worship a few days ago. I will print some of the highlights here followed by a few personal comments. If you want to see the entire article and read the comments on his blog (of which there are 173 at the moment) go here.

Here are the highlights:

- We have, within a matter of 50 years, completely changed the entire concept of what a worship service is. We’ve adopted an approach that demands ridiculous levels of musical, technical and financial commitment and resources.

- We have tied ourselves to the Christian music industry and its endless appetite for change and profit. We have accepted that all of our worship leaders are going to be very, very young people. Traditional worship  is on the verge of becoming a museum piece.

- Diversity, generational compatibility, even simplicity are all being blown up. Worship is now a major audience event, led by skilled entertainers, aimed at a demographic and judged by the audience reaction.

- Worship has now become a musical term. Praise and worship means music. Let’s worship means the band will play.

- Even singing is getting lost in this. As the volume and the performance level goes up, who knows who is singing?

- We have a lot of happy people right now. They have no idea what Biblical worship is outside of the context of their favorite songs played by a kickin’ band. They have little idea of worship in vocation, in family, in ordinary work or in silence. They credit their favorite songs as major spiritual events.

_____________________________

There are a number of things I want to comment on here, and I make these comments as a musician and Pastor of Worship who is training people to be part of, as Spencer calls it, “a kickin’ band”. But I am also one who believes that music is only a small part of worship which, although powerful, cannot be allowed to become what is seen as the only form of worship. I explored that idea a while ago in a post call “What Is Worship?”

1. Spencer claims that singing is getting lost in all this. I agree. I have noticed this in my own church, having grown up there and now returning to it as a pastor, the singing is not as vigorous as it once was. It seems to me that people once sang much louder, that they filled room with song – not with pitch perfect delivery, but with enthusiasm and confidence. Too many people have forgotten how to express themselves in song. People no longer sing because the room is too loud for them to hear themselves or anyone else around them.

2. Some of this is certainly my generation’s fault. In some cases we’ve pushed too hard for modern songs and styles at the expense of the old. We want what the world has: a loud band to perform for us while we consume the experience of their performance. In a lot of cases the older generation, wanting to keep us around, has acquiesced. We, like over ambitious high school athletes, have taken the ball, run past the goal line, and kept right on running right out of the stadium. (Need a visual on that statement? Watch 4:10 to 5:04 of this video) We now have not only modern instrumentation but all the look and feel of a modern rock concert. Like a rock concert, the privileged few create the experience and the rest of us consume.

3. I’m not unhappy at all with having what some oldtimers call “Rock and Roll” in our church. It has a time and place when it is effective – but that time and place is not always and everywhere.

4. I am committed to addressing these issues and as I figure out how to do that I’ll try to keep you posted on this blog.

Related posts:

1. Rescuing Worship Below is the full text of my first column for the print publication Christian Week. Below the article are some letters to the editor that...
2. Rejection By Silent Majority – The Fate of Many Modern Worship Songs Chris Vacher gets it so right in his post here about the “weird love/hate/love relationship between worship leaders and Chris Tomlin in the church today.”...
3. Rescuing Worship This week I reached a bit of a milestone. The appearance of a column entitled “Rescuing Worship” marks my first work published in a nation-wide...
4. I, my and me – Looking at lyrical content in today’s worship music Below is the full text of my third column published in print and online at Christian Week. Enjoy. Comments welcome. By Michael Krahn  |  ChristianWeek Columnist...
5. Christianizing Rage Against the Machine First things first: Rage Against the Machine is one of my all-time favorite bands. Lyrically there’s much to disagree with but music is about more...

From a recent Crossway Books blog post:

Schaeffer’s following summary paragraph has been especially important (and convicting) to me — and something that I pray will always be foundational to the work we do at Crossway.

“Is it not amazing,” Schaeffer writes, “though we know the power of the Holy Spirit can be ours, we still ape the world’s wisdom, trust its form of publicity, its noise, and imitate its ways in manipulating men! If we try to influence the world by using its methods, we are doing the Lord’s work in the flesh. . . . The key question is this: as we work for God in this fallen world, what are we trusting in? To trust in particular methods is to copy the world and to remove ourselves from the tremendous promise that we have something different — the power of the Holy Spirit rather than the power of human technique.”

Related posts:

1. The Unspectacular Work of the Spiritual Life (#Orleans09) (All New Orleans 2009 posts can be found here) The idea of “unspectacular work” has been my metaphorical matrix for the week. We are in...
2. Our Destiny is Certain and Secure “There is nothing that is so calculated to promote holiness as the realization that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, that...
3. Should Christians Favour Other Christians? Galations 6:6-10    (ESV) 6 One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be...
4. Stuart Murray & Julie Kilpin – “The Mission of Transforming Our Neighborhoods” (Renov8 #rv8) (All of my posts from Renov8 will be at this page. Refresh (and comment) often.) Urban Expression The questions to be answered: What is God...
5. To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World I bought a big nerdy present for myself for my birthday yesterday: I ordered this book by James Davison Hunter: To Change the World: The...

“There is nothing that is so calculated to promote holiness as the realization that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, that our destiny is certain and secure, that nothing can prevent it. Realizing that, we purify ourselves even as He is pure, and we feel that there is no time to waste. That is the way to live the Christian life!

Do not turn it into a law, but realize that you have received the Holy Spirit. Then work out this theme. Your Father is watching over you. He is looking after you – yes, let ms use scriptural language – He is jealous concerning you because you belong to Him. You belong to Christ, you are His brother. The Holy Spirit is dwelling in your very body and you are destined for glory.”

- Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 2002), 174.

Related posts:

1. The Subversiveness of Love Rick McKinley (Imago Dei – Portland) doesn’t blog much, but he should make an effort more often. Here are six things about ministry he posted...
2. Rick McKinley’s “Reflections on Ministry” Rick McKinley (Imago Dei – Portland) doesn’t blog much, but if this post is any indication he should make an effort more often. A summary...
3. The Spirit of Faith: Works The gutsy Reformer Martin Luther was no fan of the book that James the brother of Jesus wrote, calling it “an epistle of straw” in...
4. New Song: “Glory To God On High” (for Christmas) Here’s a new Christmas song I wrote last night (with a bit of help from Madeleine). Listen here: Download audio file (Glory%20To%20God%20On%20High.mp3) Download the MP3...
5. Francis Schaeffer: “Aping the world’s wisdom…” From a recent Crossway Books blog post: Schaeffer’s following summary paragraph has been especially important (and convicting) to me — and something that I pray...

To be honest, I have tried to like Rob Bell’s work many times without much luck.  That’s probably a bad way to start a review.

I’m not a Bell-basher, but I’m not a fan either; I understand his appeal, but it doesn’t appeal to me; I have been to his church, I know some people there, and I like them and have enjoyed worshiping at Mars Hill.

Many who haven’t read Rob Bell’s books are at least familiar with the phenomenally successful series of short films called Nooma (which are quite good). Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile is the third of his provocatively titled books – the previous two being Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (my review) and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality.

If you’ve ever heard Bell speak, it’s easy to hear his voice when you read his books – his pacing, pauses, and emphases are communicated well by the format of the text. The size and outside cover designs are clever and appealing, making them nice books to be seen with.

In Jesus Wants to Save Christians Bell uses the motif of exile to illustrate the condition of God’s people at present and in times past, drawing parallels between the two. Exile, by Bell’s definition, is “when you fail to convert your blessings into blessings for others… [and] when you find yourself a stranger to the purposes of God.”

Bell wisely recommends that, “a Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage.”  And adds: “For a growing number of people in our world, it appears that many Christians support some of the very things Jesus came to set people free from.”

He does excel at delivering a concise synopsis of Old Testament Biblical events, but beyond that and into his interpretation of the events, I found little of value.  The book does not deliver on it’s promise.

In describing the new covenant Bell says: “No more fear, no more terror, no more thunder. That was the old way, the former thing, the first covenant.” In this new covenant, “the truth will be so deeply etched into people’s consciousness that they will naturally do the right thing.” There is a common thread in Bell’s work, one that is the cause of some accusations that he favors Universalism. There are certainly overtones of that soteriological view and it would be nice to hear Bell explain his thinking on the matter a bit more.

By challenging Bell’s allusions to Universalism, one is put into the position of having to answer questions like “Are you saying you DON’T want everyone to be saved?” That is not the point here. Of course everyone (except the most extreme hyper-Calvinist) DOES hope that all will be saved, but the likelihood of this goes against numerous passages of scripture.  Some will spend eternity separated from God; Bell would do well to mention this more often in his teaching – not as a gleeful condemnation, but as a plea for repentance.

The text on the back cover says the following:

“There is a church in our area that recently added an addition to their building which cost more than $20 million. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers.”

That claim is not substantiated in the pages of JWTSC; it would have been a much better book if it had.

The tone and scope of JWTSC reminds me of two other titles I read. Neither one sold me completely on its thesis and both are secular in orientation, but they challenged my preconceptions more effectively. So if a vibrant screed against the culture of excessive consumption and affluence is what you’re after, you’re more likely to be inspired by reading Naomi Klein’s No Logo or Kalle Lasn’s Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge–And Why We Must.

Related posts:

1. More Thoughts on “The Shack” **These are some additional thoughts on my review of the book found here.** I don’t agree with the entire book but at many places I...
2. Book Review: “Drops Like Stars” by Rob Bell A pattern is emerging: every time I read a book by Rob Bell I’m reminded of other books that tackle the same subject matter but...
3. Scot McKnight – The Blue Parakeet In The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, Scot McKnight explores, explains, defends, and rebukes the various ways Christians read the Bible. He...
4. Tim Challies on the Church Tim Challies delivers this post of reflections on his readings of those who claim to know how to fix the church. “The standard book,” he...
5. Offending Religious People I am presently teaching twice a week, using Philip Yancey’s book “The Jesus I Never Knew” as a starting point. There is so much good...

Rick McKinley (Imago Dei – Portland) doesn’t blog much, but if this post is any indication he should make an effort more often. A summary of his six points in this post:

1. The subversiveness of love is the primary work of the pastor.

2. There is disaster awaiting the one who gets bogged down with doing good, and not dwelling in the excellent. It is our job to pay attention to God and life and to help  others to do the same, this is the heart of the work as pastor… many times we exchange important things for urgent things and the important things never get addressed.

3. Theological and biblical inquiry is essential to discovering the depth and Glory of Jesus.

4. Though the experiences of Christ and the Spirit may be ever satisfying, and the word be life giving, the blessings of family and the fruit of ministry be ever present, the longing for heaven and the violent reality of its absence will leave you with a broken heart that will express itself in and empty and sour stomach feeling… It is this knot in our stomach that will keep you an honest preacher in a sea of compromised men.

5. If you want to be a pastor you must learn obedience through suffering just as Jesus did, (Heb 2:10-18, 5:8-10).

6. It is the primary objective of my faith and ministry to apprehend such a vision and faith in Jesus, as revealed by his Spirit through the Scripture, that I would follow him not only in his life but also in his death…  I aim to believe this with such conviction that I could encourage and lead my people in such a faith for their day when they will suffer their own death and by grace do so in faith.

Full post here.

Or if you’d like to read one of his books click here, click on the image at left or follow the link

This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence of the Kingdom of God

Related posts:

1. The Subversiveness of Love Rick McKinley (Imago Dei – Portland) doesn’t blog much, but he should make an effort more often. Here are six things about ministry he posted...
2. The Unspectacular Work of the Spiritual Life (#Orleans09) (All New Orleans 2009 posts can be found here) The idea of “unspectacular work” has been my metaphorical matrix for the week. We are in...
3. The Spirit of Faith: Works The gutsy Reformer Martin Luther was no fan of the book that James the brother of Jesus wrote, calling it “an epistle of straw” in...
4. 12 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Pastor (Part 2 of 2) Read part 1 of 2 here. 7. Promote people who don’t self-promote / Don’t promote people who self-promote. Inevitably as a Pastor, you are approached...
5. Mark Driscoll on ABC’s Nightline A couple of weeks ago, Driscoll was in the New York Times, now it’s ABC’s Nightline. (*UPDATE: here is a direct link to the segment or...

What I do and what all musicians do is easy. All we have to do is sit down for a couple hours a week and write a song or two. That simple task is all the world asks of me, so I do it. The other musicians who don’t are just lazy, because again, we aren’t being asked to tar rooftops or clean out dumpsters. We just have to write a couple songs!

Ryan Adams ( website – Amazon )

Related posts:

1. Blogging and Search Term Traffic 2009 was a good year of writing for me: - My blog traffic was up 135% over 2008 - Because of my liveblogging of the...
2. How I Discovered Chris Tomlin I need to elaborate a bit on my earlier post called “Rejection By Silent Majority” – especially the part about Chris Tomlin, whose albums contain...
3. Rejection By Silent Majority – The Fate of Many Modern Worship Songs Chris Vacher gets it so right in his post here about the “weird love/hate/love relationship between worship leaders and Chris Tomlin in the church today.”...
4. Question 2: What Was/Is Your Musical Inspiration? A few weeks ago I collected some questions from readers here – feel free to go there and add a few more. Below is the second...
5. Music and Hockey One of the “other” things that I do is record music in my basement studio.  A couple of months ago a friend asked if I...

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t begins like this: “Good is the enemy of great.” And I heartily agree, but it’s quite a paradox to be reading this book at this time in my life.

The Search for Meaning (P208)

Collins writes about “the search for meaning, or more precisely, the search for meaningful work,” and tells the story of someone who went to school for economics and had great job prospects but chose something else because “she just didn’t care enough about those endeavors to want to make them great.” This is the same situation I find myself in, and one of the reasons I’m exiting my current job. Making great product is a goal, but it’s not one that I get genuinely excited about. I may have at one time, but for numerous reasons I don’t anymore. We won’t get into the laundry here…

He goes on to recommend getting involved in “something that you care so much about that you want to make it the greatest it can possibly be, not because of what you will get, but just because it can be done.” I wonder how many people can say with great honesty that that’s why they’re working where they are. “We should only do those things that we can get passionate about,” he says on P109.
 

“Level 5″ Leaders

These are found, says Collins, in situations where they are “doing something they really care about, about which they have great passion.”  In the pull-quote on the same page it says

“Indeed, the real question is not, ‘Why greatness?’ but ‘What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?’ If you have to ask the question, ‘Why should we try to make it great? Isn’t success enough?’ then you’re probably engaged in the wrong line of work.”

Well, I’m asking: how many people are engaged in work that makes them feel “compelled to try to create greatness”? Maybe more people than I think.

This book, as I see it, may be useful to higher level executives who possess the ability to tinker with organizational structures.  Too often though, the mid-level manager and the shop floor employee are at the mercy of this tinkering – or, on occasion, are restricted by nepotism.

If you are a business owner or someone in the higher levels of authority where you work, I recommend this book. Read it, do what it says, and I’m sure you’ll find some success.  Click here to view it on Amazon.com.

Related posts:

1. Jim Collins – Liveblogging the Global Leadership Summit 2010 (#wcagls) I was looking forward to this one. I’ve read Collins’ book “Good to Great” (read the review here). Collins’ talk is titled “Never, Ever, Give...
2. “The Edge Of His Cloak” Author Kevin Abell on the Genesis of His Book I recently published a review of Kevin’s book here. You can purchase his book at Amazon. This is from the Aylmer News Blog: “In December...
3. The Shack – a review For a week or so I carried around this book called “The Shack”. It’s one of those books that “everyone” is reading. At the time...
4. Delusions of Emergent Utopia – A Review of Phyllis Tickle’s “The Great Emergence” I’m no historian. You probably aren’t either. Fortunately, this fact probably won’t serve as a handicap when reading this short book of history. “The Great...
5. Liveblogging “The Leadership Summit” – 8 – Dave Gibbons Day 2, Session 1a – Thinking Forward: Third Culture Leadership (Dave Gibbons) Living Third Culture means adaptation, painful adaptation. The mindset and will to love,...

Here is the clip from tonight’s broadcast of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) where Ron MacLean interviews Helen Kennedy of Egale Canada over the use of the word “pansification” – a term used by HNIC commentator Mike Milbury, who coined the term to describe how the NHL would be softened should the league heed calls to ban fighting.

I have used the word “pansy” more than few times, but never once as a homophobic slur.  A pansy is a flower; flowers look nice but don’t do much else. When someone isn’t giving as much effort as they are capable of, I have been known on occasion to call such a person out as a “pansy.”Of course, some words gain and lose and change meanings over time. For example, “gay” once meant happy and “queer” once meant strange. “Pansy” may have at one time have been a more specifically derogatory term, but I don’t believe it has been for a long time.CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay’s response: “The point is, it was no way intended to be a reflection on or offensive to gay people. I think the colloquial use of the term was something they didn’t associate with gay people. The way the language evolves over time, 20 or 30 years ago it would have been seen, reasonably enough, as a direct slur against gay people.”What Egale Canada has done is re-entered this word into the lexicon of homophobic derogatory terms. For the most part, it had dropped off the radar as a homophobic slur – something we should all have been happy about.Now, it’s back on the radar, and those inclined to use homophobic slurs have another weapon in their arsenal.Agree or disagree?

Related posts:

1. “Weird Al” Yankovic – Bob (Dylan, that is) This video is a must see whether or not you are a Dylan fan. Weird Al can be a goof, but he can also be...
2. “The Only Christian Work is Good Work Well Done” Not long ago, when I was being awakened to my calling as a Pastor, I was so excited by this awakening that I sometimes mistakenly...
3. New Comments Feature – Intense Debate I installed a new feature.  Intense Debate – click here to see some features. Try it out. Leave a comment below or jump into the...
4. Merry… Christ-tide? A short history lesson by David Frum is my gift to you on this Christ-tide morning. Christ-tide? Read the piece: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=44a5695d-acbd-4f40-83b2-0e4266e90430...
5. How the Internet Is Rewiring Your Brain WIRED magazine recently published an outstanding article by Nicholas Carr regarding how our use of the internet is rewiring our brains. “The depth of our...

Emboldened by the added attention of a liberal-leaning audience since he moved his blog to Beliefnet, Tony Jones today announced a plan to review the Apostles’ Creed and put forward a controversial position on each one.

Since blog posts questioning gender roles and the doctrine of original sin have been so popular, Jones has decided it’s time to “question everything.”

“I mean, some of that stuff in the Apostles’ Creed looks a little outdated to 21st century eyes. What I’ll write in these posts may or may not represent my actual opinions, but depending on the comments for each post, you may or may not find out,” he clarified in a press release and email sent out last night.

“The change in the demographic of my audience has allowed me to explore just how deep the rabbit hole goes,” Jones said this morning when interviewed on the front steps of Solomon’s Porch, the “church” whose “pastor” is Doug Pagitt, a co-Emergent and close friend of Jones.  Pagitt’s take on Jones’ plan was predictably affirmative: “Listen, all Tony and I are trying to do is show people what A Christianity Worth Believing looks like.”

“In addition,” says Jones, “since shedding my role as National Coordinator I’ve felt less obligated to appear ‘orthodox’ on at least a few of the big issues in order to maintain loose ties to less progressive evangelicals like Scot McKnight and Dan Kimball.  With my new, larger audience at Beliefnet, that kind of catering is no longer necessary.  And besides, Kimball has the most un-Emergent hairstyle I’ve ever seen.”

Jones, a pioneer and central figure in what is known as the “Emerging Church” movement, stepped down as National Coordinator of Emergent Village late last year amid fears that one person coordinating a national organization might lead to too much organization – a predicament those in the Emerging Church movement are keen on avoiding.

“You can expect more huge announcements from me in the next few months,” Jones continued, “with my newfound freedom and a growing Beliefnet audience, who knows where this could go! I consider my blog posts Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and I plan on making a lot of New Christians as a result,” Jones added with a wink and a nod to his latest book.

“Mark Driscoll can have the New York Times and Nightline – I’ll take Beliefnet over those shows any day!” Jones added with some swagger, making reference to former Emerging Church kingpin Mark Driscoll, who has made two high-profile appearances in the national media in the last month.

(FYI – this is a satirical examination of events, some of which are fictional…)

Related posts:

1. What is the “Emerging Church”? In my experience, having observed, engaged in, and written about it, the following are some important and often misunderstood facts about the movement: The Emerging...
2. OBITUARY: Emerging Church (1989-2009) This brings a (satirical) tear to my eye. The money quote: She is survived by her parents, the Seeker Church, and Sojourners; her paternal grandmother,...
3. McKnight: “McLaren Emerging” Scot McKnight provides more of his trademark clarity in a recent article in Christianity Today: I maintain a crucial distinction between two related streams: emergent...
4. John Piper: the Emerging Church was “an upper-middle-class, white, departure from orthodoxy…” ***UPDATE – Andrew Jones responds to this post*** Piper’s new definition of the Emerging Church: an “upper-middle-class, white, departure from orthodoxy…” Some highlights from the...
5. John Piper on “Emerging”, “Emergent”, and “Missional” John Piper has a handle on what these terms mean, and shows it in this post. I’m not in total agreement with his analysis but...

When it comes to television, I’m a bit of a Luddite – and I like it that way.  We have rabbit ears, that’s it – no cable, no satellite.  There are only two shows we keep current on: 24 and LOST.

The West Wing is a show we’ve been watching recently and we just finished season two. This is a show that went seven or eight seasons and is already wrapped up.  The writing is superb and so is the acting. It stars Martin Sheen as a Democratic President and chronicles the life of a US President inside and outside the White House.

There have been a few touching moments, more than a few humorous moments, and some sad moments as well, but the finale of season two is something I’ve been thinking about for a few days now since I watched it.  I just went and grabbed the clip below off of YouTube and got a chill again as I watched it.

You have to know some of the backstory to understand this fully, but this is President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) at a low point emotionally and spiritually. He is in a cathedral for the funeral of a loved-one, he is about to announce to the American public that he has a degenerative disease, and he refers to a couple of tragic incidents from the past two years,  and because of these things he feels completely betrayed by God.

My question: is this a legitimate wrestling with God or is this blasphemy?

(I think it’s the Latin that gives me the chills…)

Let’s hear your opinions first and then I’ll post the text of this monologue and some thoughts from series creator Aaron Sorkin.

Related posts:

1. The Big Announcement It’s Sunday morning – a fitting day of the week to announce that I am now officially the “Associate Pastor of Worship and Missions” at...
2. Favourite authors My favourite authors are those that continually offer me moments of clarity and insight such as I cannot find anywhere else.  A book like Marshall...
3. Public School or Private? Tim Challies takes a look at public schooling vs. private/home-school. I couldn’t have put it better myself… so I won’t try. Go read it....
4. "Peace, Love, Empathy, Kurt Cobain." It was just a stupid Sum 41 song on the radio – and not even the whole thing – but it reminded me of a...
5. Anthony Brown – “Extraordinary Instructions for Mission: Jesus Sending of the Twelve” (Renov8 #rv8) (All of my posts from Renov8 will be at this page. Refresh (and comment) often.) Anthony Brown (bio) is the Director of Education for Forge...

A couple of weeks ago, Driscoll was in the New York Times, now it’s ABC’s Nightline. (*UPDATE: here is a direct link to the segment or watch below)

Driscoll is getting a lot of attention because of his recent sermon series on The Song of Solomon called “The Peasant Princess” (see series website)  in which he preaches on and discusses issues of sexuality.

The characterizations in the recent wave of media attention are somewhat dated in that they focus on Mark’s reputation as a punchline-loving jock. This is still true to an extent, but if you are a member of Driscoll’s church or a regular listener you know that such characterizations are more representative of an earlier version of Driscoll.

Unfortunately, the old title “Cussing Pastor”, made famous in Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, still gets thrown around, even though what may have led to this title happened a decade or more ago and no audio of Driscoll actually cussing has been delivered. His language can be harsh, and has occasionally been unnecessarily offensive, but a label such as “Cussing Pastor” is misleading.

Driscoll has repented of things he’s said before,  and he’ll probably give himself occasion to do so again. But listen to a more recent sermon – you’ll hear the heart of a young, fiery, maturing pastor who is more concerned with evangelization and tending his flock than with delivering punchlines.

Download and listen to a recent Driscoll sermon called “Trial: Trial and Sin” or listen to it below.

Download audio file (20090111_trial-and-sin_audio.mp3)

The ABC writeup does include this quote from Driscoll at the end of it:

“I think, to be honest with you, humility is something that, by God’s grace, I’m learning,” he said. “I would not pretend to be an expert in humility.”

For those familiar with Driscoll, this quote is where the real story is.

Related posts:

1. Question and Answer with Mark Driscoll via Resurgence featured audio On Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at the Resurgence National Conference, Pastor Mark Driscoll spent sometime answering questions from audience. Please listen...
2. Changing and Unchanging – The Certainty of God’s Promise (Sermon Audio and Notes) Here is the audio from my January 10, 2010 sermon titled “Changing and Unchanging – The Certainty of God’s Promise” The sermon was based on...
3. Mark Driscoll in the New York Times (NYT)   For those of you who don’t care to register at the NYT in order to see the article, you can get a PDF of...
4. Review – “Vintage Church” by Mark Driscoll (and Gerry Breshears) Mark Driscoll, the fearless and sometimes controversial founder and Pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle, writes books the way he preaches: . In fact,...
5. Mark Driscoll on… Rick Warren A quote from Driscoll’s blog: “And, I learned a lot watching Rick Warren behind the scenes and over meals. Not being part of the Purpose...

For those of you who don’t know, Rick Warren was asked to pray at Barack Obama’s inauguration. He closed his prayer “I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, ‘Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:” followed by The Lord’s Prayer.

Contrary to this report by Daniel Cordell which seems to be making the rounds, I spoke to a Muslim immigrant friend this morning and posed the question “Who is Isa?” Without hesitation, his immediate response was “That’s Jesus in Arabic. That’s the word used for Jesus in Arabic countries.”

This deserves more research, but one to one I think I’ll take the word of an observant Muslim immigrant on the issue.

In Arabic countries, Isa is the name for Jesus and Allah is the name for God. Without prompting, my Muslim friend also said that Christian preachers in the mid-east commonly use Isa and Allah to refer to Jesus and God, and when they do this their meaning is clear to both Christians and Muslims.
>

Here is Mark Driscoll’s take on Warren’s Prayer.

What do you think?

Related posts:

1. Are Isa and Jesus the Same Person? The Rick Warren-Inaugural Prayer Redux When I wrote about Rick Warren including Isa as an equivalent name for Jesus in a previous post, a decent discussion erupted. What a learned...
2. Rick Warren on The Social Gospel The more I hear, the more I like: Click Here...
3. Wagdi Iskander – “The Cost of Transforming Neighborhoods” (Renov8 #rv8) (All of my posts from Renov8 can be found here) We just heard a devastating talk by Pastor Wagdi Iskander about his conversion from Islam...
4. Mark Driscoll on… Rick Warren A quote from Driscoll’s blog: “And, I learned a lot watching Rick Warren behind the scenes and over meals. Not being part of the Purpose...
5. Rick Warren. Running a Half-Marathon You were expecting to see Rick Warren in running shorts here, weren’t you? Sorry, my photoshop skills aren’t THAT good. Rick in a Hawaiian shirt...

These are from the post “Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President” by John Piper:

1. Are you willing to explain why a baby’s right not to be killed is less important than a woman’s right not to be pregnant?
2. Or are you willing to explain why most cities have laws forbidding cruelty to animals, but you oppose laws forbidding cruelty to human fetuses? Are they not at least living animals?
3. Or are you willing to explain why government is unwilling to take away the so-called right to abortion on demand even though it harms the unborn child; yet government is increasingly willing to take away the right to smoke, precisely because it harms innocent non-smokers, killing 3,000 non-smokers a year from cancer and as many as 40,000 non-smokers a year from other diseases?
4. And if you say that everything hangs on whether the fetus is a human child, are you willing to go before national television in the oval office and defend your support for the “Freedom of Choice Act” by holding in your hand a 21 week old fetus and explaining why this little one does not have the fundamental, moral, and constitutional right to life? Are you willing to say to parents in this church who lost a child at that age and held him in their hands, this being in your hands is not and was not a child with any rights of its own under God or under law?

Read the entire post and comment there or comment below.

Update

Related content: this post by Justin Taylor 

Also this post re: Roe vs. Wade

Related posts:

1. Michael Kruse : Emerging Church and Obama Read the rest of the article here… Kruse makes a keen observation about emerging Evangelicals: One of the most ironic things I’ve seen in this...
2. Liveblogging the Global Leadership Summit 2010 (#wcagls) I’ve come this year with very much the same attitude as last year: I have low expectations. But this year I expect to be surprised...
3. Romans 1:18-25 (vv 22-25) *See this post for explanation and ground rules, commentary on vv 18-20 and this post for commentary on v 21.  22 Claiming to be wise,...
4. Questions From Genesis I have a number of discussions going at any given time about various things. These are some questions I received from a young man I...
5. Smashing Brickworld: Rob Bell’s "Velvet Elvis" – Part 5 Binding and Loosing Jesus gave his disciples power: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom…” (Matt 16 and 18). Bell sees this as...

Join the conversation here.

Related posts:

1. Andrew Jones responds: “John Piper and an ‘upper-middle-class’ emerging church” Andrew Jones (Twitter), a recognized long-time leader in Emerging Church circles responds to my post from earlier this week. Here is an excerpt: The EC...
2. On John Piper, Thomas Merton, and Other Things That Go Nicely Together When I find a worthy author I engage that author intensely and exhaustively until I can articulate what they are and are not about.  I’ve...
3. Rob Bell – “Jesus Wants to Save Christians” To be honest, I have tried to like Rob Bell’s work many times without much luck.  That’s probably a bad way to start a review....
4. John Piper on “Emerging”, “Emergent”, and “Missional” John Piper has a handle on what these terms mean, and shows it in this post. I’m not in total agreement with his analysis but...
5. John Piper: the Emerging Church was “an upper-middle-class, white, departure from orthodoxy…” ***UPDATE – Andrew Jones responds to this post*** Piper’s new definition of the Emerging Church: an “upper-middle-class, white, departure from orthodoxy…” Some highlights from the...

For a week or so I carried around this book called “The Shack”. It’s one of those books that “everyone” is reading. At the time of this writing it has has sold over a million copies and spent 33 straight weeks at the top of the New York Times best-sellers list for Paperback Trade Fiction. It has also seen a significant growth in sales in recent months while overall book sales have dropped. Those figures are not too bad for a book that was never intended for publication and then launched with a total marketing budget of $300.

Church folk who read it seem evenly split between the opinions that the book is either heresy or this generation’s classic work of fiction. Eugene Peterson’s endorsement is especially effusive: “When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of ‘The Shack.’ This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” did for his. It’s that good!”

The book tells the story of Mack, a father whose young daughter is abducted during a camping trip and then murdered in a shack in the woods. Several years later Mack receives an invitation from someone named “Papa” to meet him back at the shack. As it turns out, Papa is God, or more specifically, God in the form of the three persons of the trinity.  During the time Mack spends at the shack he is taken through the painful experiences of his life and is shown how God was at work in each of them.

I’ll be honest: I was ready to not like this book. For one thing, I don’t read much fiction. For another, there are people that I respect who think the book is rubbish. Although not a textbook of theology, there is enough theology that it is well placed in the genre “theological fiction”.

Popular Canadian blogger and author Tim Challies (www.challies.com) agrees that the book is not a lightweight endeavor.

“The author is unafraid to tackle subjects of deep theological import,” he say, “a courageous thing to do in so difficult a genre as fiction. The reader will find himself diving into deep waters as he reads this book.”

In the controversy surrounding this book, the words “orthodox” and “heresy” have often been mentioned – at least amongst theologically minded Christians who engage its content. The power and meaning of words like “orthodox” and “heresy” is of course somewhat muted in the current plurality of systematic theologies within Christianity. We generally use these words today to indicate whether what we’re referring to fits into our own systematic theology. If it does, it’s “orthodox”; if not, it’s “heresy”.

There are elements here that are a bit unorthodox to be sure – we are not accustomed to seeing God in the human form, and especially not in the form of a woman. But overall I was struck with just how orthodox the theology in the book is. By that I mean I found myself agreeing with a lot of what Young was saying about the nature of God, predestination, love, etc. Another popular writer and blogger, Michael Spencer, wisely recommends that,

“If you can read this book as what it was meant to be, and not as a chapter of someone’s Systematics, it will work on the level we most need such a story: our own sense of intimacy with God.”

This book has the potential to – and in fact already is – getting into the hands of many people who are not Christians. As an introduction to the faith it is above the level of sufficient. Overly long and analytical and critical reviews of the book (some nearly as long as the book itself!) seem to forget that the book is short and a work of fiction. Yes, there is much that can be said about this or that particular point of theology but overall the book presents an accurate portrayal of God and confirms his goodness at every opportunity.

The weaknesses of the book exist in some unresolved issues Young obviously still has with authority, theological education, and what we commonly refer to as the “church”. At one point, after Mack has met God, he realizes that all of his seminary training was insufficient in preparing him for such a meeting. Well, let’s hope not! Mack must not have done his homework before choosing a seminary.

While Tim Challies recommends staying clear of the book, Michael Spencer says just the opposite:

“William P. Young wants to introduce you to what it means to be loved by the Trinitarian God,” Spencer writes, “and he’s created a compelling story to do so in a way few sermons could ever begin to do.”

Both reviews are worth reading… but read the book first and decide for yourself.

More thoughts on The Shack here.

Related posts:

1. Michael Spencer on “The Shack” Spencer writes: Finding God in the Shack: Seeking Truth in a Story of Evil and Redemption by Roger Olson (IVP). Olson is one of the...
2. More Thoughts on “The Shack” **These are some additional thoughts on my review of the book found here.** I don’t agree with the entire book but at many places I...
3. Review: Tim Challies – The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment Tim Challies is finally putting words down on paper. The Oakville, Ontario author is better known as a prolific and widely-read blogger and chronicler of...
4. Review of Mark Driscoll’s “Death by Love” Tim Challies: What makes Death by Love so different from his other books is what makes it good. Driscoll holds his tongue, refusing to bring...
5. Author Madeleine L’Engle Dies This is very sad news. Oddly, I am not a fan of her fiction at all but I own most of her non-fiction works and...

Michael Kruse put up a very good post here a few days ago.

Some highlights:

“First, if you are in the marketplace, regardless of how intentional you are about it, you are engaged in marketing… If you are opposed to marketing, then you are opposed to all economic transactions.”

“Second, most advertising does not persuade people to buy something they would not otherwise buy (though clearly some advertising does).  Most advertising is about persuading customers to buy from a particular advertiser versus another supplier.”

And this closing:

When we’re talking about competing in the marketplace of ideas and community, there is no escape from marketing. Jesus and New Testament writers were very intent on recasting their “customers” perceptions of their own needs, on presenting themselves in specific ways, on “closing the deal” of bringing people into the new creation community, and on persuading others to do what is in their own best self-interest; namely to serve others in community, in service to God.

We no longer need to fill our identity through consumption when our identity is filled in Christ and his community of disciples.

Read the full post here.

Related posts:

1. Blake Mycoskie – Liveblogging the Global Leadership Summit 2010 (#wcagls) Blake Mycoskie – another one I’ve never heard of. Here’s the bio: “Acknowledged as one of today’s most dynamic serial entrepreneurs, Blake Mycoskie launched five...
2. The Social-Action Driven Church (Renov8 #rv8) (All of my posts from Renov8 can be found here) After the day’s events ended I spent a lot of time talking to a number...
3. Consumption vs. Consumerism Michael Kruse: True pursuit of justice requires consumption. We must consume a variety of ideas and experiences that are in the marketplace of ideas as...
4. Question and Answer with Mark Driscoll via Resurgence featured audio On Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at the Resurgence National Conference, Pastor Mark Driscoll spent sometime answering questions from audience. Please listen...
5. Reasons to like Dan Kimball a) This new blog post b) He’s forming a new community/alliance with Erwin McManus, Scot McKinght, Rick McKinley, and others c) Quotes like this from...