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A La Carte (9/29)
- 09/29/10
- 16
On Friday evening I’ll be speaking at the 8th Letter Conference here in town. My task is to prepare a letter to the church in North America; this letter is to bring what I think is the message the church needs to hear. It is going to be a wide and diverse audience, I think, and I am looking forward to addressing it. Pray for me, won’t you, as I narrow in on exactly what I want to say?
The Gadarene - John Piper is about to release his first graphic novel (!) and Drew Blom has a couple of them he is going to give away. Here’s a video introduction to the book. You’ll have to visit the link above for your chance to win one.
The Ordinary Pastors Project - The Gospel Coalition is beginning what it’s calling The Ordinary Pastors Project. “The ordinary pastor is not alone in his discouragement. Overburdened and overworked, famous pastors must also deal with discouragement. But they have fans. And fan pages on Facebook. Their discouragement draws interviews and grabs the attention of book publishers. All this turns into an encouraging opportunity altogether foreign to the experience of the ordinary pastor.”
Fighting For Life - Here’s an interesting article by Lila Rose, the young woman who is waging war against Planned Parenthood.
Atheists Know Their Religion - This isn’t good. It also isn’t surprising. “A new survey of Americans’ knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.”
Why All Good Christians Should Celebrate Halloween - The title is a little bit overstated, but I do enjoy most of what this blogger has to say about Halloween.
When Do I Tell My Kids About Sex? - This is a very helpful response to a question every Christian parent asks at one time or another.
People do not seek God. They seek after the benefits that only God can give them. The sin of fallen man is this: Man seeks the benefits of God while at the same time fleeing from God himself. We are, by nature, fugitives. —R.C. Sproul
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
Releasing on April 1, The Next
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This review of the bestselling
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Comments (16)
The graphic novel looks quite interesting! Not what I would of expected from Piper but very cool.
It is certainly not surprising that atheists “know more” about religion than the religious. They pride themselves on their knowledge and “rationality”.
It is kind of sad that many Christians/etc. don’t know much about their own beliefs - but then again, the questions weren’t all that important. I’m not sure why it’s necessary for a Christian to know the names of Hindu gods - besides the need to know them in order to relate to those who follow Hinduism.
The test said nothing about what Christianity is really about. It ain’t about head knowledge. :)
That said, I did score 93% on the test. ;)
Piper rocks! OK in all seriousness , I have often thought the graphic novel would be a perfect medium to convey Bible stories in a mature and real way . I know my son’s friends would be very interested in this approach . They are comic geeks . I hope this is a beginning a a whole new outreach ministry. So pumped.
The plight of the ordinary pastor has always been a concern of mine.
I keep thinking that the greatest help we can give a pastor is to raise up our pastors from within our own congregations rather than searching outside to get them. What a sad commentary on discipleship that most churches can’t do this.
Raising up a pastor from within overcomes many of the “pastor as other” issues that plague the ministries of so many men and lead to the burnout issues we hear about constantly.
I’m a little bit disappointed that the only way the author was willing to support Christians participating in Halloween is if they pass out gospel tracts.
Well, given that the highest average score was the atheists at 21 correct out of 32, this says really bad things about religious literacy in the United States generally.
So when does Pastor John start making movie cameo appearances, a la Stan Lee?
That’s a great answer about talking about sex. I knew a family once where the daughter got her period young (4th grade), and her mom said, “I just couldn’t tell her why…we’ll talk about that in a few years.” What an awful thing to deal with without knowing the “why” behind it!
I saw that survey and I can of have two opinions. One, I think those who adhere to a specific faith as true and right, in general, are not going to worry about the tenets of other faiths (I’m no saying it is right, but just my thoughts).
Second, some of the questions had to do with public policy, so it isn’t a matter of not knowing your faith, but policy stuff.
However, what is frustrating is individuals missing questions like, Who is Martin Luther? or Catholics missing questions on the nature of Eucharist. Those who just a misinformed person.
http://www.studyyourbibleonline.com
The bright side of that survey is that evangelicals know more about Christianity than any other group did (even atheists). Which is good. Although the number is still depressingly low, which is bad.
I took the 15-point quiz and got every single question right - none of them were difficult.
I don’t think Christians necessarily need to know the details of other world religions if they’re not in contact with adherents of those religions. But if you’re trying to evangelize to Buddhists or Muslims or Mormons, etc, it would behoove you to know what those people believe.
1. I would love to read that letter to the church once you have it. Is it possible to post it here?
2. As to Halloween (or as we call it “Reformation Day”!)… When it comes to participating in something that the enemy and his followers revel in, doesn’t it seem that God’s people should run the other way kicking and screaming. What does darkness and light have to do with one another? There are no redeeming qualities to “celebrate” in Halloween. Which is why we prefer to make the day a Reformation Day celebration. No tip of the hat to the other at all, just a reminder of what God has done through men like Luther, etc. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks for the link to the Lila Rose article. Sounds like she is a real warrior in the fight against our culture of death. Still, it always tickles me when young people refer to other young people as “young people.” Not sure why.
I enjoyed the Christians/Halloween article up to the point that he said they pass out Gospel tracts. Euuggghhh. Just coffee or water, thank you.
Here we go again.
Every year without fail the “christians” get on the inter-tubes and slam one anothers halloween practices. In doing so they leave the Gospel behind and prove to the world that coming to church will lead to one of two things, 1. no change at all, or 2. a sickening legalism.
Preach the Gospel and live out the details in wisdom and love. Our wisdom-living will not all look the same and that’s okay.
Tim, I’ll be very interested to hear what you put in your letter to the church.
Tim
As a few others have indicated, I also would be interested in reading what you said in your letter to the Church.
Thank you so much for posting the Lila Rose article.