January 2005 Archive
Definitions: More Than Half The Battle (01/31/05 - 0 Comments)
James White's book Scripture Alone, contains a chapter entitled "Definitions: More Than Half The Battle." He begins the chapter with these words: "After engaging hundreds, possibly thousands of individuals over the sufficiency of Scripture, I have come to realize that 85 percent of the battle is fought over definitions." Later he warns against arguing against concepts that have not been clearly defined. "Straw men have never been known to put up much of a fight, hence, trying to defend an errant view of sola scriptura always results in defeat." He then goes on to thoroughly define sola scriptura, both in terms of what it is and what it is not. I find myself in agreement with White that when we discuss matters of theological importance, definitions are more than half the battle. We often argue against things we do not truly understand because the terms have not been adequately defined. To borrow a very tired cliche, we often compare apples to oranges and oranges to apples.
Consider the issue of ecumenism, especially as it pertains to uniting Protestants and Roman Catholics. Those who believe that Protestants should put aside differences and unite with the Catholic Church often point to Jesus' last words to His disciples where he prayed for unity among them to prove that Jesus valued unity in the church. They will point (correctly) to Catholic doctrine where it affirms that we are justified by faith.
Barna's Lastest: Pastors Reveal Major Influencers (01/30/05 - 0 Comments)
George Barna has an interesting job. He must feel that more often than not he is the proclaimer of sad tidings. His surveys often showcase the ways in which Christians are struggling and the ways Christianity is changing for the worse. Some of his recent studies have concluded that "Americans Agree: Kids Are Not Being Prepared for Life," "Born Again Christians Just As Likely to Divorce As Are Non-Christians" and "Faith Has a Limited Effect On Most People’s Behavior." I am sure that he found his most recent poll comforting. In it he asked 614 Senior to identify up to three individuals whom they believe have the greatest influence on churches and church leaders in the U.S. Those pastors named over 300 individuals.
To no one's surprise, Billy Graham remains the most trusted spokesman for the Christian faith in the U.S. and has the greatest influence on American churches and church leaders. The top four influencers are: Billy Graham (who was selected by 34% of respondants), Rick Warren (26%), George W. Bush (14%) and James Dobson (11%). "Other influencers who were among the ten most frequently listed were Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church (9%); Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter’s House (7%); author and motivational speaker John Maxwell (6%); researcher and author George Barna (5%); Pope John Paul II (5%); and author and speaker Max Lucado (4%)."
Bonus January Giveaway: Final Results (01/29/05 - 0 Comments)
Thanks to all who participated in the giveaway of Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism. Participation once again exceeded all expectations.
Unfortunately, there can be only two winners in this giveaway. Before I announce their names, I would like to let you know that Monergismbooks.com, which sponsored this giveaway, has offered a great discount to all contest participants who purchase Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism. Anyone ordering the DVD set will receive free shipping (domestic or international) as well as another great bonus that you will find edifying. You'll have to visit the site to read about it! The deal will not last long, so don't dawdle!
1st Annual Evangelical Blog Awards (Help Wanted) (01/28/05 - 0 Comments)
I generally don't go for all these blog awards, but because I consider myself a responsible member of the blogosphere and enjoy the Evangelical Underground, I will play along. Evangelical Underground is hosting the 1st Annual Evangelical Blog Awards. My site has been nominated thus far in the category of "Best Designed Evangelical Blog." In order to maintain my place in that category, I require nominations. After all nominations are in place, the top 5 in each category will eligible to receive votes for the awards. Therefore, I am supposed to get my readers to send their nominations to ensure I am eligible for the award. Got all that? Great. So here is how you do it:
Send an email to eblogawards@gmail.com and nomimate this blog. You could send an email with a subject of Nomination and this in the body:
Defining My Terms: Calvinist And Reformed (01/28/05 - 0 Comments)
I have once again dipped into my site's archives to update and refresh an article I posted in the past. In the past few days there has been much discussion in the forum and in my inbox about how we can define "Calvinist" and "Reformed." I covered this very topic last year, but since that was over 500 posts ago, I have edited it and will repost it here, hoping it will stimulate some discussion and clarify the definitions. I will treat the terms "Reformed" and "Calvinist" as being synonymous. While some may disagree with this, I believe it is beyond dispute that most people use the terms interchangeably. Perhaps a later article can examine the minor differences between them.
It is important to note that because the Reformed tradition arose from the Protestant Reformation, the term "Reformed" is usually defined in comparison to something else. By affirming Reformed theology you are implicitly denying other theologies, such as Catholic theology (which Reformed theology rose in opposition to) and Arminian theology (which later rose in opposition to Reformed theology). I doubt any sentence in the history of the English language has used the word "theology" as much as my previous sentence.
Calvinist Theology = Biblical Theology: Addendum (01/28/05 - 0 Comments)
I would like to make some further comments on the topic I wrote about yesterday.
First, thank you to all the readers who pointed out that "Biblical Theology" is in reality something of a "reserved term" as it has a definable theological meaning. Biblical Theology is considered an alternative to Systematic Theology and to Historical Theology. They are three seperate disciplines within the scope of theology. I do know this. A couple of my readers who have attended Bible studies I have led can attest to this! The reason I chose to use the term Biblical Theology is that it is the term others have used regarding my confidence in the doctrines known as Calvinism. There are two quotes within the article that support this. Perhaps I should have been more clear within the text of the article that I am familiar with the term and that I knew I was using it improperly. If I were to do it again, I would title the article Calvinist Theology = The Gospel. Fair enough?
Second, if you read yesterday's article and thought I was condemning Arminians and adherents to other systems of theology, you misread my intent.
Calvinist Theology = Biblical Theology (01/27/05 - 0 Comments)
Writing for a forum as public as the internet provides ample opportunity to receive criticism. While I rarely take the time to respond to people who post on other sites long, drawn-out criticisms of myself and what I write, I always respond to those critcisms when they are directed at me through the forums or through email. I make my contact information readily available for anyone who would wish to contact me and I am always genuinely thankful for brothers and sisters in Christ who take the time to exhort me. Though I rarely respond when criticisms are posted in other forums, blogs or web sites, today I will make an exception mostly because doing so will provide a lead-in to a topic I have desired to write about for some time. In a Yahoo mailing list, there has been some ongoing discussion of my review of Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy. Of course with a review as negative as the one I wrote I expected some people to be upset by it, and that is well and good. In this particular group, a person took the time to go through line-by-line and critique everything I wrote. Just about every sentence or paragraph receives a snarky response. His comments are largely ad hominem and others seem to show that he has not carefully read the book. For example, he even has a sarcastic response to a non-critical comment I made about McLaren's writing style. This comment is close to the same evaluation McLaren gives of himself within that book. Here are some brief examples of this person's comments, with the text in quotes being from my review and the following text being his response:
My Iniquity I Did Not Hide: Protestant Confession (01/26/05 - 0 Comments)
In the past few days I have been going back and reading some articles I wrote months or years ago and have been updating a few of them. Last night I had my weekly home church meeting (AKA small group Bible study) and we discussed the importance of confession among Protestants. I realized I had written an article on this very topic last year so decided to rewrite it and post it again. The article stemmed from a challenge I received via a Catholic apologist's web site. The author said that "Protestants do not believe in confession." The statement is correct only insofar as Protestants do not practice auricular confession (confessing ones' sins to a priest in order to receive forgiveness). That statement along with others I have heard and read shows that there is a misunderstanding about the Protestant view of confession.
That God calls us to confess our sin is clearly supported by Scripture. The Bible teaches us much about confession.
Spiritual Gift Assessments & The Bible (01/25/05 - 0 Comments)
Quite a while ago I wrote an article about spiritual gift assessments. Today I am hauling that article out of storage and am going to update it. At the time I first wrote about spiritual gift assessments I was responding to a question a friend had asked me. He was interested in knowing my opinion on these assessments. I had taken them a few times through my church and various men's groups and had always found them somewhat helpful, though they never really had a significant impact on my spiritual life. I grew up attending Reformed churches and the term "spiritual gifts" was largely foreign to me since these gifts are not a great emphasis in Reformed circles. Therefore, I decided to begin by researching spiritual gifts.
As I began to research them I found one strange thing: it seems no one can agree about these gifts. It seems everyone has a different list of the gifts and even a different idea of how and when they are dispensed. One thing they all agree on is that these gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to believers after they become Christians and thus they are available only to believers. Some argue the gifts are given immediately upon conversion and others believe they are given at baptism.
Spam-Proof Your Email Address (01/24/05 - 0 Comments)
Spam is annoying. Really annoying. What is especially annoying is when you post your email address on your web site and those spammers send their bots to automatically glean your site and scrape all those addresses into their ever-growing databases. We all hate it. What I see more and more often these days is people posting little work-arounds like "myname att challies dott com". That is not terribly effective. Plus, ideally, we'd like people to be able to just click on the link and have Outlook or another mail program open up. I think I have found a solution. Or, to give credit where credit is due, I think my friend Dave has found a solution. A simple little JavaScript seems to keep those programs from automatically finding your address. Here is how I do it:
The "Twixters" (01/24/05 - 0 Comments)
Al Mohler's column for today is entitled "The Generation That Won't Grow Up" and deals with what TIME Magazine, in their latest issue, is calling the "twixers." He quotes Lev Grossman, the author of the article, as saying, "In the past, people moved from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to adulthood, but today there is a new, intermediate phase along the way. The years from 18 until 25 and even beyond have become a distinct and separate life stage, a strange transitional never-never land between adolescence and adulthood in which people stall for a few extra years, putting off the iron cage of adult responsibility that constantly threatens to crash down on them. They're betwixt and between." "Twixters," then, refers to those people betwixt and between being teenagers and adults.
This is a phenomenon I have long been aware of, but had never formulated quite so thoroughly. Mohler has been aware of this for several years too. He writes, "For several years, I have been warning audiences that America now faces a generation of young people unwilling to grow up, assume adult responsibility, marry, and start raising families." When I think of these people, I think of the show Friends which showed five friends who refused to grow up.
Successful Evangelism (01/24/05 - 0 Comments)
Several months ago I wrote an article where I outlined the difference between evangelism and outreach. These are terms that many people treat as being synonymous, yet they are distinct and need to be treated as such. This morning I was thinking about the idea of "successful evangelism." What makes one evangelistic effort successful and another unsuccessful? I would like to briefly examine this today. I will begin by defining "evangelism."
The root of the word evangelism, evangel, is derived from the Greek word euangelion which is translated good news. From that same word, we derive the word gospel. We find also that many words we use in English are in reality synonymous – evangel(ism), gospel and good news all speak of the same thing and find their root in the same word. They speak of the act of spreading the gospel and to the content of the message that is given. This is an important point to note – they refer both to the method and the message.
Top 40 Radio Examined (01/23/05 - 0 Comments)
I grew up in a comfortable little Christian subculture. I have gone to church just about every Sunday since I was born, I attended Christian schools all the way through high school and have sat through countless Catechism and Sunday school classes. I can't count the number of times I had to sit through sermons and presentations about the evils of popular music. I remember being exhorted not to listen to Twisted Sister and Van Halen and so many other big bands of the 70's and 80's. I always shrugged-off these presentations. From the time I was a teenager I preferred Christian rock to mainstream, so listening to most of them was hardly an issue anyways. I often noticed that the bands we were warned about had been in the limelight years before and really were not at all relevant to my life.
This morning at church I noticed an invitation to attend a Media Awareness Seminar at a nearby church. They provided a link to the organization which provides these seminars and I decided to visit their web site. There is an interested section on that site where they break down the top 40 countdown from a certain popular radio station. The list is current as of May 18, 2004
"Warnie" Award (01/23/05 - 0 Comments)
Adrian Warnock, of Adrian Warnock's UK Evangelical Blog has just announced the recipients of his second "Warnie" awards and I am glad to say that one of those recipients is me. Adrian is the brain behind The Blogdom of God and is a man with his finger on the pulse of Christian blogging. Writing about himself in the third person, Adrian wrote the following: "When asked the reasons for his choice Adrian said "The 21st Century Reformation does a fantastic job of looking at how the church should look in 2005, and I have found absolutely no evidence that he is a neo-liberal. Tim is a man every writer should either dread, bribe or at least send a free book to. He is a tough but fair book reviewer who also finds time to write fantastic blog posts like his one on information overload earlier today. These two guys really ought to be read much more than they are currently."
Adrian asked if I would make an acceptance speech so here goes:
Information Overload (01/22/05 - 0 Comments)
We are at a stage of human history that in some ways is quite bizarre. Because of the Internet, electronic storage media, the rapid rate of technological progress and the fast-pace of our society, we have unparalleled access to unparalleled amounts of information. Never in history have people had access to so much information. Consider just a few examples:
Google currently indexes over eight billion web pages (as of this moment, the exact number is 8,058,044,651). Almost every one of those pages contains at least some information. Amazon and other internet retailers sell hundreds of thousands of different books, videos and other sources of information.
Newspapers, especially weekend editions, are obscenely large, often totaling hundreds of pages and weighing several pounds. In Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life, Don Whitney says that the amount of information contained in just one weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than a man like Jonathan Edwards would have encountered in his entire life.
James White on Apologetics (01/21/05 - 0 Comments)
Apologetics is an underappreciated art. Or is it science? Whatever it is, people do not appreciate it as they ought. I suppose it is because apologists seem always to be on the attack, though the reality is generally that they are on the defensive, defending the faith against the inroads of the evil one. A little while back I wrote an article entitled Apologetics 101 where I began with these words: "In recent days I have had a few people take the time to challenge me about their perception that this Web site, and the content of it, are largely negative in tone. As one might expect, I take offense to such comments and would largely disagree with them. I do certainly broach topics that are controversial and may generate difficult discussions, but I do not do so from a desire to be negative or simply go have a good argument." Yesterday James White, one of the foremost Reformed apologists, wrote about this topic as well. You can read the article here...but I am going to quote it in whole:
Book Review - Now, That's A Good Question (01/21/05 - 0 Comments)
There exists a surprisingly popular series of books entitled Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. These books are a compendium of quotes, short stories, trivia and jokes that are each just a few lines or paragraphs in length. The book was designed to appeal to the bathroom reader - one who likes to read whilst he is sitting upon the throne, so to speak. I affectionately call Now, That's A Good Question, R.C.'s Big Bathroom Reader. The cover features R.C. sitting (thankfully) in an armchair and displays one of the worst jobs of removing the background from a photo I have ever seen. His hair is cut in almost straight lines and looks completely unnatural on the cream-colored background. Actually, the cover looks like it may have been someone's high school project. But I digress.
Now, That's A Good Question is a wonderful book. The back cover poses the question, "If you had the opportunity to quiz one of today's foremost theologians, what would you ask?" That is the thrust of this book. Through the 1980's, R.C. hosted a radio program unimaginatively titled Ask R.C. and this book represents about 300 of the questions he faced.
Doilies, Bagel Blankets and Princess Lace (01/20/05 - 0 Comments)
Doilies, Bagel Blankets and Princess Lace. That has been my life over the past couple of weeks. Sometimes web design can be glamorous. As designers we have the ability to create great-looking sites, to watch our sites win awards and to really push the boundaries of good design. We sometimes have people pat us on the back and congratulate us for a good site. It can be quite gratifying. But then there are other times when we spend endless hours doing the boring but necessary behind-the-scenes drudgery. You can probably guess which of those has been my focus this week.
Last week I created a database that will house almost 1000 items. This week I have been adding those items to the database...one-by-one. I am the master at avoiding work (as evidenced by my marks in college), but I have found no way to get around the inescapable fact that these items can only be added one at a time - one at a time multiplied by almost one thousand.
The Soul's Thirst (01/19/05 - 0 Comments)
Every soul thirsts. It may not be felt every moment, but to some degree every soul thirsts after something it does not have. We are rarely content in our current condition and it seems that this is the way we have been Divinely wired. But while we all thirst, we do not all thirst in the same way. I recently read Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health which was written by Don Whitney. I posted a review of it here and highly recommend that you read this book for yourself. The one chapter that gave me the most to think about and meditate upon was the one dealing with spiritual thirst. In this article I will list the three types of thirst the author outlines and discuss each of them.
The Thirst of the Empty Soul
The soul of the unbeliever is empty towards the things of God. Until the Spirit fills the soul with His presence, it is devoid of any love for God. Without God, the unbeliever is constantly looking for something, anything, but is unable to fill this emptiness.
Book Review - Don't Waste Your Life (01/18/05 - 0 Comments)
I admire John Piper and have grown tremedously through his ministry. He is a gifted teacher and one I deeply respect. Yet for some strange reason I do not enjoy his books. I have tried reading several of his books several times and have never enjoyed doing so. I don't know why this is, but I suspect it may be his style of writing. He employs many short sentences and writes in flowery prose I usually find only in the writing of Victorian authors. Maybe there is another reason that is hidden to me. What I do know is that, as tragic as this may be, it will probably be a long time before I read one of his books again. I feel guilty about this, especially when I read other reviews where people praise this as being one of their favorite books and one that has done so much for their spiritual formation. Perhaps I will pick one up and try again next year.
Now despite my difficulty in reading this book, there is much of value within it. Piper has many good things to say about living a life that is sold out to God...
Book Review - 10 Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (01/18/05 - 0 Comments)
As believers, we often fall prey to the assumption that those who are busiest, are most spiritual. We look at the people in our churches who are involved in all the committees and are at every meeting and assume that they are the ones with the greatest measure of spiritual health. But do you think that is the measure God uses? Or does he have a different set of criteria by which He judges spiritual health? This short but powerful book examines the Bible's teaching on this matter.
As one might expect by the title, Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, this book presents the reader with ten criteria that can point towards spiritual health. The crux of the matter, the theme that flows throughout the book, is this: is your character becoming more like Christ's? Here are the ten questions the reader faces:
Bonus January Giveaway: Amazing Grace DVD Set (01/17/05 - 0 Comments)
As promised, I bring to you today the bonus January giveaway. Each month, for as many months as I can convince authors to sign and send their books to me, I will be giving away two copies of a Christian book autographed by the author. Yesterday I was able to give away two copies of Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. I had intended to do only one per month and to give away only autographed books, but am pleased to be able to offer something different just this once. This giveaway is sponsored by Monergism Books.
There are two equal prizes for this bonus giveaway; each is one copy of Amazing Grace: The History & Theology of Calvinism. Rich in graphics, dramatic vignettes, and biblical analogies, Amazing Grace — The History and Theology of Calvinism features many of the finest reformed thinkers and pastors of our time: Dr. R.C. Sproul, Dr. D. James Kennedy, Dr. George Grant, Dr. Stephen Mansfield, Dr. Thomas Ascol, Dr. Thomas Nettles, Dr. Roger Schultz, Pastor Walt Chantry, Dr. Joe Morecraft, Dr. Ken Talbot, Pastor Walter Bowie and Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr.
Tozer Speaks Out (01/17/05 - 0 Comments)
Yesterday afternoon I wrote about discernment and the importance of walking with the wise. If a Christian wants to gain discernment, he must seek wisdom, and to find wisdom he must walk with the wise. Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song called "Walk with the Wise" which contained these words: "I've learned to look for answers in those born before my time / As I listen to them tell me what they've learned in their lives / I talk to friends with understanding much deeper than my own / And gain wisdom beyond measure I could never find alone."
With that in mind, I would invite you to read a column recently written by Steve Camp. To be truthful, he did not write the column as much as he compiled it from the writings of A.W. Tozer. Tozer, as you may know, died in 1963 after a lifetime of ministry in Chicago, Toronto and around the world. He was known as a 20th century prophet and that title has become more meaningful in the years after his death. The mark of one who truly understands the Word of God is that his words remain true long after his death. Tozer's words ring as true today as they did fifty years ago.
January Book Giveaway: Final Results (01/16/05 - 0 Comments)
Thanks to all those who participated in the Total Truth giveaway. The giveaway closed at midnight last night and the winners have now been selected. Each of the two winners will receive an autographed, hardcover copy of the book.
So without any further ado, I would like to announce the winners. They are:
Bob Rouse & Geoff Clarke.
Congratulations to both of you!
For those who did not win this time and are still interested in this book (which I highly recommend), I would encourage you to read about it at totaltruthbook.com where you can find endorsements, reviews and sample chapters.
Gain Discernment In Five Easy Steps (01/16/05 - 0 Comments)
I am a subscriber to the Reformed Baptist Discussion List and yesterday a member of the list asked an interesting question. He is a pastor and a member of his congregation asked him how he could become a more critical thinker. The pastor pressed him a little and essentially the man was asking how he could gain the discernment he has seen in some other believers where they are able to know right from wrong, biblical from unbiblical at the early stages of contradicting the will of God. I thought I would provide some thoughts as response to that question.
I would like to confess that the title of this article is misleading. There is no easy way to gain discernment. Like everything else in the Christian life, it is difficult, costly and requires great dedication. As a wise grandparent may have told you, the good things in life - those things of great value - rarely come easily. It seems, though, that they are usually worth the effort.
First, I'd like to begin with a couple of definitions of words we may use synonymously but in reality have very different meanings:
Church Web Sites - Luxury or Necessity? (01/15/05 - 0 Comments)
Last week Ellison Research released a report on the use of internet technologies amongst churches. The results were consistent with the findings and predictions of the Barna Research Group three years earlier. The research found that while 90 percent of Protestant pastors use the internet for church related business, only about half of them pastor churches that have a web site of their own. The study also found that large churches were much more likely to have a web site than smaller ones. You can read the results of the study here.
This study was of interest to me because I own a web design company and have done extensive work for church and ministry sites. Generally my work for churches has involved overhauling existing sites that were terribly outdated and ineffective. I have had many small churches contact me to inquire about having me build a web site, but very few of these tiny ones have been willing to pay for a site, even when I drop my prices as low as I can go. I do try to do as much charity work as I can, but I do need some jobs to pay the bills, so have had to leave many of them without a site. Clearly budget is a concern for smaller churches. Many people do not know that hosting for web sites is now affordable as annual fees of $100 or less are becoming increasingly common. This is less than most churches spend on either Yellow Pages or newspaper advertising.
Book Review - Deceived on Purpose (01/14/05 - 0 Comments)
Deceived On Purpose is probably the most important contribution in the ongoing discussion about Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life and all things Purpose Driven. It is one of only a couple of book-length treatments of the subject and the one that brings the most to the table. The author, Warren Smith, is a former New Ager who, after being saved, researched and has written extensively on the topic of spiritual deception. Having been immersed in the New Age movement for many years, he is sensitive to the inroads of New Age beliefs into Christianity. He says "Because of my New Age background, I have written this book Deceived on Purpose to specifically address some of the New Age implications of these purposes [for the church]." His discussion of the New Age implications of The Purpose Driven Life merits consideration by all concerned believers.
The author is clear from the beginning that this book is not a mix of positives and negatives. He believes that Rick Warren is leading the church astray and will mince no words in defending the Body of Christ. Leafing through the book, the reader might be surprised to see how much of the book is dedicated to a discussion of Robert Schuller. As a matter of fact, I suspect the book has more references to Schuller than to Warren. Why this apparently misplaced emphasis? Smith contends that many of Warren's ideas and beliefs were shaped by Schuller. Hence to learn about Schuller is to learn about Warren.
Book Review - Transitioning (01/14/05 - 0 Comments)
If The Purpose Driven Church is the "what" and "why" of the church growth movement and all things Purpose Driven, Transitioning represents the "how." "If the thought of switching from a traditional church to a purpose-driven church leaves you with mingled feelings of excitement and fear, good! It means that, as a pastor, you know the incalculable worth of aligning your church with God's vision...Transitioning is written for you." (From the back cover). We also learn from the cover that the book will help a pastor and congregation navigate change and attain rewards that far exceed the risk. Essentially, this book is a how-to guide for changing an existing church from program-driven to purpose-driven. It is written by Dan Southerland, but endorsed by Rick Warren who says that Southerland's church is "one of the most exciting and encouraging examples of transitioning from being program driven to purpose driven." (From the foreward)
I always take the time to read the author's bio that is generally on the back cover of a book as it usually outlines the author's credentials, providing the reader with some confidence that the author is worth learning from. As if to emphasize the concerns of those who believe that the church growth movement is driven by pragmatism, the author's bio says "Dan Southerland is the pastor/teacher at Flamingo Road Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - a purpose-driven, contemporary congregation that has grown from 300 in 1989 to over 2,300 today and launched seventeen other churches." The author's sole credential is that he has made the Purpose Driven principles work by seeing the requisite numerical growth.
Reading List Overload (01/14/05 - 0 Comments)
I am a firm believer that just as one cannot have too many good friends, so one can never have too many good books. Having said that, I must admit that I have far more books than friends, and even then my book collection is quite small. I was speaking with someone this week who has had the opportunity to browse through the personal library of Al Mohler who apparently has a collection of some 50,000 volumes. Charles Spurgeon had a great library, but it pales in comparison at "merely" 12,000 volumes. Of course he lived in a day where there were fewer books and they cost more. He also had the advantage of a photographic memory and many years after reading a book could pull entire quotes from most of them at a moment's notice.
Warren Wiersbe once wrote "My books are my tools, and I use them. I cannot afford to be a book collector; neither the budget nore the diminishing shelf space permits such a luxury. I enjoy my library. Each book is a friend that converses with and teaches me. Better to have fewer of the best books than to clutter your shelves with volumes that cannot serve you well.
Book Review - A Time of Departing (01/13/05 - 0 Comments)
The silence. This book is all about the silence. Whether that silence is part of the religious practice of Buddhists, Hindus, Sufi Muslims, New Agers or Contemplative Christians, Ray Yungen, author of A Time of Departing argues convincingly that it is all one and the same. As the subtitle suggests, a universal spirituality is changing the very face of Christianity. This universal spirituality is born from the religions of the East and is slowly infiltrating the Christian church, primarily through the New Age movement. Ray Yungen has studied this religious movement extensively and writes this book in response. It is an alarm sounded by one with a deep love for the church. "This book is not just another attempt to explain the New Age, but rather, an alert to the church of how and through whom New Age thinking is currently creeping into our pulpits, Sunday school classrooms, prayer groups, and Bible studies." The primary way the New Age has joined with the evangelical churches is through mysticism and contemplative prayer.
Contemplative prayer has been practiced by professed Christians since the early days of the church. Once a practice known only to a few Catholic mystics, today it is quickly gaining popularity in both Catholic and Protestant circles. Many prominent Protestant leaders have endorsed the practice, either explicitly or by declaring their respect for those who teach it.
Book Review - Total Truth (01/13/05 - 0 Comments)
I have often lamented the overuse of the term "life-changing" amongst Christians. It is not unusual to hear people walk away from a particularly captivating sermon or conference saying "that changed my life!" The real measure and test of life change is time, for only in time will we really know what has made a significant impact on our lives. Having established that I do not use the term lightly, I would like to suggest that Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey may just be a life-changing book. As believers we collectively spend millions of dollars and countless hours reading about Christian living - making our homes better, making our families better, making our lives better, discovering our purpose, rediscovering our masculine soul or our feminine soul and so on ad infinitum, ad nauseum. There are some who love to supplement with the study of theology or church history, and those are great pursuits. But if we buy so many books and read so much, why do we dedicate so little time to examining and studying worldview? I do not mean to indict the reader and clear my own name, for in all the reading I have done, this is the first book that deals predominantly with that topic.
Total Truth is subtitled "Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity" and this is the task to which Pearcey dedicates the book. She shows how Christians have adopted a worldview that is bound and influenced by our culture, so that we now understand Christianity through a secular worldview. She teaches that the opposite needs to be true - that we need to see society through a distinctly Christian lens, allowing a Christian worldview to interpret all that we see, do and think.
Regardless Of Your Brother's Lies (01/12/05 - 0 Comments)
It is easy to grow discouraged at the state of the church. As a matter of fact, as one who has invested a lot of time and attention to studying the church, her health and what Jesus requires of her, I often find myself lamenting her state. Writers from all backgrounds and denominations have written about the church, and I have read many of these books and publications. The standard book begins with a few chapters outlining all the ways the church has failed with the rest of the book providing the solution. If only we did this or that or the other thing, we would make the church what she was intended to be. I have never read a book that gave the church a collective pat on the back and said "good job!"
Here are just a couple of examples of people who have taken on the church in recent years. Rick Warren wrote the mega-seller The Purpose Driven Church wherein he proclaimed that the church had lost sight of her purpose and had to rediscover it. Millions of pastors bought and read this book and began what Warren refers to as the Second Reformation - a Reformation of purpose. The men and women of the Emergent community continually write indictments of the church, showing how, in their view, she has failed in the modern world and is primed to be an even greater failure in the postmodern world.
The Way To Go (01/11/05 - 0 Comments)
Death is inevitable. When my time comes, I can hardly think of a better way to go than Rev. Jack Arnold, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church outside Orlando, Florida. He was in the pulpit preaching and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying "And when I go to heaven..." And just like that, he fell down dead. Several members of the congregation who had medical training attempted to revive him, but it seems he had died instantly. He was 69 years old.
Immediately prior to collapsing he had quoted John Wesley who said, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done ... I go to be with Jesus." Clearly his work on this earth was complete and the Lord decided that it was time to call him home. As his associate pastor said, "It was traumatic, but how wonderful it was he died in his own church among the people he loved the most."
I would consider it the highest honor to be in the midst of proclaiming the Word of God when my time comes.
The Second Thing Every Christian Needs To Know (01/11/05 - 0 Comments)
This article represents the fourth in a series I've entitled Five Things Every Christian Needs To Know. The first article served as an introduction to the topic and the next two discussed The First Thing Every Christian Needs To Know. This was identified as "The Bible alone is the infallible rule of faith for the church" and we discussed many of the ramifications of that belief as well as some of the ways it has come under attack in the church.
If you would like to get caught up, here are the previous articles:
- Five Things Every Christian Needs To Know
- The First Thing Every Christian Needs To Know
- The First Thing Every Christian Needs To Know (Part 2)
The final four things every Christian needs to know flow naturally from the first. If we truly acknowledge that Scripture is the infallible rule of faith for the church, it stands to reason that this same Scripture will tell us what we must do and know to be followers of Jesus.
Columbia House To Sell Pornography (01/10/05 - 0 Comments)
Columbia House, that company we have all subscribed to at least once which sent us 12 CDs or cassettes for nothing but the exorbinant cost of shipping and handling (as long as we bought six more in the next two years), has decided to expand its product base to include pornography. While the business will be handled by a subsidiary and under a different name, (Hush), it is fully owned by Columbia House and is in partnership with Playboy. The company promises that they will not offer Hush products to their current client base. Instead, Playboy will handle the marketing, sending information to their direct mailing list which numbers in the millions.
If there was any doubt as to the pervastion of pornography in our society, this should further silence those doubts. Pornography has become mainstream. Already a multi-billion dollar industry, pornography is expanding at a startling rate.
Puritanism and Americanism (01/10/05 - 0 Comments)
Evangelical Outpost is hosting the first quarterly EO Blog Symposium. The topic for this month's symposium is an article written by David Gelernter entitled "Americanism—and Its Enemies" which appears in the most recent issue of Commentary magazine. Gelernter writes about Americanism which he defines as "the set of beliefs that are thought to constitute America’s essence and to set it apart; the beliefs that make Americans positive that their nation is superior to all others—morally superior, closer to God." His thesis "is that Puritanism did not merely inspire or influence Americanism; it turned into Americanism. Puritanism and Americanism are not just parallel or related developments; they are two stages of a single phenomenon." Thus Americanism, as we see and experience it today is the direct successor of Puritanism. Americanism did not replace Puritanism; rather, Puritanism grew naturally into Americanism. It follows logically from his argument that the anti-Americanism that is so rabid in the world today is the same hatred that was expressed against the Puritans in days of old.
The author admits that his proposition is unprovable. Of course this is not unusual in history, for many historical developments can be logically deduced but never proven. Still, because there is no firm proof, we must regard this argument with skepticism and it is right that we question it.
Sunday Ramblings (01/09/05 - 0 Comments)
So much to talk about and so little time. First off, if you have not yet entered the draw for a free, autographed, hardcover copy of Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey, you really ought to do it. She wrote me yesterday to say that the books have been signed and sent to me. The contest will be wrapping up on the 15th of January with two prizes being awarded based on a random drawing. You can read the complete rules and smallish print here (, including how you can increase your chances of winning). I am nearly finished reading this book and I believe it will be, for many people, a life-changing (or at the least a life-altering) book. It has challenged me time and time again. And incidentally, I have arranged a great prize for the next draw, so be sure to check back after the 15th to learn about that one.
The Evangelical Outpost is having a First Quarterly Symposium with the topic being Is Americanism the Successor of Puritanism? He is accepting articles until Tuesday with three prizes being awarded. As one might expect, I have something to say about this issue and intend to write an article about it tomorrow. I think as a Canadian whose family has emigrated to the United States, I will have an interesting perspective on Americanism and anti-Americanism.
A Naturalistic Worldview Part 2 (01/08/05 - 0 Comments)
Yesterday I wrote about my slow realization that Naturalism, a belief system that flows naturally from Darwinism, is more than merely poor science, but has become a postmodern mindset. It is a full-blown worldview, and in reality, is a religious system that stands in direct opposition to Christianity. If you have not read this article, I would encourage you to do so before continuing with this one. You can find it here. Today, in a shorter article, I would like to discuss some of the implications of my discoveries.
My wife and I recently resigned ourselves to sending our children to public schools. Tuition for Christian schools in this area begin at $7000 per year and we hold out little hope that we will be able to afford those fees. My son will be ready to begin the first grade in two years and my daughter will be ready two years after that. I have had to resign myself to the knowledge that in the sciences my children will be taught evolution, not as an alternative to Creationism but as fact. I believe that I can help them work through this, explaining that this is what many people believe, but that many others, including mom and dad, believe that God created the world...
Awarded! (01/07/05 - 0 Comments)
This week I received the joyous news that this very site has received two design awards, one prestigious (in my view) and the other nearly unheard of.
We'll start with the nearly unheard of award - The Canadian Web Award. Apparently the Canadian Web Awards are is awarded to Canadian sites that are unique, user-friendly, informative and that provide consumer benefit to Canadian visitors. It seems they have not yet created a banner I can display on my site. I won the "Very Good" award which is the middle of their three awards. I appreciate the award, but it clearly is not based on design as some of the other winners have, and do not consider this boasting on my part, outdated designs (and I'm being polite here). So I am glad to have the award but just don't feel it is all that meaningful.
The other award is one I am far more excited about. It is a Plastic Pilot award. It may sound like a silly name, but I have long found that they do award only very well-designed sites. The vast majority of their awards tend to go to sites that are Flash-based, so I was both surprised and gratified to see that my purely-HTML site snuck through. As a winner I get to display the Plastic Pilot logo which I will do with gratitude and pride. For the geeky Web designer in me, this award is akin to a singer winning a Grammy. I am thrilled! "I'd just like to thank all the little people that made this possible..."
A Naturalistic Worldview (01/07/05 - 0 Comments)
In the past weeks and months I have been attempting to come to a greater understanding of the North American, postmodern mindset. As a long-time Christian - one who never experienced adulthood without knowing God and who had the privilege of being raised in a Christian home - it is often difficult to understand what people raised with a secular mindset think and believe and why they think and believe those things. Said tersely, it has proven difficult to truly understand the postmodern mindset. Through my studies, however, I have made some observations that I believe accurately represent this mindset. It is to one of those that I wish to turn today.
But first, a brief disclaimer of sorts. Sometimes when I write an article I am convinced that what I am saying is profound and unique and I am surprised when other people respond that my great discovery has been common knowledge to them for many years. What they find most surprising is that I am just figuring it out! This may be one of those times; thus I do not approach this as if it will shock and edify everyone who reads it. But bear with me, for I believe the dialogue we can have afterwards will prove useful.
There is a realization that has dawned on me slowly that concerns Naturalism which I will treat as being near-synonymous with Darwinism. In short, Naturalism is the belief that the natural world as we know and experience it is all that exists.
