July 22nd, 2008 by iMonk
A lot of readers have dropped me emails and comments about the coloration problem on this site in Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer. Aside from the fact that you shouldn’t be using IE unless forced to do so, the tech department has the coloration problem on the to do list. Thanks for the notes, but I am aware of the issue.
July 21st, 2008 by iMonk
I quit calling myself a Calvinist in 2006, and I really moved theologically to other theological convictions in the following months. Today I love my Calvinist friends, but I’m not one of them. One of the primary reasons for my shift was my inability to identify my own experience of Jesus as the same as many in the Reformed community. It was like being part of a family, realizing it was time to be out on your own, and finding motivation much easier when you thought of particular family members.
To continue an illustration, however, there are other family members that make you want to keep some relationship with the family and not entirely cut ties. They embody the admirable traits of the family; the things you don’t want to give up. While some Calvinists made it easy for me to say “That’s not me, now or ever,” other Calvinists made it more difficult because they embodied and lived out some of the very things I valued highly (and other reformed types seemed to despise.) Continue Reading »
July 20th, 2008 by iMonk
Back in the day, many of you counted on me to write about my personal journey. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, almost all of that kind of material has gone into storage or been deleted. Hopefully, this piece will recalibrate us all on the journey, but not cause quite the chaos in my environment as before.
Many of you know the start of this story, but you may find some new things in the retelling.
In April of 06, I felt God instructing me to resign from the church I was serving. It was the church our family called home for a decade. I’d served them for 12 years. I had no idea that it was the end of almost any sense of spiritual “home” at all, and the beginning of a season of much change.
In May of that year, my son left home for college. In June, my daughter married. A few weeks later she would move to another state and temporarily quit college. (She’s graduating OSU in a few days, and I am very, very proud. But at the time, it was tough.) Continue Reading »
July 20th, 2008 by iMonk
NOTE: I am not recommending this man’s book. Jacobs isn’t a Christian or even a serious Jew. He’s a writer who does experiments to sell books. This one should be of interest to anyone who reads the Bible seriously. If posting this has offended some of you, sorry.
July 19th, 2008 by iMonk
One of the most optimistic developments in evangelicalism is the broadening commitment to issues of justice and compassion, especially among younger evangelicals. This has been reflected in many areas of evangelical life, especially in the proliferation of justice and compassion organizations and voices supporting an promoting them.
Evangelical justice concerns have broadened beyond world hunger to include issues like HIV/AIDS, orphans, genocide, clean water, slavery and sex trafficking. Advocacy for these issues is no longer the domain of large organizations or professional “social justice” advocates. Justice and compassion issues have now become front and center for ordinary churches, grass roots leaders, bloggers, emerging church communities and a growing network of organizations reflecting the advocacy of regular Christians. Continue Reading »
July 18th, 2008 by iMonk
Podcast 44 Questions on The Shack, Denominational Apologetics, and Homosexuality and Apologetics.
The podcast web site is Coffee Cup Apologetics.
July 17th, 2008 by iMonk
Ravi Zacharias continues his Conversations With Jesus Series with New Birth and Rebirth: Jesus Talks With Krishna. (Other available titles in the series on on the same order page.)
Those of us who appreciate Ravi Zacharias as a mentor and teacher have enjoyed these books even as we realize the limitations of each one. The conversations are created from texts and teachings of Christianity and the religion/philosophy being examined. The little books aren’t great literature, but they are a clever way to get to the heart of another worldview and the claims of Jesus. Keep your expectations low if you are looking for a comprehensive discussion, but you will be surprised at what useful apologetic tools each one can be. Continue Reading »
July 17th, 2008 by iMonk
Many evangelicals have an interest in Rwanda as a place where short and long term mission efforts are becoming more common. Two of my fellow staff members are quite possibly on their way to Rwanda as career missionaries. Resources on Rwanda are not easy to find. While there are some excellent films, print resources with detailed analysis and historical background are not exactly common at the local Christian bookstore.
Interest in Rwanda is also increasing as more American Anglicans find themselves in the Anglican Mission in America family, where Archbishop Kolini provides pastoral leadership. Many AMiA pastors and people have journeyed to Rwanda, have received Rwandan visitors and feel a bond to this country. Resources on the church in Rwanda and its particular opportunities are also rare. Continue Reading »
July 15th, 2008 by iMonk
From Ray Ortland’s blog, by way of 9 Marks.
Whatever divides us emotionally from other Bible-believing, Christ-honoring Christians is a “plus” we’re adding to the gospel. It is the Galatian impulse of self-exaltation. It can even become a club with which we bash other Christians, at least in our thoughts, to punish, to exclude and to force into line with us.What unifies the church is the gospel. What defines the gospel is the Bible. What interprets the Bible correctly is a hermeneutic centered on Jesus Christ crucified, the all-sufficient Savior of sinners, who gives himself away on terms of radical grace to all alike. What proves that that gospel hermeneutic has captured our hearts is that we are not looking down on other believers but lifting them up, not seeing ourselves as better but grateful for their contribution to the cause, not standing aloof but embracing them freely, not wishing they would become like us but serving them in love (Galatians 5:13).
My Reformed friend, can you move among other Christian groups and really enjoy them? Do you admire them? Even if you disagree with them in some ways, do you learn from them? What is the emotional tilt of your heart – toward them or away from them? If your Reformed theology has morphed functionally into Galatian sociology, the remedy is not to abandon your Reformed theology. The remedy is to take your Reformed theology to a deeper level. Let it reduce you to Jesus only. Let it humble you. Let this gracious doctrine make you a fun person to be around. The proof that we are Reformed will be all the wonderful Christians we discover around us who are not Reformed. Amazing people. Heroic people. Blood-bought people. People with whom we are eternally one – in Christ alone.
There’s a lot of things I’d like to say, but this is so good that I’m just going to leave it alone…which I’m pretty sure some quarters of the blogosphere won’t be able to do.
July 14th, 2008 by iMonk
Back to work, I hate voice mail, Conventional Wisdom Addicts, Element’s vision; Dispatches from the Evangelical Wilderness Part 2: Three Critiques of Evangelicalism.
Intro music by Rhodes. Closing music by Randy Stonehill.
Element Community’s Bold As Love Vision.
Pirate Christian Radio. And our sponsor, New Reformation Press.
July 13th, 2008 by iMonk
It’s 2:18 p.m. on Sunday, July 13th. The Reds are playing the Brewers. Denise and the dog are catching a nap. I’m getting ready to grill chicken tonight. Looks like it might rain.
Tomorrow, my eight weeks of sabbatical are over.
Tomorrow I’ll check my voice mail for the first time in eight weeks. I hate voice mail. (Fellow employees reading this- please send me an email, not a voice mail.) Continue Reading »
July 12th, 2008 by iMonk
NOTE: Please read the article I’m “riffing” on if you want to comment.
I’m sure other people have written about this, but The Briefing has one of the best articles you’ll find on what’s happening to congregational singing: The Slow Death of Congregational Singing. If you’ve been on Mars, it’s vanishing.
In its place we have a lot of songs that a lot of people don’t know, a lot of bad and unknown tunes, a lot of watching the worship team perform (especially if they are female of the right type and dress), a lot of forgettable, narcissistic lyrics, a lot of bad and inexperienced worship leaders, a lot of bone-headed thinking about congregational singing in relation to church growth, a lot of imitation of churches and methods that most congregations can’t imitate, a lot of lay people who simply don’t know how to sing at all, a lot of churches that don’t teach singing, a lot of turning congregations into audiences anyway and whatever else goes into the stew that does away with congregational singing. Continue Reading »
July 11th, 2008 by iMonk
I’ve got two books to recommend this morning. Both would be helpful to small groups looking for topical resources for discussion and study.
The first book is Tom Davis’s Confessions of a Good Christian Guy, a book that rings the bell for one of my favorite topics: transparency and vulnerability in Christian community.
I have a lot of books for Christian men and one of my all time favorites is When Men Think Private Thoughts by Gordon Macdonald. Written in the aftermath of his own episode of brokenness and public humiliation as a minister, husband and Christian leader, Macdonald wrote one of his best books, full of honest insight from someone who had come to know his own soul and the mercy of God through pain, loss and repentance. Continue Reading »
July 10th, 2008 by iMonk
If you are in the post-evangelical wilderness, this is a must read. No review can tell you how encouraged you’ll be by this story.
I’ve got a lot of brief book reviews to write in the next few weeks to catch up after sabbatical, but I don’t want to pass up recommending an exceptional wonder of a book written by Barbara Brown Taylor called Leaving Church.
Taylor is one of the finest preachers/writers I’ve ever heard/read. Her prose is beautiful. It flows with verbal energy and magical descriptions. You will rarely read a more skillful artist with language than Taylor. Her collections of sermons show us an elegant prose writer-preacher with few peers. If you are a writer prone to the sin of envy, you’ll sin boldly with this book around.
So what’s with Leaving Church? That’s what I said when I first heard of the book. The story is simple. After years of conversion and gradually being drawn into the Episcopal ministry, Taylor was ordained and eventually become priest at a historic parish outside of Atlanta.
After 5 and a half years of fruitful, effective ministry, Taylor left the pastorate to teach religion at a small college, and has never returned to the church except as an occasional guest preacher. Continue Reading »
July 10th, 2008 by iMonk
“It [the Church] firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart ‘into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels’ [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.” Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino
Catechism of the Catholic Church 847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
“Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.” Continue Reading »
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