Evangelicalism’s “Only Child” Syndrome and more thoughts on the George Carlin post.

Intro music by Rhodes.

You all need to buy “The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” and more Reformation theology gifts from New Reformation Press.

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I have a new post at Jesus Shaped Spirituality called “Jesus Says Cross the Line.”

I have all the stuff with me for a podcast, but it’s hard to do podcast production when you are on the road. I’m sorry to not get something out this week, and I’ll do my best, but this is one of the few weeks I’m not going home for a day. (Anyone want to do my laundry?)

The George Carlin post has generated more comments that I’ve chosen not to post than any post in IM history. It’s amazing. And I want to say a few things about it. [Continue reading]

It’s Thursday of “Baseball Week,” and I’m in a library getting some of my Cornerstone talks polished off before heading for central Ohio to meet my daughter and son-in-law. Sabbatical is certainly rushing by.

Yesterday’s day game gave me a really nice case of sunburned knees. Knees. It’s so much like my life to get sunburn in a weird place where all compassion will be swallowed up in laughter.

Every day should be dollar dog day. That’s hot dogs at the ball park for the uninitiated. The only thing better would be dime dog night, but I doubt if the hot dogs would be as good. [Continue reading]

Done. Thanks.

Wikipedia has a very complete Carlin entry.

Comedians and those who knew the man discuss Carlin’s life and contribution.

When I heard that George Carlin had died, one of the first thoughts I had was how he had, in his own way, lived a life devoted to the “word,” i.e. the comedic word, and the truth, at least as Carlin saw it.

Carlin changed comedy and brought a massive amount of laughter into this world. Time magazine has a good recollection of Carlin’s contribution. I admired Carlin and relished his incredible insights into the nature of human existence. He made me laugh and he taught me a lot about how to think differently from the status quo. He was the embodiment of Dickinson’s advice to “tell it slant.” He’d recently been nominated- and will receive posthumously- the Mark Twain Award, and that’s an appropriate recognition. In every respect, Carlin was a worthy imitator and successor to Twain. In these safe and politically correct times, that’s worth an award. [Continue reading]

Here’s the current post at my new blog, and an example of what you will be reading there in the future.

Several days ago, I posted an invitation to discuss Jesus and Gas Prices on this blog. It’s a topic that, to a large extent, will reveal how much we really can engage our imagination with the concept of Jesus shaped discipleship.

For example, one evangelical has taken his particular view of rising gas prices and started a movement called “Pray at the Pump.” Somehow, the rise of gas prices is a sign of the end times and praying at the pump for God to lower prices will apparently prove that he’s in charge.

Of course, one wonders if it ever occurred to anyone that the inconvenience to the American lifestyle of mobility and affluence isn’t really something that God would respond to as an act of mercy. Most Americans are inconvenienced by gas prices because of the value they place on mobility and the decisions they’ve made about the kind of life they want to live, decisions made with the assumption of cheap gas in the background. [Continue reading]

One of the most popular methods used in Christian preaching and teaching today is taking a topic or text and presenting it as a list of principles.

I would like to briefly examine some of the “good” and “not so good” aspects of the practice of turning texts or topics into principles as the primary methodology for preaching.

What’s “Good” about the preaching of principles? [Continue reading]

The latest post at Jesus Shaped Spirituality is a basic discussion of how the New Testament speaks of the church.

Remember that most of my writing- aside from podcasts, book reviews and a few odds and ends- will be moving to Jesus Shaped Spirituality. The current address is www.jesusshaped.wordpress.com, but JesusShaped.com will be available soon.

So add the new blog to your RSS and tell someone else that, like Aslan, I’m on the move.

Podcast 43 Thoughts and reflections from the Ravi Zacharias Summer Institute in Wheaton, Illinois.

The podcast web site is Coffee Cup Apologetics.

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I’m on the campus of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois at the Ravi Zacharias Summer Institute. Outstanding conference. I am especially enjoying the teaching of Dr. Chris Mitchell doing an overview of the entire Bible.

Our sessions have all been in the massive Billy Graham Center. Part of this building is a Graham Museum, which is very interesting. [Continue reading]

Since new SBC President “Dr.” Johnny Hunt is having a bit of an academic credentials crisis, I thought it would be a good time for me to say I understand the feeling that drives us to do things like order a Ph.d from the back of a comic book.

So here’s an essay where I share with you the struggles I went through as I wrestled with whether to write the check and get a doctorate from the local tanning salon.

It’s an iMonk 101 piece called Big Money For a Little Piece of Paper.

(I’m at the Ravi Zacharias Summer Institute at Wheaton College, so blogging is almost non-existent. A very busy schedule.)

Some special 100th episode nonsense; what does “Jesus Shaped” mean?; David Fitch comments on David Wells.

The David Fitch Post at Reclaiming the Mission.

Intro music by Rhodes.

You all need to buy “The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” and more Reformation theology gifts from New Reformation Press.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

My good friend and associate Clark Bunch has been blogging for a while, and today he’s contributing a book review. You can read him regularly at The Master’s Table and his own weblog. Thanks for pitching today’s game, Clark.

The New Atheist Crusaders, and their Unholy Grail by Becky Garrison

Becky Garrison is an editor of the Wittenburg Door, which if you’re unfamiliar, is a religious satire magazine. Think of it as Mad Magazine for the religiously minded. The New Atheist Crusaders is therefore written with a bit of wit and a satirical outlook on its subject. That does not mean, however, that Garrison doesn’t ask the tough questions that make the reader’s head hurt just a little at the right times. [Continue reading]

St. Basil the Great had the right idea.

At such a time, then, there is need of great effort and diligence that the Churches may in some way be benefited. It is an advantage that parts hitherto severed should be united. Union would be effected if we were willing to accommodate ourselves to the weaker, where we can do so without injury to souls; since, then, many mouths are open against the Holy Spirit, and many tongues whetted to blasphemy against Him, we implore you, as far as in you lies, to reduce the blasphemers to a small number, and to receive into communion all who do not assert the Holy Spirit to be a creature, that the blasphemers may be left alone, and may either be ashamed and return to the truth, or, if they abide in their error, may cease to have any importance from the smallness of their numbers.

Let us then seek no more than this, but propose to all the brethren, who are willing to join us, the Nicene Creed. If they assent to that, let us further require that the Holy Spirit ought not to be called a creature, nor any of those who say so be received into communion. I do not think that we ought to insist upon anything beyond this. For I am convinced that by longer communication and mutual experience without strife, if anything more requires to be added by way of explanation, the Lord Who works all things together for good for them that love Him, will grant it.

-St. Basil the Great, Letter 113: To the Presbyters of Tarsus

UPDATE: Trevin Wax posts this Phillip Yancey/Karl Barth quote.

“I have learned one absolute principle in calculating God’s presence or absence, and that is that I cannot. God, invisible, sovereign, who according to the psalmist “does whatever pleases him,” sets the terms of the relationship. As the theologian Karl Barth insisted so fiercely, God is free: free to reveal himself or conceal himself, to intervene or not intervene, to work within nature or outside it, to rule over the world or even to be despised and rejected by the world, to display himself or limit himself. Our own human freedom derives from a God who cherishes freedom.

“I cannot control such a God. At best I can put myself in the proper frame to meet him. I can confess sin, remove hindrances, purify my life, wait expectantly, and – perhaps hardest of all – seek solitude and silence. I offer no guaranteed method to obtain God’s presence, for God alone governs that.”

- Philip Yancey, Reaching for the Invisible God, pg. 121

HT to Bill Kinnon for this fine quote from John Armstrong.

The mystic Catholic, Thomas Merton, once noted that: “If you find God with great ease, perhaps it is not God that you have found.”

This statement underscores one of the deepest problems I have encountered over the course of my own life. I settled for thinking that I knew God, or God’s will or purpose, when I am quite sure that I was overconfident many times. The ease with which I spoke, and the ease with which I processed this knowledge, should have warned me but I was too dull oft times.

Theologians rightly speak of the deus absconditus, or of the God who is absconds, or is absent. The Psalmist knew this reality and do did Mother Teresa. Great mystics have known it and so have ordinary saints. Luther and Calvin knew it too. Just when we think we have God, or we have figured him out, he is absent from us again. He will be sought but finding is on his terms. He will be known, but not because we are so wise. His grace is for all, but not all find it unless they seek it. Ours is an age for “easy” this and that. Knowing God will never fit into the category of something called “easy.”

I’ll dedicate this to all those folks who don’t get it when I say I’m rediscovering what I believe about the God I know in Jesus.

I got a letter yesterday that asked how my chaplaincy training was going, which was a nice thing to ask, except I’m not in chaplaincy training or any other kind of training. I added this to my collection of communications telling me that I am resigning my job, joining the Roman Catholic Church and so on.

When I had sabbatical orientation, they told all of us that this sort of thing would happen. No matter how well you communicated what you were doing on your sabbatical, well-meaning (and otherwise motivated) people would make up all kinds of fiction to explain your absence.

So in order to help those of you who are reading this web page and drawing highly fictional conclusions about what’s going on in my life, I have decided to help you put together something that will, at least, be moderately interesting. [Continue reading]