This and That, Some Keller, How I agree/differ with the God Journey Guys, Why Can’t We Find A Church?

Sovereign Grace Music Psalms Project. Check out the free download.
Tim Keller on Religion and the Gospel
Issues Etc.
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I’ve been doing an interview on “Post-Evangelicalism,” and I thought it would be a good time to list some of the books that define post-evangelicalism for me.

First of all, a brief definition: Post-evangelicalism is a way of relating to the present seriously compromised, perhaps terminal, condition of evangelicalism by accessing the resources of the broader, deeper, more ancient Christian traditions that contemporary evangelicalism, in its pragmatic idolatry, has largely abandoned as sources and influences.

Please note that post-evangelicalism isn’t a rejection of evangelicalism, but a rejection of the current way of doing evangelicalism and being evangelical. [Continue reading]

I have two new posts at JSS in a series called “Where’s Jesus?” (And Part two. Part three is on the way.) It’s some of the exegetical material I’ll be using in my message Sunday a.m. at church.

Be sure and add Jesus Shaped Spirituality to your readers, and let others know that I am writing new material at a new blog.

BTW- If someone is good at making icons, I could use a Jesus Shaped Spirituality icon for sidebars. Thanks in advance for any contributions.

Podcast 45 Spirituality or Christianity? (Is it OK to talk about “spirituality,” given the bad use of the word?)

The podcast web site is Coffee Cup Apologetics.

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Andy Naselli recounts a conversation his wife overheard at Panera Bread between two men a) griping abut a woman who wouldn’t sleep with them and b) discussing their church preferences.

Maybe you’ve heard Michael Horton and the White Horse Inn guys talk about how the modern seeker/church growth churches are generally proclaiming law and not Gospel? Well, exhibit “A.” And exhibit A-Z for the separation of the Gospel of grace and the call to be a disciple of Jesus.

This isn’t a conversation about the struggle to be sexually pure. No, it’s two entirely separate conversations: personal sexuality and “church,” whatever “church” means here. (Seems to be close to “place that helps people.”)

The New Testament tells us that this problem goes back to the Apostle Paul himself, who had to deal with sexual immorality in the Corinthian church that was getting applause from those who were enjoying forgiveness and thanking God for blessing the desires of their hearts. [Continue reading]

Ordination: I was ordained to the Gospel ministry by a Southern Baptist congregation in 1980, but you won’t hear me have a lot to say about ordination. I believe in it, but in a minimalist kind of way. I don’t believe in titles. (Not calling someone Father or Reverend seems like a can’t-miss teaching of Jesus.) I don’t want a ministerial discount on my shoes or to be authorized to perform weddings. The clergy-laity distinction doesn’t seem very helpful to me, except when absolutely necessary.

I do believe that congregations are commanded in scripture to set aside their leaders and I see the wisdom in commending that ordination to other congregations as a reason to consider a man worthy of recommendation. Of course, I wish my tradition took some aspects of ordination more seriously, as we are famous for laying hands on teenagers and people who don’t understand the Gospel at all. [Continue reading]

This may be one of those posts that ought to appear over at JSS, because it has a lot to do with what Jesus was doing when he was on earth and how it continues today.

BTW, I’m not criticizing the defenders of institutions. I love mine and defend it all the time, but I have also learned to know what it is and what it isn’t.

I’ve been reading some of my collected reviews of The Shack and it’s apparent that the recent reviewers have detected the anti-institutional church message that’s part of the dialogue between the main character and God. I’m glad that’s on the table, because while it may not be the focus of the story, it is part of what many people are going to take away from the book: God, as presented by William P. Young, is pretty negative on the institutional church and advises real Christians to not become too dependent on it.

Another book by the same publisher, So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore? by Jake Colson, is strongly critical of the institutional church from cover to cover, and gives the same warning: a relationship with God shouldn’t be seen as automatically nurtured in the institutional church. Your mileage may vary. [Continue reading]

IM reader Tom sent me some responses to the Riff on “The Slow Death of Congregational Singing.” I thought his comments were well worth posting here for your reading and discussion.

Thanks Tom.

Michael,

I don’t read your work as much as I used to, but I caught and appreciated your excellent post on congregational singing. I just wanted to offer a few thoughts, mostly brief. To begin with, Americans of all stripes are increasingly reluctant to sing together. Observe, for example, how the National Anthem at sporting events has become mostly a performance, often with performers who sing in keys and/or with flourishes that the general public has no chance of singing along with. It is no longer fashionable or expected for Americans to sing in massed groups. [Continue reading]

I’m very glad that Dr. Ben Witherington has gotten around to reviewing William P Young’s The Shack on his blog, and has given a very balanced, critical and generous review. This is exactly what we need, as opposed to what we got from some of the reformed reviewers who found Young guilty of “goddess worship” and completely missed what kind of literature they were reading.

Dr. Witherington has actually read the book and goes to the heart of the serious and important questions the book raises about its key storyline: God’s involvement with tragedy.

I’m also glad to see he has detected the anti-institutional church aspect of the story. I recommend The God Journey podcast frequently, but I also say just as frequently that I believe Jesus started a movement that has some institutional aspects.

All in all, the best reading and analysis so far. [Continue reading]

Stuff I’m listening to, concert thoughts, Rick Warren and generic evangelicals, Dispatches from the Evangelical Wilderness Part 3.

Intro music by Rhodes. Closing music by Randy Stonehill.

Woodland Hills Church (Greg Boyd)
Speaking of Faith
John Crowder

Pirate Christian Radio. And our sponsor, New Reformation Press.

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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]

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]

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.

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]

Podcast 44 Questions on The Shack, Denominational Apologetics, and Homosexuality and Apologetics.

The podcast web site is Coffee Cup Apologetics.

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