Well 2008, here we are. The dance is almost over and it’s very nearly time for you to go.

We’ve been together for 12 months now, and there’s something I want to say before we go our separate ways. Something special, just for you.

2008…..I know you’re just a way of marking time, and I know there’s nothing all that personal between us. You didn’t know what the year was going to be like. It was as big a surprise to you as it was to me. The writing from day to day wasn’t there when we first met. It unfolded, a day at a time, for you just like it did for me.

But there is something I want to say, and I’m searching for the right words. [Continue reading]

Crayon & pencil drawing by Sr. Grace Remington, OCSO.
Copyright 2005, Sisters of the Mississippi Abbey [Continue reading]

Dedicated to all of you on the same journey. Keep faith and keep going. You’re not alone.

It’s time for one of your favorite programs here at Internet Monk.com: “Secret, Terrible, Unspoken Thoughts…REVEALED!”

Today’s secret thought was uttered by a commenter in a recent discussion thread, but it’s the kind of terrible thought that lurks in the minds of many of you reading this post. What terrible, shameful, embarrassing secret thought am I referring to?

Frankly, I’m to the point where there isn’t that much a pastor/teacher is going to be able to say that I haven’t heard 100 times already.

I know, I know. Shameful. Can you believe there are people like that out there? Someone call the watchbloggers.

Well…..I’ve thought about his kind of statement a lot. I preach about 10-12 times a month, and have preached as often as 20 times a month at my current ministry. I’ve listened to thousands of hours of sermons on tape, mp3, cd. I’ve read sermons- thousands of them. I’m on both sides of the comment, both criminal and consumer. [Continue reading]

I wrote this piece in July of ‘07. It garnered 70 comments and some grousy updates on my part. (You can read the original here.)

I’m reprinting the post with a clear comment thread because I feel the sentiment I expressed in this piece is even more true now than ever: there are thousands of evangelicals who would give a serious look at mainline churches, traditional worship and the riches of Protestant heritage IF some good brothers and sisters could recognize our journey and meet us somewhere halfway along the path.

It seems that at the moment there is the most interest in the broader, deeper more serious heritage of Protestantism and a growing discontent with worshiptainment, there is a strong prejudice against evangelicals within those communities that could reach out to them. Evangelicalism needs what Protestantism has always done right…..at least in those places where they still remember what was right all along.

Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Anglicans…. [Continue reading]

New Year. Review of the Becker Trilogy.

NOTE: Some may have downloaded a shortened version. Cut out at 16. You missed 4 minutes.

Our sponsors are: New Reformation Press. Order your copy of the Treasury of Daily Prayer from NRP. And do it soon.

Zaccheus Press- Fine Catholic Books, including Priestblock 25487.

Lawrence Feingold’s Lectures. I recommend those in sections 3 (esp on the four Marks of the church) and 1.

Want to be an IM advertiser? Want almost 400,000+ unique visitors with close to 4.5 million page views so far this year to see your ad on the sidebar? IM has the most diverse readership in the blogosphere. Contact me if you are interested. Rates available on request.

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UPDATE: A story at Baptist Press spreads similar Christmas cheer.

If anyone knows Michael Horton’s email, send this one to him please. He’ll appreciate it.

There are two kinds of evangelicals who read the Internet Monk web site. The first, like myself, find it increasingly hard to identify with evangelicalism. The metaphor of “the evangelical wilderness” is one they find apropos. Like myself, they look around evangelicalism and see a landscape being devoured like a scene out of The Langoliers. Like myself, they find shelter in what other traditions haven’t yet thrown out and look hopefully towards a new generation of evangelicals to discern better than their elders what has been lost and what is wrong.

The second group of evangelical reader is happily, confidently, certainly evangelical and stands in some version of frustrated amazement at what is written and said here week after week. These are evangelicals for whom their pastors’ explanations from the Bible answer all questions, for whom evangelical leadership speaks a sure word and for whom the good always outweighs the bad in the family. They are cheerful Freds to my mumbling, unconverted Scrooge. [Continue reading]

It’s traditional here at Internet Monk to have an open thread on the topic of your experiences in Christmas worship. We want to hear your stories. What was outstanding. What was awful. What was full of the meaning of the incarnation. What was lost, given up or thrown away. Was the great opportunity to focus on the incarnation appreciated or wasted?

Christmas usually brings out the best and the worst in our various traditions and approaches to worship. Let’s hear what you saw and heard (or didn’t see and hear) at this year’s Christmas worship services.

My favorite piece of liturgy in the world is a sentence in the opening section of the Traditional Service of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast round the world on the BBC. Why is it so moving? Because it is beautiful and true. Each year, as more and more of those I know join the saints in light, this single portion of the prayer becomes more and more evocative of the power of Gospel hope. Somehow, hope returns, over and over, to be the most powerful gift of the Gospel for me in this life.

The entire opening is a work of art in language, full of lucid prose statements of the Gospel, but the tear-inducing, singularly moving line for me is in boldface:

The Dean: Beloved in Christ, be it this Christmas Eve our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels: in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, and with the Magi adore the Child lying in his Mother’s arms. [Continue reading]

He stands,
poised on the brink of two worlds:
One, land of eternal day,
the other, earth of mire and clay.

Behind Him,
legions of heavenly host,
bright faces covered, praising,
all chanting, voices raising.

Before Him,
chaos yawning, swift and deep,
known, yet unknown. Fear unfurling,
death and darkness churning, swirling.

He turns.
One last look at golden glory.
The Three part; He is now One.
The Father’s voice says, “Go well, my Son.”

He leaps
into the abyss.

His next memory will be a Mother’s kiss.

~ Denise Day Spencer, January 1999

Lazurus here. The last four days in the tomb were no fun. Thanks to Jesus for getting me out.

Two items of interest regarding unusual situations in large churches caught my attention yesterday.

First, a Cincinnati church was putting on a Christmas pageant when a woman fell 25 feet to her death during some kind of cable failure.

Accidents happen in church just like anywhere else. Murphy’s Law is true as always, and more true the more complex the undertaking. People are injured and even killed by falling off risers, tripping over cables and baptizing while wearing badly wired equipment. Lots of people are shot in church. I don’t believe there is a zero-risk environment anywhere. [Continue reading]

I’m too sick to write anything, but I looked back in the archives and found this Riff on an outstanding post by Dan Edelen that fits in nicely with “Ted the Loser.”

I noted that I was talking about the effects of a major economic downturn on evangelicalism in this piece, written two years ago. I guess we’ll get to see.

Dan Edelen is an outstanding writer and blogger, and he’s also one of the more thoughtful voices in the Christian blogosphere on issues of economics and community.

Maybe this can hold over the reading public till I can get some thought in my head other than “Ugh.”

READ: Riffs: Dan Edelen and a Gospel That Speaks to Failure.

UPDATE: My apologies for what the discussion thread turned into on this post. Some things are just very hard to moderate because they aren’t nasty and they are tangentially on topic. Then you get to the point you realize the whole thread has been hijacked by points of view the opposite of what you wanted to discuss. Thanks for the positive, on topic contributions from several of you.

This post is inspired by a FoxNews piece updating the situation of disgraced megachurch pastor Ted Haggard. Haggard was a major leader in evangelicalism until he was brought down by evidence of sexual sin and drug use.

Dear Ted,

May I call you Ted? Not “Pastor Ted,” “Reverend Haggard” or any other ministerial name.

You may not feel like it, but you’re at a good place. Finally. It’s taken a while, but you’ve made it to the place where the Gospel of Jesus has its power. On the verge of the fourth Sunday of the season of waiting, you’ve made it to the place where all that can happen now is for a savior to be born to a virgin. Your savior, no less. Yours and all the other losers.

Yes Ted, honesty, your best gift now has arrived. [Continue reading]

D.A. Carson has a wonderfully thoughtful and well-written editorial in this month’s Themelios web magazine. It’s not particularly long and it will be a provocative way to think about this week’s open mic question, so go read it and come back.

The Question is: How would you evaluate the overall effect of technology on your development as a serious, balanced, useful disciple of Jesus?

Carson makes the points many of us could make from our own experience: technology fascinates, entertains, amuses, captivates and addicts. We gain information, access and speed, but we gain access to universes of useless and less than useful information. We occupy our minds at a high rate of speed, and we reflect less and less. We read more online and we read less of what we ought to read. We stay in touch and we say less and less. We acquire more and more gadgets and we don’t know where to stop. We see our children down the same path and call it normal.

Is it normal? And is all of this helping us become what we say we want to become?

Is Carson on target or is it just Luddite ranting?

What do YOU say? (Keep comments to a reasonable length and PLEASE don’t go overboard with your detailed history of gadget acquisition. Thanks.)

In my twice weekly study of Nehemiah, we’re still in chapter 8, and today we observed that the reading of the book of the law caused a strong emotional reaction among those who heard it read and explained.

That reaction was grief and weeping.

Neh. 8:9   And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” 11 So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” 12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

[Continue reading]