I discovered last night that the large church I’d passed several times this week here on Sullivan’s Island was an Episcopal church with a 10 a.m. Wednesday Eucharist service. After checking the church’s web site, I noticed that one of the contributors at Mockingbird, John Zahl, was a pastoral associate at Holy Cross. IM readers know of my appreciation for what these Lutheranized Anglicans are doing, so I hoped that John would be leading this weekday service.

I was delighted to discover that I was right, and that Pr. Zahl was the minister preaching and leading the service. [Continue reading]

Time to blog will be short or non-existent today, but this comment from
“Becky” in the “8 a.m. Mass” discussion is the best post of the day anyway. Thank you Becky, for framing what it means to be human in a beautiful and helpful way. She starts out quoting two of us, then hits the ball out of the park herself.

Jeff: “More experienced, mature Christians who should be teaching the young about and sharing with them their great Christian heritage are instead asked to ‘get with it’ or ‘get out.’” [Continue reading]

UPDATE: Jeff’s comment is so profound it needs to be read by everyone:

The wedge contemporary evangelicals are driving between young and old is incredibly short sighted and deadly. Doesn’t the Bible itself say that the older should teach the younger? We’ve turned things around so that anything new (even if unproven) and appealing to the not yet mature, still developing young is trotted out as appropriate worship. More experienced, mature Christians who should be teaching the young about and sharing with them their great Christian heritage are instead asked to “get with it” or “get out.” The evangelical church will die if all it can do is try to keep up with secular culture and make its focus offering whatever the latest fads or glitz it can to “attract” the young as if the church were somehow dependent on a Christian advertising machine rather than God to draw people to Him.

I took Denise to morning mass at Stella Maris (”Star of the Sea”) Roman Catholic Church in Moultrieville, SC. Almost 50 in attendance, of every age. Two priests. Two acolytes and two altar boys. Traditionalist. Ad orientem. Eucharist offered in one kind and most didn’t receive it in the hand. Lots of other traditionalist stuff happening. Several Latin masses during the month. All the little things.

I’m watching a father bring his 5 year old (?) to mass, take his hand and dip it in the water, make the cross for him, then take him to his seat and show him how to genuflect. Teenagers around me- apparently on retreat- are immersed in the various actions of Catholic worship, as are all the worshipers of every age this morning. Of course, adults of every age. Plenty of men. At least half or more of the congregation was male. [Continue reading]

Anyone who sins has an advocate with God:
Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
By his life, death, and resurrection,
he has found the lost sheep and brings it back, rejoicing over one sinner that repents.
In Jesus, we are never beyond the reach of God’s love.
And so today, in the name of Jesus,
I proclaim to all of you who believe the Gospel: In Jesus your sins are forgiven!
Receive the Good News!

As a worship leader, I particularly enjoy the assurance of pardon. The announcement of God’s great forgiveness ought to bring joy to the heart of anyone who is able to pronounce it over God’s people. [Continue reading]

This week: Being better missionaries. Christian blogosphere is empowering conversation. How we got from Chesterton to Ray Comfort’s Banana

Support the IM sponsors: New Reformation Press. Reformation theology for everyone. Rockbridge Seminary. Family, ministry and online seminary all coming together. Modern Reformation Magazine. Featuring my current article on discipleship. The Ministry to Children blog is “information central” for children’s ministry on the net. The Theology Program is your best non-seminary educational option. Sign up for classes or buy the whole program.

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From Ray Ortlund at Christ Is Deeper Still:

“My passion isn’t to build up my church. My passion is for God’s Kingdom.”

Ever heard someone say that? I have. It sounds large-hearted, but it’s wrong. It can even be destructive.

Suppose I said, “My passion isn’t to build up my marriage. My passion is for Marriage. I want the institution of Marriage to be revered again. I’ll work for that. I’ll pray for that. I’ll sacrifice for that. But don’t expect me to hunker down in the humble daily realities of building a great marriage with my wife Jani. I’m aiming at something grander.”

If I said that, would you think, “Wow, Ray is so committed”? Or would you wonder if I had lost my mind?

If you care about the Kingdom, be the kind of person who can be counted on in your own church. Join your church, pray for your church, tithe to your church, participate in your church every Sunday with wholehearted passion.

We build great churches the same way we build great marriages — real commitment that makes a positive difference every day.

Someone is saying “You’re going to disagree with probably the most respected, spiritually passionate guy in the Christian blogosphere? You really are out in left field knocking down the fence.” [Continue reading]

UPDATE: How The Corporate Confession Saved My Faith. And Part 2. From our friend Patrick Kyle.

Follow this series by going to “The Evangelical Liturgy” in the categories menu.

A wonderful collection of evangelical corporate confessions can be found at this post at Reformation Theology.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen. (BCP)

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men: We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 1665) [Continue reading]

UPDATE: Comments closed.

I wrote a bit about this person earlier this month on the “Praying to Mary” discussion.

I’ve been teaching Ethiopian Orthodox students for as long as I’ve been teaching Bible- 17 years.

In all that time, I’ve only met a handful of students who could even begin to explain to me anything about their religion. One student was planning on becoming a priest and was quite knowledgeable and willing to provide information. The others were students who were fasting or practicing some other part of their faith and could explain their practice. I’ve had many good conversations about worship and especially the Christian year.

These students have been quite passive in their approach to the interaction of their faith with the Baptist evangelicalism of most of our faculty and staff. No one was out to convert anyone and no one balked at the Gospel our ministry communicates.

Until this year.

This year I’m experiencing something quite different- an Ethiopian Orthodox student zealous for her version of her faith and eager to challenge the Christianity of others over issues that are important to her. [Continue reading]

You might also want to read an IM essay from almost 8 years ago: The Little Brothers of St. Archie Bunker.

There’s always “that one guy….”

Some of the posts here at Internet Monk run well over a hundred + comments these days, and you won’t be surprised that someone usually finds a way to get deleted. I’ve come to call that predictable commenter “that one guy.”

“That one guy” seems to always be on a different page from the rest of us in the conversation, and that’s not always bad. A different point of view can be God’s truth. I believe that. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on here.

Let’s review some of the classic contributions by “that one guy.” [Continue reading]

Tyndale’s NLT Mosaic Bible is off to a fast-start today. Those of us who like the NLT second edition should be happy for any opportunity to recommend this readable and helpful translation. An 80+ page sample of the Mosaic is available from Tyndale.

I received my copy earlier this week. I’ll share a variety of observations.

1. The Mosaic Bible is actually two books under one cover. It is a 52 week devotional resource keyed to the Christian year using art, quotations and extended selections from a broad sampling of Christian traditions on every continent, tradition and period of history. The second book is a two column NLT Bible, with center references, an excellent concordance, a Greek/Hebrew dictionary, maps and other helpful materials in most standard Bibles. These two books use different kinds of paper and are easily distinguished for one another. I was particularly glad that these materials are separated, because I do not want a Bible to look like a workbook or anything other than a text of Holy Scripture.

2. Mosaic is heavily graphical, with a generous sampling of Christian symbolism and an excellent selection of Christian art. All the artistic and literary resources are listed in an index. There is an intentional effort to capture an ecumenical, pan-traditional look that some might call “post evangelical” or “emerging.” Some may find this trendy. It is well-done and a pleasure to work through. [Continue reading]

RESOURCE: More than 80 pages of Mosaic are available to view here.

UPDATE: THE CONTEST IS CLOSED. Congratulations to winner Brian Ladd.

For those of you interested in the New Living Translation of the Bible, there will be some excitement at the release this week (9/22) of the Holy Bible: Mosaic Edition, a unique edition of the NLT that combines a year’s worth of weekly devotional material shaped around the Christian Year and expressions of various traditions with an NLT reference Bible. The Mosaic Bible is now available for order at Amazon.com.

The devotional side of this Bible has a large collection of diverse Christian art, quotes, stories, Biblical observations and other materials from every continent and every age of Christian history. It truly does present a “Mosaic” of the Christian church. I believe many of the IM audience will have a particular appreciation for this Bible.

A wealth of material from the publisher is available at HolyBibleMosaic.com.

I’ll be sponsoring a Question and Answer session with Mosaic General editor Keith Williams on October 14th.

Dear Well-Meaning Non-Evangelical Friend,

Please sit down, have a cup of tea or coffee…and listen.

I see that you’ve responded to some of us who are pilgrims in the evangelical community and who are on a journey within and perhaps beyond evangelicalism. You’ve offered up some “help” in the form of advice, comments, explanations and so forth.

If possible, I’d like to encourage you to consider a few matters that could prove useful to our shared ultimate goal of knowing the Trinitarian God and following Jesus.

1. It’s possible you may be able to claim a few of us for your particular church by arguing with us over the specifics of doctrine. There are some among us who are in the mood to be convinced. But you are making a mistake, in my view, in regard to most of us with this approach. Your assumption that we need to be battered with the clubs of better logic and more knowledge is not the pleasant experience you apparently remember it to be. Let us have a process that operates under our terms and with our perception of the leadership of the Holy Spirit. If this is an episode of Bounty Hunter, tell us. [Continue reading]

I’m posting this morning’s sermon at Manchester Presbyterian Church where I supply. I strayed just a bit from the actual lectionary reading, back into last week’s text, which I’d replaced with Mark 8….oh, anyway. This is the first sermon where some of the themes of my nameless book are really prominent. Hopefully, I’ll find more ways to incorporate book themes into preaching.

I am replacing the category “London Presby,” which is sermons, with “Preaching For Grownups.” I’d like to do this as a regular podcast someday, but right now we will just make it a category. Production values are non-existent.

The sound in the background? That’s one of God’s beautiful children. You’ll get used to her. We all have.

The scripture is Mark 9:14-29. I do a bit of my overview of Mark in here as well. Feel free to share this message with those who assume I have a Kentucky accent. I need to stamp out that rumor.

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UPDATE: Just banned a commenter. The admonition to “stop wasting my time” and “leave the SBC” was unacceptable. New commenters- read FAQ section 10 please.

For the past two years, I’ve been trying to get a single question answered:

What are the actual historical evidences, before Zwingli, for the Baptist view of the Lord’s Supper?

I’ve asked this question high, low, in-between and everywhere I could get a hearing.

Long story short: No answer. If there are evidences, then someone needs to write a book, asap. It’s long overdue.

Now let’s be clear what I am saying and not saying. My reading of the New Testament is deeply shaped by my Baptist upbringing, and it’s hard for me to read anything in any discussion of the Lord’s Supper that isn’t a version of the Zwinglian position. Baptists, at their best, such as in the Second London Baptist Confession, articulated a view quite similar to the language of John Calvin: in the Lord’s Supper, we feed on Christ by faith. As I have demonstrated in past posts here at IM (See the Baptists category), I believe there are many confessional resources in the history of Baptists to articulate a richer, deeper theology of the Lord’s Supper than what is commonly heard from Baptist pulpits: a deconstruction that virtually has taken the supper out of church life and the discipleship experience of most American Baptist Christians. [Continue reading]

This week: The journey from evangelicalism to liturgy. Self-Assessment and The Loving Father

Support the IM sponsors: New Reformation Press. Reformation theology for everyone. Rockbridge Seminary. Family, ministry and online seminary all coming together. Modern Reformation Magazine. Featuring my current article on discipleship. The Ministry to Children blog is “information central” for children’s ministry on the net. The Theology Program is your best non-seminary educational option. Sign up for classes or buy the whole program.

David Head writes about the baseball incident and God’s love.

Want to support what I do? Use the Paypal button to make a donation or visit the Amazon Wish List.

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