IM First Officer Michael Bell takes the helm for another look at the statistical data facing evangelicals. This time the news is hopeful, as he explores a connection between the recession and Protestant church growth. Welcome back Michael. (Visit Michael at The Eclectic Christian.)

Michael Spencer recently republished an article which looked at the problems that wealth creates for discipleship. He writes:

Have you ever thought about this? We are living in the most fabulously wealthy, excessively entertained and unimaginably prosperous nation in the history of the world. We have a standard of living, and a level of comfort, that much of the rest of the world cannot imagine…

The Jesus of the Gospel proclaims the promises of prosperity, real estate and parking places to be empty. If we will listen. Heís just as discomforting now as ever, unless we render him the harmless servant of our desires.

Rather than telling us about your best life now, Jesus talks over and over about persecution, sacrifice, voluntary poverty and laying down the images and symbols of success for the lasting worth and influence of the Kingdom of Jesus.

[Continue reading]

My wife, Denise, is a great writer. Her blog isn’t updated as often as this one, but when it is, it’s worth it.

If you are a lover of animals, then get a kleenex and read her latest narrative.

If you folks will encourage Denise, maybe we can get her to write more. I’d especially like to get her poems up here more often.

Read: It’s OK To Pretend

You also want to check out a series of posts on the spiritual journey of frequent IM commenter Chaplain Mike. You’ll find those posts at his blog.

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

Trevin Wax doesn’t like the book very much.

I’d like to welcome Ryan Cordle as guest blogger today with this review of Scot McKnight’s new book. In addition to his recent graduation from Ohio Christian University and joining the faculty where I teach as an English teacher, Ryan is my son-in-law. He’s a fine writer and communicator. Hopefully, you’ll be reading him more in the future. Welcome Ryan.

Faithful readers of Michael Spencer’s “dispatches from the post-evangelical wilderness” will likely have read one of his finest essays, “A Conversation in God’s Kitchen.” In this essay, Michael lays out how he has learned to read the Bible as one great conversation in which human authors share unique literary contributions about God, and what he is doing with his creation. We can correctly identify the Biblical conversation as inspired, because Christ is present in the millennia-long dialogue, and ultimately the conversation is about him. It is not a “magic book,” with answers to questions about pet grooming, basket weaving, and what kind of Halloween candy to give, but something profoundly more interesting, namely Jesus. In his new book, The Blue Parakeet, Scot McKnight (The Jesus Creed) argues that readers of the Bible should stop and listen to this compelling conversation, so that they can live out its story in their contexts. [Continue reading]

Last night, the Spencer family ate Mexican in celebration of my daughter’s graduation from Ohio State University. It was a happy occasion in life’s journey. Long-time readers of this site may remember some of the key moments in this journey and the parallel journey of our son, who is still in school.

Perhaps one of the best things that ever appeared here at IM is my wife’s wonderful essay “Hannah Had it Wrong (But just barely).” Denise reflected on the feelings of a mom as her first child leaves home. It’s flat out incredible writing.

If you are a new parent or planning to be in the near future, you need to read this essay. Denise is a world-class parent, and this essay has the advice she gives to all parents of young children everywhere.

Denise Day Spencer is a publications editor living and working in southeastern Kentucky. She’s the mother of Noel, 23 and Clay, 20.

Read: “Hannah Had it Wrong (But just barely).”

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]

Patrick Kyle is a good friend of this website and I’ve asked him to share the exciting news of the Lutheran return to the airwaves with Issues, Etc. and much more. Here’s Partrick:

Among Lutherans there is a long running half joke about how we are always twenty five years behind the times . If you are familiar with the Lutheran church, especially the more conservative Synods, you understand why I say this statement is only half joking. We are pretty insular. This is both good and bad. It is good in that we have, for the most part, avoided some of the excesses and fads that have raged across evangelicalism. The down side is that the Lutherans have not participated much in the Churches’ conversation at large. The Lutheran church is heir to many great treasures of the Reformation that we have been content to keep amongst ourselves. No longer. [Continue reading]

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]

Jason Boyett is an outstanding author of helpful, practical, humorous books, several of which have been published by Relevant books. He’s a regular writer at Relevant Magazine, a guest blogger at the BHT and a friend of this web site. He’s got a great deal for those of you who could use his well-written, informative and very fun to read Pocket Guide To The Bible. Really, if you have a youth group or young adult group doing intro to the Bible type stuff, take a look at this. It’s great counterpoint to the overly academic, bore-you-to-tears approach.

Here’s Jason: [Continue reading]

UPDATE: A good and comprehensive collection of information on the various canon lists. Lots of good information.

This second post in our discussion of canonization is from a frequent Internet Monk guest, Lutheran blogger Josh Strodtbeck. Josh will tell us about the Lutheran concept of the Canon, which is quite different from what many may assume.

The 1580 Book of Concord is easily the longest confessional standard coming out of the Reformation, dwarfing the various Reformed statements, the post-Reformation Westminster Standards, and even clocking in at about double the length of the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. So it may surprise you to learn that unlike Trent, Westminster, the 39 Articles, etc, there is no definition of the canon of Scripture in the Lutheran Confessions. This is relevant because between Catholics and Protestants, the canon debate is framed in such away that either you believe in an inerrant Protestant canon of 66 books based on their self-evident, internal witness to their own divine inspiration, or you believe that the infallible Church inerrantly defined the canon, and that it is accepted only on that authority. But as with many theological issues, the Lutheran position takes neither of the supposedly only two possible options without being a synthesis, either. [Continue reading]

UPDATE: One of the reasons we go down this road every year is to laugh a bit and tell one another it’s OK. (Those of us in the evangelical wilderness need this. The rest of you talk amongst yourselves.) But we also do something else, which for a few is always difficult: we give ourselves permission to look at what’s just awful and to say so. We look at the eliminating of tradition in favor of innovation and we count the cost to our children and our faith. fundamentally, that’s a healthy exercise. But it might require a bit ‘o humor on your part.

It’s time for an Internet Monk tradition: the open thread where you, the reader, can share with us the stories of your experiences at Christmas Weekend “Worship.” Because this is the weekend many of our readers will be visiting various churches they don’t normally frequent, it’s a good weekend to be “surprised.”

Share what you like that’s on topic, but I’ll admit I’m looking for the following: [Continue reading]

Here’s the last in our “Lutheran Theology and God’s Sovereignty Series.” I appreciate all the work Josh put into this and the good comments from those of you involved in the discussion.

How would Lutheran theology speak about God’s role in a tragedy like the I-35 Bridge collapse? Would you say God ordained it for his glory?

The important thing to remember in any question like this is that questions don’t happen in a vacuum, and neither is theology something floating around in a platonic realm of ideals. Generally, these questions are posed to pastors by real people, so what we always have is a pastoral situation. Even if you’re just a layman, you still have to deal with the person. But this is complex, so you’re going to get a long answer.

Abstractly, in the “ultimate reasons” sense, I don’t have any satisfying answer. Luther’s idea of being a theologian of the cross, which he develops in his Heidelberg Disputation, is hugely influential in the Lutheran tradition. You could probably add the theological part of the Disputation to the Confessions and no one would object. [Continue reading]

Good to know some reader thinks that after 7 years of basically reformed-leaning blogging, 4 Lutheran posts qualify as somehow unfair treatment of Calvinism. And the main complaint: “cheap shots.” If you could die from irony, we could really thin out the population on the blogosphere.

When Josh is teaching, there’s a lot to learn. Enjoy the post and keep it on topic in the comments please.

4. How would a Lutheran answer the question, “How can I know I am saved?” and where would election come into the picture?

I think by this point, people know what I’d say. I’d answer by saying, “Listen to what God says to you in the Word, and believe in what he gives you in the Sacraments.” Obviously, most Christians aren’t taught to believe that the minister has any kind of divinely established mandate to forgive sins, and they mostly look at the sacraments as impositions of obligation, memorials, or divine ordinances you obey in order to testify of your own faith. We believe that God is the one testifying in the sacraments, and he’s testifying to you and to the world that your sins have been nailed to the Cross. [Continue reading]

How does Lutheranism present the sovereignty of God in pastoral care?

2. How would the difference between Lutheran and Reformed views of God’s sovereignty be evidenced pastorally?

Since Calvin borrowed a lot from Luther, there are obviously going to be similarities. And since Calvinism is a pretty diverse tradition, I think that in some contexts, Calvinism looks pastorally quite similar to Lutheranism. On the other hand, in other contexts it can be radically different. In the more common versions of TULIP, justification is an instantaneous, one-time event done by God alone based solely on his eternal, sovereign will and thus ceases being relevant after your conversion. In other formulations, justification is a decree made by God after a lifetime of sovereignly directed covenant-keeping. So already, the idea that the pastor’s actions have anything to do with justification is taken out of the picture.

So what is there for the pastor to do? Without justification, things can become extremely Law-driven. For example, there are some Reformed pastors who envision the Church as a home-school cult where even suggesting that there are benefits to the local public school gets you excommunicated. That simply doesn’t happen in Lutheranism. I know secondhand of a woman from a Reformed church that got excommunicated for not articulating baptism exactly right, and for the Reformed, excommunication means being driven out of the community. I’m not saying there aren’t any obsessive nutballs in Lutheranism, far from it. But our crazies tend to be overprotective shepherds chasing off perceived wolves rather than inquisitors rooting out the impure. [Continue reading]

Our book reviewer today is my wife, Denise. Read her blog at Denise Day Spencer.

I have, in the past few months, become enamored with the idea of praying at various times during the day–not because I want to be more pious than the next person, but because I need it.

And so Michael recently presented me with a book: The Divine Hours Pocket Edition…on the condition that I would review it. Sounds like a good deal to me! I’m not the one in the family who usually does book reviews, but here goes. [Continue reading]