January 22, 2008 by iMonk
Over at Frank Turk’s blog, he has something of a motto up on the sidebar. It’s a phrase his pastor offered in a comment thread sometime in the past. Here it is: The Gospel is the solution to culture.
I’ve often wanted to riff on this statement. While I’m pretty sure how Frank and his pastor see the truth of “The Gospel is the solution to culture,” I’m more than a little puzzled by the statement.
Perhaps the fault is entirely mine, but it appears that the motto is being translated like this: “Culture is always a negative, and the answer to the problem that is culture is the Gospel. Whatever problems culture brings us, the preaching of the Gospel will resolve those problems.”
If I’m getting it wrong, I apologize in advance and invite Frank to come over and shed some light on what he’s hearing in that statement. In the meantime, let me apply it to the “12 Churches, 12 Calvinists” thought experiment. [Continue reading]
January 21, 2008 by iMonk
How about a little thought experiment? No hidden agenda; just a way to explore the contention that certain things make all the difference.
Imagine for a moment 12 Baptist churches (that may be enough for some of you right there) in my own little Appalachian corner of the world, southeast Kentucky. These 12 churches are scattered across our area, which is almost entirely rural, quite poor, deep in Appalachian culture and all that goes along with it. They are churches dating back a century or more, the people are largely uneducated and some are even illiterate. There are deep problems of unemployment, health care, family dysfunction and substance abuse.
The churches are declining. For the past 15 years, the membership has been ingrown, with no significant influx of outsiders into the area and no significant church growth. The churches are growing older in average age, though several of the churches keep some kind of youth ministry going on. It is very rare to see young couples in church, and the congregations are graying rapidly.
The churches have been led by a variety of area men called to be pastors, with only a couple of local Bible school graduates in the mix. Pastors come and go quickly, with many leaving before two years have passed. Going from one church to another in a type of “Merry-Go-Round” is often a reality. [Continue reading]
January 2, 2008 by iMonk
***Big Time Humor Alert*** Today, the Internet Monk Web Site ™ brings a special gift of proverbial, anecdotal and Zen-like wisdom as a gift for those angry young (and not so young) men who are burning down churches to make room for coffee shops.
Put on some punk rock, light the incense sticks and turn down the lights so I can see that Che poster in black light. Thank you.
(If you can’t remember these bits of wisdom, they will be available in my new book, Wisdom for Angry Guys Who Are Really Angry, coming to a bookstore near you.)
Lo, the Proverbs appeareth. (How can these things be, since I have not known a man? Seriously.)
He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it. (Wait. How did that get in here?)
George Barna will surely refute- with unassailable statistical evidence- any book with his name on it within ten years of its publication. [Continue reading]
December 11, 2007 by iMonk
Irony alert!! Overheard at a popular theoblog recently.
Oh those slippery emerging types. Right when you think you have them defined, they go squirming across the room, claiming you’ve misunderstood them.
You know who is just as bad? The “missionals.” One minute it’s Tim Keller. The next it’s Brian Mclaren. You can’t tell one person or another with these generic labels. Is it Ed Stetzer or Tony Jones?
It’s sooooo predictable. Start a conversation on the emerging or missional church and watch all those goatee-wearing, Message-reading, David Crowder look-a-likes say “You just don’t understand us.” [Continue reading]
December 3, 2007 by iMonk
Denise and I were traveling to an unfamiliar church last night, and even with perfectly good directions and plenty of time, we got lost. So I stopped at McDonald’s and asked for help.
Asking for directions at McDonald’s for a large downtown “First Baptist” church probably wasn’t a great idea anyway. One guy didn’t speak English. Another said “Fugate” (??) and proceeded to go ask the manager for directions. (Neither ever returned.) A female employee talked to me for five minutes as if I’d been born in the town and knew every building and fire hydrant (“You can’t miss the police station.”) She was sincere, but of no help.
A fellow in the parking lot who looked like he might have once been in a Baptist church- in other words a pudgy white guy and his pudgy kid- gave me helpful directions, ending with the ominous phrase “You can’t miss it.” [Continue reading]
November 13, 2007 by iMonk
Today in chapel, one of my co-workers told his life story. That’s pretty common at our ministry, but this was anything but common.
Doc [not his real name] came to us about three years ago, along with his new bride. Middle-aged and a recent Bible college graduate, looking for a beginning in ministry. Of course, one look at Doc and you know Doc is different. He looks like he survived a war, or a major car accident, or both [Continue reading]
August 8, 2007 by iMonk
Where I live, there’s a remarkable amount of visible unity among Christians. I’d like to describe it for you, at least as I’ve seen and experienced it.
I live in one of the poorest regions of the United States. Two counties near to us are in the federal government’s list of the ten poorest counties in America. We are probably one of the two or three poorest congressional districts in the country.
Churches and the people in them are quite poor. A megachurch here is any church with a nice facility and more than 200 members. (We have two of these, by my count.)
Because of that poverty, churches do many things together, share facilities, pool their money for community projects and help one another out without many questions of doctrine.
Most pastors are eager to work with other ministers and churches in community causes. The sense of calling to the local community is strong here. [Continue reading]
June 18, 2007 by iMonk
In the aftermath of reading Alastair’s “The Denominational Church,” A discussion took over my group blog, “The Boar’s Head Tavern,” for most of two days. That discussion, prompted by Jack’s use of the metaphor of a “map” for the various confessions and theologies that distinguish various denominations and traditions, was one of the best all-time BHT go-rounds I’ve ever been part of. Thanks to BHT fellow John H who turned the discussion into a “top down” document that you can now read here at IM.
You won’t understand it all, and some of you will likely be offended. I don’t know why, but it’s a certainty where the BHT is concerned. It’s hard to drop down in the middle of anything at the BHT and totally get it, but I think there are some really helpful, even exciting aspects to this discussion, and I want to share it with you. The poster’s name occurs AFTER their post. [Continue reading]
April 5, 2007 by iMonk
Lynn (fictional) wrote me a letter with complaints about her pastor.
Lynn,
It was good to hear from you. It sounds as if your new home and John’s new job are just right for your family. We all miss you, but this will be a good chapter in your life together. Hopefully, we’ll see you at homecoming this year.
It was sad to read your comments about your pastor. Finding the right church isn’t peripheral to this move. I know your family wants church to be a big part of your new life. [Continue reading]
April 1, 2007 by iMonk
UPDATE: 4:37 p.m. As good as promised….even with the out.
Tomorrow is opening day in Cincinnati, in case you didn’t know. So here’s a baseball post.
Sometime tomorrow afternoon, I’m going to tear up at a baseball game. It’s a certainty.
I’m going to tear up because of a moment that is going to happen in Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, in the opening game between the Reds and the Cubs. (Boooo. Hisss.) [Continue reading]
March 30, 2007 by iMonk
The Spencer family poets are busy. Here’s an amazing Holy Week poem by Denise.
Clay continues to show that he is becoming a fine poet with these two outstanding poems.
March 12, 2007 by iMonk
This post is an odd soup. Call it one part “Second Half of Life,” for just getting old and pathetic; one part “In The Study,” for the sermon idea I’ll get out of it; and one part “Parable, Metaphor and Illustration” for what you can do with it. Laugh at me, with me, and then think about it a bit.
And if this is your bookstore, don’t put me on your mailing list. I won’t be back unless I’m getting paid by a psychiatrist who has me wired up.
On our second visit to my daughter and son-in-law (married in June of ‘06 and now living in a neighboring state), I had expressed my hope that we could visit some bookstores in the metro area nearby. Noel and Ryan found two excellent bookstores and we made a day of visiting them this past Saturday. [Continue reading]
February 1, 2007 by iMonk
I love my Shakespeare, and I love relating what I teach to my students to the Gospel. Those of you who haven’t read Shakespeare will have to excuse me for indulging my passion for The Bard.
My AP English IV students just finished reading Shakespeare’s, “The Tempest.” The last few years, this play has risen in my personal Shakespeare canon to a favorite place. I’ve come to love it as wonderful prelude to the Gospel, and a longing look at the goals for the second half of life. [Continue reading]
January 3, 2007 by iMonk
When I was a child and a teenager, I stuttered. For several years, quite badly. Those who know me will notice that I can still get into some stuttering patterns when I’m nervous or stressed, but for the most part, my stuttering left me around age 15 when I started preaching regularly.
There are different kinds of stuttering. Mine was a primarily a problem with certain hard sounds. Dad told me that he first noticed I couldn’t say “Alice,” but just froze up on the hard “a” sound. I’ve been avoiding those hard “A’s” ever since. Some of you could compose a sentence to torture me and put it in the comments if you like.
I had other kinds of stuttering patterns, including halting, lots of “uh’s,” (Hi Phil!) and repeating certain words. There’s nothing more fun than wanting to talk to a girl and getting stuck repeating the word “You” over and over. “You you you you you you look really nice.” Kind of takes the blush off the rose. If her name was Alice, it could turn into a real circus. [Continue reading]
October 30, 2006 by iMonk
Every year since I first published this piece, someone has linked it and I get requests for it to reappear. It’s one of my favorite IM pieces, and is dedicated to all of those writers and artists who believe in the holy and wholesome use of the imagination.
Here’s a toast to Halloween, and all the Christians who have held on to it despite the flood of nonsense, lies and manipulation that no surrounds the topic.
