UPDATE: Got this note about a discount on Jesus Girls.

My wife wanted to read Jesus Girls after reading the review.
Can’t get it anywhere except the publisher right now though. I emailed them asking when Amazon would have it and they said, who knows, Amazon is really slow sometimes. However, they gave me a 25% off coupon that is good until Sept. 20. That’s $5 for IM readers who might be interested. The code is: NOTESS

What I’m doing now: I’m on a men’s retreat with the men of St. Patrick’s Anglican Church. It’s a real pleasure for me to just be “one of the guys” and not in a leadership position. It’s only a little more than a day, but it’s a much needed break from preaching, teaching, talking, etc. Pray I enjoy silence, rest, friendships and good teaching before I return home to preach Sunday morning and evening. No blogging till I return.

Podcast: Sometime before Monday a.m. Most likely sometime Sunday.

Site News: We still have RSS users who are getting partial posts in Google reader. RESUBSCRIBE to the feed using the icons on this page and the problem will be solved. [Continue reading]

Went to the post office this morning (I love Saturday mail. Please don’t cancel it) and there was an old friend sitting in his car. His wife was in the PO. Big, strong strapping man. Incredible physical shape for a man in his late 70’s. Two years ago he was sharp as a tack. Used to be the main guy in our Friday night high school football trips. Now he doesn’t know me. My name is gone. Recognizes my face. Stutters. Can hardly talk. Asks if I want to go to a football game. I tell him I’m too busy. I ask how he’s doing. He says the state police pulled him over. Probably happened months ago. Alzheimers has ravaged him. He’s a different man. Just a few drops of rationality and memory in a desert of the mind. His wife comes out and looks at me. Her pained face says it all. Taking care of man like this may be one of the most difficult things in marriage, but she’s apparently going to do it as long as she can. I never knew a sweeter, more generous man. Really was enjoying his retirement. That sweetness seems to be left, but for how long? Alzheimer’s is death by torture for everyone involved.

We’re all dying and we’re all going to care for the dying. Do you notice? Some people are going through a world of death, one day at a time, and all alone.
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Richard Dawkins vs Karen Armstrong. Anyone want to tell Dawkins that God doesn’t exist in the universe? This is why CS Lewis said Pantheism is so attractive. See Michael Dowd, Thank God For Evolution, for that option. [Continue reading]

And so it begins. I don’t know if Kentucky is the first Baptist State Convention to see the handwriting on the wall, but I am very, very proud of our executive board for stepping up to the plate and starting the process of saying, essentially, “we are ready to make changes to see more resources, more money and more people sent to the nations via the International Mission Board.” And that’s what this means and we all know it. Less of the “Great Denomination” model at the national and the state convention level. I work for one of those state entities mentioned in that link, and I know what any loss of state funding might mean for us. But I also know that we are all part of the big picture of what Jesus left us to do, and it’s not about protecting our air conditioning or convention provided vehicle. I predict that every state convention will be sending 5-10% more to the national missions boards in the future. If both the national convention and the state conventions can work together to reload our Gospel train with resources, this could be some of the greatest days for the SBC.

And btw, the fact that the GCR meetings are available on Vimeo is another good sign. Welcome to the real world, SBC business meetings. And Baptist Press, too bad we won’t have to listen to you tell us what’s going on.
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If you haven’t read my daughter’s account of her reception into the Anglican Church, you should do so. And you should add her to your RSS feed, etc. Quite an eclectic selection of posts, but all good.

New Reformation Press has some new teaching from Dr. Rosenbladt: Where In The Church Is The Gospel? Dr. Rosenbladt is one of the finest teachers anywhere, and if you are in despair about where to find the Gospel, listen to him.

I’m still in the first draft mode, but I’m basically at the half-way point in the book. I’m seeing four parts and I’ve got one more chapter and I’ll have two parts done. Writing is hard work, but I am really fortunate to have some time off work- mostly- to get accelerated writing done.

Our family is looking for a good deal on a place to stay on the beach near Charleston, South Carolina in late September. Any hot tips are welcome. [Continue reading]

Haven’t done a weekend report in a while.

-Piper talks about what you have to believe about creation to be an elder at Bethlehem. If I hear this right, you can believe in evolution (most versions) and an old earth. You must believe in a “recent” redemption history. My follow up would be on the mechanism for arriving at Adam and Eve. Could you believe in previous, non-human, ancestors or must you believe that Gen 1-2 is literal in describing that Adam was made from dust and Eve from a rib? Seems that the door is wide open in this statement to affirming Genesis 1-2 as compeltely true without tying it to a particular scientific theory of origins. God made them from pre-existing matter as a miracle of creation. Wouldn’t that solve a lot of issues? Not all, I know, but many. For example, what about the 35,000 year old flute? Not made by a human? (HT to HA at BHT)

-How many of us ever thought we would hear the following preached at an SBC national meeting?

“God will make his glory known, whether we risk it all or not. God doesn’t need us. God never needed us. We need him. We desperately need him and because we need him so much we should be willing to risk everything for his glory. One Purpose. The truth is, the entire Southern Baptist Convention could drop dead and turn to dust and God will still make his name rise about every other name and his glory will be shown.”

David Platt, one of the young lions in the SBC who are changing the face of a denomination by dealing with the denominational idolatry that is our greatest problem.

-SBC News: Danny Akin and Marv Knox see it: Morris Chapman lost and humiliated himself. My advice stands: do the honorable thing. Resign.

-Do you know of a blog that has a “look” you’d recommend for a future version of InternetMonk.com? Send along the URL and tell me what you like. I am looking at a wider page. Two parallel columns on the side, one for links and one for ads. More contact info at the bottom (Twitter, iTunes subscription), larger rotating banner and more prominent tabs. [Continue reading]

UPDATE: Fearsome Pirate Josh Strodtbeck received his Treasury of Daily Prayer and writes a useful review. Do you have yours? Hit the sidebar and get one from New Reformation Press.

I’m sending along an audio Advent greeting with this post.

Rod Dreher comments on and reproduces Terry Mattingly’s lecture, “What Do Converts Want?” Lots of things of interest here for the post-evangelical crew.

W.H. Chellis makes the case for a serious belief in Santa Claus. This is much needed in our day, especially when belief in Santa is attacked by skeptics like my daughter.

I’m 52 and just learning what “Hodie” is all about. Ralph Vaughn Williams’ “Hodie” is a superb piece of Advent/Christmas music.

Reverend Cwirla’s Blogosphere is really Advent Central, along with the BHT’s Advent blog.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

John H at Confessing Evangelical suggests some devotional resources in the Orthodox tradition.

James White has some video from the John 3:16 Conference. Apparently some in the “crowd” of 600-800 don’t believe Calvinists are Christians. I certainly believe you can be lost in any version of theology or church, and I have no doubt that this brother is sincere, but a constructive conversation about Calvinism can’t proceed on the premise that Calvinists are lost. (And the ridiculous blaming of the SBC’s 6% Calvinists for decreased baptisms is right out front. White is correct that a conference like this mainly communicates that future ministers will be shunned if they have any Calvinism in their doctrine.)

When David Allen asks what unites Southern Baptists, I’d love to hear his answer to what he calls “Baptist distinctives.” Teetotalism? The Hymnal? And the “theological systems” he wants to avoid should include incoherent fundamentalism as well. [Continue reading]

Weekend file time! No politics allowed!

I’m fascinated by the tendency of a lot of evangelicals to pass the pulpit down father to son. Biblically, it’s nonsensical, but practically it can be the difference between staying afloat or sinking as a ministry.

I recently listened to Matt Haggee, John Haggee’s son. Haggee himself has always fascinated me. Where else in the world of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity do you have fundamentalists reading their sermons from manuscripts with applause cues throughout, just like a political speech. Matt is a clone, with the exception that he’s dropped about 120 pounds at least. As this sort of preaching goes, he was pretty good. It’s prosperity gospel lite, with a better than most presentation of the Gospel. (Osteen should take a note, especially from Daddy John. When he’s not being apocalyptic, he can preach the evangelical Gospel dead on.)

I want to train my students to applaud on cue. Any hints, Matt?
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Yes, I owe you all a podcast. I’m working on it. I have to go to Lexington today.

I don’t do lists of links, but Zoo Station has a fine one. Spend some time there.

As election time rolls around, I’m still unimpressed with either Presidential candidate, but I’ve made up my mind on the Kentucky Senate race. Mitch McConnell’s attack ads on Bruce Lunsford are the most incredibly vicious distortions and manipulations I’ve ever seen in politics. And this is a state where politicians still shoot each other with some regularity.

We’re studying Exodus in my Bible classes, and Peter Enns’ Exodus Commentary in the NIV Application Commentary series is outstanding for teaching that is aimed at bridging contexts and majoring on application. I have several good commentaries in that series. They are non-scholarly, but highly useful to the communicator.

Robert Velarde writes on C.S. Lewis’s view of pop culture. Lewis’s disdain for the newspaper reminds me that the information revolution has had a terrible effect on Christians. Few read. Few think. The majority believe all kinds of things that aren’t true or are patently ridiculous. But of course, without Snopes, how would I know that? [Continue reading]

As usual, thanks to all of you who have been using the Amazon Wish List to support me here at IM. Thank you!

If the menu item in Lexington’s best Mexican Restaurant (Jalapenos) says “Diablo,” don’t get involved unless you are serious.

Kevin Kelly is a founder of Wired Magazine, a Christian, and a guy with a wonderful talk on the “Next 5,000 Days of the Web.”

My wife is the kind of person who still stands in front of a Macdonald’s menu, trying to decide what to order. So when she goes to pick out new glasses, bring a tent and pack a lunch. [Continue reading]

Thanks to Issues, Etc for choosing Internetmonk.com as the “Blog of the Week.”

One of Rod Dreher’s readers at Crunchy Con sent in a deadly honest e-mail describing “white privilege.” I don’t care much for the political applications, but the observations on how some whites view their own behavior differently from the identical behaviors in African-Americans is spot on. This is a way of thinking that you have to stop in your own head, and they way you stop it is with the Gospel; with Kingdom thinking.

I try to make both my white and black students aware of this phenomenon, and I encourage discussion about it. We need to put the light on these kinds of cockroaches of the soul if we are going to make progress on the continuing sin of racism.

Oh….the application to how many Christians view their behavior as compared to other people…oh my! [Continue reading]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Some random things that some of you will be interested in:

1) Church Membership Series: I have a summary post I want to write and then there is one more interview, but I don’t know when the interview will arrive in my mailbox. So I may go ahead and write the summary, but it won’t be the last word. Thanks to all who have linked and participated.

2. Comments I won’t post: There are several kinds of comments I just delete, but let me spell them out for you. a) Name-calling personal attacks on either myself, other commenters or a person discussed in a post. It’s not constructive and I don’t edit; I just delete. b) Posts that say we shouldn’t be posting, or commenting, or discussing or blogging at all. This kind of comment is so incredibly self-contradictory (a blog comment that we shouldn’t have blogs or comments?) that it’s a waste of time. I dump it. [Continue reading]

Oldspeak is the blog of John Whitehead, who has connections with the Schaeffer story, so it’s no surprise he has the best interview I’ve seen with Frank Schaefer regarding Crazy For God and many of the true, but controversial aspects of the book. It’s a must read interview.

On the same subject, Frank Schaefer’s early attempts to be an apologist of sorts for Orthodoxy weren’t warmly received by all the Orthodox. Some have written me to make sure I know that. I’m not quite sure what this kind of criticism is all about, since any famous convert is likely to write about his/her conversion. In Crazy for God, Schaeffer leaves the Orthodox apologetics at home. But in fairness to the folks who were insistent I post this link, here it is. [Continue reading]

I think we all have to give a round of applause to the ordinary folks at Oral Roberts University who said “Enough is enough.” Richard Roberts- while far from being the worst offender in this collection of Tetzels- exemplified everything that is wrong with the Tulsa/TBN version of Charismatic evangelicalism. Smarmy, unscrupulous, self-serving and slick: Roberts’ departure should encourage the “little people” in abusive ministries everywhere to blow the whistles and tell the truth.

Wade Burleson has taken the current obsession of the leadership of several Baptist state conventions- teetotalism- and goes to the next level in an outstanding piece of satire on the Biblical case for abstaining from tea. It’s about time someone started pointing out the Monty Python-esque nature of this windmill hunt. No one ever expects tha Spanish Inquisition, of course. [Continue reading]

Time for the IM Weekend File.

First, some IM/BHT site news. I’ve been greatly blessed to have outstanding technical assistance down through the years from Jim Nicholson, Kurt Nordstrom and Phillip Winn. Recently, I’ve been blessed with the friendship and good work of the queen of tech elves, Sonia Albright. As a result of her good efforts, Both Internetmonk.com and Boarsheadtavern.com will soon be receiving major facelifts. I also want to thank my friend Bill Kinnon for the new BHT banner that will be rolled out later this month. It’s drop dead gorgeous and conveys a new image for our beloved theological tavern.

As always, these technical improvements and adjustments will require some patience from readers of both blogs. So before you send me that e-mail, wait a day and see if things straighten out.

Also, in the less-immediate future will be the roll-out of Clay Spencer’s website, EthosHQ, and hopefully, the debut of Post-Evangelical.Com, a site where those who identify with the idea of moving past evangelicalism in any way can contribute posts and resources.

Next, I’d recommend that all Internet Monk readers take time to read John Derbyshire’s apologia for his loss of Christian faith. Derbyshire is a regular commentator at NRO, and his podcast is a weekly treat. Several bloggers are already commenting on Derb’s reasoning for abandoning his admittedly shaky Christianity. [Continue reading]