Internet Monk Radio Podcast #95
May 4th, 2008 by iMonk
Thoughts on Jesus-shaped spirituality; Sara Groves and the new evangelical compassion ministries; thoughts on the “Union with Christ” thread.
Steve Brown, Etc.
Cornerstone Festival 2008
Sara Groves
You all need to buy “The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” and more Reformation theology gifts from New Reformation Press.
“Jesus Shaped Spirituality” sounds like a book title to me. Look forward to reading and hearing much more about this.
Michael,
I enjoyed this audio program very much.Thanks!
Have a great time at Cornerstone and I hope you’re able to see a couple good games. Go Reds!(unless they’re playing the Dodgers or Angels)
With regard to the Emergent church and their penchant for ‘doing’; I think one needs to be careful, insomuch as one can make ‘doing’ the ultimate Christian concern, where I believe it is a penultimate concern.
The ultimate Christian concern needs to be proclamation. That is where the power of god resides(Romans 1:16).
Plus, when you are preaching ‘doing’, you are just preaching the law. Anything that you should, must , or ought be doing…is the law. Now you’ve got people living under the law again, instead of being moved by the spirit to do their ‘good works’.
People often end up confused with respect to law/gospel in these types of scenarios.(it’s an easy thing to have happen)
That is why, in classical Lutheranism, the emphasis is not on ‘doing’, but on the gospel. Those that the gospel grabs hold of will be doing their share of ‘good works’ out of gratefulness and prompting of the spirit…or not!
When ‘doing’ is the focus, you will end up despairing people (I’m not doing my share), with phoney people (I’ll pretend I’m doing my share), or with prideful people (I am doing my share).
These are the responses that the law brings forth. As St. Paul says, the law brings death…not life. (paraphrased)
Just something that I thought was important to mention.
Thanks Michael!
- Steve M.
So true man. We’re saying too much. Too much outside of the bullseye. To much cultural christ-o-speak. Again, I think we need some voices to navigate a moderate position in between postmodern emergent deconstruction that winds up saying nothing, and the modernist denominational ivory tower that says way too much. Jesus must be central. Not a departure from doctrine or theology, but a careful study of what gospel theology should be central, making that clear, together with much discussion around how such a minimalist theological emphasis should impact missiology and ecclesiology. There seem to be far too few evangelical voices that emphasize this moderate posture. Thanks for pushing the envelope and fostering conversation along these lines.
Have a good sabbatical, bro!
Tim Melton