The IM Weekend File: 09:18:09

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]

Why Doesn’t The Church Talk About Domestic Abuse?

UPDATE: Check out: “Seven Reasons Women Stay In Abusive Relationships and How To Defeat Each One of Them” by John Shore.

From Kentucky.com, following a high profile murder that followed a high profile history of domestic abuse

The news reports of the recent death of Amanda Ross, allege that she was a victim of domestic violence. Based on statistics, it is likely domestic violence is happening across all faith communities in Kentucky. (According to the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association, in 2007, over 4,000 Kentuckians were in shelters, including 2,313 women and 1,760 children.) Are faith communities adequately addressing the problem?

1. It’s an issue where women and children are the victims of men’s sins (primarily), so it’s an uphill battle right there.

2. Scripture deals with “love your wife as Christ loves the church,” and the application is obvious, but none of Paul’s sin lists or our favorite parables or stories contain a guy who slaps around his girlfriend or a man who beats his wife when he’s drunk.

3. What’s the payoff for the average pastor who brings this up? Counseling women and hearing embarrassing secrets. And then….divorces. We all know how evangelicals feel about those….or, at least most of them

4. Never has the church’s need to develop its own counseling resources with women specializing in helping women been more obvious. [Continue reading]

A Picture of the Father’s Grace

A wonderful picture of the Father’s grace toward us. If you have been told that God is not like this, remember that in Jesus he is more like this than you could ever imagine.

Let go forever of the scolding, punishing God who demands perfection. Embrace the Father who blesses us and delights in us because of his over-flowing love.

Open Mic at the iMonk Cafe: Preaching is….Preaching is not.

It’s a simple question for this edition of open mic.

Preaching is ________________. And/Or Preaching is not ________________.

Don’t write a novel or even a short story. Keep it compact and to the point.

I especially hope that this open mic question will involve as many non-preachers as possible. Preachers might not know everything there is to know about preaching. Ya think?

The mic is yours. Feel free to offer answers and to discuss answers in the threaded comments.

Some Thoughts on Lutheranism and Evangelicalism + A Brief Review of the Lutheran Study Bible

Let me begin by saying that I did not receive a review copy of The Lutheran Study Bible, though I probably could have. Like the ESV Study Bible, I bought my own copy from the publisher. I’m open to bribes, kickbacks and rental, but in this instance, it didn’t happen.

Concordia Publishing has now completed what I think is a rather extraordinary collection of books for those interested in historic, orthodox Lutheran spirituality: The Reader’s Edition of the Lutheran Confessions, The Treasury of Daily Prayer, The Lutheran Service Book (I’d love to have someone donate ten of these to our ministry) and now The Lutheran Study Bible. I know of no other tradition that has accomplished anything remotely like this in such a usable form and in a way that can introduce anyone- clergy or layperson- to the riches of the Lutheran version of the Reformation and the Lutheran approach to spirituality.

It is ironic then, that I have to say at the outset that outside of existing Lutheranism, it’s doubtful that large numbers of evangelicals will ever seen these resources without asking for them on special order. I am sure that large bookstores will have the occasional volume here and there, but unless one is within Lutheranism, on a Lutheran campus, visits a Concordia store, listens to Lutheran radio or friendly confessional internet programming, these resources will never be known. [Continue reading]

Recommendation and Review: Deep Church by Jim Belcher

Jim Belcher’s Deep Church has been at the top of my book review stack for over a month. After living with my nose in my own book- a book stuffed with criticism of the current evangelical scene- it was a refreshing experience to read Belcher’s good work.

Deep Church seeks to examine a third way between the traditional and emerging camps, a way Belcher has discovered in his own journey from early years as an emerging church advocate to more recent experience as a PCA church planter. The narrative- and this book is just as more narrative as teaching- is a fascinating one, as Belcher doesn’t hesitiate to name names and to characterize positions bluntly and honestly. If anyone can be said to attempt an impartial moderation of the emerging/traditional divide in evangelicalism, it is Belcher.

It is, however, my opinion that Belcher’s book, despite a valiant attempt to be impartial, amounts to a thorough revelation of the failure of the emerging church to offer an answer for evangelicalism, and a clarion call to the position this web site has taken for most of its history: the post-evangelical appropriation of the the great tradition; the wisdom of the broader, deeper more ancient church, in meeting the evangelical challenge today. A chastened, invigorated traditionalism, re-rooted in deeper, better soil and paying attention to the younger voices and cultural changes, is the better evangelical future. [Continue reading]

Liturgical Gangstas 15: That Evolution Question

Welcome to IM’s popular feature, “The Liturgical Gangstas,” a panel discussion among different liturgical traditions represented in the Internet Monk audience.

Who are the Gangstas?

Father Ernesto Obregon is an Eastern Orthodox priest.
Rev. Joe Boysel is an Anglican (AMiA) priest and professor of Bible at Ohio Christian University in Circleville, Ohio. (Ask him about famous alumni.)
Dr. Wyman Richardson is a pastor of a First Baptist Church (SBC) and director of Walking Together Ministries, a resource on church discipline.
Alan Creech is a Roman Catholic with background in the Emerging church and spiritual direction.
Rev. Matthew Johnson is a United Methodist pastor.
Rev. William Cwirla is a Lutheran pastor (LCMS) and one of the hosts of The God Whisperers, which is a podcast nearly as good as Internet Monk Radio.
And we have a new gangsta! Eric Landry is the editor of Modern Reformation Magazine. In addition, he is a PCA church planter in southern California.

Here’s this week’s question: A pre-med college student in your congregation comes to you and says “I’ve been learning about evolution at school, and I can’t recall the subject ever being discussed or talked about here at church. I’ve never really asked if there was a conflict between evolution and being a Christian. Can I believe what I’m being taught, or do I have to oppose it because I am a Christian? [Continue reading]

iMonk 101: What Did Jesus’ Version of Community Look Like?

From May of this year. It’s “Spiritual Emphasis Week” for the next three days. Very busy.

Commenter: Please explain what you mean by:”community as Jesus exemplified it”. Thanks

It is the community that Jesus created and demonstrated during his earthly ministry.

I would describe it as:

Cross cultural: Jesus crossed every available cultural barrier to announce and practice the Kingdom.

Counter cultural: Jesus was offering an alternative to the dominant cultural and religious options in his world.

Inclusive: Jesus was creating community that included all of the excluded at every level. He dd this– as he did all of his community movement– with total intentionality. [Continue reading]

Recommendation and Review: Jesus Girls edited by Hannah Faith Notess

OK. Lots of book reviews and book plugs coming. I’ve got a bit of a window here in the final stages of my book and I am woefully behind on some of these reviews. (**He bows to those he has offended, begging mercy.**) So stand by.

One note: If you are an RSS reader of this blog and you haven’t resubscribed to the feed since we redid the front page, that’s why you only get the short version in Google reader. Re-subscribe and you’ll be a happier person.

Someone wrote me and said they’d heard of a book I might like. I said can you get me a copy. They said it wasn’t published. They contacted the author, who had the publisher send me a pdf, which I’ve been reading on my ipod Touch for a couple of weeks. The book arrived today.

It’s Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical, edited by Hannah Faith Notess. It is part of a series called Experiences in Evangelicalism and is published by Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock. Mars Hill Graduate School (not associated with Driscoll, etc) is involved somehow.

There are 22 authors, 22 essays in the broad categories of community, worship, education, sex and identity. Actually, the essays are more precise than those categories, covering topics like testimonies, ordination, end of the world fever, church splits, dating, abortion, feminism, quiet times, Christian music and many other aspects of the recent evangelical experience. [Continue reading]

Internet Monk Radio Podcast #156

This week: Osteen’s back. Chris Buckley’s book. Reader mail on the Evangelical Wilderness and how to get out of it.

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.

Osteen at the White Horse Inn
Losing Mum and Pup by Christopher Buckley

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The IM Weekend File: 09:12:09

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.
__________
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]

The Evangelical Liturgy 10: The Children’s Sermon

For beginners, read the Introduction to this series, then visit the categories menu and hit “Evangelical Liturgy” for all previous entries. In a sentence, I’m walking through all the parts of the traditional Protestant worship service and discussing the value of recovering our own liturgical tradition.

The children’s sermon is certainly the most innovative and optional part of the Protestant liturgy. I am not aware of its actual historical roots in evangelicalism, but it is now a common practice in many Protestant churches using the kind of liturgy I am describing here.

Certainly, no one is to be criticized for not having it, nor is it even possible at some churches for many valid reasons. (Like no kids!) It is completely a pastors call.

The value of the children’s sermon will be debated among those who have strong feelings about making any part of the worship service “child friendly” in much the same way “seeker friendly” innovations predictably raise ire and objection. [Continue reading]

Love Is An Orientation: Reader Reviews Part 2

Here are five more reader reviews of the IVP book Love Is An Orientation by Andrew Marin. Thanks to Chris Giammona for the book donation and to these readers for their good responses. Visit Andrew at LoveisAnOrientation.com.

_____
Andrew Marin left me with several take-aways through his book, Love is an Orientation. The most important was helping me see GLBT people as real people with real struggles, rather than as the enemy. As I read Andrew’s description of the account of John, who at avery young age realized he was attracted to other boys and asked God repeatedly to take the attraction away, I was able to actually imagine myself in John’s shoes. I remember what it was like to come of age and deal with confusing opposite-gender sexual feelings that I had never experienced before. To add the complication of same gender attraction on top of that already confusing time would have been too much to bear. Compassion has to be the foundation of any evangelical’s discussions with the GLBT community. This realization hit home to me in a very personal way. I had a gay roomate during my freshman year at a conservative evangelical university. When I discovered his sexual orientation, my attitude towards him changed and I was far from compassionate compassionate towards him. Even after I learned the facts about childhood sexual abuse he experienced, I isolated myself from him and basically cut off the relationship. I wish I could go back and re-do the way I treated him.  I wish I could have seen him as a broken creation of God, just like me, who desired to be in a right relationship with his creator (I happen to know he did desire this). [Continue reading]

Jesus- Yes; Church- No? Maybe.

Therefore, a slogan that was popular some years back: “Jesus yes, Church no”, is totally inconceivable with the intention of Christ. This individualistically chosen Jesus is an imaginary Jesus. We cannot have Jesus without the reality he created and in which he communicates himself. Between the Son of God-made-flesh and his Church there is a profound, unbreakable and mysterious continuity by which Christ is present today in his people. He is always contemporary with us, he is always contemporary with the Church, built on the foundation of the Apostles and alive in the succession of the Apostles. And his very presence in the community, in which he himself is always with us, is the reason for our joy.

Agree?

Anyone remember a religious leader talking about the “heresy” of individual salvation lately? You might be surprised how difficult it can be to continue to affirm that Jesus is saving sinners as individuals, not dispensing salvation to a group through a church.

Agree that when an individual “chooses” Jesus and not the church it’s an “imaginary” Jesus? Agree that Christ’s way of being present in the world is the church? There’s plenty for this collective-resisting Protestant to talk about, but I’m mostly interested in the papal swing at the well-known fat pitch “Jesus, Yes; the Church, No.”

“Jesus, Yes; the Church, No” has been around for a long time. It makes a good sign. Sounds good as a cheer. [Continue reading]

The Evangelical Liturgy 9: Singing.

For beginners, read the Introduction to this series, then visit the categories menu and hit “Evangelical Liturgy” for all previous entries. In a sentence, I’m walking through all the parts of the traditional Protestant worship service and discussing the value of recovering our own liturgical tradition.

Singing. Oh yes….singing. I love to sing. I learned to sing before I was a Christian, first at school and then at church. I miss singing more than I can say. Our students don’t sing. Most of the adults I work with don’t sing much. I loved choirs and hymn-sings as a young Christian. It’s one of the worst things about the evangelical wilderness. Nothing is as wonderful to me as singing in church.

Congregational singing. One of evangelicalism’s great legacies, thanks to Isaac Watts, the Wesleys and some great music in the midst of the not-so-great flood of music out of revivalism, the Jesus movement, CCM, etc.

Not somebody or a group singing to the audience….uh…congregation, but congregational singing. Worship by singing. Proclamation by singing.

First, off, let’s be clear. Singing is mentioned in Paul’s instructions about worship in a descriptive way and in a prescriptive way, so it’s part of worship. Second, that doesn’t mean from that point on, we can do whatever we want because it’s mentioned in the Bible.

Music is dominating most evangelical worship these days and I, for one, am ready to have less of it in most instances. There’s a serious need for regulation and moderation of music in an atmosphere where many “churches” are becoming more like entertainment venues than any previous conception of worship. [Continue reading]