Joe Thorn and I watched a truly great movie tonight. Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe is about a man who can take a punch inside and outside the ring. Not only is he his kids' hero but he's also the champion of his wife's heart. As a husband and father, the movie resonated with me like few others.
You will rarely see a movie so well made and acted, and that so effectively grabs your emotions. You leave wanting to endure adversity in such a remarkable way.
Read Joe's review.
Lilian Calles Barger, author of Eve's Revenge, on Mars Hill Audio Journal 63...
When I say local church or local community, I mean local. Local is not getting in the car once a week to drive 15 miles across town to a megachurch that's got 5,000 or 6,000 people where you spend 2 hours there and go home. That is not a community, that is an association.
When I say "community," and I'm talking about "local community," I'm talking within a very small geographic space, because we are people that live in a small geographic space. No matter how much we talk about going global, we live within a few square miles of where we live. I think it's sad that we have gotten away from the neighborhood church, that people are now driving miles to go to a huge church for 2 hours.
The only way the church is going to be a redeeming community that is affective in the lives of people is when we get back to a very local model: smaller churches closer to where people live and work. That way we can integrate all of life.
I've been looking forward to the online ministry of Sam Storms for a while now. It's good to see Enjoying God Ministries is up and at 'em (so Piperesque, I know, but God is fairly Piperesque, so that's cool I guess).
Storms is working through Carson's book on the emerging church and putting up a series of responses as an "extended review." I'm linking them here as they come online. By the way, Mark Driscoll has a nice, concise review of Carson's book on Amazon.
The tail end of a thunderstorm just developed right over my house (my city at least). The weather map in a matter of minutes went from clear to a strong storm just East of us. We sat outsite for about 10 minutes just watching the clouds mushroom. It was awe-some.
This just never gets old...
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joyO Divine Master
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console
to be understood, as to understand
to be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
it is in dying that we are born into Eternal Life.
Amen.
Doug Pagitt writes,
A number of us have been working for a few months on a collectiveresponse to criticisms that have been made about us and Emergent. We decided to put a document together, not for the purpose of settling all matters, but to try and put words around our hopes, and to give those who have to respond on our behalf some indication of what we are thinking on these matters.
I imagine that others would like to "sign on" to this response, if not in words then in spirit. Those listed are among the people who have been "called out" either for what they have written or said, but mostly what has been written.
And here's a link to the collective response (PDF file) by Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, Chris Seay, Spencer Burke, Dan Kimball, Andrew Jones, and Tony Jones.
I think it's a great response that needs very wide reading, from the staunch critic who has likened Brian McLaren to a cult leader to the blogger who hates emergent because their pastor told them to. These four pages won't answer all the questions or do enough to moisten the dry tongue of the critics, but I think it carries wisdom as well as a humble spirit.
I want to play briefly with one thought that came to mind while reading this. Often in church history the greatest theologians, authors, hymn writers (and so on) were pastors. The practitioners were writing and their writing was informed not only by their preaching, but their daily involvement with the pains and joys of the local church ministry. Is the Emerging Church about recovering that? I'm not sure, but I think it's worth thinking about.
OTHER LINKS: Official post and conversation at Emergent-US; TallSkinnyKiwi; Justin Taylor; Emergent No; A-Team Blog; Subversive Influence;
Cubs have won 7 straight. They have had at least 10 hits in each of the last 7 games. Derrek Lee is batting .389 and is 11 for his last 13 at bats (8 for 8 in his last two games). The pitching is getting better even without Prior and Wood, including a 1 hitter yesterday (Zambrano) and a 4 hit shutout tonight (Rusch).
UPDATE 6.6.05: Good article on Derrek Lee on the front page of Sportsline.com today.
This is fun baseball, and the race for the playoffs is getting tight. After a pitiful beginning of the season, this may be an interesting summer after all
Joel Rainey has a good post over at Themelios on the conservative resurgence in the SBC and young leaders. He is basically springboarding Stetzer's two articles. It looks like Rainey is going to post more on this, and it should be a good read.
Our local paper, The Woodstock Independent, captured me on film in their latest issue. I'm sitting at Starbucks reading The Shaping of Things to Come by Frost and Hirsch and sipping a grande-skim-with whip-3 pump mocha. Uh, that's Don on the right, some other guy, then me.
Andrew Jones (TallSkinnyKiwi) has put up a great post on postmoderns, emergent, the possibilities of being a heretic, and being in the same boat as Jim Packer and John Stott. Great post. He begins the post by spring-boarding off a comment from my Emerging SBC Leaders blog.
I had no idea this existed. Shame on me.
Pre-retirement suburbanites tend to get the city newspaper. It has better news and sports. Retired suburbanites tend to get the local, suburban or city paper. It has obituaries of people they know.
Whatever your preference of newspaper, missional suburbanites should always get the local paper. It has local events, when and where bands play, news on book clubs, and any number of things that provide opportunities to jump into the culture and enjoy and love and serve.
Alright, that was a really racy title. Two plugs. Hat Tip: Justin Taylor
Interesting four page interview with Bruce Ware, theologian at SBTS, on the issue of free will. It's PDF, and it starts on page 4.
You can get a free copy of the forthcoming Sex and the Supremacy of Christ book if you will read the advanced copy in PDF, review it on your blog, and send Justin Taylor the link. My wife and I attended the conference in Minneapolis that is being transformed into this book. It was excellent. Go to JT's blog for more info.
Baptist Press is releasing four articles on emerging young leaders. The first article, "Young Leaders: Back to the Future" is by Bob Reccord, the leader of the North American Mission Board of the SBC. It doesn't say much, but just by saying anything it says something. In other words, by Reccord putting his name on the first article gives weight to whatever comes next. Probably a good move in an all too political convention.
The second article, released today, is by Ed Stetzer: "Are 'Baptist' and 'Biblical' Synonyms?" Ed created NewChurches.com and works at NAMB.
A few quotes from Stetzer concerning young SBC leaders. My emphasis is in bold.
Theologically, they want “Baptist” and “biblical” to be synonyms. Missionally, they want Baptists to find new ways to reach our communities and the world.
[...]
The issues that are driving younger leaders away are not theological; they are cultural and missional. They are tired of being told that dress, worship style and traditional practices are biblical mandates when they are found neither in the Bible nor in the denomination’s faith statement.
[...]
In essence, we’re talking about their desire to be Christians who are living in a mission setting. As a result, their expressions of biblical worship use diverse music, preaching styles, dress, etc. It’s not about hipper clothes and cooler music. It’s about being God’s missionary where He has placed us now, not 50 or 500 years ago.
[...]
The conservative resurgence accomplished its purpose, and we have a group of young leaders committed to biblical theology and missional ministry. We must not now fight for our traditions as if they were our doctrine. They aren’t the same thing.
Younger leaders want to lead churches that are theologically sound and missionally committed. If they don’t find the SBC to be biblical and missional, they will find their own fellowships, and we will be the weaker for it. We had a theological resurgence, but young leaders want a missional resurgence, too. They want “Baptist” and “biblical” to be synonyms, and they want to get busy reaching the world!
UPDATE: Dr. Draper has now changed to a blog hosted at Lifeway. Hopefully this will make comments possible, but not so much yet.
-----
Jimmy Draper, the head honcho over at SBC's Lifeway, is now blogging at Crosswalk.com (Lifeway). Here's a link to his blog. His first post is about blogging and about what he's learned in the Younger Leaders Dialogues (for emerging leaders in the SBC). In
the last paragraph he is very generous to my other site, Emerging SBC Leaders. UPDATE: Baptist Press has an article on it as well.
Dr. Draper knows that he doesn't fully understand us, but also says that we don't fully understand his generation either. Fair, and as he says, it's a good reason for us to talk. It's obvious he could care less about blogging, but realizes that blogging is a means to connect with us better. Good move. Unfortunately he's using a blogging system that doesn't allow comments (which he admits), but it's a start anyway.
A part of my concern with the current leadership of the SBC and older generations (if you will allow me to broadbrush), is that they usually think that for us this conversation is about our way of doing things vs. their way of doing things. I don't think this site or the concerns we raise are only about (or even primarily about) doing things differently. I think it's also about doing them better. But maybe that's our problem too, in that we find things older generations do as always inferior to our brilliance. We need to be very careful and willing to listen to see if we are overstating our case.
Is a desire to move from institutional to incarnational, or from monuments to a movement, about doing it different? Or doing it better? Are we only about being different to reach younger generations, or more missional to reach all generations better? I think these are some of the most important questions as we seek to see walls come down and find real understanding between us.
iMonk has a good post on Steve Brown's response to John Piper and Christian Hedonism. Pretty good critique that Piperites need to hear.
James 5:7-11, my passage for tomorrow morning's sermon, mentions Job in verse 11.
Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. (ESV)
Now, I haven't studied the commentaries on Job recently, and I don't mean to speak authoritatively on the issues I raise, but I just want to make an interesting observation and ask of possibilities.
As an historical figure Job is curious. His life circumstances seem odd, not just because of The Satan and God and their strange and revealed cooperation, but also because of how the things that happen seem so artificial. For instance Job loses so much, but after it all he ends up exactly twice as much as before.
Because of this perceived artificiality (does God ever really double the pleasure like this in real life?), some have determined Job wasn't a real guy after all. His life is fiction in order to make a point, or something like that. Others put on their armor and defend Job as no less historical than their grand-mother. To say otherwise makes you a liberal.
The question that popped into my head tonight is, Why can't we see Job as a God-intended living metaphor? In other words, maybe we aren't supposed to see Job as "this life" literal (It could happen to you!), but metaphorical literal, like how God used Ezekiel. God cast Ezekiel in many different "living metaphor" roles in his ministry where he acted out in his life the realities of God's people and exile. He would rip a hole in his wall, or lay on his side for so many days, or eat a scrumptious feces loaf. In Ezekiel the living metaphor is obvious. In Job, could it be the same thing, but not so explicit?
As far as I know, I may be the only person to think this, or the last person to think of this. Whatever. But I think makes sense of Job because we don't have to wonder why God only did these things to one guy. Also, we can still believe that Job is a real guy which is important, I think. And in Job's life we see on display what God wants us to know about suffering and the riches of God, which we know are ultimately found in Christ.
A little thinking outloud, pre-sermon. Thanks for listening. I need sleep.
Christianity Today has their 2005 Book Awards posted. Congrats to Scot McKnight for The Jesus Creed which won for "Christian Living" (I'm on chapter 3 right now). I'm also reading Gilead, which won for fiction. I started reading it after McKnight recommended it over at Jesus Creed blog.
(HT: Justin Taylor)
