Category Archives: Culture

Explicit Gospel Tour — Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler is touring in six states for his new book, The Explicit Gospel.

He will also be touring with Shane and Shane.

I’ll definitely be catching him in Florida.


From The Resurgence:

Inspired by the needs of both the overchurched and the unchurched, and bolstered by the common neglect of the explicit gospel within Christianity, Matt Chandler has written this punchy treatise. He begins with the specifics of the gospel—outlining what it is and what it is not—and then switches gears to focus on the fullness of the gospel and its massive implications on both personal and cosmic levels.



For full size, here.


Book Review: ReThink


ReThink
By Steve Wright

Summary:
Youth ministry is messed up, don’t you know? So says every article on youth ministry, ever. Steve Wright is onto something here, but beats a dead horse so badly that it looks alive from the twitching of his unrelenting beatdown.

Weaknesses:
The ratio is about Ten to One: Ten complaints for every One solution. He never stops saying there’s a problem with youth ministry. We get it. By chapter four when he offers a way forward, he still keeps hammering that there must be change. This doesn’t let up to the final page.

Continue reading →

For Sale or For Lent

I’ve decided this Lent to give up online shopping for forty days.

Since I have Amazon Prime, I constantly make random impulse buys: pens, notepads, headphones, guitar accessories, and as many as a dozen books at a time. I get at least one shipment per week.

Since I also decided to cut my life in half, this will be helpful.

Here’s to no more impulse buying.

What are you giving up?


I Want To Read My Bible — But How?

You cracked open your journal, busted out your favorite pen, and finally opened your Bible.

Five sentences later, you have no idea what you just read.

Confusion, frustration, resignation: But the pastor made it so easy. It was better when he told it.

And the final excuse: At least I tried.

It’s happened to all of us, from rookies to veterans, when we catch the excitement of digging into Scripture and come out cold. Most of us will conclude the Bible is too hard, that we’re not mature enough, that we need to be spoon-fed, that something’s wrong with me, that we’ll try it again later. And with each pass at reading, we grow more bewildered.

Every pastor with the best of intentions is yelling at you to read your Bible, but they forget to tell you how.

Of course the simplest way would be to turn to Genesis and just rip right through it. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a little help in reading Scripture. If you genuinely want to read the Bible but have had some false starts, here are some ways to dig into the Greatest Truth in the universe.

Continue reading →

Quote: Individualism


Based on our research, I also worry that some of the Christian community’s teaching on abstinence focuses too much on the personal, individualist benefits of delaying sex until marriage. I am certainly not questioning the motives of those who urge the next generation toward sexual purity but I do wonder if some of the methods reflect a mindset influenced by individualism. ‘Save yourself for marriage and have fantastic sex with one partner, the way it’s meant to be. Sex as God intended will blow your mind. Be safe; avoid the risks of STDs and an unwanted pregnancy. Think about your future.’ Much of the abstinence messaging, however well-intended, capitulates to culturally cultivated individualism: sex is about me.

– David Kinnaman

“Give Up the Gimmicks, Youth Pastors”



An article about youth ministry by Brian Cosby at The Gospel Coalition.

Excerpt:

“All too often, youth programs have turned to entertainment-driven models of ministry in order to bring in youth. Success has become the name of the church-growth game. The devastating effects, however, are not only seen in the number of youth leaving the church after high school, but also in a spiritually and theologically shallow worldview among many American teenagers. The irony is that these same teens actually want to grow and learn hard truths. They want to know how to think about suffering, how to pray, and why Jesus had to die.

If there’s anything a youth pastor knows—even after only a few months in ministry—it’s that fatigue and feelings of burnout come with the task. The constant pressure from parents, youth, church leadership, the senior pastor, and even his own family can wear a minister out very quickly.”

Continue Reading at The Gospel Coalition


Read Related:

– Young People: Not So Young
– Question: Youth Ministry Struggles
– How To Lose God In Ten Days
– When Pastors Just Want To Quit
– Book Review: Speaking To Teenagers
– Book Review: You Lost Me


Question: What About Disease and Disasters?

themichaelwchen asked:
Hello :) Thank you for the follow! I have a question that I hope you may be able to shed a bit of light on. Actually, it’s a question that my friend asked me and I’ve been a bit torn on how to answer. Does God create disease and natural disasters? If so, why? If not, why doesn’t He stop them? I would appreciate your response greatly! -In Christ, Michael

Please first know that we tiny little human beings with our 3 lb. brains and stupid idol-craving hearts couldn’t possibly answer the huge question of planetary problems.  The Bible (not surprisingly) doesn’t say much about it, except that disaster and disease will happen.  In other words, God doesn’t need to defend Himself since He’s God.

But I’ll try to provide some biblical and logical reasons here. Please note that to an unbeliever, these answers will sound stupid.  But the Bible told us that would happen, even when Jesus died, and believers will reason it out through His Spirit.  So I’m not here to convince anyone, but rather humbly see things from God’s point of view.

Continue reading →

Secular Vs. Spiritual: How Do I Glorify God At My Desk Job? Part 2

A four part series on connecting Christ with your career, and how he owns it.
1) Restorative — 2) Creative — 3) Narrative — 4) Connective

Is being a pastor or missionary the only “real work” for God?

The church has missed sorely on exhorting believers to faithful living in their careers, instead lifting “ministry” as a first class calling and degrading a full-time job as bottom-of-the-barrel drudgery. This sort of false divide creates unnecessary tension for those desiring to “work for God,” thinking we can only do so through seminary or your Church Membership class.

We do a great disservice to artists, doctors, musicians, writers, and all the sciences when we relegate them to a dustbin of irredeemable secular scraps.

Here will be four biblical principles derived from the Books of Nehemiah, Daniel, and other places that outline how our individual vocations honor God. The first was Restorative. The second is Creative. The others will be in upcoming posts.

Continue reading →

“An Open Letter To Praise Bands”

An article by James Smith well worth reading for both praise bands and churchgoers.

Excerpt:

Without us realizing it, the dominant practices of performance train us to relate to music (and musicians) in a certain way: as something for our pleasure, as entertainment, as a largely passive experience.

In a concert, we come to expect that weird sort of sensory deprivation that happens from sensory overload, when the pounding of the bass on our chest and the wash of music over the crowd leaves us with the rush of a certain aural vertigo. And there’s nothing wrong with concerts! It’s just that Christian worship is not a concert. Christian worship is a collective, communal, congregational practice–and the gathered sound and harmony of a congregation singing as one is integral to the practice of worship.

Continue Reading at Fors Clavigera


Read Related:

- What About The Guy In The Back? – Why Bigger Worship Is Not Better Worship
- I Love That Song
- How To Lose God In Ten Days
- Sermon Fail: Unprepared In The Pulpit
- The Worst Sermon I Have Ever Heard


Leaving Church?

With all the surveys and research and anecdotes about people leaving the church, I wonder if something else is happening.

I wonder if stronger churches are thinning out the nominal, non-committed, window-shopping church-hoppers.  Maybe visitors are facing a rebirth of solid doctrine and unashamed gospel preaching and finally hearing what the Bible is really about.

The name Christian could be going under serious reconstruction. 

Continue reading →

Quote: Intellect

We should not assume that the tough questions of a hostile professor are at the root of lost faith. Rather in many instances, I believe the Christian community has failed to disciple its science-inclined students to become responsible, intelligent, capable, resourceful, and faithful followers of Christ. We need to do a better job stewarding the intellect of this generation.

– David Kinnaman

Question: How Does The Trinity Work?

Follow-up question to this one about the Holy Spirit.

mwali asked:
Hello! Not to make your head explode, but I have always been curious… how exactly can God be one God but three persons? We is mentioned at church and in the bible, of course, but it still feels like a blurry concept! I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on this! Have a lovely day, and God Bless! :)

Since I have a tiny little human brain compared to whales and Watson (that darn supercomputer), I doubt I’ll come close to helping. But here we go.

I don’t think I can tell you how the Trinity “works,” but I can tell you (in part) why it’s necessary.

Continue reading →

Question: What’s The Holy Spirit?

Anonymous asked:
I’m so confused… what is the Holy Spirit?

Don’t you mean the Holy Ghost?

I kid.  Good old King James, you know.

Let’s see:

- The Holy Spirit is God.

- The Holy Spirit is not a part of God or from God or inside God.

- The Holy Spirit is in a loving Trinity-Community with Jesus the Son and God the Father. One God, three persons.

- If you ask me how God can be one God but three persons, my head might explode.  Since I’m guessing you don’t want that, we’ll leave that a mystery.

Continue reading →

Quote: He Is

“God did not die for man because of some value He perceived in him. The value of each human soul considered simply in itself, out of relation to God, is zero. As St. Paul writes, to have died for valuable men would have been not divine but merely heroic; but God died for sinners. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is love.”

– C.S. Lewis