What do Rick Warren, John Maxwell and Bill Hybels have in common? They are listed in a new Barna research paper as the top three most influential authors as determined by current pastors. What more do I need to say? If this is what is shaping the thoughts of the leaders of the church, no wonder we are where we are! You can read a full summary here.
(On a happier note, at least John Piper made it to the list!)
Friday, June 03, 2005
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Between Grandma and Jesus
Al Mohler and the staff of Southern Baptist Seminary have put together a list of "core values" that represent the foundation to the direction of where the seminary is going. These values are listed here for you to read, but I wanted to highlight the one on church history:
Historical awareness of the Christian church.
Mohler told how, when he was a student, then-Southern Seminary professor Timothy George walked into church history class and said, "My task in this class is to convince you that there was someone between your grandmother and Jesus and that it matters."
That lesson has stuck with Mohler to this day. "[We should] be aware of [history] so that we will not be ignorant of what has brought us to this place."
Historical awareness of the Christian church.
Mohler told how, when he was a student, then-Southern Seminary professor Timothy George walked into church history class and said, "My task in this class is to convince you that there was someone between your grandmother and Jesus and that it matters."
That lesson has stuck with Mohler to this day. "[We should] be aware of [history] so that we will not be ignorant of what has brought us to this place."
A Personal Invitation to Come to My Church on Sunday, June 5th 2005
To get directions to Grace Fellowship Church, check out www.gfcto.com
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Sing to Memorize the Word
My friend Mark Altrogge has a series of CD's out called Hide the Word. There are about 20 songs on each CD and each song is a verse from the Bible, repeated three times, including the verse reference (after a while, you don't even think twice about singing out loud "first Peter three-eighteen!"). You can listen to song samples and order these great recordings from Mark's website. I highly recommend them! It is amazing to watch my 3 year old son walk around the house perfectly reciting the Word of God! And they have helped my pea-brain memory to learn the Scriptures more quickly.
Homosexuality and Evolution Don't Dance
I read this excellent sentence in Chuck Colson's Breakpoint this past Thursday...
"Of course—any gene that led men to prefer men as sexual partners would have led to the extinction of its carriers. In Darwinist terms, [genetically caused] homosexuality is 'evolutionarily maladaptive.'"
Click here to see the quote in the context of the op-ed piece Colson was interacting with.
"Of course—any gene that led men to prefer men as sexual partners would have led to the extinction of its carriers. In Darwinist terms, [genetically caused] homosexuality is 'evolutionarily maladaptive.'"
Click here to see the quote in the context of the op-ed piece Colson was interacting with.
Sorry for the GAP
I apologize for those of you that check this thing fairly often... one month of no posts is not a good way to keep up interest! I will try to do better in the future.
One thing you may want to look at it are a few new letters from Walter on our church webpage. You can find them at this link.
One thing you may want to look at it are a few new letters from Walter on our church webpage. You can find them at this link.
Alex Montoya at Pastor's Conference
The SGF Canada hosted their annual Pastor's Conference not long ago with Pastor Alex Montoya as the keynote speaker. One of the most profound things he said (and there were a lot of them) was this simple statement: "If your church is not planting churches you are not fulfilling the Great Commission."
Think about it, and I think you will agree. We are going to get the messages from this conference up on our website soon for free download here.
Think about it, and I think you will agree. We are going to get the messages from this conference up on our website soon for free download here.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Meeting Mark Altrogge
For part of our family vacation this year, we traveled to Lord of Life Church in Indiana, Pennsylvania. LOLC is part of the Sovereign Grace Ministries (www.sovereigngraceministries.com) of which the name C.J. Mahaney will be familiar to some. The reason we worshipped at this church was my desire to meet Pastor Mark Altrogge. Mark is also a songwriter and our church has grown very fond of much of his work. To me, he is what John Newton would be like were he alive today - able to take deep theology, wed it with real life and turn a phrase in a most intriguing manner. So, it was a joy when we were able to spend much of Saturday afternoon with our brother, then get to know his family a little on the Sunday. Turns out Mark is just like I had hoped he would be - humble, in love with the Saviour, and more intent on glorifying Him than getting kudos for his music. Would that there were more men and women of his type! Wait! There is! At least two of his sons have followed in Dad's footsteps and are writing. Stephen's song, "What a Glorious Mystery You Are" is one of our favorites! You can read the lyrics and hear clips from many of Mark's songs on the SGM site listed above.
PWM
PWM
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Christian Collegians: Speak Up!
The following is an article from the Southern Baptist Press in the US. I have posted it in its entirety and urge you to read to the end. If you are in university or college - this is a must read!
PWM
Moore to collegians: Proclaim what ‘makes sense of the world’ By Jeff Robinson Mar 8, 2005
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Christians must engage popular culture, not by becoming a cheap imitation of it, but by proclaiming the only story that makes sense of the fallen world -- redemption through a crucified and risen Lord, Russell D. Moore told a group of college students.Moore, dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s school of theology and vice president for academic administration, urged students to avoid two extremes in regard to pop culture: separating from it because they deem it evil and beyond rescue or creating a subculture that includes such pop culture rip-offs as “Christian” boy bands and “Christian” movie stars. “Built within us, there is a longing for a story that makes sense of the world,” Moore said during the fifth annual “Give Me An Answer” Collegiate Conference Feb. 18-19 at the Louisville, Ky., campus.“And what you and I often want to do as Christians is to say, ‘Let’s not talk about the Gospel story; instead, let’s talk about how the Gospel will make us better. Let’s stand up and bring out a beauty queen to talk about how Jesus has made her life and her ministry as a beauty queen that much more effective. Let’s bring out the quarterback to talk about how knowing Jesus has made him so much more effective on the field.’ When instead, what we really need to be doing is standing up to people and saying, ‘We have a different understanding of the world that focuses in on a dead body that came back to life.’”Speaking from Acts 17 –- the Apostle Paul’s sermon at Mars Hill -- Moore pointed out that Paul neither capitulated to the Greek culture nor recoiled from it in moral indignation.Instead, Paul demonstrated that the first-century Athenians did not live in a manner consistent with their own worldview, one rife with worldly philosophies and pagan deities, Moore said. “Paul is not standing back clucking his tongue saying, ‘Isn’t this awful?’” Moore said.“He comes in and starts pointing out aspects of culture that are present in Athens.... [H]e is not trying to build a bridge to the Athenians; he is trying to critique what they believe and say to them, ‘You really don’t believe what you say you believe. There are aspects in your own culture that show what you are really looking for is Christ.’”The themes that characterize contemporary sitcoms, reality shows, movies and music all point to a deep-seated search for meaning and purpose, Moore said, noting that people today are no different than the Athenians of Paul’s day; they are looking for a genuine authority with the definitive answer to life’s thorniest questions and they are longing for genuine relationships within a loving community.Only Christ and His church can fulfill these desires because God has made all people in His own triune image, Moore said. They have been created to desire authentic love and genuine relationships, he said, pointing out that pop culture has become obsessed with sex for precisely this reason.“Sexuality has been designed, [according to] Ephesians 5, to express the great mystery of the cosmos -- the relationship between Christ and His church,” Moore said. “So, when you have individuals who are longing for sexual connection, what they are doing is taking that desire that has been programmed into them to reflect Christ and His church and they are perverting it through a fallen understanding of sin and they are seeking to connect to this deep mystery of existence in ways that will never show the mystery.” Moore encouraged the collegians to be experts at evaluating pop culture in light of the Scriptures and to act on their analysis by offering a definitive story that is utterly unlike the culture, one that is wholly “other” -- the Gospel.Believers must not merely seek to make individual Christians or to live as “lone wolf” believers, Moore said. Instead, they must engage and critique the culture while living as members of the body of Christ, the visible manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth. “The mystery of Christ is that these little gatherings of the church would be a sign, not just to the outside culture, not just to popular culture, but to the principalities and powers, to the demonic order, that the Kingdom is coming, that God is crushing the head of the serpent through Jesus Christ,” Moore said.“So the message that we have to give to pop culture is not just ‘your way isn’t working,’ and it’s not just ‘judgment is coming upon you.’ We need to say, ‘There is a new order, a new Kingdom, and if you want to know what that looks like ... come see this community of the Kingdom. See peace and love and righteousness and joy and self-control. And you cannot see them as individuals, you can only see them working together in community. “‘You will see it imperfectly and it will be messy. You have human beings involved, so you are going to see some squabbles and you are going to see some fights, but you will also see the Kingdom of Christ. You will also see an outpost of the Kingdom here. You will make sense of what you are really longing for that you can’t find out there.’
WWW.BPNEWS.NET Copyright (c) 2001 - 2005 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press
901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203 Tel: 615.244.2355 Fax: 615.782.8736 8736
PWM
Moore to collegians: Proclaim what ‘makes sense of the world’ By Jeff Robinson Mar 8, 2005
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Christians must engage popular culture, not by becoming a cheap imitation of it, but by proclaiming the only story that makes sense of the fallen world -- redemption through a crucified and risen Lord, Russell D. Moore told a group of college students.Moore, dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s school of theology and vice president for academic administration, urged students to avoid two extremes in regard to pop culture: separating from it because they deem it evil and beyond rescue or creating a subculture that includes such pop culture rip-offs as “Christian” boy bands and “Christian” movie stars. “Built within us, there is a longing for a story that makes sense of the world,” Moore said during the fifth annual “Give Me An Answer” Collegiate Conference Feb. 18-19 at the Louisville, Ky., campus.“And what you and I often want to do as Christians is to say, ‘Let’s not talk about the Gospel story; instead, let’s talk about how the Gospel will make us better. Let’s stand up and bring out a beauty queen to talk about how Jesus has made her life and her ministry as a beauty queen that much more effective. Let’s bring out the quarterback to talk about how knowing Jesus has made him so much more effective on the field.’ When instead, what we really need to be doing is standing up to people and saying, ‘We have a different understanding of the world that focuses in on a dead body that came back to life.’”Speaking from Acts 17 –- the Apostle Paul’s sermon at Mars Hill -- Moore pointed out that Paul neither capitulated to the Greek culture nor recoiled from it in moral indignation.Instead, Paul demonstrated that the first-century Athenians did not live in a manner consistent with their own worldview, one rife with worldly philosophies and pagan deities, Moore said. “Paul is not standing back clucking his tongue saying, ‘Isn’t this awful?’” Moore said.“He comes in and starts pointing out aspects of culture that are present in Athens.... [H]e is not trying to build a bridge to the Athenians; he is trying to critique what they believe and say to them, ‘You really don’t believe what you say you believe. There are aspects in your own culture that show what you are really looking for is Christ.’”The themes that characterize contemporary sitcoms, reality shows, movies and music all point to a deep-seated search for meaning and purpose, Moore said, noting that people today are no different than the Athenians of Paul’s day; they are looking for a genuine authority with the definitive answer to life’s thorniest questions and they are longing for genuine relationships within a loving community.Only Christ and His church can fulfill these desires because God has made all people in His own triune image, Moore said. They have been created to desire authentic love and genuine relationships, he said, pointing out that pop culture has become obsessed with sex for precisely this reason.“Sexuality has been designed, [according to] Ephesians 5, to express the great mystery of the cosmos -- the relationship between Christ and His church,” Moore said. “So, when you have individuals who are longing for sexual connection, what they are doing is taking that desire that has been programmed into them to reflect Christ and His church and they are perverting it through a fallen understanding of sin and they are seeking to connect to this deep mystery of existence in ways that will never show the mystery.” Moore encouraged the collegians to be experts at evaluating pop culture in light of the Scriptures and to act on their analysis by offering a definitive story that is utterly unlike the culture, one that is wholly “other” -- the Gospel.Believers must not merely seek to make individual Christians or to live as “lone wolf” believers, Moore said. Instead, they must engage and critique the culture while living as members of the body of Christ, the visible manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth. “The mystery of Christ is that these little gatherings of the church would be a sign, not just to the outside culture, not just to popular culture, but to the principalities and powers, to the demonic order, that the Kingdom is coming, that God is crushing the head of the serpent through Jesus Christ,” Moore said.“So the message that we have to give to pop culture is not just ‘your way isn’t working,’ and it’s not just ‘judgment is coming upon you.’ We need to say, ‘There is a new order, a new Kingdom, and if you want to know what that looks like ... come see this community of the Kingdom. See peace and love and righteousness and joy and self-control. And you cannot see them as individuals, you can only see them working together in community. “‘You will see it imperfectly and it will be messy. You have human beings involved, so you are going to see some squabbles and you are going to see some fights, but you will also see the Kingdom of Christ. You will also see an outpost of the Kingdom here. You will make sense of what you are really longing for that you can’t find out there.’
WWW.BPNEWS.NET Copyright (c) 2001 - 2005 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press
901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203 Tel: 615.244.2355 Fax: 615.782.8736 8736
Sunday, March 06, 2005
The Old Man Said...
Our church has been getting these cool letters from an old guy named Walter. He has walked with the Lord for many years and has some excellent advice on how to follow Jesus. You can read these letters on our website here. He covers everything from being a woman to how to handle your money. You may not agree with everything he writes, but there is bound to be something there for you!
PWM
PWM
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