strong words from ToddonGod

Todd Burus has written a two part “personal” review of the Shack. He pulls no punches on either the theology or the literary style of the book. Entertaining stuff. Now I think that I will have to break down and read it myself. Here is part 1 where Todd addresses the book as literature. for [...]

Militant Atheism on the March

courtesy of KJL here is an article on the rise in the sale of “de-baptism” certificates. some bits: Michael Evans, 66, branded baptising children as “a form of child abuse” — and said that when he complained to the church where he was christened he was told to contact the European Court of Human Rights. [...]

ouch

Shaun Groves makes a diagram of his life that applies to yours too. then he says: On your first day on the other side of the grave, do you think you’ll look back on this life and be flooded with gratitude for hours spent watching episodes of American Idol and Lost? Will you wish you’d [...]

pitfalls in planting

over at the Resurgence Blog (where Mark Driscoll has just posted about complementarianism) Barry Keldie is doing a series about pitfalls to be careful of when planting a church. The first two of the series have been posted. the first one is finances. When you or your elders have developed and written out a plan [...]

distractions and self-control

The point is that we all do exactly what we want to do. We eat what we want to eat, watch what we want to watch, listen to what we want to hear, read what we want to read and so on. That is why I wrote The Lie articles and why John Piper pushes [...]

Dr. Mohler’s take

Bryan posted a link to this article in his comment to my recent church planting post. And I wanted to make sure everybody saw both Bryan’s comment and the article. Al Mohler is discussing Fred Barnes’ article in the Wall Street Journal about being a part of a church plant. Dr. Mohler says: The only [...]

photo phriday

I bought a well used and very cheap twenty year old film camera and have been taking some pictures on, get this, FILM. Lots of fun. picture from which the current header is cropped. here are my nephew and daughter and more flowers

DVR alert

A debate between Mark Driscoll and Annie Lobert against Deepak Chopra and Carlton Pearson on Satan will be on ABC’s Nightline at 11:30 p.m. ET tonight. Preview at the link. Here are 8 things that Jamie Munson of Mars Hill Church says we should know about the debate. 1. The debate was more about Jesus [...]

stormy seas? no problem

Courtesy of John Mark at Sweet Tea and Theology, here is a great quote from John Newton (the author of the hymn Amazing Grace) I heartily sympathize with you in your complaints; but I see you in safe hands. The Lord loves you, and will take care of you. He who raises the dead, can [...]

more on church planting

Courtesy of Vitamin Z, here are two more takes on church planting. First we have Fred Barnes’ account of being a part of a church plant from the beginning after 25 years in the “mother” church that birthed the new one. Very interesting indeed. anyone, no matter how famous or not, can be a part [...]

veggie tales

Veggie tales and the idol of “impact.” After the financial collapse of Phil‘s company Big Idea Entertainment, makers of Veggie Tales, Phil explained the belief system that had driven him to make the motion picture that caused it all: “God would never call us from greater impact to lesser impact! Impact is everything! How many [...]

complementarianism

Complementarianism. Isn’t that a great word? It represents one of the most hated Biblical doctrines in our modern world. Mark Driscoll was reviled for believing in this doctrine long before he was taken to task for being too vulgar. Complementarianism is the doctrine that men and women are different and that God has provided for [...]

A trillion dollars

via challies, here is a little visual representation of how much money a trillion dollars really is.

a little political aside

David Warren of Ottawa gives his assessment of Barack Obama’s performance so far: I think [Obama] was perfectly sincere in denying that he was anything of the sort, and in claiming that he would be looking for bipartisan consensus. I also think he is sincere in proceeding with an agenda — on bail-outs, the environment, [...]

what does it take?

what does it take to get serious with God? what does it take to go past the superficial acknowledgement to knowing God the way that Paul sought to know Him? Unfortunately, because we are so hard-headed and because the pull of the physical world around us is so strong, it often takes being broken into [...]

Religiosity

I am often amazed at the difference between people’s perception of Jesus and the real Jesus revealed in the Bible. One of the reasons I enjoy Mark Driscoll is that he absolutely nails this distinction between popular conceptions of Jesus and Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus was tender with the woman at the well [...]

book sale

I read this book earlier this year. it was really very good indeed. Now it is on sale for 5.00 In celebration of Spectacular Sins winning a Christian Book Award, we’re offering it for $5 through Sunday. Update: This book is also available in hardcover. hat tip to Vitamin Z

truth and doctrine

Kevin DeYoung has a great series of four posts on Truths that Transform, Doctrines that Damn. Here are his summary conclusions, but go read all four posts. First off, we see that anyone who says they have a church with no doctrinal center does not have a Christian church. Second, we see that the early [...]

photo phriday

I am really enjoying this spring.

cool stuff

ok, this is seriously cool. behold the work of some very creative shepherds with too much time on their hands and a video camera. hat tip to Jonah Goldberg.

Parenting research

Lifeway has new research regarding the parenting and the role of faith. It is not encouraging. Just wow. The vast majority of parents hope their children grow up to live good lives, but for many, parental success does not include faith in God – even among parents who are evangelical Christians, according to a new [...]

Why plant churches

Why should we plant more churches? aren’t there enough of them already? Don’t existing churches have room for at least a few more folks? why plant new ones when there are so many of every flavor already around? Mike McDaniel answers the question here on JD Greear’s blog. In his book Firefall, Dr. Alvin Reid [...]

church

Mike Leuken wonders about our default approach to thinking about our church. “I am dissatisfied” was identified as a barrier to spiritual growth. Of those surveyed, 17 percent expressed some degree of dissatisfaction with their church; over half of these came from the most advanced stages of maturity. The greatest source of dissatisfaction was the [...]

Psalm 51

We went to the Austin Stone yesterday. Jeff Mangum, the former pastor at Vista Community Church, was speaking at all services and we wanted to hear him again. As a surprise, Todd Agnew was there to lead the music. It was a great time of worship. Like I said recently, Psalm 51 haunts me. Jeff [...]

“who is going to have the guts to leave the Temple?”

Carl Trueman has some observations about the American cult of celebrity that infects politics as well as religion in our country. Very interesting stuff. here is how he ends it, but go read the rest to see how he got here: The American church reflects the culture: ministries built around individuals, around big shots, churches [...]