Vote for Your Favorite Podcasts or Sermon Downloads

So who do you download?  Burn discs by?  Create MP3 files for?  Or simply have streaming audio playing while you’re working at your computer?

This is your opportunity to tell the world all about your favorite sermon audio source.  You can vote for popular speakers and pastors, but I’m also hoping you’ll help me discover some obscure ones I don’t know about.

I’m looking for:

• The communications style and edginess of Rob Bell
• The relevance and application to current situations of Andy Stanley
• The historical and contextual information of Bruxy Cavey
• The penetrating thought processes of Greg Boyd

I’m also looking for:

• Good quality audio, straight forward downloading
• Non-extremist, middle-ground Evangelical theology
• Something that hits me where I live
• Consistent fresh material available each month
• Life changing teaching from someone who under 40 who has 50 years of pastoral experience.    Just kidding about the last one.

But like I said, you can simply vote for your personal favorites.

In the comment section below, right.     Go!

A Different Kind of Bible Translation

Jeff Snow is a guy we got to know shortly after moving from Toronto, Canada 20-years ago, to our current home in small town Ontario.   In a smaller town people in ministry often have to wear many hats, and we don’t know anyone who juggles them better than Jeff.   Whether working with Youth for Christ, hosting a radio show, serving on the town’s Character Committee, helping serve dinner once a week in a low-income ghetto, guest speaking at local churches, or leading worship in a variety of settings; Jeff brings with him the best of two worlds and two ministry models:  Years spent training for and serving in a local church setting and now eight years serving with Youth for Christ.

He wrote this recently for a YFC Newsletter, and we think we know Jeff well enough that we didn’t need to ask permission.   Guess we’ll find out soon enough…

I decided to back to school part-time this fall to work on my Master’s degree.  It was a bold decision.   It was an exciting decision.  Some weeks, I think it might have been a foolish decision.

The course I’m taking right now is Biblical Greek Exegesis.  Our assignments involve taking the Greek text of the New Testament and translating it into English.   Through the exercises, we hope to better understand the nuances of the language in order to better understand what scripture is saying.

As I thought about what we do at Youth For Christ, I realized that I didn’t start translating scripture a few weeks ago in this course, I’ve been doing it for years.

For example, I took a course this summer in Spiritual Formation, and the major assignment focused on the themes of Justification, Sanctification and Glorification.  For Talk-Time at drop-in, I’m going to share on these themes.   But if I used these three terms, all I would get is blank stares, and maybe a few laughs.

So I need to explain these important truths in a way that teens can understand.

Justification — When we ask Jesus to forgive us of the wrong things we’ve done that hurt ourselves, hurt others and hurt God, and rely on His death on the cross to pay the penalty of these wrongs things, then God declares us not guilty.   It’s like He looks at us through a “Jesus filter” and doesn’t see or remember our sin.

Sanctification — There’s more to knowing God than just saying “I’m sorry.”   We also need to say “Take Over,” and let His Holy Spirit guide and direct our decisions.   And the more we do that, the more we become like Jesus, and the cool parts of who He is become more and more a part of our lives, like His love, His patience, His self-control.

Glorification — When we ask Jesus into our lives and allow the Holy Spirit to live in us, it’s the beginning of life forever with God, not just here, but in heaven as well.  Jesus promises us a home forever with Him that goes beyond our wildest dreams.

We at Youth For Christ are in the translation business.   We do our best to take the timeless truths of the Gospel, and, without changing their inherent meanings, present them to a generation of young people in ways that they can understand and relate to.  We present them to a generation whose language and ways of learning are constantly changing and evolving.

Please pray for us as we translate the Gospel to youth.  And pray for our youth, that they will hear, understand, and believe.

~Jeff Snow, Northumberland Youth For Christ; Ontario, Canada.

If you are interested in supporting the work that Jeff does, use the Contact Us page on the sidebar so we can send you more information on giving by check or VISA.   Canadian tax receipts available. (Or leave a comment which we’ll delete; your e-mail will not be visible on the page.)

Adapting To The Culture

When the pastor at Family of Christ Congregation walked out the side door of the church and ran into the manager of the local radio station next door, he didn’t know his ministry and his world were about to change.

Family of Christ Congregation (FCC) was his third pastorate.   A rather imposing figure of a man, Pastor Tyrone Lexington Boone was born to an African American father and a Latino mother in a middle class suburb of northern Ohio; but the posting at FCC found him in a Tennessee medium-sized town that was “part south and part midwest” in its outlook.

The church seated 185 according to the fire marshal; though they once packed 210 people in for a wedding without resorting to extra chairs.   Sunday mornings tended to attract a fairly full house mixing young and old, suits and shorts, whites and non-whites, Charismatics and conservatives and the occasional “I’m not there yet” seeker.

The block was a mix of commercial and residential, but the church’s lot was deep, so parking was at the back of a skinny driveway.   You didn’t want to be going in when everybody else was coming out, or driving out when others will trying to come in.   There was a rather large bed and breakfast place on the other side of the driveway, and the local radio station was next door.

Currently operating under the somewhat dated name “PEACE 99;” the radio station wasn’t even a 99 at all, but broadcast at 98.9 FM.   But their studio was well insulated and the church never heard any noise from the place, especially on Sunday mornings when they ran some pre-recorded music commercial free.

Pastor Boone usually used the back door to the parking lot, but went out the side door more to see if the door actually worked or if it would prove to be sealed shut in the event of an emergency.    It was at that moment that Dan Righter — or at least that was his on-air name — the afternoon guy, station manager and owner of PEACE 99 walked out the side door of his building to see if the building lawn might need cutting.

“Hey!   I never use that door;” they both said to each other, almost in unison.   Dan Righter was also the station’s best sales representative, even though he had guys hired to do that job.   He was a quick study and his philosophy was that nothing in life is coincidence.  He saw an opportunity.

Pastor Boone muttered something about a “divine appointment” and was therefore quite receptive when the radio guy said he had an idea.

“I don’t actually make any money on Sunday mornings.   It’s not a good time to sell advertising spots.   So we just play stuff from the archives.    Heck, I even put a kid’s audition tape on the air to fill the time.   But I am under pressure from our community service advisory board to be doing more to help out in the town.   So Pastor, how’d you like to broadcast your Sunday service, free of charge?”

Boone shrugged his shoulders and said he’d never thought about going the radio before.    That was a lie.   It was all he thought about.   The Bible college he went to was next to a university that had a 100-watt campus station that could be heard for miles.    Not knowing he was from the adjacent institution, the students that ran the campus outlet gave him a four hour show on Monday nights.    He played an eclectic mix of music that had listenership from around the broader community.

“I don’t know about putting the church on the radio;” he replied.

“Look;”  Dan said; “There’s larger churches in town I can offer this to, but it’s a real hassle technically if I’m just giving the time away.   With you guys, I can run a line from your sound system right through these doors we just walked through, and when it’s over, it takes about 30 seconds to roll up the cable.  I’ll put the ‘free’ part in writing and we’ll commit to each other for 26 weeks.  If you want to walk away in six months, that’s fine.”

“You got a deal;” Pastor Boone blurted out, realizing even at that moment that this was a rather major decision he was going to have to clear through his board members, all ten of them.   Plus, he was at first going to have to make it sound like something he was considering, instead of something that was a done deal.

Nonetheless, the men shook hands on it.   Starting that Sunday, Family of Christ would begin sending their audio signal next door for PEACE 99 to spread throughout the town of 26,000 people.

It was Tuesday.

Hump Day Link List

I’m assuming most people have heard Wednesday referred to as ‘hump day;’ otherwise it probably sounds a bit rude.   The terms is rather widely used in Canada and the U.S.   …Here’s where my computer took me recently:

• A Christian musician in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada is facing a first-degree murder charge for a crime that occured 16 years ago, according to this article at ChristianWeek.org.
• Randy Morgan can’t help notice that among some pastors he knows personally whose churches have hit the 1,000+ mark in attendance, their messages have somewhat of a recurring theme.
• This link is old — about six months old — but with all the talk about Rob Bell’s orthodoxy these days, this March video post at Viddler has Rob taking eleven minutes to spell out his version of the Christian gospel.
• I’m not sure when and how I stumbled on the blog, Upwrite, but I like DP’s raw honesty.   A few weeks ago she kept seeing a guy around town who radiated a great sense of joy and peace, but he was not a Christian.   Not even close, as she describes.
• I gotta be honest; I rather skimmed this one because of the heaviness, intensity and pain of the subject.   Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman discusses the recording of his new album, Beauty Will Rise, in the wake of the death of his daughter Maria; in a 4-page interview with Mark Moring at Christianity Today.
• Here’s a link to a website that directly addresses the issue of young people leaving the church, leaving their faith, or both.   CrossExamined  is a ministry headed by Frank Turek at crossexamined.org .
• Jered Wilson at the blog First Things considers the idea that criticism of ChristianChirp — the Christian alternative of Twitter, as in, ‘Why tweet when you can chirp?’ — is just too easy.   He’s got a fresh perspective here, though I wish this post was twice as long.
• I don’t agree with the header that John Saddington gave this video link, but this is the funniest 3 minutes and 42 seconds I’ve seen this week.  If you’re not Pentecostal or Charismatic, and find yourself in such a church unsure of what to do next, check out what was originally titled, How To Worship.
• So last week the very edgy blog, Stuff Christians Like didn’t print one of my comments presumably because it was too edgy.   Actually it was just a play on words, but now that JA is a Zondervan author, I guess he can’t be too careful.   Still, I like this post about pastors who forget to tell the congregation that, “You may be seated.”
• Speaking of rejection, Gospel Light became the first publisher this year to refuse a book review request.   If you missed it, Shane Claiborne has had a new book out for several weeks now, coauthored with the very like-minded John Perkins.   It deals with how to be both a good leader and a good follower and it takes a fresh approach to dual authorship.   But since I don’t actually have a copy, you can enjoy this review of the book, Follow Me To Freedom at the new blog, For Readers By Readers.   You might also enjoy this video clip about the book.
  

…Okay, let me spell it out.   Wednesday is halfway through the week, so once you reach noon, you’re said to be ‘over the hump.’   C’mon guys, it’s no fun if I have to explain it…

What amazes me though is that we’ve got so many new links since we did this last just a few days ago.   And there’s other links that didn’t make today’s final cut.  So where did your computer take you this week?

Portions of today’s blog were prerecorded.  Your mileage may vary.  No animals were hurt or injured in the preparation of this post.   Professional stunt driver; do not try this at home.

Zacchaeus Meets The Christmas Story

The story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19: 1-9 is the ultimate children’s Bible story.   Think about, it’s got:

• a short key character; kids can identify
• a parade — or something similar –  about to pass by
• tree climbing; what kid doesn’t like that?
• unlikely guy gets singled out for special treatment
• Zacchaeus and Jesus have a tea party, at least according to the children’s song; actual serving of tea may have been unlikely
• restitution of unfair trade practices; he did something bad and is going to make it right

But the tree climbing is the fun part of the story, so much so that we omit to notice the fact that respectable adults in the culture don’t climb trees.   In the book Preaching the Parables to Postmoderns, Brian Stiller reminds of another story where we miss the cultural nuances.

Stiller notes that in the story of the prodigal son, the father sees his returning son in the distance and runs to meet him.   To run meant to lift the lower hem of the tunics worn at that time, which would expose the ankles and lower leg.   While that may not seem out of line with the bathrobes worn in most church plays you’ve seen, it in fact is out of line with norms in that society.   Besides, the patriarchal head of household doesn’t run, period.

Zacchaeus climbs up a tree because he doesn’t want to miss Jesus.   The father in the story of the two brothers runs because he doesn’t want to miss a moment with or hide his enthusiasm for the return of his lost son.   Both actions involve a considerable loss of dignity on the part of both parties.

David understood this.   Consider this account from II Samuel 6:

¹⁴ David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, ¹⁵ while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

¹⁶ As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.

¹⁷ They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. ¹⁸ After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. ¹⁹ Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

²⁰ When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

²¹ David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

The line I like is verse 22: I will become even more undignified than this.    Nothing reinforces this like the Matt Redman song,

I will dance I will sing
To be mad for my King
Nothing Lord is hindering
The passion in my soul

And I’ll become even more
Undignified than this
Some would say it’s foolishness but
I’ll become even more
Undignified than this

David’s removal of his outer garment ought to remind you of something else.  Think about this moment from John 13:

¹It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love^.

²The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” …

¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

The outer garment that Jesus removed was the fine piece of clothing that symbolized his authority as a rabbi.   Hours later, Roman soldiers would gamble for the chance to walk way with this prime specimen of clothing as a souvenir of their day’s work.

This action symbolized his servant leadership, but as he told Peter, there was a bigger picture yet to be grasped.   I believe that the removal of his outer garment symbolizes something else entirely, as shown in Philippians 2:

⁵ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

⁶ Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
⁷ Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
⁸ he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

⁹ Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor…

Jesus gave up the splendor of heaven — took of his outer robe — to enter into our human condition.   But then, as John 13:12 shows us, he puts that outer robe back on, i.e. he returns to the glory he had known before at the right hand of the Father.

There are lots of words we could use to describe this, but the key one for today is that he made himself undignified.

Now, he invites you to find a place where you can lose your own dignity in order to accomplish his purposes in your generation.

I Samuel and John passages – NIV; Philippians passage – NLT

Editing The Bible To Suit Your Lifestyle

This appeared today at WORLDmag.com; I’m reproducing the whole piece — it’s only four paragraphs — because I couldn’t really leave anything out.    You can also read it here.

Ripping the Bible

Written by Mickey McLean

November 2, 2009

In an interview with Details magazine, openly gay actor Ian McKellen admits that when he stays in hotels he finds the in-room Bible and tears out the page condemning homosexuality:

I’m not proudly defacing the book, but it’s a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible. And I’m not really the first: I got delivered a package of 40 of those pages—Leviticus 18:22—that had been torn out by a married couple I know. They put them on a bit of string so that I could hang it up in the bathroom.

Apparently he and his fans leave Paul’s letters addressing this issue alone, including passages from Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Timothy. But the man who’s best known for playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and his followers can tear out all the pages they want because…

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Totally Looks Like

Pastor and Author Joel Osteen:

Totally Looks Like Comedian and Actor Tim Allen:

…OKAY, so it turns out somebody did this one at Totally Looks Like back in July, but I had this all done when I found out.    We should have a Totally Looks Like site for the Christian world…   Any suggestions?

My Previous Totally Looks Like attempt back in December, 2008.

NOVEMBER 3rd UPDATE:   There must be something in the air… seems I’m not the only person up to this game this week.   Check it out…

Genesis for the Comic Book Crowd

Time Magazine began the week joining other media who have noted the publication of The Book of Genesis by 66-year old American comic book illustrator Robert Crumb aka R. Crumb. In a November 1st online story, the magazine said:

Crumb’s manuscript is — for a man who has said he doesn’t believe Genesis is God’s word — oddly reminiscent of those produced by monks before printing presses: a faithful, verse for verse copy, painstakingly rendered. He hardly needed to change a thing; Genesis offers a smorgasbord of the kind of behavior Crumb is given to portraying: the persistent, colorful, depressing failure of humans to not give in to their baser desires. It’s sufficiently literal that cultural conservatives could hardly be offended, but it has more than enough supernatural events, betrayals and epic storylines to satisfy the comic book reader.

Despite the above, the book is not selling through comic book stores, Crumb’s traditional core market.  That might have to do with the content and the price; the book retails for $24.99 U.S. in hardcover.

The story also links to a review by the more Evangelical Ben Witherington III, who writes at Beliefnet:

…This super-lapsed Catholic has decided to depict scenes from all 50 chapters of Genesis, with the emphasis on verbatim. Those of us who knew a bit about his snarky past were holding our collective breath… The kudos for this book are also coming in from other quarters–Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and chronicler of pop culture thinks Crumb is successfully translating the Bible into a new medium… In the end Crumb after long debating how to depict God (as a bright light???) fell back on the old stand by–God as the old white guy with the long white beard. I wonder what the Mormons would say about this Genesis.,

Contrast this with Crumb’s other works which include the Hot ‘n Heavy collection which introduced readers to a number of characters including the not-so-religious Fritz The Cat.

Don’t look for copies of this at Family Christian Bookstores, though it would be interesting to see if they would order it for a customer.

Paul Wilkinson — Thinking Out Loud

If you’ve landed here from a search engine tag, welcome!

This is Thinking Out Loud, the blog of Christ-follower Paul Wilkinson, a half blog half webzine-wannabe, with the tag line, “Matters of Faith Because Faith Matters.”   It’s been running for nearly two years with fresh posts almost every day, breaking Christian news, occasional cartoons and a wide range of links, reprints and original content.    Take a minute or two to scan back through previous posts, click on the header at the top for today’s post, or pick a month at random from the sidebar menu and see what we were thinking about back then.

If you got to this particular post from a search engine, click here to view the most recent posts.

Innocent Victims of Pornography   It’s been several months since I linked to my online resource, “The Pornography Effect — Understanding for the Wives, Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Girlfriends.”   As the long title implies, this is a resource that allows people who are the silent victims of someone else’s addiction a chance to consider the issues that affect them.   The entire book can be read online in under 55 minutes.   It’s set up like a blog, only the chapters appear onscreen in book sequence.  The link opens to the first six chapters, chapters seven to fifteen appear by clicking on “previous page” at the bottom.   It’s not perfect, there are still some rough edges in the 2nd draft edition that’s online, but it will help begin the conversations that need to take place. The Pornography Effect — www.thepornographyeffect.wordpress.com

Thoughts on That Most UnChristian of all Days

I’m almost afraid to mention Halloween here.

First, I’m fearful of what all the extra publicity is going to do to the pastor at Amazing Grace Baptist Church when he lights the first match, no doubt surrounded by the tabloid media.   Of course,  this letter writer to their local newspaper notes some interesting complexities.

Yes, it's a pumpkin!

This will mark 20 years that we’ve lived in our present house.   The first year, Mrs. W. decorated in style.   Yes, we celebrated the pagan holiday.   I think we gave out fortune cookies; not the ones with Bible verses which we can’t afford.

But the second year, we gave out Christian cassette tapes.   I contacted one of the distributors and asked if they had something for pre-teens, and something for little kids that they wanted to unload.   I bought about 90 tapes for 50 cents each.

A couple of years ago, a girl came up to me in the bookstore and said, “I once lived in your neighborhood and got one of the tapes you gave out for Halloween.   I really enjoyed it.”

So hey, you never know.

But I realize as I write this that this subject is very much unwelcome among many Evangelicals.   As I wrote last year,

…Of all the things that we could NOT do when I was younger — card playing, Sunday shopping, dancing, etc. that we now CAN DO; it’s interesting that there is this one unique area where we COULD do something years ago that now Evangelicals feel we can NOT do…

So I guess we’re going to turn off the lights — hard to do when Halloween falls within Daylight Savings Time* — and hope the kids don’t throw eggs over the freshly painted aluminum siding.

If you missed last year’s more informative post about tomorrow’s special day, All Saints Day, you can read it here.   This year All Saints Sunday coincides with the day itself.

*Daylight Saving Time actually ends tonight, or more correctly, tomorrow morning, November 1st at 2 AM.   Maybe one of my UK readers can tell me when “Summer Time” ends over the pond.  If you’re reading this on Sunday morning, it may be earlier than you think, so you can still make it to church!

Cartoon Friday

After Eden from Answers in Genesis

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The ever-cynical, always thought provoking ASBO Jesus

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Popular syndicated Close to Home by John McPherson

Link Here to Another World

It’s the internet; a place where you just have to think of it and it exists.  Here — in no particular order –  are some places I’ve been since our last linkfest ten days ago:

• Jonathan at ReThink Mission gets his friend Aaron — a non believer — talking about how Christians could better share their faith.   Insight number one:  “Don’t come with an agenda.”   Hear more here.
• At the blog, Solar Crash, Lon points out that, “Sponsoring a Child is Not Loving a Child.”  Good thoughts.   But then — and whatever you do, don’t miss this — he includes a video of a sponsored child who is now an adult who is speaking to the Catalyst conference on behalf of Compassion.  Then, something amazing happens!
• Fasten your seat belts for this one.   What if the message of creation was packaged in scientific-sounding language and the message of evolution was phrased in religious-sounding words?   How might this change your appreciation of both messages?   Especially when both of them are talking at once?  Check out the 3 1/2 minute animation Duelity on Vimeo.
• The evening news bring images of suffering and disaster into vivid focus, but increasingly, people spend more time at the small (computer) screen than the large (broadcast) screen, thereby avoiding media discomfort.  So here, courtesy of The Big Picture, are some rather striking images of Typhoon Ketsana which struck The Phillipines during the last week of September.
• As a one-time philosophy major at university — the same year Time magazine said, “Philosophy is the prerequisite to unemployment” — I’ve been very much drawn to the rather engaging Justice series airing on the PBS Think Bright digital network.   At least 24 Harvard University lectures by Michael Sandel have been condensed into twelve 55-minute portions; the first time Harvard has posted courses online.    Grab your notebook and join the class here.
• The blog Higher Ground reposts a series of statements by Charles Finney under the title, “How To Preach Without Converting Anyone.”   Warning:  Finney pulls no punches.  For example: “Avoid preaching doctrines that are offensive to the carnal mind, so that no one should say to you, as they did of Christ, ‘This is a hard saying, who can hear it?’”  Check it out here.
• You’ll notice the previous link is actually lifted from something called Dead Guy Blog.  (Tag line: ” Learning from the giants of the faith that have gone before us to strengthen our faith and stir our affections toward God.”)  I wanted to include this blog as a separate link highlight and I want to encourage you to check out the entire blog, not just the permalink to one entry.
• David Fitch’s “A Warning List for Those Who Would Join a Missional Church Gathering” at his blog, Reclaiming The Mission, has a lot more substance to be limited to just the missional conversation.   What do you look for in a church?   Maybe it’s all the wrong things!    I like number ten.  The last sentence.   Read all ten warnings here.
• My favorite Nashville pastor, Pete Wilson, quotes John Ortberg: “It has never been easier to obtain the scriptures and never harder to absorb.”  Profound stuff, eh?   Sendin’ Pete some link love here.
• Kathy at the blog, The Well has a gripping item from David Yonggi Cho telling the story of a pastor who prepares his family for the martyrdom they are about to experience.   That very night.   Read it here.
• Jesus Christ preached the good news of The Kingdom.   He didn’t just offer “Get out of Hell” cards.   Sometimes that message gets lost on even seasoned churchgoers.   Christian musician Shaun Groves gets caught in the middle of such a situation at one of his recent concerts.
• Finally, to make it an even dozen, here’s a link from this blog just a few days ago that I thought would generate more comments.   Hidden between the lines is the answer to the question, Why Evangelicals Don’t Have Crucifixes.   Or maybe not so hidden.

Thanks to Steve McCoy at Reformissionary for the link to Re Think Mission.

Here’s a link to our last link list,  and also the one before that.

If you got this far and still haven’t linked to anything, consider just the first three items on today’s list.

Your God Is Too Misunderstood

In a world where we often speak of “brands” in Christian publishing, it’s unusual to see a publishing imprint where many different voices seem to speaking to one central mission or sharing one common voice.   Windblown Media has managed to do just that, pushing a giant “pause” button on some of our nearest and dearest views on both the Godhead;  and our views on the church — us — the way we interact together as the body, as well as within our families or mariages.

As with He Loves Me, The Shack, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, Bo’s Café, and now The Misunderstood God by Darin Hufford, readers are treated to a fresh perspective, one that is sure to bring about some agitation by those who would have us follow a God that is not a kindler, gentler deity.

When I first flipped through the pages of The Misunderstood God, I was expecting something similar to the first half of Your God Is Too Small by J. B. Phillips.   I came to that book about a dozen years ago for the first time, and was astounded by how much my own God perspective was informed more by comparisons to other authority figures than informed by scripture itself.

While some people might see books like this as a giant piece of chalk (or marker) about to write on the giant blackboard (or whiteboard) everything one needs to know in terms of their doctrine of God, I prefer to see this kind of book as a giant eraser, cleaning off all those false doctrines and wrong views we’ve collected over the years.   Sometimes, such an eraser has to scrub a little bit harder to get some of those off the board so we can start fresh.

In fact, the first half of Your God Is Too Small by Phillips does just that type of deconstruction — in only about 60 pages of this rather small book — before reconstructing in the second half; but it’s the first half of the book that really packs the greatest punch.

But a few chapters into The Misunderstood God I finally figured out that the deconstruction and reconstruction takes place here on a chapter-by-chapter basis, using as its motif, I Corinthians 13.   I’ve heard people speak before on how the “Love is patient, love is kind…” passage can, if it’s true that ‘God is love,’ be read as, “God is patient, God is kind…”   I had just never seen it before as the key to healing misunderstandings we have about the nature of God.

The problem compounds for those who — in either J. B. Phillips’ generation or Darin Hufford’s generation — can’t embrace the idea of a kinder, gentler God because it would mean unsubscribing from all the lifelong beliefs they have held.   Many people are predisposed to being angry because their God is angry.   Actually, I heard that years ago at a music festival where a speaker suggested — in jest — the following worship lyrics:

He is Lord!
He is Lord!
He has risen from the dead
And blown his  stack!

I remember everyone laughing at the absurdity of those lyrics, but really, that’s the God-picture that’s more dominant in our minds.   Which is why the Windblown books, particular He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen and The Misunderstood God are so badly needed.

I do think there are some rough edges in the writing.   A few sentences left me wide-eyed wondering, “Did he really mean to say that?”  I thought of marking pages as I was reading, but then I figured the critics will find these soon enough.

What matters most here is that books like this are refreshing to the soul.    Maybe the chalk (or the marker) is needed, but the eraser first has to get rid of everything previously written.  Books like this are rare, which makes them a breath of fresh air.

God loves you.   God is love.   He is a loving God.    Yes, he is a God of justice and yes, he has shown his judgment of sin in the past and will do so again.   But the latter has been inscribed on our minds much more than the former, which needs to be said again and again, if only to be given equal time.

God loves you.  God is love.   He is a loving God.   Just say that out loud a few times.

God loves me.  God is love.   He is my loving God.

For a quotation from the book, link back to this post here a few days ago.

For He Loves Me, here’s my review from December 16, 2008, a remix review from May 3rd.

For So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore, here’s my review from April 19, 2008.

For Bo’s Café, here’s my recent review from September 14, 2009.

Pictured:  book cover, Darin Hufford, Windblown Media family of titles.

My Blog Has Been Translated Into Another Language

Here’s what I wrote and what they wrote:

SHANE HIPPS TO JOIN MARS HILL   The announcement several days ago that Shane Hipps, author of Flickering Pixels (Zondervan) would be leaving Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale, Arizona to join the teaching staff of Mars Hill Bible  Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan has been greeted with mixed reactions.   In case you don’t know Shane, here’s how his personal website tells it: Prior to accepting his call as a pastor, Shane was a strategic planner in advertising where he gained experience in understanding media and culture. Much of his time was spent working on the multimillion-dollar communications strategy for Porsche Cars North America. Several years into his career, he had a “Damascus” experience in which he realized he was spending his life working diligently to perpetuate consumer culture and promote values that ran counter to his most deeply held beliefs. So he left advertising to pursue his long held interest in spirituality and theology. He went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, and in 2004 accepted a call to serve as Lead Pastor at Trinity. The heresy-hunting website Apprising Ministries wasted no time — and no love — to proclaim that Hipps joining Rob Bell amounted to “peas in a corrupt spiritual pod;”  mixing the metaphor with a picture of sheep jumping off a cliff.   C’mon guys, tell us what you really think. I mentioned last week my own concerns with Rob Bell’s recent interview with the Boston Globe.   But the sensationalism of Apprising — a ministry birthed by Ken Silva, a SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) pastor in America — somewhat destroys their credibility. Instead, I decided to head over to Trinity Mennonite’s website and in particular take the time to listen to Shane’s announcement — it’s not his final sermon — to his church in its entirety.   It was, I believe one of the finest sermons I’ve ever heard where a pastor defines his calling to move on.   And while the sermon was somewhat of an administrative necessity, he alluded to several passages of scripture. “I can’t resign from this community.  My heart is still here.   I love this community.   …But I have to leave.   So I told them they’ll either have to fire me or send me.   It is my humble wish that somewhere down the road you will be able to send me, because I need you; I carry you with me.” Several times he tells his congregation that he loves them.   Something you don’t often hear pastors say with this level of emotion.    He tells them that he didn’t “create” anything at Trinity, but simply “named” the giftings that were working within the congregation. I personally doubt if any of the Apprising Ministries people bothered to listen to that sermon.   They don’t know Shane’s heart.   And based on their resource list, they don’t understand the next generation — or ministry to the next generation — whether labeled emergent, emerging, missional or postmodern. You can hear the sermon by clicking on the sermon audio page, and selecting Sunday, October 4th.     Take the time to listen as you’re working at your computer for the next half hour.

SHANE HIPPS TO JUNCTION MARS HILL The proclamation several years ago that Shane Hipps, writer of Flittering Pels ( Zondervan ) would be leaving Threesome Mennonite Church in Glendale, AZ to join the instruction staff of Mars Hill Word Chapel Church in K Rapids, MI holds been recognized with miscellaneous reactions. Just in case you make n’t cognise Shane, here Holds how his personal website states it: Prior to accepting his call as a curate, Shane was a strategical deviser in advertisement where he derived experience in understanding media and civilisation. Much of his clip was passed working on the multimillion-dollar communications scheme for Porsche Cars North US. Several eld into his calling, he holded a “ Damascus ” experience in which he realise he was passing his life working diligently to perpetuate consumer civilization and encourage values that ran counter to his most deeply maintained beliefs. So he left advertizement to prosecute his long held involvement in spiritualty and divinity. He attended to realise a Mdiv from Fuller Theological Seminary, and in 2004 accepted a call to function as Lead Curate at Tercet. The heresy-hunting site Apprising Ministries squandered no clip and no love to proclaim that Hipps joining Rob Bell amounted to “ peas in a corrupt religious seedcase; ” merging the metaphor with a ikon of sheep leaping forth a drop-off. C’mon cats, say us what you really believe. I cited last hebdomad my ain concerns with Rob Bell ’s recent interview with the Boston Earth. But the sensationalism of Apprising a ministry birthed by Cognizance Sylva, a SBC ( Southern Baptist Convention ) parson in America slightly destruct their credibleness. Alternatively, I determined to head over to Trinity Mennonite’s website and particularly yield the clip to listen to Shane ’s annunciation it Holds not his last discourse to his church in its entireness. It was, I believe one of the finest discourses I ‘ve ever heard where a parson delimitates his vocation to go on. And while the discourse was slightly of an administrative necessity, he alluded to several transitions of Word. “ I ca n’t renounce from this community. My bosom is still here. I love this community. … But I should leave. So I sayed them they ‘ll either need to fire me or direct ME It is my lowly wishing that someplace down the route you will be able to direct me, because I involve you; I transport you with me. ” Several times he states his fold that he loves them. Something you make n’t oftentimes hear rectors state with this grade of emotion. He says them that he maked n’t “ make ” anything at Three, but only “ called ” the giftings that were working within the faithful. I personally doubt if any of the Apprising Ministries people troubled to listen to it discourse. They make n’t cognize Shane ’s bosom. And based on their resource listing, they make n’t understand the following contemporaries or ministry to the following contemporaries whether labeled emergent, emerging, missionary or postmodernist. You can hear the preaching by snapping on the sermon audio page , and taking Sun, Oct Fourth. Take the clip to listen as you ‘re work on your computer for the following half hr.

But the question is, “Who are they?”   The person in question blogs on Windows Live, which means I can’t even leave a comment.   He (or she) ripped off the entire article including the pictures, the links and even the formatting.    I can’t decide if this is funny or pathetic.  Or someone’s high school homework exercise.    A mention would be nice.

If you have Hotmail or Windows Live, and want to suggest that credit where credit is due would be appropriate, you can link to it here.

Or maybe someone can just tell me what language it is I’ve been translated into…

A Guide to Christian Bloggers

So how was church yesterday?    If you’re like the majority of Evangelicals in North America (and increasingly, the UK) it probably went down something like this:

• you were casually dressed
• there was an opportunity to have coffee either before or after the service, or in some cases, during the service
• either at the outset, or part-way through the service your kids were dismissed to enjoy their own worship “experience” in a kid-friendly “environment”
• you sang a number of modern worship choruses, perhaps with a hymn or two added for flavor
• your pastor — equally casually dressed — preached a message from a topical series he is working through with key points and texts projected on a large screen at the front
  
• after the service you had a couple of brief conversations with people from your small group who you will see later in the week at someone’s home

Such is Christian worship in 2009.

But now you’re sitting at your computer and you’re surfing for some good Christian blogs to read, but finding yourself in a kind of spiritual twilight zone.     The people you’re reading — in many cases anyway — don’t look or talk like the people you meet on Sunday mornings. You ask yourself, “Why can’t I find a blog by someone online who looks like me?”  So you keep searching.

Why is this?

It’s largely because the Christian internet is dominated by a number of people who have a particular axe to grind.    Once you’ve been doing this for awhile, you’ll recognize them — “By their links ye shall know them” — but until then, here’s a primer on what you’re finding on your computer screen…

Militant Calvinist Soldiers

There’s nothing objectively wrong with being Calvinist.   Most people are either Calvinist or Arminian in terms of their core doctrines, so you’re going to end up as more one or the other eventually.   The problem is that these people are consuming vast amounts of bandwidth engaging all kinds of deep debates which, while they might prove valuable in terms of Bible study on obscure points of doctrine, no one can remember how they got started.

The other problem is that they tend to use the word “Calvinism” or “Calvinist” ten times more often than they use words like “Christian” or “Jesus.”    Or worse, they use words like “Monergism.”   Believe me, if you think you’re coming down with a case of Monergism, you might want to get it checked.

Personally, I want my ticket to Eternity to be based on Christ’s finished work on the cross for my sin, and not that I stood for a particular organization, denomination or doctrine; or that I could recite all the proof-texts for a particular viewpoint.

King James Onlyites

Somewhere along the line, the joy of their salvation got sucked out and replaced with a mission:  That all Bibles everywhere on earth be eliminated save for their one copy of the King James Version in black leather.   With a red ribbon marker.   And a zipper.

Which, is fine if that’s what you like.   Goodness knows one part of my Zondervan Bible software is still set up to do keyword searches in good ol’ KJV, though it displays the results in something more readable.    But Onlyites aren’t allowed to have preferences.   They have to spiritualize everything, and if they can’t find enough external evidence supporting the supremacy of one particular translation, then they make stuff up.

Never get in an argument with these people because there is nothing — absolutely nothing — you can say that will sway them.   Yea, verily, their mind hath been firmly fix-ed, neither shall anyone dissuade them.  Thus spake I.

The Law and The Gospel Litigists

The fact is, we’re all sinners in God’s eyes.   We’ve all missed the mark in various ways at various times.   Our attempts at righteousness are as far from “pure white” as the paint rags I used during our last kitchen reno.   So yes, nobody is going to get on God’s heaven registration list just by trying to live a good life and be a good person.

On the other hand, this approach, as true as it is,  while it works well if you’re doing somewhat random “witnessing” to strangers, is about as far from lifestyle evangelism as you want to be; especially with friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers, fellow-students, etc., that you want to see cross the line of faith over the long-term.   Plus, at least you’ve earned the right to be heard, instead of spouting volcanic eruptions of guilt and condemnation.

So while it’s true that there aren’t many roads to God, there are many ways to introduce someone to Jesus.   L&G people tend to get upset if you’re not doing it their way, or winning as many people as they are, or feel called to do street ministry.

Discernmentalists

Years ago, a rather cool guy named Walter Martin figured out that with all the cults and “isms” out there, it would be good for someone to track the beliefs of different writers and organizations whose beliefs bear a strong external similarity to Christianity, but also hold to other ideas that are somewhat off the wall.   He started what is often called a discernment ministry.

With some of the excesses sometimes found in the Charismatic movement, that investigation started hitting closer to home.   Which may be justified.   Especially when you have a research staff documenting everything so that your end product isn’t just a load of innuendo and veiled accusations.

Today however, it seems like there is a Walter Martin wannabe around every corner.   And they don’t trust anyone under 40.   Which means they can — and probably will — show up at your church on Sunday morning and nitpick over the use of words and phrases and pronounce you apostate, cultic or — even worse — Emergent.     (Note:  Emergents who quote Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards totally confuse them.)   And you don’t want to know their views on music.

Sermon Scribes

These people never actually blog anything original but simply cut and paste vast amounts of sermon texts, often completely omitting to include anything resembling paragraph breaks.

Like the Hindu temple priests who believe there’s something in the incense that rises up to God,  these Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V bloggers believe that there’s something of value in posting these vast and usually impossible-to-follow sermons online, that apparently can only be perceived by God Himself and other Sermon Scribe bloggers.

Personally, I’ll take a podcast over text.   You get the inflection of the speaker who, if they are tech-savvy enough to post a podcast, usually has a communication style that’s less 1910 and more 2010.   Plus you get the audio equivalent of paragraph breaks:  Deep breaths.

Ecclesiastical Elite

There are some good leadership blogs out there.   I even link to some of them in my blogroll.  But if you’re a new Christian, you need to know these aren’t for you so much as they’re for pastors to communicate with other pastors.

Frankly, pastors have different issues than the rest of us.   They live in a world that is vocationally as far removed from you are as the east is from the west.  They work odd hours.  They drink a lot of coffee.  They read books that even the staff at your local Christian bookstore don’t know how to find.

I have great respect for these men, and 99.44% of them are men.   But their blogs should exist on some kind of private blogging network that only other pastors can access.   One of my favorites is actually not on my blogroll for just that reason.    I started thinking about how frustrated and confused I would be if he were my pastor.    It’s good stuff, it’s just not good for everyone.

Conference Crowd

Some people think the big money to be made off Christianity these days is in running conferences and seminars.    I disagree.   The big money is actually in the airline business and the hotel business.   And those lanyard name tag things.

This crowd devotes at least 66.7% of the blog postings in anticipation of a forthcoming conference and another 66.7% coming down from the conference high.   The remaining 66.7% is spent live blogging from the conference itself.   (Hey, it’s arithmatic license, okay?)

There is an saying among modern Evangelicals:  “Send a man to a conference and you’ve recharged his spiritual batteries for a day.  Teach him how to organize and run his own conference and you’ve kept him run off his feet for life.”

Narcissistic Marketers

With this category, we’ll end this this theme, and since you’ve all been patient enough to get this far, you can read more about this in my latest book, which, while you’re ordering it online, you can actually pre-order my next book which is coming out next month.

Plus, we just got in a skid of my first book, and if you’re interested in buying these in case lots (only 72 copies to a case) to give away to all your friends, we can ship them to you free freight if you order them by Friday.   Christmas is coming, and you don’t want to be without a gift to give that unenlightened pagan who lives next door.

Also below you’ll find a link to my latest video promoting all four of my books, plus a PayPal donation button if you really enjoy the great insights I post here daily.   On the sidebar, you’ll also find a link to a story about me in the New York Times and a picture of me receiving CBA Book-of-the-year in the category “Christian non-fiction miscellaneous;” as well as all the details of our “Holy Land of the West” 14-day tour of Wheaton, Illinois (with optional day trips to Barrington, Elgin and a two-day side trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota.)  Did I mention my book?