Reflections on Bible Reading is Truly Inspired

A Review of Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans (Thomas Nelson)

Sometimes you find a term online which helps you describe something for which you didn’t know there was a word. In this case, the word is memoirist. A quick check this morning revealed that I’ve actually read all of Rachel Held Evans’ output, and I can’t help but notice in this personal, subjective approach to the Bible there is a striking similarity to the writing of Philip Yancey. If you know how I feel about Yancey, you know this is high praise indeed.

Inspired is, at least ostensibly, a look at the different genres in our scriptures. Anyone familiar with The Bible Project videos is aware that we need to read each of these genres differently and interpret them — both in terms of original meaning and present-day application — in terms of the rules for that type of literature.

Or maybe not. In Inspired, Rachel Held Evans suggests that they are all narrative, even to the point of labeling the poetic books as “wisdom stories,” existing alongside “war stories,” “deliverance stories,” “gospel stories,” “origin stories,” and yes, in a category by themselves, “fish stories.”

A gifted writer who grew up in church and researches well, she doesn’t begin to annotate all the background material which went into each chapter. If you did grow up in church, as with her other works, there is a sense in which her story is your story. I found that many of her own experiences resonated with my own.

But there’s also a sense in which this book is aimed at potentially new Bible readers; seekers and recent converts alike who are trying to find the common threads which knit the 66 books in the Protestant canon into a unified, single story. A strength of her classification methodology is that it allows her to blend First Testament and Second Testament material seamlessly.

In between chapters there are some almost whimsical narratives of her own. One places Job in a modern context with his ‘friends’ discussing his recent hardships in a cafeteria. This one deserves becoming a short film.

Rachel Held Evans is viewed as a progressive, and there are certainly some indications of this at a few junctures in her book, but for the most part, it’s about her conservative roots and the reading perspective on the Bible those roots handed her.

I invite you to see for yourself, there are excerpts from the book here (resistance stories, including their similarity to American’s Civil Rights Movement) and here (war stories, including the so-called ‘texts of terror.’)

 

Wednesday Link List

The Wednesday List Lynx still prowls the office here after dark.

Welcome to this week’s link list to those of you who didn’t already have it automatically download to their phone.

• T.D. Jakes has two syndicated television projects in development, one a daily show, the other a weekly.
• At age 14, she was taken from her family and given to an ISIS commander as a bride. Then she and a friend escaped.
• It’s called Lateral leadership, defined as “leading your peers, those you serve alongside but don’t report to, and they don’t report to you either.”
• Pope Francis shook things up last week by performing weddings for couples who had been previously living together, some of whom had children.
• Hillsong made the New York Times, complete with a quotation from the Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler Jr. that they water down the gospel…
• …But one church planter thinks the move by churches back into cities like NYC is somewhat selective when it comes to neighborhoods.
• A few like-minded linkers this week noted this upcoming theology cruise to the Eastern Carribean. Beats a seminary classroom, I suppose. Maybe you were predestined to see this.
• I hope my editor approves this link: Introducing grassroots pastors, “a growing population of Christians—especially young Christians—called and trained for ministry, but, for one reason or another, not in a formal church role.”
• What if instead of suppressing belief in God, the 1960s had brought God into the foreground?
• The death of controversial pastor turned politician Rev. Ian Paisley elicits stories from The New York Times and UK Christian media.
• Let’s talk about a Rob Bell book before it’s released; nobody’s ever done that before. The book, coauthored by wife Kristen deals with egalitarian marriage.
• Your mileage may vary: See if you agree with this assessment after the lyrics of modern worship songs are placed under the microscope.
• Maintaining a distinct identity: What distinguished the early Christian community from their surrounding neighbors?
• A Georgia pastor who delivered what he considered an ‘educational’ message about the middle east temporarily had his YouTube account suspended.
• Planning weekend services: Living between the tension of following the template or starting from scratch.
• The hometown mainstream media continue their coverage of things at Mars Hill Seattle.
• Church Profile of the Week: A look at Christ Redeemer Episcopal in Milwaukee, where community trumps dogma, and former Evangelicals discover Anglican worship.
• Benjamin Corey responds to the trolls: “…if your goal is to help introduce people to Jesus, you’re actually achieving the opposite of your stated goal. …you’re actively harming the efforts of those of us who are purposeful and attempt to use extreme care with how we communicate the message of Jesus.”…
• …Taking that to the next level, a guide to having crucial conversations.
• You’ve seen books like All the Men of the Bible and All the Miracles of the Bible. This blog post looks at all the suicides of the Bible.
• Patriarchy and clergy libraries: Hey, pastor; take a minute to scan your shelves and compute the male-female balance of writers on your shelves.
• A Brazilian soccer star is trying to bring visibility in that country regarding the plight of Saeed Abedini, imprisoned in Iran for two years.
• Three book reviews, including Marketing Like Jesus and a revival of the True Love Waits movement.
• An atypical story of domestic abuse: When the husband is physically injured.
• Often voiced: Christian Bible study resources for women tend to be too feeling-based.
• Pope Francis has suggested that the conflicts we’re seeing around the world are like puzzle pieces combining to form the picture of a third world war. (My paraphrase.)
• American Pastors looking for a pay raise might want to relocate to The South. (According to the study, they should also avoid Canada.)
• Mathematics Department: Unpacking Baptist attrition rates.
• James MacDonald apologized on the weekend for a church disciplinary action against three former elders that was excessive.
• When Hollywood got it right: Eight reasonably positive portrayals of Christians on broadcast television.
• I think in many respects, the blog platform tumblr is a mission field, so I greatly admire people doing ministry there.
• When it comes to understanding the Christian publishing market in Canada there’s one guy you might want to know.
• Song of the Week: Unspoken’s Start A Fire. (Thanks, Diane.)
• Advertising by a faith-based preschool is refused by Groupon.
• Cartoonist David Hayward’s cartoons can make your head explode.
• Worship Leader Trauma Center: Dealing with your church’s OPH problem.
• After its first hiatus in eleven years, The Drew Marshall Show Canada’s “most listened-to spiritual talk program” returns to the air on Saturday. Join listeners from around the world live between 1:00 and 5:00 EDT.
• Calminianism: Harmonizing predestination and free will with God’s sovereignty.
• A cross symbol on the helmets of a college football team meant to memorialize a former player and a former equipment manager violate the United States Constitution. Excerpt: “These young men were simply trying to do a good deed. They were standing up for their fallen teammates. It’s really too bad the university could not stand up for the team.”
• Journalistic curiosity: Calling last Thursday “9/11’s Bar Mitzvah.”
• Not serious: Peter Enns guests at Huffington with 10 Signs You Take The Bible Too Literally. (And guests at Reddit today (9/17) at 3:00 EST.)
• The Gaithers Claim Another Victim: The founder of the Christian rock band Starfield turns bluegrass.
• Did you get your free U2 album? Did you want to get the new U2 album? Some people were unwilling recipients. At Rolling Stone, a track-by-track guide to all eleven songs.
• Prosperity Gospel? Yes, people still teach that. If I’m not wealthy, I must be doing something wrong.
• Finally, this may or may not be a true story: A church decides to shut down its ministry to focus on the success of its coffee shop. (Website name is a clue.)

My wife makes these. I didn’t have a closing photo this week, so I thought you’d enjoy seeing the puppets in an international mood.

Paul Wilkinson failed to find a suitable Christian media link related to tomorrow’s historic separation vote in Scotland, but you can read him the rest of the week at Thinking Out Loud or devotionally at Christianity 201.

Home-Schooled Kids Speak Out

A few days ago, the cable network Al Jazeera America reactivated a dormant Twitter hashtag #homeschoolkid with this question: Should home schooling be regulated more?  There was also a link to this article on their website. Responses have been pouring in, and I thought we’d share a sample here for those of you who don’t do the Twitter thing.

• As someone who was (very successfully) homeschooled for 12 years, yes.
• Homeschooling was one of the best choices my parents made for me as a child. I was given freedom to learn – & I went for it.
• H-schooling saved me from gender stereotypes (girls=bad at math). I delved into my interests w/o being pushed down by society.
• We w/subjected to state tests yearly, and my family always ranked higher than school district.Here’s to not following curriculum.
• Homeschooling allowed me lots of of time at home alone reading encyclopedias

Somewhere along the thread however, you notice a shift in response that is perhaps less Al Jazeera’s regular audience, and more from people in the Christian stream of home-schooling:

• Pro – I became a great speller Con – I grew up believing Robert E Lee was just doing his Christian duty.
• Maybe the bigger issue with homeschooling is this ‘divine right of parents’ thing that seems to have no boundaries.
• I think homeschooling can be done well, but someone has to look out for the kids who aren’t getting the education they need.
• Homeschooling should not be an altar raised for the gods of parental rights on which children’s rights are daily sacrificed.
• I’m disgusted that my parents belonged to HSLDA, a group that called a man who forced his kids to live in cages a “hero”
• I was raised with ACE, a curriculum that until recently, claimed that the Loch Ness Monster actually existed. Seriously.
• As a #homeschoolkid I knew a few of homeschoolers who stopped school after middle school. The homeschool community did nothing about it.
• My white mother and black father taught me history from Bob Jones [curriculum]
• It’s always sad to hear people say my time as a #homeschoolkid “sounds like a lot of fun!” – it really wasn’t. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
• I’m fond of telling people that I was Valedictorian, class clown, prom queen, and most likely to get pregnant.
• …new responses still being added…

Wednesday Link List

Happy 12-12-12

• Ketzel The Cat Menorah can be ordered here and was discovered, with lots of other Hanukkah kitsch here. If you don’t know the story behind this symbol, read this.
• Speaking of kitsch, I never thought the introduction this fall of Theologian Trading Cards — yes this really happened — would lead to people wanting to collect cards that have been autographed.
• He seems a bit young, but someone has already written a Rob Bell biography.  Here’s another review of Rob Bell and a New American Christianity.
• Mark Driscoll’s home state, Washington, recently legalized small-quantity possession of marijuana. He reflects on this, noting, “people tend to stop maturing when they start self-medicating.”
• Di Jameikan Nyuu Testiment (the Jamaican New Testament) represents four years research work and US$350,000; funded by was the American Bible Society, Wycliffe Group of Companies, British and Foreign Bible Society, and Spring Harvest through the Bible Society of The West Indies. Read more about the Jiizas Buk here and here.
• Jen Wilkin writes a must-read for parents on guarding Sabbath-rest for your children.
• Maybe it’s just me, but the idea of someone buried in a glass-sided coffin especially here in North America just creeps me out; even if the guy was/is a saint.
• Here’s a skillfully-written list by Rachel Held Evans of five things you don’t have to walk away from if you leave conservative fundamentalism.
• If you show up on Wednesdays looking for pictures to use on your blog, you might want to get to know Catholic Memes (Facebook page) or Catholic Memes (website).
• “In an irony of history, the time of spiritual preparation and silent waiting has become the busiest, most frenetic season of the year.” Read more from Philip Clayton.
• Here’s an article I wrote a year ago about what was then the top news story for at least month, concerning a popular college football coach and his inappropriate relationships with kids too young to attend the college in question. It’s interesting to read this now that we know how the story ended.
• And from exactly a year ago, Steven Furtick bats it out of the park at a Liberty Convocation. I am really enjoying this series.
• A Jewish music preservation group sets out to make the definitive Hanukkah compilation and ends up with an album dripping with Christmas cheer.
• And speaking of music, I don’t know who wrote this song, or who is singing, but it gets my award for most costume changes in a four-minute praise video. This had ‘zero views’ when I discovered it.

 

Weekend Link List

What you’re looking at is the actual default font size for this blog’s text.

I chose “Silver is the New Grey” as the theme for this blog because of the wide column but noticed immediately that the font size was too small for some readers. So… for the past 4 1/2 years, I’ve been taking 10-15 seconds before posting to manually insert the HTML tag <big> in front of each paragraph. It has given this blog it’s distinctive look and style.

However, a problem has arisen this week, and the HTML tag for enlarging the typeface won’t ‘stick.’  I’ve investigated some different themes, but because the entire history here is encoded for larger type, the end results end up looking HUGE.  Since this blog has operated for nearly five years on a capital outlay of $0.00, I’m reluctant to get a custom theme, but I am also reluctant to walk away from all the existing content.  So suggestions are welcomed.

• On Sunday, Cross Point Church (Pete Wilson) hosted Bob Goff, the author of Love Does.  For the few minutes I watched it was absolutely amazing; a killer sermon. Here’s a link for it [wrong message is currently playing], and also a ten minute Q&A that was filmed for the Cross Point internet campus.  [Cross Point has a history of ‘losing’ sermon videos when they have guest speakers; they lost the Jon Acuff week entirely. So if they get it working we’ll add the link.]
• No blogger — not one — does a consistent job of narration like author Karen Spears Zacharias, as seen in this story.
• Chaplain Mike at Internet Monk proposes some rather interesting parallels between worship and sex.
• More than one in twenty atheists and agnostics pray every day. 
• In a world of online addiction where sexual ethics have been shattered, some resources to help face the problem.
  
• An outraged pastor suggests that sending out or posting your ultrasound pictures is completely inappropriate.
• The Very Worst Missionary is now back in the U.S. operating as The Very Worst Pastor’s Wife. (Catch her  as a guest today on Drew Marshall — see link under radio at right.)
  
• Here’s another short film from Moving Works a Film-making ministry: Father of the Fatherless.
• Well, here’s hoping you can read this in one font size or another…

Rachel Held Evans’ Monkey Town

I know it’s generally uncool for a blogger to review a book that’s two years old, but then again, I actually paid for my copy, so technically this isn’t a review review; whatever that means. I was more overcome with curiosity, having become a regular reader of Rachel’s blog.

Sometimes a great blogger does not a great book author make, but in this case — sorry, Rachel if this seems uncomplimentary — the book was far better than what I’m accustomed to reading each day in blogland. The thing that struck me was that the book was so readable; the first hundred pages flew by in a single sitting.

Rachel Held Evans’ title refers to growing up in the town that was the venue for the Scopes Monkey Trial, the trail concerning the teaching of evolution and creation in public schools that some Christians see as having been as pivotal as Roe v Wade. I’d love to say that it ends there, that Rachel isn’t personally a proponent of some kind of theistic evolution, but in fact, this is one of the issues she deals with.

And Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All The Answers Learned to Ask the Questions (Zondervan, paperback, June 2010) is definitely about raising the tough questions and allowing doubts to nurture somewhat without ending with a total abandonment of either God or some of the primary fundamentals of the conservative faith in which she was raised.  To that end, this is a book that will appeal to readers of authors like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren.

It’s also a ‘growing up Christian’ type of memoir, and as Rachel herself admits, to do something of that nature while still in one’s twenties, is a bit of daunting task. This book will certainly resonate with anyone in Rachel’s demographic, or who identifies with postmodern culture.

While the book is edgy, it didn’t stir up the hornets’ nest that her next book — A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master — is bound to when it releases in late October. (See an article on this subject here at TOL.)

In the meantime, you’ve got Rachel’s blog to enjoy if you’re looking for more.

Bob Jones University Expells Student Weeks Before Graduation

He was due to graduate in mere weeks.  He was nowhere near the number of demerit points necessary for expulsion. 

But suddenly that all changed for Christopher Peterman.

Darrell at SFL fills in the details:

…It begins when a man named Ernie Willis raped a young girl named Tina Anderson. The pastor of Tina’s church at the time was Chuck Phelps, a man who by his own testimony not only failed to vigorously pursue justice for Tina but also required her to give a confession of her alleged sin before the church and then aided in removing her from the state and apparently out of the reach of local authorities. Yet with the fact of his actions revealed both on national television and in a court of law, Chuck Phelps remained a person in good standing with several fundamentalist organizations such as The Wilds and Bob Jones University. Bob Jones not only continued to call him a friend of the college but after the conviction of Ernie Willis then went on to proactively show their support for him by placing him back on one of their own boards…

Peterman was part of organizing “Do Right BJU” asking for Phelps to be removed the BJU Board of Directors.  This put the media spotlight on the university wherein it assured the public no students would be expelled for their participation.

But suddenly all that changed.

Dianna Anderson explains:

…[T]hings didn’t end there for Peterman. Even though BJU couldn’t really expel him for protesting – after all, that’s a first amendment right, and they’d had their hands tied by their own words to the media – they put him on watch.

You see, at BJU, students function on a system of demerits. You get a certain number of demerits based on infractions of the rules – 150 demerits, and you get expelled. These rules are detailed in the student handbook (PDF). The handbook itself is a piece of work, and well worth a gander – there are several sections reinforcing the idea that BJU students must submit to “God-given human authorities” (read: the BJU administration). You’re also expected to attend church twice a week in addition to Monday-Thursday chapel services (if you’re interested, you can check twitter for the hashtag #BJUHandbook, where I tweeted many of the rules).

BJU used this system of demerits to exact a punishment on Chris for protesting against Phelps. They monitored his FB and twitter feeds carefully, they placed an extra RA in his dorm to keep an eye on him. People started following him both on and off campus to look for him breaking the rules…

SFL continues the story:

…For those of us who have attended similar institutions this is hardly a new tale and hardly unexpected. The campus purges of “undesirables” who are considered unworthy to graduate are a commonly accepted fact. At my own alma mater we referred to this rash of sudden dismissals that would occur right after the spring deadline to withdraw as “spring cleaning.” First they take your money. Then they show you the door and tell you that you are no longer welcome here.

No doubt the headlines (such as they are) will be more concerned in the fact that a college student was punished for watching the television show Glee or not having a proper haircut. I find the focus on those details unfortunate, because beyond these imaginary infractions the real story here goes much deeper to a kind of institutional corruption that is so blatant and yet ignored by those who call themselves friends of the University. One wonders how many more rapes, how many more cover-ups, how many more countless wrongs must be inflicted by Bob Jones University before even the darkened souls of their fundamentalist supporters are too sickened to continue to be complicit in their commission…  [link added] 

While not playing to the Glee distraction, you have to ask yourself why that is an issue. The blogger at Galatians 4 puts this well:

Why on earth are these colleges run like insane English 19th century orphanages where they hand out demerits?

…Is it odd for me to think that punishing a TWENTY THREE YEAR old for watching a TV show is overkill? He watched the show off campus. I do not watch Glee, I would not suggest anyone else watch it, since it promotes many worldly things, but this is a GROWN MAN even if he is very young. Twenty-three year olds have been fathers and have died in wars…  

Some of the final demerits also concerned posting the lyrics for a Christian music song.  The song’s video is posted here at Chuckles Travel, a blog dedicated to continuing follow up in the Tina Anderson case.

FitsNews sums it up well:

As far as we’re concerned, this is yet another example of the rank hypocrisy that’s all too common among South Carolina’s social conservatives. Bob Jones should have never allowed someone like Phelps on its board – and the fact that it is strong-arming a young man who had the courage to call them out on it is despicable.

BeneDiction looks at options for Peterman:

I doubt the attention will help Peterman get his earned degree; other students who participated in Do Right BJU will probably be targeted and I doubt the US Department of Education and Peterman’s congressman can do anything. Perhaps another conservative religious university will step up and give Peterman an opportunity for a degree, perhaps BJU alumni can help him with any student debt. Perhaps the cast and crew of Glee will come up with a creative way to help out. The more attention Bob Jones University gets, the more they will cry persecution.  [emphasis added] 

In collecting all the various pieces of this story, my only addition to what’s already been said is a personal concern about what this says about the people who do graduate from BJU. Would a church necessarily want to hire someone from a cookie-cutter university? From an ultra, ultra-conservative school? From a school whose board has obviously been touched by allegations of corruption? 

I’m sure there are parts of the United States where that’s exactly the kind of graduates they want to hire.  But not where I live. 

And also, with the BJU brand so tainted, if I were the parent of a young child, I would think twice about using the home-school resources that bear their name.

Wednesday Link List

Heads I post this, tails I don't.

Welcome back to another edition.  Has it really been a week? And just eight more months to Christmas!

• Our lead item this week is a look at the idea of presence in preaching, particularly as it applies to multi-site churches where the pastor’s sermon is on a giant screen. Carl Trueman makes his point well, and if you only click one link this week, make it this one.
• Much sadness at the U.S. headquarters of the Voice of the Martyrs charity, following the death of the executive director, who it appears took his own life after allegations of molesting a young girl.
  
• The sinking of the Titanic proved to be the basis of several sermons in the weeks that followed, 100 years ago. “By the time Titanic put to sea, this language had evolved into a boast — reportedly shared with passengers — that ‘God Himself couldn’t sink this ship.’ Thus, when the liner sank on April 15, 1912, preachers on both sides of the Atlantic were among the first commentators to raise their voices in judgment…”
  
• Have you ever heard of someone stating a personal opinion about something, but trying to pass it off as Biblical? SFL got over 300 comments when they ask that question. Here’s an example: “One pastor I had… said that a podium or plastic stand was unbiblical. He said that Ezra used a pulpit of wood, and anything else was sin.”
  
• Chances are that Easter and Holy Week looked a lot different at your church than it does in most of the 37 pictures from around the world at Boston.com’s The Big Picture. This is a crash course on the variations of Christianity. (Higher speed internet helps on this one.)
  
• While away from his home in Canada, uber-blogger Tim Challies finds his U.S. hotel causes him to pass by an abortion clinic. Sample:  “… our society not only allows this to happen, but is actually complicit in this genocide.”
  
• Not far from the Lincoln Tunnel in the middle of the part of New York City they call Hell’s Kitchen, Metro Baptist, with only 100 members, provides support to about 1,500 people annually.
  
• Here’s a project we’re doing personallythat I will mention again in a week or two: We’re uploading some of the ‘lost’ songs in the history of contemporary Christian music so that more people can here them. Warning: It’s a very diverse collection.
  
• You haven’t fully explored the religious sector of the internet until you’ve read a few entries from Sister Mary Martha.
  
• Doug Wilson picks up the effeminate worship services issue, but Mike Morrell at InternetMonk finds the whole premise misguided.
  
• Meanwhile, Perry Noble thinks there more pressing problems for The Church to deal with, four problems in particular.
  
• Tony Jones explains why he agrees with the critics who panned Blue Like Jazz: The Movie…And then, if you want details, there’s this review.
  
• Garfield without Garfield? Actually it’s the David Crowder Band without David Crowder. They call themselves The Digital Age. Here’s a rehearsal session of How Great Thou Art.
  
• Darrell Vesterfelt guests at Nicole Cottrell’s blog on the relationship between sin and insecurity.
  
• Left this out last week by accident, but enjoyed reading where Shauna Hybels Niequist — okay, I added the middle part of the name; she doesn’t — finally got to meet favorite author Anne Lamott.
  
• When a Canadian Christian bookstore owner is also a YouTube user, sometimes enough is enough when it comes to the relentless message that “This video contains content from EMI, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.” Time to send a wake-up call.
  
• Lisa McKay, whose husband works for a humanitarian org in Laos guests at Rachel Held Evans’ blog on her fears upon becoming a new mom.
  
• In Tennessee, allowing holding hands and kissing could lead to sex, so a newly legislated curriculum refers to both as “gateway sexual activity.”
  
• I thought the picture below adequately describes the weather the past week across North America, where we seem to get all four conditions coming and going in any 48 hour period…

Wednesday Link List

Church life:

• Hal West, author of  The Pickled Priest and the Perishing Parish : “No one will argue against the fact that since the beginning of Christian history there has existed a tension between two distinct groups in the church – the clergy and the laity. ”  Read what pastors don’t get and what people don’t get.
• A. J. Swoboda: “I think not having our children worship with us in worship can be dangerous. Who else is to teach them why and how we sing? How else are children to learn the ways of worship? …I wonder if something was lost when we split the family up in church?”  Read more at A. J.’s blog.
• Carter Moss: ” I desperately want to hear from God through every avenue possible. That why I love leading at a church that uses movie clips…, TV show clips…, and secular music… every chance we get.” This link has been in my files since August; read Why My Faith (And Yours) Needs Pop Culture.
• He said, she said:  “…[S]he continues to nominate women for the board of elders, something their denomination, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, allows. [Pastor] Willson has said that only qualified men can be elders at Second Presbyterian.”  A longtime member faces church discipline in Memphis.
• So if you jump through all the hoops and actually get to sing a solo at Thompson Road Baptist Church, you can’t sing a Contemporary Christian Music song or “a song that was made popular by CCM.” In other words, if Casting Crowns covers “Dwelling in Beulah Land” it’s goes off the approved list. (Click the image to isolate the text, and then a 2nd time to enlarge it.)
  
• Yours truly borrows a list of 13 signs of a healthy church, and then adds a description of a very healthy church you may have heard before; all at Christianity 201.
  

Christian blogosphere:

• Mrs. Beamish isn’t too happy with the worship style changes in her local C. of E. (Church of England). Especially the ‘friendlier’ passing of the piece and up-tempo music. A hilarious song posted to YouTube back in ’08.
  
• Lifeway Christian Bookstores are going to continue selling the revised NIV Bible after all. Yawn.
  
• Prodigal Magazine re-launches on March 1st with Allison and Darrell Westerfelt taking the reins.
• Paul Helm, who teaches at Regent College on the phrase, ‘asking Jesus into your heart‘ : “They are using words and phrases that bear a positive relation to the language in which the faith has been officially as preached and confessed by the church through the centuries, but a rather loose relation..” Pray the prayer, read the post.
• This is a new product that not even XXX.Church.Com had heard of when I wrote them this week. Check out My Porn Blocker, currently available at a ridiculously low price.
• Steve McCoy reveals where the treasure is buried: A stash of online articles by Redeemer Presbyterian’s Timothy Keller.   It was derived from a larger list featuring various authors.
  
• CNN’s Belief Blog offers an excellent profile of Ed Dobson along with a look at his latest video My Garden.
  
• I love the tagline for this blog: Was 1611 the last word for the English Bible? The KJV Only Debate Blog is a blog but it looks like the real action is in the forum. “This blog aims to confront the King James controversy head on, and evaluate the claims of KJV-onlyism from a Biblical perspective.The authors are all former proponents of KJV-onlyism. …[W]e acknowledge that there are multiple varieties of the KJV-only position.”
  
• In a first for Canada, a Teen Challenge center in Brandon, Manitoba will launch as a women-only facility.
  
• Want to understand the basics of Christianity?  The Australian website YDYC — Your Destiny, Your Choice — has a number of basic videos explaining salvation.
  
• Here’s a fun video by The Left filmed in a theater in Western Canada, enjoy Cellophane. At GodTube, they cite various faith influences, though their bio doesn’t.
  
• Today is the first day of Lent.  If you have absolutely no idea what that means, you might want to start with this introduction to the church calendar.
  
• All good lists must come to an end; if you’re an otter, don’t forget to say your prayers.
  

Close Up: How Church Discipline Happens at Mars Hill Seattle

This is an article about how Mark Driscoll’s church — Mars Hill in Seattle, WA — handles church discipline issues and excommunication, presented anecdotally and in painstaking detail.

I have no hesitation in importing large amounts of text from other blogs if I think it means that people will actually read the subject matter in question, but in this case, you are indeed going to have to click, because the narrative is lengthy; but also because you need to reward all the work that went into making this story available.

In a two-part blog post,  Mark Driscoll’s Church Discipline Contract: Looking For True Repentance at Mars Hill Church? Sign on the Dotted Line and Mark Driscoll’s ‘Gospel Shame’: The Truth About Discipline, Excommunication, and Cult-like Control at Mars Hill author Matthew Paul Turner introduces us to a young man named Andrew.

Shortly after graduating from high school (he was homeschooled), Andrew wanted a change in scenery. The then Tennessee resident says he needed a change in scenery. He needed to get away. He needed to grow up. He needed to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life.

So when he turned 20, Andrew moved away from his quaint life in America’s Bible belt, and he moved to Seattle, and yes, in hopes of finding himself.

Once he was settled into life in the great Northwest, Andrew took the advice of an older sibling and visited Mars Hill Church, the congregational home of Mark Driscoll.

Andrew was born and raised Independent Fundamental Baptist, so not only was Andrew accustomed to Mark’s anger-laced fiery style of sermon, he had a deep appreciation for it. In the beginning, some of Mars Hill’s reformed theologies rubbed against Andrew’s Baptist roots, but Mark’s enthrallment for preaching “Jesus Christ crucified” eventually was what relieved Andrew’s doctrinal concerns, and it wasn’t long before he became a member. Soon thereafter, he was wading heart deep amid the friendly, committed Mars Hill community, becoming more and more comfortable in his born again reformed skin, guzzling the Driscollized water.

According to Andrew, joining Mars Hill was a good move for him. While he didn’t agree with every theological declaration that came out Mark Driscoll’s mouth, he loved his community, a devoted group of believers who seemed to love, support, and value him the way Jesus commanded. Over the next couple of years, Andrew became well connected. He volunteered. He became active in a community group. He even volunteered on Sundays as church security.

Toward the beginning of 2011, Andrew met and eventually began dating the daughter of a church elder at Mars Hill. The two fell in love quickly. Last fall, they were engaged to be married.

But shortly after becoming engaged, Andrew made a costly choice…

Again, here are the links:

• Mark Driscoll’s Church Discipline Contract: Looking For True Repentance at Mars Hill Church? Sign on the Dotted Line (Part One) – 450 comments
  
• Mark Driscoll’s ‘Gospel Shame’: The Truth About Discipline, Excommunication, and Cult-like Control at Mars Hill (Part Two) – 700 comments