Category: Christianity

On foolishness

I’m working on my next sermon. For the night services at Willows on the 28th of June. Here’s the passage I’m preaching on – it’s in the context of a series on evangelism in the mornings… an imaginary Freddo Frog to the person who first guesses what direction I’m going in with this passage…

1 Corinthians 1
“17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[c]
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”[d]

1 Corinthians 2
1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[e] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

Candidacy update

Just in case any of you out there are actually wondering where we’re up to in terms of plans for the future…

I have an interview with representatives from the Presbytery of North Queensland this afternoon as the penultimate (I think) stage of enrolling at QTC as a candidate.

Exciting stuff. I hope they didn’t find my little betting sheet at church last night…

Why Redeemer Lives

Justin Moffat (another one of my favourite bloggers – his series on things he’s learned about preaching is worth a read) has a list of ten things he observed about Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church during his time in New York (where he worked in a church plant).

Here are my favourite bits from his list:

3. Redeemer seeks to ‘exegete’ the city. They ‘walked the streets’ early on to breathe in and consider the needs, drives and fears of New Yorkers. They didn’t generalise, patronise, or assume that they knew the needs before they began their project. But when they decided, they were specific.
5. They assume that people can be involved in a ‘service project’ (Mercy Ministry) without sacrificing their commitment to the Gospel.
6. They speak in church as though new people and not-yet-Christians are always present.
7. Tim Keller is positive, insightful, and a good example of the new apologetic. He has clearly identified and articulated certain ‘defeater beliefs’, and he systematically goes about answering them.

It’s a useful reflection – though doesn’t touch on the whole theology/idolatry of the city issue (though he teases a future post on the matter in the comments.

I was going to mention this the other day – but didn’t – but dad paid Redeemer a visit once upon a time during a whirlwind visit of the states – and wrote this useful article about Missional Churches (PDF) (back in 2004 before it the buzzword reached zeitgeist status) – he also wrote something about Redeemer that I can’t find on his old, abandoned blog (again in 2004 before blogging was cool – isn’t he such a trendy/geeky dad) … but I’ll keep looking.

Guide for better living

If you’re at a church meeting and you decide that running a betting pool on the people most likely to ask a question about a contentious hot button issue would make proceedings less tedious then don’t lose the bit of paper you’ve written on.

Especially if you were silly enough to write a heading above the list of names.

This will ensure a much better night’s sleep.

That is all.

U2charist

Anglican Churches in England are trying really hard to be “cool and hip”*. So it’s a shame they think “cool and hip” means singing U2 songs in church.

“Among the alternative services explored in the book, which is co-edited by the Rt Rev Steven Croft, the new Bishop of Sheffield, are so-called “U2charists”, services in which the congregation receives communion but sings the songs of the Irish rock band U2 instead of traditional hymns.
The services, which include such songs as “Mysterious Ways”, “One”, and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, have been pioneered at St Swithin’s church in Lincoln.”

You’d hope that people in church have, in the majority, found what they’re looking for. That’s kind of the point. Isn’t it?

There are also churches praying for the executives of companies like Google.

Some of the ideas for being “cool and hip” are just plain weird. Not that singing U2 isn’t…

“One Holy Communion service promoted in the book, called Ancient Faith, Future Mission, begins with the congregation being shown a video clip from the YouTube website about a United Nations anti-poverty campaign.
Worshippers are told that “our planet is messed up” and that “things are not right”.
They are then asked to approach the altar and rub sea salt on their fingers to represent tears, before walking around and meditating at eight “prayer stations” representing themes such as “gender equality” and “environmental sustainability”.”

* My term, not theirs.

The unsingleness post

Right. So the post I wrote on singleness over the weekend has prompted a couple of follow up points (from the discussion in the comments).

Here are two extra ideas. And they’re for the guys (mostly).

There was a comment that attempted to point out that while the point of my post was that you shouldn’t necessarily be stressed or impatient, I personally had made significant life changes in order to pursue a girl.

I’m not suggesting for a minute that guys should not pursue girls. I’m not suggesting you sit on your backside and wait for a girl to fall into your lap (though that quite literally worked for someone I know). It’s like prayer – no reformed Christian that I know prays about something and does nothing – you pray and act accordingly. It’s the same concept.

So, two points.

1. If you’re a guy and you want a specific girl – pursue her (until she either says yes when you ask her out) or makes it clear she’s not interested (though my theory is you get three strikes – because you want to be sure).

2. If you just want a girl in general, then don’t be desperate. Desperation is a turn off. For either gender. In my opinion. You’re better off being patient and content.

This time I can’t claim to have received that advice from my wise old grandfather.

Made in Manhattan

Tim Keller is pretty much the thinking man’s Mark Driscoll. Well, not really, Mark Driscoll is intellectually brilliant too – and communicates brilliant things in a clear way. Keller doesn’t seem to worry as much about the everyman – he knows his audience.

Christianity Today has a rather long feature about Keller’s church – Redeemer Presbyterian in New York. It’s a worthy read.

“The Kellers stick to a few rules. They never talk about politics. Tim always preaches with a non-Christian audience in mind, not merely avoiding offense, but exploring the text to find its good news for unbelievers as well as believers. The church emphasizes excellence in music and art, to the point of paying their musicians well (though not union scale). And it calls people to love and bless the city. It isn’t an appeal based on guilt toward a poor, lost community.”

Sherman [a guy interviewed for the article] relates Keller’s vision to the apostle Paul. “Paul had this sense of, I really should go talk to Caesar. He’s not above caring for Onesimus the slave, but somebody should go to talk to Caesar. When you go to New York, that’s what you’re doing. Somebody should talk to the editorial committee of The New York Times; somebody should talk to Barnard, to Columbia. Somebody should talk to Wall Street.”

That’s all good. But then he gets on the city high horse…

“Surely God’s command to exiled Israelites applied to Christians in New York: “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you” (Jer. 29:7). Long before that, God had designated cities as places of refuge when Israel entered the Promised Land. They remain so today, Keller noted—which explains why poor people, immigrants, and vulnerable minorities such as homosexuals cluster in cities. They attract people who are open to change. Paul did most of his missionary work in cities, and early Christianity flourished within them. Revelation portrays the final descent of the kingdom of God to earth as a city, although a garden city, with fruit trees and a life-giving river at its center. Keller suggests that, had Adam and Eve lived sinlessly and obeyed God’s directions, they would have made Eden into just such a city.”

I wonder where he thinks his food comes from? It annoys me that people feel the need to scripturally justify the heart they have for the place in which they minister. Surely we’re all called to do so in different places (unless I’m missing something and the “ends of the earth” only includes cities).

But then he gets back to the good stuff.

On Morality

“Redeemer holds high moral standards, but Keller puts all 10 commandments under the first one—to have no other gods. Preaching about idolatry—the sin of putting something or someone else in the place of God—enables Keller to communicate with relativists, who would respond to Christian moral standards by saying, “That’s just your opinion.”

“When you say the ultimate sin is to put things in the place of God,” Keller says, “you take that argument away. You find that they say, ‘Hmm, I don’t know if there is a God.’ When I describe sin in such a way that people wish there were a God, I’m making progress.”

This next bit is perhaps my favourite. It’s a refreshing approach to interdenominational relationships. And perhaps even tempers my opposition to Mars Hill’s plans for global domination… (though I still hate church by video as a model, perhaps some people prefer to get their pastoring from a big screen…)

“Keller’s PCA denomination proclaims classic Puritan doctrine. Keller not only adheres firmly to that doctrine, he also is a student of it, with a first-class knowledge of such luminaries as Jonathan Edwards. Yet he balances this doctrinal narrowness with catholicity, appreciating not only the Reformed theology of his heritage, but also actively supporting the efforts of charismatics, Lutherans, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Of the 65 churches that Redeemer has helped to plant in the New York area, only 10 are PCA. The largest is Southern Baptist.”

The Church of Google

A while back I mindlessly speculated that Google was just like God. At least there were certain similarities. I was trying to find an appropriate analogy for talking to geeks. Who incidentally, in my latest piece of theorising, are probably statistically more likely to be atheists despite a love for science fiction*.

Anyway, it seems there’s actually an atheist movement running round calling themselves “the church of Google” suggesting that Google is indeed the closest thing to God (Note: google chrome reckons this site is dodgy, and has blocked it (and search results it appears in on my site) so I’ve killed what was a link, and you’ll have to google it for yourself),.

Sadly, there is a page dedicated to “hate mail” filled with irate Christians. Like this guy.

“I’m sorry, but I must not only completely disagree with your little Googlism idea, but i must also call it insanely retarded. For one large reason, it was man-made. Not to say than any other g0d is not man-made, but as much as we are sure google exists and g0d does not, we are also sure google is a search engine not only made by two guys, but there is no opposition to the thought that it wasnt, where as to g0ds of any nature, are not man-made, but more on control/lead man. Another reason, the only thing google is made for, is to give information. Google has not created the world, man created google. To say google is g0d not only does make sense, but it has to be one of the most retarded things i have ever heard.”

*Based solely on the number of pro-atheism articles submitted and voted for on geek cesspools like Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.

OCC Episode 5

The fifth, and penultimate, episode of the cynical and unacclaimed Christian drama/parody/soap opera.

The ultimate episode is on the DVD and still to be ripped and uploaded. This may take me some time. But in the mean time, enjoy. May contain art rock… and Coldplay… in this one you’ve pretty much got to ignore the video – it’s about ten seconds out…

Where we go wrong

I’m going to do something odd for a second. I’m going to put on the “naturist” atheist hat. I watched this video (with a pretty strong language warning) of Christian comments about atheism on blogs. It’s disturbing.

Atheists are not stupid.

Peter Jensen put it best when he said that atheists and Christians have a lot in common – they reject all Gods, we reject all Gods but one.

If you start from the assumption that the universe is a product of chance, infinite time producing every possible result, then atheism makes the most sense. The whole argument comes down to that question, and both answers seem prima facie “logical” (if not, in atheist’s thinking “rational”).

So when you throw stones at all atheists on the basis of the intolerance of the few remember you may end up in a video like this – that shows a lot of Christians not “speaking the truth with love”…

Again, there’s a “strong and nasty” language warning on this video – but it’s coming from “Christians”.

Should we be worried if atheists take over the world? Personally I don’t think so. They’re not all Pol Pot or the Barefoot Bum.

“Evolution of Religion”

One of the arguments that atheists use that I don’t like is the accusation that Christianity is just plagiarism – taking bits common to other religions and applying them – as though its relative newness (2000 years compared to say Greek polytheism) means it’s just been able to “pick and choose” in order to colonise the infidels.

They always play it like it’s a trump card Christians have never considered… “Did you know that the obscure tribe from the middle of nowhere also have …?” Christianity is just a mish mash of other religious myths. A myth mash…

This is what happens when you dismiss any truth in any religion.

It’s rubbish. It’s one of those arguments where they need to put the “God hat” on for a minute and look at it from a believer’s perspective – just because something uses the same elements doesn’t make it a copy. Water is not a copy of carbon dioxide. Though both contain oxygen. While Cat Stevens may suggest that Coldplay were copying him by using similar musical notes in a similar progression to one of his songs – it doesn’t make it so.

So, this post about communion on the Friendly Atheist made me angrier than most.

While Atheists believe there is no truth to any religion adherents of those religions all claim that their’s is uniquely true – they can’t all be products of each other at that point. Though Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism, and Mormonism to an extent claims to be a fulfillment of Christianity. The idea that common elements is a critique is wrongheaded.

If you’ve got an hour and twenty minutes then you should watch this lecture on the evolution of religion and get annoyed. Like I did. About ten minutes in.

That is all.

OCC Episode 4

Because I’m a day behind I figure I can post two videos at once – plus, it’s not really cheating in the blog off because the blog off appears to be off. Simone pulled out.

Are we still on Ben?

OCC Episode 3

I’m a day behind on these – and I’ve also realised that the program I used to convert them from hi-def quicktime files to YouTubeable files has not only messed up the audio – but cropped the last few seconds of sound… One day I’ll fix that. But for now. I give you. The OCC. Episode Three.

In the city

The 9Marks website has a great article on this whole “the city is where it’s at” “theology” that’s sweeping through city churches (and church planters) at the moment with nary a thought for those poor country cousins.

While I love and appreciate cities for all their goodness, and have lived in cities (excluding Townsville – which is regional) for just under half my life, I also think healthy, wholesome country towns are the lifeblood of the church and are often neglected.

A big part of my professional life involves helping the push for a regional area in Queensland to get appropriate per capita (and per revenue raised) government investment into infrastructure. It’s an eternal frustration. There are few votes in pleasing the country areas – so we’re the poor second or third cousins when it comes to government priorities.

There’s a real danger that the church ends up looking the same. It takes courage for a city raised ministry candidate to move to the boondocks. There’s no (real) program for sending graduates into rural service like there is for other vital professions (school teaching etc). City churches are too keen to snap up graduates for their vibrant and exciting “city” ministry.

And of course, as some good friends would itch to point out, these city churches could telecast their services into regional areas as a pragmatic solution.

There’s a lot to be said for feet on the ground ministry that’s engaged in community life – particularly when community life tends to be stronger the smaller the community (this is a generalisation based purely on my experience living centres with populations of 5 million, 3 million, 170,000 and 6,000). The opportunities for ministry are greater with greater natural community – but the opportunities for exciting ministry programs and huge growth decrease with the size of community.

So good on the 9Marks guys for pointing out this flawed hermeneutic (and particularly flawed Biblical proof texting) of city based ministry. It’s one of the few problems I have with the Mars Hill fan club. And in fact any city centric thinking.

The fine art of persuasion

Lets face it – for all intents and purposes any piece of communication is an exercise in persuasion. If it’s not you shouldn’t bother. So no doubt there’ll be something useful in these “50 Scientifically proven ways to be persuasive“…

Here are some samples:

Rhyming makes the phrases more convincing. People were asked to evaluate the practical value of parables “Caution and measure will win you treasure” and “Caution and measure will win you riches”. In general proverb A was considered to be more practical and insightful than proverb B.

Caffeine increases the argumentativeness of a strong argument. Group A drank regular orange juice, group B drank orange juice infused with caffeine. Both groups were then presented with a statement on controversial issue. Except one statement then made weak and hasty arguments, while the second statement made a strong case. Both groups equally dismissed the weak argument case. As far as strongly argumentative case, group B was 30% more receptive. A faster-working brain under the influence of caffeine seems to appreciate good arguments.