A La Carte (October 11)
Blessings to you on this fine day!
I was grateful to be on Chris Fabry Live on Moody Radio yesterday and on the Disciple-Making Parent Podcast last week.
Amazon has lots of deals today, including on their devices like the Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Oasis, Fire tablet, Echo, and Echo Show.
(Yesterday on the blog: Today … I’m Thankful)
Released: Logos 10
There’s exciting news from Faithlife: Logos 10 has released. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and am impressed with it. If you buy or upgrade from the link I’ve provided, you’ll get 15% off if you’re buying the first time and 30% off an upgrade. You’ll also get 5 free resources that you can pick from a good-sized list.
The disastrous moral harm of California’s transgender ‘refuge’ bill
“This type of bill coming from one of the most populous and influential states in the union is deeply concerning and immoral, as it will lead to irreparable harm for children, youth, and their families. What’s being promoted is a false view of the self under the auspices of moral autonomy and freedom — especially toward children and youth — that is at odds with basic biological and moral realities.”
When Narcissism Comes to Church
Samuel James has some very important and urgent concerns about a new book related to narcissism within the church.
5 Things You Should Know about Creeds
Keith Mathison: “Most Christians have heard of things like the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed, but many Christians also have a number of misconceptions about creeds. There is a lot of misunderstanding about the nature, history, and purpose of creeds. Here are five things you should know about creeds.”
The fruit of giving out a few books
I love few things more than giving away books, so this article resonated with me.
Will My Spouse Be My Best Friend in Heaven?
John Piper answers this question in his latest Ask Pastor John.
Flashback: Longing for What’s Second Best
While we can and should pray for those things we long for, we should always pray that what we long for would be according to God’s will.
Jesus is in the rain and the shadow as much as in the light that breaks from the east at dawn. —F.B. Meyer
You Might also like
-
How a Zealous Mormon Missionary Discovered the Jesus He Never Knew
Sometimes I enjoy a book, but still find myself scratching my head about certain elements of it. Sometimes I genuinely appreciate what an author has to say, yet find myself wondering about some of his claims. And this is exactly the case with Passport to Heaven: The True Story of a Zealous Mormon Missionary Who Discovers the Jesus He Never Knew. It’s an enjoyable book and in many ways an inspiring one. But it’s also a little bit confusing at times.
Micah Wilder was raised in a faithful and devout Mormon home, first in Indiana and then in Utah. Like many young Mormons, he decided to embark on a two-year evangelistic mission. Though initially told he would be assigned to Mexico, medical issues intervened and he was instead dispatched to Florida. For much of the time he spread the Mormon gospel, telling all who would listen (and many who wouldn’t) that God was restoring the true Christian faith through the Mormon church.
Several months into this mission, Micah encountered a Baptist pastor. He was intent on converting this pastor to Mormonism and convinced he had provided a perfect defense of his faith. But there was one thing he couldn’t shake. The pastor had listened attentively, then encouraged Micah to do the simplest thing: to read the Bible free of Mormon presuppositions while pleading with the Holy Spirit to illumine the Word. He took up the challenge and read the New Testament not once, but repeatedly. And over time God was pleased to act—he opened Micah’s eyes to the truth. He came to understand that, contrary to Mormonism, he could not earn his salvation, but could receive it only as a free gift of grace. He repented, believed, and was saved.
Yet he was still in the Mormon church and his newfound convictions did not go over well with his leaders. Inevitably, he was called before them and disciplined. He left the church and began a ministry meant to reach Mormons and others with the good news of what Christ has done. Happily, his girlfriend (now his wife) also came to faith, as did his siblings and parents. (His mother, Lynn, has told her story in Unveiling Grace.) It is a wonderful story and is well-told. He focuses a great deal of attention on the reliability of Scripture and the essential doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And at the same time, he refutes the contradictory Mormon doctrines, which makes this a book that may prove useful in reaching other Mormons.
So where do my hesitations come in? First in the lack of attention to the importance of the local church in the life of the Christian. I understand that coming out of an institution as overbearing as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints, Wilder may have had some hesitations about aligning with another institution. Yet while his conversion happened outside the context of a local church, he never seems to integrate with one and tell his readers that they ought to do the same. Even now it’s hard to tell if he is connected to a local church or if he’s merely connected to a parachurch organization. There is also the role of different forms of prophecy or other unusual elements in his story in which he is told—and appears to believe—that he has an unusually important role to play in God’s plan for this world. And then there is the way he tells the story as if he could recollect the fine details of conversations that took place decades earlier, something that does not seem entirely plausible.
Yet these potential weaknesses aside, Passport to Heaven is an interesting and engaging book and its author has an important story to tell. It is encouraging to read how the Lord saved him and called him to himself, and a blessing to see how that work then spread throughout his family. Already the book seems to have made an impact among Mormons and I pray that in the years ahead it will continue to do so. I am glad I took the time to read it. -
Revival at Asbury: A Cold Take
The revival at Asbury has already come to an end. What began as a brief and simple chapel service turned into a weeks-long worship event that drew tens of thousands of participants and elicited tens of millions of opinions. Only now have I gathered my thoughts and bundled them into this “cold take.” I trust you won’t mind that I’ve chosen to share it as a series of short thoughts rather than a single essay.
❖
Some things may be wrong or misguided, but not particularly dangerous. A small revival (or purported revival if you prefer) at a small college far away does not necessarily demand a great deal of scrutiny by those who have no connection to it. While it is good to have “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14) there is usually little need to put the effort into what does not intersect your life and what is unlikely to cause anyone any great harm. Those biblical calls to discernment ought to be considered alongside the exhortations about meddling in affairs that are not your own.
❖
Revival is not a clear biblical category like, for example, deacon or baptize. It’s not a word we find in the New Testament, and it does not tell us to try to generate revivals or be on watch for them. It doesn’t even instruct us to pray for them, though that may be a very good thing to do. It’s clear that God sometimes chooses to work in ways that we choose to label revival, but God’s greatest and most consistent work is through the ordinary means of grace within the local church. Because the Bible does not define revival, it may be difficult to know exactly what one is and exactly when one is happening. It may describe a range of circumstances and experiences.
❖
The New Dictionary of Theology offers a helpful definition of revival: “God’s quickening visitation of his people, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace in their lives. It is essentially a corporate occurrence, an enlivening of individuals not in isolation but together.” If this is an appropriate definition, then examples abound in Scripture and church history. And if this is an appropriate definition it does not set the bar all that high—where we see God quickening a number of people all at once, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace, there we may have a revival. A revival does not need to sweep over the globe or impact millions to be genuine.
❖
When revival breaks out, we need to guard against treating it as something that has an almost mystical or mythical quality to it. God’s plan for the world is centered around the church, so we should be careful not to inadvertently disparage his “Plan A” which is—and always will be—the church. Of course we should also hesitate to treat revival as if it is nothing or to speak ill of what God may be using for his glory.❖
It seems to me that news of an outbreak of revival is best met with a guarded optimism. We don’t need to be naive but also don’t need to be incredulous. And if that revival begins in a tradition very different from our own (though of course one that acknowledges the gospel) we should perhaps be especially glad and hopeful, for it is good to be reminded that God is at work in many different places and through many different people. Speaking personally, I would like my first instinct to be “Praise God” rather than “Fat chance!” (Jim Elliff: “How do you respond to a pastor friend who says that the youth in his church have experienced repentance and brokenness and restored relationships in spontaneous youth-led gatherings which are less than perfect. Do you immediately tell him how skeptical you are, or do you rejoice?”)❖
A revival that emerges in a Wesleyan school led by Wesleyan faculty within the Wesleyan tradition is likely to manifest itself in ways that are distinctly Wesleyan. It is therefore unlikely to feature Presbyterian worship or Baptist doctrine. And that’s okay. We could perhaps imagine genuine revival breaking out simultaneously at a very good Anglican Church in Australia and a very good Reformed Baptist church in Zambia. I doubt many of us would be shocked or dismayed if they looked quite a bit different from one another even as we rejoiced in them both. I doubt many of us would be shocked or dismayed if we were drawn far more to one of them than the other. We should not demand, then, that a revival arising from a different Christian tradition look just like our church. For reasons that are his own, God sees fit to work through many different theological streams or traditions.❖
Jonathan Edwards once made some good and helpful observations about the distinguishing marks of revival, but his observations are not authoritative. He, after all, lived at a particular time and in a certain place and within a distinct context. And, of course, he was a sinful, finite, limited human being like you and me. So yes, when we hear whispers of revival, by all means, we should look up his work on the subject. But even as we appreciate his insights, we should be cautious about demanding that a revival looks exactly like his description or about disparaging one that doesn’t perfectly match it. All of which is simply to say that we should avoid using Edwards as a kind of trump card.❖
The internet in general and social media in particular demand the constant creation of content. Many people crave hot takes from their favored content creators and this means that much of the material that gets generated during curious or controversial events is not particularly thoughtful or useful. In fact, much of it is created to generate income, to satisfy existing subscribers, or to draw new ones. Don’t doubt that there’s money to be made and platform to be gained by having opinions on even something as good as revival. Thus it’s important to distinguish between creators who really have something to contribute and those who are merely in it for themselves, usually through relentless negativity. After all, cynicism and controversy are still the easiest ways to gain a following.
❖
Any revival is likely to encounter not only opposition but competition. There will be people on one side who refuse to acknowledge that it is (or even may be) revival and who try to discern it out of existence. God may not snuff out a smoldering wick, but many of his people will gladly do so. Meanwhile, there will be people on the other side who want to turn it into a complete circus. If one group is determined to make it far less than it is the other is determined to make it far more. Both are essentially just wanting to use it for their own ends. This seems to have been the tension at Asbury and I think we should all respect the school’s administration for being aware of this and for working hard to prevent excesses. I did not envy them their task.
❖
You don’t need to care about everything. You don’t need to take an interest in everything. You don’t need to have an opinion on everything. You certainly don’t need to voice your opinion on everything. If a situation like that at Asbury doesn’t intersect your life in any way, you can pray for it or you can just never give it another thought—both perfectly valid responses under the circumstances. -
Why Are We Often So Boring?
Sometimes a book obscures its subject behind a clever or even misleading title. Sometimes, though, it just goes out and says it. And that’s very much the case with Bob Fyall’s Why Are We Often So Boring?. Having dedicated his life to both preaching and training others to preach, he has collected his thoughts and reflections in this small but punchy book.
His concern, of course, is that too much preaching is boring. Yet he is not lobbying for preaching that is novel or entertaining. He is not suggesting that pastors adopt some of the practices you might observe in many of today’s seeker-friendly megachurches. Rather, he wants to see pastors become committed, faithful, engaging expositors of the Word. Such preaching, while perhaps not fitting any definition of entertainment, will be interesting and effective. “Underlying this book is the conviction that expository preaching is not only one of many good things for a church but the lifeblood of a healthy fellowship. Without it, other things, which may be good in themselves, can go badly wrong and fail to build anything of lasting worth. It is hard work and, particularly when results appear to be meagre, there is the temptation to try what seems to be more attractive and rewarding. This book is an attempt to encourage all of us to stick to the task and to be the best that we can be.”
He begins the book with a brief look at the task of the preacher and the wonder that God chooses to use weak, fallible men to accomplish great things through the preaching of the Word. He wants pastors to become confident in what God has called them to do even with an awareness of their many inadequacies. He considers why too many sermons are non-events that do not accomplish what they otherwise might—whether that’s because they get bogged down in context without ever getting to the point or because they get too hung up on details that are necessary for the preacher to know but that should have been left in the study. He also offers a series of principles that underlie effective preaching.
He dedicates a chapter to the modern history of expository preaching. This is a UK-centric look at how expository preaching, a mainstay of the Reformers, was displaced for a time but then rediscovered by men like Martyn Lloyd Jones, Dick Lucas, and John Stott. He also introduces some of the scholars who dedicated their lives to producing the kind of resources that would help pastors in the task.
A further chapter turns to Ecclesiastes, of all places, to discuss the task of the preacher, while several others break down the method of going from a text to a polished and preachable sermon. He offers some reflections on where preachers can overemphasize small details while missing key ones. He assures the pastor that God is eager to help and bless him in his preaching ministry. He reminds the preacher that he himself must be first to be impacted and changed by the Word, for “just as the Word becomes flesh uniquely and fully in the Lord Jesus Christ, so the Word must be incarnated in the preacher” and “if we are not changed by the message we bring, no one else will be.” He concludes by assuring pastors that they must be faithful foremost to God, for he alone has the final authority. “No human will pronounce final judgment on our preaching. Realising that will save us from pride when plaudits come and from despair when criticisms multiply.”
Why Are We Often So Boring? is an excellent, helpful little book. It is not a textbook on preaching as much as a collection of an experienced pastor’s reflections on the sacred task God assigns to the pastor. It is a good reminder of what every pastor ought to know and a good refresher on how every pastor ought to preach.