Are Baptists Calvinists?

"The year 2009 marks two important anniversaries in the history of the Christian church: the birth of John Calvin at Noyon in France in 1509, and the birth of the modern Baptist movement at Amsterdam in 1609. Both events are being celebrated with numerous symposia, publications, and conferences, but few people are asking what these two events, separated by the century of the Reformation, have in common. Baptists are fiercely independent and refuse to recognize any human figure as a standard of faith. Today's Baptists would agree with what the nonconformist Samuel Hieron said in the 17th century:

"We do not hang on Calvin's sleeve
Nor yet on Zwingli's we believe:
And Puritans we do defy,
If right the name you do apply.

"Are Baptists Calvinists?"

Timothy George answers.

By the way, I'm still looking for someone to line up that coffee with me and Dr George. I now have the look . . .

Song of the Week: "Sing of Our God" by Jaime Jamgochian

Jaime Jamgochian brings the music in our worship service today. It's "Part One" of a two-part morning: "Part Two" is bringing your friend to a Sunday School class or Common Ground group--or trying out a class or group yourself! It all starts at 10. From her project, Above the Noise, here's "Sing of Our God"--

Reaction to the Gospel

"The gospel's harsh judgment should make us quiver in fear; its unrealistic demands should make us sigh in despair; its surprising grace should leave us astonished in wonder; its unexpected hope should cause us to collapse in joyful laughter."

Mark Galli in CT

Be Skeptical of the Skeptics

In today's Statesman, Eileen Flynn introduces readers to Robert Wright's book, The Evolution of God. Eileen and I correspond, I enjoy her biweekly Statesman column, and I follow her blog (The Grand Scheme).

Wright's book caught her eye because "there's nothing worse for a journalist trying to gain a better understanding of religion than to read a sugar-coated monument to a faith" and "sugar-coated Wright's tome is not."

In fact, Flynn points out that Wright manages to annoy nearly everyone at some point throughout his book--"Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists and perhaps New Age spiritual types." So much so that he wonders (probably in jest) where he might be invited to speak or hold book-signing events outside of certain theologically liberal synagogues and churches.

No doubt, Wright's book has to be both intelligent and engaging for it to catch the attention of someone as intelligent and engaging as Eileen. However, as I wote in reply to the article online:

You contrast Wright's "historically honest" review of these ancient faiths with the "sugar-coated" renditions put forth by advocates of these faiths. No doubt we should take the view of every advocate with a grain of salt, but I reserve a few grains of salt for the view of every skeptic as well. Everyone has an axe to grind. Everyone. So, what's Wright's?

Be skeptical of the skeptics and doubt the doubters. There's only acknowledged bias and unacknowledged bias--there's no such thing as unbiased. No one is neutral with the way they handle historical details, and those with an acknowledged bias can still handle historical details reliably. Larry Hurtado and N.T. Wright come to mind, for starters--two historians Robert Wright should engage if he wants to test his belief that the New Testament reveals an "evolution" of Jesus from an itinerant Judean teacher to Son of God.

LeaderLines: Thanks to our Caring Friends Ministry

I asked Mae Simmons to give us an update on our “Caring Friends” ministry, a visitation program to homebound members. Many thanks to Mae, who leads the program, and all the “Caring Friends!” Here’s her report:

The Caring Friends ministry of Hillcrest Baptist Church was begun over 20 years ago and was led by Mayme Johnson until she moved to Georgetown last year. This ministry literally provides a lifeline to our Homebound members. Participation by the Homebound member in our church is limited by their inability to be in the church services. They need to feel that they are important and worthwhile.

The Caring Friends ministry is built on love and understanding toward homebound persons and their unique needs. This is done through visits at least once a month, during which we communicate information about the church, have Bible study if they desire and prayer. Oftentimes, we just need to be good listeners. We remember special occasions in their lives such as birthdays and holidays. They look forward each month to the Mature Living magazine that has interesting and amusing articles, which the HBC provides for them.

Some of our Homebound members do not want the monthly personal visits but still want to stay connected with our church so we send cards, notes or visit by telephone.

The lives of the Caring Friends often are blessed more than we can imagine by these precious individuals and the blessings surpass the amount we might have given to them.

The Caring Friends of Hillcrest Baptist Church are:

Peggy Brubeck

Gail Chapman

Clarence Cossey

Jo Cullum

Marylou Draughon

Minnie Bell Draughon

Sheila Eveslage

Tom Eveslage

Lois Fullerton

Alleene McFarland

Susie Miller

Mae Simmons

Ann Wingfield

These committed Friends minister to 21 Homebound members.

There is a bulletin board in the hallway across from the office with names of our Homebound members. Marylou Draughon updates this each month with birthdays and other information regarding the Homebound, so please check this out and send a card, note or make a visit.

If you would like to become a Caring Friend or if you know someone that may be a prospect for our Homebound membership, please contact Melanie Clonts in the church office by email or phone (345-3771).

 

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: Rethink Church

As summer ends, the return to the school routine is a great time to get people to “rethink church.” This Sunday we want to give them a chance to discover the value of plugging in to our church community.

How? By what we’ll do with your friends and what we’ll give away to your friends.

First, here’s what we’re going to do: We’ve asked Jaime Jamgochian (pronounced "Jam-GO-chee-in") to lead us in worship, and then everyone will be asked to stay for a half-hour fellowship in our Sunday School rooms and at our Common Ground tables.

Jaime is known for her worship leadership at conferences for teen girls, and for her work as a recording artist--most recently with the album, Above the Noise. You can learn more about her and listen to her music at www.jaimejam.com. As usual, the service will begin at 10 a.m., but be prepared for us to end 10 or 15 minutes later than our normal hour.

However, as special as the worship service will be, what’s really special will take place after. That’s when you will bring your friend to a half-hour fellowship with your Sunday School class or Common Ground group. (And if you have been attending our worship services but you haven’t found a fellowship group yet, this week would be a perfect time to try one out!)

Second, here’s what we’re going to give away: I have a special order of booklets called reThink Church (view it online here). In 20 attractive pages, reThink Church covers ten of the most common reasons people give for not going to church, and encourages people to “rethink” those reasons. I’ve ordered one for every household. Your friend will get a copy to keep; you will get a copy to give away.

A new school year is a great time to make some new commitments. Now is the time to help your friends make some new commitments to church involvement. Bring them this week at 10am!
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday August 25

Watch Your Mouth: “I am trying to wait a few seconds before answering a question—attempting thus to eliminate all exaggeration, half-truths, flattery, faithless comments, and other worthless forms of speech. The early results have been ecstatic foretastes. The payoff of taming the tongue turns out to be more broad, deep, and wide than expected. I thought I was just changing one thing, but I discovered I was changing everything” (Andree Seu, World)


How do you know when your social drinking habits have crossed the line into what experts refer to as "at risk" drinking? (NYT)


This Boundless article reminds us that atheism in the world of science is more about the hostility of scientists than the evidence of science. In other words, unbelief among scientists reveals the flawed ego and peer pressure that all of us face—indeed, scientists may have a greater weakness in these areas than others.


So True: Report: 90% Of Waking Hours Spent Staring At Glowing Rectangles


Fascinating: “Accounts of experiencing a supportive presence in extreme situations—sometimes called the "third-man phenomenon"—are common in mountaineering ­literature. In 1933, Frank Smythe made it to within a 1,000 feet of the summit of Mount Everest before turning around. On the way down, he stopped to eat a mint cake, cutting it in half to share with someone who wasn't there but who had seemed to be his partner all day. Again on Nanga Parbat, on a 1970 climb during which his brother died, Reinhold Messner recalled being accompanied by a companion who offered wordless comfort and encouragement.” (WSJ)


Another Dispatch from the Religion of Peace: “He should be killed by authorities.” So says Abdul Aziz Zakareya, a cleric and former professor at Al Azhar University, regarding Maher El Gohary, who converted from Islam to Christianity. (LA Times)


According to studies reported in the NYT, stress can re-wire the brain so you become less creative and more likely to fall into repetitive routines regardless of how productive they are. The good news: the brain can return to creativity when you rest and renew.


“Forgiveness is the f-word for the evangelical community. It's not that victims are against forgiveness. Victims are against forgiveness as the solution to the problem.” (An adult victim of a mission school where teachers physically and sexually abused the children in their care, in the documentary All God’s Children. CT’s review here.)


“As more and more people carry out their lives online, and as older generations make the digital move, there's less being stored away in dusty attics for loved ones to discover and hang onto. Letters have become e-mails; diaries have morphed into blogs; photo albums have turned virtual and come with tags. The pieces of our lives we put online can feel as eternal as the Internet itself, but how much of our virtual identity actually lives on after we die?” (Time)


“A growing number of people want to celebrate a loved one's life at a funeral or memorial service without clergy — sometimes even without God…. ‘Today, of all the ceremonies we deal with, I'd say 50% are religious or clergy-led, 20% celebrant-led and 30% are having no ceremony or one led by family,’ says [William] McQueen [President of Anderson-McQueen Funeral & Cremation Centers in the St. Petersburg, Fla., area]…. More than one in four U.S. adults (27%) say that when they die, they don't expect to have a religious service, according to a national survey of 6,000 people.” (USA Today)


“There's a growing cottage industry of experts who contend that sending kids off into the great wide open deserves at least as much attention as preparing to have them in the first place. Community centers and churches around the country are tuning in to the problem and hosting seminars in which parents try to reignite their relationship and figure out how to move forward as a twosome. Marriage therapists Claudia and David Arp call this stage the second half of marriage” (Time).


Fellow Austin pastor, Jonathan Dodson, is the author of Fight Clubs, a book to promote small-group support for our fight against the things that hold us back spiritually. Click here to read it online, download the PDF for free, or purchase a copy.


According to Charles Krauthammer, some people are being irresponsible to claim that any of the various health-care proposals advocate “death panels,” yet other people are being disingenuous to claim that the proposals won’t end up nudging people to go gently into that good night.

Song of the Week: "God Unchanging" by Jaime Jamgochian

Jaime Jamgochian leads our worship service next Sunday, August 30, 10:00 a.m. Two years ago "God Unchanging" was released for radio airplay from her new album Above the Noise. There'll be more information posted at Get Anchored in a few days, but for now enjoy "God Unchanging" and think about who you should bring next week (By the way, its pronounced "Jam-GO-chee-in"):

Fight the Good Fight

I'm reading Calvin's Institutes in 2009, the 500th anniversay of Calvin's birth. Good reminder today regarding our spiritual enemy:

"We have been forewarned that an enemy relentlessly threatens us, an enemy who is the very embodiment of rash boldness, of military prowess, of crafty wiles, of untiring zeal and haste, of every conceivable weapon and of skill in the science of warfare. We must, then, bend our every effort to this goal: that we should not let ourselves be overwhelmed by carelessness or faintheartedness, but on the contrary, with courage rekindled stand our ground in combat. Since this military service ends only at death, let us urge ourselves to perseverance. Indeed, conscious of our weakness and ignorance, let us especially call upon God's help, relying upon him alone in whatever we attempt, since it is he alone who can supply us with counsel and strength, courage and armor."

Gently into That Good Night

"If President Obama wants to better understand why America's discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care" (Jim Towey, "The Death Book for Veterans," in the WSJ). This is a disturbing piece on a part of health care that government already runs: veterans services.

Blessed Trinity

"I cannot think on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; nor can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one."

Gregory of Nazianzus, quoted in Calvin's Institutes, my current reading project

Rejoice. Again I Say Rejoice.

Put on "a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit" (Isaiah 61:3). "Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud" (Isaiah 54:1). "Finally, my brothers, rejoice n the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you" (Philippians 3:1).

I don't know how God can stand it sometimes. He stocks his Word with escape hatches from depression and temptation, and we skim them and say, "What lovely poetry." Poetry schmoetry—these are our deliverance.

Andree Seu

Losing Our Religion

“Recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity” (Lisa Miller, Newsweek). I disagree with one part of her report: interest in cremation among Americans isn’t a sign of turning away from the Christian hope of resurrection bodies. Other than that, I’m not surprised at her conclusion that most Americans no longer take Jesus seriously on his claim to be the only way to know God. Richard Dreher reflected on the Miller piece and said:

If you are a conservative priest, pastor, or religious leader of any sort, and you aren't aware of this, you are going to get blindsided. If you aren't pushing on behalf of your congregation as hard against the culture as it's pushing against your congregation, they are going to get washed away -- and so too will small-o orthodoxy. This is where we are in America today, whether you like it or not. If you don't teach doctrine, and why doctrine is important, you shouldn't be surprised when people cease to believe it.

The Jesus Seminar Set to Turn to (on) the Church

The liberal scholars who brought us the revisionist Jesus Seminar, declaring that Jesus said very few of the things the Bible says he said, are returning with a radical revisionist view of church history. Get ready. (Christian Century story here)

The Church is a Model Home

Tullian Tchividjian cites Harvie Conn's conviction that "church"--the community of God's people--is a model home on exhibit:

The late Harvie Conn, professor of urban church planting at Westminster Theological Seminary, used the analogy of a model home to describe all this. Jesus, the kingdom developer, has begun building new housing on a tract of earth's land, purchased with his blood. He has erected a model home as an exhibition of what will eventually fill the whole world. God intends the church to be that model home. We're his demonstration community. We're to put the rule of Christ on display, showing the unbelieving world what human life and community can look like with God at the center.

Winning Ways: A Re-Invitation Away

Eight in ten people who are not involved in a church would attend if someone would just ask them.

You need to be that “someone,” and today would be a perfect day to start.

LifeWay Research found that 82 percent of unchurched people would likely accept an invitation from a friend or family member to attend church. Unfortunately, said Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay, few church members invite their friends and neighbors. “Only two percent of church members invite an un-churched person to church,” he says. “Ninety-eight percent of churchgoers never extend an invitation in a given year.”

Most people who drop out of church haven’t lost their faith in God. Instead, they fell out of the habit of churchgoing. Some moved or had another change in life circumstances, or had a falling out with their former church and simply drifted away. Most often, life simply became too busy.

That means they are open to returning to church. “Many de-churched people are a simple re-invitation away,” says Mark Batterson, of the National Community Church in Washington, D.C.

As I said, today would be a perfect day to test this research. You have friends and relatives and co-workers who may be a simple re-invitation away from getting connected to the Hillcrest Family.

We prepare 52 events a year to help you with this: In other words, you should see every Sunday worship service as an outreach opportunity. But there’s a special one coming up in 2 weeks: On August 30, Jaime Jamgochian will lead us in worship. You can learn more about her at www.jaimejam.com. Following the service, we want all Sunday School classes and Common Ground groups to prepare a half-hour of fellowship. This will give you a chance to introduce those you invite to your friends.

In Rainer's research with those who used to attend a church but don't at present, he found that many are open to more than just attending for a single Sunday. Most (62 percent) were open to the idea of getting active in a church again.

That's promising news. Don't give up on your friends and family! Your continued prayers and prodding could get them into the life and ministry of Hillcrest. Our prayer is that they will find and follow Jesus together with us!
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday August 18

“Omit needless things.” This blog post says we should apply this to all of life. I’m getting better, except in the “what you produce” category.


Hillcrest served lunch to 300 AISD teachers on Monday. More info here.


Keep up with Nicole Marett and her World Race.


“Can Jesus Microwave a Burrito.” Top 10 Funniest Google Suggest Results. “Google Suggest offers you real-time suggestions to complete your search query as you type. One of the factors in the algorithm that determines the results is the overall popularity of searches by other users. Part illuminating, part entertaining and part terrifying, Suggest is a window into the collective search psyche of our fellow humans. And based on the contents of this list — be afraid. Be very afraid.”


Suffering and the Sovereignty of God is available for free this month on the Kindle.
(HT: Between Two Worlds). I’m reading it on the free Kindle app for my iPhone.


“Follow four simple rules and you could reduce your chronic-disease risk by as much as 80%, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The golden lifestyle rules: never smoking, maintaining a healthy body weight, exercising regularly, and eating a balanced diet” (Time)


Ten ways to see tithing, but only one is biblical.


“Suddenly, post-Schuler, it’s no longer funny when people crack a joke about ‘better parenting through alcohol’” (Time)


Anita Renfroe, the woman behind the YouTube hit about all the things Moms say in a day, had this to say in an entertaining RD interview:

Q. How do men react to your act?
A. They ask, “What about the dads?” So I wrote a song for them called “Dad-Sense.” It’s just two lines: “Ask your mom, ask your mom.” The guys don’t laugh much, but the women love it.

“Many parents — and I include myself in this category — keep a (somewhat) careful eye on television, computer and video game use. But we didn’t really take into account cellphones, since at least until recently, phones were intended, well, pretty much for calling people” (NYT article on new parental worries about scams and texting.)


Raising a Child Costs Some $221,000, Before College


“Why do people seek out their opposites in spending attitudes? Most likely, what we hate in ourselves, we also hate in other people. And the more we hate that quality in ourselves, the more we avoid it, the study suggested….Which is unfortunate. As previous studies have found, spending decisions are a common source of marital conflict and a major contributor to divorce. And as prior literature would predict, this new study showed that financially polar pairs report greater conflict over money, and lower levels of connubial bliss.” (NYT)


Three cheers for Robert Sloan and Houston Baptist University for their new publishing effort, the periodical, The City. Read online here. Baylor lost a good president when the leadership couldn’t stand with their man, but Baylor’s loss is HBU’s gain.


911 Call for Math Homework. Wait for the mom’s reaction at the end….


The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare: Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.


“So why all the outrage at the town hall meetings? Where do I begin? Obviously there are Americans who have a problem with some of the specifics of this health care reform initiative. But that’s not really the heart of it. The problem here for The White House may be that this is just too much big government all at one time. This is NOT just about health care. It’s about a government takeover of GM, a huge 800 billion dollar government bailout and now more huge government involvement in health care. Oy-vey! Americans may simply be sending a strong message. Enough is enough.” (The Brody File)


It’s getting harder to get away from it all if you want to . . .


“‘I get tired of people apologizing for the Crusades, like Christians were a bunch of dirty looters that went over there and killed everybody. It just wasn’t true.’” Baylor University’s Rodney Stark, in a Baptist Standard report on his new book, God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades. “Stark argues that Muslims asked for it—the Crusades were the first military response to Muslim terrorists and their looming, advancing Islamic empire. ‘It wasn’t like they were harmless, little people minding their own business and tending their sheep,’ Stark said.”


Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford: Saw this clip on the documentary, I.O.U.S.A., and then Christina linked to it on FBook. Good advice:

(If the video fails to load on the blog post, click here to watch)

Serving AISD Teachers

Hillcrest has a long tradition of serving lunch to the AISD teachers from Anderson High School, Hill Elementary School, and Murchison Middle School. It's our way of thanking them for serving the same community we serve. The event is held a few days before school resumes. Here's a shot of about 200 teachers, administrators, coaches and custodians from the 3 schools in our gym. Many thanks to all the Hillcresters who make this possible!

Song of the Week: "Cornbread" by Band of Heathens

Yep, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Let Austin's "Band of Heathens" give you a reminder with their fun song, "Cornbread"--

The Best Policy: A Few Books Read Deeply

A student who does not want his labor wasted must so read and reread some good writer that the author is changed, as it were, into his flesh and blood. For a great variety of reading it confuses and does not teach. It makes the students like a man who dwells everywhere and, therefore, nowhere in particular. Just as we do not daily enjoy the society of every one of our friends but only that of a chosen few, so it should also be in our studying.

The number of theological books should… be reduced, and a selection should be made of the best of them; for many books do not make men learned, nor does much reading. But reading something good, and reading it frequently, however little it may be, is the practice that makes men learned in the Scripture and makes them pious besides.

Martin Luther, quoted in The Legacy of Sovereign Joy by John Piper, Page 95.

College-Educated Evangelicals Deemed More "Tolerant"

According to Inside Higher Education, a college education makes evangelicals more "tolerant." But the way the study sought to support this claim is curious:

For their study, the authors used national surveys that focused on evangelicals' attitudes about gay people and atheists, by looking at the views of those surveyed on whether members of those groups should be allowed to make a speech, teach in a local college, and/or have an authored book in a public library.

So, I just want to get this straight: the authors of the study felt that "toleration" (with all it loaded conotations in public discourse) could be measured simply by whether people thought it was OK for a gay man or an atheist to make a speech, teach in college, or be an author?

Wow, what a narrow tool by which to evaluate such a broad concept. Hey, I wouldn't object to a gay man or atheist making a speech, holding a faculty position, or authoring public library book--then again, I am a college-educated evangelical. But that doesn't mean I accept all the implications that the word "toleration" is required to mean these days.

Come to think of it, though, it would be interesting to take this really narrow evaluative tool and apply it to other settings. We could ask, say, whether scientists think its okay for Francis Collins to be NIH director because of his outspoken Christian faith. Would the fact that many scientists objected to his appointment for this very reason mean they're "intolerant"?

LeaderLines: Teach Small Group Members to Pray

If you lead adults in Sunday School or Common Ground, how’s the depth of your group’s prayer life? Rick Howerton wrote a worthy article on how to teach adults to pray for each other:

“Teach Small Group Members to Pray”

by Rick Howerton

Teaching adult followers of Jesus to pray out loud is essential. Jesus taught the disciples to pray. Shouldn’t we do the same?

An unforgettable ministry conversation took place one day after our Sunday gathering of Christ-followers. One of our small-group leaders at our church was telling me about the growth he was seeing in his group members. I was already on the edge of my seat, but when he told me one person prayed aloud for the very first time the week prior my heart started dancing!

And as I drove home later, my eyes welled with tears. You see, the “first-time out-louder” has a fantastic wife and two incredible sons. I realized these young boys would grow up in a home where Dad prayed audibly for them. And those kids will do with their own children what they have seen their dad do. Because a small-group leader took the time to teach others to pray aloud, untold believers for generations to come will know what it means to have godly, caring parents praying for them. As that happens, those children will understand God is real and alive, and they will want to know about His Son Jesus and will most likely choose a relationship with Him.

Teaching other adult believers to pray is a step-by-step process. Here’s how to model this essential spiritual discipline.

Level One: As the group leader, model conversational prayer. The term “conversational” is important. Exhibiting a preacher voice, speaking in old English terms, or sounding as though you’ve swallowed a pile of “O pity me’s” will confuse the small-group member who longs to have an authentic relationship with Jesus.

Level Two: A couple of weeks later ask for volunteers to pray and watch who emerges.

Level Three: Call on two people who have been consistently volunteering to pray before or during your meeting. Close your time together with a prayer of your own.

Level Four: Lead your group to “complete the sentence.” Prompt others to pray with such words as, “God, this is ______.” “I want to thank you for________.” “God, would you help with ________.” Let everyone know that if they prefer to pray silently to God instead of out loud, they should let the group know by squeezing the hand of the person next to them - if the group is that close - or say “Amen” to indicate they are going to pray silently.

Level Five: Your group members grow to the point that they can pray conversationally together using this method: One person shares a prayer request, and then the group spends time praying “sentence prayers” about that specific request. Others share additional requests until your prayer time is complete.

These are baby steps moving toward full-fledged paragraph prayers. In time, this will come naturally.

As we gather for Bible study and fellowship each Sunday, let’s make sure we’re teaching adults how to lift up each other in prayer.

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Just Had to, Um, "Link" to This Story

I’m a weekly subscriber to “This is True.” Just had to, um, "link" to this one:

THIS is TRUE: 26 July 2009 Copyright http://www.thisistrue.com

FRANKLY, A FREAK ACCIDENT: When Nick Krupp arrived at his home and saw that his house was severely damaged, he called the police. The responding officer knew what had happened. "He said, 'Man, you're not going to believe this even if I tell you'," Krupp said. Two women driving the 23-foot-long Oscar Mayer "Wienermobile" had crashed into his house. The women were heading to a public appearance for the hot-rodding hotdog when they made a wrong turn onto a dead-end street. The driver pulled into Krupp's driveway and the other woman got out to help her back up and turn around, but the driver hit the gas in forward, not reverse, and slammed the supercharged sausage into Krupp's house, located in Mt. Pleasant, Wisc. -- a suburb of Racine and just south of (yes!) Franksville. The foundation, deck, and garage door of Krupp's house suffered significant damage. One of the women "was almost starting to cry," a neighbor said. "She was getting emotional." (Racine Journal Times) ...Actually, her exact words were "This is the wurst day of my life!"

Winning Ways: Seeking the Seeker

Three-year-old Joseph Leffler told his mother his was going fishing. She thought the idea was cute, and smiled as she watched him walk out into the back yard with his three-foot-long plastic pipe—his favorite pretend fishing rod. That was Friday at 1:00 p.m. When she couldn’t find him an hour later, she became worried.

When she had not found him by sundown, she became frantic.

Joseph Leffler was lost in the woods outside Estacada, Oregon. A massive search began, and the progress of the search dominated the news throughout the weekend. As Friday night gave way to Saturday, and Saturday passed into Sunday morning, worries only intensified. How long could a three-year-old survive in the wild forest?

Then, just before noon on Sunday, little Joseph came walking out of the woods and came straight up to one of the searchers. “I had to look twice,” said Judy Magill, who was coordinating the search dogs. “I couldn’t believe this little boy was walking toward me. He stretched out his arms and I picked him up,” she said.

A front-page picture showed little Joseph in his mother’s arms. He looked bewildered but well. Above the picture in bold black letters the newspaper headline read: “Lost Boy Finds Searcher.”

I love that headline. It’s a perfect way to describe the beginning of a relationship with God. When we make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, we find the Searcher. When we finally reach out to him, we discover that He’s been reaching out to us all along.

And God wants the churches that represent him to join him on that search. This Sunday we’re going to look at King Hezekiah. In 2 Chronicles 30, when a great spiritual awakening happened in Judah, this good king longed to invite those who were far from God into this awakening, too. As we look at this important chapter, we’ll see some principles we need to apply in our own lives and in our church. Join us this Sunday at 10am!

Click here to watch the slide show of my mission trip to Zambia

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday August 11

Doctors baffled by Indian village of over 200 sets of twins.


“I’m so sorry to hear about your mother passing away. LOL. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” --A note someone sent to a well-meaning friend who thought LOL meant “Lots of Love” (It means “Laughing Out Loud”--oops). “As text-messaging shorthand becomes increasingly widespread in emails, text messages and Tweets, people like Ms. Washburn are scrambling to decode it. In many offices, a working knowledge of text-speak is becoming de rigueur. And at home, parents need to know the lingo in order to keep up with—and sometimes police—their children.” (WSJ, about websites to help you keep up with online shorthand.)


NY Mag explains why conservatives like to appear on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Probably the same reason I (usually) like to watch him.


“John Hughes movies—the good ones, those five or six gems he wrote and directed in the mid- to late 80s, before he stopped directing altogether and became a producer and writer of hack comedies—persist in the collective memory of a certain demographic (say, anyone born between the Kennedy assassination and the Watergate hearings) as foundational texts of adolescence. Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club were to the 1980s what Rebel Without a Cause or Catcher in the Rye were to the '50s. If that sounds grandiose, well, grandiosity has long been essential to the representation of teenagerhood: James Dean's lovingly cultivated sneer, Holden Caulfield's self-defeating purism, Judd Nelson's raised fist in freeze-frame at the end of The Breakfast Club. Each generation learns to express its alienation in the fashionable pose of its time. That the pose is an imitation doesn't make the need to strike it any less real.” (Slate)


“In truth, the only ‘Christian nation’ is the body of Christ as it is dispersed throughout all peoples and in all times. Confusion on this point has resulted in far-reaching consequences.” (John Calvin)


Bob Kauflin celebrates “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” which he calls “A Hymn For Ordinary Christians.”


ChristianHistory.net has a piece on Lottie Moon, the woman who inspired Southern Baptists to turn attention to international missions.


Facebook and text messages beat breakfast for most people, says NYT.


“There are two basic points about health-care reform that President Obama wants to convey. The first is that, as he put it in an ABC special in June, ‘the status quo is untenable’….Obama's second major point is that--to quote from the same broadcast—‘If you are happy with your plan and your doctor, you stick with it.’ So the system is an unsustainable disaster, but you can keep your piece of it if you want. And the Democrats wonder why selling health-care reform to the public has been so hard?” (From a must-read article in Time)


“No contemporary figure has done more than Apatow, the 41-year-old auteur of gross-out comedies, to rebrand social conservatism for a younger generation that associates it primarily with priggishness and puritanism. No recent movie has made the case for abortion look as self-evidently awful as ‘Knocked Up,’ Apatow’s 2007 keep-the-baby farce. No movie has made saving — and saving, and saving — your virginity seem as enviable as ‘The 40-Year Old Virgin,’ whose closing segue into connubial bliss played like an infomercial for True Love Waits.” (Ross Douthat in the NYT. Apatow’s movies are too raunchy for me, but, yes, “Knocked Up” is fundamentally a life-affirming film about 2 people who learn to take responsibility for the life they’ve irresponsibly created-- if you can squirm through the raunch to hear the message.)


“In a striking departure, the American Psychological Association said Wednesday that it is ethical -- and can be beneficial -- for counselors to help some clients reject gay or lesbian attractions….According to new APA guidelines, the therapist must make clear that homosexuality doesn't signal a mental or emotional disorder. The counselor must advise clients that gay men and women can lead happy and healthy lives, and emphasize that there is no evidence therapy can change sexual orientation. But if the client still believes that affirming his same-sex attractions would be sinful or destructive to his faith, psychologists can help him construct an identity that rejects the power of those attractions, the APA says. That might require living celibately, learning to deflect sexual impulses or framing a life of struggle as an opportunity to grow closer to God.” (WSJ)

I've posted the slide show I prepared from my trip to Zambia. Watch it here.

Slide Show on the Zambia Mission Trip

Several asked if I could post online the slide show about my Zambia Mission Trip. I recorded the following and uploaded it to YouTube. Thanks for your interest:

Song of the Week: Paul Anka's Cover of "Jump"

So, we're on break during the Willow Creek Leadership Summit at the Austin site and I overhear what sounds like "Jump" set to swing. I pulled out my iPhone and the Shazam app identified it as Paul Anka's cover of the Van Halen number. No, I don't have any other Anka music--no other swing music for that matter. But I just had to download this one. (Of course, it occurs to me that the Van Halen version is as much an odd and cute curiosity to my sons as the Anka styling is to me! David Lee Roth was belting this one out when I was the age my sons are now). The original Van Halen number follows Anka's cover:

LeaderLines: Sunday’s Big Idea

In his book, The Big Idea, Dave Ferguson says churches should focus on one Big Idea every Sunday. From the children's ministry to the student ministry to the adult small groups to the selections of music to the sermon, everything should align with one major theme each Sunday. He explains the reasons behind a "Big Idea" approach to programming, and he details the practical steps necessary to get there.

He advocates beginning with the basics ("B"): focus everything in your worship service onto one theme. As the church finds benefits from this approach, move toward integration ("I"): focus the work of other ministry areas toward Sunday's Big Idea. Then consider going global ("G") by working with other churches, or starting other churches, that will focus on a Big Idea together and share the collaboration and resources necessary for this focus.

Reading the book reinforced some of the things we're doing and stimulated some thoughts on further development of our Sunday morning program.

At Hillcrest, we probably won’t ever take the Big Idea approach to programming as far as Ferguson advocates. Still, for years we’ve been seeing the benefit of funneling our energies toward one action-oriented theme. We already do the following:

• Each Wednesday members and prospects receive “Winning Ways,” an e-newsletter designed to provide an encouraging word in the middle of your week—an encouraging word that you might find easy to forward to friends you want to invite to church. Almost a thousand people receive this e-newsletter weekly. You’ve probably noticed that most editions of Winning Ways introduces Sunday’s topic. That’s our first step in getting people to focus on one Big Idea, even before they show up on Sunday. (Sign up for Winning Ways.)

• As people arrive on Sunday, the music focuses on the Big Idea for 25 minutes before I even stand up to preach on the subject. This past Sunday, for example, we posted Psalm 119:140 on the screen for you to reflect on in the prelude music (“Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them.”). Then the music highlighted and celebrated the promises of God. Following that, my sermon was on Sarah, who laughed at the promise God made, and laughed with the promise God kept. (Listen to Hillcrest sermons.)

• Immediately after the sermon, our Common Ground groups continue to reflect on Sunday’s Big Idea through in-depth discussion. Herb Ingram prepares discussion guides from the sermon manuscript he receives the week before, and Common Ground hosts lead their groups into a deeper understanding of what was covered during the sermon. At Hillcrest, we strongly support curriculum-based Bible study (traditional Sunday School classes) as well as sermon-based Bible study (Common Ground groups). But people seem to be resonating with our effort to align the small-group study with the sermon: we had 31% growth from last July to this July in our Common Ground ministry.

• Herb Ingram provides the “Daily Cup” devotionals for your e-mail inbox every Monday through Friday. These five devotional thoughts are based upon the main theme of Sunday’s sermon. Participants in Common Ground groups will find these devotionals on the back of their discussion guide, but anyone can receive them. What a great way to begin your morning each work day! (Ask Herb to sign you up for the Daily Cup.)

So, we’re already practicing the approach to Sunday morning programming that Ferguson advocates, at least at what he calls the “basic” level. Should we take it further? Should we step up to what he calls the “integrated” level where we align the lessons of children’s and youth at the 11:00am Sunday School hour with the theme that our kids and students have heard in the 10:00am worship hour?

My answer: At least periodically.

Week-in and week-out throughout the year, we wouldn’t want to drop the option of our excellent curriculum-based adult small-group Bible study (our traditional Sunday School classes for adults).

And I’m not sure we could insist on the Big Idea approach in our Hillcrest Kids ministry every Sunday, at least not under our present planning process. Planning children’s Sunday School lessons takes more lead time than planning a worship service. At present, we plan 13 days ahead for our worship services, and our children’s workers would need a lot more time than that if we wanted them to develop material to reinforce the sermon theme every week.

What about youth Sunday School? It would be easier for youth workers to align with the Big Idea covered in the worship service than it would be for children’s workers to do so. It would simply involve adapting the approach that has worked so well in Common Ground. Of course, the fact that it would be an easy change doesn’t settle the question of whether it would be a desirable change. The pros and cons of such a decision is a matter for Jim and his team to weigh.

So, we may find it impractical and undesirable to take a Big Idea approach to all our Sunday School ministry every week.

But I see merit in periodically aligning every teaching tool we have on Sunday morning to one Big Idea. What if once or twice a year we had a Sunday morning sermon series planned far enough in advance so that our kids ministry, student ministry, and all adult small-group classes aligned with that sermon series?

Imagine, for example, planning six months in advance for a series on the 10 Commandments? That’s plenty of time to plan 10 lessons for children and preschoolers. Imagine driving home after church able to talk with your kids and your teens about the one thing that every member of the family learned about the 10 Commandments that day!

Imagine a young couple bumping into a senior adult couple in a restaurant for Sunday lunch after our entire Sunday morning focused on what the Bible had to say about marriage. Imagine what conversation could develop between older and younger members if they were able to talk about the one thing that all the generations were discussing at church!

H-m-m….

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: Fit Your Story into the Bigger Story

You faith gets tested when the doctor’s report isn’t what you had hoped, or when you’re laid flat by unexpected cruelty, or a tragedy turns your world upside down. The only way to make sense of life’s pain is to fit your story into the Bigger Story that we find in the Bible.

You could outline the Bigger Story in three words: Creation, Cross, and Crown.

Creation: After God created our world, he didn’t say “oops” (Genesis 1). But when sin entered the picture, it fundamentally altered God’s good world. Now “the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth” under its “bondage to decay” (Romans 8). So, we’re going to experience the broken heart of life in a broken world. In fact, the more we see life from this perspective the more we’ll see any moments of joy as mercies and not rights (Psalm 145:9). And God has been so merciful!

Cross: Of all the world’s religions, only one describes God as experiencing the ruin of the world as a man. In The Cross of Christ John Stott wrote, “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” That means that whenever I pray about my problems, I’m praying to One who can say, “I know what you’re talking about.” But on the cross he was doing more than just identifying with the ruin of the world: he was carrying away the sin that ruined the world. That’s why to me the most beautiful line in The Passion of the Christ was Jesus to Mary as he stumbled under the weight of the cross he carried: “See, mother, I make all things new.”

Crown: By carrying away the sin the ruined the world, Jesus ensured a rescue that will be completed at his glorious return. As the Bible says (Hebrews 2), “at present we do not see everything subject to him”—but that’s only “at present.” Just as D-Day was the decisive act of World War 2 that assured the eventual victory in Europe, Christ’s death and resurrection was the beginning of the end. We wait in hope for that end, assured that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” at Christ’s return (Romans 8).

All our little stories only make sense in this Bigger Story. “Therefore encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Video Clips and Drama in Preaching

Is there a place for video clips and drama in preaching?  John Piper says no, but Michael Duduit (editor of Preaching magazine) thinks that's an over-reaction.  I'm generally a Piper fan, but he overstates his case when he says clips and sketches are nothing more than "entertaining spice" that betray "unbelief in the power of preaching."  C'mon. I side with Duduit on this one. In the free e-newsletter from the publication that arrived in my email inbox today, Duduit said:

It's always dangerous to disagree with a gifted preacher such as John Piper -- I can see the e-mails coming even now -- but I'm afraid I've got to challenge a recent statement he made about the use of video in connection to preaching. I absolutely agree with every statement he made about the power and importance of preaching (you can hear his whole statement here), but I disagree with what he said here:

 

"I think the use of video and drama largely is a token of unbelief in the power of preaching. And I think that, to the degree that pastors begin to supplement their preaching with this entertaining spice to help people stay with them and be moved and get helped, it's going to backfire. ... It's going to communicate that preaching is weak, preaching doesn't save, preaching doesn't hold -- entertainment does."

I use video only occasionally in my own preaching, but I've seen it used with great effectiveness in many, many churches. I see preachers who believe deeply in preaching use visual images as one more resource for effective communication. When it is used well, it is simply another illustrative tool that helps engage young adults with truth in a visual language they understand. In that sense, it follows in the tradition of Jesus' own preaching and teaching, which was not only packed with word-crafted images, but filled with object lessons (coins, wheat fields, fig trees and so on) that would be quite comparable to the use of a brief video clip in our own age.

By all means, don't use video, drama, microphones, pulpits or any other extra-biblical tool in your preaching if you feel it might compromise your message or God's use of you as His messenger. But let's not attack or belittle those faithful preachers in a new generation who find such tools helpful as they seek to proclaim the Word of God.

Links to Your World, Tuesday August 4

If you’re in your twenties, have kids in their twenties, or lead church programs for those in their twenties, read “The Case for Early Marriage” in Christianity Today, written by Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas.

 

“Hollywood movies about vibrant marriages are rare. There is “The Thin Man” (whose main characters, it should be noted, are Nick and Nora). But most often film unions are dreary and painful, a chore that must be slogged through en route to the real story line: divorce or an affair. Enter “marriage” as a keyword on the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) and the results are almost uniformly negative: “unhappy-marriage” (150 titles), “forced-marriage” (140 titles), “marriage-as-hell” (37 titles).” (From a NYT article about the good buzz that early showings of Julia and Julie are generating over the positive portrayal of Julia Childs’ marriage. One critic said it will be why “Julie & Julia” goes down in the cinematic history books.)

 

“Where race is concerned, I sometimes think of the president as the Peter Sellers character in ‘Dr. Strangelove.’ Sellers plays a closet Nazi whose left arm—quite involuntarily—keeps springing up into the Heil Hitler salute. We see him in his wheelchair, his right arm—the good and decent arm—struggling to keep the Nazi arm down so that no one will know the truth of his inner life. These wrestling matches between the good and bad arms were hysterically funny. When I saw Mr. Obama—with every escape route available to him—wade right into the Gates affair at the end of his health-care news conference, I knew that his demon arm had momentarily won out over his good arm. It broke completely free—into full salute—in the “acted stupidly” comment that he made in reference to the Cambridge police’s handling of the matter. Here was the implication that whites were such clumsy and incorrigible racists that even the most highly achieved blacks lived in constant peril of racial humiliation. This was a cultural narrative, a politics, and in the end it was a bigotry. It let white Americans see a president who doubted them.” (Shelby Steele)

 

. . . And they disapprove.

 

Regardless of where you land on his politics, you gotta admire the President as a husband and father. Now comes “The White House Fatherhood Tour.”

 

Plastic takes thousands of years to decompose — but 16-year-old science fair contestant Daniel Burd made it happen in just three months. (Wired)

 

The NY Times has a heartbreaking story on a Pakistani Christian family killed by a mob that was provoked by clerics of the religion of peace.

 

“Let me flee the temptation to debase myself before youth, thinking to ingratiate myself with them….Lord, since I have to get old anyway, please begin preparing me now, so that I will not be like ‘fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted’ (Jude 1:12).” (Andree Seu)

 

The “50/30/20 Budget” is a good one. We just have to remember that biblically the tithe falls in that “50” category of “needs.” That’s the conviction Diane and I have followed in our family budget.

 

Related: In order to live within the 50/30/20 plan, Liz Pulliam Weston suggests 5 places most people can tweak:

* Food. You've got to eat, but most of us could trim our grocery bills, often substantially, without too much effort. Plan your meals, cook from scratch, use up leftovers, clip coupons -- you know the drill.

* Utilities. You want the lights to stay on, but the air conditioner doesn't have to blast 24/7.

* Transportation. More carpooling and public transportation, less time alone in your car.

* Insurance. Higher deductibles can help reduce your premiums, as can shopping around and taking advantage of all available discounts. Ditch insurance you don't need, such as life insurance if you don't have financial dependents, or collision and comprehensive coverage on a clunker.

* Ditch the contracts. Early termination fees might make canceling your cell service too expensive, for example, but once your contract is up, consider switching to prepaid or pay-as-you-go service. Unless you're a real gym rat, gym contracts are another expense to shed as soon as you can. Consider paying by the visit or signing up at the local Y, which offers monthly billing without long-term contracts.

Song of the Week: M. Ward's "Fisher of Men"

We saw M. Ward in the free ACL concert at Auditorium Shores earlier this year. He did a few songs from his new release, Hold Time (I remember "Nobody Like You"). Here's M. Ward's song about Christ who is "wise as a prize-fighter" in his work as the "Fisher of Men." Autobiographical? Listen to the entire album on this web page.