Darryl's Blog
May 2007 Archives
A long time ago I promised George that I'd do a few posts on the meaning of repentance. Over the next few days I'll post some different views on the word. Take a look and let me know what you like. After a few days we'll see if we can get to the bottom of it.
Here's a comment from A.W. Tozer on repentance:
Now I've heard for the last thirty years that repentance is a change of mind, and I believe it, of course, as far as it goes. But that's just what's the matter with us. We have reduced repentance to a change of mind. It is a mental act, indeed, but I point out that repentance is not likely to do us much good until it ceases to be a change of mind only and becomes a wound within our spirit. No man has truly repented until his sin has wounded him near to death, until the wound has broken him and defeated him and taken all the fight and self-assurance out of him and he sees himself as the one who nailed his Saviour on the tree.
What do you like? What's not clear? What would you change?
As many have pointed out, the big question to answer is "What is the gospel?" Many of the debates going on are relatively secondary compared to this one. I've had a few discussions lately that have made me realize that it's not easy to get agreement on the answer to this question.
On one hand, we have those who quote 1 Corinthians 15:1-7 and think that the issue is settled. They're right, of course, but you still have to unpack what these verses express in shorthand. It's there that we run into problems.
On the other hand, we have many who rightly react against individualistic expressions of the gospel that are mainly about how to go to heaven. They long for a gospel that is expansive, that creates a new community of people and is concerned for creation and issues of justice.
At times it seems like the discussion gets polarized around these two very different understandings of the gospel.
I'm not going to solve this one here, except to say that I've found some really helpful resources lately that I wish I had found long ago. The trail started at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, which emphasizes both individual salvation (personal transformation) and social change, all centered on the gospel. Tim Keller explains this approach in The Centrality of the Gospel (PDF) and in many of his sermons. This approach is also reflected in the Foundational Documents (PDF) of The Gospel Coalition.
From there I discovered Gospel Transformation, a resource put out by World Harvest Mission:
Gospel Transformation is a 36-lesson inductive study focusing on what matters most—our need for the transforming power of the gospel. For small groups or personal study—it goes straight to the heart, exploring such issues as: repentance, forgiveness, the flesh, compassion, believing our justification, and much more.
Just got my copy yesterday.
I also discovered two excellent books: How People Change, which helps people understand "the biblical pattern for change in a clear, practical way," and Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, which "is a comprehensive treatment of how God uses people as tools of change in the lives of others, people who themselves are in need of change." Both books unpack how the gospel changes us.
I'm working my way through these and they look really helpful. Some good stuff here on what the gospel is and how it affects the way that we live.
Just got this off the camera from a couple of weeks ago. The evening of graduation, we headed down to Long Wharf in Boston for dinner at Legal Sea Foods. I have my favorite dish there and thoroughly enjoyed every morsel. I've had better food at the Legal in Peabody but you can't beat the atmosphere on the wharf.
This photo is just my attempt at trying to bring bibs back into style, if they ever were in style in the first place.
"We are a fellowship of evangelical churches deeply committed to renewing our faith in the gospel of Christ and to reforming our ministry practices to fully conform to the Scriptures." So begins the Foundational Documents (pdf) for The Gospel Coalition, a new group that held a one-day conference this past week.
The Foundational Documents continue:
We have become deeply concerned about some movements within traditional evangelicalism that seem to be diminishing the church’s life and leading us away from our historic beliefs and practices. On the one hand, we are troubled by the idolatry of personal consumerism and the politicization of faith; on the other hand, we are distressed by the unchallenged acceptance of theological and moral relativism. These have led to the easy abandonment of both biblical truth and the transformed living mandated by our historic faith. We not only hear of these influences, we see their effects. We have committed ourselves to invigorating churches with new hope and compelling joy based on the promises received by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
I had a great time in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin a week ago. Got to meet some amazing people and had a productive week looking at the Judges and Ruth.
I've never been to Wisconsin before and learned a few things:
- It's one of two states that doesn't require car insurance. When I rented a car, they told me I was all on my own if anything happened. Nice.
- Motorcyclists don't need helmets either.
- They seem to allow smoking in restaurants.
- They don't brew much beer in Milwaukee anymore. Nor did I see one person dressed like The Fonz. Or one person who wore an L on their shirts like Laverne (from Laverne and Shirley). So much for my TV impressions of Milwaukee.
I haven't posted much this week because we've been a tad busy. Last week, while I was in Wisconsin, our hot water tank leaked in our basement. We've had to empty our basement, replace the underpad, and generally deal with the hassle of another flood. Looks like the damage will be about $3,000 $3,710, which the gas company will be covering. I'm grateful for that.
Floods in our basement have become a May long weekend tradition. It all started five years ago. It used to be my favorite weekend of the year. Not anymore!
This has all made me think of Peter Walsh's book It's All Too Much, or on the more thoughtful side, a book like Affluenza. Where did all this stuff come from, and how did it end up being a burden? I wish I could have the retail value of all the stuff we had in our basement.
Seth Godin reminds us that more used to be, well, more: "More has been around for thousands of years. Kings ate more than peasants. Winning armies had more weapons than losing ones. Elizabeth Taylor had more husbands than you."
Although Godin takes his post in a different direction, I'd argue that more has become too much. We crave simplicity now, to be freed from the burden of more stuff.
If you can't manage this on your own, a flood's not a bad way to go. I'm free next May long weekend if you need any help.
I was just down the road from Chicago last week. My timing was a bit off because I wasn't there long enough to stay for The Gospel Coalition conference, started by Tim Keller and D.A. Carson to call us back to the gospel.
The good news is that it's being blogged at various sites, and the audio will be posted for free on the main site. Maybe I'll catch the 2009 conference.
Update: The Foundational Documents have now been posted (PDF - link has been changed to the new location).
A press release from Gordon-Conwell:
The Board of Trustees of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has appointed Dr. Haddon W. Robinson as Interim President, effective July 1, 2007. Dr. Robinson succeeds Dr. James Emery White, who has resigned, effective June 30, 2007, due to family considerations which resulted in his unanticipated inability to relocate as planned from North Carolina to Massachusetts. Dr. White will continue to teach as Professor of Theology and Culture at the Charlotte Campus.
Please pray for Dr. Robinson as he takes on this role.
Last Saturday morning, I attended the President's Breakfast at Gordon-Conwell. I knew that I wasn't in Kansas anymore when I asked the gentleman next to me how long he'd lived in the area, and he replied that the King had granted his family their property in 1626. Lots of other fascinating stories and some good food, but I was really there to hear Tim Keller.
If you know Keller's ministry, you know that he is going to remind us of the Gospel in relation to whatever he's talking about. I was curious to see what he'd talk about to donors, trustees, and D.Min. graduates.
Dr. Keller gave one insight into ministry. We in ministry, he said, tend to mistake spiritual gifts with spiritual fruit, maturity, and character. It's one of our most deadly mistakes. He then unpacked this in three points: a biblical perspective, practical perspective, and the question, "What do we do about this?"
On Friday night, Dr. Peter Scazzero spoke at the baccalaureate service on "Hard Lessons Learned Since Graduating from Gordon-Conwell." Dr. Scazzero is pastor of New Life Fellowship Church in New York, and author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.
Scazzero planted a church that grew fast. On one level, he was a success, but when he looks back he realizes he was gaining the whole world while losing his soul. He was tired all the time. One of the churches they planted split, and he caught himself cursing while driving one day. His wife was tired of being a single mother, and on January 1, 1996, his wife told him that she was quitting the church they planted, because it was bringing her death and not life.
It was one of the kindest things she ever did.
Scazzero made some changes, and the 11 years since have been some of the best of his life. He outlined five hard lessons that he wishes he had learned earlier.
My latest column at Christian Week:
Alan Roxburgh is a preacher, teacher, and consultant whose books help pastors and church leaders understand ministry in a time of change. He currently lives in British Columbia, and has pastored churches in Toronto and Vancouver.
I spent some time in April talking with Alan about our changing culture and what this means for churches in Canada.
According to Alan, most recognize that Christendom has ended and Canadian culture is rapidly changing. This discontinuous change is more than a blip. We are not going back to where we were before, and this makes some anxious.
The story that shaped the church for much of the twentieth century is no longer the story that will move it forward. The habits and practices and the way we did church were developed for a certain kind of culture that no longer exists. Therefore, many of our old habits and practices no longer make sense. This is generally accepted and no longer a matter of debate.
Whenever our whole family comes to Boston, bad things seem to happen. Here's a partial list of our adventures so far:
- Two blown tires and damaged rims
- One flat tire
- Two sicknesses
We're heading home today, so who knows what else will happen?
I hope to post a summary of two of the talks from the weekend sometime tomorrow. One was by Peter Scazzero, author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, and the other by Tim Keller. Both were excellent.
Tomorrow I'm off to Wisconsin. Some thirty graduates get together every year for a week with Haddon Robinson and a commentator to work through a book of the Bible in preparation for preaching. This year it's Daniel Block, who wrote a very good commentary on Judges and Ruth. I'm really looking forward to this week - one of the ongoing perks of graduating from this program.
We're on our way down to Boston for my grad. We got only an hour away from home in our rental van when a truck blew a tire and left debris all over the road, including a large fire extinguisher rolling all around.
Guess who hit it?
I phoned the rental company's roadside assistance. "What was a fire hydrant doing in the middle of the road?" he asked. "Fire extinguisher!" I said (or was it yelled?)
We finally got it all sorted out. The truck company has arranged to pay damages directly to the rental company. We have a new van and we're back on the road, a couple hours late. And it could have been much worse.
I'll be on the lookout for more fire extinguishers for the rest of our trip, I assure you. Fool me once...
Mr. Bill Kinnon has asked me to draw your attention to a couple of videos highlighting the Allelon Summer Institute, taking place June 11-13 at Fuller. Looks like it will be a worthwhile event for pastors and ministry practitioners.
if you're interested, take a look at the videos below.
Charlene's been away this weekend, just like a year ago, and the weather has been gorgeous, just like a year ago. So it's really brought back memories of what happened exactly a year ago today:
"Just got a call. My Dad passed away in his sleep one hour ago."
The year has gone very quickly.
Shane Claiborne is in Toronto on May 27.
Tim Keller on when churches grow best:
We believe that, paradoxically, churches grow best not when they aim at church growth as much as when they serve the peace/shalom of the whole city. Saint Augustine believed that citizenship in the City of God made us the very best citizens of the human city. (Redeemer Church Planting Manual)
A great post on spiritual formation by J.R. Woodward:
A while back I was trying to fix a drawer. I came to that one screw I had to get loose, and the more I worked to loosen that screw the tighter it seemed to get. A carpenter friend of mine was visiting me and saw my dilemma. He looked for a moment or two and said, "Oh, this has a left-handed thread. It's a reverse screw. You have to tighten or loosen it going in the opposite direction." I’m thinking, it took me 10 years to find out how screws work, and now they change the rules on me?
There's a sense in which Spiritual Formation is kind of like a reverse screw. Everything in the culture that seems right, in the Scripture, comes out wrong. The way up is the way down. The way to spiritual wealth is to acknowledge your spiritual poverty. The way to live is to die. The way to rule is to serve. I mean, the screw just doesn't work right. It's out of place.
But unless we understand the reverse nature of the screw, we will never be the people that God is longing for us to become.
I took my daughter on a date tonight to see The Bride, an urban musical put on by Urban Promise. I wasn't sure what to expect. I don't get out to a lot of urban musicals these days.
Any fears that I had that it would be second rate were soon gone. The script was great, and the music and acting were extremely well done. It was gritty enough to be real and it dealt with issues that we face on our streets.
I wasn't prepared for some moments at the end when I was walloped by the beauty of the gospel. It was done in almost a C.S. Lewis fashion - it was there but not in your face, but with such strength that it could knock you over. I was knocked over with the beauty of the gospel tonight.
Congratulations to Colin and to everyone involved in pulling this production off.
If you are in Toronto this weekend, there are still two performances, and believe me, this is worth seeing. You won't regret it.
From Missional.ca:
We are pleased to announce the upcoming Missional Leadership Conversation with Alan Roxburgh of Allelon.
Allelon founder Mark Priddy will also be joining us, and we're looking forward to an engaging session. Not sure what this "missional" stuff is all about? We'll answer that in more detail during this one-evening event. You can find a good overview online to prime your thoughts on the matter... but in short, "missional" is a way of thinking about our role as Christians in our community that seeks to live out the gospel message incarnationally in the world. Like Jesus did.
Looks good - find out more here.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion (sometimes pile-on) about leadership. I regret that I trusted a second-hand source for information about a conference and posted on it, even though I thought that this source is reliable. My fault completely. Egg on my face.
Still, we're faced with questions about leadership. I left this comment near the end of the thread:
There has to be something distinctive about Christian leadership, because God's economy is completely different. I'm in the middle of working through Judges, and one of the messages is that we're always in danger of adopting the values and practices of the surrounding culture, even when they are completely opposite to what God has called us to be and to do. So I am a little concerned that we (not the Fellowship - the church in general) are mirroring a cultural fascination with business-style leadership.
Finally, when I think of the places and times where God is moving and the church is thriving, I don't think that the key factor is that they have more capable leaders.
I'm not trying to dismiss leadership; I'm just saying there are still unresolved issues we need to continue to explore.
Ken and Paul also have some good thoughts.
Just received this e-mail from my friend Naomi this morning, and she gave me permission to post it here:
Speaking of leadership (and thinking now of Moses) and his being a man of great humbleness, his woosing out on wanting to go to Pharaoh on his own, and his not thinking he could speak well enough etc. — his only strength really being his direct line to God — that God gave — well, I’d like to see how the leadership strategists could explain the successfulness of that mission, leaning on the virtue of Moses’ gifts, abilities, or skills. Every single step of the way it was God leading the show, giving the instructions, showing the way, etc.
I even thought of this issue as I read this book review of a book I'm very interested in now. Lauren Winner writes, "Some of the questions Houston raises about the ways Christian culture has been infected by that secularism — such as his suggestion that the tendency in today's professionalized ministry is to substitute "techniques and technology for love" — strike uncomfortably close to home." I know that you techniques and love aren't exclusive of each other - but I wonder if this charge is true.
The problem is that techniques and technology and leadership have their place - but they are secondary at best, and we tend to make them primary. That's why I like books like Leading with a Limp, because they bust the myth of the heroic leader. Leadership is important, but the best leaders lead out of God's power showing up in their weakness.
It's why I like my friend Bill's observation that we're a lot like Israel looking for a king so they can be like all the other nations, when God says we don't need a king because we have him. The king can get in the way of God, and so can certain kinds of Christian leadership.
In the end, we need to do a whole lot more thinking about Christian leadership. I still believe leadership is important, but maybe we need a different kind of leadership.
My thesis on theocentric preaching has finally passed proofreading by the D.Min. office and is now available for download.
I hope to eventually shape this material into a book, since the thesis format is structured for a specific purpose. Although the thesis is done, in some ways it's just a beginning.
iMonk has posted a well-written review of Ron Martoia's book Static:
For someone not aware that there is a serious conversation going on about how to “re-lexicon” and “re-vocalize” the Christian vocabulary, Martoia may sound like heresy 101. For those who know that the work of Wright and other contemporary scholars is exposing the weaknesses in contemporary popular understandings of key Biblical concepts, Martoia won’t be saying a lot new, but he says it very well. In fact, as a beginning book for a person ready to move into some fairly radical examinations of the way we describe Christianity, Static is excellent.
Dr. John Kaiser, the president of the Fellowship, takes issue with my post last week on pastors and losers. Dr. Kaiser's response is worth checking out. As is the response from my friend Bryan, who leaves a comment we can all agree on.
The bigger issue, from what I can tell, is what Christian leadership looks like and how it functions. Alan Roxburgh writes:
Leadership models are borrowed from psychology (strategist, therapist), medicine (health and healer), the business world (strategist, coach, manager), and the educational world (teacher). A lot of congregations and leaders have been socialized to view those models as the only viable ones...
A congregation called us to ask how it could remove the current pastor because she wasn't an effective change agent. The job description they developed called for an entrepreneurial leader who could make things happen - clearly a business model...the leadership models currently shaping the church are inadequate to forming a missional church. In their own context and setting - medicine, the business world, counseling - these images of leadership are appropriate, but when the church borrows and applies such models to the community of God's people it misses an opportunity to shape leadership around the biblical sense, in which leadership is about cultivating an environment that innovates and releases the missional imagination present among a community of God's people.
This is certainly a live discussion in many quarters. What is unique about Christian leadership? What role does business thinking play? How important is leadership to the success of the church? Is leadership (as we normally define it) the key factor in the times and places where the church is thriving? How does the whole idea of God using weakness, not strength, factor in?
I hope to return to some of these questions. They're certainly worth wrestling with.