This page is an archive of entries from July 2008 listed from newest to oldest.
June 2008 is the previous archive.
August 2008 is the next archive.
We left July 11, and we're getting back late tomorrow night, having driven over 5,000 km or 3,000 miles. We've seen new parts of the States and Canada and have had a great time. We've been in cramped quarters with five of us, but it's been great
It really takes about three weeks to completely disengage and enjoy vacation. Not sure I want this to end!
With the tide out:
And the tide in:
Ben Witherington has the most balanced review I've seen of The Shack, including this bit on the institutional church:
There is no such thing in heaven or on earth as an organism without organization, order, structure, form, otherwise it would have no distinct shape, purpose, or being. And that applies to God, the church, as well as to all created things—remember the story of how God created the universe in a very specific order with very specific properties? Well it’s always been like that. Creativity takes a particular form and shape, bring order out of chaos or a disparate group of elements. Spontaneity is not particularly more God-like than something that was planned before the foundations of the world and executed over a long period of time. And why we should think an organism like the church needs to normally be completely spontaneous in order to be ‘alive’ is a mystery. Perhaps it is an over-reaction to spending too much time in moribund or unwell churches. One thing I know about real works of art--- they take time to create, and care, and skill, and form, and substance. This is as true of a Matisse masterpiece as of God’s creation of the universe.
We went to the zip line at Cape Enrage, New Brunswick today. Here's my mother on it. Go Mum!
The expression on Charlene's face says it all.
We spent Sunday night in beautiful Grand Manan Island, the largest island in the Bay of Fundy.
Monday morning came early. We were scheduled to take a tour to Machias Seal Island to see puffins and seals. Because of tides, the tour left at 7 A.M. - 6 A.M. Toronto time!
We got there and it was worth it. Puffins - lots of them. Here's just one.
Then a seal colony.
And more exploring.
We're in Saint John, New Brunswick now, and I'm going to go to bed now, happy that I don't have to get up early in the morning to be in some boat. As good as it was, I'm glad to be sleeping in tomorrow instead.
George Whitefield (1714-1770) didn't start out as much of a preacher. After his first sermon, someone complained to the bishop that Whitefield's sermon had driven 15 people mad.
In the years that followed, Whitefield preached 18,000 sermons to crowds of up to 30,000 people throughout Great Britain and the 13 American colonies. He crossed the Atlantic 13 times and travelled extensively when any type of long-distance travel was impossibly difficult. It's hard now to imagine how much of an impact Whitefield had in his day. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called Whitefield "the greatest preacher that England has ever produced."
Whitefield died in 1769 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, just northeast of Boston. He is buried there at Old South Presbyterian, a church he helped to found. I had tried to set up a time to tour the building, but we couldn't seem to make it work.
I showed up in any case to take a look around.
I thought I'd only get to look around outside, but decided to check the School Street entrance to the church just in case. Turns out someone was there. She called her husband Richard, and within half an hour we were getting a private tour of the church, including the crypt underneath the pulpit where Whitefield was buried.
More pictures here, including one of the house in which he died. It hasn't changed too much from this old drawing I found online.
The tour was fascinating. If you like church history and ever get the chance to visit Newburyport, you should try to take the tour as well. Can't wait to finish volume 2 of Dallimore's biography of Whitefield.
Registration for the 2009 National Conference of The Gospel Coalition is now open. I've signed up. Anyone else going?
Look at who she brought into this world.
We're on vacation in beautiful Hyannis, Cape Cod. Hyannis is home to the Kennedy Compound, former summer home of John F. Kennedy. It's just two miles west of where we're staying.
Almost my entire family is here - 20 of us. Not sure if Hyannis will ever be the same. Looking forward to relaxing this week and spending time with my family. It's good to be back in Massachusetts - haven't been here since I graduated from Gordon-Conwell last year.
Next Saturday we head up to the Maritimes, with a stop in Newburyport to see the church where George Whitefield is buried. Lots to enjoy before then though.
There was a time that I was sure I was going to get an iPhone whenever it came out in Canada. That all changed when I realized how much it would cost. Then I saw that Rogers was reducing their rates in response to customer feedback. I began to lean towards getting one again, until I realized their reduced rate didn't include features like Visual Voicemail, which you could get for an extra $8. Feels too much like getting nickeled and dimed.
All of a sudden I'm liking the monthly fee on my iPod Touch.
I was already starting to analyze what drives me to want things like this so strongly. I began typing this post using iPhone as a keyword. As I typed i the program suggested idolatry as a tag. If an idol is something that you long for, that you hope will give you meaning and fulfillment apart from Christ, then maybe the iPhone is too much like an idol for me. Sad when you think about what it is.
Last year I saw John Piper react to being given an iPhone. He offered thanks, and then said, "Get thee behind me, Satan!" I know what he means.
So no iPhone for me. And I'm glad actually.
"Think about being an unabashedly intellectual pastor. I can’t think of a city in North America that is oversupplied with those." (John Stackhouse)
Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the headship of Christ over all things, and what this means for us:
Christ is not only head of those who recognize Him as such and submit to Him. He is Lord of all...The world is still God's world. He is not only interested in the saved but also in the unsaved. He has put bounds to sin and government is one of the ways in which He does it. There is common grace as well as special grace...We must be concerned about the world and not only about salvation...The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian in these things is that the Christian will never pin his faith on them as a means to bring ultimate and complete salvation to the race... (Iaian Murray's biography, volume 2)
Supposedly my brothers have been complaining that this site doesn't tell them much about what's going on in my life lately. I always aim to please my brothers, so here is a brief update - although you could have called, you know!
Vacation - We're counting down the days to a vacation in Cape Cod this Friday, followed by a trip through the Maritimes and back home through Quebec. We're going to be gone for three weeks. I hope to blog at least part of the time through this trip, although Internet access may be sketchy. I'm really looking forward to the time off this summer. I'm especially looking forward to time with my family, and to going somewhere in Canada I've never been before.
Life - Life has been busy but very settled for a long time now. Kids are great as they get older. Charlene mentioned the other day that she loves what Richview has become and is becoming, and I agree. We are seeing things happen that we wouldn't have if we hadn't stayed this long, although there is much more we'd like to see. I'm doing more writing and enjoying that, although I hope to get serious about a book sometime soon. We'll see.
Shift - I get interesting comments occasionally about some of the shifts in my thinking. I thought of this yesterday as I read more of Iain Murray's biography of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. So many of the issues that are in play now were also issues back then. A lot of people argued that the church in that day needed to become more contemporary and relevant so that it would appeal to people. Lloyd-Jones wasn't against addressing people's issues, but he believed that the cure for the church lay in the other direction: in returning to its first love, rediscovering the gospel, and relying on the Spirit rather than on our plans and strategies.
For a long time I focused my energies on becoming more relevant and making things more appealing. While this isn't all bad, I increasingly realize how important it is to focus on gospel, Spirit, and prayer. Those are much more relevant than relevance. I'm grateful for some who have modeled this for me. I hope to explore this theme more in the future.
Buddy - No brief update would be complete without a bit on our dog. We walked Buddy in High Park the very day that a number of dogs were poisoned in the leash free area a few weeks back. Looks like Buddy escaped another close call. I'm sure his adventures will continue.
If my brothers want to find out more, I'll tell them - but they're going to have to call. Or ask me on our vacation next week.
The Gospel Coalition has revamped their website. They have information about their 2009 conference - I hope to go - as well as a journal you can download in PDF. Definitely worth checking out.
Many of the newer churches today tend to be built around a target age group. I get this. It makes everything easier and has more curb appeal. But sometimes I hear from people who've joined churches like this, and who come back feeling that something is missing in the homogeneity of the church.
Tullian Tchividjian has a very good post on this subject today:
Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches today (and more specifically worship services) are targeting specific age groups to the exclusion of others. For years now churches have been organizing themselves around generational distinctives: busters, boomers, Generations X, Y, and Z. Many churches offer a "traditional service" for the tribe who prefers old music and a "contemporary service" for the tribe who prefers new music. I understand the good intentions behind some of these efforts but something as seemingly harmless as this evidences a fundamental failure to comprehend the heart of the Gospel. When we offer, for instance, a contemporary worship service for the younger people and a traditional worship service for the older people, we are not only feeding tribalism (which is a toxic form of racism) but we are saying that the Gospel can't successfully bring these two different groups together. It is a declaration of doubt in the reconciling power of God's Gospel. Generational appeal in worship is an unintentional admission that the Gospel is powerless to "join together" what man has separated. Plainly stated, building the church on age appeal (whether old or young) or stylistic preferences is as contrary to the reconciling effect of the Gospel as building it on class, race, or gender distinctions. Negatively, when the church segregates people according to generation, race, style, or socio-economic status, we exhibit our disbelief in the reconciling power of the Gospel. Positively, one of the prime evidences of God's power to our segregated world is a congregation which transcends cultural barriers, including age.
I agree. You can explain a lot of things by music and style, but when you see a church that has nothing in common in terms of music and style, but in which there is genuine love, you have to look deeper to the Gospel.
I'm looking forward to Tullian's upcoming book Unfashionable, by the way.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was seriously out of step with preachers in his day who focused on delivering messages focused on the well-being and happiness of the hearers. Lloyd-Jones took the opposite approach, saying:
The more the Church has accommodated her message to suit the palate of the people the greater has been the decline in attendance at places of worship. (David Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith 1939-1981)
More of his comments here
Because the Gospel is good news about what God has done through Christ, I always cringe a little when I hear people talk about living the Gospel. I know what they mean, but I can relate to what Graeme Goldsworthy says in Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics:
If something is not what God did in and through the historical Jesus two thousand years ago, it is not the gospel...[Christians] can only believe it, proclaim it and seek to live consistently with it. Only Jesus lived (and died) the gospel. It is a once-for-all finished and perfect event done for us by another.
That's good stuff.
But Glenn R. Kreider provides some counterbalance in a review of Goldsworthy's book in the latest issue of Bibliotheca Sacra:
Certainly the gospel (good news) is grounded in the work of Christ, but it would seem to include the future work of Christ as well (including His return and the new creation), as well as blessing for all believers (Gal. 3:8). Furthermore this limitation seems inconsistent with Goldworthy's definition of the gospel as "the event (or proclamation of that event) of Jesus Christ that begins with his incarnation and earthly life, and concludes with his death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father" (p. 58). Would not the proclamation of the work of Christ be something that Christians do, and would not that proclamation include living the message as well? In short, how does one separate the verbal and incarnational ministry of the gospel? Did not Paul indicate that Christians do live the gospel when he wrote that "we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus" (2 Cor. 4:10 NIV)? It would seem that one way to understand Paul's testimony in Philippians 3:10-11 is as affirming his desire to live the gospel. "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead" (NIV). Also, Goldworthy's emphasis on the eschatological trajectory of the biblical story seems difficult to reconcile with the strong limitation of the work of Christ completed in the past. He writes, "God's plan from all creation was the new creation and a people created and redeemed in Christ. The blueprint of creation and of all history is the gospel" (p. 223).
I still cringe a little when I hear people talk about "living the Gospel" but I think Kreider has a point. One of our greatest needs is to keep our definitions of the Gospel centered on the work of God in Christ rather than our own works, but then to include all the work that God did through Christ as good news of what God has done and continues to do. Tim Keller's recent article in Leadership Journal is an excellent resource on this topic.
Ten years ago today I began as the new pastor at Richview Baptist Church. Those were the days Windows 98 was a big deal (just a week old at that point), overhead projectors were still in common use, and I was skinny and had hair. (If you look carefully you can even see a bottle of liquid paper on my desk. When was the last time you used Liquid Paper?)
In September of that year we held an induction service.
I think it's safe to say that all of us look different today.
In those ten years Richview has changed a lot, and so have we. Jack Miller said to stay in one place until you've been humbled.
The best way...development takes place is by staying under one set of leaders to give them enough time to know you so that the obvious impossibilities of [leading] in your own strength can be pointed out and the younger leader broken before the Lord to abandon pride and move into Jesus' love. But this usually doesn't come very soon if a man moves about too much. People just don't get to know him, and he moves on before getting humbled by seeing how impossible ministry is. It's one thing to see things happen with others leading; it is another to see them happen to you and through you, and that takes time and sweat. (The Heart of a Servant Leader)
On Sunday, Sandy, worship leader and head blogger at Taste Buddy, spoke his love language and mine by presenting me with a basket of spicy snacks to mark the occasion:
Charlene and I were talking the other day about how much we love what Richview has become and is becoming. It's been a privilege to have been there ten years now through lots of ups and downs, and to have the sense that God isn't done working with us yet.
I've known about Martyn Lloyd-Jones for years. I knew he was a medical doctor who gave up a promising career to become a pastor. I knew he was stern and a gifted preacher who could take years to work through a book of the Bible. I remember being captivated listening to a cassette tape of him preaching on two words: "But God..." But when I kept hearing Tim Keller mention the influence of Lloyd-Jones on his own ministry, I had to learn more. I'm glad I did.
