"You Might be Emergent if…?"

Kevin DeYoung – Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) :

After reading nearly five thousand pages of emerging-church literature, I have no doubt that the emerging church, while loosely defined and far from uniform, can be described and critiqued as a diverse, but recognizable, movement. You might be an emergent Christian: if you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church), use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos, drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings, and always use a Mac; if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D. A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu; if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity; if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage; if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about the myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty; if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life; if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant; if you search for truth but aren’t sure it can be found; if you’ve ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn’t count); if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance; if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naive, and rigid; if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic; if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus; if you believe who goes to hell is no one’s business and no one may be there anyway; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker; if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way; if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us; if you disdain monological, didactic preaching; if you use the word “story” in all your propositions about postmodernism—if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian.

(HT: Tim Challies)

Click here for some complementing pictures.

 

 

Our trip to D.C.

This past weekend Jess and I went to D.C. to hang out with Adam and Lauren. I have always wanted to visit the monuments and just found out before leaving to go to D.C. that the Cherry Blossom festival would be starting. Over 1 million people will be eyeing these beautiful trees in the next 2 weeks. We also visited Georgetown and Lauren finally had her Bridal shots taken by her talented husband Adam right in the middle of Georgetown. It was freezing but fun nonetheless. We had a great time!

While at Georgetown I couldn’t help but notice how easily enticed is the human heart. Before going to D.C. I didn’t want nor needed anything of material possessions. While at Georgetown amongst all the stores and people I later noticed two things on the way home. I felt the subtle urges of wanting and even at times mistaking my wantings as something that I needed in my life. A bigger flat screen, more clothes, a new collection of CD’s, better food, an apartment in the city, etc. Now none of these things are inherently sinful in and of themselves but they shouldn’t supply a heart whose only desire should be directed to Jesus. Now it didn’t take me long to remind myself that my fundamental problem has been removed and my fundamental need has been satisfied, namely that Christ died for me and has by his grace has granted me salvation. Once I had myself in check I was somewhat disgusted by how trivial all the advertisements were and all the trendy stuff that some of these stores were selling as if I needed to pay for a vintage lamp that costs $200 when I could go to the local Goodwill store and buy one for $5. The second thing I noticed was how immersed in pop culture America was from H&M to Athropologie. Very fashionable I might add but insignificant and ultimately dissatisfying. Much of this may be coming from personal convictions and from observations of others although I am not much for being trendy. How skewed the American mindset is to treasure clothes over Christ.

Exegesis 101

Parchment and Pen has recently posted a helpful paradigm to approach scripture. Read the whole post here.


(HT: Z)

Sproul on Jesus and humor in the Bible

Sproul gives his thoughts on the questions: Did Jesus ever laugh? What do the Scriptures tell us about his character and sense of humor?

Excerpt:

You also asked if he had a sense of humor. When we translate any language into another, we will often miss subtle nuances of speech. If we don’t have a knowledge of the original language and its idioms, we might miss the humor. Also, different cultures have different ways of being humorous. Jesus used one form of humor we call sarcasm. In his responses to Herod, for example, he called him a fox and made other statements that I think had a touch of oriental humor to them. It’s purely speculative whether or not Jesus laughed, but I can’t imagine that he didn’t laugh for this reason: He was fully human, and he was perfect. We certainly wouldn’t attribute to Jesus any sinful emotions or forms of behavior, and it would seem to me the only reason to think he didn’t laugh would be if we first came to the conclusion that laughter is evil.

Reasons Why Pastors Should Blog

If you are a pastor or a potential pastor and have ever considered blogging you need to check this short post out. Abraham Piper gives 6 Reasons Why Pastors Should Blog.

Here’s reason number 2:

2. …to teach.

Most pastors I’ve run into love to talk. Many of them laugh at themselves about how long-winded they’re sometimes tempted to be.

Enter Blog.

Here is where a pastor has an outlet for whatever he didn’t get to say on Sunday. Your blog is where you can pass on that perfect analogy you only just thought of; that hilarious yet meaningful story you couldn’t connect to your text no matter how hard you tried; that last point you skipped over even though you needed it to complete your 8-point acrostic sermon that almost spelled HUMILITY.

And more than just a catch-all for sermon spill-over, a blog is a perfect place for those 30-second nuggets of truth that come in your devotions or while you’re reading the newspaper. You may never write a full-fledged article about these brief insights or preach a whole sermon, but via your blog, your people can still learn from them just like you did.

Young, Restless, and Reformed

Tim Challies reviews Collin Hansen’s Young Restless and Reformed.

Excerpt:

The book is structured around chapters that focus on a particular place or event. The first chapter, for example, focuses on Louis Giglio and a Passion conference in Atlanta while the next chapter changes the focus to John Piper’s Bethlehem Baptist Church. Other chapters come from Yale University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Covenant Life Church, a recent New Attitude Conference and Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Along the way Hansen features interviews with many of your favorite authors, pastors, theologians, and yes, even bloggers. If you are Reformed you’ll find a certain level of familiarity with the names and places in this book. In that way I found reading Young, Restless, Reformed almost like reading an autobiography—not of a person, but of a movement or organization and one that has swept me up along with it. You may well find the same as you read this book. You may not find a lot of new information, but you’ll enjoy reading about the ways God has brought leaders to this movement and the way He is using this movement to allow so many people to rediscover His sovereignty.

My soon to be nursing wife!

This is Jess acting funny…isn’t she cute!