I don’t know much about the church, but I love the way they start this: “Before we tell you who we ARE, let us tell you who we WERE.”

This is the story of every honest follower of Jesus.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wgaVk_o8G8

His podcasts and books – Crazy Love in particular – have been a huge blessing to me.

You may or may not know that a few months ago he walked away from his church. No scandal, no controversy or drama – he just abruptly announced that he would be moving on with no specific plans about where.

Now that the dust has settled a bit, he has transplanted his whole family to an ‘undisclosed’ city in Asia, where nobody cares that Crazy Love just hit the NY Times best-seller list, and CNN wrote a pretty interesting article about the whole thing.

The clencher for me:

Before selling his house and packing up his wife and three children, Chan was becoming “Christian famous” in Evangelical circles.

“Even in my own church I heard the words, ‘Francis Chan’ more than I heard the words, ‘Holy Spirit’,” he said.

That was a big part of the reason he walked away at the peak of his professional career.

“I think there has been too much emphasis on me. I want to be used by God, but I think we have this desire to make heroes out of people rather than following God and the Holy Spirit.”

He quotes the apostle Paul, who told his followers “I didn’t die for you.”

Wow.

He may or may not have gone a little overboard, but either way: I think he’s on to something.

Check it out.

Last year week.

Seriously.

Check it:

ServeRDU from The Summit Church on Vimeo.

(Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE our church?)

Derek Webb is one of the best musicians that you’ve probably never heard of.

He has a niche of followers who love his music and wrestle with his message, but I’ll bet that if you’re over 25 and reading this, then the name is new to you.

If that’s the case, do yourself a favor and go get one of his albums. Any one will do.

You don’t even have to risk spending your money on something that you may not like! Derek is actually the founder of NoiseTrade, where you can download an album for any price you’re willing pay, or for free if you’re willing to recommend it to five friends!

I’ve been enjoying Derek’s music since he came and performed at NC State several years ago. I remember sitting at Derr track and watching him — nothing but a mic, a guitar, an amp, and some pedals — introduce me to “Where The Streets Have No Name” by U2…

A so-called ‘christian’ artist singing a U2 song that has nothing to do with Jesus.

Was this a mistake?

Were the Campus Crusade staff people scrambling to huddle up and figure out what to do?

And so began a long series of lessons that Derek Webb has been instrumental in my learning.

His music constantly challenges me to think rightly about the Church, culture, morality, and Jesus.

He has helped me love the difference between those four words, and their interrelation.

My new favorite song, from his last album (not his newest album), is called “This Too Shall Be Made Right“.

It’s a recongition that this earthly kingdom is broken, but that it won’t always be.

It’s a song of mourning and hope.

Reality and optimism.

One verse says:

the earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
we say we’re just trying to stay alive
but it looks so much more like a way to die
this too shall be made right

I think of so many people I love when I hear those words.

Another verse says:

I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door
I join the oppressors of those who i choose to ignore
I’m trading comfort for human life
and that’s not just murder it’s suicide
this too shall be made right

Ouch!

This about what happened in Indonesia this week. And how much was that coffee you’re drinking?

You can read all the lyrics here.

Do you have a favorite Derek Webb song?

A few weeks back, I shared my excitement about a new book, Religions Saves, and Nine Other Misconceptions.

I wrote a few posts since then, talking about individual chapters (1 and 2), but today I’m excited to be on the official blog tour. So, here’s my overall review of the book (and please forgive me if any of this seems repetitive to you):

What do birth control, humor, calvinism, grace, sex, faith and works, dating, the emergent church, and the regulative principle have in common?

Well, ask pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church to write a chapter on each topic, put them together, and you’ve got Religion Saves, and Nine Other Misconceptions.

So, the first question that comes to your mind is probably along the lines of, “Why would anyone put those topics together in a book?”

Good question! And there actually is a reasonable answer!

The book is based on a really neat idea: pastor Mark explains in the introduction that upon reading through the book of 1 Corinthians, he noticed that a significant purpose of the letter is to address questions from the church in Corinth. And the more he thought about it, the more intrigued he was by the idea of preaching a series of sermons that are answers to common questions from people today — questions specific to our time and culture. So, last year, Mars Hill opened up a portion of their website for a forum called ‘Ask Anything‘. Over a series of voting cycles, people all over the world were allowed to post questions: any questions. These were then widdled down to the 9 most popular questions through a voting process. In the end, 893 questions were asked, 5,524 comments were made, and 343,203 votes were cast, and the following topics emerged, in order:

1. The Regulative Principle
2. The Emerging/Emergent Church
3. Dating
4. Faith vs. Works
5. Sexual Sin
6. Grace
7. Predestination/Election/Calvinism
8. Humor
9. Birth Control

Pastor Mark preached a sermon on each one in a series by the same name as this book. You can download the video and/or audio of each of these for free here. This book is basically another form of responding to those questions, with a chapter devoted to each one.

The first thing you notice when you pick up the book is the excellent design. It’s a sturdy hard-copy with a knurled texture containing an intriguing graphic of a family walking out of a typical-looking church building… and they appear to be on fire. Part of the flame is the provocative title of the book: Religion Saves. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the message of the book.

I think pastor Mark does a great job explaining the title (from the introduction of the book):

Before we proceed, the title “Religion Saves” merits a bit of explanation. The one thread that weaves this book together is religion; many of the questions that made the top nine are highly religious in nature. Religious people are prone to go beyond the teaching of the Bible to argue for positions that are not clearly taught in Scripture. They are further prone to go beyond the biblical principles on these issues and seek to impose their method on others, as if they alone are truly biblical. Religious people tend to have very strong and vocal opinions about the issues we will examine. In fact, religious people were often the most devoted voters for the questions that comprised the “Religion Saves” sermon series and this book.

…

Religious people mistakenly think that they are saving people from such things as a fruitless life, sinful sex, bad relationships, unholy humor, wayward churches, evil birth control, and what they call “strange fire.” However, religion never saved anyone, and religious answers to complex questions are simply misconceptions, which is why I have titled this book, “Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions.”

So as you can see, the purpose of this book is not directed so much at non-believers as at the most religious of believers. This book isn’t so much an apologetic or a call to holier living as it is a call to repentance from our righteousness.

Having read the book, and listened to each of the sermons upon which it is based, I wholeheartedly recommend it for the following reasons (in no particular order):

• Pastor Mark does a great job of thoroughly covering each topic. He doesn’t write a few pages telling you what you already knew. Each chapter is in the ballpark of about 30 pages, and I learned from each one, even though I had already studied each of these topics. I even passed the book on to my dad to help him with some questions he had on the topic of election. I couldn’t think of a better resource to introduce the topic, explain each side, and then make a case for the most Biblical one!
• Pastor Mark shows his cards. An apologetic book or a text book would likely present each angle of a particular topic, and then leave you to take the facts and decide what to do with them. Pastor Mark goes one step further and tries to make a case for his own view on each topic, yet is simultaneously careful not to overstate things. I would challenge a non-christian who thinks that Christianity is too close-minded or old-fashioned to read this book. I’ll bet it would challenge a lot of your incorrect stereotypes. I would also challenge the most fundamentalist, self-righteous of ‘christians’ to read this book. I’ll bet you will be challenged about what convictions you’re holding in a closed hand that belong in an open one.
• It’s a great combination of topics. The odd combination makes it a great read because the gears shift significantly every chapter. But possibly more importantly, the topics emerge from questions submitted by people in our day and age, and are incredibly relevant to our time and culture. In particular, I think that birth control and humor are two topics that are discussed far too infrequently in the modern church, and it leaves a lot of young folks with questions that they are afraid to ask.
• The thread that ties the whole book together is crucial to the Church in our time. Though the topics seem unrelated, the theme of each chapter is a call to repentance (from self-righteousness if we think we’re doing good by Biblical standards, or from rebellion if we choose to reject the Biblical standards) and to turn our eyes to Jesus. I think Mark does a fantastic job of making clear the idea that St. Augustine expressed when he said that “[the christian life] is one of continual, active repentance.“

To be fair, the book isn’t perfect. After all, an imperfect human is the author, and noone toes the line more closely than Mark Driscoll. Sometimes, he distracts from his point in the interest of humor, and sometimes he even made me wince a little bit at the length he was willing to go to be funny or make a point. Nevertheless, compared to his previous two major books, Vintage Jesus – where he pretty clearly crossed the line several times, going too far to make the book humorous – and Death By Love – which was extremely serious and almost completely lacked humor in the interest of making a very clearly explaining the cross of Christ – I think he found a good balance of humor, intrigue, and weight.

But the good far outweighs the bad, and Religion Saves is a book that I’m glad I read. I am such a prideful individual, and repentance is so unnatural for me. Unfortunately, it’s also uncommon in the modern church, and I am thankful for the clear and consistent message bringing it to the forefront of my mind that I found in Religion Saves.

]]> http://www.therieslands.com/2009/08/01/religion-saves-driscoll-book-review/feed/ 0 http://www.therieslands.com/2009/07/24/tell-me-about-your-church/ http://www.therieslands.com/2009/07/24/tell-me-about-your-church/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:00:51 +0000 Zack http://www.therieslands.com/?p=3801 Most of my recent experience as a follower of Jesus has been learning about the Church: what it is, is not, should be, and eventually will be.
I have worked to get a church started, worked to get a church established, worked with pay and without pay…
And this is still a topic that Steph and I spend a lot of time discussing and praying about.

And with all that in mind, I’m curious about your thoughts and experiences.

Whether you go to church or not, whether you’re a christian or not, I’d love to have your thoughts!

(I’m playing with Google forms, so I’ll see what kind of cool ways it gives me to share the results w/ everyone!)

If the embedded form doesn’t appear below (after the break), then please use this link

Now it’s time to move on to chapter 2 of Religion Saves – And Nine Other Misconceptions.

In this chapter, pastor Mark Driscoll tackles the 8th most popular question:

Why do you make jokes about Mormon missionaries, homosexuals, trench coat wearers, single men, vegans, and emo kids, and then expect these groups of people to come to know God through those sermons?

Just like last time, I’ll write up a bit on the chapter, but before I do, I want to ask you:

When you think of the Bible, do you think of humor? Why or why not?

What is your favorite example of humor in the Bible?

Ready? Go…

Advance 09 was sort of the springboard for Advance The Church, which you might describe as a movement dedicated to shifting the momentum of christianity in America from hypocrisy, politics, morality, pragmatism, and judgment to a hyper-focus on Jesus, His death, burial, and resurrection, and all the consequences that follow from that.

A joint effort of TheResurgence, DesiringGod, and Acts 29, I was interested in the conference as soon as I heard about it, and especially because it happened only about 30 minutes from my house, I prayed seriously about whether to go; but I was also hesitant because it was a little expensive and also required a day off work. But God seemed to really nudge me to get there, and He seriously cleared a path to make the decision easy.

In the end, I walked away with so much. I still feel like my head is going to explode. If I took the time to write out everything that happened this weekend, you probably wouldn’t even have time to read it, but here is some processing by way of bullet points (you can also download the entire conference audio here for free):

The Message – When you get Mark Driscoll, John Piper, Matt Chandler, Danny Aiken, and Ed Stetzer in a room together, give them each a topic to teach on, and then say ‘go’, here’s what you might expect to happen: you might expect all the conference attendees to walk away with a ton of new information and a couple of new man-crushes on these great guys and how well they know the scripture and how much they love Jesus. But that isn’t what happened at all. Even though there were about a dozen sermons on a variety of topics over the course of three days, there was one very strong theme: repentance. The work of the Holy Spirit was evident as He wove together each topic into one message: the Christian life is one of continual repentance. And rather than trying harder to build our churches into more glorious idols to ourselves and our religiosity, we need to repent of all the effort and energy we put into chasing everything but Jesus. It’s like the main point of the conference was “Whatever we make the main point of this conference will be an idol and therefore wicked, unless it’s Jesus.” It rang in my ears. It’s great perspective.

The DPAC – The Durham Performing Arts Center is a crazy nice building, and the staff there were surprisingly kind and friendly. The one exception is the people who scanned tickets — they were all pretty mean in my experience. Also, bring your credit card, ’cause they won’t let you carry anything in, and they charge you 3 bucks for a bad cup of coffee.

Fellowship – My spirit has literally been shriveling up and dying for lack of good fellowship with Godly brothers who love Jesus. Friday night, I sat down for dinner with two new friends. We spent three hours talking — until they kicked us out — and then another hour and half standing outside Panera. Just awesome.

Old People – Yes, that is seriously a bullet point here: old people. God challenged my heart towards older people this weekend. Not that I ever consciously felt any animosity or disrespect towards anyone, but I see now that I had an un-founded assumption that older people are generally judgmental and stuck in their ways and blind to their selfishness in retiring and watching TV or playing cards all day.  Yes, I realize how terrible that sounds, and I don’t think I ever would have said that, but I think that in some way I probably believed it. But I met some people this weekend who challenged me, bit time! I met a little old couple — maybe 70-something — who have left their denomination to help a young pastor start a reformed, Acts 29 church in downtown Charleston, SC. I’ve never met two people so excited to see a church get going who weren’t part of the official leadership. I also sat 2 seats down for a guy who’s leaving for Malaysia in a couple of weeks — indefinitely. He’s “retiring” to the mission field. And he talked about it like, “Of course I’m doing this. Is there really any option?” So ridiculously awesome.

Missions – Which leads to the last point — at least for now: Piper brought the thunder about world missions. I felt so convicted and encouraged by his teaching. I just don’t have anything in my life right now that reminds me that God gave us a global mission. I feel like I struggle to have a mission that goes in a 20-foot circumference around me. The ends of the earth? What’s that about? But I think my dreams are way too small. My perspective is all out of whack. I’m so thankful for Piper reminding us that Jesus’ heart breaks for the lost people groups crying out to Him for direction. Love it!

How ’bout you? Where you there? What did you take away?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O68MByaMVdM

I can’t wait to listen to the whole thing.

Listen to how he articulates some really powerful truths about how slippery the slope of idolatry can be:

Satan does not mind family values–as long as what you ultimately value is the family.

Satan does not mind social justice–as long as you see justice as most importantly social.

Satan does not tremble at a Christian worldview. He will let you have a Christian worldview as long as your ultimate goal is viewing the world.

He goes on to challenge pastors:

Satan doesn’t mind if you preach on the decrees of God with fervor and passion every single week–provided that you do not ever preach the gospel of the cross.

And homeschool moms:

Satan does not mind if you teach your children all the books of the Bible and all the Ten Commandments and all of the catechism–provided you do not teach them the gospel of a bloody cross.

He concludes:

He will let you get what it is that you want, no matter what it is–sanctity of marriage, environmental protection, orphan care, all of these good and wonderful things–he will allow you to gain those things provided you do not preach and proclaim and live through the power of a cross that cancels his power of condemnation.

He so fears the gospel of a Christ crucified and raised from the dead that he is willing to surrender his entire empire just to appease the threat of it.

I highly commend it to anyone who considers themself — or desires to be — a ‘leader’ of any kind of ministry.

It describes an article based on a section of the book Bono In Conversation, where Bono essentially witnesses to an interviewer.

I love this because it’s such a classic scenario, capturing the stereotypes and assumptions that so often blur our communication about the Gospel. This interviewer is working on the assumption that Christianity is for the feeble-minded, and that anyone who would accept the idea that God came into the world as a man and died for the sins of the human race must be a fool who hasn’t thought it out all the way.

And here’s Bono, the iconoclast of ‘cool’, explaining grace! And what’s more, he gently calls this dude onto the carpet and basically explains to him C.S. Lewis’ argument from Mere Christianity: you can’t be luke warm about Jesus. He is either The Messiah, or he was nuts and should be dismissed as a lunatic.

For all my friends who have wondered what it looks like to share the message of Jesus effectively and contextually, just have a look at this!

Check it out and then tell me what you think:

Is Bono, the lead singer and songwriter for the rock group U2, a Christian? He says he is and writes about Christianity in his lyrics. Yet many people question whether Bono is “really” a Christian, due to his notoriously bad language, liberal politics, and rock star antics (though he has been faithfully married for 23 years). But in a new book of interviews, Bono in Conversation by Michka Assayas, Bono, though using some salty language, makes an explicit confession of faith.

The interviewer, Mr. Assayas, begins by asking Bono, Doesn’t he think “appalling things” happen when people become religious? Bono counters, “It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.”

The interviewer asks, What’s that? “At the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics — in physical laws — every action is met by an equal or an opposite one,” explains Bono. “And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that…Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.”

The interviewer asks, Like what? “That’s between me and God. But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge,” says Bono. “It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.”

Then the interviewer marvels, “The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.”

“The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death,” replies Bono. “It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven.”

The interviewer marvels some more: “That’s a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has His rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?”

Bono comes back, “Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: ‘I’m the Messiah.’ I’m saying: ‘I am God incarnate’…So what you’re left with is either Christ was who He said He was — the Messiah — or a complete nutcase…The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that’s farfetched.”

What is most interesting in this exchange is the reaction of the interviewer, to whom Bono is, in effect, witnessing. This hip rock journalist starts by scorning what he thinks is Christianity. But it is as if he had never heard of grace, the atonement, the deity of Christ, the gospel. And he probably hadn’t. But when he hears what Christianity is actually all about, he is amazed.

If I get to church Sunday and all we do is worship through these songs, I think that’ll be time very well spent…

What’s missing?

Here’s one: Seven Christians detained based on suspicion of being Christian…

Three Protestant Christians have each been sentenced to 15 days in prison in Andijan [Andijon] Region of eastern Uzbekistan after police raided a meal in a private home where the three were present, Protestants who preferred not to be identified for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 News Service. A further three Protestants present were held in a centre for the homeless for between four and eleven days, for not having identity documents with them. In a separate case, a Baptist in the capital Tashkent was given a ten-day term in prison after some 20 officials from various state agencies – including the Presidential Administration – raided a prayer meeting in a registered church. Officials told church members that they need special permission for any services apart from those on Sundays, though Forum 18 can find no requirement for this in published laws or regulations.

Read the rest of the article here.

It’s easy to believe that we would die for our beliefs.

But what if someone subtly, persistently made your life miserable because of what you believe?

After years, it might begin to take a toll. You might lose heart.

You might throw in the towel.

Here’s a great example of how Christian persecution works in the real world.

In Uzbekistan, it’s not very likely that a squad of police are going to kick in the door to your house and arrest you until you recant your faith. Instead, Christians are targets of painful social, political, and economic isolation.

In this case, the Uzbek government is actively preventing a family from burrying their father, a cancer victim.

Why?

Because two of the children are followers of Jesus.

The government has made it clear that any graveyard that allows this family to bury the father, any imam who will perform the ceremony, and anyone attends any kind of ceremony will become a target of the secret police — a remnant of the KGB.

What do you do when your back yard starts wreaking of the foul smell of your dead father — and your non-christian family members are furious because it’s all your fault?

This is the type of persecution that Uzbek believers face on a regular basis.

Please keep them in your prayers!