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Great video via a local A29 church here in the St. Louis Metro – Matthias’ Lot. I’ve met their lead pastor – Mark Sikma – when he came and spoke at an MBU chapel service last fall. Good guy, good church…
HT: Jason Allen
Growing up in a traditional SoBap church, I’ve had my fair share of Christian ‘rapture’ films. I smiled when I saw the Krusty one detail one of the classics. Enjoy…
Mission Accomplished!
by Brant Hansen“In the mid 70s, a rising consciousness swept through evangelical churches. They all became aware, simultaneously: We still have some little kids who aren’t thoroughly traumatized.
Enter the heroic people behind “A Thief in the Night”, which was a movie shown me, my feet yet dangling beneath the pew. It’s about something called the “rapture”. To sum up the different views about what the “rapture is”: The “rapture” is a Biblically-based event that isn’t in the Bible.
I started thinking about it with the death of Larry Norman, whose song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” is in the movie. It’s a song about how I’ve been “left behind”, and how it’s too late, now, to do anything about it, for all eternity.
And it’s sung in the movie by, as I recall, a guy with a creepy smile and a creepy big red afro. And lo, there were many creepy close-ups as he sang, creepily, with his creepy big red afro, “You’ve been left behind…”
I learned a lot from that movie:
1) Ronald McDonald is going to escort me to Hell.
2) If I ever walk in a room, and it’s empty, but something’s “on” — like a kitchen radio — it’s because everyone’s been taken to heaven except me, and now it’s too late, and I’ll never see my family again. And how YOU doin’?
3) Anyone driving a white van is trying to snatch people. (Probably true, actually.)
4) …and they’re from the U.N. (Also probably true.)
5) The more pronounced the sideburns, the less likely one will be raptured.
6) In the end times, the evil guys masquerade as harmless, good guys, and they’ll subtly do this by wearing a red armband.
7) …and then holding me down as they tattoo my forehead.
8) I don’t really want to go to McDonald’s anymore, but
9) I think Grimace, who was nowhere to be seen in the movie, will be raptured.
10) Little kids like me can watch movies in church, as long as they’re blood-curdling frightening.”
I am excited to post another interview in preparation for the Abandoned: Worship as Life seminar this Saturday, September 29 on the campus of Missouri Baptist…
It is a distinct honor to have you listen on my conversation with one of my personal heroes and now good friend, Sally Morgenthaler. Many will know Sally from her best-selling book, Worship Evangelism and her appearance at many worship conferences over the last decade. Well as is the case with us all, Sally is evolving. But you’ll have to listen in to see how and why…
Note: Sorry for the quality. You’ll hear an echo with the audio. Just imagine we did this interview in a cave and you’ll forget about it after a while. Man, technology…
If you remember, back in July I told you about a great seminar on Gospel, Church, and Culture with Darrin Patrick of The Journey and Dr. Mark Devine of Midwestern Theological Seminary at the St. Louis Metro Baptist Association building. The notes from that are still forthcoming. I promise…
But one of the things I mentioned back in July was that during the seminar, Dr. Devine dropped that had been asked to contribute to a ‘defining,’ multi-author book on the emerging church. I said back then that if Dr. Devine’s talk was any indication of the strength of this book, the church world is in for a treat – and a some serious clarification to the ‘conversation.’
On Friday of this week, Ed Stetzer released more information about this book on his blog. If my impressions are right, the book is called, E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emergent.
Not crazy about the title. Even if they are using emergent – with a little ‘e’- and emerging interchangeably, there is too much negative connotation involved with Emergent – the more formal, Emergent Village folks, who also happened to be very liberal theologically. I guess E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emerging isn’t as catchy. It’s hard to engage a verb…
Irregardless, here is some more of the particulars from Stetzer:
E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emergent
Introduction
Bill Henard, Senior Pastor, Porter Memorial Baptist Church, Assistant Professor of Evangelism, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“An Overview of Emergent/Emerging Church: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” — Mark DeVine, Associate Professor of Theology, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
“A History and Potential Futures of Emergent/Emerging Church” — Ed Stetzer, Director of LifeWay Research, Missiologist in Residence, LifeWay Christian Resources
Biblical Section
Chapter 1
“Biblical Authority and Inspiration according to Emergent/Emerging Church” — Norman Geisler, Chair of Apologetics, Co-Founder, Southern Evangelical SeminaryChapter 2
“The Hermeneutics of Emergent/Emerging Church” — Doug Blount, Assistant Dean for Ethics and Philosophical Studies, Southwestern Baptist Theological SeminaryChapter 3
“The Emergent/Emerging Church Concept of Truth” — Scott Smith, Associate Professor of Ethics and Christian Apologetics, Biola UniversityTheological Section
Chapter 4
“Jesus according to Emergent/Emerging Church” — Darrell Bock, Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Professor of Spiritual Development and Culture, Dallas Theological SeminaryChapter 5
“Emergent/Emerging Church Salvation” — Russ Moore, Associate Professor of Christian Theology; Dean of the School of Theology; Senior Vice President for Academic Administration, The Southern Baptist Theological SeminaryChapter 6
“The Church according to Emergent/Emerging Church” — John Hammett, Professor of Systematic Theology, Southeastern Baptist Theological SeminaryPractical Section
Chapter 7
“The Emerging Church and Ethical Choices: The Corinthian Matrix” — Danny Akin, President, Professor of Theology and Preaching, Southeastern Baptist Theological SeminaryChapter 8
“Preaching according to Emergent/Emerging Church’ — Jim Shaddix, Senior Pastor, Riverside Baptist Church, Denver, ColoradoChapter 9
“Emergent/Emerging Church Evangelism” — Chuck Lawless, Dean, William Walker Brookes Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth, Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth, The Southern Baptist Theological SeminaryConclusion
Adam Greenway, Director of Professional Doctoral Studies, Instructor of Evangelism and Applied Apologetics, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Obviously, the work is heavily Southern Baptist and many in the emerging/emergent/Emergent movement will denounce it because of that. But I think we would do well to listen to what these men of God have to say and let our critique be done on individual issues, not our preconceptions.
One early critique – I would have liked to see conversation related to two specific topics [although some may touch on these]: contextualization and worship. Two issues Southern Baptists are consistently struggling with. But that’s being nit-picky…
I thought I’d share with you my required reading for my first set of three 8-week classes at Liberty. I am looking forward to the content. I’m not looking forward to the amount of time I have to get all the reading done. I’ll post my second set of three 8-week classes in early October. Nonetheless…
Theology I:
World Missions:
Apologetics:
I particularly looking forward to reading Wells’ God in the Wasteland, Willard’s The Spirit of Disciplines, and I’m already a third of the way through Piper’s Let the Nations Be Glad.
I’m tired just looking at the covers. Whew…
Due to the fact that I will be reading an inordinate amount of books over the next few months with my seminary work, relevintage will probably be peppered with quotes of note.
Here is one that sums up some thoughts I’ve had lately about the danger of misunderstanding the idea of being ‘missional’:
It is not primarily out of a compassion for humanity that we share our faith or pray for the lost; it is first of all, love for God. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:7-8: ‘With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.’
Humanity does not deserve the love of God any more than you or I do. We should never be Christian humanists, taking Jesus to poor sinful people, reducing Jesus to some kind of product that will better their lot. People deserve to be damned but Jesus, the suffering Lamb of God, deserves the reward of his suffering.”
-Wesley Duewel of YWAM from his book, Ablaze for God
For those of you that don’t know, I grew up in a traditional Southern Baptist church in southeast Missouri. As a Southern Baptist, there are some things that become a part of the vernacular. Things like the Cooperative Program, the missions arm of the SBC. Annual international mission-giving programs like the Lottie Moon offering -Moon was an international Southern Baptist missionary who labored tirelessly so her people group [Chinese] could know Jesus. I could go on…
This brings me to Dr. Ed Stetzer. I am a big fan of Stetzer, the newly appointed director of LifeWay Research, LifeWay’s missiologist in residence, board member of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, and pastor at Lake Ridge Church in Cumming, GA. As Mark Driscoll says, “Ed is a rare combination of rigorous biblical theology, pastoral kindness, and keenly honed missional wisdom.” I couldn’t agree more.
Last night, I hopped online to see Stetzer speak at the 2007 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in San Antonio. I have seen Stetzer speak on three previous occasions – two in-person at the 2006 Resurgence conference and at a Missions seminar in 2006 at the Baptist Building in Jefferson City, MO and one on-line at the 2007 Baptist Identity Conference at Union University, not to mention read his book Breaking the Missional Code and been through most of his Introduction to Church Planting manual.
Everytime I listen to Stetzer, I come away thinking he, in many ways, is a modern day prophet in a day where alot of dudes think they are but aren’t. He is brilliant, theologically robust, progressive, courageous. As for his San Antonio message, I was so moved by his challenge, that I e-mailed him in mid-talk just to let him know how encouraged I was.
I found a clip of Stetzer speaking last night in San Antonio. In the clip, Stetzer poked some fun at his fellow SBC’ers regarding Lottie Moon. In many ways, it is a profound statement on the emaciated version of much of SBC’s missiology. But the idea rings true for much of evangelicalism. Later on, he goes so far as to say to a room full of messengers this:
Let’s face it. Too many of our churches have chosen their traditions over their children.
Check out the entire clip below:
…there really is another emerging church that people don’t talk about that much, and that is the church in the East.
It’s the real emerging church. I don’t think emerging church is the right word here in the West, I think it is deconstructing. And that’s not bad. The church always needs to be deconstructed in the sense that this is what it meant to our fathers, now what does it mean to me and what is it going to mean to my children and grandchildren?
The emerging church that I deal with the most is in Asia and Africa and that part of the world and it is truly an emerging church, where Christianity for the first time is exploding on that side of the world, like we haven’t seen here for millenniums or centuries.
China is the greatest church growth story the world has ever known. But here’s what’s different in the two churches: the church in the East, it’s not deconstructing, it’s constructing; it’s not frustrated and disillusioned, it’s excited and positive, it’s just a totally different response. It’s not old faith and vintage faith that’s being reinvigorated, it’s new faith with a tremendous amount of passion.
I think the whole dimension of what we’re going to see from the emergent church in the East is far more significant on us than the Western emergent church is going to be on the rest of the world. For the first time in the history of the church we’re going to be affected more by the East than us affect the East since the split between the Orthodox churches, I’m convinced of that.
-Bob Roberts, pastor of NorthWood church, author of Glocalization and Transformation, and blogger at The Glocal Trekker from the May 2007 edition of Church Executive magazine
How do you feel about this?
I think America evangelicalism needs to get ready for a real gut check. We in the West are so sure we understand the church, evangelism, missiology, etc. We have a glut of conferences, podcasts, magazines to this end. It almost reeks of egotism.
Will we humble ourselves to learn from someone who doesn’t live in the United States? Will we step outside of ourselves to hear from the glocal community?
Just last week I was eating in a Thai restaurant and one table over from me was a group of eight young, 2nd and 3rd-generation Asian-American seminary students. I admit, I eavesdropped on much of their conversation which centered around ministry.
Here is my confession: I had to resist the urge to be skeptical of their dialogue. Why am I so cynical about their contribution to the American evangelical landscape. How pompous…
Tim Keller calls this ‘groupism.’ It is what happens when we compartmentalize the Gospel to apply only to certain groups.
Lord, create in me a clean heart that truly sees all people through your eyes and listens to all people with your ears.
David Bosch .::. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission
Dan Kimball .::. The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations
Tim Chester/Steve Timmis .::. Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community
Alan Hirsch .::. The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church
John Piper .::. Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
