The Gospel Coalition

C. S. Lewis:

The duty exists for the delight. When we carry out our “religious duties” we are like people digging channels in a waterless land, in order that when at last the water comes, it may find them ready. I mean, for the most part. There are happy moments, even now, when a trickle creeps along the dry beds; and happy souls to whom this happens often.

- Reflections on the Psalms

In light of summer kicking off this Memorial Day weekend, enjoy your time at the pool.

I’m looking forward to this panel discussion about Christ-centered teaching and preaching at the SBC meeting in a couple weeks.

Here is the list of books each attendee will receive:

• Proclaim Jesus by Tony Merida (GCD Books)
• The Scriptures Testify about Me: Jesus and the Gospel in the Old Testament edited by D.A. Carson (Crossway)
• Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Ed Clowney (Crossway)
• Is Jesus in the Old Testament? by Iain Duguid (P&R)
• Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley (Multnomah)
• Humble Orthodoxy by Josh Harris (Multnomah)
• Read the Bible for Life by George Guthrie (B&H)
• From Eden to New Jerusalem by T. Desmond Alexander (Kregel)
• Text-Driven Preaching Edited by Daniel Akin, David Allen, and Ned Mathews (B&H)
• Jesus on Every Page by David Murray (Thomas Nelson)
• More to come…

Hope those of you at the SBC will join us!

Details
2013 Southern Baptist Convention
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
George R. Brown Convention Center
Room 351A-F on Level 3
6:45 a.m. to 8:00 a.m

Breakfast is free, but space is limited.

Register here to ensure you have seat!

Links for your weekend reading:

Kindle Deal: Landmarks: Turning Points on Your Journey Toward God by Bill Delvaux. $2.99.

The well-worn rut that most of us live in is safe, comfortable . . . some would call it dead. By contrast, coming alive requires a willingness to journey into the unknown. Following Jesus is just such a path — one that takes us deep into His death and then lifts us up into His resurrection.

1. Leadership Journal – How Churches Can Prepare for Disasters

2. Fortune – Have We All Been Duped by the Myers-Briggs Test?

3. Megyn Kelly Loses Cool with Gosnell’s Attorney

4. Diversity, Not Jesus, Saves Says Presiding Bishop

5. How Religions Change Their Minds

6. How Does a Church Decide What to Pay a Pastor?

7. Seven Deadly Diseases of Pastoral Ministry

Eric Mason is the pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia and the author of Manhood Restored: How the Gospel Makes Men Whole, I first met Eric when he served on the advisory council for The Gospel Project. He’s a powerful preacher who loves his church, his family, and his community. Today, I’ve invited him to the blog for a discussion about God’s vision of manhood.

Trevin Wax: Men’s movements have been a permanent fixture in the evangelical landscape for the past two decades. Why? 

Eric Mason: The absence of men in churches. Even where there are men present in local churches, there seems to be a passivity of presence.

In light of the absence of leadership, there has been everything from Promise Keepers to some of the new manhood movements – Dr. Evans’ Kingdom Man, the whole Men’s Fraternity, etc. This is a phenomenal need and each variation has added its own flair to it. Kostenberger’s God, Marriage, and Family deals with the family as a whole with a special emphasis on the theology of family and the life of men. I think is the best book on men written in the last twenty years. I also can’t leave out Family Life and their contribution. Everywhere I hear the similar issues from the past generations, and these issues have given rise to these movements.

Trevin Wax: What do you think is missing from some of the strategies and principles coming out of the men’s movement?

Eric Mason: At times, we’ve needed to see more vulnerability from leaders. When we are honest about our failures, we help others understand the gospel more effectively. When we are honest about our failures, we can believe God and repent of our sins and turn toward Him because He is faithful. I am not talking about any of the men I’ve mentioned in particular. All of us tend toward moralistic teaching how-tos – how to do this, how to do that, how to be a better husband, how to be a better wife, and while those things have their place, we need a theological framework that sets that up.

I think on the other end we’ve had highly theological works that left men in a daze. We have this beastly theological grid, and especially for some of the younger generations that love intellectualism and robust theology, they’re at a loss with how to apply all their theological terminology. There can be a struggle to live it out.

There needs to be a little more realness. In that realness there needs to be a connection and an intersection between theological richness and cultural connectivity to the reality and progression of culture. I’m not dogging any of the movements that I’ve mentioned; I’m just speaking in general. 

Trevin Wax: You write about the impact of daddy deprivation. What do you mean by this and why is it so important?

Eric Mason: Daddy deprivation was a term I got from a pastor named Blake Wilson in Houston about 13 years ago. That phraseology of daddy deprivation was phenomenal to me and I wanted to flesh it out because as time went on, and I began to see an epidemic of fatherlessness.

In the book Fatherless America, David Blankenhorn talks about the category of fatherlessness. Fatherlessness can go all the way from a guy who’s home, he has his family, he works, he provides but he is emotionally, intellectually absent. That’s fatherlessness because there is no active ministry of presence. But then all the way up to the person who abandons their children or had sex with a woman and kind of rolled out on he,r and the kids never knew who their dad was and they grew up without a father.

Daddy deprivation is anything between from those extreme pendulums. The reason I talk about the importance of this is because as a pastor have seen and experienced the impact of daddy deprivation on the lives of men cross-ethnically.

In our own church, Epiphany Fellowship, we’ve got white men, Asian men, Latino men, black men, different types of African, Caribbean, men, people from overseas. I hear many stories from different people about the formation of family. Daddy deprivation is a consistent issue in biblical manhood that needs to be engaged. It’s systemic because fathers were given the theological and spiritual responsibility to lead. In Proverbs, we see the leading of the family along with a mother who is an instructor as well, but the husband takes the visionary leadership in instructing the family. 

The gospel restores fatherhood by God giving Himself back to us through the restoring work of Jesus Christ. I’m in a neighborhood where there is a 90 percent single parent home rate. So I feel it a lot more overtly than most.

Trevin Wax: You talk about the need for discipleship to include the cultivation of a biblical worldview. What are some of the ways we can prioritize the renewing of the mind as well as the spirit?

Eric Mason: Good question. I teach a great deal on discipleship and I didn’t put it all in this book because I’m going to work on another book that will include a full body ministry of discipleship.

Still, I was fascinated by how much the Bible talks about the mind being renewed. Ephesians 4:23 talks about being renewed in the spirit of your mind. 1 Corinthians 2 – the last few verses – talk about having the mind of Christ. Romans 12: 1-2 talks about it. And even in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 30:25-27 you look at how the gospel restores our heart and in restoring our heart, we get a new mind.

How do we cultivate the new mind? Forming the mind of Christ with the Word of God through discipleship. That means discipleship is just not one on one; it’s everything that is provided through the local church to the people of God, and that means every aspect of equipping – from the pulpit to small groups to going on mission trips to men’s time – all those things play a role in discipling. One of the main formats of discipleship in the New Testament are the “one anothers.”

Jesus says that in order to be a disciple you have to deny yourself. That means denying your preferences and embracing God’s way of doing things based on the Word of God. So how do we prioritize things? Deny self, pick up the cross daily and follow Him in ways that create in us a greater sense of a transformation of our way of thinking into His way of thinking.

Trevin Wax: You devote a section of your book to restored sexuality. What are the particular temptations we are facing today and how does the gospel aid us in our fight against sexual sin?

Eric Mason: Men believe lies that go back to worldview and strongholds. I have a message on strongholds out of Judges 6 that defines strongholds as things that assert themselves against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10). This belief that the enemy has a better handle on sexuality than God causes us to give ourselves over to fallen forms of sex because we don’t believe God has our good in mind even though He created the whole thing. That’s why in 1 Corinthians, Paul utilizes the gospel as the means by which we’re motivated to have sanctified sex and move away from illicit forms. In the book, I talk in detail about some practical ways to embrace a gospel centered worldview as it relates to sex, because I think everything is a belief issue.

Check out the first chapter of the book by clicking here: Manhood Restored Pastor Eric Mason Chapter 1

Kindle Deal of the Day: Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus by Kyle Idleman. $3.79.

Pastor Kyle Idleman doesn’t just want to be a fan of Jesus, he wants to full heartedly commit to him and be a follower of Jesus. But how can you make the leap from fan to follower? In Not a Fan Idleman uses biblical examples to show how the people who met Jesus also had to decide if they were fans or followers, and what it meant for them to then become followers.

David Murray – Thankful People are Happy People:

Research shows that gratitude is a powerful force for creating positive changes in individuals, families, and organizations. In fact, according to Sonja Lyubomirsky, a research professor of psychology, “The expression of gratitude is a kind of metastrategy for achieving happiness.”

The audio and video from The Gospel Coalition’s National Conference is now available for free online.

Al Andrews – If the First Will Finish Last, Why Do We Follow Losers?

I will still pay my $10 to get a better seat on Southwest. But I’m going to commit to keep my eyes off of my neighbors boarding passes. I know where I belong and if I forget, I only have to remember two simple words that invite me to a kinder life.

Tony Merida – The Centrality of Christ in Expository Preaching:

If the Bible focuses upon Christ’s redemptive work, then this should have practical implications for expositors who wish to proclaim the Bible accurately. Those who wish to challenge the unity of the Bible and its Christocentric emphasis must give an answer to several biblical texts that seem to demonstrate this idea.

One of the oldest monasteries in the world is Saint Catherine’s. Built by Emperor Justinian to protect the monks in the region, St. Catherine’s sits at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt. The walls are made of granite and are between 8 and 35 meters tall.

Up until last century, there was only one way into the monastery: a tiny door more than thirty feet above the ground. People entered the monastery through a system of pulleys and ropes. The monastery itself contains ancient icons and many treasures. But up until recently, it was largely inaccessible to the outside world.

Our churches naturally drift toward becoming like St. Catherine’s monastery: a fortified, doorless organization that focuses upon its own preservation rather than its specific mission.

Our hearts drift toward tribalism, the tendency to gather with people just like us and to reflect ourselves rather than the missionary heart of God. We’re always putting up mirrors around the light of the gospel when we should be putting up windows.

Kingdom Colony or Country Club

The church is intended to be a colony of heaven, living according to the gospel announcement. But too often we turn the kingdom colony into a country club. Our focus becomes the comfort and preservation of our tribe rather than the mission that accompanies the gospel announcement.

Battleship or Cruise Ship

I’ve heard it said that the people of God either have the mentality of a battleship or a cruise ship. Both may sail, but they have very different purposes. The battleship exists for others. It is on a rescue mission, set to penetrate the enemy’s territory and do battle for the commander. The cruise ship exists for the comfort of its passengers. Luxury and comfort are the core values, and everyone seeks to make the journey comfortable and memorable.

When we adopt a cruise ship mentality, the cross and resurrection of Christ will is reduced to a message of personal comfort. The core value of our worship services is to be memorable and entertaining. Our theological debates become about upholding doctrine for doctrine’s sake, rather than seeing theological reflection as an aid to fulfilling our mission. Instead of seeing our gatherings as a base from which individual Christians scatter into the world as salt and light, we wall ourselves off from the outside world and neglect the prophetic nature of our gospel announcement.

Missional or Tribal

Tullian Tchividjian explains the difference between a missional and a tribal people:

“The highest value of a community with a tribal mindset is self-preservation. A tribal community exists solely for itself, and those within it keep asking, “How can we protect ourselves from those who are different from us?

“A tribal mindset is marked by an unbalanced patriotism. It typically elevates personal and cultural preferences to absolute principles: If everybody were more like us, this world would be a better place.

“But in a missional minded community, the highest value isn’t self-preservation but self-sacrifice. A missional community exists not primarily for itself but for others. It’s a community that’s willing to be inconvenienced and discomforted, willing to expend itself for others on God’s behalf.”

This blog post is adapted from Counterfeit Gospels, 142-144.

Kindle Deal of the Day: Leading Small Groups with Purpose: Everything You Need to Lead a Healthy Group by Steve Gladen. $4.39.

Every chapter includes ideas that small group leaders can implement immediately as well as ways to shape their small groups over time. Gladen helps leaders define success clearly, develop a personal leadership plan, invite members into the group, and shepherd members through fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism, and worship.

Mollie Hemingway – How to Be a Really Lousy Journalist for Fun and Profit!

There has never been a better time to consider a career in journalism. Newspapers are thriving, magazines are innovating, online journalism listicles are becoming more substantive, and cable-news talking heads are shouting at holograms.

Philip Nation – When Your Sermon is Only a Single:

Each week, we hope that our sermon will be a homerun. However, I’ve hit a lot more singles and doubles than triples. I’ve hit even fewer homeruns. In all honesty, there are many Sundays my sermon feels like a poorly executed bunt that I have to hustle out to first base. So what are you to do when you just hit a single?

Justin Taylor – On Writing Well: Four Suggestions

1. Read slowly.
2. Read a lot.
3. Write to think.
4. Write and rewrite.

Marty Duren – When We Try to Speak for God

Why is calamity, the time we most need God’s presence in pain, a time we tend to mouth off?

Why, when pain and agony are all around, do we think theological pronouncements are the best response?

Why, when displays of destruction fill the airwaves, are we given to speculate as to the ways and motives of God?

I say “we” because I, too, am prone for my mouth to wander. Lord, I feel it.

Kevin DeYoung: 4 Further Thoughts on the Complementarian Conversation

All of which is to say, as the “conversation” continues, we would do well to realize that the most important discussions probably won’t happen online and the words that do get written on our screens are limited by the medium that carries them.

What do Matt Chandler, Beth Moore, Fred Luter, David Jeremiah, Rick Warren, Steven Furtick, and Billy Graham, all have in common? They are Southern Baptists.

Several years ago, Joe Carter did a blog series called Know Your Evangelicals, in which he posted profiles some of the most well-known evangelicals of our day. I found the blog series to be helpful, and I’d like to do something similar with the Southern Baptist Convention.

The SBC is a diverse collection of churches with different approaches to ministry who (generally) affirm a common confession of faith and value cooperation for the sending of missionaries. Just like any Convention of churches, we’ve got elements to be proud of and elements to be embarrassed about. Overall though, I am glad to be a young Southern Baptist and continually tell young Baptists that it’s better to be in the SBC than outside.

Before we begin the “Know Your Southern Baptists” series, I thought it would be helpful to take another cue from Joe Carter and provide nine things to know about the SBC:

1. The Southern Baptist Convention was organized in 1845 and now includes more than 45,000 churches and 16,000,000 members, which makes it the largest Protestant denomination in North America.

2. The “Southern Baptist Convention” is shorthand for all the churches and individuals who identify as Southern Baptist. Technically, however, the Southern Baptist Convention exists for only two days a year, at the annual gathering. The rest of the year, eleven denominational entities carry out the instructions of the messengers to the Convention. Actions by the Convention are nonbinding on local churches because every church is considered autonomous.

3. An individual becomes a Southern Baptist by joining a Southern Baptist church. A church qualifies as Southern Baptist by contributing to the mission causes of the Convention.

4. Theologically, the Convention holds to a consensus statement (Baptist Faith and Message), but this confession of faith is not binding on any church or individual because every Southern Baptist church is autonomous. An individual church may choose to adopt the BF&M or may create their own statement. Faculty at SBC-owned seminaries and missionaries who apply to serve through the various SBC missionary agencies must affirm that their practices, doctrine, and preaching are consistent with the BF&M.

5. The Southern Baptist Convention employs more than 5,000 international missionaries through International Mission Board. These workers are joined by thousands of volunteers to bring the saving message of the Gospel to 1,089 different people groups around the world. Last year, workers with the International Mission Board and their Baptist partners overseas reported 506,019 baptisms and 24,650 new churches worldwide.

6. The Southern Baptist Convention also oversees the work of the North American Mission Board, which exists to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, start New Testament congregations, minister to persons in the name of Christ, and assist churches in the United States and Canada in effectively performing these functions.

7. There are six Southern Baptist seminaries (Southern, Southwestern, Southeastern, New Orleans, Golden Gate, and Midwestern) that currently serve more than 13,000 students by providing theological education.

8. Because every local church is autonomous, ministry philosophy and methodology can differ substantially from church to church. David Dockery has listed seven types of Southern Baptists: fundamentalists, revivalists, traditionalists, orthodox evangelicals, Calvinists, contemporary church practitioners, and culture warriors.

9. Since 1925, Southern Baptist have been partnering together for missions by giving to these causes through the Cooperative Program – a unified giving system that allows churches to pool resources in order to fund mission work and theological education.

Kindle Deal of the Day: The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel. $2.99.

Retracing his own spiritual journey from atheism to faith, Lee Strobel, former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, cross-examines a dozen experts with doctorates from schools like Cambridge, Princeton, and Brandies who are recognized authorities in their fields. Strobel’s tough, point-blank questions make this remarkable book read like a captivating, fast-paced novel. But it’s not fiction. It’s a riveting quest for the truth about history’s most compelling figure.

Simon Smart – Count Your Blessings: A Religious America

The US is a very religious place. Almost everyone believes in God and the vast majority respond to that belief with practice – high levels of involvement in faith communities along with prayer and the reading of scripture. Contrary to the accepted wisdom of certain circles, the impact of this religiosity is overwhelmingly positive.

Andrew Wilson – Hermeneutical “Humility”

One of the reasons I talk about hermeneutics so much, both here and elsewhere, is that it undergirds almost everything else. If we don’t know how God’s word exercises authority over us, and how to take what it says and apply it today, then we end up fudging the whole kit and caboodle.

Thomas Edison Didn’t Invent the Light Bulb:

If you asked who invented incandescent electric light, and you answered Thomas Edison, you’d be right – and you’d be wrong. The revolution that Edison wrought was the product of a team.

Evan Lenow asks some good questions about media coverage of the woman whose boyfriend secretly gave her abortion pills:

This story is undoubtedly tragic, and Welden deserves to face punishment for first-degree murder. However, the undercurrent of this story is working against the tide of abortion-rights advocates. Note with me the inconsistency of the logic of our laws and of abortion advocates.

I enjoyed lunch with blogger / author Aaron Armstrong and his family last week. He had some interesting reflections on the culture of Nashville. Our city is quickly becoming a top destination for visitors from all over the world.

One of the things that amazed us most during our stay was how we didn’t get the sense we were burdening society by being outdoors with our three kids. People smiled and talked to them and generally made us feel welcome wherever we were with them. This was a really nice change…