The Gospel Coalition

Ben Witherington shoots down all the sentimentalized fictions about the Christmas story and reminds us:

Once we detox the church giddy on the high of a cosmetized and overly sentimentalized version of the story of Jesus’ birth, and realize that this is a story about danger, and a contrast between a paranoid Herod the not so Great (who was in fact partly Idumean, which is to say Edomite), and a real King of the Jews Jesus, we still have much to appreciate and preach.

There is an interesting conversation going on between Scot McKnight, Dan Wallace, and others about real and perceived bias against evangelicals at mainline universities.

Christianity Today profiles Lesslie Newbigin, the missionary who wouldn’t retire:

Newbigin left for India in 1936 to labor as a missionary, evangelist, and apologist. On his return to England, he was shocked to find that the West was as urgent a mission field as the East. Refusing to settle into retirement, he wrote prolifically, issuing a clarion call to the Western church to rediscover its missionary mandate.

Saint Lucy:

Lucy lost her eyes to the cruelty of pagan Rome, but she lit up their cruelty in lights. Dante calls her the enemy of all cruelty and traditionally Christians remember her in acts of compassion. We treat each man as we would Jesus, because we see the image of God in each man or woman.

Lucy gives me hope.

Imagine this fictional scenario.

You’re at a conference for young, urban pastors. Most of the men in attendance are dressed to fit the part. No suits and ties in sight. Stylish jeans and untucked shirts are the norm.

In comes an older pastor who has been invited to address the gathering. He is dressed to the nines. A flashy suit with gold cuff links that most of the younger guys wouldn’t even know how to put on.

So here we are in a crowd of young pastors – all dressed a certain way, and one man shows up looking completely out of place. And the sad truth is… he knew he would be out of place. But he still decided to dress that way.

The crowd begins whispering about the older pastor’s apparel. He’s trying to make a statement. He is out of touch. He doesn’t know how to contextualize. He probably wears a suit when he washes the car!

Now let me reverse the scenario.

A young pastor is called to address a gathering of pastors, most of whom are over 50. Most of the pastors are dressed in suits and ties, or at least business casual. Into this sea of polyester comes one young guy – hair tousled like he just got out of bed, shirt untucked, holes in his jeans.

Here we are in a crowd of older pastors – all dressed a certain way, and one man shows up looking completely out of place. And the truth is… he knew he would stand out.

What do you say about the young guy? I say the same thing I would about the older pastor mentioned above. He’s trying to make a statement. And even more… he doesn’t know how to contextualize.

Contextualization goes both ways.

My generation likes to talk about contextualizing to the urban, hip postmodern culture. But who will dress the part of the country parson in a rural setting? Who will be respectful enough to dress one way for one crowd and another way for another?

I know people who brag about the fact that they do not own a suit and tie. I suppose they aren’t preaching many funerals yet.

If you are truly able to contextualize, then you should not look for occasions to stand out and make a statement with your appearance. Let’s be honest. Just like some young guys don’t know if they can take seriously the guy they never see dress down, many older guys don’t know if they can take seriously the guy they never see dress up. They think, If they are so out of touch that they can’t throw on a suit coat when going to a gathering of older pastors, why should I think they are experts at contextualizing to the lost world around them?

Just a thought.

Tim Challies lists his 9 favorite books for 2009. Two of his picks are also in my top ten: Adopted for Life and Counterfeit Gods. Check out Tim’s list here.

Mark D. Roberts on the “new, new atheism”:

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University and an astute commentator on things religious, recently penned”Atheists need a different voice.” He highlights the emergence of the United Coalition of Reason, who are preaching the gospel of “Good Without God.”

An amazing article in The New Yorker on America’s ambivalence regarding abortion. Al Mohler summarizes here:

By any measure, Jennifer Senior has written one of the most honest, revealing, insightful, and important articles on abortion to appear in recent history. At the same time, it is one of the most troubling.  Once again, we are reminded that the American conscience is not settled on the issue of abortion.

Bob Kellemen reviews Sarah Palin’s autobiography and notices the absence of Christ.

My antennae alerted, it then dawned on me that I didn’t remember hearing any Christian salvation concepts anywhere in Going Rogue. Perhaps my memory was bad, especially since I wasn’t consciously looking for these concepts in a political autobiography.

Paul McCain’s 7 reasons why blogs fail.

Every December, I select the ten books that I most enjoyed reading during the year. Please note that I am not giving a blanket endorsement to everything in these books (after all, some of them contradict each other at points). I choose ten books a year based solely on how much I enjoyed reading them.
Here are my top ten picks for 2009.

#1. SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 1859-2009
- Gregory Wills

“….God-centered and gospel-soaked… immensely practical. You will be convicted, challenged, and encouraged…

#3. DEEP CHURCH
- Jim Belcher

…for evangelicals who resonate with much of the Emerging Church’s critique of contemporary evangelicalism, and yet have misgivings about some of the proposed solutions of Emerging advocates…
See my full review here.
Read my interview with Jim.

#4.  THE CASE FOR LIFE
- Scott Klusendorf

…one of the most important books for the pro-life movement. Scott takes the highly sophisticated arguments made against abortion-on-demand and brings them down to a level that anyone can understand.”
See my full review here and my interview with Scott here.

#5. THE GOD WHO SMOKES
- Timothy J. Stoner

…thoroughly enjoyable on a number of levels…
See my full review here and my interview with Tim here and here.

#6. ADOPTED FOR LIFE
- Russell D. Moore

…combines robust theology with personal experience. It serves as a powerful pro-life apologetic, and it demonstrates the power of the gospel when acted out by a faithful community of believers….
See my full review here.

#7. MANHUNT
-James L. Swanson

… a fascinating glimpse into an important moment in American history. I could not put it down.
See my full review here.

#8. COUNTERFEIT GODS
- Tim Keller

… the Tim Keller book I’ve been waiting for. Keller peers into the inner recesses of the heart to expose the hidden idolatries that hold us captive…
See my full review here.

#9. WHY WE LOVE THE CHURCH
- Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

… a passion-filled love song for the bride of Christ…
See an excerpt here.

#10. THE GOD I DON’T UNDERSTAND
- Christopher Wright

…Wright does not exhaustively answer the difficult questions he poses, but he shares valuable reflections that display his pastoral insight and personal piety in seeking the truth….
See my full review here.

HONORABLE MENTION:
GOD’S PRAYER BOOK
- Ben Patterson

… leads you through a selection of psalms, illuminating ways in which you can make these ancient prayers the cry of your own heart….
See my full review here.

Preacher in the hands of an angry church: How Jonathan Edwards was ejected from his congregation.

Friends and enemies alike agreed that in the long, degenerating discontent, Edwards continued to love and pray for—or at least tolerate and refrain from attacking—his people, even when they bared their fangs.

An explosive evaluation of the Global Warming Movement. Owen sums it up:

As you can see, the climate change movement is highly politicized.  The science is far from a sure thing; the movement itself is fractured; there is steadily increasing uncertainty even among supporters of this cause.  We do not need to write the climate change folks off at this point; we should hear them out and wait to see if they can produce hard data.  If they can, we may well need to modify the way we live in this world.  I’m prepared to do so.

But, if the CRU fiasco exposed above is as bad as it looks, I wonder whether we are a long way from reaching this point.  Climate change is notoriously hard to prove, especially when one looks back to eras for which no data exists.  Christians would do well, it seems to me, to care for the earth as best we can in our efforts to glorify our Lord, and to avoid falling prey to groupthink and cultural pressure.

More trouble for the Anglican Communion:

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles this weekend elected Mary Glasspool, an openly lesbian priest, to be one of its assistant bishops. This is sure to trigger new anxieties and power struggles in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Under limitations in effect since the election of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003, Anglicans have more or less developed a consensus not to elect openly practicing homosexuals to the office of bishop. With this move, the consensus becomes all but unsustainable.

Nick Mackison wonders why Reformed theologians who emphasize the imputed active obedience of Christ have not taken to the subjective reading of pistis christou (faithfulness of Christ rather than faith in Christ). I have asked that same question!

Do you remember the Columbine shootings ten years ago? Do you recall how amazed we were that the students were using cell phones to call their parents from inside the school? The proliferation of cell phones was a new development, and we were stunned at the capability of communications during a hostage situation.

Looking back, our previous astonishment seems quaint now. The leaps and bounds of technology in the past ten years are unprecedented. Here are nine examples of how the communication available through the internet is changing our world.

1. A middle-aged frumpy Susan Boyle auditions for Britain’s Got Talent, wows the judges, and then becomes a sensation on YouTube. This Fall, her debut album sold more copies (700K) its first week than the new releases of Whitney Houston (305K) and Mariah Carey (168K) combined.

2. An unusual wedding entrance becomes a YouTube sensation. Weeks later, the nation’s top-rated comedy, The Office, incorporates the idea into the wedding for main characters, Jim and Pam.

3. A young woman in New York named Julie Powell decides to spend a year cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s famous book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She starts a blog as a journal. The popularity of her blog leads to a book deal and eventually a popular movie that tells the story of her life and Julia Child’s in parallel.

4. Jason Sadler wears a different T-shirt every day and blogs about it. Companies pay him for the publicity. He makes 83K a year. Who said you couldn’t make money using social media?

5. More and more companies are cutting back on travel and starting to use Skype for conference calls and job interviews. Skype is also changing the way immigrants think about their new country. The USA and EU are no longer “melting pots,” but more like “mosaics” as people from other cultures move in and maintain close ties and frequent video communication with friends and family at home.

6. Politicians are utilizing Twitter as a way of keeping lines of communication with their constituents (and fans). Sarah Palin has more than 35,000, Karl Rove 95,000, and Barack Obama 2,800,000. The prevalence of social media has caused the Gridiron Club to lift the “off-the-record” rule for its annual dinners. There is no stopping the flow of information!

7. Disgruntled church members are utilizing the internet as a way of stating their discontent. Bellevue Baptist in Memphis, Two Rivers in Nashville, and Coral Ridge Presbyterian in Florida have all had to deal with situations in which dissenting members aired their concerns on public websites. Church leaders claim the sites perpetuate gossip and do harm to the Body of Christ (I agree).

8. Vast amounts of religious materials are now available online. What used to be hard to find (early Christian writings, ancient sermons, commentaries) are now easily accessible and helpfully categorized.

9. Thousands of sermons – audio, video, manuscripts – from pastors are available for free. The upside? Prominent pastor-theologians like John Piper, W.A. Criswell, John MacArthur and others whose materials are a gift to the church. The downside? Rants from people like Steven Anderson (of YouTube fame) who pray for the president’s death.

We are living in the midst of a communications revolution. The only comparison that can be made is the invention of the printing press. Last time there was a communications revolution, a Reformation of the church took place. Will we see the new technology harnessed for the glory of God this time around?

Read Don Carson’s pastoral answer to this dilemma:

The following post was first an email to a young church planter seeking counsel. He is planting a church in a rough area. Not a few of those who are getting converted have been living together, sometimes with children, sometimes for years, without getting married. His question, then, is what should be said to these couples where one of the pair gets converted, and the other, so far, does not. Should the advice be to get married? Or is that encouraging people to be unequally yoked?

Christianity Today‘s Q&A with Mike Huckabee:

How would you describe your future in the Republican Party?

What factors will you consider in deciding whether to run for president in 2012?

Ted Traylor on why no one is too big to fail:

While the sports scene is filled with season-ending football, Tiger Woods stepped into the spot light this week. Normally we do not hear much about golf in early December. But when the most popular sports figure on the planet confesses to family transgressions, a big story is brewing.

O Wisdom,
Holy Word of God
You rule all creation with power and true concern.
Come teach us the way of salvation.

O Sacred Lord
and leader of ancient Israel
You communicated with Moses at the burning bush
and gave him the law on Mount Sinai
Come to set us free by Your mighty arm.

O Root of Jesse
raised up as a sign of all peoples
in Your presence kings become mute
and the nations worship before You
Come to deliver us and do not delay.

O Key of David
and Royal Power of Israel,
You open what no man can shut,
and You shut what no man can open.
Come and deliver Your people
imprisoned by darkness and the shadow of death.

O Radiant Dawn
You are the brightness of eternal light
and the Sun of justice.
Come to enlighten those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death.

O King of the Gentiles
and the long-for Ruler of the nations,
You are the cornerstone Who make all one.
Come and save those whom You have created.

O Emmanuel
our King and our Lawgiver
You are the Desired of the nations
and the Savior of all men.
Come to save us, O Lord, our God!

In the past few years, Kevin DeYoung has written three books that I have thoroughly enjoyed: Just Do Something, Why We Love the Church and Why We’re Not Emergent (the latter two co-authored by the inimitable Ted Kluck). More recently, I’ve benefited from the pastoral wisdom displayed his blog.

Kevin is the senior pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan. I am grateful for his kind words about my book:

“Holy Subversion reads like a series of very good sermons. There is pastoral wisdom, balance, and conviction in these pages. Trevin Wax helps us remember what really matters.”

- Kevin DeYoung

1. “The Olympic Promised Land” – The testimony of a man whose Olympic dreams are shattered; yet he remains committed to the Lord’s plan.

I am one of the left behind, one of the damaged and defeated.  I write this not to curry sympathy.  Rather, I write it because I think it is important that a gymnast can fail in his ultimate goal, and leave the sport with a permanent injury, and nonetheless feel such gratitude that he would do it all over again in a heartbeat.  I did not make the Olympics; I broke my neck.

Yet I see these things as the will of God, and the will of God is not without reason.

2. The Mormon theology behind the Twilight novels and movies.

3. Pastor Matt Chandler is undergoing surgery today. Please pray for him and his family. Also, check out what Dustin Neely is already learning from this trial.

4. Jim Belcher continues the conversation about Deep Church with an interview at the Gospel Coalition blog. Interesting insights into the gospel, the kingdom, and the church.

5. Jesus has AIDS.

6. Ed Stetzer on “preaching that sticks“.

7. Rick Warren challenges Obama on abortion.