The Gospel Coalition

On the third Sunday in January of each year, many evangelical churches set aside a few moments to mourn the loss of millions of unborn children and to celebrate the precious gift of life that God has given each of us.

Oftentimes, when Christians speak about political or social issues, some in our society respond by telling us we should keep our beliefs private, within the walls of the church. Many people believe that faith is private and personal and should not impinge upon decisions being made in the political arena.

But we believe that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, and his resurrection is a very public event. Furthermore, our declaration that Jesus Christ is King of Kings has political implications. That is why throughout history, Christians have spoken truth to power:

• The saints who went before us were courageous enough to denounce infanticide in ancient Rome and rescue discarded babies from trash heaps.
• In England, men like William Wilberforce and John Wesley, exposed the horrors of the slave trade and organized Christians into groups that would fight for the rights of people considered to be “inferior”.
• Many Christians in Germany opposed Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime. Some of them, including the pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, paid for his outspoken opposition by being condemned to death.
• More recently, pastors like Martin Luther King, Jr. have reminded us that every human being bears the image of God regardless of their race.
• And today, you can find countless Christians working to put an end to human trafficking and sexual slavery, and to rid Africa of the deadly scourge of AIDS.

We stand in a long line of courageous men and women who were not afraid to speak out against the injustices of their day. And that is why we speak up in defense of the vulnerable lives of unborn human beings.

We believe that every human life has value. Every human being has intrinsic dignity. All human beings – from those in the womb, to those in elderly nursing environments – have worth. Every life deserves to be protected by law. We believe in human rights for all.

Since our last celebration of Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, we have seen public sentiment continue to move in a pro-life direction. A majority of Americans now consider themselves to be “pro-life.” A sizeable majority opposes abortion funding by the government. Most Americans endorse restrictions on abortion that would make this practice rare.

Even pro-choice leaders have begun speaking of abortion as a “tragic choice.” President Obama admits that there is a moral component to this question that cannot be easily dismissed.

The recognition of a moral dimension to this question is both encouraging and discouraging. It is encouraging that people are finally accepting what science and biology have been telling us: Life begins at conception! Ultrasounds have given us a glimpse into life inside the womb.

But the admission of abortion as a “tragic necessity” is also discouraging. It means that some people believe that abortion terminates a human life, and yet they still believe that there are circumstances under which this kind of killing should be sanctioned. I don’t know who scares me more – the abortion crusader who believes, against all the evidence, that the fetus is no more human than a blob of tissue, or the abortion advocate who believes fetuses may indeed be human persons and yet would still sanction an atrocious act of violence toward these helpless victims.

The question of abortion goes beyond partisan politics. One can find Republicans who promote the legal sanction of abortion, just as one can find courageous Democrats who stand against it. As Christians this morning, we call on all officials in our country to protect and serve every member of our society, including those who are the smallest and most vulnerable.

It is appropriate that Sanctity of Human Life Sunday would be celebrated the same weekend that Americans remember the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. One reason why we stand for life is because we stand for human rights and racial equality. Abortion strikes at the heart of both of these convictions.

In an interview with The New York Times last July, Supreme Court Justice – Ruth Bader Ginsberg – was asked about the federal restrictions that forbid the use of Medicaid for abortion. Listen carefully to her response:

“The ruling about that surprised me. Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe versus Wade was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of…”

Justice Ginsberg admits that behind the Supreme Court decision in 1973 was the concern that we limit the expansion of “populations that we don’t want to have too many of.” I wonder what populations she might have been referring to. If the statistics on abortion demographics are any indication, one can hardly miss her point. Abortion has taken a terrible toll on the black community.

• 14 million black babies have been aborted since 1973. (That number is equal to one-third of the number of blacks living today.)
• Black women are almost 5 times more likely to abort than white women.
• And get this: although blacks compose only 13 percent of the population, they have 37 percent of all abortions.

The niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Alveda King – has said:

“Abortion and racism are evil twins, born of the same lie. Where racism now hides its face in public, abortion is accomplishing the goals of which racism only once dreamed.”

Of course, we do not oppose the slaughter of unborn children merely because it unjustly targets minorities. We believe that abortion cheapens life for all of us. Once we discriminate against human life in its earliest forms, we soon determine that other lives can be discarded and wasted.

We as Christians must work to bring comfort and care to pregnant women in need, and to the women who have regrets about their abortions. We do not believe that it can somehow be in the best interest of a woman to deliberately kill her unborn child. Difficult pregnancies provide an opportunity for us to embrace the mother and child alike. And that is what churches and pregnancy centers all across America do every day.

So we call on those in government to protect the weak and vulnerable, and to do so without discrimination. We seek to defend those who cannot defend themselves. We speak up for the unborn and the disabled. We welcome the child with Down’s Syndrome, the child with abnormalities, the child with AIDS. We financially support the family who adopts children of other nationalities and races.

You can tell how pro-life, pro-family, and pro-child our churches really are by the way we support the youngest in our congregations. Some Christians would give months of their time to campaign for a pro-life candidate, but would not give a few hours a year to sit with children in the nursery or teach a child in Sunday School. A truly pro-life, pro-child church will never have a shortage of nursery workers. The sounds of babies crying are the sounds of life, God-given life that we cannot take for granted.

A truly pro-life, pro-family church welcomes the disruption of children in the foyer, rejoices at the sight of new faces in children’s church. and smiles at the thought of families from different countries and backgrounds joining us in praise to God.

Being pro-life is not just about having bumper stickers on your car. It’s about loaning your car to a single mother.

Being pro-life is not just shedding tears at the thought of how abortion robs the world of a child. It’s about you and I treasuring the children God has given us here and now.

Let’s continue the defend those who cannot defend themselves. Let’s support the pregnancy centers who need ultrasound machines whose images usually convince a woman to save her baby.

Let’s welcome the little children, and fight for their right to life.

The Associated Press reports that Heisman Trophy winner, Tim Tebow, will appear in a pro-life SuperBowl commercial:

The group isn’t releasing details, but the commercial is likely to be an anti-abortion message chronicling Pam Tebow’s 1987 pregnancy. After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child and gave birth to Tim.

Ed Stetzer has an excellent article in Christianity Today about the tendency of evangelicals to abuse statistics:

I suspect that we are attracted to bad statistics mostly for motivation. We need a personal push and hope to give one to our churches as well. But bad stats can feed self-loathing and lethargy as much as they can encourage steadfastness in mission.

Ever heard of Herb Alpert? The trumpet player is one of the most influential behind-the-scenes men in music during the past forty years.

It’s tough to imagine a bigger name in the music world than trumpet player Herb Alpert. He’s won eight Grammys. He’s cut 14 albums that went platinum, 15 that went gold. He’s the “A” in A&M Records. He discovered the Carpenters. He’s made millions of dollars as an entertainer and artist and given millions of dollars away to support the arts.

A profile of Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier:

He was unsurprisingly the youngest person to be inducted into Aviation Hall of Fame. And he did it all with the kind of style and grace under pressure that made it look easy and gave his rivals fits.

O Lord my God,
to you and to your service I devote myself,
body, soul, and spirit.

Fill my memory with the record of your mighty works;
enlighten my understanding with the light of your Holy Spirit;
and may all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do.

Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care,
and grant that by my life and teaching I may set forth your true and living Word.

Be always with me in carrying out the duties of my faith.

In prayer, enliven my devotion;
in praises, heighten my love and gratitude;
in conversation, give me readiness of thought and expression;
and grant that, by the clearness and brightness of your holy Word,
all the world may be drawn into your blessed kingdom.

All this I ask for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.

The Apostle Paul liked to write long sentences (Ephesians 1:3-14 is an example). Here is a contemporary scholar who tries to summarize the worldview of Paul in one sentence:

“Paul preached, and then explained in various pastoral, community forming letters, a narrative, apocalyptic, theopolitical gospel

(1) in continuity with the story of Israel and

(2) in distinction to the imperial gospel of Rome (and analogous powers) that was centered on God’s crucified and exalted Messiah Jesus, whose incarnation, life, and death by crucifixion were validated and vindicated by God in his resurrection and exaltation as Lord, which inaugurated the new age or new creation in which all members of this diverse but consistently covenantally dysfunctional human race who respond in self-abandoning and self-committing faith thereby participate in Christ’s death and resurrection and are

(1) justified, or restored to right covenant relations with God and with others;

(2) incorporated into a particular manifestation of Christ the Lord’s body on earth, the church, which is an alternative community to the status-quo human communities committed to and governed by Caesar (and analogous rulers) and by values contrary to the gospel; and

(3) infused both individually and corporately by the Spirit of God’s Son so that they may lead “bifocal” lives, focused both back on Christ’s first coming and ahead to his second, consisting of Christlike, cruciform (cross-shaped)

(1) faith and

(2) hope toward God and

(3) love toward both neighbors and enemies (a love marked by peaceablness and inclusion), in joyful anticipation of

(1) the return of Christ,

(2) the resurrection of the dead to eternal life, and

(3) the renewal of the entire creation.”

- Michael Gorman, Reading Paul (Cascade Companions), HT – Nick Mitchell

1. Pastor J.D. Greear’s address for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is well worth reading, as it combines humility and conviction, as well as a stirring defense of evangelical Christianity.

The Gospel of Jesus changes us, because at the center of Christianity is a man on the cross loving people who don’t love Him, pouring His life out for people who aren’t even interested in Him.

2. Denny Burk investigates the folklore behind Pat Robertson’s silly comments about Haiti, and finds that once he puts Robertson’s words in context, the offense is amplified.

I don’t know about you, but I was initially pretty perplexed by this narrative that Robertson invoked. The Haitians made a pact with the devil? Really? Where does he come up with this stuff?

3. Funerals from Hell: Where Have All the Graveyards Gone?

The regaining of Christ-centered funerals will be true evangelical medicine to a culture that can’t help but be entertainment oriented even when supposedly committing the dead to dust. I for one am ready to bury the modern fun-eral and instead to die confidently in Christ, absolved of all my manifold daily sins, and saved solely by the fully imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. That truth comforts me in dying–and so in living.

4. After two earthquakes in England, Charles Wesley compiled two volumes of hymns that explore a theology of suffering through earthquakes. Check out an example here.

5. Charities collecting funds for Haiti

6. Russell Moore’s “Social Gospel Redux”:

Let’s remember that the gospel is social but the social gospel isn’t good news. And a church that embraces it, “emerging” or otherwise, will not long be a church.

7. Are we the “Recession Generation“?

In all the salacious news reporting about the scandal surrounding Tiger Woods, I recall hearing a sports lover bemoan the consequences that Tiger’s fall would have on golf. For many golf fans, Tiger is golf. Even those who do not watch golf on TV recognize and appreciate that Tiger is a very gifted athlete.

But what will happen to golf if Tiger does not return? How will Tiger’s adultery affect golf fans in the U.S.?

I fear the effects will be long-lasting. Tiger’s unwillingness to deprive himself of fleeting passions will unintentionally deprive his fans of the joy that comes from watching him play.

Pop superstar Whitney Houston has recently restarted a career that was on hold through most of the past decade due to years of drug abuse. A few months ago, she was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah called Houston’s voice “a national treasure” and asked her if she feared she had lost the gift. Oprah’s question implied that God had entrusted to Whitney “the voice,” and that drug abuse may have stolen that treasure from the nation.

In her response, Whitney seemed oblivious to the thought that her voice was given to her for others. And unfortunately, despite her recent sales comeback, Houston’s voice is nothing compared to what it was in the early 1990′s. Years of drug abuse have left her with a mere echo of her earlier talent.

These two examples remind us that sin leads to the squandering of God’s gifts.

The parable of the prodigal son emphasizes this idea of squandering in great detail. When the younger son asks for his inheritance, the father surprisingly obliges. The prodigal received his share of cattle, land, and food. “Not many days later,” the text says he “gathered everything together,” implying that he sold off all his father’s stuff at cheap prices so that he could hightail it out of town.

Sin always leads to the squandering of the Father’s good gifts.

The Evil One is not content merely to hold people in spiritual bondage and lead them to hell. He wants to diminish even the contributions they make to the common grace we benefit from in society.

In Satan’s world of darkness, it’s not enough to destroy Houston’s soul or expose Tiger’s lust. He wants to rob Tiger’s fans of their joy in watching him play golf, or rob the nation of Whitney Houston’s voice.

Sin always affects more than the individual who commits the offense. Whenever we sin, we are consciously or unconsciously affecting those around us. We are robbing those around us of the particular gifts that God has given to us. The pastor who commits adultery not only affects his family by losing his ministry. He squanders his gifts and deprives future generations of what could have been a legacy of faithful preaching and teaching.

Satan not only wants our heart; he wants our hands. He wants to limit our contributions to the world by killing and destroying us, while also stealing from those who might benefit from our lives.

The good news is… there is a prodigal God who lavishes grace at a rate faster than we can squander his gifts. When we come home empty-handed, we are ushered into loving arms.

Here are eleven charities collecting funds for aid in Haiti.

Christianity Today provides a summary of various media coverage of the situation in Haiti.

Russell Moore has a terrific article in the new 9Marks eJournal: “Social Gospel Redux – Are Some Evangelicals Preaching a Renewed Social Gospel?”

To spank or not to spank: Benedict of Nursia and the Westminster Divines speak to the subject

As one who has spent a number of years living in Europe, I am fascinated by the differences between the European and American outlooks on life. Though many Americans and Europeans share a common heritage, our unique cultures have contributed to different experiences that lead us to see the world in very different ways.

In The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream (Penguin, 2003), Jeremy Rifkin explores many of those differences. At the same time, Rifkin makes a case for why Europe’s vision of the future is more compelling than America’s.

Rifkin describes the European Dream this way:

“The European Dream emphasizes community relationships over individual autonomy, cultural diversity over assimilation, quality of life over the accumulation of wealth, sustainable development over unlimited material growth, deep lay over unrelenting toil, universal human rights and the rights of nature over property rights, and global cooperation over the unilateral exercise of power.” (3)

In this lengthy book, Rifkin recounts the development of the American Dream and then offers reasons why it has begun to wane. He argues that, even though the European Dream may not be put into practice by all Europeans, this new Dream is a powerful vision for the future.

Rifkin believes that Americans equate freedom with autonomy and security. The more wealth you have, the more secure you feel. But Europeans find freedom in “embeddedness” – having access to interdependent relationships with other people.

Though the developments of the growing European Union receive little attention in the media, Rifkin believes that the birth of this union is very important. Few people realize how quickly Europe is changing:

• Today, you can make a pilgrimage across the continent of Europe now without ever stopping at a border crossing.
• Europe has implemented a common currency.
• English is quickly becoming a common language for business and culture.
• The European Union as a new commercial force has become the largest trader of goods in the world.

I have watched with great interest as Eastern European countries like Hungary and Romania have sought to gain entrance into the Union. Since Romania joined (2007), there are signs of economic fruitfulness in the cities. Anyone visiting Romania today will notice marked improvements over the time when Romania was still independent.

Rifkin is right. The birth of the European Union is one of the most significant world developments of our era. It is true that the “nation-states” of Europe have more “rights” than the states that make up the USA, but we must not miss the fact that Europeans are “uniting” in many significant ways: currency, language, military, culture, and source of identity.

Thankfully, Rifkin is not completely rosy-eyed when it comes to Europe’s outlook. He admits that the European military machine was “lame” when it came to the Kosovo war. Europeans talk peace while Americans clean up the mess. Even some Europeans agree with this assessment.

But not all of Rifkin’s analysis can be taken at face value. For example, he says that there are more people living in poverty in America than in the sixteen European countries for which data is available. Is that so? What exactly is poverty? How do we define it?

Rifkin is clearly enamored with the socialist structures of European government and health care. He sides with Karl Marx over Adam Smith when it comes to democracy and community commitment to address the problems of the poor.

Here is an example of Rifkin’s socialistic enthusiasm: admiration of the fact that Europeans receive a gracious maternity and paternity leave that is mandated by the government. Sounds nice on the surface. But one cannot help but wonder why this law has not resulted in more and more people having big families in Europe. Perhaps people are less likely to have families when they realize that long absences from work are harmful to their employer. Could it be that social pressure keeps people at work and makes them less likely to have lots of children?

Rifkin also thinks it wonderful that workers in Europe can take a year off without severing their contract. But can you imagine what it would be like to employ people who can disappear without reason for a year? This kind of socialistic structure creates havoc for business owners.

It is true that many Americans are plagued by busyness. We have a harder time enjoying our leisure and relationships. Europeans have something to teach us in this area. But socialism is not the answer.

Conservatives will hold their nose as they read much of this work. But should you choose to read it, you are more likely to catch a glimpse of the European mindset, which (like it or not) is more socialist than capitalist.

Despite Rifkin’s liberal leanings, he offers insights that Americans should consider. For example, he points out the dehumanizing language that Americans use – language that is rooted in our desire for efficiency. Consider the mechanical terms we use regarding our behavior: “geared up,” “revved up”, “burned out,” “tuned in,” “connected,” etc.

Where does faith fit into all this? Rifkin sees faith as valuable, and he applauds America’s religious community for making us see beyond self-interest to the needs of the community. But it is clear that faith has value only in its instrumental sense – in that it helps speed along the vision for the world that he believes should become prevalent.

Overall, I recommend The European Dream to anyone considering mission work or long-term ministry in Europe. Despite its flaws, this work presents a compelling analysis of worldview differences between Europeans and Americans.

Are we the “Recession Generation”?

We have now technically emerged from recession. But there’s a broad feeling that Americans’ psyches and behaviors will be somehow permanently altered by the crisis. There’s now a booming cottage industry among consultants and investment managers to describe and capitalize on “the New Normal,” which will likely be the opposite of the hypercapitalist market culture of the past 25 years.

Mark Dever interviews Matt Chandler. Dever is one of the best interviewers I’ve ever heard. His recent talk with Kevin DeYoung was great too. Check out all his interviews and enjoy the feast!

Good thoughts from Ed Stetzer on the kind of language we use in the pulpit.

My advice is simple. Be careful with your words. You only have so many to use in your upcoming sermon, so choose them wisely. Those words may comprise your very last sermon. Have you considered that? What words will be most useful in communicating truth, and the gospel? What words will help you best uncover man’s hypocrisy, stubbornness and idolatry while pointing them to the hope of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus? Your words should be appropriate for your audience and context, they should clarify truth, expose error and exalt Jesus.

My interview yesterday with Kevin Boling on the Knowing the Truth radio program is now available for download here.

Just before Christmas, I posted a review of James K. A. Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. I praised some aspects of the book while registering some concerns and raising further questions.

After Christmas, Dr. Smith emailed me and wondered if he might publicly respond to some of the questions I raised in my review. I am delighted to post this interview with Dr. Smith in hopes that it will contribute to this very important conversation about spiritual formation.

James K. A. Smith is associate professor of philosophy at Calvin College. Before reading the interview, I recommend that you read my review of the book, since many of my questions here come straight from there.

Trevin Wax: You write that evangelicals treat spiritual formation mainly as an informative exercise, rather than a holistic formation that focuses on habits and the training of our desires and longings. Could you explain how our anthropology affects our idea of spiritual formation?

James Smith: My concern is not that evangelicals care too much about knowledge (wouldn’t that be a great problem!?).   Rather, the problem is that we evangelicals have a kind of “stunted” picture of spiritual formation because we have what I might call an inadequate philosophy of action. Let me try to explain that.

Let’s say that what we’re talking about here is discipleship – the process of sanctification and growth in holiness. And let’s say that the goal of sanctification is for God to set apart for himself a “peculiar people” who are marked by their love for God and a desire for his kingdom – a people who show that as much as they tell it. The Lord wants us to be a people who are a living foretaste of his coming kingdom.

Then the question is, how are such peculiar people made or formed? In response to that question, I think a lot of evangelicals assume that what’s needed is (just) more knowledge. So two of the most important evangelical spiritual practices are the didactic, 45-minute sermon and Bible study, both of which are meant to provide more and more knowledge, more and more information.

Now obviously we should be immersing ourselves in the Scriptures and hungering to know more and more of God and his Word. But the question of discipleship isn’t just a question of how we can learn; it’s a question of how we can become different people. And so the question is: does increased knowledge simply translate into transformed behavior and action?

That would only work if our actions are driven by knowledge and conscious beliefs – if I “think” my way through everything I do. But is that true?

My argument in Desiring the Kingdom is that, in fact, the vast majority of our action and behavior is “driven” by all sorts of unconscious, pre-cognitive “drivers,” so to speak. Those pre-conscious desires are formed in all sorts of ways that are not “intellectual.” And so while I might be fueling my mind with a steady diet of Scripture, what I don’t realize that is that all sorts of other cultural practices are actually forming my desire in affective, unconscious ways. Because of the sorts of creatures we are, those pre-conscious desires often win out. This is why it’s crucial that Christian spiritual formation – and Christian worship – is attentive to a holistic formation of our imagination.

Think about it: when I fail to act in ways that are consistent with Jesus’ call to holiness, is it because I don’t know what to do? Really? Isn’t it often the case that, in fact, I have the knowledge but lack the desire? Or that some other desire has trumped what I know?

It’s that sort of dynamic that I’m trying to address. This is pictured quite powerfully in Book VIII of Augustine’s Confessions where Augustine acknowledges that he has all the knowledge and information he needs – he is intellectually convinced by the Gospel – but he’s still not able to believe. Something else needs to happen.

Trevin Wax: You write that “before we articulate a worldview, we worship.” Prayer and worship comes before knowledge, or more specifically, we worship in order to gain knowledge. But isn’t it true that the act of worship takes place within a worldview system? We believe the truth of the resurrection and our hearts are stirred to worship?

James Smith: This is a sticky claim, I know. And very complicated (I hope to address it in more detail in volume 2).

A lot hinges on how we define our terms. In that context, I take a “worldview” to be an intellectual framework that articulates the core of the faith. As an articulation, it comes second, in a way. It is an intellectual articulation of what we implicitly “know” in our confession and practice.

Maybe another way to get at this is to emphasize that a lot hinges on how we define “believe.” Philosophically, I think there are different modes or ways of believing. So yes, of course, it was the disciples “belief” in the resurrection that gave rise to worship.

But what sort of a “belief” was that? It wasn’t yet a dogma in the sense of a theological article of faith. It was a confrontation with the Risen Lord–it was an “affective” belief. (In an earlier book, Introducing Radical Orthodoxy, I was grasping after something like this implicit/explicit, affective/intellectual distinction by distinguishing between what I calleded theology1 and theology2, where theology1 just is the practices of worship, a sort of lived theology, whereas theology2 is the sort of theology one gets in a textbook on dogmatic theology.)

So my point is that the practices of Christian worship are a kind of affective “belief” and that doctrines and “worldviews” (articles of faith) are the explicit, intellectual articulation of what we believe. But I would still claim that implicit believing precedes the articulation of “beliefs.” Anyone who has seen the growth of faith in their children will be familiar with this distinction, I think.

Trevin Wax: You write that Protestantism focuses too much on the intellect and ends up with a stunted pedagogy. If this is the case, why is it that many evangelicals suffer from an embarrassing lack of biblical knowledge?

James Smith: Yes, here you’ll find no disagreement from me. As I emphasized above, it’s not that I think knowledge is unimportant. It’s crucial. But I’m just cautioning that one could have oodles and oodles of knowledge and that wouldn’t guarantee holiness if our “affective” center is being formed and shaped by “secular liturgies” that are capturing our hearts and imaginations – and thus driving our action.

That said, I think another problem we should name is the “selective” knowledge of evangelicals. What we want to know of the Scriptures seems to include those parts that give comfort to our practices and habits. And I think this is true of all sorts of conservative Calvinists, too! How much do we “know” of the widows, orphans and strangers of the Scriptures? Or Jesus’ call to love our enemies?

Trevin Wax: You encourage evangelicals to revisit the liturgies of our churches, in order to see how these habits form us as people. How do you explain the fact that many people immerse themselves in Christian worship week to week and are still not formed into the image of Christ?

James Smith: This is the million dollar question. It deserves an entire book (an advertisement for volume 2!). But briefly I’d point out a few things:

First, I think this “formation failure” stems from the fact that so much evangelical worship is just the secular liturgy of the mall with a different “commodity” for sale. The argument of my book is that form matters! It’s not just a matter of taking the “content” and dropping it into any worship form you like – as if turning the church into a Jesu-fied Starbucks will somehow produce a peculiar people who desire God’s strange kingdom.

So the reason we don’t see this formation is because our worship practices lack (counter-)formative power because they’ve unwittingly adopted the liturgies of the mall or the stadium or the coffee shop. This is why I don’t think the “emerging” church is really “new” at all. It just extends habits we learned from the seeker-sensitive capitulation to secular liturgies.

Second, and related to the first point, American Protestantism has rejected the formative wisdom implicit in historic Christian worship. While many people might “go to church” Sunday after Sunday, unfortunately that’s not a guarantee that they’re being immersed in formative, intentional practices of Christian worship. There is a wisdom, a “genius,” embedded in the historic practices of Christian worship – as affirmed by the Reformers – that we have almost completely forgotten. We need to remember how to “do church,” as it were.

Finally, I think this also stems from our “selective knowledge” point above. We tend to focus on those aspects of discipleship that are “personal” and “private” and thus undercut the political edge of the Gospel’s radicality. Because of that, we (like the Colossian Christians, I think) too often reduce Jesus to an addition or a supplement to something like “the American dream”–when the Jesus of the Gospels and Revelation comes as a judge of such dreams.

Trevin Wax: How does your proposal affect the idea of a Christian university?

James Smith: Obviously I want Christian universities (and seminaries) to be places of deep thinking, the pursuit of knowledge, and the generation of Christian theory across the disciplines. However, that work will only happen if our minds and imaginations are deeply nourished by embodied worship and spiritual disciplines.

So even the intellectual work of the Christian university needs to be fueled by a rich worship life. (As I emphasize in the book, chapel doesn’t make an education Christian, but neither can our thinking be from a “Christian perspective” if our hearts aren’t primed by worship.) This also has to include the church. The Christian university is not an autonomous, self-sufficient entity in this respect.

But beyond this, what I really emphasize is that a Christian education cannot be just about the dissemination of information or ideas, even if they are “from a Christian perspective.” An education is traditionally a formation, making us certain kinds of people. Such formative education is happening in all kinds of places beyond our schools and Christian colleges need to be attentive to this and conceive of their mission and task as a holistic counter-formation. In a sense, what we need is worship across the curriculum, coupled with deep, critical thinking about our world.