The Gospel Coalition

Christians are united because of what Jesus has done on the cross to purchase our redemption. Though we happily embrace our diversity as people of different colors, ethnicities and nationalities, we are united first and foremost by a common Story, one that begins with the loving, creative power of God and climaxes in Jesus Christ who died and rose again for our sins.

Christian unity means that the stories of other believers become our family stories. When we read about Christians suffering in the Sudan, we are compelled to offer our prayers and support because, regardless of race or ethnicity or social status, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Likewise, the story of the African American brothers and sisters who suffered under slavery two hundred years ago becomes our story too. That’s why a book like Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction (Baker Books, 2004) provides a great service to the church. Authors Bob Kellemen and Karole Edwards describe how African Americans cared for one another during their time in slavery. In watching the Christian response of many slaves, we learn how to care for one another within the context of the local church.

Beyond the Suffering combines historical accounts and personal stories. By going back and forth between the history of the period and the specific stories of people caught in slavery, the authors are able to recommend practical modern-day applications for soul care.

The title describes the book well. This book is not just about suffering and sin. It’s about how grace moves us beyond both.

What do we learn from the testimony of these forefathers in the faith? For one, counseling is not merely an individualistic endeavor. We tend to think of care and counseling as one individual helping another. But the African American testimony shows us how families, churches, and communities can corporately provide soul care.

The authors provide a chilling example: “the moan,” a feature of life on the slave ship. It was “the language of stolen strangers, the articulation of unspeakable fears, the precursor to joy yet unknown.” By sharing “the moan,” many slaves creatively and corporately responded to their crisis, write Edwards and Kellemen. (54)

In our African American brothers and sisters, we discover a biblical theology of suffering. The authors write:

“When listening carefully, we detect the sounds of hope. While enduring the outrage of being bought and sold and while being engaged over the attempted annihilation of their identity, the enslaved African Americans created a biblical sufferology. Through their theology of suffering, they faced hurt candidly and unearthed hope spiritually. Specifically, they coped with the heartbreak of relational separation through the hope of heavenly reunion, and they tackled the depersonalization of identity thievery with the awareness that they bore the image of God.” (61)

In their chronicle of suffering and redemption, Kellemen and Edwards dispel some long-lasting myths. For example, historical accounts often depict the African American father as beaten down and oppressed by slavery, so much so that there was no positive male figure in the home. But the authors demonstrate the fallacy of such thinking by looking at actual slave testimonies of strong fathers and husbands.

Another popular myth perpetuated by some historians is that the slaves converted to a generic God. But one look at the hymns and preaching of the African Americans dispels such a thought. The slaves converted to Christ “based on a biblical understanding of who he is – Savior -and who they were – sinners.” (101)

The most refreshing aspect of this book is that the authors do not shy away from the sinfulness of victim and oppressor alike. The slaves did not only need earthly rescue. Just like their masters, they recognized their need for God’s forgiveness too.

My favorite chapter in this book is “A Sorrowful Joy,” which describes the importance of the slave songs and spirituals. In contrast to so much of today’s happy-peppy worship music, the songs birthed through suffering demonstrate a deep hunger for God’s intervening justice and comfort. The spirituals demonstrate the importance of pointing us to the Savior, not to abstract solutions that merely make us more “self-sufficient” sinners.

Beyond the Suffering is a treasure of African American history, and since it tells the story of brothers and sisters in Christ, it is also our story. We have much to learn from this period of history. Beyond the Suffering is a great place to start.

Dan Kimball returns from South Korea and lists nine lessons he has learned. I thought this one was very interesting:

7) Although globalization is happening, there are also strong cultural differences. It is weird that in a place like S. Korea music from the USA, movies etc. abounds everywhere. So you walk into a store and Lady Gaga is playing and Avatar is at the movie theaters. So much of the clothing also was from American companies that we wear here. But also I learned that there is no higher suicide rate amongst teens than in S. Korea. There is intense pressure for education and success. In churches I also learned that they barely talk about sex/dating as that isn’t seen as something the church should discuss or teach about. And when I mentioned homosexuality in one session, not a single leader said that is ever discussed in their churches. I assume some do, but at least the session I was in no one said they did. Which is another topic of the need to be discussing things so teenagers don’t feel they don’t feel isolated or alone. But these were some cultural differences I learned about.

Scot McKnight reviews a new book by James Edwards that offers a new solution for the “Synoptic Problem.”

Edwards argues that we don’t need Q. Instead, there was an original Hebrew Gospel alongside Mark, the earliest Gospel. Matthew used Mark and so did Luke, but Luke’s Gospel is specially connected to the Hebrew Gospel, though he thinks Luke used a “double tradition” (as did Matthew) but that double tradition is not Q. One of the most important parts of this study is the fresh examination of all the evidence about the Hebrew Gospel in the first millennium of the Church.

Ed Stetzer encourages the Anglican Church in North America.

Tim Keller on the five big issues facing the Western Church:

1. The opportunity for extensive culture-making in the U.S.
2. The rise of Islam.
3. The new non-western Global Christianity.
4. The growing cultural remoteness of the gospel.
5. The end of prosperity?

Lord, you know my weakness;
be my strength.

You know my ignorance,
be my wisdom.

Teach me,
that I may not be a blind leader of the blind,
but a scribe well instructed about the kingdom of God.

Oh, let not the people see me;
let them see you in your vesture dipped in blood!

Let not the people hear me;
let them hear you in your voice of saving truth!

- Bishop Daniel A. Payne

adapted from The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors

Here lies the dust of a poor hell-deserving sinner, who ventured into eternity trusting wholly on the merits of Christ for salvation. In full belief of the great doctrines he preached while on earth, he invites his children and all who read this, to trust their eternal interest on the same foundation.

- epitaph written for himself by Reverend Lemuel Haynes, the “Black Puritan”

quoted from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction

Seven links for your weekend:

1. “Whither Wheaton?” A Critique

2. John Stott on how and why Christians should debate one another.

3. Russ Moore tackles an ethical dilemma that every pastor must face: Should I opt out of paying social security? We haven’t heard Dr. Moore’s response yet, but the comments section is already interesting.

4. Derek Leman expands my “Ephesians Road”, but argues for an understanding of Israel as being elected in Ephesians 1. I’m not convinced by Leman’s exegesis of this passage, but I do think it’s an interesting discussion.

5. The Christian Century asks: If church leaders had the chance to fashion a seminary from scratch, what would it look like?

6. Lost fans will enjoy this side-by-side comparison of the plane ride in the first episode versus the ride in the season premiere.

7. Owen Strachan records some initial thoughts about a number of recent books. I’m looking forward to reading The Essential Jonathan Edwards Collection, compiled by Strachan and Doug Sweeney.

While I was on vacation last week, I re-ran a post from 2008 about setting a reading goal of 100 books a year. While many resonated with the call to set a reading goal, others chided me for suggesting too high a number or for choosing speed over reflection.

Having considered some of the criticism of that post, I thought it might be good to follow up with a few more observations about reading, some of which may be helpful to those who think reading too many books may be counterproductive.

1. You cheat yourself when you read some books too quickly.

On this point, I agree with the critic who thinks that setting a reading goal could cause you to pass over significant books that deserve much time and close attention.

• Speed reading a devotional work, for example, might cause you to miss the purpose of the work.
• Obviously, the Bible deserves our time and attention. We should concentrate on spending significant time in meditation and reflection when reading God’s Word.
• Other books deserve time too. John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin is a classic. Banner of Truth’s recent update makes the language easy to understand, and yet I still spent three months working through that book last fall. Three months well spent, I believe.

So yes… I agree that some books need to be lived in for a time in order to fully come to grips with the glorious truths contained therein.

2. You cheat yourself when you read some books too slowly.

Having acknowledged that some books deserve reflection and time, I still believe that many books (if not most) can and should be read more quickly. Not every book is Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress or Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship.

In the case of many (if not most) books, the reader can quickly come to grips with the main point, consider the author’s perspective, and then move on. Some books deserve careful attention and reflection. But many are practical and easy-to-comprehend. Get what you need and go on.

If you are in a five-star restaurant with a five-course meal, you are foolish if you devour the meal in ten minutes. On the other hand, if you’re in a Steak and Shake, you don’t want to spend three hours on the Frisco Melt. A steak dinner is digested differently than mashed potatoes. You may find you enjoy both meals, but you (hopefully) enjoy them in different ways.

3. Set reasonable goals based on where you are in your life.

My wife’s reading goal will look different than mine. My goal may be different from yours. I suspect that D.A. Carson, Al Mohler and John Piper have very different reading practices.

But I still affirm my initial challenge to set a goal for reading. Why? Because you are more likely to read if you set a goal than if you don’t.

Set a reasonable goal and then go for it. If it’s a book a month, so be it! Goal-setting is simply a way of holding yourself accountable to a discipline.

Let’s say you set a goal of 25 books this year (roughly one book every two weeks). It’s possible that you might not make your goal, but I believe that you’ll get closer to that number having set a goal than if you forget the goal and read unintentionally all year long.

So once again… Happy reading in 2010!

The Bible doesn’t say “Join a church,” so why should I? David Schrock has a good answer:

I am convinced that church membership is spiritually advantageous and even compulsory for the believer.  To say it another way, without church membership individual believers will not mature in their Christian faith, and local churches will be deficient of Spiritually-gifted members.

Christianity Today’s list of the ten most “redeeming” films of 2009:

What do we mean by “redeeming”? We mean movies that include stories of redemption—sometimes blatantly, sometimes less so. Several of our films have characters who are redeemers themselves; all of them have characters who experience redemption to some degree—some quite clearly, some more subtly. Some are “feel-good” movies that leave a smile on your face; some are a bit more uncomfortable to watch. But the redemptive element is there in all of these films.

Atlanta billboards will soon educate motorists on how abortion targets black Americans:

Catherine Davis, the minority outreach coordinator for Georgia Right to Life, defended the billboards to The New York Times, saying “The impact of abortion has become so great that it has begun to impact our fertility rate.”

“Planned Parenthood’s Negro Project is succeeding”, Davis said. “They targeted blacks in order to control their birthrate, limiting the growth of populations they ‘don’t want too many of as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed she believed was the goal behind Roe v. Wade.”

A brief word from Michael Spencer (iMonk), who is suffering with cancer:

We need to remember that each day dying people are waiting for the word of death and RESURRECTION.

The are a lot of different kinds of Good News, but there is little good news in “My argument scored more points than you argument.” But the news that “Christ is risen!” really is Good News for one kind of person: The person who is dying.

I miss the sounds of children playing outside in the neighborhood. There are many kids in our neighborhood, but few venture outside to play anymore. I suspect a good number are indoors playing video games or watching movies.

Give your kids access to non-stop entertainment, and you might begin to miss the sounds of children playing inside the house too.

Sure, it may be easier to let them play the DS all day long (our son thinks “DS” stands for “Dumb” and “Stupid”, since that’s what playing it too much will make you). But don’t you want to play with your kids?

Here are three creative ways that we play with our kids, and I hope these suggestions might lead to some further creativity. (If you have some ideas, leave them in the comments section. We love new games!)

1. Instead of watching a movie, create your own movie story.

Here’s what you do. In five minutes, organize the toys with your child. Pick out two or three main characters. Always have a superhero waiting in the wings. Use a toy house, a toy jungle, or some lego castle as a backdrop for the action. Have a plane, a rocket, or some mode of transportation. If you need a flood, have blue sheets nearby. Just look at what you’ve got and get ready for a Story. You don’t have to plan the whole story out.

Then, create an iTunes playlist with movie music that you can play in the background. Here’s our favorite five-song playlist for a twenty-minute story:

1. “The Wardrobe” – from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
2. “Prince Caspian Flees” – from Prince Caspian
3. “The Aslan’s Camp” – from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
4. “Battle at Aslan’s How” – from Prince Caspian
5. “Return of the Lion” – from Prince Caspian

The more you use the same playlist, the more familiar you will be with the music. You can anticipate the musical cues, and begin to play with the toys accordingly.

Some of the music is mysterious and filled with wonder. Other parts sound suspenseful and would make good background music to a thrilling chase or battle. The beginning of “Aslan’s Camp” right after “Prince Caspian Flees” is perfect for a stunning entrance from a super-hero to save the day.

We’ve made these playlists from more than a dozen movies. The music makes the playing much more exciting, and it gives you a creative way of adding drama to the story. Try it. It’s fun.

2. Instead of playing Mario, let your son be Mario.

Set up an obstacle course in your living room. Tell your child the carpet is fire that he can’t touch. Take washcloths and place them in strategic places until there is a path of stones that the child has to jump on as he makes his way through the course. (Ask Mom first, of course.)

Lob plastic balls at him as if they were fire balls keeping him from getting to the end. At the end, give him three pillows, and be the big Bowser that is trying to stop him. He has to hit you three times. You have ammo (pillows) to throw at him too. It’s fun to do this on the sidewalk too, using chalk to create an obstacle course.

3. See who can find Waldo and his friends the fastest.

For Christmas, we got Timothy the six-pack set of Where’s Waldo? books. These are great fun when you want to sit down and relax a bit.

There are five main characters to find on every page, which means you can compete to see who can find the most characters. If you don’t want to make it a contest, that’s fine too. It’s fun enough to look for Waldo and his friends together.

Happy playing!

The appeal of awe:

What kinds of articles are most likely to be emailed by users of the New York Times website? Researchers did a six-month study of the most-emailed list and discovered that, more than utility or surprisingness or feel-good factors (which were all helpful for an article’s prospects), it was a sense of awe that made a given article most likely to be shared.

I enjoyed reading Jon Acuff’s description of his blog-writing process.

C.J. Mahaney on sleep:

1. Sleep is a daily gift from God (Psalm 127:1-2).
2. Sleep reminds us daily of our need for God (Psalms 3:5, 4:8).
3. Excessive sleep exposes sin and leads to poverty (Proverbs 6:9-11, 20:13).
4. Sleep is sweet when we are walking in wisdom (Proverbs 3:19-24).
5. Falling asleep provides an opportunity to examine our hearts before God (Psalm 4:4).

Rabbi Derek Leman reviews Holy Subversion and offers both a commendation and thoughtful critique:

Holy Subversion is a great book to help people in evangelical Christian circles understand the bigger picture of the gospel, that it is joining Messiah in his good works and that this in no way is putting ourselves “under the Law” in Pauline terms. Wax’s short and simple book is also a great way for us to understand how to communicate the idea of holistic salvation. And many in Messianic Judaism need a course in integrating faith and works, which Holy Subversion does very well.

If you’re looking for a topical, detailed resource that lays out the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, you ought to pick up Jerry Sutton’s book on the controversy. Sutton documents in painstaking detail the debate between conservatives and moderates in the SBC in the 1980′s and 1990′s.

The Baptist Reformation: The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention (Broadman & Holman, 2000) is clearly written from the conservative point of view, but Sutton seeks to fairly represent the moderate position. By using terminology preferred by both sides of the controversy, he ensures that the tone is polite instead of inflammatory.

The book begins by showing the problems that worried conservatives in the SBC. Sutton points to perceived theological error being taught in the seminaries, a deficient view of Scripture, and an institutional bureaucracy that stifled the voices and desires of ordinary Southern Baptists.

Next, Sutton explains how the Convention changed. The bulk of the book leads the reader chronologically through the Southern Baptist Convention from 1979-2000. Each chapter is devoted to the successive conservative presidents whose leadership brought lasting change. SBC presidents are empowered to make appointments to the committee that nominates people to other committees. By changing the leadership at the helm, the Southern Baptist ship slowly turned around.

The last part of the book is topical. Sutton shows readers how particular institutions changed. He analyzes the missions agencies, the Sunday School board, the seminaries, and the executive committee.

For most of the book, Sutton describes the Conservative Resurgence from the air. Then at the end, he dives down and shows how change took place at the local, institutional level.

The book ends with Sutton’s reflections on why the Convention changed. He gives a compelling conservative interpretation of the Resurgence.

The Baptist Reformation is an important book for Southern Baptist historians. Sutton observes the controversy from the inside. He is not an impartial observer, but he seeks to report fairly and accurately what took place. This book is a valuable reference for anyone interested in seeing how the Southern Baptist Convention changed direction in the last twenty years of the twentieth century.