The Gospel Coalition

Seven links to read this weekend:

1. The Scandal of Gendercide: The War on Baby Girls

2. The Guardian says Joel Osteen is the new face of Christianity.

3. I don’t want my children to be happy.

4. Bob Kellemen looks at Brian McLaren’s new book from a pastoral counselor’s perspective.

5. How much do I need to know about my potential spouse’s sexual past?

6. Jerry Rankin on asking the right questions (regarding the SBC Great Commission Resurgence)

7. Can a computer compose better music than Mozart?

Here are some notes on two books I have read recently:

The Great Theologians: A Brief Guide
Gerald R. McDermott
InterVarsity Press, 2010
My Rating: ****

Want a quick glimpse of Christianity’s foremost theologians? Gerald McDermott provides brief biographical sketches, theological summaries, and primary source material from eleven important theologians.

From Origen to Von Balthasar, McDermott takes us on a journey through time, showing us the passion that drives each theologian, as well as the particular insights they are remembered for. There’s just enough biography here to get a good glimpse of the man, and just enough summary to give you a good overview of the theology. You might quibble with a couple of his choices (Newman over Irenaeus? No Cappadocians?), but you’ll still gain a good overview of the theologians he profiles. Highly recommended!

Basic Christian: The Inside Story of John Stott
Roger Steer
InterVarsity Press, 2010
My Rating: ***

John Stott has long been one of the primary voices of worldwide evangelicalism. This new biography of Stott fills in the details of his lengthy ministry. Stott admirers may be surprised to discover that he once espoused pacifistic views, that his father disapproved of his service to the church, and that he and Martin Lloyd Jones had a major disagreement over Stott’s unwillingness to leave the Church of England.

This biography does a good job of laying out the major moments in Stott’s life. But after finishing the book, I didn’t feel like I knew Stott more than I did before. I was hoping to find out what makes Stott tick and what has driven his ministry all these years. Steer did an admirable job recounting the major events (and interspersing these events with friendly recollections). But I was hoping for more. Maybe Steer wasn’t able to get into Stott’s mind either…

A summary of Christian Smith’s new book on adults ages 18-23 – the “lukewarm generation”:

This should come as little surprise, however, when we step back from the religious lives of today’s emerging adults and look at the larger social milieu in which they find themselves. Their connections to education and work tend to be fragile and unstable. They live much of their lives in an isolated, electronically mediated world in which iPods, personal computers, and cell phones link them to their preferred music, movies, and friends and not much else. They are largely indifferent to the great causes of the right and the left. And, most importantly, for most of these emerging adults, marriage is not on the horizon. It is little wonder, therefore, that the members of this lukewarm generation are largely disconnected from American religion, given that they are also disconnected from stable long-term employment, civil society, and family life.

Tim Chester shares some sobering statistics on pornography:

• Every second, 28,258 Internet users are viewing pomography and $3,075.64 is being spent on pomography
• The pomography industry is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink

Dave Zimmerman recounts an intriguing story about a young John Stott taking on a Salvation Army officer:

I dig John Stott. But I always thought of him as a “scholar-pastor,” not as a punk–until I read this…

Praying that the Great Commission Resurgence will end with a resurgence in discipleship:

The Great Commission does not end at conversion. Until we as Southern Baptists and as churches of Christ’s body take seriously the call of the Great Commission to commit to discipling new believers—to commit not just our moments but our lives to the task—then we will never fulfill the Great Commission, no matter how many different programs or entities or how much money we give. And in the end, we might have a Great Commission resurgence, but no Great Commission fulfillment.

Today, I have the privilege of posting an interview with Mark Galli, the senior managing editor for Christianity Today and the author of A Great and Terrible Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Attributes of God, Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy and Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God.

Trevin Wax: You recently wrote a cover story for Christianity Today that called evangelicals back to the primacy of grace. Why do you believe this emphasis on grace is necessary during this present time?

Mark Galli: For evangelicals it’s an emphasis necessary in all times. We are a movement whose charism is activism. We gather from our various streams and traditions (Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal, independent, etc.) because we want to join together to do something: evangelize, send missionaries overseas, open urban missions, and so forth. And what a gift this is to the world!

But this strength is also our weakness. It usually begins from a deep sense of gratefulness for what God has done for us–we love because we’ve been loved. But, human nature being what it is, the doing quickly starts to become an end in itself. And then we start imagining that the future of the church or missions or the planet itself depends on our doing. I give lots of examples of this in the October 2009 cover story, so I won’t repeat them here.

I will relate one email comment I received after the article came out. I was in conversation with one friend who wrote a book that I feel very much is characteristic of an activism that has left grace behind. He kept insisting that he believed in grace–which I have no doubt about–and that he said so in his book–which was simply not true. When I showed him how little grace appeared as a motive or framing of the book, he responded angrily, “What’s with the grace thing anyway. It’s so vague and jargony.”

When grace is seen as assumed or, worse, “vague and jargony,” I think we’ve got a problem! Without a constant reminder about the priority of grace, we will not only burn out, but our organizations, church and parachurch, will turn into nothing but glorified social service agencies.

Trevin Wax: Evangelicals are divided over the idea of cultural transformation, namely the amount of influence the church has or should have on the surrounding culture. What are your views on the church and culture?

Mark Galli: James Davison Hunter has just published a book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. He analyzes the work of everyone from Chuck Colson to James Dobson to Jim Wallis to Andy Crouch, arguing that evangelical views on transforming culture have been naive. Whether you agree with him or not, the book will change the conversation in our movement. An interview with him will appear in the May issue of CT. (So just a heads up to your readers about that.)

My personal view is that it is not our job to transform our culture, let alone the world. Our job is to do the specific thing God has called us to do, whether that is evangelizing the neighborhood, working against the sexual slave trade, relieving world hunger, or whatever. Our job is to do that faithfully and well–and to let God take care of transforming the culture.

Transforming culture is an incredibly complex thing that no person or group can possibly grasp. It’s something that happens, but it happens over centuries. The process is so slow that it is indiscernible to us except in hindsight. I think talk about transforming the world usually fills us with dreams and visions of our own power, when really our vision should be on the people we’re are seeking to love in Christ’s name.

But at CT we recognize that not every evangelical agrees with this point of view! So while you’ll see me wax eloquent (and not so eloquent) on this point from time to time, you’ll also find articles and interviews in CT where the transformation message is repeated.

Trevin Wax: What are your thoughts on the recent announcement of Philip Ryken as the next president of Wheaton College?

Mark Galli: I was surprised at the announcement, given his pastoral (vs. academic) background, and given his strongly Reformed perspective (given that Wheaton is more theologically diverse). But he’s done a marvelous job of answering concerns about these matters, and his initial moves as president-elect have been impressive.

Trevin Wax: How has Christianity Today fared during these days of difficulty for print media and these days of increasing evangelical fragmentation?

Mark Galli: Like every other publishing company, we had to cut staff and pages in 2009. Fortunately, our parent company, Christianity Today International, has been fiscally conservative. So we had funds to help us weather 2009, when we took a big hit financially. With the cuts and a trimmer budget, the good ship CT is no longer listing, and is starting to move forward again. I’m pretty optimistic about the future, frankly.

Trevin Wax: Could you explain your role as senior managing editor of Christianity Today?

Mark Galli: I’m responsible for deciding what goes in each issue of the magazine, how it is shaped, edited, titled, and designed. That being said, there is no way that one person can do all this. And while I may have the final say on all these matters, I depend heavily on a very gifted staff to bring their expertise to bear on the magazine. For example, I rarely tell the design team to redo a design–that’s really their expertise, and I’d be a fool to think I could design better than they can.

So much of what we do is collaborative–we’re always in conversation about matter large and small–that it’s sometimes hard to say who actually was responsible for this design or that title or the shape of that article. People regularly compliment me on the magazine, and I regularly say that it’s a group effort from start to finish. We really have a talented staff right now, so it makes my job relatively easy!

Trevin Wax: Where do you see Christianity Today ten years from now theologically?

Mark Galli: About where we are today: a centrist, mildly Reformed publication. That’s been our history for 55 years, and, given the current editorial leadership, I don’t see anything that would suggest we’ll be shifting in the near future.

I like to reiterate, however, that who we are as a magazine and what we publish are slightly different. That is, while our editorial bias is mildly Reformed, we’re always on the look out for Wesleyan authors to contribute their unique perspective in our pages. And while we’re centrist, we like to publish pieces about and by evangelicals more decidedly on the left and right.

In other words, we see ourselves as a magazine where the movement can come and reason together. We have our own biases, and it would be dishonest to pretend we don’t. But we try to remain open to other points of view. It’s not about the biases of the current staff, but about the movement as a whole.

Glenn Lucke with a challenging post. Are you building your own empire or building for the kingdom?

I spend a lot of time trying to build an Empire, Docent, in the name of the Kingdom of God. My failures in this regard prove that one doesn’t have to have a reputation or lead a large organization. All that is required is a heart that longs for significance found anywhere but in Jesus. So I repent, believe the gospel, and seek by the Spirit’s power to follow Christ again in Kingdom-building. Over and over I repeat this three-fold gospel rhythm of repent, believe, obey.

What’s better? Anticipation or the real thing? Mark Roberts reflects:

Many things in life have certainly been different from what I had anticipated. And many things have turned out to be harder than what I had expected. But, unless my memory has blotted out the bad stuff, I can honestly say that, for the most part, the real thing has been better than my anticipation. It may be true, however, that the best things in life often start out falling short of expectations, only to exceed them later on.

The other Hitchens: Christopher’s brother Peter has a book called The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith

Jerry Rankin on convoluted priorities in the SBC:

Cooperation is about us; it is self-centered, self-promoting and maintaining everything every entity is doing without any concern for priorities or results. The Great Commission is not about us, our programs and sustaining what we have always done; it is about others. It is about a lost world. It is about consolidating our resources and focusing our energies to proclaim the gospel to those who have never heard, to win the lost and see the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord.

Yesterday, I listed a few reasons why vocational evangelism is on the decline in Southern Baptist life. Today, I’d like to imagine what this evangelistic method might look like in the future.

1. Informative preaching.

In a post-Christian context, the traveling evangelist can no longer assume that listeners have a cursory knowledge of Christian doctrine and need only to be persuaded to “make a decision for Christ”.

I serve in the middle of the Bible Belt. I often meet young people who are completely disengaged from church. If they were to come to an evangelistic service where the preacher focused only on “getting right with God,” they would have no context with which to understand sin, guilt, and the cross. They might come down the aisle at the end, but they would probably not know what they were doing.

We need vocational evangelists who will excel at telling the Christian Story in a winsome, memorable, and penetrating manner. We need men who can unravel the competing worldviews of our society and then lift up the Christian gospel as the answer to the world’s evil and our own personal sin. We need men who can deal with the complexities of life and paint a vision of the Christian gospel in all its glory.

Information is crucial. People who come to a revival service are interested in Christianity. When we neglect to tell them what Christianity is all about, we miss a grand opportunity.

2. Participatory Teaching

In the 1800′s, a common practice for traveling evangelists was to host an “inquiry sessions” after the service. Rather than focus primarily on getting people down the aisle for an immediate decision, the evangelists focused on answering questions and counseling seekers.

Inquiry sessions give an opportunity for the lost person to find answers about Jesus and Christianity. The vocational evangelist of the future cannot rely on wowing everyone with his oratorical skills in the pulpit. He will have to be good at speaking one-on-one with people afterward.

3. Missionary Thinking

If our churches are to reclaim the need and desire for personal evangelism, leaders must train members to think and act as missionaries within their own particular context. Church members should not wait on an evangelist to do their work for them. Instead, the evangelist’s ministry should assist, come alongside, and strengthen the personal evangelism already going on in the congregation.

In their best days, revival services played this important role. But now, as fewer people engage in personal evangelism, the revival service can degenerate into a mere formality in which congregants often attend out of guilt rather than passion.

4. Weekend Evangelism or Conference Styled Services

Remember the days when a revival service might last several weeks? I don’t. But I do remember revivals that went from Sunday through Friday. Now, most revivals last from Sunday-Wednesday. And even then, we have fewer people on Monday and Tuesday nights than we’d like to admit.

There is something powerful about sitting under the Word of God preached for several nights in a row. I hate to think that Christians are now so busy that we cannot devote four consecutive nights to hearing the Word preached.

Still, realistically, if attractional evangelism is to persist into the future, the attractive part will need to be reinvented. A traveling evangelist (unless it’s Billy Graham) will probably not have the name recognition to draw a crowd from outside the church. But if church members invite others to an event (for example) on a Saturday evening, an exploration of Christianity for seekers, they may be more effective in bringing people in.

5. A focus on the urgency of the decision.

The old-time evangelists excelled at putting one’s eternal future before his or her eyes. You will either be part of God’s new world or you will perish forever. The stark knowledge that “this decision is life or death” made the evangelistic plea urgent and timely.

In contemporary society, we practically ignore death. We simply don’t want to deal with it. Death is sanitized and papered over. Whereas the coming of death was a common dread for people a hundred years ago (a high percentage of young women died in childbirth, many men died in farming accidents, and a flu epidemic could wipe out millions), that dread of death is conspicuously absent today. Because we don’t like to think about death, evangelistic calls that focus on eternity can come across as manipulation, even if they are true!

The future evangelist will have to think creatively about how to stress the urgency and importance of trusting in Christ, all the while recognizing that death is generally far from people’s minds. I’m not sure how an evangelist can accomplish this task effectively, but it’s important that we maintain an emphasis on the urgency of a decision.

What am I missing? Is there a future for vocational evangelism? If so, what kind of evangelism do you see in the future?

Here’s a fascinating interactive map that shows how internet usage has spread over the world in the past ten years.

Inside the world of Obama’s secret service:

During his presidential campaign, Obama would regularly mingle among crowds of astonishing size. But since his inauguration he has clearly responded to the guidance of his protecting agents, detaching himself considerably from direct public engagement. To some extent, that is only normal – he is no longer running in an election. But for a president who promised to break down barriers between politicians and people, it is noticeable how sparingly he is seen in public these days, and how the events he does appear at are almost invariably staged indoors.

Rainy days and Mondays can always get the pastor down. But David Murray cheers us up:

What’s the worst day of the week for pastors? Probably Monday. For the previous seven days we’ve poured ourselves into sermon preparation, pastoral visitation, counseling, evangelism, problem solving, prayer, etc. The Sunday climax (anti-climax?) has come and gone. We may have been discouraged by low attendances, limited or negative feedback, etc. Our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual reserves are in the red. Yet we have to climb the mountain all over again. Monday “blues” can very quickly become Monday “blacks.”

However, without ignoring the real difficulties, let us also remember the joys of pastoral ministry. Here are seven I try to keep before me, especially on Monday mornings.

Are there fewer male evangelicals than before? The answer, surprisingly, is “no.”

While there is a distinct trend in these data, I caution against over-interpreting them because the percentage of Evangelical men in the 2000s is not significantly different that the previous decades.  As such, it appears that it might be increasing, but there certainly isn’t clear evidence of a decline.

“What does the future look like for traveling evangelists?”

In recent days, I have heard this question asked in many forms:

• Last October at the “Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, and the Future of Denominationalism” conference, the panel was asked about the role of the evangelist.
• Baptist Press has reported that vocational evangelists lament the shrinking number of churches utilizing their services.
• In talks about the Great Commission Resurgence in Southern Baptist life, prominent leaders are asked about the role of the evangelist in the near future.

Why so much talk about the traveling evangelist? I think there are two main reasons:

The first reason is historical. Revivalism has played a large role in Southern Baptist life.

A few decades ago, it was not uncommon to see churches packed on weeknights whenever a traveling evangelist came into town. People came out in droves for stirring messages that ended with pleas for conversion. People were likely to invite unsaved friends and relatives to such events. Because Billy Graham’s crusade-style evangelism became a staple of Southern Baptist piety, it is only natural that in discussions about the future of the SBC, people would ask questions about vocational evangelism.

The second reason is driven by a present realization. Fewer churches are scheduling revival meetings and special speakers.

In the busyness of our present age, church leaders find it difficult to bring back significant numbers of their congregation for a consecutive weeknight services. At the same time, fewer young men sense the calling to vocational evangelism. I know plenty of guys my age who sense the call to ministry, whether as pastor or missionary. I don’t know anyone who says they are called to be a vocational evangelist.

Vocational evangelism has been a big part of Southern Baptist history. Why then is it on the decline? Here are five suggestions:

1. The Church Growth Movement.

I don’t think we can underestimate the influence of the Church Growth movement on Southern Baptists. Though most churches are not officially affiliated with Willow Creek or other seeker churches, the ethos of seeker-sensitive worship and preaching is deeply embedded in Southern Baptist life.

Many aspects of the Church Growth movement are to be commended. We should indeed be sensitive to the visitors and lost people in our pews. That said, there can sometimes be a tendency to downplay a confrontational approach in preaching. Since vocational evangelists intentionally seek to confront the listener with matters of eternity, usually in a powerful and emotional way, they are not as popular in churches that have embraced a softer approach to dealing with the lost.

2. Embarrassing Evangelistic Tactics

A couple years ago, a deacon told me he wanted to invite a lost co-worker and his wife to my Sunday School class. Our conversation took place one week before we were scheduled to have a revival service. But instead of seeing the revival as an opportunity for the lost couple to hear the gospel, he saw the revival as a hindrance, and wanted the person to come and hear the gospel presented by one of the staff on a normal Sunday. “You just never know what an evangelist is going to say or do,” he said.

I’m afraid that some embarrassing evangelistic tactics have spoiled people’s appetite for revival meetings on the large scale. I remember one revival speaker who gave our music minister a script to be read before the love offering, something to the effect of: “For every hundred dollars given to this ministry, a soul is saved.” Echoes of Johann Tetzel! When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.

The majority of evangelists do not resort to tasteless tactics in their preaching or altar calls. But there are enough horror stories out there to have permanently tainted the reputation of the traveling evangelist. Many evangelists will admit that the first Sunday service serves as an opportunity to introduce themselves to the church, redeem their role, and hopefully win over the congregation to attendance later on in the week.

3. Loss of Christendom.

In the past, many (if not most) people in the South had a cursory knowledge of the Christian faith. Those who did not go to church or adopt the religious beliefs of society knew which church they were not going to and which religion they were rejecting: Christianity.

Revival meetings were effective because the Holy Spirit used God-gifted men to stir the hearts of those who had turned away from the gospel. They urged the claims of Christ on the hearer and pleaded with people to “get right with God.”

Today, the South is rapidly changing. We can no longer assume that people instinctively sense the need to be in church or have a relationship with God.

Some evangelistic sermons from a previous era – when preached today – assume too much. They assume a cohesive, cultural understanding of Christianity, in which “making a decision for Christ” makes sense. But these truths can no longer be taken for granted. Christendom is disappearing, but many evangelists continue to preach as if the cultural cohesion from two generations ago is still in place.

4. The Rise of Calvinism

It is no secret that some Calvinists do not like what the invitation/altar call system. Of course, Calvinists are not alone in this assessment. My Romanian brothers and sisters actually leaned towards full-blown Arminianism, and yet they decried the altar call system and condemned the tactics of American evangelism for appealing to the emotions instead of the mind and will.

Calvinism and Revivalism have had a checkered history. In their best days, they pull at one another and keep each other from opposite errors. Revivalists can keep Calvinists from sliding into Hyper-Calvinism, which denies the need to invite people to Christ at all. Calvinists keep Revivalists from sliding into Pelagianism, which sees sinners as bound to change their own hearts before God.

Still, as the Reformed Resurgence among the younger generation continues to move forward, it is unsurprising that methods of evangelism that are more common to a “missionally Reformed” approach would be used instead of the itinerant evangelist.

5. Evangelistic Apathy.

Evangelism takes place in many forms. Revival meetings are just one method among many. I am not arguing that it is the exclusive or even the best method to bring lost people to Jesus.

But I cannot help but conclude that at least one reason why vocational evangelism is on the decline is that personal evangelism is also on the decline. I worry that the people in our pews no longer truly believe that eternity hangs in the balance when it comes to trusting in Christ for salvation.

• We see people as “unchurched” rather than unsaved.
• We see people as nominal Christians who need to be reactivated, when many times, the nominals are lost and need to be regenerated.
• Our people are practical inclusivists, regardless of what they may hear from the pulpit.
• Our burden for lost people seems to be waning.

So what does all this mean for the future of evangelistic meetings? Tomorrow, I will offer a few ideas regarding how vocational evangelism might look in the 21st century.

Scot McKnight writes about a book I am currently reading. Great Theologians gives a brief biographical sketch, a theological summary, and primary source material for eleven famous theologians. A couple years ago, I picked my top five Christian theologians (in chronological order):

• Theologian #1
• Theologian #2
• Theologian #3
• Theologian #4
• Theologian #5
• My rationale for the Top 5 picks

Tony Reinke quotes from an interview with Michael Card, which should convict us fathers and challenge us to become better dads:

One of my major themes is that you are not your gift, and my father thought he was his gift. He thought that medicine was all he was, so when he was forced to retire he died a few months later. He could not imagine living without being a doctor.

It’s the end of the world and we love it! Why people are flocking to the movies during this economic recession:

Two things are at work: First, when the economy is down, movie attendance often goes up; it has happened several times before, especially during the Great Depression. Second, people are asking, perhaps more than ever, what happens after we die—whether by natural causes or some cataclysmic event. War. Terrorism. Earthquakes. Teen-idol vampires, hell-bent robots, wandering zombies. Whatever.

Here’s how to win a copy of Meet the Puritans by Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson.

Lord, forgive us all our sin.
If any cloud has arisen to hide you from any believing eye,
take that cloud away.

If in our march through this world, so full of mire as it is, we have any spot on us,
dear Savior, wash our feet and declare us “clean.”

May we know that there is no condemnation, no separation;
sin is removed as to its separating as well as its destroying power,
and may we enter into full fellowship with God.

Perfect your work within our hearts.
We are saved, but we would be saved from sin of every form and degree;
from sins that lie within, and we are scarcely aware that they are there.

If we have any pride of which we are not conscious,
any unbelief of which we are not aware,
if there is a form of idolatry which we have not yet perceived,
we ask you, Lord, to search us as with candles
till you spy out the evil and then put it away.
We are not satisfied with pardoned sin,
We pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.”

Save us, we pray, from ordinary religion;
give us the peculiar grace of a peculiar people.
May we abide in Christ,
may we live near to God.

Lord, arouse us to a deep concern for all with whom we come in contact from day to day.
Make us all missionaries at home or in the street, or in our workshop,
wherever Providence has cast our lot, may we there shine as lights in the world.

- Charles Spurgeon, adapted