The Gospel Coalition

Some notes on two books I’ve read recently:

Bonhoeffer:
Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Eric Metaxas
Thomas Nelson, 2010
*****

I have been fond of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer ever since I first read The Cost of Discipleship. I had heard bits and pieces of his life story, and I knew of his involvement in the conspiracy against Hitler in the 1940′s.

But a new biography gives us a broader picture of his life and thought. Eric Metaxas shows us Bonhoeffer as a theologian of action. Bonhoeffer was not interested in theology for theology’s sake. He was determined to boldly act upon his faith, which during the Nazi era led him into ethical quandaries demanding difficult decisions.

Some have debated whether Bonhoeffer was solidly evangelical or more of a Barthian neo-orthodox thinker. Metaxas’ book describes Bonhoeffer as the former, though he would have shared Barth’s disgust at the vapid liberalism in American mainline churches.

This book ably combines a look at Bonhoeffer the theologian and Bonhoeffer the man. We are treated to portions of his letters from more than twenty years of correspondence. We are also given a glimpse into his theology through extensive quotes from his writing. I can’t recommend this biography highly enough. It’s a gem that will undoubtedly make my top ten book list of 2010.

Your Intercultural Marriage:
A Guide to a Healthy, Happy Relationship
Marla Alupoaicei
Moody, 2009
*** 1/2

Not too long ago, our family was driving through town listening to music in our car. After several songs on our playlist, I realized that not one of them had been in English! We had sung songs in Romanian, Spanish, Italian, and Latin. It was then that I remembered, Oh yeah! We’re a multicultural family.

When visiting Romania last year, Corina and I did a radio interview and were asked what it’s like to have an international marriage. Our response? “It’s the only marriage we’ve ever had. We don’t know what to compare it to!”

Your Intercultural Marriage is written by an American woman married to a Romanian man. The book places intercultural marriage within an evangelical framework. To some degree, all marriages are inter-cultural, but some (like mine, I suppose) are more intercultural than others. Marla’s book provides helpful suggestions in avoiding common cultural pitfalls.

My only disappointment with this book is its lack of emphasis on how an intercultural marriage spotlights the gospel. Of course, every marriage is intended to image the gospel. But intercultural couples, who sometimes feel disadvantaged, have an opportunity to shine light on the gospel in a unique way by bringing nation, tribe, and tongue together in one lifelong union.

I’m looking forward to the Baptist 21 panel discussion and luncheon on Tuesday, June 15 at the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando. Several books will be given away, including Holy Subversion. Here are some details:

Panel: Danny Akin, Matt Chandler, Albert Mohler, David Platt, Jimmy Scroggins, Ed Stetzer, Ronnie Floyd, Johnny Hunt

Cost: $7 (includes lunch and and books)

Discussion Topics: Gospel-centrality in life and the church, Great Commission Resurgence, Challenges facing the SBC in next year

Register Here: http://btwooneatsbc.eventbrite.com

Michael Kelley on praying for boldness, not deliverance:

Boldness, not deliverance. Extension of the gospel, not a change in circumstances. Courage, not comfort. Maybe I ought to spend a little more time praying for that type of thing rather than a band-aid for my perceived problems. Because if I did, it would show that I had a much more full grasp of how big and important the gospel really is.

Derek Ouellette is giving away six conversation-starting books this summer, including D.A. Carson’s Scandalous and N.T. Wright’s After You Believe. Click here for details.

The Russian Orthodox Church wants to strengthen ties with the pro-life West in order to toughen abortion laws:

Analysts say reducing Russia’s high abortion rate — one of the world’s highest — could be one of the keys to saving the country from a demographic disaster. Russia registered 1.2 million abortions and 1.7 million births last year, according to the Health Ministry.

It’s easy to be confused about the recommendations of the Great Commission Task Force. Through state papers, blogs and websites, the conversation about the future of the Southern Baptist Convention has been going on at a furious pace.

Whenever two points of view become overly politicized, the rhetoric heats up. Hype can eventually obscure reality, leading to misunderstandings and miscommunication on the part of both camps. GCR supporters have sometimes spoken as if this resolution will be the spark of a worldwide revival which will send renewal through the SBC. GCR detractors have sometimes spoken as if these resolutions would end the SBC as we know it and destroy all our cooperative efforts.

In this article, I wish to cut through the hype by briefly summarizing the final GCR proposal and the contending viewpoints, providing clarity regarding these recommendations.

1. Getting the Mission Right

SUMMARY: In the first recommendation, the Task Force encourages the Convention to adopt the following mission statement: As a convention of churches, our missional vision is to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations.

DEBATE: There has been no debate about this recommendation.

2. Making Our Values Transparent

SUMMARY: The Task Force recommends that Southern Baptists seek a healthy culture within the Convention by committing to the following core values: Christ-likeness, Truth, Unity, Relationships, Trust, Future, Local Church, Kingdom.

DEBATE: There has been very little debate concerning these values.

3. Celebrating and Empowering Great Commission Giving

SUMMARY: The Task Force affirms the Cooperative Program as the central means of mobilizing our churches and extending our reach. The Task Force also encourages Southern Baptists to celebrate the total dollar amount given to Southern Baptist causes (such as the Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings) . Churches will report “Great Commission Giving” by recording their gifts through the Cooperative Program as well as their gifts to other Southern Baptist causes.

DEBATE:

>>> Those who oppose this recommendation believe that the sum total of “Great Commission Giving” will dilute the value of the Cooperative Program by elevating designated gifts for specific ministries. The result will be a return to societal giving. By celebrating designated giving, churches will have less reason to support the Cooperative Program, leading to the dismantling of the current structure and the rise of special interests.

>>> Those who support this recommendation believe that the Cooperative Program is already weakened and needs to be strengthened, not by chastising churches for giving designated gifts, but by celebrating all Great Commission giving. Once churches become convinced that the ministries funded by the Cooperative Program are worth their Great Commission dollars, they will rise to the occasion and increase giving in all areas.

4. Reaching North America

SUMMARY: The Task Force recommends that the North American Mission Board (NAMB) prioritize church planting in metropolitan areas and among under-served people groups. Currently, 2/3 of CP dollars are directed to 1/3 of the population. In order to penetrate the lostness in other areas of North America, the Cooperative Agreements between NAMB and the state conventions should be phased out within seven years so as to free up NAMB for a new pattern of strategic partnership and effectiveness in church planting.

DEBATE:

>>> Those who oppose this recommendation believe that national Southern Baptist entities will be pitted against state conventions and local associations, causing them to compete for funds. By withdrawing NAMB’s financial support from newer state conventions, many good ministries will be significantly weakened, if not forced to shut down – including work in the pioneer states where lostness is the greatest. The remaining state conventions fear their evangelistic efforts will also be weakened by the lack of resources.

>>> Those who support this recommendation believe that everyone – whether at state or national entities – must be prepared to sacrifice in order to get more resources to underserved areas and the gospel to the nations. Though good ministries may be cut or altered, supporters believe it is a question of good versus best. By shifting resources to the places with least access to the gospel, frontier ministries will receive more attention. The Task Force recommends new strategic partnerships, not severing of relationship between the states and NAMB.

5. Reaching Unreached and Underserved People Groups within North America

SUMMARY: The Task Force recommends that the IMB be free to focus on underserved people groups wherever they may be found. Since large numbers of many of these people groups now reside in U.S. cities, the IMB should be free to work alongside NAMB in utilizing its linguistic skills and cultural knowledge to penetrate the lostness among these people groups, regardless of geographical location.

DEBATE:

>>> Those who oppose this recommendation believe that there could be significant overlap between the existing efforts of NAMB among underserved people groups and the IMB. Despite the claims that these two boards would work alongside one another, the possibility exists for one of the two boards to become irrelevant, which could eventually lead to one centralized board engaging in missions both at home and abroad.

>>> Those who support this recommendation believe that the IMB is better equipped to reach ethnic groups on American soil. Once the IMB’s personnel, trained in the language, culture, and religions of these people groups, begin to collaborate with NAMB and local churches, there will be a church planting movement among foreign people in North America’s urban centers. The SBC will then better reflect the truth that the gospel transcends socio-economic, national and cultural barriers.

6. Promoting the Cooperative Program and Elevating Stewardship

SUMMARY: The Task Force recommends that responsibility of promoting the Cooperative Program among local churches be transferred from the Executive Committee to the state conventions. The Executive Committee would work with the state conventions in developing a strategy for encouraging churches to increase participation and giving to the Cooperative Program.

DEBATE:

>>> Those who oppose this recommendation believe that state conventions will be expected to handle this additional responsibility, but with fewer resources. Additional responsibilities might cause the states to retain higher percentages of Cooperative Program missions money. In order to keep the cost of promotional resources down, the Executive Committee should maintain a continued, though modified, role in stewardship education and Cooperative Program promotion.

>>> Those who support this recommendation believe that state conventions have carried out stewardship education effectively because of their proximity to the churches. Encouraging the president of the Executive Committee to work alongside state convention leaders to execute a strategy for promoting the Cooperative Program will strengthen the partnership between state conventions and the national convention.

7. The Call of the Nations and the SBC Allocation Budget

SUMMARY: Currently, 50% of all Cooperative Program funds received by the Southern Baptist Convention go to the IMB. The Task Force recommends that the Convention increase this number to 51% by decreasing by 1% the budget for Facilitating Ministries. The purpose of this reallocation is to make a statement about the need to reduce denominational infrastructure and strengthen our commitment to reach the nations.

DEBATE:

>>> Those who oppose this recommendation believe that the current allocation of 50% is sufficient if churches would be challenged to set giving goals to the Cooperative Program. The proposed reallocation increases the IMB’s budget by 0.62% while decreasing the Executive Committee budget by almost 30%. Transferring two million dollars from the Executive Committee to the IMB would be unnecessary if churches would reverse the trend of keeping more money under local control.

>>> Those who support this recommendation believe that the key to increasing enthusiastic support of the Cooperative Program is demonstrating that more funds are going to the mission field. The intention behind the proposed reallocation is to make a symbolic statement that the SBC is committed to reducing infrastructure and increasing missions giving, thereby providing local churches a Great Commission motivation to increase their support of the Cooperative Program.

CONCLUSION

At the fundamental level, the GCR Task Force recommendations are about how we can best cooperate in pushing back lostness. Some of the recommendations are missional; others are about SBC culture. Some are about ministry priorities; others are about stewardship and structure. Regardless of one’s point of view, it is our Christian duty to assume the best in our brothers and sisters, seeing in each another the sincere desire for Southern Baptists to be good stewards of God’s money.

Ecological Catastrophe and the Uneasy Evangelical Conscience:

When the natural environment is used up, unsustainable for future generations, cultures die. When Gulfs are dead, when mountaintops are removed, when forests are razed with nothing left in their place, when deer populations disappear, cultures die too.

And what’s left in the place of these cultures and traditions is an individualism that is defined simply by the appetites for sex, violence, and piling up stuff. That’s not conservative, and it certainly isn’t Christian.

Summer Reading: Here is a list from Al Mohler and another from Christianity Today

Sometimes, ministry is war:

When Charles Simeon did reach the pulpit and begin his sermon, people would walk out. Some mornings, students would poke their heads through the back door of the vestry and yell out insults. At one point Simeon resorted to having ushers stand in the aisles with truncheons or clubs to threaten any of these would-be hecklers.

Sex makes babies:

Yes, contraceptives will dramatically reduce the likelihood that any given sexual act will create a new life.  If we had preserved the sexual mores of, say, 1968, we would have had a drop in the out-of-wedlock birth rate as a result… Instead, we have a 41 percent unmarried birth rate, in part because we have sexual mores predicated on an untruth. We have not really successfully severed sex from reproduction.

An oft-quoted word of wisdom about seminary education goes something like this: Don’t take classes. Take professors. In other words, the teacher makes the class. Find the teachers you want to learn from, not just the classes that look interesting.

For my first semester at Southern Seminary, I decided to take Hermeneutics (the art of interpreting the Bible), hoping it would give me a firm foundation for biblical interpretation throughout my seminary years. I wound up in the class of Dr. Robert Plummer – a young-looking professor with a quirky sense of a humor and a genuine love for the Scriptures. Though I took more than 90 credit hours of classes at SBTS besides Hermeneutics, the initial class with Plummer remained one of my favorites.

Now that I am serving in a church, I have often longed for a concise, easy-to-read primer on Hermeneutics that I could draw from for my teaching. I don’t have to wait any longer. Dr. Plummer’s book, 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible (Kregel, 2010) is, quite frankly, the best Hermeneutics resource that I’ve come across.

The format makes it easily accessible. You can easily look up the question you want to answer. You can read straight through or skip around. I’ve been drawing heavily from it for a Hermeneutics class I’ve taught this spring at our church.

The strength of Plummer’s book is the variety of the questions he tackles: text transmission, questions of canon, how to determine meaning, approaching specific genres, etc. I was pleased to see his Hermeneutics course put together into this book. I was also happy to see his quirky sense of humor shine through. Here’s an example regarding Matthew’s typological use of Isaiah 7:14:

If we could go back in time to just after Isaiah penned chapter 7, verse 14 (reporting the prophet’s earlier interchange with Ahaz), the dialogue might go like this:

Plummer: “Pardon me, Isaiah. I’m from the distant future, and I’ve come back to chat with you. I was peeking over your shoulder, and I just noticed that you wrote that prophecy down about the promised child. Is that about Jesus?”

Isaiah: “Who is Jesus?”

Plummer: “Jesus is the coming Messiah who conquers sin and death forever.”

Isaiah: “Hallelujah! I didn’t know his name, but I knew he was coming. What do you mean by asking, ‘Is this text about Jesus?’”

Plummer: “Well, in the future, before the Messiah is born, God promises through his angel that a virgin will give birth, similar to the events in your day. Matthew, one of God’s messengers in Jesus’ day, says that this text of yours was pointing to the Messiah.”

Isaiah: “Yes, I see. Just as God signified his coming intervention with the supernatural birth of a child in my day, so in the final deliverance, again he promises the supernatural birth of a child. The historical parallels show God’s consistent intentions! Of course, not knowing exactly how God would repeat his deliverance, I was not fully conscious of the final typological correspondence until you told me. But, I knew later deliverances were coming. I wrote this text, consciously knowing it might be reiterated in a later, parallel, heightened saving event. Yes, yes, of course that is a valid use. That’s what is called biblical typology, with a correspondence between earlier events (the type[s]) and later events (the antitype[s]).”

Plummer: “Thanks for talking with us, Isaiah.”

Isaiah: “Shalom.”

There are a number of ways that a pastor can use this material. He can utilize the materials most relevant to his current situation and most helpful for his congregation. He can use it for himself, as an aid in his own Bible study. Or he can summarize sections into smaller chunks for a small group course.

I don’t agree with everything in Plummer’s book. (For example, I have doubts about authorial intent being the only determining factor of a text’s meaning; likewise, I’m open to the fourfold sense of Scripture, within reason). But I still can’t think of a more helpful introduction to Hermeneutics than this one. Get 40 Questions and use it. You won’t be disappointed.

Going to college doesn’t ensure a good job. Skipping college doesn’t mean you won’t do fine. An article that goes against conventional wisdom:

A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all. It’s time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so.

Time lists the fifty worst inventions, including the Segway, New Coke, Farmville, and Hair in a Can.

An interesting story about the descendant of a slave sitting down for a meal with the descendant of a slave owner.

“My name is Phoebe Kilby, and I am white,” the note began. ”Martin Luther King had ‘a dream that … the sons of former slaves and slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of Brotherhood.’ Perhaps, we as daughters can contribute to fulfilling that dream.”

Twitter is not real:

My caution to all my friends on Twitter, be careful.  Don’t believe what the updates are telling you all the time.  It’s not real.  There are thousands if not millions of updates that go unannounced that, were we to know them, would change the “face” of Twitter.