The Gospel Coalition

Christianity Today interviews Anne Rice. I’m encouraged to see the number of evangelical authors she reads, but I’m especially encouraged by this line:

Sometimes the most conservative people are the most biblically and scholastically sound. They have studied Scripture and have studied skeptical scholarship. They make brilliant arguments for the way something in the Bible reads and how it’s been interpreted. I don’t go to them necessarily to know more about their personal beliefs. It’s the brilliance they bring to bear on the text that appeals to me. Of all the people I’ve read over the years, it’s their work that I keep on my desk. They’re all non-Catholics, but they’re believers, they document their books well, they write well, they’re scrupulously honest as scholars, and they don’t have a bias. Many of the skeptical non-believer biblical scholars have a terrible bias. To them, Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, so there’s no point in discussing it. I want someone to approach the text and tell me what it says, how the language worked.

Teaching theology from a Great Commission perspective:

In a nutshell, every classroom at SEBTS should be a Great Commission classroom because every page of Scripture and every locus of doctrine relates in some way to the charge given to us above. Christian Theology is the most exciting thing that a person could possibly study, and one of the exciting things about it is that it not only drives us to ministry and mission, but shapes the same ministry and mission. At its heart, theology is missional.

More response on my “steak on a paper plate” article on worship. This from Jeff Ling:

There’s something oddly wonderful about embracing current styles while remembering on whose shoulders we stand and using those ancient words and symbols to enrich our expressions

Tod Bolsinger believes that one reason pastors burn out is because we are soul-starved:

The projection of others onto our roles, the requirement of being constantly “on”, the necessity “wooing” people who are growing more disinterested and resistant to our messages, and the stress of living professionally and personally in the “family-system” environment that is the church feeds our images and starves our true, whole, authentic-to-God selves.

“I’m not that perceptive, Lord”:

According to the Psalmist, there is another area that we become oblivious to…our sin.  The rhetorical question is asked as if the answer is obvious.  We all sin, both with the intent to break Gods law and unconsciously out of habit.  Sometimes we sin and don’t even know it.  It never registers in our heart or our head, and we move on about our day without conviction or repentance.