The Gospel Coalition

On Friday, Ed Stetzer announced that I am undertaking a new assignment – editor of a new curriculum from LifeWayChristian Resources.

As one of the largest providers of Christian resources in the world, LifeWay plays a unique role in spiritual formation and discipleship. I am excited about taking part in the launch and development of a new curriculum for small groups and Sunday School classes.

My wife and I believe that this position will be a good use of my gifts in the coming years. After much prayer and counsel, we are ready to take this step.

Yesterday, I announced to our church that the Lord is directing our path into a new avenue of ministry. It is a blessing to see how God providentially places people in our path, people who play important roles during key moments in life’s journey. If you look back over your life, you can think of people whose paths crossed yours, for a certain time and in a certain place and for a certain purpose. First Baptist Church of Shelbyville, TN has been such a place for us.

In the four years we have been in Shelbyville, I have learned about church administration, about teaching and preaching, about reaching out to the community, and about the love of a healthy congregation. Our departure is bittersweet. We are sad to leave our church family; yet we are excited about what God has in store for us.

The opportunity to develop curriculum at LifeWay is very exciting to me personally. For a long time, I have wanted to use a curriculum that was theologically robust, mission-focused, and centered in the grand narrative of Scripture: material that connects the dots from all the stories of the Bible to the great Story and the great Savior at the center of it all. I’m thankful that the Lord is giving me the opportunity to launch this curriculum line, and I pray that it will be of great service to the Church.

Ed includes some more details about the curriculum launch:

Curriculum lines are an opportunity for significant ministry. It is the medium that explains a biblical passage to thousands upon thousands of people. For example, one of our dated curriculum lines (there are multiple lines for adults) has a million users every Sunday. It is amazing that a small team of people can be used in such a broad manner to influence others for the gospel of the kingdom.

LifeWay will be starting a new line that is called, at the moment, “Telios.” That may or may not be the final name, but it is our working name for a new curriculum that will be theologically-robust, mission-driven, and built around the narrative of the Scriptures. We will be pulling together an advisory team to help us consider how best to do that– expect more on that soon. We’ll also be asking for input on this curriculum from our readers here and at Trevin’s blog.

I will be serving as General Editor of the curriculum line but the hard work will be done by Trevin as the editor. We are excited to have him on the team.

I’ll be giving periodic updates on the development of this new material. In the meantime, please be in prayer for me and my family as we make this transition. We need your prayers as we get ready to serve the kingdom in a new way.

The Abolitionists’ Scandal:

William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect founded Sierra Leone, then tolerated a form of slavery there, a new book reveals.

Don’t create a new law for yourself:

There are two “laws” we can choose to live by other than Christ: the law which says “I can find freedom and fullness of life if I keep the rules” or the law which says “I can find freedom and fullness of life if I break the rules.” Either way you’re still trying to “save” yourself—which means both are legalistic because both are self-salvation projects.

“Extremist” is a Theological Category:

On The View yesterday, America’s love affair with religious pluralism took the conversation in a direction that deserves further reflection. During the show, Joy Behar and Whoopie Goldberg took issue with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, stomping off the stage in protest after he explained that 70% of Americans are against the building of the Mosque near Ground Zero because it was Muslims who attacked America on 9/11/2001.

Hitchens brothers argue “merits” of religion in times of suffering

O God,
You have glorified our victorious Savior
with a visible, triumphant resurrection from the dead,
and ascension into heaven, where he sits at your right hand.

Grant, we beg you,
that his triumphs and glories may ever shine in our eyes,
to make us more clearly see through his sufferings,
and more courageously endure our own;
being assured by his example,
that if we endeavor to live and die like him,
for the advancement of your love in ourselves and others,
you will raise our dead bodies again,
and conforming them to his glorious body,
call us above the clouds,
and give us possession of your everlasting kingdom.

- John Wesley

Julie Rose’s new translation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables is terrific. On Saturdays, I am sharing some quotes worth pondering (see first, second, third and fourth collections here):

“The peculiar thing about prudery is that, the less the fortress is under threat, the more it puts sentries around.” (501)

“A skeptic sticking to a believer – it is as elementary as the law of complementary colors. What we lack attracts us. No one loves daylight more than the blind. The dwarf adores the drum major. The toad always has his eyes on the heavens. Why? To see the birds fly.” (543)

“The wonderful thing about the clash of young minds is that you can never predict the spark or foresee the lightning flash of the explosion it sets off.” (554)

“Many great deeds are performed in the small struggles of life.” (560)

“A creditor is worse than a boss; for a boss only owns your person, but a creditor owns your dignity and can slap it around.” (563)

“The looks women throw out are like the moving parts of certain machines that look innocuous enough but are deadly.” (586)

“Might, even the most apparently necessary, even the most accepted by contemporaries, if it exists only as might and if it contains all too little right or no right at all, is infallibly doomed to become warped, vile, maybe even monstrous over time.” (679)

“Revolutions have tremendous arms and lucky hands; they hit hard and choose their targets well.” (682)

“A social deformity perhaps even more awful that the evil rich: the evil poor.” (706)

“A certain amount of daydreaming is good, like a narcotic in descreet doses. It sedates the sometimes high fevers of the overwrought brain at work and produces a soft fresh vapor in the mind that smooths out the oversharp points of pure thought, fills up the gaps and holes here and there, binds things together and blunts the jagged corners of ideas. But too much daydreaming drags you under and drowns you. Woe to the person who works with their brain who lets themselves sink completely from thinking to daydreaming? That person thinks they’ll l climb out again easily, and tells themselves that it’s the same thing after all. Thinking is the labor of the intellect, daydreaming is its sensual pleasure. To replace thinking with daydreaming is to confound poison with food. …The slack mind cannot tightly embrace life. (708)

“The soul that loves and that suffers has attained the sublime.” (709)

“Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has greater vision?” (728)

Seven links for your weekend reading:

1. Malcolm Gladwell: Small Change – Why the Revolution Won’t Be Tweeted

2. Neal Ascherson reviews Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, a book about why Auschwitz and Siberia are only half the story

3. Danny Akin: Why I Will Remain Passionate about a Great Commission Resurgence among Southern Baptists

4. David Wayne gives an update on the ups and downs of living with cancer. “The ups come when we turn our attention to what Christ has done for us, the downs come when we turn our attention to all we must do for Him.”

5. Ryan Kelly: Missional One More Time

6. So 18% of Americans think Obama is a Muslim? Christianity Today shows that 18% of Americans believe even bigger absurdities.

7. Will the Real Bonhoeffer Please Stand Up?

Yesterday, I posted a lengthy summary of Worship by the Book, a book by D.A. Carson with contributions from Tim Keller, Mark Ashton and R. Kent Hughes. Today, I’m posting some personal thoughts on this popular book about worship.

Worship by the Book is a treasure chest of biblical teaching on the subject of worship. The authors are concerned about preserving the God-centered nature of worship in their respective traditions. Each viewpoint has something to add to the discussion, though many of the disagreements between the various traditions can be traced back more to cultural conditioning than biblical conviction.

Ashton writes boldly in favor of the Book of Common Prayer, and we must agree that Thomas Cranmer’s legacy is one for which we should be thankful and also seek to emulate. However, Ashton fails to distance himself at all from his tradition as he seeks to walk in Cranmer’s legacy. His chapter seems to address more the wayward Anglican church rather than the wider evangelical audience who would be puzzled by the insistent use of a prayer book in the first place.

For this reason, though his insights are helpful, his chapter feels disconnected from the rest of the book. To more persuasively make the case for liturgical worship over against contemporary forms and expression, he might have approached his chapter differently.

Just as Ashton follows in the footsteps of Cranmer, Keller follows in the footsteps of John Calvin. Keller’s chapter is more helpful than Ashton’s, for his insights are relevant for all evangelicals. By staying above the “historic worship versus contemporary worship” wars, Keller is able to claim the high ground and then to show how Calvin’s way best leads us out of the theological fog surrounding worship in our churches today.

The best part of Keller’s chapter is his description of the praise, renewal and commitment cycles of a worship service. This is a helpful proposal, flexible enough to be applied in various cultures and services in various ways.

Keller chooses professionalism over authenticity in his decisions regarding musical quality and choice of musicians (238-239). This leads to one of the biggest differences between the authors: who can be a musician? Hughes believes that the character of the musicians matter, that their service to God is an act of worship and that they must be living their lives “consistently with the music they lead” (171). In contrast, Keller advocates the use of non-Christian musicians who possess the natural gifts of God (239).

The book provides no resolution to this and other disagreements. I would have liked to see Carson to write a closing chapter in which he addresses some of the disagreements and then comes down on one side or the other.

Conclusion

Worship by the Book deserves to be read by a wide audience. The authors bring out the best of their traditions and are able to offer sound insights into the nature of biblical worship. Each contributor offers sound, practical advice for all who are involved in corporate worship. Ultimately, it is God’s glory that we must seek in our worship practice for it is in him that we delight.

Envisioning a new business project? Check this out. (Hilarious!)

America’s four gods:

Baylor sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader have conducted research into people’s conception of God. They found that Americans have four different assumptions about what God is like. They also found correlations between the kind of God someone believes in and their political and moral beliefs. Here are America’s four Gods…

Justin Buzzard on the rescue of Chilean miners:

This historic rescue involves incarnation-like movement: The rescuer leaves the safety above to descend into a dark and dangerous place where his help is needed, taking on the attire of those he is sent to rescue.

Church forgives thief and welcomes him into membership:

At Sunday morning’s service, praise and music echoed as loud as ever. That’s because the burglar returned for forgiveness. ”He wanted prayer. He wanted help so they wouldn’t get him,” Scott said. “And ironically, the name of the church is The Embassy, so we protected him, and today he showed back up to church. We prayed for him. He cried and joined the church.”

What is worship?

What does worship look like?

How can we best worship corporately?

Worship by the Book brings together D.A. Carson, Mark Ashton, R. Kent Hughes, and Tim Keller to offer thought-provoking insights into the nature of corporate worship by approaching the subject from their differing church traditions.

Summary

Worship by the Book does not attempt to lay out a comprehensive theology of corporate worship. The book instead focuses on matters related to worship practice. The authors each bring their area of expertise to bear on the subject at hand, always seeking to keep worship God-focused and the edification of the church at the forefront of their minds.

The book begins with D.A. Carson’s scholarly attempt to define worship. He denotes the difficult task that lays before him, for the church heatedly debates the stylistic aspects of worship (11-13), the diversity of current options leads some to lock into their own tradition at the exclusion of the wider church (13-14), and there already exists a wide variety of opinions as to how worship should be defined (14-15).

In short, Carson’s exposition of Robert Shaper’s definition leads us to see worship in the following way:

“Worship is the proper response of human beings to God, precisely because he is worthy and delightfully so” (26-34).

From there, Carson analyzes how on this side of the Fall, our worship is a response to God’s redemptive work (34-38), how all worship is God-centered (38-41), and how Christian worship is Christ-centered (41-42). Then, he claims that Christian worship is Trinitarian (42-43) and that it embraces both adoration and action (43-44).

With the New Testament as our guide, Christians seek to follow God’s instructions in worshipping Him correctly in anticipation of the final consummation that Christians await (44-58). Carson closes with some practical conclusions that lead into the next part of the book, a collection of essays built on Carson’s biblical analysis which reveal different paradigms for corporate worship.

Mark Ashton and C.J. Davis open the practical section of the book by approaching worship from the Anglican high church tradition.

Ashton praises Thomas Cranmer’s Prayer Book as playing a “central role in… keeping the Bible at the heart of a nation’s life” (65). Though the Book of Common Prayer has a rich history and is filled with biblical teaching, recent revisions have watered down the truth of God’s Word and the new liturgy has created an “identity crisis” for Anglicans (66). Ashton takes us back to Cranmer’s achievement by laying out the reformer’s aims (intelligibility, edification, and corporateness) (69). He then shows how the Prayer Book is biblical (70-72), accessible (72-74) and balanced (74-75).

Ashton devotes the rest of his chapter to promoting the legacy of Cranmer and denouncing the human-centered perspective evident in the liturgical revisions brought about by the Church of England. He believes that all worship leaders should analyze their services and sermons and ask if they are biblical, accessible and balanced (82-88). He then adds various principles related to service structure, music, prayers, testimony, announcements, and special services celebrating Communion and baptism.

R. Kent Hughes leads us to the other end of the worship spectrum and offers a taste of free-church worship. Hughes respects the high-church tradition of worship, but finds the historical free-church critique of the liturgical view to be justified. He describes how preaching suffers in the Anglican tradition and that the Puritans (the fathers to the free-church tradition) were correct in maintaining a weighty exposition of Scripture (143-144). Anglican dissenters advocated the reading of full chapters from Old and New Testaments, denounced the short, rote prayers of the prayer book, and prized singing, simplicity and modesty (144-146). Though Hughes agrees with the free-church critique, he admits that recent days have led to a “free-fall to pragmatism” (147) with the de-biblicizing of corporate worship.

Hughes now lists six distinctives of Christian worship:

• it is God-centered (149-151),
• Christ-centered (152-155),
• Word-centered (155-158),
• consecrated (159-160),
• whole-hearted (160-163),
• reverent (163-166).

These six distinctives must be present in every worship service, even if the forms of worship differ according to culture. Hughes then gives some biblical advice about music in worship. He argues that music must serve the preaching, not distract from it (167) and that musical participation is required of every worshiper (168). Musical selection is important (169), musicians matter (171), and the congregation is in fact the chief instrument (171).

Tim Keller writes from the Reformed tradition, and he quickly states his displeasure with simplistic “worship wars” that promote only one style of service attached to a particular culture (be it a contemporary culture or a historic European one) (197). Keller looks to John Calvin’s practice for insights into the biblical nature of worship. What he finds is a variety of differing styles (199) that all maintain the Bible as the source and supreme authority for worship (202).

Reformed worship should reaffirm Calvin’s “core commitment” to the rediscovery of the biblical gospel of unmerited and free grace.

“God’s grace comes to us as a word to believe, rather than as a deed to be performed” (208).

Keller then lists some of the specific traits of reformed corporate worship. Its form and language is simple; its goal is to bring people face to face with the transcendent God; the rhythm and flow of the service reenacts the Gospel (208-217). Keller claims that worship services should be broken down into three main sections:

• praise,
• renewal,
• commitment.

The worship practice of his church shows this three-fold aspect in each of the varying services.

Tomorrow, I will provide some personal thoughts on some of the issues addressed in Worship by the Book.

Christianity in China – an irreducible complexity:

Fifteen years later, the question of how many Christians there actually are in China is still a vexed one, yielding a wide range of answers. The preoccupation offers at least one insight into Western as much as Asian minds: the reality and seriousness of a phenomenon tends to become perceptually proportional to our capacity to quantify it.

Ed Stetzer on the influence (or lack) of Twitter:

Our greatest realm of influence will be in the lives of the people God has actually sent us to. It’s possible, and good, to use Twitter as a tool for spreading influence, but I would encourage us all to focus on those around us with whom we can share more than 140 characters, but also our lives.

Tom Schreiner answers the question: What does Paul mean by “the righteousness of God”?

When Paul speaks of the “righteousness of God” and “righteousness,” he refers to our right-standing with God, the fact that we are now in a new and right relationship with him. The word does not mean that God’s people are internally transformed by his grace. Certainly such transformation is part of Paul’s theology as well, but the point being made here is that God’s gracious work in changing sinners is not communicated by the phrase “righteousness of God.”

Yoga wars: A couple weeks ago, Al Mohler wrote a post condemning the use of yoga among Christians. Surprised by the response, Mohler followed up his original post with an update (“Count the cost when you talk about yoga. These people get bent out of shape fast.”) This week, John Mark Reynolds joined the discussion, disagreeing with Mohler and calling for Christian imagination in appropriating cultural practices from other religions. My take on all this? If you’re going to do stretches and meditate on God’s Word, don’t call it yoga. And please, folks, no emails…

Disciple-makers know great joys. We also know great heartaches. But sometimes, it’s the people who bring you the greatest joy who eventually cause you the greatest heartache.

Perhaps you’ve been in my shoes. You led someone to Christ, and you faithfully sought to pour your life into them. You discipled them to the best of your ability. You welcomed them into your home. You sought to live an exemplary life before them.

But after a period of time, they turned around and went back to their old life. They left you and your church.

So you prayed for them. You pleaded with them. All to no avail. They fell back into their former worldliness and disappeared. And week after week, their absence shouts at you:

You failed them.

You mistook their initial enthusiasm for true conversion.

What kind of minister are you? You couldn’t keep them on the narrow path.

See what happens when you open your heart and life to someone?

Eventually, God brings another person along for you to disciple. But you find that – this time – it’s just a little harder to pour your life into them. It’s harder to give your all when it comes to their growth and discipleship. You don’t verbalize your thoughts, but your heart has them:

What’s the use of pouring your life into them if they wind up like the other?

What if they let you down too?

What if they are only here for a season?

The ache you feel for your earlier disciple keeps you from fully engaging the next one the Lord has for you.

You are not alone. The Apostle Paul once counted Demas as a fellow worker. But in Paul’s last letter, he tells Timothy:

Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica…

It’s not hard to read between the lines and sense Paul’s sorrow. He wants to see Timothy (at least partly) because Demas has deserted him.

Of course, Paul’s biggest concern is that Demas’ soul is in peril. His former disciple’s love for the world is a demonstration of his lack of love for God. Make no mistake: Paul is concerned with Demas’ soul and destiny.

But that’s not all that grieves the Apostle. Paul needs companionship, partnership, and encouragement. So he tells Timothy to come to him soon. Paul is saying, I need you, Timothy. Demas is gone. In other words, It hurts. Bad.

Perhaps you’ve discipled a Demas before. If so, then you know the hurt that accompanies their desertion. You are deeply disappointed by their decisions. You can feel your spirit deflate whenever you think about where they are right now. You may even question your effectiveness as a minister.

In that moment of grief, you’ve got two choices. The first choice is to let your hurt turn into bitterness. The root of bitterness will keep you from giving yourself to the next person God brings your way. Bitterness constructs a wall around your heart in order to guard you from future hurt. Go this direction and you will never have another Demas to deal with. But you won’t ever raise up a Titus either.

The other choice is to stay grounded in the gospel, the only news that brings joy in the midst of pain. That’s what Paul does. He doesn’t turn bitter. He doesn’t deny his sorrow. Instead, he leans on other partners in the gospel and tells them, “I need you.”

Armed with faith in the power of the gospel and confidence that God’s plan cannot be thwarted, Paul moves forward. He keeps making plans. Bring the parchments. Bring Mark too. Bring my cloak. Hurt or no hurt, Paul maintains a steadfast joy in the sovereignty of God as he keeps on pursuing the kingdom and proclaiming the gospel.

Pray for your Demas. Weep over him. Beg God for him. But don’t let Demas steal your joy. Don’t let Demas rob you of your passion for discipling others. God will continue to bring people to you. The reason you can keep working is because the gospel never stops.

People like Demas will come and go. Yes, your next disciple may be a Demas. But it could be that the next one is your Timothy.