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Category Archive: Culture
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Another Silly Customer Story: Heaven
A customer was browsing our store recently and as she was passing by an end cap displaying Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven she said, “Ooh, another story of someone who went to Heaven?” as she took it off the shelf and began to read the back. “No”, I said. “It’s a book about heaven, but Alcorn has not gone there himself.” “Eww” she said as she promptly repositioned the book on the shelf. ”Why would anybody want to read a book about Heaven written by someone who hasn’t even been there?”
No joke. She actually did just say that.
Although her question was meant to be rhetorical, I decided to answer it anyways. “Well because in those other books people will tell you that they went to heaven, but in Alcorn’s book you will find out what the Bible actually says on the subject”.
“Oh“, she snarled, “there’s that.” Conversation ended.
Ya, there’s that. You know. This little thing we Protestants like to call sola scriptura. My concern – and desire – is not to pick on this one customer, but to observe a growing trend among conservative evangelicals. When books like 90 Minutes in Heaven and Heaven is For Real rise to the top of Bestseller charts in North America, and sustain their presence there, while those very same buyers avoid books like Alcorn’s Heaven or Wright’s Surprised by Hope, there’s a problem. A serious problem.
Tagged Heaven, Heaven is For Real, N.T. Wright, Randy Alcorn
Never Mind Andrew’s Sin, What About Mars Hill’s Sin?
About a quadrillion people read Matthew Paul Turners article the other day about a guy named Andrew, a member of Mars Hill (Mark Driscoll’s church), who had committed a sin. Andrew was engaged when one night he messed around with a woman who was not his fiancee. He stopped short of sex – feeling convicted – confessed to his fiancee the next day and also to a leader and friend in his study group. Soon other leaders knew about his sin – the sexual one and the deceit of not confessing sooner – and the leaders sought to help him. He willing submitted himself to their authority. He endured meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. Okay. Fine. Situations like these take time to work through. I get that. But the problem here is that the meetings involved so many people. These are delicate situations that need to be handled delicately. If Andrew was repentant, cooperative and actively seeking restoration, than the proper pastoral thing to do is to keep the situation as tightly knit as possible. That means the fewer the hands involved, the better.
After several months of these meetings, Andrew surprisingly received a “disciplinary contract” outlining his sins and responsibilities. I could see how this could be very confusing. He had spent months submitting to the leadership of the church, cooperating and confessing repeatedly. Is a ‘disciplinary contract’ really necessary (or even biblical)? I suppose when a church becomes an institution everything becomes red tape.
I wonder how many counselling sessions the man living in sexual immorality in the Corinthian church had to endure before he was considered restored (1 Cor 5)? The difference here (and this is a big difference) is that the man in sexual sin in Corinth was not interested in repentance, so Paul instructs the church to put him out. But Andrew was the one to bring up his sin and seek repentance. Don’t underestimate the significance of that fact.
When the man in the Corinthian church finally repented, lets face it, he probably poured his heart out before God, had a long conversation with his leaders who then forgave him and allowed him back into fellowship. We can’t be sure, but at the least I doubt he had a million meetings to endure and a disciplinary contract to sign. The church is more organic than that. It’s Christ’s body. The man repented and sought forgiveness. Let it be done. If he needs counselling that is a separate matter from “church discipline”. If he’s being counselled it’s because he needs help, but if he’s being disciplined it’s because he’s in rebellion and sin. Which of the two – given Andrew’s actions up to the point of the “disciplinary contract” (based on the information we have) – should he have undergone, counseling for help, or discipline for sin and rebellion?
Paul tells the Corinthian church after the man repented and sought forgiveness, “you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.” (2 Cor 2:7). Let’s get one thing straight: the leaders of Mars Hill should have done this MONTHS ago, right after Andrew confessed his sin, repented and sought help. THAT is when forgiveness and affirming love should have taken place. The meetings should have been approached not as discipline, but as discipleship(!) and a ‘disciplinary contract’ should have never seen the light of day (Consider the dire parallel: if we still require discipline after we repent and seek forgiveness, should God still punish us by sending us to purgatory? Or have we been forgiven? And should not the church then do the same, remembering that God will only forgive us according to the measure we forgive others! Matt 6:12?).
At this point Andrew realizes he’s in the wrong place. He was correct to sense intuitively that the leaders had entered – intentionally or not – into an abusive posture towards him. This was no longer a God-honoring direction. What should he have done? Who could he have gone to? Should he have just laid down and allowed these charades to continue? When would it have stopped? He knew that he had to go. It was the only option that would prevent him from becoming the victim. There are other godly churches and other godly leaders who could help him.
So Andrew sent a reply removing himself from the situation and from Mars Hill. A leader sent him a reply to his reply urging him to reconsider and, in fact, warning him that leaving will result in “escalation”. That “escalation” was a published letter to the congregation announcing all of Andrew’s sins and instructing them on how to respond should Andrew seek to talk and hang out with any of them.
The way the church leaders handled the situation at Mars Hill is precisely backwards to Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians. Paul tells them to send out the unrepentant sinner and when he repents, to embrace him and forgive him and reaffirm their love for him. But Mars Hill excommunicated the repentant brother and rather than affirming him, they publically humiliated him.
The leaders seek Matthew 18 as grounds for their actions. There’s a problems with that. In Matthew Jesus is talking about someone who is unwilling to concede his sin and seek repentance whereas Andrew was a repentant believer who was seeking restoration. There was no need for “two or three witnesses” to go to Andrew because it was Andrew who sought to confess to two witnesses. Therefore the escalation of Matthew 18 does not apply to this situation.
Now, the thing is, while not minimizing Andrew’s sin, I’d like to point out that the leadership of Mars Hill has effectively lead their entire congregation into sin. We have been talking about Andrew’s sin, but what about the sins committed by the leaders? The sin of abuse of power? The sin of manipulation? The sin of twisting the Bible to keep a brother down? Who’s going to hold the leaders of Mars Hill responsible?
I understand the desire many of us have to hope and see the best in our spiritual leaders, but my rose coloured glasses were knocked off my face in 1997 – and a few times since. Abuses in church leadership happen as leaders develop a sense of entitlement. I know. I can count a half a dozen different and unrelated instances that I have witness first hand. The temptation for authoritative abuse is substantial and addictive. It spreads like cancer throughout an entire leadership team. It becomes like a drug you don’t even know your addicted too. We should not minimize this sin. We often look at pastors who have scandalously fallen into “moral sin” which often means sins having to do with sex or money. But abuse of God’s people and a misuse of God’s word is also a moral sin (James 3:1).
This is one of the problems with how we run the church today. Corporate Christianity, it comes in all shapes and sizes. And who’s going to hold the boys at the top responsible? Until now there has not been much by way of widespread accountability (since leaders of the same chicken coop tend to cluck together). But the blogosphere is changing that. For the better or worse, the broader Christian community has for the first time the ability to stand up – the multitudes who have been victimized by authoritative abuse by church leaders – and hold them accountable. Just read the hundreds of comments left under Turner’s post. Each one tells a story of abuse. And of course, I have my own story to tell.
I should point out that I serve on the board of my church and have loads of respect for my pastor. I have no axe to grind toward church leadership in general. But at some point we have to admit, in terms of our Christian culture, that we have a real problem and misunderstanding of what “authority” means in the body of Christ today.
[Addendum: I realized that Matthew's post only tells one side of the story. Fair enough. But if that story is only 50% true - I'm inclined to think it's more than that, but for sake of argument - that still leaves us with a church leadership that has abused it's power. Nobody is minimizing what Andrew did (and certainly not Andrew who willing confessed and underwent months of counselling), but there were plenty of serious sins committed by all parties involved. At least Andrew has shown an attitude toward repentance. It'll be interesting to see if Mars Hill will make any public statements on the matter from the pressure of the blogospher. Though experience in these situations tells me it is unlikely.]
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Kill a Tree so I can Read
Remember the days of Napster when digit music first began to circulate the web unabated until a war broke out between them and the music industry at large? There was an immediate reaction against the genesis of the digit music age by an industry that was gripped with the fear that Darwin’s natural selection hypothesis would mean the end of a previously hitherto thriving industry. But then Steve Jobs came along and performed what must have seemed to be a miracle to many people on both sides of the debate. He managed to convince the powers-that-be in the music industry that the best way for them to survive is to adapt and evolve. The iPod as born and the music industry, as they say, has never been the same since.
The music industry is thriving, but not all of it. See, there’s this little thing called brick and mortar retail that used to sell these round things that came in thin plastic cases. They called them “CD’s” which stood for “compact discs”. Archaeologists and histories tell us that a giant digital meteorite collided with the music industry resulting in the extinction of CD’s as we knew it. Well, actually, we’re not quite there. But just about.
The movie industry is on the same track, though things are not spinning quite as fast as they did with the music industry. But as the line between “computers” and “television” continues to blur it won’t be long before the digital age sends DVD’s (and Bluray’s) reeling off into oblivion. Just consider Blockbuster, perhaps the largest video rental and sales company for about a decade. I used to love going to Blockbuster to rent the latest movie, but not long ago Blockbuster has shut down all of their brick and mortar outlets and has reconstructed themselves as an online digital download company to compete (and overtake?) companies like Netflix.
The world is changing at rapid speeds spinning the populace into a dizzying stupor making it almost impossible to stay up with the latest trends in technology. Almost. But people are proving as resilient as ever. According to a recent poll by Christian Retailer, 56% “of all respondents to the survey… own an e-reader, up from 26% who did last time we asked” in January 2010. We’re also seeing a decline in people who read books printed with paper and ink. In reality people will probably read books on paper and ink for a long, long time and simply incorporated ebooks into their lives. I know I have.
There are many advantages to the ebook format. For starters when a book goes digital a whole world of possibilities opens up (many of which have not been tapped yet). You can still highlight and make notes as you could in a regular book, but now you can easily sift through your highlights and notes without having to leaf through page after page looking for the spot you marked. This becomes handy especially when doing research when you need to find something you’ve read but can’t remember exactly where you read it. Another advantage is that ebooks are more convenient. In fact, when Christian Retailer asked people what was their biggest motivation for purchasing an e-reader, “convenience of reading” was the number one reason at 56% while “convenience of buying” came in at second place at 20%. This Christmas my wife asked for her first e-reader for those two very reasons.
Yet there was another advantage to ebooks that, I think, is beginning to fade. Low costs. I still prefer the old “kill a tree so I can read” model. I like the sensation of holding a good book and flipping the pages. When I purchase ebooks, I do for two reasons. The first reason is low cost and the second is convenience to buy. When Scot McKnight promoted his first ebook recently for only $2.99, (Junia Is Not Alone) I didn’t hesitate to download it on the spot. I had it read and reviewed on my blog a few hours later. It’s the new cash-counter impulse buy. But I think the winds are beginning to change. Electronic retailers know that people own e-readers because of convenience to read and convenience to buy, but with that blend of reasons, they are happy the raise the prices of ebooks. If they want the reading convenience and the buying convenience then perhaps they are willing to pay. I don’t know and am only speculating at this point. But when recently I wanted to purchase a copy of Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson on Amazon.com I was amazing and appalled that the price of the e-version of the book costs more than the price of the hardcover. More.
At the time of the writing of this article Amazon lists the hardcover book of Steve Jobs biography at $17.49 while the kindle price for the ebook is currently going for $20.52 with the print listing price at $35.00. And recently I looked up the price for Lee Strobel’s A Case For Christ for a friend only to discover that while Amazon was selling it for $9.27, the kindle ebook version is currently going for $13.43 with the print listing price at $14.99. This represents supply and demand at its finest. The overhead for ebooks is significantly less than print books, but we’re paying more for them in many instances. (In case you’re wondering, I have the hardcover copy of Steve Jobs biography on order with the added $3.00 shipping cost.)
Where does all of this leave the brick and mortar retail (Christian) bookstore? I think I am in one of the most depressing middle-class industries. As the marketing and advertising manager I feel like a failure. “An uphill battle” is no longer a suitable metaphor to describe the kind of challenges small Christian retailers are facing today. It’s possible, probable, likely even, that one day in the not too distant future brick and mortar Christian retail stores will go the way of the dinosaur. They will always exist in some shape or other just as dinosaur’s still exist today if you count reptiles and the such, but only in connection to seminaries and churches or as extensions of large online wholesalers like Indigo. You’ll probably find small pockets of Christian retailers selling giftware for religious occasions and there will no doubt be a small book section taking up space in them. But by-and-large I’m overcome with pessimism. Not because the book industry is in danger, it’s not! Like the music and the movie industry, these are exciting times for booksellers and authors. I’m a little pessimistic, perhaps a little depressed, because as each old year ends and a new one begins when I am forced to look back on the past years revenues and crunch the numbers, I see the chart with all arrows point downward. I feel like I’ve been treading waters for seven years, I’m getting tired and beginning to swallow it in as I struggle to keep my head afloat.
So yah, I have bleak expectations for the future of the brick and mortar Christian retail store, but I am also excited for the new technologies that are changing our world. We shouldn’t fight against them. Change is inevitable and we should learn to embrace it.
But this post, in case you’ve missed it, is quite personal. It’s not really an article about cultural trends. Rather I’ve written this article to reflect on my own future. As a new year begins I’m forced to ask myself one very serious question: where will I be in twelve months from now?
I’m convinced that if I’m in the same place then I’m in the wrong place.
For Your Weekend Reading
- Brian LePort surveys the recent Driscoll-Evans-Bradley controversy and offers some well-to-do insight.
- Roger Olson shares why he defends controversial books like Love Wins.
- Jeff Cook offers a stimulating “response” to Chan and Sprinkles new book, Erasing Hell.
- While on the subject of Love Wins and Erasing Hell and God Wins (Mark Gailli’s book) my friend Craig provides many current discussion links and gives his thoughts on Erasing Hell (which are generally in line with my own here):
There aren’t many books on the topic of Hell, and most of those that do exist are pretty bad. So, Chan’s book stands out as a well stated and succinct defense. The bibliography and footnotes are quite good, as well.
Yes, the book has a Calvinistic approach. Yes, I have… ehem! issues with this topic. Yes, I am interested in any and all rebuttal. However, the authors should be commended for making such a solid contribution to the public debate on these issues
- Billy Birch asks, Did Arminius influenced early Anabaptists? And while on the subject of Arminius, the Arminian Evangelical Society gives a brief overview of Arminian Theology.
- Watch a group of guys from the Gospel Coalition discuss discuss the Gospel, Mission and the Church. Panelists include Trevin Wax, Kevin DeYoung, Matt Chandler and Jonathan Leeman.
- Michael Bird has written a six-part series on “The Church and Israel” (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). It was his second post that inspired me to begin my own study more narrowly on Romans 11:26 and to explore the question: “does ‘Israel’ refer to the nation or the ‘whole people of God’?” (so far Part 1 and 2 with more to come.)
- Finally, I offer four principles for blogging with maturity; an article I wrote for Trevin Wax over at Kingdom People.
For Your Weekend Reading and Viewing
N.T. Wright on contemporary worship music.
“I think now it is easier to write worship songs which are basically like teenage love songs, and there’s lots of worship songs which are about me and Jesus falling in love. And that’s fine, but as I’ve often said to teenagers, the point of falling in love is it’s like striking a match, which is a very exciting thing to do, in order then to light a candle with it. A candle is not as initially exciting as a match, but actually it’s a very beautiful thing, and if you look after it it’ll last a whole lot longer. And so what I want to see is Christians trying to develop must styles that grow out of and have the energy of exciting contemporary music but always looking for something which will sustain, which will last.”
Kevin DeYoung on Make Every Effort.
“As gospel Christians, we are not afraid of striving, fighting, and working. These are good Bible words. The gospel that frees us from self-justification also frees us for obedience. In fact, 1 Corinthians 6 and Galatians 5 and 1 John and Revelation 21 and a dozen other passages make clear that when we have no obedience to show for our gospel profession, our conduct shows we have not understood the gospel.”
Kurt Willems explains why he does not celebrate independence day.
SOCIAL MEDIA, NOT A FAB (Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web.
“Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in how we communicate.”
“The Sky Is Falling!” That’s Not Jesus, No!
I have a thick book buried somewhere on the History of the End of the World. It’s a fascinating read, but I haven’t read it in a long time and don’t have it readily accessible at the moment.
But we learn from that book that predictions of the end of the world are not knew, and not unique to Christianity and in fact, they go back thousands of years. But within Christianity there has often been a “sense” that the end is now. And that “sense” often escalates as a result of current global events. Whether we are speaking of the era of the Bubonic Plague, the Reformation (if you recall the Munich disaster where extreme Anabaptist’s took over the German city and began walking around naked and proclaiming that Munich was the new Eden) or the age of Dispensationalism in light of Israel’s revival as a nation in 1948.
But I must confess a certain grievance within my heart about this. I wish Christians would stop making end of the world predictions for several reasons. First, every prediction ever made has always been absolutely incorrection. Second, it makes Christians look like a bunch of doofuses in the eyes of the world; and while I’m not overly concerned about how Christians “look” in the eyes of the world (Paul says that the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing – 1 Corinthians 1:18), I am concerned when our testimony as Christians is put in jeopardy when we promote ridiculous non-biblical ideas that have broad cultural repercussions. Finally, I don’t think these predictions – or even entertaining them – reflects the message of Jesus.
An atheist groups puts their own sigh up that reads: Rapture You Know It's Nonsense, Learn the Truth". We have given them the high ground of Truth.
We have instead given the satanic enemy, and those who have yielded to his kingdom, an opportunity to proclaim Christianity a “falsehood” based on something tangible: a false “rapture” prediction!
The Christian message of “end times” is one of vigilance. Keep awake! Keep working! Keep watch! Be prepared! In light of the ever-impending return of Christ, Peter writes: “what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives” (2 Peter 3:11). Notice the words “live” and “lives”, this is how you are to be, keep being. Keep working. Don’t be packing in can goods, camping on roof tops, putting up billboards. Rather continue on with the mission we have been given.
When Ed Stetzer was asked what he would do if he knew exactly when Jesus would return he said,
“Well, I would do the same thing I am doing right now.”
Jesus asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). That is the question, that is the mission. End Time predictors have the scriptures backwards. They scour the scriptures in conspiracy-style foolishness and intoxicate weaker Christians, many of whom, when the end doesn’t come, may look toward another billboard for truth, one put up by atheists.org.
To this I feel the urge to sing along with that old Wayne Watson song, “The skeptics wage their tongues and say, “there goes that Jesus again”… all that’s left for me to do is help the world to see; that’s not Jesus, he doesn’t carry on that way, it’s just some flesh and blood like you and me, somehow gone astray; that’s not Jesus no, no matter what they say“.
Whether it is predicting the end of the world, bombing abortion clinics or holding up signs at funerals that say “God Hates Gays!”, these people make our jobs as Christians much more difficult. We have to remind the world, the skeptics and the weaker brethren, “that’s not Jesus, no!” And then show them Jesus:
“In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” (1 John 4:17)
Radical Truth: Can You Not Lie?
An article in this months Christianity today magazine titled The Seven Levels of Lying, Sarah Sumner advocates a 100% “liar-less” Christianity (yes I know liar-less is not a word). There are no exceptions. Christians simply should not – ever, not even in the tiniest white way, not even for the most justifiable of reasons – lie.
Now if you are like me, you’ve already reacted in your mind. “Not even if lying will save your child’s life?” “Not even if your lively-hood is at stake?” “Not even to say things like, ‘sure it’s not an inconvenience to go to the store for you’ when in fact it is?” Sarah would say “nope, not even in those cases”.
Throughout the article she reminds us that Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44) whereas Jesus himself is “the Truth” (John 14:6), that God by his very nature is incapable of lying (Titus 1:2) because there is no darkness in him (1 John 1:5) but the Lord detests the act of lying (Proverbs 12:22). By these scriptural standards, it is Christlike to tell the truth and, well, anti-Christ to lie.
Contrary to God, the heart of humans is deceitful and desperately wicked, so much so that we cannot trust our selves (Jeremiah 17:9). Don’t lie, says Sarah, not even the small ones – at least not without immediately confessing it. Why? Because according to Jeremiah 17:9 we cannot trust our own hearts: our lies will escalate until we fully resemble the father of lies rather than the Christ of truth.
She points out seven discernable layers of lying:
1. You Lie
A single lie, like a light, can ignite a bonfire.
2. You Self Protect
To protect your lie, you lie.
3. You Develop a Habit of Lying
The little lies are now okay, so you begin to do it about trivial matters.
4. You Self Deceive
You begin to believe what you tell others.
5. You Rationalize
Now it is not just that you believe your lies are not lies, you begin to justify that as having a positive good.
6. You Develop Your Technique
As Sarah explains, “You start isolating statements, ignoring what was said in other contexts”, finding loopholes.
7. You See it as Your Duty to Lie
You make it your duty (to protect family or business partners or pastoral credibility).
Is There Ever A Right Reason To Lie?
Sarah is radical, she’d say no. Take two examples of heroes of the faith who lied: Rahad and Corrie ten Boom.
The scriptures commend Rahab for having great faith (Hebrews 11:31) but not for lying. Her faith was in risking her life by hiding the spy’s on the roof, trusting that the spy’s would be faithful to their word and save her and her family. She was commended. But in the process she lied, and did not fully trust in God. Do you think that had she told the truth, God would have abandoned them (Rahab and the spy’s) or do you think he would have delivered them?
Corrie ten Boom saved numerous people during World War II by hiding them in her home and lying to the Gestapo. But, says Sarah, “when she lied, she wasn’t imitating God”. Is God only able to work and deliver when people lie? Are we trusting in God or ourselves in moments of extreme situations where we feel the only option is to lie?
Sarah takes the layers in reverse. To avoid finding yourself in numbers 7, 6 and 5 you must avoid 4, 3 and 2 and the only way to do that is to confess your lie every time you do 1, and never let it go beyond that.
What do you think about this? Is there ever a good time to lie? Does God ever honor deceit?
The Adjustment Bureau: Review~Spoiler Alert
The Adjustment Bureau
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt
4 Stars (out of 5)
... and the theology of Open Theism.
Movie reviews are few and far between for me, because it is difficult to talk about a movie you’ve seen and not give away important bits which may tee off someone who has not yet seen it. That said, I’ve decided to not review the movie in this review post. But even in not reviewing it, a may inadvertantly give too much away. Leave now if you must.
When I first saw the preview for this movie I knew that it was one I would enjoy, not just for pleasure sake, but also for its theological implications.
The movie deals in metaphors whereby – SPOILER ALERT – the “agents” in the adjustment bureau are somewhat akin to angels and the “Chairman” would be akin to God. This movie deals with such deep theological themes as determinism, foreknowledge, free-will and – perhaps surprisingly so – open theism. If all things – most of all the future – have been in some way predetermined by the “chairman”, then it would seem a logical contradiction to say that humans have free-will (something I believe the scriptures unambigously teach).
That’s all I’m going to say here. If you want more of a theological engagement with the movie, Greg Boyd has done a great job at fleshing out “the stories metaphysical assumptions”. You can read his review here.
If you have seen it and you want to send me your take, click here.
What is One Reason You Are Thankful For Your Local Church?
I felt it was necessary to offset yesterday’s post, What is One Thing You Feel You Can’t Say in Church, by sharing something very positive about your local Christian gathering.
So share with us one reason you are thankful for your local church.
I’m delighted to share my one reason: The Pastor! His name is John and he is a great guy, a humble guy and a very teachable guy. He is truly a shephard in my eyes. And, personally, what I love about him is that we can discuss theology and I feel we are on the same ground. I get no sense of him on some higher plane looking down on me and telling me, “No, no, no. This is what you are supposed to believe…”
I thank God of John; he’s a model pastor.
