Zack Eswine, a professor at Covenant Seminary, warns about the temptation pastors sometimes feel to focus their efforts "out there," away from the relationships and banal chores of the local church. Whether escaping through constant writing projects and trips, or daydreaming of the next pastorate, Eswine believes pastors (and everyone else) need to beware neglecting the place God has presently given us to inhabit.
Here are some articles and links I found worthwhile this week.
The Victims of Pompeii — New research based on CT scans says Pompeii's victims had great teeth and died of head injuries rather than asphyxiation, as was previously thought. This confirms ancient accounts of covering their heads with pillows as the volcano rained down. (HT: The Verge)
The Really Big One — A lengthy but gripping article on the latest research related to the Cascadia subduction zone. Scientific consensus suggests a one-in-three odds of the fault line slipping catastrophically within our lifetime. (HT: Dan York)
Private Sin, Public Fallout — Clint Archer discusses the very real consequences of sin, and how we tell ourselves we are exceptions to that rule.
What the Pill Has Wrought — A fascinating Roman Catholic perspective on the social consequences of introducing "cheap sex" to a culture.
Seb Lester's Hand Drawn Calligraphy (video) — I'm always a sucker for genuine craft, and this man has it in spades. (HT: Devour)
Photo: Michael Spotts. Purchase print »
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”
If you're like me, you probably have emails piling up to heavens. A surprising number contain large, long-forgotten attachments that eat up space in your account or on your computer. Wired provides a serenely simple guide to gutting your GMail of the clutter.
Another shot made with the Brenizer method. This image is available for purchase as a fine art print.
Here's an excerpt from a wonderful book by Donald Fairbairn, Life in the Trinity. As the title suggests, it's an introduction to both the doctrine and practical implications of God being eternal Father, Son, and Spirit.
“One cannot speak of love and relationship unless one is speaking of distinct persons, so the distinctions between the persons are indicative of who God has always been, from all eternity. So instead of thinking in terms of One, who is somehow also three, we need to think in terms of Three, who have always been in relationship one to another and who are united in such a way that they are a single God rather than three separate gods [...]
If the link between theology and Christian life is really theosis, and if theosis is best understood as our sharing in the Son's relationship to the Father, then there must truly be an eternal relationship between Father and Son as distinct persons in order for God to share this relationship with us when he saves us. This doctrine of the Trinity is not an abstraction whose connection with Christian life is tenuous or even nonexistent.
Rather, the doctrine of the Trinity is the gateway to understanding Christian life. A God who was completely alone would have had nothing relational to offer us in salvation; he could have offered only a right status before him or something of that sort. But because God has eternally existed as a fellowship of three persons, there is fellowship within God in which we can also share.” (49-50)
Fairbairn is helpful in recalibrating ideas of theosis to respect the Creator-creature distinction. In the Spirit, we are united to share the same relationship with the Father which the incarnate and risen Christ has. He also includes many representative quotes from the early church fathers. It's worth picking up, especially if you've wondered how the Trinity fits into everyday Christian life.
Reading level: 11th grade+
Theological background: minimal; average churchgoer
If there is no end to making books, then there is an equal and opposite oversupply of reading material. I'm here to ease your burden, and I should know. Imagine the copious amounts of assigned reading in seminary. On top of that, try reading for pleasure as well as to stay abreast of current events. It's not easy, but it is possible to read more with less energy... if you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Here are some of my tips for reading more efficiently.
Taken for her birthday, I used the Brenizer method to create the depth of field usually associated with medium format.
UPDATE: This post was featured on the Knowing the Truth radio show with pastor Kevin Boling, for the Dec. 17 episode, “What is our Worship Service Saying?” It was also reposted at Reformation Italy. Thanks for sharing, I'm glad the community found it useful.
A non-Christian reporter visited several worship services in Vermont recently. Alongside pagan, Muslim, and Unitarian services, the man attended an evangelical church. I'm a former charismatic who considers evangelicals my brothers, so I was curious to know what he would make of it.1
The reporter described the service in terms of a “rock band” with “rock star Jesus” playing on the big screen. The style reminded him of “karaoke and conga lines.” It caused me to consider how Sunday services in NAPARC member churches are perceived by visitors. If I may state the obvious, “the medium is part of the message.” This is especially true with respect to our worship. Everything about our gatherings says something about our values and beliefs, and sometimes we say more than we intend. When I reflect on my decade in evangelical churches, certain questions come to mind:
An undercover reporter visited our church some years ago, a secular Jew writing on local worship. He was stunned at the reverence with which our pastor handled the law, acknowledging God's holiness with obvious sincerity. It reminded him of Judaism. Yet he remarked further that the worship was clearly arranged around the Word and culminated in declarations of the gospel. Grace was freely offered to all who would believe. By his own account, he went away impressed at the depth and joy of the service. The Christian religion is, after all, a personal intersection with Almighty God, something to be amazed at... even if he didn't buy it.
In evangelicalism, and the charismatic wing especially, there is a fixation on practical steps and individual devotion. Novelty and pragmatism sometimes overwhelm larger, grander truths of our faith. A lack of sound teaching on the Spirit leads to generic “spirituality,” woefully disconnected from God's ordinary means of Word and sacraments. People do not hear the preached Word as the present, living word of God. They miss out on the mysterious wonder of becoming “one bread” with millions of believers worldwide, through our union with Christ in faith, as it is signified and sealed in the Lord's Supper. Worst of all, they are deprived of the sense that in the ministerial declaration of pardon, God himself declares that believers are and shall be forgiven—that they are being preserved by his power to live another week and grow in godliness.
Is there room in contemporary worship to be astonished? Not by sounds and style; nor to be wowed by convenience and consumeristic “relevance”—but truly astonished for having been called as a body before the living God? Can we be dumbstruck by the kingdom-shattering declaration that sinners are reconciled to an infinite, supra-cosmic Creator and Redeemer? Can we tremble to be loved by a “consuming fire?”
Yes, I think there is room. But it’s easy to be dazzled by the lights, cameras, and action of modern worship. We can lose touch with our rich theology and feel disconnected from two millennia of gates-of-hell-defying Christian history. Worst of all, the gospel of blood-bought salvation is sometimes taken as an afterthought, rather than the centerpiece of our gathering.
I have no doubt that some of our worship offends God. We are idol factories, every one of us, who tend to fashion everything including our spiritual exercises into our own image. My greater point, however, is to be sensitive to how our worship is perceived by unbelievers in our midst. We do well to remind ourselves that the most inviting, compelling aspect of our faith is not how hip, intense, or artistic it is. The Triune God really does meet us and speaks to us graciously in the Word. That's truly amazing. In the end, I'm more interested in stripping distractions from Christ's cross in my own church than in turning over tables in someone else's. But if you want some help, I'll grab a corner.
Vermont has been called the “godless State.” Fewer people attend worship there than almost anywhere in the U.S. I was already familiar with 19th century revivalism and its effect on the North East, turning it into a “burned over” district. As such, I was saddened but not surprised by the prevalence of atheists and alternative religions. ↩
