Posts Tagged ‘christianity’

Church Communications (and Miscommunications)

Posted April 5, 2008 by Charles
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First off, ChurchMarketingSucks.com got the ball rolling on a network of local church marketing labs, one of which is located in Tulsa. The first meeting is Monday the 7th. If you’re interested in marketing, communications, graphics, or web design for your church, meet us at Panera Bread at 71st and Garnett at 6.

I’ve started reading Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. In the early chapters he makes some statements about faith and doubt, and it occurred to me that, at least in recent history, the church has done a terrible job communicating the limits of faith and the benefits of doubt. Read more

Category: Books, Theology

They’re Only Words

Posted February 23, 2008 by Charles
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webster-american-dictionary.jpgI recently met Mike Todd, sole proprietor of Waving or Drowning, in the comments to my post Mark Driscoll and the Progressive Double Standard. We had a hearty disagreement, but Mike seemed to be interested in actually talking to me, rather than just tell me my modern theology is worthless in the postmodern world, then scurry off into the night. We went back and forth a couple of times, and I thought that it might be worth it for us to talk more, and on more subject. So, today we are launching our semi-official semi-dialogue.

It’s semi-official because we want to see if it will work before we go full-bore. It’s a semi-dialogue because at first it won’t be a “dialogue” at all. We’re going to start with dual monologues; we’ll each answer the question, and the other will offer no response. This will be building a basis for our conversation so that we can understand each other. Then we’ll get to the back-and-forth.

The monologue questions will be in the vein of our prompt today; they are simply setting the table for the deep discourse that will happen later. I hope you enjoy this discussion and return for our future interactions. Read more

Category: Theology

Rule #7: Remember That We Were All Sinners

Posted January 20, 2008 by Charles
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donaldmiller.jpgI don’t think we spend enough time thinking about that little gem at the end of Romans 3 – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” At least, not while considering this at the end of 1 John 1: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Today I came across an AP religion column about Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz. Kelli Kennedy wants us all to know that “Donald Miller still loves God and Jesus…His problem is with Christianity, at least how it’s often practiced.” To him Christianity seems to be about “conservative politics, suburban consumerism and an ‘insensitivity to people who aren’t like us.’”

The column goes on to paint this image of traditional Christians as ultraconservative, totally intolerant, and shallow in their spirituality. I don’t want to critique the article here; I just want to lament the truth in this image of Christianity in America. Read more

Category: Theology

Fire in the Bones

Posted August 18, 2007 by Charles
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But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

Jeremiah 20:9

This week on Wednesday night we were making a slow trek through Jeremiah. I’ve read parts of Jeremiah before (29:11, and his call) but I’ve never gone through the whole thing before. In this particular section, the latter part of chapter 20, Jeremiah is complaining to God of the hardship of being the prophet.

He speaks of being ridiculed and insulted, his friends waiting for the opportunity to betray him. As I’m writing I’m beginning to see foreshadowing of the life of Christ, but that’s not the purpose of this post.

There have been a number of times in the last 9 years that I have encountered scientific/materialistic explanations of the universe. I fancy myself a man of intelligence, and in order to be recognized as such, I chose to hold my tongue, and discuss the issue as if I believed those explanations.

I’ve also found myself in discussions with people with whom I disagree theologically on the most basic principles of the Christian faith. But, being outnumbered, I chose to stay silent on the contentious topics, and only discuss those things with which I knew we agreed.

In both of those situations, I discovered after a time that I became “weary of holding it in”. That’s how this site was born, and what brought on the Counterpoints discussion. I needed a way to let the fire out.

The thing about fire is the flames. This flame presented itself in different ways: passion, frustration, anger, excitement, energy. When discussing the love and power and grace and sovereignty of God I lose all sense of anything else. Everything points to him, and the notion that anything points away is error. There were times when I felt as though I may have been letting the flame burn too hot. But after sampling the disputations of Luther and reading about the demeanor of other great theologians, I see that the fury of God’s Word is something that has a life of its own.

Category: Theology

Arguing the Faux Facts

Posted July 27, 2007 by Charles
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798068_justice.jpgOne of the hardest things about being on the conservative/traditional side of a Christian theological debate is dealing with statements like this:

Rather, I see the grand statements about Jesus – that he is the Son of God, the Light of the World, and so forth – as the testimony of the early Christian movement. These are neither objectively true statements about Jesus nor, for example in this season, about his conception and birth. To speak of him as the Son of God does not mean that he was conceived by God and had no biological human father. Rather, this is the post-Easter conviction of his followers.

In this paragraph Marcus Borg, of the Jesus Seminar, states these things as fact: Jesus did not say he was the Son of God or the Light of the World and the statements about Jesus’ divinity are not true. He states this as fact and it’s accepted as fact by many. The problem? It can’t be substantiated. Read more

Category: Theology

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