I missed Wade’s sermon today, but we had a pretty lively discussion about it this evening. There was so much for us to talk about, but we had to get out of there early to put the little one to bed. The sermon was on the church’s approach to and treatment of homosexuality. Tonight we talked about homosexuality, sin, accountability, and a little church polity.

I’ve been thinking about the conversation all evening and have decided to dig up everything I’ve written on the subjects, each with a link and an excerpt. So here it is!

You Call That Protection? August ‘06

The institution of marriage has been around a looooong time. It’s survived centuries of men treating women as property. It survived the dark ages, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution. It survived the War of 1812, the Civil War, the two Great Wars, and Vietnam. And it has stood strong through our society’s turn towards cohabitation and parents who avoid marriage. But it’s suffering some staggering blows. The traditional family in the US has been on the decline for 40 years. It’s almost rare for a child to be raised by both biological parents. People are choosing to stay single (but not celibate), and those who do get married do it much later and with much less commitment than in past generations. Even when they’re married they have a bag packed in case they aren’t “satisfied”. The marriage bond is weakening and prenups and no-fault divorce are just making it worse. Thank God someone figured out how to protect this sacred institution from further damage; by focusing our energy on making sure gay people don’t get married.

On the Narrow, October ‘06

In Matthew 16, after Peter’s confession, Jesus rebukes him fiercely, calling him Satan. “You do not have in mind the things of God,” he says, “but the things of men.” Peter was working from the human assumption that God wouldn’t allow his Son, the Messiah, to be killed. We, much the same way, work from the human assumption that God wouldn’t allow someone to be born in a way that forces them to resist their natural desires.

Across the Board, November ‘06

I think that the church should take a more Biblical stance on sin. We tend to single out sexual sin as the only one that is bad enough to keep people out of the church: homosexuality, promiscuity, adultery. And adultery has to be really egregious to get real attention.

(continue reading…)

I just found this great bit from C.H. Spurgeon, about progressive theology.

My favorite parts? “Pan-indifferentism” and “Anythigarianism”

The idea of a progressive gospel seems to have fascinated many. To us that notion is a sort of cross-breed between nonsense and blasphemy.

Do men really believe that there is a gospel for each century? Or a religion for each fifty years? Will there be in heaven saints saved according to a score sorts of gospel? Will these agree together to sing the same song? And what will the song be? Saved on different footings, and believing different doctrines, will they enjoy eternal concord, or will heaven itself be only a new arena for disputation between varieties of faiths?

Pan-indifferentism is rising like the tide; who can hinder it? We are all to be as one, even though we agree in next to nothing. It is a breach of brotherly love to denounce error. Hail, holy charity! Black is white; and white is black. The false is true; the true is false; the true and the false are one.

We cannot despair for the church or for the truth, while the Lord lives and reigns; but, assuredly, the conflict to which the faithful are now summoned is not less arduous than that in which the Reformers were engaged. So much of subtlety is mixed up with the whole business, that the sword seems to fall upon a sack of wool, or to miss its mark. However, plain truth will cut its way in the end, and policy will ring its own death-knell.

I’m in a pretty sour mood right now. At first it was because I’ve been hurting for that poor girl in Florida who got beat up for a YouTube video. Now I’m ticked off at her dad.

Her parents blamed the Internet for the incident.

“These Web sites are creating a space for criminal activity, beating, fights,” Patrick Lindsay said. [...]

“I’m very upset with these Internet sites,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, MySpace is the anti-Christ for children. I’m going to carry this as far as I can.”

Talk about tilting at windmills. How about blaming the girls that did this? How about blaming the people who watch the videos, thereby encouraging things like this? Even some indirect blame on the parents would have been acceptable…but blaming the internet and MySpace?

Granted, there’s plenty wrong with MySpace, which is why my profile still has a picture of my wife about 4 months pregnant. But when it comes to six people deciding to beat up an innocent person - Hell, even a guilty person - let’s place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the perpetrators.

Ok, now that I’m over that, here’s the real point of this post. There are some Christians who believe that the task of the Church is to restore the world, whether that be through service or control. The group who truly believes that we are to do it by control (Dominionism) is so small that it barely merits discussion. Sure, you’ll hear people, particularly those like Andrew Sullivan (though he prefers the term “christianist”), attribute these qualities to “many evangelicals”…that’s bollocks.

Those who believe that we are to do it through service and love have a larger following. They believe that as a result of the influence of Christians, and good people from other religions (or no religion), the world is getting better. Progress has been, is being, and will be made. They are Progressives. (continue reading…)

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. (continue reading…)

I 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. (continue reading…)

Next Page »