Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture
I read this paragraph by Martyn Lloyd-Jones which was originally published in 1953. I couldn’t help but think that what Lloyd-Jones has written speaks to the current crisis caused by COVID-19. Let us not therefore be stumbled when we see surprising things happening in the world. Rather let us ask, ‘What is the relevance of … Read more
I was challenged by this paragraph and thought I would share it: The faith-world of John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, John Jay, William Wilberforce, Hannah More, Lord Shaftsbury, Catherine Booth, Hudson Taylor, D. L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray, Carl Henry, and John Stott is disapearing. In its place a new evangelicalism is arriving … Read more
In some churches, the words tradition or traditional are used in a pejorative sense. Anything that smacks of tradition is considered harmful to the desire to grow a large church. And since bigger is always better, tradition cannot be good.
There are some who would downplay theology and doctrine in favor of renewed experience of the power of God. “It’s not about doctrine” is a phrase that I’ve heard a few times within Christian circles. I found this quote from Tim Keller helpful when thinking about theology vs. experience: “We are not called to choose … Read more
So while I think there is nothing inherently wrong with wailing guitar solos and smoke machines as part of the worship experience, perhaps we should pump the brakes on the drive to make worship like a rock concert and the sermon like a motivational seminar.
My 50 or so years of church experience has shown me that most churches either have no plan to bring people into maturity or if they do have a plan it is not very effective. This is a shame and there is no good excuse for it.
The problem is that it is much easier to assess quantity and more difficult to assess quality. But the difficulty does not relieve us of the responsibility to have this priority.
We are not called to ratchet up the rhetoric in the culture war. We need to see how Jesus used respectful dialog to point people in a different direction.