Some great MP3s from the 2004 Reformission Conference hosted by Mars Hill Church - John Piper was the keynote speaker at the event.

http://www.reformission.com/

Also, recently read Driscoll's book, Radical Reformission - I can say I highly recommend. A bit edgy for some - but to be honest, it pretty much fired me up. It is not like some of the Emergent Schmack out there...even some that will show up on the Amazon.com page above.

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The following article is a good read. Mark Driscoll is a pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seatle - a missional church reaching out to contemporary culture - seeking to be both relevant and faithful to Jesus.

Link - postmodern_christians.pdf (application/pdf Object)

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In my previous post I encouraged apologist today to be Compassionate - to care enough to engage. In this installment I want to encourage us to be Curious. Curiosity is a strange quality of an active mind. Curiosity asks questions, thinks continually, explores possibilities, solves problems, and invades new territories. In our multicultural and pluralistic world there are gods and goddesses behind every tree. "Strange Things" come to the ear almost regularly if we perk up and listen. To engage others with the life saving, soul redeeming, freedom purchasing gospel of Jesus we must be curious enough to listen to the people and cultures around us...so that we might connect and communicate the truth to diverse peoples today.

There are two quintessential example of this in our Bibles - one from the Old Testament the other from the New.

Daniel - A Curious Captive in Babylon

Daniel was a young man ripped from his homeland, taken from his family, taken from his religion and placed into a foreign society. He was educated by the best thinkers and religious leaders of Babylon, he ascended the ranks of their society, he led their people, new their culture and was in many ways an insider in a foreign world. However, Daniel ever remained a disciple of YHWH, a follower of the true and living God, and did not compromise his life and witness even while living in Babylon. He clung to his God, maintain steadfast devotion and committed himself to God and not the opinions of men. When the time of testing came, he was faithful, he was strong in conviction, and he trusted God in the midst of trial. Such an man is an example today - to learn the best of another worldview, to be conversant with the world around him - but never becoming captive to godless living and godless beliefs. He influenced his world, because he worked from the inside out as an ambassador of his God.

Paul - A Curious Observer on Ancient Hills

The greatest preacher following Jesus in the history of our faith is the apostle Paul. He was also the greatest of curious apologists that we observe in the New Testament. In Acts 17 Paul was in Athens awaiting Silas and Timothy, his friends and brothers in ministry. While in Athens Paul did not simply wait, he was an "active waiter" or a "curious waiter". We see in verse 16 that while he was waiting for his friends his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. Paul was observing, thinking, praying, and he was burdened. I can only image how his desire to preach Jesus to those worshipping idols. His mind was engaged, his heart bursting, a sermon was to come...

Paul's move to action was to go the centers of cultural exchange - the places where ideas, and religion flourished - he engaged at the synagogue and in the marketplace. His first engaged and reasoned with the Jews and the God-fearers (devout persons, Gentiles, who would go to the Synagogue) about Jesus. Finally, he engaged the philosophers...the Stoics and Epicureans (The Catholic Encyclopedia has some good articles on these two groups of ancient philosophers)

Paul was preaching Jesus and the Resurrection, and the philosophers show some resistance. In fact they call him a babbler, literally a "“seed picker" (Greek -- σπερμολόγος sper•molog•os). Paul's engagement affords the opportunity to speak before the thinkers and cultural leaders of Athens at Mars Hill (the Areopogus). In this center of intellectual power and influence, Paul weaves a sermon forged out of a life of a curious apologist.

He weaves his message from the observations he made as an active waiter and a cultural anthropologist - one who was studying and thinking about the worlds around him. What were the resources Paul had gleaned in observing the Greeks:

• The people were very religious - the city was full of idols.
• The nature of their religion - idols and temples made by human hands.
• This moves the path of his message - they were religious and philosophical.
• He was very positive about their religious pursuit - he didn't speak from ignorance.
• He recognized their openness to novelty - they loved new ideas.
  
• The topic has emotional intensity for them
  
• He also notes a point of weakness from which he can depart to the gospel.– It provides the point of contact and contrast.
  
• Verse 28 He quotes their own poets, he is familiar with their cultural art forms
  

He didn't take on directly the Stoics and Epicureans and all their arguments...He didn'’t get sidetracked. There was already disagreement with these two groups. Paul did not want to debate for the sake of debate. In Verse 24,25 - his starting point was creation, not the OT Scripture as was his practice with Jewish audiences. He begins with what they are familiar affirms and critiques with the Biblical gospel. He blew up their categories with a UNIVERSAL deity. He captures their small deities with a large God.

Conclusion

We must be curious and not lazy believers (as Luther once said "some preachers are lazy and no good") - thinking, reading, exploring other ideas, willing to study, desiring to know our own faith from all angles, so to connect it with people from various backgrounds. We must stay informed - knowing the tensions that people today have with the gospel so we can hold firm, yet present the word of God clearly and winsomely. Always listening, always thinking, looking for connection points to others, bridges to their lives to connect and communicate the gospel. The apologist today must be curious and she must pray...praying asking the Holy Spirit to show you the way with this person, this people rather than borrowing stereotypical assumptions or cliche how to approaches to the gospel.

Compassionate and Curious - we are on a road to sharing Jesus with people in any and every context - yet, something remains which will keep us on the right paths. We must be compelled by conviction...to this we turn next - The Apologist must be compelled.

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Stand to Reason has FINALLY syndicated their blog - if you have not checked out STR it is worth a look You can see the blog here Stand to Reason: Blog

The Site Feed is: http://str.typepad.com/weblog/index.rdf

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Challies has a good article on Halloween up - Challies Dot Com: The Inevitable Halloween Discussion

The following seems to be a good tact to take:

"The truth is that I have several convictions regarding Halloween. I despise the pagan aspects of it. I am convicted that my children should not dress as little devils or ghosts or monsters. But I am also convicted that there could be no worse witness to the neighbours than having a dark house, especially in a neighbourhood like ours which is small and where every person and every home is highly-visible. We have nothing to fear from our neighbours or from their children. So my children will dress up (my son as a knight and my daughter as a princess) and we will visit each of our neighbours. Either my wife or I will remain at home, greeting people at our door with a smile and a handful of something tasty. If the kids are deemed too old to trick-or-treat, they'll be forced to sing a song to merit any handouts. Our door will be open and the light will be on. And we hope that the Light will shine brightly."

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Christian Pro Wrestling??? I am speechless - give me a break.

Link - CWE - Christian Wrestling Entertainment

HT: Worldmag Blog

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Justin Taylor has a thread going on the embelishments made by Brennan Manning on his involvement after Katrina. As much as people seem to love Manning - I am sure this will not hurt his reputation. God's grace is sufficient for all of our lies...yet making up stuff like this is a bit self-promoting and disappointing.

Original Story with Editor's Update - http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/140/42.0.html

Link on Theologica - Between Two Worlds: Brennan Manning: "I Lied"

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In today's world Apologetics should never just be about a "nanny nanny boo-boo, I'm smarter than you" kind of trip. Oh, I can refute all the XYZ people who believe in XYZ. This is not the ethos of Jesus, this is not the way of the Apologist. Above all else an apologist for the faith must see himself as a compassionate follower of Jesus in mission with Him in this world. To be real blunt, if you do not care about the souls of others, that they really come to know Jesus, you should not speak for Him, and you may not belong to the Lord. So often we just don't care about people - we don't give a rip whether they know Christ or not and we just continue our lives chasing pride, position and possessions without turning an eye to those separated from life and redemption and hope and truth and peace with God in Christ.

Jesus looked out upon the ancient city of Jerusalem and something welled up within his being:

³⁵And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

The apologist today must ask herself the following questions:

1. Do you view yourself as one sent by Jesus into the world, throughout your city and village proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom?
2. When you see a world filled with idols and pain and brokenness and loneliness and sin do you care? Do you care that people are living without the shepherd they desperately need.
3. Do you pray that God would bring in his people through his church?

If we have no compassion, if the "world" just pisses you off so that you don't want to be around "icky people" - if we do not find a desire that they know Christ we need to repent and ask God to change our view of Apologetics.

If we do not care we will not change our life patterns to be around people who need the truth of Jesus. If we do not care we will not be inconvienced in associating with different people. If we do not care we will not engage with others or live life around those who need Christ. Compassion and Conviction move to action - once the desire is birthed in us by the Spirit of the living God, we will want to engage, defend the faith, love people to Jesus, answer people's questions as we walk a road with them.

Once our heart is broken over our sin, the sins of the world, the wasteland of this earth - only then are we ready to walk into it with service and love incarnated which will give so much more meaning to our proclamation of truth.

I confess there have been days when I was more concerned with being right than caring about someone's soul - I repent. I ask you to as well. From there ask God for new eyes, new eyes to see the fields around you - though they be full of sin and people in flight from God - the compassion of Jesus abounds and the Grace of God obtains salvation to those he calls to faith.

Compassion is not sufficient for an apologist, but it is necessary and a starting point for the journey. Next one must be curious enough to connect and compelled enough to stay the course. To these, the curious apologist and the compelled apologist, we roll out in the coming days

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I have just been listening to a recent radio broadcast by Mark Dricoll, a pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seatle, Washington. The topic of the show, a recent issue of Maxim Magazine, a soft core porn men's rag, which put the following in its pages in the September issue: How To: Score in Church: The pews are packed with heavenly bodies. God bless you.

Apparently this magazine is encouraging dirt ball guys to "go to church" to try to find girls to hook up with. Ladies, be wary of the guys lurking around - if they do not know Jesus and are about his business, you may want to keep your distance.

Maxim - how creative! Encourage little boys (that you call men) to chase women in churches trying to score.

Let me give some advice from Driscoll to pastor's who lead ministries that include young single women. If you find these kind of dirt ball guys hanging around, stalking the ladies, you need to give them "the right hand of fellowship to the jaw"

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New book coming on Truth - looks to be very helpful.

Link - Whatever Happened to Truth? - Andreas J. Kostenberger (Editor)

HT: Theologica.blogspot.com

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Slate.com is running a piece on the architecture of the modern Megachurch. An interesting read and some very good questions are asked. An Anatomy of Megachurches - The new look for places of worship. By Witold Rybczynski

Who looks big - humans or God due to our buildings our gatherings, etc.? Very good question.

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If you have not be associated with the work of Peter Singer this commentary might be a good place to begin - Link Is the Sanctity of Human Life an Outmoded Concept?

HT: AlbertMohler.com

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Al Mohler's recent posts "You Are Bringing Strange Things to Our Ears" on Apologetics in the Postmodern world (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) prompted me to write my own mini series on Apologetics. Now, I do not have a research staff, radio show, etc. but I did think I might have something to add to the discussion of this topic. Some of my thoughts will no doubt overlap with others, but I do pray that some may find encouragement in our day to live for, proclaim and defend the gospel of the grace of God in Christ in our day.

Apolegitics is properly defined as the defense of the faith against its detractors in the marketplace of ideas. As such it usually becomes a very broad interdisciplinary effort of engagement in the public sphere. It is primarily a discipline of theology, so it must necessarily grasp the core of the Christian faith. It must interact with other ideologies and worldviews so it must touch on philosophy, comparative relgion, and popular ideas in any given culture. In the west it must interact with secularism, scientism, and a consumeristic culture of pride and possessions. In the east it must confront syncretism and pantheism. And in todays global culture, Apologetics may deal with just about everything. Yet the goal in every context is the same.

Broadly, apologetics should be intimately and subserviant to presenting the beauty and truth of the Lord Jesus to those who need to bow a knee to Him. It involves commending the living Christ to others, helping them to see his cross in a way that is unincumbered by false perceptions, half-truths, deceptions, and misunderstandings. As Ravi Zacharias has noted, Apologetics is well understood as "clearing the bushes" so that a person might look at the cross of Christ, the gospel of grace and respond. It never should be merely an intellectualy tit for tat between a believer and an unbeliever, an unending argument going round and round on a Carousel of pride. The desire of the apologist should be to connect with others - which involves, listening, love and patience - so that she might communicate clearly (Colossians 4:2-6) the good news of God reconciling the world to Christ (2 Corinthians 5).

In this brief blog series I want to call believers to be apologists for the faith which requires something of us. To be an apologist today's world requires a follower of Christ to possess at least three characteristics. He must be compassionate, he must be curious, and he must be a compelled. To these we turn over the next few entries...

• An Apologist must be Compassionate
• An Apologist must be Curious
• An Apologist must be Compelled

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A new blog on Christianity an Culture...I believe Veith is an evangelical Lutheran.

Cranach -- The blog of Gene Ed Veith

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Al Mohler is running a three-part series on the task of Apologetics in our day. Instalment one is an indication that this will be a thoughful and engaged series. I look forward to the read

Link - "You Are Bringing Strange Things to Our Ears:" Christian Apologetics for a Postmodern Age

If time permits I may try to run a parallel series here at Power of Change on Apologetics in Our Day...

May God multiply the time

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Crossway Books has just published a really unique Children's Bible. It has illustrations and supplemental materials which teaches some theology to kids. I preordered this months ago for my 4 year old (yes, I know - that seems a bit ambitious - but we have fun talking about all this stuff) and can't wait for it to come. Many exciting lessons ahead for bed time with Daddy!

Link - ESV Bible Blog

This is pretty good - and indicative of our times...

Link: Intellectuelle: The Postmodern Medium-Length Catechism

HT - A Practice in Belief

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Research? Yes, unbiased scientific statistical research...or maybe not...

The Dark Side of Faith? Here We Go Again

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Justin Taylor at Theologica has linked to a good little discussion the the Stand to Reason Blog

Link - Way, Truth, Life

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