Music Monday
I finally picked up the new Avril Lavigne album in its deluxe format, The Best Damn Thing. So I thought I’d post on a more ‘happy’, positive, song with minimal punk-princess vulgarity. Today’s late Music Monday feature’s a catchy ballad titled, When You’re Gone. My favorite line of the song is the pre-chorus, where it says, “When you walk away I count the steps that you take, Do you see how much I need you right now?” It’s interesting to think back on a time when I’ve felt like that… and now, somewhat looking forward to feeling the same emotions again soon (hopefully 
).
As you know I’m quite into photography, and I just love the imagery of this song. For that pre-chorus line, I could just picture an image of the other person, walking away, and the shadows of their footsteps. It is thus true at least in some sense, that a picture is worth a thousand words:)
Check out the song:
Lyrics here: (more…)
Humbled by a Mention
Dear friend and fellow Jaffray member, Catherine Ngai, has published a blog post on “inspire, dream, love” on her Facedown blog.
For some reason, she has a brief mention about me in the 3rd group of people in her post.
I am humbled by the mere mention — thanks Catherine! I only wish we could all encourage each other more often and make it a regular habit to build up the body of Christ.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
ETS President converts to Roman Catholicism
It’s a sad day.
~sighs~
This one hurts. Bad.
Understandable, and he did it in a very honourable, humble manner. But much can be said about this:
Dr. Francis Beckwith, President of Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), explains his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church & rightly steps down from the ETS.
Carl Trueman, of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, has posted a few comments in response.
See also this.
Why Southern?
Yesterday, President Mohler had a “Presidential Briefing” with all the seminary students at Southern, and I was able to find some notes about the meeting from fellow Southern Seminary bloggers who are currently students. Here’s what was noted in the briefing:
- 1 out of every 4 seminary students in the SBC are studying through Southern.
- In 2006, Southern received $8 million dollars from the Cooperative Program.
- The tuition at other theological institutions (Fuller, RTS, Trinity, etc) is at least 3x more than Southern’s. (See below for the breakdown)
- While tuition here is increasing, it is not because the giving is decreasing. The growth in cost is rising faster than the increase in giving.
- On campus, Southern has about a 1:30, faculty:student ratio.
- The enrollment in church music is way down. When asked why, one of his answers was that in today’s churches, people are not looking toward the seminaries for music ministers. I thought this was interesting. Dr. Mohler went on to say that the trustees had this same question. He responded by asking them this question, “Which of you at your churches when you last needed to hire a music minister searched the seminaries?” He said no one raised their hand.
Get married, make babies
Read Pastor John Piper’s response to the question, “If singleness is such a blessing, why would I want to be married?” in his recent sermon “Single in Christ: A Name Better Than Sons and Daughters“. (You can also download the sermon mp3 or video)
Falling birthrates worldwide continue to have a huge impact on society. But there is one subset of the population that is producing a larger percentage of the world’s children. In this brief article, Dr. Albert Mohler tells us who that is and what it means.
Webber passed away
This news is a few days old, but Myers Chair of Ministry at Northern Seminary, Dr. Robert E. Webber, who died Friday, April 27 at age 73 at his home in Sawyer, Michigan, after an eight-month struggle with pancreatic cancer.
While Robert Webber is clearly an emerging type and hence my disagreement with his theology, his works in integrating worship and ministry has been a valuable resource to the church - in spite of his emphasis on non-Christian ancient religions.
May the Lord have mercy and give him and his family peace.
A Narrative Approach: Will it Preach?
I have a number of concerns with narrative preaching. First, it does not emanate from those churches, seminaries, and theologians that hold to the doctrine of inerrancy and have a high view of preaching and teaching. It tends to emanate from the more liberal and mainline churches with a low view of the Bible and of Jesus.
Second, the call for narrative preaching can indicate a move away from propositional truth in favor of relativism and perspectivism, as if transformation were possible without information.
The trend today is away from propositional truth: “We don’t need propositional truth. We need narrative truth and embodied truth.” Actually, if we’re going to be multi-perspectival, we need all of it.
Propositional truth tells me who God is, who I am, why I’m here, how I’ve fallen short, who Jesus is, and what he has done. I can’t have a good Christology with a finger painting. You need to tell me something. Someone might say, “I’ve read Wittgenstein, and he said that there are limits to language and words.” I understand that. But God has chosen to speak through his Word and the same Holy Spirit that inspired the words to be written illuminates the understanding of the children of God. We’re not stuck in the cul-de-sac of Wittgenstein. The Holy Spirit is the great variable that makes the Word of God known to the people of God. We believe in the miraculous. We’re not just a natural people relying on the three-pound, fallen brain to make revelation clear. We also have God who loves us. And like John Calvin said, God is willing to stoop down and speak baby-talk, so that we would understand who he is and what he’s trying to say.
Thou shalt commit to the fight
The normal model of male-female relationships is quite simple—you are either dating or you are not dating. But the current Christian model is quite different. Perhaps we got held underwater a little too long during baptism, but our model looks like this: become friends, hang out, get to know one another, see where it goes, talk about possibly getting involved, discuss the north wind and how it may affect the relationship, talk to the youth pastor about it, pray about it, fast over it, court (which may mean dating), date (which may mean courting), and finally, date. Instead of having or not having a romance, we add a million meaningless micro-steps which muddy the already difficult waters.
So, to set the record straight, you are either dating or you are not dating. Commit to one side or the other. There is nothing in between. There is nothing overly spiritual or holy about camping somewhere between friendship and intimacy. In fact, when you attempt to know someone’s heart without committing anything to them, you are doing them a terrible disservice. I have seen droves of well-meaning Christian men break young women’s hearts because they stole intimate moments from a girl while committing nothing to the relationship. It’s called emotional promiscuity. I’ve done it myself more than once.
For those struggling to define dating—which are most church-attending adults—dating is getting to know somebody else exclusively. It is purposeful intimacy with personal commitment. Many pastors substitute the word courting for dating, but I think this is a misnomer and very dangerous. According to Webster, courting is “wooing, working, and trying to gain the affection of another through attention or flattery.” But you shouldn’t have to persuade or entice someone to spend time with you. Courting has the connotation that the relationship is definitely leading to marriage, putting undo stress on the couple. Women often think that if they are being courted, they are guaranteed a proposal. But that is not necessarily the case. While you can hope the relationship leads to marriage, courtship is no guarantee that the man will get down on his knee.
Driscoll on Church Planting
The Banned Church Planting Video
“Apparently the video was shown at the event, was well received by the attendees, and then criticized by Bill Hybels from the stage because it did not speak of women church planters.“
