* * * COWBOYOLOGY * * *

A Narrow Corral of a Psalm

2012-01-18T18:53:00.000-08:00

It is an encouraging thing to be prayed for. And being in a season which my wife and I have started to describe as a 'sifting' one, we welcome anyone's prayers for us.

One friend sent a note saying he was praying for us and he listed some of the texts which were shaping his prayers. It was a timely encouragement as we are feeling spiritually dull, surpassed only by our physical sickness, tiredness and general weariness.

Among the texts he shared was Psalm 39, that narrow corral of a Psalm. It is one of those lament Psalms that allow you to express honesty about your plight before God. When I read it again, I was confronted once more by the freedom of complaint there, but the way that the complaint is sharply crowded in.

You see that just as you are being open and vulnerable while venting your angst, you are being crowded forward.

Then you enter the squeeze. Like a sick cow in need of medicine. You are rendered immobile as you realize,"I am mute...for it is you who have done it"(Psalm 39:9).

All of the discomfort and disruption of our life is part of a process to immobilize us under the sovereign, caring hand of God. We don't need to feign vulnerability, he makes us truly so.

It feels so unnatural to submit to this immobilizing squeeze that God puts us in. Our instincts tell us we must resist, and fight for our freedom. But the sooner we submit and trust the one who is caring for us the better off we'll be.

But, oh how great will be the feeling of release when the gate opens. I praise the mercy of God that he desires that release for us.

WTS Promotes Calvary Grace Conference

2012-01-17T07:33:00.000-08:00

It is nice to see Westminster Theological Seminary promoting our 4th annual Calvary Grace Conference featuring the Seminary's own Dr. Carl Trueman.

Although I am not an alumnus of WTS, I have enjoyed the teaching and mentorship of those who are. We need to continue to pray for seminaries in these days, asking God to raise up new workers for the harvest.

If you are in Calgary this weekend (Jan 20,21) you are welcome to join us for the conference and Dr. Trueman's teaching, beginning Friday night and twice on Saturday. I will take one session on Saturday and we will also have a time of Q&A.

Cold Snap

2012-01-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

If this is a cold snap it's likely to break your neck.

As we all waited for a harsh winter to arrive in Alberta we had been teased and soothed by the mildest two months in recent winter memory. Now after the doomsayers at the weather office admitted they made a mistake in predicting a deeply cold winter, we are suddenly knee deep in it.

Thirty degrees below zero centrigrade. I praise and thank God for central heating.

What is Best for Some People

2012-01-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

It has become cliche to think of Jesus as never saying anything that might hurt someones feelings. He is sentimental to a fault. He is the fairest of fair-weather friends, but I wonder if Churchill would qualify such a Jesus as a "foul-weather' one.

But when we see the NT Jesus is always desiring people's best, even if it means giving them harsh criticism and judgment. When he does this, his aim is to limit the destruction that wicked people can inflict. And so what is best for some people according to Jesus, is that they have a large chunk of rock tied around their neck and they be drowned according to Matthew 18.6. Is it the quaintness of the idea of a 'millstone' that makes a modern reader gloss over what is such a terrible thing to say? Yet even in this Jesus is concerned with what is best. He frames it as such, "it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea".

I'm glad Jesus looks out for the best interests of others so much that he is well prepared to put a stop to them once and for all.

Elders & Pastors

2012-01-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

... if you cannot stand the social stigma and cultural marginalisation that goes with the task -- inevitably goes with the task, one might stress -- that is OK; you simply need to step down from your position and do something for which you are better equipped.

Carl Trueman

Redneck Christmas Gifts

2012-01-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

Another Christmas has passed and the New Year has begun in earnest. Our Christmas was a good one, unlike the experience of so many. This year the gifts I received had a certain theme. The theme was similar to the oft recurring "UFA Christmas" of my teenage years. "UFA" stands for United Farmers of Alberta and it supplied the rubber boots, overalls and work gloves my brother and I would get on those UFA Christmas mornings. This year was like a UFA Christmas but with a bit more of a redneck flavour.

It began with a fine gift, a Marlin lever action 336 Deluxe Cowboy Rifle. We didn't have time to fire off some of the 30-30 rounds otherwise we could have rivalled one warm Christmas when we shot clay pigeons with shotguns.

I also received a pair of fine tanned deerhide gloves. They are fancy enough to wear to a hockey game on a cold night, but eventually they'll be holding barbed wire and fencing pliers.

Finally there was a book by a historian of ranching and cowboys. He argued to my surprise that it is wrong to assume that in Canada ours was not the wild West, but merely the 'mild' West. He showed the civilizing influence of Englishmen in Montana as well as Alberta. And he showed how dangerous Alberta and Assiniboia (Southern Saskatchewan) could be, with gangs, rustlers and cutthroats to rival any American dime store novel. In essence then, Montana could be milder and Alberta wilder than previously thought.

However what was really delightful was going to Calvary Grace with my wife and boys on Christmas morning. That first Christmas in the barn and the Christ-child in the feedbunk was the rustic, raw, even redneck context for the King's birth. And such uncouth elements in Christ's life are the blessed incarnational tincture which I trust makes our redneck Christmas acceptable to him.

Calgary Conference w/ Carl Trueman [Jan 20&21, 2012]

2011-12-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

www.calvarygrace.ca

Our annual Calvary Grace Conference features Dr. Carl Trueman of Westminster Theological Seminary speaking on The Relevance of the Reformation. Dr. Trueman will be speak on Martin Luther, John Calvin and Menno Simons. I will speak once trying to explore the question, "Can a Mennonite be a Calvinist?"

For Conference Registration follow this link.

Cappadocian Ministry DNA

2011-10-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

One of the ways that modern ministers describe their philosophy of ministry is in terms of their specific "DNA" as opposed to the genetic code of other churches.

Specific ministry practice has become the selling point for the superiority of one church over other competitors. In better cases, it is simply the general plan for how to be faithful in heralding the gospel.

But on the negative side, there are few passages of Scripture that are abused in the way that 1 Corinthians 9.22 has been:

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
(1 Corinthians 9:22 ESV)

'Becoming all things to all people' has certainly descended into meaning something like, 'becoming contextualized, for specific people.' Or bluntly, becoming some things for some people.

The result is that class-specific or sub-culture specific ministries abound. A current trend is to have a church geared for the gentrified, urban, creative class. This is often called being "for the city". Yet it becomes obvious to anyone outside of that hip sub-culture that the church is not for them.

What is lost in certain ideas of ministry DNA is ministry to all kinds of people. This is the challenge of pastoral ministry, requiring the pastor to have union with Christ at the forefront of his activity. Only as the weak and strong, the poor and rich, the hip or the square are united in Christ is there unity in the church. All else is sectarian pursuits of partiality.

Consider the DNA of ministry that the Cappadocian Father, Gregory of Nazianzus, praised when reflecting on Athanasius of Alexandria.

Let one praise him in his fastings and prayers as if he had been disembodied and immaterial, another his unweariedness and zeal for vigils and psalmody, another his patronage of the needy, another his dauntlessness towards the powerful, or his condescension to the lowly. Let the virgins celebrate the friend of the Bridegroom; those under the yoke their restrainer, hermits him who lent wings to their course, cenobites their lawgiver, simple folk their guide, contemplatives the divine, the joyous their bridle, the unfortunate their consolation, the hoary-headed their staff, youths their instructor, the poor their resource, the wealthy their steward. Even the widows will, methinks, praise their protector, even the orphans their father, even the poor their benefactor, strangers their entertainer, brethren the man of brotherly love, the sick their physician, in whatever sickness or treatment you will, the healthy the guard of health, yea all men him who made himself all things to all men that he might gain almost, if not quite, all.

Because of sin and circumstance, there is estrangement between people in the church. Pastors can pursue the bridging of those gaps by pointing people to Jesus Christ. This is a difficult work since it is easier to accomodate to one class or another, one sub-culture or another. Yet the DNA of Athanasius according to Gregory is of a ministry that is Pauline: 'all things to all men'.

It is a warning to the hip and cool that sub-culture DNA is something quite different from the great commission mandate.

Unravelling Threads

2011-10-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

Thabiti Anyabwile offers an insider critique of decisions that could unravel the Gospel Coalition. Mark well.

Blog Interview at Me and Brooks

2011-09-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

Tyler Horton of the "Me and Brooks" blog interviewed my wife Christel and I about our experience reading the 17th century Puritans.

Here is the link to the "4 Questions" interview with Tyler.

I highly commend Tyler's blog for its creative engagement with reading Thomas Brooks and other godly Puritan writers.

Salvation and Judgment

2011-09-26T06:53:00.000-07:00

The prospect of salvation is wonderful. But there is often an eclipse of the fundamental reality that makes salvation what it is. That reality is the necessity of judgment. If judgment must come, then the prospect of salvation grows in its halting, awe-making character. Without necessary judgment, stasis would be wonderful enough. 'How great a salvation', as the ancient writer put it, can only be understood by how great a judgment.

Hand-Wringing

2011-09-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

This is an old interview with David Wells reflecting on 9/11. It is still relevant 10 years on.

You open the book with a description of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. How do you see these terror attacks affecting the church in the postmodern world?

David Wells: For a few brief moments, we in the Church were wrenched away from our preoccupations with ourselves, with our own private, therapeutic needs, and we were confronted by an in-your-face act of evil. In fact, we were taken to school by reality! It was a sharp, painful encounter, like discovering, all too late, that one is walking across broken glass with bare feet.Life in the Church, you see, is mostly about me, about what I find enjoyable, and what I need. Life in the world is often about what is wretchedly wrong, sometimes in ways that are ghastly, as was September 11.
It is hard to know whether evangelical faith was changed in any permanent way by this encounter. I think actually that it was a moment of embarrassing revelation. Surely evangelicals, the people of the Cross, would be those who know something about the reality of evil and God‘s way of conquering it through Christ‘s atonement. Surely, they would be to the fore in trying to explain this event to a bewildered and baffled nation? I wish I could say that light was shed on this tragedy in the numerous sermons I read subsequent to it, but, for the most part, I cannot. With a few exceptions, evangelicals, like everyone else, were left speechless and could only wring their hands. Ours is now a faith which is privately compelling but publicly irrelevant, to quote my friend Os Guinness. That is what I think we actually learn from September 11.

The Great Escape

2011-08-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

No it is not Steve McQueen and James Garner escaping from a German camp again. It is the new sermon series at Calvary Grace that will finish out the summer.

The series will cover the small letter, 2 Peter, Peter's last hurrah, chock full of reminders of the rescue that Jesus has accomplished for sinners.

A study guide is available for families to use at mealtime. You can download it here.

Confessing Sin in Church: Why Calvary Grace Does it.

2011-08-17T06:57:00.000-07:00

In a great article on the liturgy of the church, Carl Trueman summarizes what happens when the church confesses sin and hears a word of pardon in the worship service:

At some point prior to the sermon each Sunday in my church, the minister or elder leading the service will read a passage of Scripture designed to expose the moral failure of fallen humanity before God. Then he will lead the congregation in a corporate prayer of confession. Finally, when he closes the prayer, he will read a short passage (often just a verse or two) which speaks of the forgiveness of sins in Christ. The dramatic theological movement of the service at that point is profound: the congregation goes from being reminded and convicted of their sin, to calling out to God for forgiveness, to being reminded that in Christ God has acted in a startling and decisive way to cast our sin as far away as the east is from the west. We are reminded of the entire gospel, from fall to redemption to consummation, in the space of just a few minutes.

His article highlights the need to be confronted about our sin, and to be confronted with the gospel when we are worshipping together as a church. This need is the reason why we practice this at Calvary Grace.

Lesson from Benjamin

2011-08-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Judges 20 gives way to King Saul, and later, Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul of the Tribe of Benjamin.

Conclusion?

God uses what is reduced in stature to increase the knowledge of His stature.

Freezing in the Dark: First World Debt & The New Mega-Church Experience

2011-07-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

First World Debt

There are some impending economic realities that, not only North American politicians, but even churches, seminaries and pastors must face. America is a debtor nation. Canada is less so, but it is tied very closely to the US. Mexico is the same, yet with a host of internal troubles. The debt ceiling crisis underway is simply one more indicator of the massive change happening in America. It is mortgaging tomorrow in order to have pleasure today. And it can't put everything on the credit card forever. Few will talk about 'Third World Debt', when 'First World Debt' can't be ignored anymore.

YYR Growth

Not all is doom and gloom these days. There are many encouraging signs in the numerical and spiritual growth of the so-called, Young, Restless and Reformed movement in Evangelicalism. There is an appreciation for the theology of the Reformation, combined with an interest in applying the savvy of today to 'doing church'. This movement is gaining so much traction that numerous mega-churches have been established with Calvinistic-oriented theology as their backbone.

Now remembering that the YRR segment is merely one part of 'mainstream Evangelicalism', and Evangelicalism in North America is one of a number of other groups like mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, you see that the YRR growth is encouraging, but still needs to be recognized as a relatively small work, on the margins of society.

The New Mega-Church Experience?

Thinking about 'First World Debt', why should I ask if it matters to a subset of a subset in the religious equation, namely the YRR movement? It factors in because many of the ingrained assumptions of the practices and methods of the YRR will be put in jeopardy by this economic fallout. How do you run multi-site services when you can't afford the electricity bill to run the A/V gear, not to mention the lights? How do you justify the pastor's smartphone and mobile data plan when the bulk of the congregation is out of work, bankrupt, or fending off creditors? How do you justify the attractional merit of the mega-church experience when it consists of freezing in the dark?

Churches will be full of people with no cash. Now for years in the US and Canada, small churches have felt the financial squeeze due to the competition from the 'big box' church that moves into town. And in parts of the US the housing bubble has caused churches to adjust to ministering to people who have little money to give to the church. So there has been a foreshadowing of this reality. But the assumption of limitless cash for church planting movements and pastors of worship arts will be tested, tried and found wanting.

The Church Planter's Assumption

It may be an overstatement but there appears to be a dirty little secret among the YRR movement and its aspiring leaders. They think that in the YRR churches, there's going to be cash. Lots of cash.

Sure, they may bootstrap a church plant like a tech startup, but the prospect is that there will be lots of money down the road to fund various programs of cultural engagement, church DNA franchises, and conference travel. I hope I'm wrong in calling it a dirty little secret, but I fear it is a secret, unspoken assumption that could lead to real troubles ahead.

If their theology is Reformed, it will be tested thoroughly. They will wonder if God is still sovereign over the loss of so many opportunities and the addition of programatic pruning to entitled comforts. Instead of sharing DNA and bringing the strength of 'the brand' to more communities, pastors and churches will face hard times and hard decisions in the midst of lamentations.

Empty Cathedral or Full House?

The geography of Europe and Asia Minor is speckled with the architectural remnants of golden years gone by. Beautiful cathedrals lay dormant save for the tourists who explore their cavernous interiors. No one visits the homes, much less the kitchens or sitting rooms of the churches that have gathered through the centuries in these regions. The house churches or small chapels continue to spring up, with spiritual life and simple gospel testimony. The cathedrals are spiritually dead. They only testify to the wealth and priority of generations long forgotten.

Thinking about our situation, you don't have to be a 'house church' advocate to see that the cathedral mentality of Evangelicalism will be removed, not by a philosophical shift or a theological breakthrough but simply because nobody can afford it anymore.

Small parish churches, house churches, and churches that epitomize being 'local', will become the norm. For young seminary students or pastors in training they must reckon with a ministerial life that is consigned to relative smallness, insignificance and obscurity by worldly standards. There will be little room for the hubris which can be disguised as "a vision for a church planting network". The pursuit of a would-be diocese and archbishopric with a unique DNA will be unsustainable.

Found Faithful

It will be better to desire to be found faithful in the ministry which the Lord has given, whether large, but more than likely, small. We can thank God for the expansive ministries of our day that reach across nations. We can thank God for leaders whom the YRR look to for wisdom and guidance. But we must be careful not to presume upon the Lord that because he has raised up a few to such wide-reaching ministry, the next generation will receive a double portion. Instead, the YRR in twenty years will be those who have been tested financially and vocationally, which is to say, their faith in the sufficiency of Christ will be tested. Those YRR men, twenty years on will be keenly familiar with the words of the prophet:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,nor fruit be on the vines,the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food,the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,yet I will rejoice in the Lord;I will take joy in the God of my salvation.God, the Lord, is my strength;he makes my feet like the deer's;he makes me tread on my high places. (Hab 3.17-19)

Thoughts on the Passing of John Stott

2011-07-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

John Stott, man of godly industry.

When a man of godly industry like John Stott dies, the world is left to consider the prospect of life without his presence.

Stott's influence (if such an idea of influence can be measured) on global Anglicanism and Anglo-Evangelicalism will be his lasting legacy. He powerfully combined self-discipline, churchmanship, scholarship, a missiological bent, and a clear communication style. It is rare to find a pastor with the credibility of the academic guild who is a succinct, Saxon writer on topics of practical Christianity.

Behind the scenes were the relationships which Stott cultivated. Consider the anecdote of David Wells arriving in England from Zimbabwe with no money and no place to stay. Stott welcomed him in for the night and Wells stayed for a number of years. Or a respected Scottish minister relating how Stott would remember specific personal prayer requests and ask about them months or years later inquiring about what God had done in the matter. It was obvious that Stott had been praying about such simple, personal requests. By those who knew him, and by the stories they told, this reputation for godliness marked Stott clearly.

Stott's ministry did not escape controversy. His public disagreement with Lloyd-Jones over the latter's call for Evangelicals to leave the Church of England has left a wide circle of ripples that have not dissipated though it is four decades on. Whether Evangelical Anglicans have been able to renew from within seems as unlikely as the US maintaining a good credit rating. With Stott gone, the case for renewal of global Anglicanism loses a key advocate.

Stott was not perfect in his ministry, though there are few who in the twentieth century with a deeper or wider degree of influence. In a blemish on his confession, he tentatively adopted the peculiar English Anglican fad of believing in annihilationism, rather than the historic view of hell involving an eternal experience of judicial punishment. It is a blemish on consistent, bibliocentric, winsome orthodoxy, but the impressive edifice of belief remains.

As a Canadian, any consideration of Stott turns my attention to the Anglican Church in Canada. The loss of Stott seems like the passing of an outsider. Stott's winsome theology is increasingly unesteemed by Canadian Anglicanism. In Canada, Anglicanism drifts listlessly towards irrelevance, while increasing its hostility toward orthodox ministers and churches who cherish Stott's books on their shelves. But if Stott's theology has become unorthodox to the Anglican Church in Canada, it is no wonder that J.I. Packer relinquished his license in 2008.

Reflecting on the giftedness that God granted to Stott clarifies the state of Christian leadership after his passing. Today we are hard pressed to find examples of pastors who have the exegetical and theological gravitas that Stott had, combined with a fluidity, empathy and timelessness of exposition. Ours is the day of practitioners, men skilled in the art of methods applied. Stott's day belonged to stewards, men committed to passing on the truth, employing learning with humility as they approached the sources and the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1.3).

May God grant us a new host of John Stott's to herald the gospel in generations to come.

The Grammar of Worship

2011-07-23T08:29:00.001-07:00

"Worship is a transitive verb"

~ Eric Alexander

The Seasonal Habits of Spiritual Horse-sense

2011-06-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

I'm always interested to hear about the spiritual disciplines and devotional habits of others. How people seek to grow in the Lord is sort of like their accumulated spiritual horse-sense. They know things through their habits of learning, alongside what they are learning about. They unpack the Bible, but the Bible, through time and repetition, unpacks them.

Some pray through the Psalms. Others have a Rolodex of prayer requests and people. Pastors pray through their sermon prep. A few write out their prayers. Many read large portions of Scripture. Others chew on a few verses only.

What are you're devotional habits? What practices have been helpful or hurtful?

My habits have changed over the years. I used to try a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to my study and prayer so that the pattern of my spiritual disciplines was the same throughout the year. Now I take more of a seasonal approach.

In the Fall, the scheduled life of church activities and regular preaching allows more reading and thinking time, so I tend to follow M'Cheyne's reading plan and cover a large portion of Historical books, Psalms and epistles.

In the Winter, as my patterns become more ordered, but at times more monotonous, I will focus my study on one or two books of the bible. This can take the form of what I may call the 'Macarthur method' of reading through the same book each day for a month (I heard John Macarthur advocating this). This is especially the case when I am entering into a new book study for a sermon series, such as Isaiah or Galatians.

In the Spring when I return to the long hours and demanding urgency of seeding time on the farm, I find that I need to focus even more minutely upon a few verses and meditate on them. By soaking in a few verses as Spurgeon advocated, my heart is warmed, and my mind focussed as I meet the challenges of a day of farm labor.

The Summer sees either a return to M'Cheyne's plan (although halved) or focus on another bible book.

So in summary, I follow M'Cheyne, Macarthur or Spurgeon, but none of them exclusively in and out of season.

I find that journalling has been one of the greatest benefits for my continued growth in spiritual disciplines (Thanks to Don Whitney's book, Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life). My thoughts are an easily scattered herd unless penned, both figuratively and literally. Journalling always helps my prayers, by somehow forcing me to live in reality, where God is, rather than the murky thoughts of my mind where God can seem, as Bonhoeffer said, very unreal.
I use prayer lists which have a 'shelf-life' of around two weeks. After that I make up another one that reflects changing needs and situations, while including those still requiring an answer. I find that the bi-weekly cycle helps me to keep current, and keep moving forward. In the past I've had static prayer lists for the year, but have found that my engagement with the lives of the people or situations which I'm praying for become superficial at best. Since I am not the Messiah, I have decided to pray as I can, not as I can't. I hope to grow in prayer, as New Covenant communion with God, but I don't want to pray simply for prayer's sake. I don't wish to "heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words" (Matt. 6.7).

In these things, I hope that God is granting me a growth in spiritual horse-sense. Yet there is still so much to learn in the school of Christ.

What are the seasons of your devotional habits?

Where Should I Go to Bible College or Seminary?

2011-06-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

The Canadian Christian Question

One of the questions I get asked often concerns where to go to bible college or seminary. For a Canadian Christian, the decision can be quite difficult. Although many denominations have bible colleges in Canada, the list of good ones, and by that I mean, godly and biblically conservative, is short.

Brain Drain

When factoring in the rise of the Young, Restless and Reformed phenomenon (cf. Collin Hansen), the list of suitable schools forthat kind of education in Canada is nearly non-existent (excepthere). That is why Canadians of the YYR type invariably look to move to the US for their training. That this leads to a sort of "brain drain" is something that non-American churches have been dealing with for years.

An American Dying Breed?

But bible colleges are, generally, a bit of a dying breed, even in the US. Consider the colleges cited in a Boston Globe article from a while ago. In most cases, great debt loads were amassed through institutional expansion, and recurring operating deficits. Debt could not be paid off because enrollment flattened or declined. The story is that relatively the same at many Christian schools across America and Canada. And just like the economy, bible colleges are facing a massive contraction.

Mismanaged?

But it is not that the bible colleges have been entirely mismanaged, although that may be the case in many circumstances. Most bible colleges I know of are characterized by paying what one professor described as "starvation wages". Bible colleges don't have tenured, 'fat cat', professors generally. Often they are staffed by multiple 'part-time' professors, which tends to be cheaper than paying full timers to teach multiple classes.

Turning the Ship

Schools that have come back from near collapse under debt have generally engaged in deep cuts, campaign-style fund-raising, tuition hikes, and the sale of assets, generally some type of real estate. For example, I know of one of the better known bible colleges in Canada that nearly closed its doors a while back. It is climbing out of debt, but only through the most aggressive money-begging campaign imaginable. The leader of the campaign seemed to me to be far more of an amoral politician than the head of a school aimed at serving churches. But with his savvy, and in the face of cynics like me, the school has come back from the brink.

The question that remains is whether saving such an institution in that way is actually a good thing or not.

Should a Seminary be a Pastor Factory?

2011-06-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

Churches and Seminaries: An Uneasy Relationship

The whole concept of a Seminary for pastoral training is something of a modern concept. It is based on an academy model derived from the modern university. In this academy model, knowledge is pursued for its own sake. Novelty is the highest aim. In a modern university, a scientist is considered to be brilliant if his theories are novel, regardless of how badly he treats his wife. You may be drunkard, but if your book gets published, you’re character doesn’t matter. In a modern university, there is little connection between knowledge and ethics, except at exam time!

Pastoral training since biblical times has been done in the context of a local church community, under the oversight of a local church’s elder or elders. Often this meant that the young minister-in-training would live in the home of a pastor-elder. Long before ministries were described as ‘organic’ or ‘wholistic’, generations of men were equipped to be good pastors through the modeling and mentorship of an older, godly shepherd. As the young trainee would live in the pastor’s home, the ebb and flow of ministerial life would engulf the young man. He could experience all the regular occurrences of church life, without the burden of accountability.

Contrast the young minister trained in this way with the man who must learn entirely ‘on the job’ in his first pastorate. The latter often becomes so overwhelmed by church dysfunction that he leaves the pastorate a short time later. Obviously there are many success stories from those who endured the sharp learning curve, but the casualties among these new pastors are always great. The pastor trained through personal mentorship must also face the difficulties of his first pastorate, but he is far better equipped to meet the challenge, than his naïve counterpart.

The question must be asked then, "Why do we still support Seminaries for pastoral training, and why should we in the future?" The answer is simple. Most pastors either don’t know how to mentor pastors-in-training, or they are not theologically equipped enough to prepare the trainee adequately. Could your pastor teach somebody Greek and Hebrew?

Where will the Pastors Come From?

Due to this over-reliance upon seminaries to supply churches with qualified pastors, there appears to be a crisis on the horizon. How can the crisis be averted? The simple answer is that churches must regain a vision for the pastoral training of young men, and not leave this task to the so-called experts. The seminaries can still play an important role, but they should not be the professional accreditation institution that many of them have become.

If God-honouring churches fail to reclaim the task of training their own leadership 'in-house', then the next generation may see 'a famine of hearing the words of the LORD' (Amos 8:11). If pulpit vacancies are filled by ordering up a newly minted graduate from seminary, then seminaries are no better than pastor-factories and churches are partly responsible for making them so.

Poverty, Ignorance and Piety

2011-06-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

But as we could not do well without some rich men in our churches, so not without some learned ministers.

Letter from James Ryland to James Mursell (April 14, 1820)

Joining a Church the Ancient Way

2011-05-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

Michael Haykin, a friend and former colleague, has a great article on church membership in the new IX Marks EJournal.

The article is titled: Joining a Church the Ancient Way

Haykin wrote:

As the church evangelized the Graeco-Roman world, it encountered people who were prepared to believe in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord, yet who were ignorant of Scripture and the theology it contains. So the church needed to instruct or catechize people in the fundamental affirmations of the Christian creed. The church needed to teach people about things like God’s creation of the world, and the life of virtue that flows from a true confession. Catechesis thus had biblical, doctrinal, and moral components.

This training in biblical, doctrinal and moral components is urgently needed today. Many people have heard about Jesus, know some caricatures about him, but do not really understand what he did, what he does and who he is.

Why I remember Kurt Cobain at Easter

2011-04-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

For Christians, Easter is the day first among equals commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They believe that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was the public vindication of his claim to be the Son of God and Savior of the world. It may seem strange, but at Easter, I also think about Kurt Cobain.

Kurt Cobain was the late founder of the 90’s grunge band, Nirvana. He committed suicide in 1994 after a brief career that encapsulated the angst of a generation --Douglas Coupland’s Generation X.   Cobain, in his life and music, stared into the dark heart of a corrupt world and concluded that nothingness was better than the despair before him.

When considered from the perspective of the Twelve as they witnessed their Messiah die on a Roman torture stick, Cobain’s outlook on life wasn’t so different than theirs on that first ‘Good’ Friday. Hope was extinguished before the eyes of Peter and his companions. The pain of life in a cynical world overflowed with despair as the Christ died --criminalized, brutalized, stripped and shamed. If Peter could have owned a shotgun, would people have been shocked to hear that he offed himself?

When Cobain died, all that his devotees were left with was the musical legacy of his life. So it seemed for the first followers of Jesus. They had his ethical teachings to perpetuate as a legacy. And on that first Good Friday, that legacy was all that remained as Joseph of Arimathea requested the corpse of Jesus the Nazarene for burial. Could Joseph have been wondering if for Jesus, like Cobain, it was better ‘to burn out than to fade away’?

Remembering Cobain, he agonized with the guilt he felt trying to meet the expectations of his fans as his grunge-messiah status became too much to bear. Cobain’s suicide note is replete with the thought that his gratitude to the fans wasn’t enough and his guilt over his hypocrisy was too great. His feelings express the deepest metaphysical questions that humankind has wrestled with. How can a corrupt person in a corrupt world hope to please God? If corruption is all that there is, then what is the point of life? If there is goodness in the world, why is there so little gratitude for it? Cobain wrestled with these questions, but concluding essentially that there was no goodness in Good Friday.

The badness of Good Friday is a common assumption in a post-Christian culture that wonders how a Jew’s death on a Roman cross could possibly be something to celebrate unless you are an anti-Semite or a sado-masochist. But Good Friday can only be interpreted by Easter Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth provided an answer to the plight of global corruption and the problem of the human heart. If death was conquered and corruption overthrown, then life was given meaning and hope made concrete. Cobain never found a concrete hope. His view of the Messiah Jesus, or his own messiahship was limited to a Crucifixion Friday view of the world, with no Easter ever to dawn.   Cobain never saw the hope of a life transformed by God’s love and kindness. He never saw the prospect of a real atonement for his sin, objective and transforming. He feared for his daughter that she would become “the miserable, self-destructive, death rocker” that he was. This fear filled him with hopelessness. And so Cobain’s last words would ring true, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ did not happen. If Jesus Christ didn’t rise from the dead, then as Paul, the Apostle said to the Corinthians, “we are of all men most miserable.”

So in the midst of Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, Easter bonnets and all of the trappings of Easter in our culture, I remember Kurt Cobain. I remember him because his misery, ending in tragedy reflected a search quit too soon. It is as if Cobain died between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and the horror of a Christ-less world was never met by the wonder of an empty, Christ-less tomb: “He is not here, but is risen”.

Free EBook available for Download: Ascend to Heaven by Clint Humfrey

2011-04-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

For Easter, I've decided to make available for free a small ebook that I have written. The book is based upon my morning devotions during a vacation in the Rocky Mountains.

The ebook is in PDF format and can be read on most portable devices, iPhones, smartphones and computers.

May Ascend to Heaven: Meditations for Gospel Wayfarers be an encouragement to you and your own devotion to Jesus Christ during this Easter season.

To download the ebook, goto the Calvary Grace site and click on the link.

Article on Patrick and Human Trafficking at the National Post

2011-03-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

On this St. Patrick's Day, I have offered a reflection on the fact that Patrick knew something about human trafficking--- in fact he was a victim.

See the article published on line by the National Post.

Empty Funnel

2011-02-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

I steward the souls of men and women, boys and girls and nothing is more paradoxical. I, who have nothing, must direct others away from lostness, foolishness, forgetfulness and every nothingness. As a steward, I can’t fix souls, but only funnel them. I am funnelling people in empty conduit toward the one who upholds the creation by the word of his power. And funnel I must. I must carry people along. To carry people along can slip quickly into dragging or drawing them by force of personal will, persuasion, force or charisma. Slipping into this is as easy as the slight swerve over the white line on the ditchside edge of the freeway. Slipping over the centreline is just as easy but abruptly more lethal.

My purpose is merely directive. I funnel souls toward Christ. If I think I would serve better as a shiny tin hat, I am appreciated by silly boys and only for a moment or two. If I think of myself as the object of the outpourings of attention from souls passing my way, I make a very poor cup. Pastors who are cups and not funnels watch their ministry spill out on the ground.

2011 Calvary Grace Conference Audio feat. Dr. Bruce Ware

2011-02-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

The Calvary Grace Conference audio is online. The sessions for the entire conference including the Sunday morning services at Calvary Grace Church are included below:

Session 1 How Did We Get the Doctrine of the Trinity, Biblical and Historical Overview (Ware)

Session 2 Relation of the Son to the Father within the Trinity. (Ware)

Session 3 'They Call Me Trinity': Spaghetti Westerns and Confessing Doctrine (Humfrey)

Session 4 Relation of the Son to the Spirit within the Trinity (Ware)

Session 5 Q&A (Ware & Humfrey: Pavier moderates)

Session 6 Clint Humfrey Interviews Dr. Bruce Ware

Session 7 Trinitarian God of our Salvation, Eph 1,1-14

Calvary Grace Conference Begins Friday Night!

2011-02-01T07:02:00.000-08:00

2011 Calvary Grace Conference Featuring Bruce Ware

Dr. Bruce Ware

The TRINITY RELATIONSHIP:

Reconnecting with a Mystery

Feb. 4-5. 2011

Calgary, Alberta

Join us for our 3^rd annual conference as we learn about the mystery of the Trinity and its implications in our lives.
Consider this. If doctrine that is assumed becomes doctrine that is denied, then it is important for Christians to reconnect to truths that may be slipping from their grasp. And of all the truths that are threatened by this doctrinal amnesia, the doctrine of the Trinity is chief. Even the mention of the Trinity invites our most agnostic responses. Meanwhile, the march of religious groups from Islam to the Latter Day Saints force us to consider not only the unity of God, but the tri-unity.
With these concerns in mind, our conference theme this year is:
The Trinity Relationship: Reconnecting with a Mystery.
We are delighted to have Dr. Bruce Ware of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary speaking on this relevant topic.

For Conference info see the Conference Blog or the Calvary Grace Church homepage.

John Piper on Robert Murray M'Cheyne

2011-01-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

Here

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and Our Fathers who Begat Us.

2010-12-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

With the passing to glory of Roger Nicole, many reminiscences are being shared. Not having known Nicole personally, only by his writing and reputation, I have no memories to recount. But I am reminded of a godly man who labored through much the same period of history, Dr. Geoff Adams of Toronto. I don't doubt that Dr. Adams knew Nicole personally, but even if he didn't, there was at least this similarity in their respective legacies, namely a life given to the training of God's servants.

Below is my reflection on the passing of Dr. Adams written in 2006. It is written in the spirit of Ecclesiasticus 44.1 "Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers who begat us".

10 August 2006

Geoff Adams: The Chariot of Israel Ascends

In the darkness of our day and the faltering fortunes of God's people, one could easily despair at the departure of the chariot of Israel with a latter-day Elijah(2 Kings 2:12). But God has not left us without hope or enabling. Even as Dr. Geoff Adams has passed into the presence of his Lord Christ, the material legacy of God's work though this man remains.

Simply put---Dr. Adams was a godly man. His prayers were marked by the vocabulary of the Scriptures and the grammar of heaven. To be in his presence as he approached the throne of grace was to enjoy illumination of the things of God and breathings of the Spirit of God. Such communion with God naturally overflowed from Dr. Adams in his gushing enthusiasm for the advance of Christ's kingdom.

No one admitted to Dr. Adams' classes or company would fail to be impressed with his deep appreciation and regard for the Holy Scriptures. Like a mariner sorting through knots and hitches, he relished untying and re-tying the cords of redemptive-history in order to come to grips with the cohesion and strength of the whole. Though his seamanship ended with his stint in the British Navy, his fascination with God's progressive revelation never did.

The predominant ministry which Geoff Adams engaged in was the training of pastors at Toronto Baptist Seminary. The academic rigor which he demanded reflected directly his view of the high calling of the pastor. Though challenging and tough, he did not treat students inflexibly. In this he bore the imprint of Christ-likeness far more than even his students gave him credit for.

The departure of Geoff Adams from this world to the next signals the end of an age. The world of today is much different than that of post-WWII Toronto. And yet the call of God upon the lives of men remains the same. How may those who are left behind respond to such a call? The ancient example gives us the answer. Just as Elijah was taken upon the chariot of Israel, so too we must be like Elisha with prayers for a double portion of Elijah's blessing (2 Kings 2:9). Although our request may also be a hard thing (v.10), let us not neglect to pray it and take up the mantle left behind by God's servant(v.14). In such a manner, the legacy of Dr. Geoff Adams will continue to flourish even though his chariot has breached the skies.

Out of Eygypt I have called My Son

2010-12-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

In light of recent Sunday School discussion, here is a post from Kevin DeYoung touches on an interesting passage. Kevin articulates the point I was trying to make when he says:

Far from being a barely connected prophetic fulfillment, this word from Hosea 11 filled up in Matthew 2, is a robust piece of New Testament theology. This text says something weighty about the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who came to complete all that Israel was designed to perform. All the adulteries and idolatries and rebellion and waywardness that characterized Israel would be recast in the true Israel Jesus Christ. God sent his Son to do himself what his people could not do for themselves. This is the meaning of fulfillment of Hosea 11 and the true meaning of Immanuel, God with us.

Sermon Series in 4 Yrs of Calvary Grace

2010-12-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

Below is a list of the sermon series that we have had at Calvary Grace over the past four years. I reproduce it in order to help CalGracers find some old archived stuff.

I trust that this is a relatively healthy Scriptural diet, even if the portions have been quite large and not neatly cut-up to fit on a single prong of a fork!

What a privilege to possess and proclaim the Word of God!

All the sermons are found at the Calvary Grace sermon page:

2006
Isaiah (Servant Songs)

2007
1 Timothy
Parables of Jesus
Deuteronomy
John

2008
1 Samuel
Galatians
Ephesians (Ch. 5 Marriage)

2009
Worldly Christianity (Conference)
Divorce and Remarriage
Ecclesiastes
Revelation
Leviticus
Sons of the Pioneer

2010
The Goodness of the Gospel (Conference)
Titus
Jonah
Matthew

2011 Calvary Grace Conference Featuring Bruce Ware

2010-12-03T06:48:00.000-08:00

Dr. Bruce Ware

The TRINITY RELATIONSHIP:

Reconnecting with a Mystery

Feb. 4-5. 2011

Calgary, Alberta

Trying Social Media

2010-10-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

Though I have poked and prodded the use of Facebook from the pulpit (and my criticisms still stand), I have joined, made a profile and begun adding and being added in social media friendship.

I've also begun using Twitter, seeing it as useful for more than updating the latest hockey trade. I have found Tulian Tchividjian's post to be helpful in this regard.

Back when blogs were new, I used to think that being a blogger put me on the cutting edge. I realize now that our society is changing too quickly via new technologies for me to be on the cutting edge of anything.

And so Facebook is no longer a cutting edge option, but something that occupies people's time and energy as part of their regular course of life. As a pastor, I would be naive not to be aware of what people in my church are doing and saying. Facebook is the portal through which that interaction takes place----- until the next technology comes along.

Active and Passive Obedience of Christ: TJ Crawford

2010-10-05T09:20:00.001-07:00

More serious about life and what we believe

2010-09-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

Two years ago yesterday, Terry Stauffer's daughter was murdered. Here are Terry's reflections after two years.

What caught my attention with Terry's post, was the way that he and his family and his church had become so truly heavenly-minded. And the result was that they have become "more serious about life and what we believe".

This does not mean all is somber and joyless, rather as Terry writes, they are , " experiencing the joy of the Lord ".

Terry, Juanita and family have continued to show, as they have told others, that good theology is very important, and something to be thankful for in times like these.

Thabiti Anyabwile Responds

2010-09-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

It was interesting for us to see the author of What is a Healthy Church Member? respond to the way our church is incorporating the book into our membership process. Jeff Jones, one of our elders has been blogging through a sort of study guide for the book, in order to supplement our membership classes. Nice work, Jeff!

The Reek of Patrick Hamilton and the Pope in Scotland

2010-09-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

John S. Ross has a great post discussing responses in Scotland to the Pope's visit. He makes us consider if the smell of martyr's fires has been discreetly extinguished.

So, did Patrick Hamilton burn for nothing?

Audio books

2010-09-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for free audio books check out Librivox.

I have been listening to Augustine's Confessions while I'm swathing. In the past I listened to The Pilgrim's Progress. The Librivox recordings are generally high quality and well read.

Blog Dormancy, Late Harvest, and the Beginning of the Church Year

2010-09-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

This blog has ground to a halt it seems. And it is unlikely to get going any time soon. We have begun swathing at a time when the threshing should be well under way. And Calvary Grace begins its 'church year' in earnest this Sunday as we re-launch our Sunday School program, along with a membership process.

All of it makes for a busy, yet blessed life.

It is a blessing to have things to do and the ability to do them.Praise God for his supply!

On Being Treated as a Weird and Backward Tribe

2010-07-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

Want to be treated like a weird, backward, uneducated tribe? Just try to pay attention to biblical instructions about the roles of men and women in the church.

Dr. Al Mohler identifies what he calls a "National Geographic moment" in one writer's article which investigates the 'shocking' views of Grace Community Church, pastored by John Macarthur.

Mohler says:

Anne Eggebroten’s article represents what I call a “National Geographic moment” — an example of someone discovering the obvious and thinking it exotic and strange. It is like a reporter returning from travel to far country to explain the strange tribe of people she found there — evangelical Christians believing what the Christian church has for 2,000 years believed the Bible to teach and require. So . . . what is so exotic?

Read more of Mohler's dissection of the Eggebroten article.

On Hymns

2010-07-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

"It's the truest form of folk music I can think of," [...]

"They talk about their sins and struggles and none of that woe-is-me stuff. They've helped me learn more about Jesus and what he's done instead of focusing on myself."

- Matthew Smith

Best Definition of Prayer in the English Language

2010-06-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God through Christ in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit for such things as God has promised or according to his Word for the good of the church with submission in faith to the will of God.

----John Bunyan - Prayer ( From Praying in the Spirit , 1662, BOT reprint, 2005;)

A Few Good Men: Thoughts On the Company of Pastors Downsized

2010-06-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

Our society is full of experts. Talk shows are their temple. And the non-experts are their worshippers. Our society bows to the experts because the expert is a guide for life. Gauged by Oprah’s popularity and her countless imitators, there is a restless search for guidance. What people don’t understand is that their real need is for a shepherd. They need a pastor, but the company of pastors is downsizing.

The Downsized Company of Pastors

Do you attend a church that currently has a pastor-shepherd? Be thankful. The phenomenon is rarer than you might think. Countless are the numbers of churches searching for a pastor. Do you attend a church that currently has a good pastor? Be very thankful. Good pastors are even harder to come by.

This conclusion is not unfounded. In talks with Christians from all over North America, I have often heard the lament of those who have been a part of the dreaded pulpit search committee. It is perceived that the pool of potential pastoral candidates has evaporated, leaving a murky remnant of the eccentric, immature, and unqualified. Churches claim to have reasonable expectations for a potential pastor, yet often they have difficulty finding someone who qualifies under the barest application of the biblical parameters (cf. 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1). The company of pastors has downsized and churches are only now beginning to see how grave the situation is.

The fact is that fewer and fewer men are aspiring to the office of an overseer (1 Timothy 3:1). Could it be that fewer believe that it is a "noble task"? The pitfalls of pastoral ministry in the modern era are many: burnout, marriage break-downs, starvation wages, church politics, etc, etc. As a result, pastoral ministry is seen as being too difficult and burdensome, especially when other options are available.

Trending Away From the Pulpit

By general observation then, I have seen six trends that have arisen from this aversion to the pastorate.

First, there has been a boom in parachurch ministries. Why pastor when you can join a Christian organization that is perceived to be more effective than the Church? Certainly, it is easier to serve Christ, without the baggage of dealing with a church. It is easier to work with staff that can be hired or fired, than Christians who must be loved, disciplined, forgiven and restored.

Second, there has been a redefinition of terminology and philosophy from biblical language---terms such as elder, shepherd overseer--- to generic terms such as "leader". And the fact is that leaders do not have the same requirements as pastor/elders.

Third, there is common agreement that in North America, seminary enrollment is plummeting. Unless a seminary buttresses their enrollment by admitting students in non-pastoral track programs, or female students in pastoral tracks, they would probably close the doors. Where seminary enrollment has grown, it is in seminaries that explicitly emphasize the training of expository pastors, and have earned a reputation for training a few good men, if not many.

Fourth, there is a tendency among existing pastors to compare themselves with other leaders in society, namely professionals like doctors, lawyers, corporate managers, etc. This comparison stokes the pastor’s feelings of significance. In like manner, those who enter the pastorate with this type of thinking don’t pursue it as a ‘calling’ but as a ‘career’. It is something to be managed and advanced, rather than something that you are summoned to.

Fifth, there is a pragmatic push for allowing women to enter the elder/ shepherd/ overseer role, contrary to clear biblical teaching (1 Tim. 3.2). It is interesting to observe that many denominations have opened the elder role to women coinciding with the time their pastoral vacancies rise. Among some seminaries I have observed in the University of Toronto consortium, the "low church" Anglican seminary, Wycliffe College (a broadly evangelical school) has the pastoral degree programs filled with women to a great extent. At non-evangelical schools such as Knox College (Presbyterian Church of Canada) or Emmanuel College (United Church of Canada), the percentages would be significantly higher. In the case of all three denominations, pastoral vacancies would be epidemic if there were no ordained women to fill the positions. Pragmatism says it is good that pulpits are filled and churches not closed down. However Christian obedience says that the Lord is building His Church, and that we don’t have the warrant to build it in a fashion contrary to His Word.

Sixth, those who obey God and heed His Word will not lack successive generations of pastors and elders. The mentoring and discipleship of future leaders is part of the Church’s biblical mandate outlined from the Great Commission to the apprenticeship of Timothy under Paul. If there are fewer good men to pastor churches, then it will force many congregations to consider what the reason for their existence is. They will be cornered into reordering their priorities around the Word of God and the faithful transfer of the gospel to future generations. If they don't they will become engulfed by pragmatism and their past faithfulness to the Scriptures will vanish like morning mist.

Conclusion
All of these trends will result in a greater clarification of those who confess Christ and those who confess Baal. There will be less middle ground. Cultural Christianity will only be apostasy, not the compromised practice of those merely signing off on orthodox doctrine. Churches confessing the gospel may be fewer, but they will more consciously seek to herald the gospel and train heralds to do the gospel work. And a gracious God will grant them their prayers, by raising up among them a few good men, lest the people be like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9.36; cf. 1 Peter 5.2).

John Bunyan’s Imagination

2010-06-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

Among the greatest works of English literature is The Pilgrim's Progress. It has been studied and analyzed for its merit matching an extended allegory to situations and relationships which common people have experienced for over three centuries.

What is clear in reading The Pilgrim's Progress is that the author, John Bunyan, had a vivid imagination. He admits as much when he says that the book is essentially a dream. It is as if Bunyan saw invisible realities as clearly as if they were visible. This ability made him capable of expressing complex moral dilemmas in clear terms. An example of this is the decision which an awakened sinner makes when they are faced with choosing to live by a higher moral code or continue to look for salvation in Christ alone. Bunyan illustrates this in Christian's encounter with Mr. Worldly Wiseman, and his respectable and well reasoned counsel to turn out of the way, and toward the home of Mr. Legality.

But there is an element of Bunyan's gifted imagination that is not all good. Reading his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, it becomes apparent that Bunyan's imagination hindered him, and even hurt him. Though the narrative is marked by joyous expressions of praise at the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus that Bunyan had come to own as his own, there are inumerable seasons of doubt. Bunyan's doubt is not the product of lethargy or complacency. Rather he doubts because his imagination continually placed him in comparison with the worst examples of sinners, betrayers and apostates in the Bible.

It is clear that his imagination would powerfully affect his understanding of his position in Christ. Although he knew the promises of God, his imagination would turn his thoughts to biblical scenarios of those like Judas who knowing 'sold the Savior'. Bunyan would see himself in that situation, vividly experiencing the feelings of Judas and the sinful reasoning that went on in Judas' mind would become Bunyan's own in his imagination.

Bunyan struggled as a Christian for lengthy seasons, imagining himself to be Esau, who "sold his birthright for a single meal" (Heb. 12.16). His imagination took the evidence of his own sin, and the tendency of his own heart toward sin, and extrapolated those facts so that they began to outweigh the clear promises of Scripture. His imagination held Bunyan in turmoil, as he reckoned with the gravity of his unseen sinfulness, over against the revelation of gospel.

Applications:

Self analysis is good, but it must be brought back to objective realities (otherwise your opinion is too high or too low of yourself).
Preach to yourself, don't listen to yourself. (D.M. Lloyd-Jones).
M'Cheyne: For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ. Bunyan had that reversed for many years.

Teach Me Your Paths: In Scripture

2010-05-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

The bible study I am teaching titled Teach Me Your Paths: An Introduction to Spiritual Learning resumes tonight.

We will be looking at how the bible is put together, paying particular attention to biblical history as the means by which God's revelation is organized.

It will be Geerhardus Vos for regular folks.

The Bible Study's blog has details:

Teach Me Your Paths.

Said at Prayers: Jesus. Thank You For the Rodeo.

2010-04-18T05:56:00.000-07:00

Last night when Hunter and I were praying before bed, and I had just finished my last, Hunter broke in:

"Jesus. Thank you for the rodeo."

Hunter's prayer falls under the category of thanking God for good things that we enjoy. We have been trying to recall daily some good things that we have enjoyed and then thank God for them.

Hunter evidently enjoyed the hour and a half that we watched the 50+ Senior Rodeo at the High River arena yesterday. So by his prayer, his rodeo joy was turned to doxology, which is something I need to learn and grow in also.

Working Against the Gospel: Dever @ T4G

2010-04-15T06:01:00.000-07:00

Just listened to a bit of Mark Dever's talk at Together for the Gospel 2010. He said this:

"You can work against the gospel by the life your congregation lives."

If I understand Dever's point, he means that the gospel can be lost through the adjustment of gospel content to accommodate the world. But the gospel can also be lost by being a worldly church or an ingrown church or a dead church.

Maybe the gospel would go forward if many of the churches that are out there, as Dever put it, "just weren't there".

Tonight: New Women's Study, Teach Me Your Paths...In Prayer.

2010-04-14T05:51:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to tonight's theme of prayer since it is something that every Christian wishes to grow in.

Like a child needing to learn to speak better, or express things more clearly, or to request things less selfishly, so also we as child-like believers need to grow in our praying.

The women's study meets at 7pm. For more info visit the women's study blog, Teach Me Your Paths with the location address.

A Strange Preaching Reception for George Whitefield

2010-04-13T06:23:00.000-07:00

In a letter Whitefield recounted:

In the morning I broke up some fallow ground at a place called Mare-Green, about two miles from Wedgebury. Much mobbing had been there against Mr. Wesley's friends. A few poor souls began to insult me, but Jesus strengthened me very much. Several clods were thrown, one of them fell on my head, and another struck my fingers, while I was in prayer. A sweet gospel spirit was given to me.

[The Revived Puritan: The Spirituality of George Whitefield. ed. Michael A.G. Haykin. p. 162]

It is very encouraging to know that in the face of overt opposition, God granted strengthening by Jesus and 'a sweet gospel spirit'.

Will He not do the same for you, Preacher?

The Rhythms of John MacArthur

2010-04-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

Fascinating excerpt from Hughes Oliphant Old describing the preaching of John MacArthur. Old writes:

He seems to have a feel for the use of rhythm in his preaching. He uses a variety of rhythms. He will often deliver a whole series of phrases in the same rhythm almost as used in the Odes of Horace. Sometimes his rhythms are very rapid and sometimes very slow. Sometimes they are highly artificial. One is easily offended by his preacher's cant, but one wonders at times whether one does well to be offended. These pulpit rhythms, which we think of as being hopelessly old-fashioned, are being used by preachers today quite effectively. They somehow make it possible for the listener to absorb and retain quite a bit of material over a long period of time. Could this be why the epic poets told their long stories in rhythmic meters? MacArthur's rhetoric is terribly out of date, but maybe he knows something the rest of us don't.

This is the only device of oratory that Old detects. What is preeminent in Old's view however, is the weight of Scriptural authority that MacArthur lays before his hearers.

What more must the herald do?

HT: Challies, Pyro

The Trellis and the Vine

2010-04-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

Upon returning from the Shepherd's Conference, my father-in-law lent me a copy of The Trellis and The Vine. I had heard about it. I thought the general thesis was sound. But when I read it, I discovered that the book articulated well where I am at with the church that I serve in.

And so, the book is a little dangerous but in a good way. It opens the door to developing the priesthood of believers and Great Commission action, without abdicating the oversight of God's summoned episkopoi and presbuteroi.

Tim Challies: John Piper Inviting Rick Warren

2010-04-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

Tim Challies has a well thought out evaluation of why John Piper's invitation to Rick Warren is a bad idea.

In my limited experience I have been burned a bit by inviting someone to speak whom I didn't know well, but welcomed based on the speaker's appearance at a conference hosted by a respected Christian leader.

The difference in this case is that Rick Warren is very well known. Most observers would agree that Piper's emphases undercut Warren's and vice-versa. So to act as if this is not the case is either disingenuous or foolish.

I will leave it to the reader to guess which adjective belongs where.

Empathy with John Piper's Leave

2010-03-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

After two weeks in Arizona I can certainly empathize with the benefits of time away from ministry in order to 'relaunch' future service. Read more of John Piper's announcement of his multiple month leave.

Google Earth and the Events of Holy Week

2010-03-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

A helpful tool for one's meditations leading up to Easter is found on Google Earth. Justin Taylor has the link.

A Spanish Reformer on the Interpretation of Scripture

2010-03-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

Juan de Valdes, the Spaniard who was part of the Italian Reformation had this insight into the mutual interpretation of the Scriptures. He puts forward what was the common sense approach, namely:

I should in the first place have occupied myself with the Gospels, which are the histories of Christ, and I should have sent them to you; because this Scripture is commonly held to be easier of interpretation and comprehension than any other; then I should have occupied myself with the Epistles of St. Paul and of St. Peter, and I should have sent them to you, for that there is, so to say, in them, the practice of Christian life with the confirmation of Christian faith; and afterwards I should have occupied myself with the Psalms, and I should have sent them to you, because they are commonly held to be a Scripture very difficult of interpretation and of comprehension.

And had I done so, I should have greatly erred in relation both to yourself and to myself, for neither should I have succeeded either in translating, or in interpreting, the Gospels so well, not having passed through the Epistles; nor the Epistles, not having passed through the Psalms; neither would you have been so capable of reading the Gospels, had you not been instructed in reading the Epistles; neither in the reading of the Epistles, had you not been exercised in the reading of the Psalms.

This is an encouragement to 'whole-bible-biblical-theology' and the analogy of faith. It stands against atomistic exegesis and taking verses out of context---- the context of the entire canon of Scripture.

Lay Down The Thing As It Was: Bunyan on Writing Style

2010-03-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Bunyan relates his method for sharing his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, saying:

I could also have stepped into a style much
higher than this, in which I have here discoursed, and could have
adorned all things more than here I have seemed to do, but I dare
not: God did not play in tempting of me; neither did I play, when
I sunk as into the bottomless pit, when the pangs of hell caught
hold upon me; wherefore I may not play in relating of them, but be
plain and simple, and lay down the thing as it was; he that liketh
it, let him receive it, and he that doth not, let him produce a
better. Farewell.

No flourishes. No exaggeration. Just strong verbs and descriptive nouns expressing the press of divine grace on his soul.

Arizona Vacation Thus Far 2

2010-03-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

Sovereign Grace Church of Gilbert is a solid fellowship of believers. Rich Richardson preached from Revelation 2. It was clear and sound. He is a good preacher.

CJ Mahaney's influence trickles down. In the bookstore before the service, a young man said to another young man holding a book, "Yes, you will be affected." Not a bad thing to be mimicked.

Reading John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Bunyan was nearly drowned twice, and squeezed out the venom of an adder that he had smacked on the highway with a stick. These events were illustrative of God's mercy to him though he was a distinct rebel against him.

Scholars have tended to psychologize Bunyan. He must have had some type of disorder to be so concerned with judgment and the prospective torments of demons. But as I read Matthew 5 it seems that at the very least, Jesus has as stark of an understanding of sin and its consequences. My view is that Bunyan, like few others, saw spiritual realities as being nearly visible realities. This makes his insights so pregnant and his language so vivid.

American Vacation Thus Far

2010-03-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Christel and I are in the beautiful state of Arizona for two weeks of rest and renewal. We miss Calvary Grace. But we don't miss the snows of March!

Some random thoughts:

read Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. [to be read like Melville's Moby Dick]. An Adam and Eve story that takes the consequences of federal headship seriously. Makes me wonder if Adam realized how his arrogance in eating the fruit would lead to his wife's death, as the Lewellyn Moss character shows.
going to church at Sovereign Grace Church of Gilbert. Looking forward to simple, solid preaching and heartfelt worship of a great God.
drove to St. Anthony's Monastery yesterday. A true monastery of cenobites (40 of them) started by some monks from Mt Athos in Greece in 1995. Brochure said that women needed a scarf, longsleeves and a floor length skirt, men needed longsleeves and pants. We pulled into the parking lot and saw a woman wearing a full burqa . We were both in shorts and tee shirts.
St Anthony's looked like a resort. Very beautiful, lush and elaborate. If the monks did the work themselves I am amazed. If not (I'm sure they needed a major contractor) then I'm a little nonplussed. Maybe I don't understand the nature of their asceticism.
Evangelicalism here is characterized, it seems, by one word: competition.
Have been reviewing the Jesus Our Pioneer sermon series, editing for some future use.
prayed in the desert.
swam in the pool
had gunfights with the boys.
saw a 44-40. Colt revolver with pearl handles from the 1800's. What a pistol! It was for sale by a fella at Festival of the West in Scotsdale. [This was the gun the kid, Blevins had from 'the gettin' place' in McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses.]
God's creation inspires praise of him. The rain in the desert has turned everything green. It is a helpful picture to consider for our souls.

Teach Me Your Paths: An Introduction to Spiritual Learning

2010-03-11T06:52:00.000-08:00

Last night I had the privilege of beginning the first in a series of studies for the women of Calvary Grace titled, Teach Me Your Paths: An Introduction to Spiritual Learning.

Last night, we looked at an overview of the study, and then explored the first of the series: Commonplace: Learning to Keep a Commonplace Book.

To supplement the studies we have a blog with links to articles and resources. It is called:

http://teachmeyourpaths.wordpress.com/

Finishing Well

2010-03-06T20:02:00.000-08:00

There is profundity and wisdom on the neglected subject of finishing well, here.

M'Cheyne Book Review in PRTS Journal

2010-03-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

It pleased me to see my review of LJ Van Valen's book on Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1813-1843) included in the latest Puritan Reformed Journal.

The Journal is filled with excellent articles, ranging from historical theology to practical matters of Christian living.

My thanks to Ian Clary for pointing this out to me. Ian has an article in the same issue of the Journal.

Read the table of contents.

View the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary site.

Horatius Bonar's Commonplace Book

2010-02-25T06:35:00.000-08:00

Among the 19th century Scottish Evangelicals, Horatius Bonar is among the most eminent. Being a preacher, hym writer, and 'winner of souls', Bonar was also very learned. One of the tools that he used was a commonplace book devoted to historical figures in the Church. Though lacking citation information-- an unfortunate but common characteristic of commonplace books----Bonar offers nuggets culled from the deep mines of the best theological writers. Read the book.

William Perkins on the Use of Analogies in Preaching

2010-02-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

Perkins gives this counsel on the careful use of analogies in preaching. His guidelines are as follows:

1. They should be used sparingly and soberly.

2. They must not be far-fetched, but appropriate to the matter in hand.

3. They must be mentioned briefly.

4. They should be used for practical instruction not to prove a point of doctrine.

From The Art of Prophesying

On John Bunyan's Ability

2010-02-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

"Bunyan is almost the only writer who ever gave to the abstract the interest of the concrete"
- Lord Macaulay

Pastor Rider

2010-02-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

Have you ever met a pastor rider? How about a pasture rider? How about both in one. Probably you've never even seen one from the car window on the side of the road. The fact is, they're tough to spot at the best of times. They might not be extinct or endangered but they sure are rare.

Strange as it is, I know of one of them personally. He's a rope-handed cow checker who stands behind a wood box on Sundays, preaching. But the preaching is not merely an appendix to his pasture riding; it's the other way around. He is impassioned by the grace that has been shown him to be a herald of God's best news.

So there is such a thing as a pastor rider/pasture rider. But unless you're going to hike back into the hills during roundup, you're best bet to see him is behind the pulpit any given Sunday.

Track him down at his blog, PastorRider.

Writing Tools in the Preacher's Hand

2010-02-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

A friend sent me a draft of a book he is writing. I replied with suggestions and comments. One of them was an observation, that a preacher can be helped by studying writing and how to write.

Roy Peter Clark's book Writing Tools offers insights into how vocabulary, grammar and syntax work. So why wouldn't an exegete want to use them? Often preachers (like myself) are worried that studying the mechanics of writing would lead to a literary style in our preaching. That dreaded style is like the sermons we gave straight out of seminary, piles of good firewood but not a match anywhere.

If it is important for a preacher to become a better preacher as time goes on, such helps as these Tools may come in handy. And any preacher who has put his hand to the task for more than a month knows that he needs as much help as he can get.

A Classic on Preaching Nearly Missed

2010-02-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

Often classics slip past us in the rush to keep with the maddening crowd. Many have recommended John Stott's 'preaching book' to me but I had not read it before now.

Stott's Between Two Worlds gives an historical overview of preaching, the balance of exegesis and application that is required, and the mechanics of sermon preparation.

In all of it, two unexpected figures rise to prominence: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Charles Spurgeon. They are not unexpected in the history of great preaching. But Spurgeon was a Baptist, and ML-J somewhat of an antagonist toward Stott, the Anglican. It is a wonder then, that these two men figure so largely in Between Two Worlds.

Stott's counsel is full of learning, but not pretension. He has honesty (even pointing out when Spurgeon and Karl Barth agree), and insight (the 'two worlds' section is excellent).

The book is suited for the man with a calling to preach, who has preached, but wishes to preach better. It is more than that, however. Between Two Worlds is a model of the pastor-theologian addressing a pastoral need with skill, depth and realism.

John Owen and Medicina Animae: Physik For Sin-Sick Souls.

2010-02-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

In the selection below, in the third line, John Owen describes gospel truths as medicinal, not in a merely self-absorbed therapeutic way, but for the chief plague of every heart; that is, sin. They are a physic (medicine) for that which truly ails us. What a comfort to know that the gospel is so enduringly good for our souls, not merely for a moment, but for eternity!

It is a great quote and one that I hope to use this coming Sunday as I preach the beginning of a series on Titus, titled, Reforming the Soul's Health Care: A Letter From a Practitioner.

New Pickup No Match For Bull or Horses: Baxter Black

2010-02-04T06:31:00.000-08:00

Baxter Black tells the story of how one man's pride (in his pickup) was dashed to pieces at the rodeo. Here is an excerpt:

A big rangy Brahma bull with huge horns, a firm hump and bad attitude threw his rider off like he was skipping rocks and thundered around the arena.
The pickup man brought him halfway back, but the bull circled again and eyed the back fence. He ran to it like an Olympic high jumper. Over he went, taking out boards, a cable and three colored pennants before he smashed down on the cab of Walter's new red truck!
You could hear the air bags pop as the windows blew out. The horn honked and the blinker lights came on as the roof caved in.

Read the rest of the story.

Post Conference Blues

2010-02-02T06:38:00.000-08:00

You may have experienced it. You have attended a conference where you have enjoyed the blessings of God through the Word preached and the Spirit applying that Word.

But then on the Monday after your return, you get the Post Conference Blues. For the preacher it can be that way. It is then merely a heightening of that frequent phenomenon of the Post Sermon Blues.

Why the let down? I think it is both physical and spiritual. It is physical in that the nervous tension of the body in listening to the very Word of God is hard work. And much more so, the work of preaching. So it is normal that there is a fatigue after such exertion.

But it is also spiritual. After feasting on the Word of God, we are summoned to trust God out in the wilderness of the world. We cannot merely trust in the blessings of God (like the Word preached) because they are somewhat removed. We are constrained to trust God for himself alone. And so, spiritually we are weaned off of blessings after a sermon or conference, so that we might trust God for his own sake, not merely for the sake of his blessings.

If we don't learn this, we will be roller coaster Christians living for the next spiritual high, but essentially faithless in the absence of intensive spiritual delights.

So I won't kick the Black Dog (as Churchill described it), but understand that God is teaching me things by that Old Dog's presence.

Calvary Grace Conference Day 3 Sunday Worship

2010-01-31T05:17:00.000-08:00

Looking forward to Art Azurdia's ministry this morning providing a welcome postscript to the conference.

He will preach from Isaiah 53 "The Answer of the Gospel".

May the Lord visit us to wound and heal.

Calvary Grace Conference

2010-01-30T06:51:00.001-08:00

Day 2. Vishal will speak 3 times today. I spoke in his place last night due to the late arrival of his flight.

Around 95 are registered. Not sure what the walk up will be.

God is good.

The Goodness of the Gospel: Calvary Grace Conference 2010

2010-01-29T08:29:00.000-08:00

The Goodness of the Gospel
Schedule:

Message Title	Day	Speaker	Time
Is the Gospel Good?	Friday	Vishal Mangalwadi	7pm
The Glory of the Gospel?	Friday	Art Azurdia	8pm
The Goodness of the Gospel Before God	Saturday	Clint Humfrey	8:30am
Break			9:30am
The Consummation of the Gospel		Art Azurdia	9:45am
The Goodness of the Gospel For the World		Vishal Mangalwadi	11am
Lunch			12-1:30pm
Panel Discussion			1:45pm
The Goodness of the Gospel Tainted		Clint Humfrey	2:30pm
Break			3:45
Heralding the Goodness of the Gospel		Vishal Mangalwadi	4pm
The Answer of the Gospel	Sunday	Art Azurdia	11am

Like a Wedding: Planning a Conference in a Small Church

2010-01-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

For our small church putting on an annual conference (this is our second time doing it) has been a challenge, but a welcome one.

My description of the conference planning and implementation is that it is like planning a wedding. You think and plan and plan and think. You prepare, you implement, and you try to anticipate what is going to happen.

But in the end, everyone in the family has to be prepared to pitch in and help out at the last minute because there are many guests and many things happening in a condensed amount of time.

And so we are anticipating the Bridegroom's presence this weekend, by his Spirit, to help us and bless us with his vivifying Word.

The Cost of Gracious Honesty: Comments on Haiti & Avatar Post

2010-01-27T06:42:00.000-08:00

This blog isn't very controversial. Stark political views are kept away (ask me about the Wheat Board!). The only thing that is offensive is the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is offensive enough to be sure, but most of the time, those that hate the gospel don't take the time to read and respond to this blog.

But when I posted Vishal Mangalwadi's piece on the disaster in Haiti, the controversy factor was elevated greatly to my surprise. In fact I had to shut off the comments very quickly because of the vulgarity of language and unreasonable hatred expressed in them. I suppose getting such comments is the cost of gracious honesty.

Of course one thing that typified the comments is that the writers did not read or chose to ignore the latter third of Vishal's essay. Vishal's assessment of why the disaster in Haiti is cultural rather than merely natural was seen by the commentators as advocating racism and denying help to the afflicted nation.

The fact was that Vishal warned America of adopting a worldview that could lead to tyranny and cruelty, not compassion and sacrifice like we are seeing today in the outpouring of relief aid to Haiti. He also advocated giving through the local church in Haiti so that the aid would be developmental not merely in temporary relief. Vishal's points were neither racist nor cruel. They offered realism matched with gracious love.

If Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is correct in saying that the rebuilding process in Haiti is a ten year project, is it not to be feared that all of the emotional outpouring of relief aid will begin to dry up after six to eight months in the news cycle? Consider the forgotten rebuilding in New Orleans post-Katrina?

Is not the time coming soon when the questions which Mangalwadi addressed will have to be faced? Such questions reduce to 'what is to be done so that this disaster does not happen again?' Mangalwadi's point was that natural disasters cannot be prevented, but cultural ones can.

For those who saw the article and my posting of it as expressive of self-righteousness, and the 'monstrous' views of a 'monster', I accept that such comments come with the territory. And although the comment writers presented themselves as somehow defending Haiti or defending the aid given to Haiti, I fear that they are doing neither.

If they loved Haiti, and not just the placating of their own conscience, they would desire to go to the greatest lengths to not only help with the emergency on the ground, but the crisis in the background.

If they were true defenders of aiding Haiti, they would take a keen interest in what the aid was doing now, through whom it is being given, and how it would develop long-term stability. My guess is, however, that the comment writers are more oriented to give money so that they can feel absolved, without thinking in depth about what they are trying to do with the money. To think more deeply about what needs to be done in Haiti, is to ask questions. And it seems (according to the comments) that to give money with questions asked is monstrous.

But maybe giving money with questions asked is a mark of a deep, personal and objectively real love for human beings in the midst of a horrid disaster which is both natural and cultural.

True love is always graciously honest. Sentimentality, by contrast, presents itself as loving, but is always flaky and fair-weathered. My great fear is that for all of the millions that are being given in aid to Haiti, the motives will be sentimental ones, rather than truly loving ones.

And if they are only sentimental, then the sentimentalists' interest in Haiti will wane with the passing of a few months of newscycles, or until the next major world event captures their interest.

Why I Thank God for Sola Scriptura

2010-01-26T05:58:00.000-08:00

As one of the principles of the Reformation, I thank God for sola scriptura. It is a biblical statement of the chief authority for all matters of faith and practice. Sola Scriptura is a precious idea for me.

But I am also thankful for Sola Scriptura Ministries International. I have benefited from Sola Scriptura's ministry for nearly a decade and half.

Primarily this benefit has been through Sola Scriptura's extensive conference ministry. I recall meeting the director, Heinz Dschankilic, at a conference at Knox Presbyterian Church in downtown Toronto while I was a student at Toronto Baptist Seminary. I think I helped with the registration table for that one.

I also remember the blessing of hearing Derek Thomas and Carl Trueman at one of the Toronto conferences.

But stretching back even further, to the days when Sola Scriptura was known by its earlier ministry name, Ligonier Canada (a branch of RC Sproul's ministry in the US), I remember being impacted significantly. You see Ligonier Canada had conferences in Calgary on an annual basis, and as a freshly graduated bible college student in 1996 I attended one of them (at First Evangelical Free Church on Elbow Drive). I had the privilege of meeting one of the speakers, a man who would have an expansive ministry among the Calvinistic renewal. A friend and I took him out for lunch, and my buddy locked the keys in the truck. The speaker had to flag down someone in the A&W parking lot in order to get a ride back to the conference for his afternoon session! That experience led me to enjoy a friendship with that speaker, and I had the chance to hear and meet other such men whom God used to profoundly shape my thinking.

All of this was due to the efforts of Sola Scriptura. So if you come to the Calvary Grace Conference on Friday and Saturday, make sure you greet Heinz at the booktable and thank him for his ministry. I know I thank God for it.

Haiti's Disaster & Hollywood's Avatar by Vishal Mangalwadi

2010-01-25T06:39:00.000-08:00

Below is an article that the author sent me to distribute. We continue to look forward to Vishal's ministry among us at the 2010 Calvary Grace Conference on Friday and Saturday (Jan 29-30).
Posted with permission.
Haiti's Disaster & Hollywood's Avatar
by Vishal Mangalwadi

The 9 million people of Haiti, largely of African descent, living in approximately 10,000 square miles in the paradise-like Caribbean island of Hispaniola, constitute the only nation in the world which gained its independence through a successful slave rebellion in 1804. Sadly, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas.

Its independence was inspired by the secular idealism of the French Revolution and launched in a voodoo ceremony on August 14, 1791 that included sacrificing a pig to Satan, drinking its blood and making a pact with Satan.

In 200 years, none of its 32 coups, multiple dictatorships and democratic elections has succeeded in building political freedoms. Lawlessness, insecurity, instability, and dependency permeate Haitian society, preventing their independence from attaining either the economic potential witnessed during the colonial period or that of Caribbean tourism today.

On January 12, 2010 Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince was devastated by an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude: 200,000 people are estimated killed and now, more than a week later, 20,000 people are reported to be dying every day due to lack of food, water and medical aid.

The Disaster: Natural or Cultural?

On 17 October, 1989 an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude also struck the San Francisco Bay Area in California in the United States of America: Only 63 people died. At that time the Bay Area had over 5 million residents; Port-au-Prince has less than a million.

What is the difference? The Bay Area was built on a culture of law, justice, freedom, and consequent trusting social order which makes prosperity possible. In contrast, in spite of many wonderful exceptions, Haiti is built on a culture of immoral corruption, oppression, social mistrust and resultant poverty. Builders routinely disregard the rules for constructing safe buildings because political, bureaucratic and law enforcement institutions move on the wheels of bribery. In plain words: while Haiti’s earthquake was natural, its disaster is cultural. Therefore, even though individuals need immediate relief, the only way to rebuild Haiti is to transform its culture.

Can Hollywood’s Avatar Save Haiti from its Corruption and Spiritism?

In order to overcome its culture of corruption and poverty, Haiti needs many heroes like Jake, in James Cameron’s megahit movie Avatar. Jake was an outsider but, like Jesus Christ, he incarnated among a people in great need and became one of them. He chose to sacrifice his own life in order to save a vulnerable people that he dearly loved.

The Avatar’s hero is ideal but its scriptwriter is naïve. The people of Haiti practice Voodoo spiritism because they understand and know reality better than Hollywood’s romantic idealists.

The Haitians know that they do not know the supreme creative spirit, they call Bondey. Since they cannot know or reach Bondey, they assume that the Creator is also incapable of reaching them, revealing Himself to them, loving them enough to discipline them or to incarnate in their midst to save them. French Roman Catholicism had tried to convert their slaves in the 17^th century; therefore, some Catholic trappings adorn Haitian Voodoo. Yet, because most Haitians believe that the Creator does not care enough to interfere with human affairs, Haitian Voodoo does not fear or serve the unknown, absentee Creator.

Nevertheless, the Haitians do not think that only the material world is real. They know that spirits exist: some of them get possessed and spirits communicate with their religious leaders. Their devout priests claim to receive certain supernatural powers from the spirits. The Haitians call these spirits Lwa or loa and fear and serve them.

Like many Indians as well as the Na’vi people in Avatar, the Haitians believe that these spirits govern nature. Disasters, such as the present earthquake, have taught Haitians that the spirits that govern nature or possess individuals are not always good and benevolent. They may contribute to life, but they also bring disease, disasters and death. As Indian Tantriks (occult priests) know well, no god or goddess sacrifices his/her life to save others. Quite the opposite. They may demand the blood of your neighbor’s child before they grant your petitions. Therefore, just as many of our “holy” tantriks and ascetics become demoniacs, many Haitians have also become like the gods and goddesses they worship – capricious, greedy and unpredictable.

Haiti is different than the Bay Area because Haitian society is built on a worldview the universe is not cosmos ruled by the Word of One benevolent and just Creator. They think we live in a multiverse – a chaos – governed by many unpredictable deities. This worldview does not encourage a systematic study of nature (science) or an attempt to govern and manage nature (technology). Since the multiverse has no Law-Giver who will hold us accountable, there is no need to be a law abiding citizen – especially if you can bribe human rulers just as your priests bribe the gods.

Could Cameron’s Portrayal of America be Prophetic?

Cameron’s Avatar portrays secular America as a brutal super-power, ever-ready to sacrifice simple, nature-worshipping people at the altar of amoral economic greed. America has had ugly moments in its history. Haiti, however, is seeing a very different America – a nation that is quick to sacrifice billions of dollars in aid; a nation filled with churches that are sending thousands of volunteers to serve the helpless; an army that will spend its resources to rescue the trapped and save aid workers from mobs of greedy, spirit-worshipping Haitians who will loot food from the mouths of lonely elderly and vulnerable orphans.

Unfortunately, James Cameron’s Avatar could turn out to be a prophetic portrayal of 21^st century America. Following the European Enlightenment, American intellectuals also learned what Indians and Haitians have always known—the human mind, by itself (without divine revelation) cannot know the Creator, His moral law or His saving grace. (However, does our inability to reach Him, prevents Him from incarnating to save us as Jake saved the Na’vi?) The Enlightenment’s intellectual arrogance is choking Europe and America’s ability to see God’s grace and revelation. Although professing themselves to be intellectuals, they are continuing to march towards a Haitian-like destiny:

America’s godless, secular intelligentsia have succeeded in eliminating the spirit and guidance of our Creator from the educational process. As a result, public universities have become factories churning out amoral and progressively immoral leaders.

The brightest of these university graduates now control a significant section of corporate America. Their amoral, greed-driven financial management caused the economic crisis that began at the end of 2008. Honest tax-payers were forced to bail out Wall Street, but the crisis continues to haunt hundreds of millions in America and around the world.

Amoral “intellectual” elitism is now crippling American politics. At the moment of writing, President Obama’s #1 domestic priority – Healthcare Reform – lies derailed, in shambles. “Reforming” healthcare sounds like a good thing. But if the ruling party is really doing something good, why does it have to bribe its own Senators and trade unions with hundreds of millions of dollars to pass a “Reform” bill?

Following politics, (spirit-and-morality-rejecting) secular materialism will drive the American army into the arms of amoral-greed-driven capitalists. At that point America will become worse than a Saddam Hussein who marched his tanks into Kuwait to loot its oil wealth. When that happens, America will be what Avatar portrays – incomparably more dreadful than Hitler’s Germany.

Cameron may be prophetic in his portrayal of America, yet, America can be saved from its encroaching corruption and destruction. It can repent and return to the biblical spirituality that founded and still undergirds (albeit frailly) the Bay Area’s culture of just, compassionate and law-abiding capitalism powered by scientific research and technology.

Tens of thousands of Indians that now lead the technological and financial sectors of the Bay Area demonstrate that India (or Haiti) do not need to remain “backward.”

Cameron’s Avatar is fiction, but the marvelous truth about Haiti, India, America and Europe’s future is that God has in fact incarnated in human history. The historic Avatar actually sacrificed his life to save us from our sin. Therefore, we do not need to live as slaves of sin that is the real cause of Haiti’s cultural disaster. We can move forward. But we must hold on to what James Cameron does not yet know: the spirits of trees, rivers, astrology and mythology cannot save us. We know that we are not Nobel Savages of Hollywood’s romantic idealism: we Indians are as corrupt as the Haitians and the Americans are catching up with our corruption.

The Na’vi’s accepted their savior after significant resistance. We need humility to confess our need of the Incarnated Divine Love who would sacrifice himself to save us from our sin, including the sin of worshipping false gods, whether of trees and demonic deities or of greed for power and material progress at the cost of the welfare of humanity and nature.

Since Haiti’s disaster is cultural, the most effective way to transform its culture while meeting immediate needs would be to channel developmental aid (in contrast to the relief aid) through Bible believing local churches that seek to cultivate biblical spirituality. While many of these churches have not yet assumed the responsibility to transform their wider culture, one can connect with trustworthy and effective churches through organizations such as www.HarvestFoundation.org.

Shattering All Human Self-Sufficiency: Azurdia on Methodology

2010-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Art Azurdia, writing in the Spurgeon Fellowship Journal, has this vivid exhortation for pastors:

Consider the nature of your calling, my brothers. The preacher brings to a fallen humanity the testimony of God centered on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, a work that by nature shatters all human self-sufficiency. To employ methods, in turn, that reflect the wizardry of men is to eviscerate the gospel of its own content. If God has supremely disclosed Himself in the cross, and if following Jesus Christ means dying daily, then to adopt a style of ministry that is triumphalistic, designed to impress, and calculated to win acclaim is a serious contradiction of the gospel; perhaps, even, anti-Christian.

If you are in the Calgary area January 29-30 plan to attend the 2010 Calvary Grace Conference where Art Azurdia will be speaking along with Vishal Mangalwadi and myself.

Vishal Mangalwadi on Witnessing

2010-01-23T06:33:00.000-08:00

Vishal Mangalwadi, who will be speaking next weekend at the 2nd Annual Calvary Grace Conference, makes an illuminating point in his book, Truth and Transformation. He writes:

The act of proclaiming forgiveness for sin through Jesus’s death on the cross is described in legal terms as “witnessing” because it is first a historical statement and only then a theological statement.

It comes as no surprise then, that when the legal stance and the historical emphasis are lost, then so is the theological import. Mangalwadi's point, therefore, exposes the sentimentality that infects much of our supposed 'witnessing', showing that without a legal and historical concern, there is no objective concern, only subjective preferences. And once the faith in the gospel is reduced to a subjective preference for an ungrounded belief it ceases to be the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As Mangalwadi emphasizes throughout his works, ideas have social consequences.' If our ideas about the gospel are deficient, is it any wonder that our witness is deficient in society?

See my wife's post interacting with Vishal's critiques of Yoga, here.

By the Halves, Coldly, and Seldom?: Bunyan on Mortification

2010-01-22T06:52:00.000-08:00

John Bunyan was a wise man though he had no university degree. His insights into the Christian life are so clear that they can be helpful for the modern believer as well as the early modern one. Explaining about the putting to death of our sin, he is as thoughtful as John Owen, though plainer in speech.

Bunyan says:

In the doctrine of mortification is also much of the cross. Is it nothing for a man to lay hands on his vile opinions, on his vile sins, of his bosom sins, of his beloved, pleasant, darling sins, that stick as close to him, as the flesh sticketh to the bones? What, to lose all these brave things that my eyes behold, for that which I never saw with my eyes? What, to lose my pride, my covetousness, my vain company, sports, and pleasures, and the rest? I tell you this is no easy matter; if it were, what need all those prayers, sighs, watchings? What need we be so backward to it?

Nay, do you not see, that some men, before they will set about this work, they will even venture the loss of their souls, heaven, God, Christ, and all?

What means else all those delays and put-offs, saying, Stay a little longer, I am loth to leave my sins while I am so young, and in health? Again, what is the reason else, that others do it so by the halves, coldly and seldom, notwithstanding they are convinced over and over; nay, and also promise to amend, and yet alls in vain? I will assure you, to cut off right hands, and to pluck out right eyes, is no pleasure to the flesh.

Is that how you put off sin: by the halves, coldly and seldom? Even when you are convinced of the need to do so?

Bunyan has a window opened to the soul's struggle at this point. Let us be warned by his exhortation.

The Cowboy Nobleman

2010-01-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

Growing up I had a pair of third cousins, spinster sisters, who loved the Lord and passed on to me some of the English-ness of my family's yeoman heritage. Their father came to Canada from Oxfordshire, England with my great grandfather in order to go into business. Although the two daughters were born in Canada, they always seemed to have close ties to England and the expat English community in Calgary.

One of the characters they used to tell me about was the Earl of Egmont, Fred Perceval, the Cowboy Nobleman. He ended up residing on the Two Dot Ranch in the Rocky Mountain Foothills and never took his seat in the House of Lords. Author Brian Brennan said:

One wonders what Conrad Black and other commoners who have coveted seats in England's ermine-bedecked upper chamber might have given to trade places with Perceval.

Perceval told a Calgary newspaper in 1933 about motives for his plan to move back to Alberta from England at the time. He said:

What English people do not realize is that there is a greater spirit of freedom and generosity over here in Canada... Canada gets into one's system and, although its nice to go away for a time, it is good to get back.

Though he was entitled to vast prestige and honor, he abdicated his entitlement in order to enjoy the contentment of real labor (there might be a parable in there someplace!).

And so my spinster cousins would tell of "the Earl" and wonder how he was doing 'out on the ranch'.

His obituary (d. 2001) was published by the Telegraph.

Teaching Children Hermeneutics

2010-01-20T06:15:00.000-08:00

In an older post by John Walton at the Koinonia blog, he identifies some serious problems found in the way that churches teach about bible interpretation (hermeneutics). But the area he addresses is not adults being taught bad hermeneutics, but the children. He lists recurring problems he sees in childrens' Sunday school curriculum:

1. Promotion of the Trivial: The lesson is based on what is a passing comment in the text (Josh 9:13, they did not consult the Lord), a casual observation about the text (Moses persevered in going back before Pharaoh over and over) or even a deduction supplied in the text (Joshua and Caleb were brave and strong). The Bible is not being properly taught if we are teaching virtues that the text does not have in focus in that passage. We would like children to be virtuous, but we dare not teach virtues rather than the Bible. The plague narratives are not teaching perseverance nor is the feeding of the multitude teaching sharing (as done by the little boy in one of the accounts).
2. Illegitimate extrapolation: The lesson is improperly expanded from a specific situation to all general situations (God helped Moses do a hard thing, so God will help you do a hard thing. But the hard thing Moses was doing was something commanded by God whereas in the lesson the hard thing becomes anything the child wants to achieve). In these cases what the text is teaching is passed by in favor of what the curriculum wants to teach and biblical authority is neglected.
3. Reading Between the Lines: This occurs when teachers or students are asked to analyze what the characters are thinking, speculate on their motives, or fill in details of the plot that the story does not give. When such speculations become the center of the lesson, the authority of the biblical teaching is lost because the teaching is centered on what the reader provided.
4. Missing important nuance: This occurs when the curriculum pinpoints an appropriate lesson but misses a connection that should be made to drive the point home accurately. It is not enough, for instance to say that God wants us to keep his rules—it is important to realize that God has given us a sense of who he is and how we ought to respond in our lives. It is not just an issue of obeying rules—God wants us to know him and respond to him by following in his ways and being like him.
5. Focus on people rather than God: The Bible is God’s revelation of himself and its message and teaching is largely based on what it tells us about God. This is particularly true of narrative (stories). While we are drawn to observe the people in the stories, we cannot forget that the stories are intended to teach us about God more than about people. If in the end, the final point is “We should/shouldn’t be like X (= some biblical character)” there is probably a problem unless the “X” is Jesus or God. Better is “we can learn through X’s story that God . . .”
If we are negligent of sound hermeneutics when we teach Bible to children, should it be any wonder that when they get into youth groups, Bible studies and become adults in the church, that they do not know how to derive the authoritative teaching from the text?
We all have a working hermeneutic, even though most have never taken a course. Where do we learn it? We learn it from those we respect. For many people this means that they learn their hermeneutics from their Sunday school teachers. Teachers in turn teach what is put into their hands. Perhaps we ought to be more attentive how Sunday school curriculum is teaching our children to find the authoritative teaching of God in the stories.

Walton's comments make me ask how your church is doing in its bible interpretation? Is there a tendency to teach right doctrine from wrong texts? Is the bad hermeneutic used in the Vacation Bible School due to neglect of its importance by the elders? What are the hermeneutics like around your dinner table?

The Defects of a Newly Awakened Soul

2010-01-19T06:20:00.000-08:00

John Newton had great insight, and his Letters have been very helpful for me. Take this excerpt from a letter to a nobleman in March 1765, where Newton explains how new converts, though full of zeal and love, also have weaknesses in their devotion. Newton writes of the passions of the new convert:

If we examine this character closely, which seems at first sight a pattern and a reproof to Christians of longer standing, we shall for the most part find it attended with considerable defects.
1. Such persons are very weak in faith. Their confidence arises rather from the lively impressions of joy within, than from a distinct and clear apprehension of the work of God in Christ. The comforts which are intended as cordials to animate them against the opposition of an unbelieving world, they mistake and rest in as the proper evidences of their hope. And hence it comes to pass, that when the Lord varies his dispensations, and hides his face, they are soon troubled, and at their wits end.
2. They who are in this state of their first love, are seldom free from something of a censorious spirit. They have not yet felt all the deceitfulness of their own hearts; they are not well acquainted with the devices or temptations of Satan ; and therefore know not how to sympathize or make allowances, where allowances are necessary and due, and can hardly bear with any who do not discover the same earnestness as themselves.
3. They are likewise more or less under the influence of self-righteousness and self-will. They mean well; but not being as yet well acquainted with the spiritual meaning and proper use of the law, nor established in the life of faith, a part (oftentimes a very considerable part) of their zeal spends itself in externals and non-essentials, prompts them to practise what is not commanded, to refrain from what is lawful, and to observe various and needless austerities and singularities, as their tempers and circumstances differ.

For those believers who fell guilty that they do not have the same fire and zeal that they used to, let them consider Newton's counsel and then see if God has been growing them in grace, or are they simply growing slothful in their devotion.

Note Taking of a Sermon

2010-01-18T06:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after my sermon as I shook hands with people headed for the door, I spoke with one young man who expressed the plight of many. He informed me that he had tried to take notes of my sermon on his palm sized electronic device but feared that he might of missed some things because he was so busy taking them down. Now for this young man, using his device was a quicker and easier method than his ability to write with a pen, yet the process of notetaking remained a challenge to him.

Memory or Notes?

There are many different methods of note taking. One of the simplest is the Cornell system that saves the left margin and bottom of the page for keywords and summaries respectively. Ann Blair, in her essay, Note Taking as an Art of Transmission identifies four "S's": "storing, sorting, summarizing and selecting". Blair also traces how Early Modern scholars were often praised for there memories, being able to recount excerpts from other authors with ease. But the ease was not the result of a great memory, in most cases, but from well ordered notes put to good use.

A Bulletin of Blank Lines

When I was in college and attending Grace Community Church, I recall how much emphasis was placed upon note taking of Dr. Macarthur's sermons. The bulletin that was handed out for the worship service had the bulk of its pages devoted to blank lines with a short exhortation at the bottom, "It is your responsibility to apply the Word of God to your own life", or some similar sentence.

Retrieving and Reviewing the Word

If the Scriptures exhort us to 'store the Word in our hearts, that we might not sin against you' (cf. Psalm 119.11) then it becomes important for us to retrieve and review the Word, whether read or heard. So it may be necessary for churches to offer guidance and even training in something as simple as note taking since it is a skill to be employed for the spiritual good of the congregation alongside that all important skill of reading.

Of course there have always been Christian believers who have not been able to read, relying instead on the oral transmission of the Word. But that is not a good thing. God has chosen to reveal himself through his Word written. It is incumbent on us to be able to read. And if we read, then we should also be able to assimilate what we read into our lives---- through note taking.

Jesus, Our Pioneer and Walking as He Walked.

2010-01-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

This morning I conclude my preaching series on Jesus Our Pioneer. Few books have been written that spell out what it means for Jesus to be our archegos (cf. Hebrews 2.10, 12.2). One of them that touches on the theme is Joel Beeke's book, Walking as He Walked. I highly recommend it.

Here is a link to the classic cover picture of legendary bronc rider Casey Tibbs. I found it while looking for a quote in Google Books. It has nothing to do with Jesus as our archegos...

Jargon and Exaggeration: David Robertson's Critique

2010-01-16T05:49:00.000-08:00

David Robertson is the pastor of St Peter's Dundee a Free Church of Scotland congregation. I have been reading his insights for years going back to their appearance in columns for the Free Church website. It is great to see an article I had read back then reappear today.

The article is titled "How (not) to be an American Missionary in Scotland" and the points that Robertson makes apply to many other missionary and local church context. For example, Robertson's critique of the presumption of missionaries with a 'vision for Scotland' is well said:

It is also helpful to be realistic about what you can do. I have met men who tell me with a straight face that their mission is to bring revival to Scotland and Ireland; to unite the churches, to ‘disciple tomorrows leaders today’, ‘develop a CPM (church planting movement) that will envelop the whole nation for Christ’. Much of this is the Christian equivalent of spin and corporate business talk. Meaningless except to those schooled in the jargon. It is better to be honest. I know that saying you are running a pensioners club in a rundown area of an inner city is not quite the same as ‘bringing revival to Scotland’, but it is more realistic.

When it comes to church planting anywhere, there is a whole lingo that is attached to the enterprise. When a church planter is also a missionary, there is added lingo, and added pressures. Robertson writes further:

The trouble is that American missionaries are often funded by individuals or churches who want to know what their money is achieving. Plus there is a lot of competition for a limited amount of cash – and when there is any kind of recession it is missionary work that often gets hit first – so each missionary is in the unenviable position of having to sell their work in order to obtain funds to continue it. In such circumstances it is not surprising that jargon and exaggeration come into play.

How often does 'jargon and exaggeration' come into play in established churches as well? Is not one of the besetting ills of North American churches their supposed need to sell everything: the building program, the prayer meeting, the worship experience, or the welcome experience?

I know that with Robertson's reminder, I want to be a bit more diligent in my own speech, so that I am not falling into easy talk filled with jargon and exaggeration in order to sell a project, a program or a church.

Read more of Robertson's article.

HT: Ref 21 Iain Campbell

Do you think that these Haitians were worse sinners?

2010-01-15T06:35:00.000-08:00

With the tragic earthquake that levelled Port-au-Prince has come critical questions about the interpretation of life.

Why Haiti? Why those people?

A Televangelist brought up the supposed pact with the devil which Haitians made to overthrow their French colonial overlords, and that since that time they have been 'cursed'. Presumably, the earthquake was a part of God's judgment.

Of course anyone familiar with Haiti's history and culture knows that Voodoo religious belief and practice is dominant there.

But the question remains, "Why those people?

The words of Jesus could be applied when he asked rhetorically,

"Do you think that these Haitians were worse sinners? (cf. Luke 13.2).

The badness of the Haitians sins (i.e. dealing with the devil---- of course what about all of the sincere Haitian Christians) is interpreted as the reason not merely for the fact of judgment, but for the particularity of judgment upon them, at this time.

Jesus pointed out that the apparent particularity of judgment is not due to how bad certain sinners are. The eighteen people who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them were not "worse offenders than all others who lived in Jerusalem" (Luke 13.4).

But Jesus did make clear what the point of such judgment is, and of the accountability that only death brings when he said,

"unless you repent, you will all likewise perish".

It is presumptuous to think that one's cultural heritage is what guarantees protection from God's wrath upon a sinful world. Life is lived, wherever it is lived, and by whomever, by God's grace alone.

So we ought not to be arrogant about our security in North America, our lives are held only by a very undeserved favor. And so it is fitting to keep in the mind the words of the poet when he said:

Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

Carl Trueman and a Scandal

2010-01-14T05:42:00.000-08:00

The excellent E-Journal from 9Marks is newly out and includes an article on Evangelicals in academia. Playing off of Mark Noll's book, "The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind", Trueman offers the real scandal when he writes:

Years ago, Mark Noll wrote a book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, in which he argued that the scandal was that there was no such thing. When it comes to evangelical scholars and scholarship, I disagree: the scandal is not that there is no mind; it is that these days there is precious little evangel.

Trueman's point is a simple but significant one all too easily missed by Christian academics. But then the problem is similar to how a lot of Christians act. They think that by being worldy out in the world, they are, as the lingo goes, "being a testimony" to the lost.

Of course they are being a testimony, just not a good one.

The Blind Side and Being Blindsided

2010-01-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

Last night Christel and I went on a date and we watched the movie "The Blind Side". It is the story of a white, wealthy Christian family taking in a homeless young black teenager. Based on a true story, the movie was a feel-good story that was encouraging and entertaining.

It also made me do a lot of thinking about the movie's portrayal of things:

- Is Evangelicalism in the South really as culturally enmeshed as the movie portrayed?
- Is the divide between rich and poor so distinct, that there is no real middle class only the very rich or very poor?
- Was the movie's message that money does buy happiness? Or is it that the wealthy have an obligation to give to, and uplift the poor?

It made me wonder about all of the young men who pursued athletics as their only way out of neighborhoods of gangs and drugs, yet were unable to attain to the slender hope of a college scholarship or professional sports.

After much talk on the way home, I told my wife about my old college roommate and how he had a similar background to Michael Oher's, having received a scholarship for baseball to go to the Christian college we were at. I moved away and lost touch with him. I said to my wife that 'maybe he is on the Facebook', though I am not.

So I googled his name this morning and was grieved to read his obituary of a few of years ago. It told how he had gone on from college to a minor baseball career, owned his own company and coached his son in sports. Then it explained how he died:

After surviving a drive-by shooting the previous month he was shot to death in the driveway of his home by two masked men waiting in ambush.

... I don't know what to say or feel. I'm blindsided.

...the thing I know is that the only hope for this world is in Jesus Christ alone.

Articles by Michael Haykin

2010-01-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

Some older articles that my friend Michael Haykin wrote for Reformation & Revival Journal are available online in PDF form, here. Take advantage of these great resources.

Vishal Mangalwadi and Art Azurdia

2010-01-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

For those planning to attend our conference (Jan 29-30 see www.calvarygrace.ca for details), here are some links to our speakers:

Vishal Mangalwadi

Art Azurdia

Blog Series

2010-01-10T17:45:00.001-08:00

I added some of the old blog series to the side bar. It is funny for me to recall some of the old tales and yarns which seem to get exaggerated with the telling.

Victor Hanson, Odysseus, and Laertes the Farmer

2010-01-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

I have been enjoying the book The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization. It is written by Victor Davis Hanson, a rare combination of scholar and farmer. He has many insights into the nature of democracy and how the values of the family farm are integral to democratic ideals.

He also has a farmer's love and hate for the sweet bitterness of farming. He highlights a prototypical description of the farmer as found in Homer's Odyssey in the description of Odysseus' father, Laertes, when the son sees him upon his return home.

But he found his father alone in the well-ordered vineyard, digging about a plant; and he was clothed in a foul tunic, patched and wretched, and about his shins he had bound stitched greaves of ox-hide to guard against scratches, and he wore gloves upon his hands because of the thorns, and on his head a goatskin cap; and he nursed his sorrow.

My granddad's work shirts were so worn that they were frayed on the tops of the collars. Though he normally was clean shaven, when his chin was covered in stubble, one knew that it was harvest time. He was a farmer, in some sense, in the tradition of Laertes, though I'm sure my granddad had never heard of him with his slim ninth grade education. But few would be as farm savvy as he: shrewd, resilient and unwilling to suffer fools gladly.

Who Laments the Vanishing Bible College Part III

2010-01-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

This is Part III of a series where I am ruminating about the incremental disappearance of North American bible colleges.

No Students. No School.

As I mentioned in Parts I and II, the problem that bible colleges have faced is that their enrollments have plummeted.   There response often has been to cast a wider net for students by offering liberal arts options and minimizing denominational distinctives. For some schools this strategy has helped them stay financially afloat for a little while. Inevitably however, they run into debt problems due to the increased overhead of new departments, new faculty, and new marketing.

The issue goes back to the volition of students valuing biblical training or not. The simple fact is that fewer professing Christian young people desire to make biblical training a top priority. Many are glad to have it as a side perk, on par with a nice campus and good workout machines at the campus gymn. But biblical training is merely a side benefit, or even a necessary hassle (though not an evil!).

What they really want is a somewhat Christian environment that will offer as efficient of a means of education as any secular school.   If the degree tracks lack that efficiency, then Christian students won't attend a bible college. And if there are no students, there is no bible school.

Back One Step.

The reason why bible colleges have rushed headlong to become debt-ridden liberal arts colleges is to try to win the pragmatism battle in the minds of prospective students and their Christian parents. Often it is not the students themselves that are eager for transferring of credit to a secular schools, it is the parents and their pocketbooks. Christian parents paying for their kids to go to school want the biggest bang for their buck. And the payoff is whether or not their child can get a good job after completing their degree. Two years of bible classes that won't transfer is a poor use of the parent's resources in this thinking. Makes one wonder about to Whom do the resources belong?

Back Two Steps.

But why is it that Christian parents apparently minimize the value of intensive biblical training for their kids? Why do they wish to marginalize it in favor of the priority of the all important question "does it transfer?".
Part of the reason is that biblical knowledge has not been esteemed by the churches that those parents attend. Most likely, the parents have been soothed and entertained by witty messages with only marginal connection to the Scriptures. They have been taught practical tips on living 'successfully' in their parenting, politics, self-fulfillment and sex. But in this type of teaching, the bible is valued, but merely as a support to the main points, as offering added incentives, bonuses and the like. It is no wonder then that parents treating the importance of biblical training in a similar way: beneficial but marginal.

Moving Forward.

My view is that bible colleges should get back to their core business, training people in a knowledge of the Scriptures, and in the application of the Scriptures to their lives. Failing that, I can safely predict that those schools will crack under massive debt loads.

I also think there is a great need for new, biblically focussed, bible training schools.   Such schools should have their genesis in the local church and be the outflow of an ecclesiastical concern to equip young people in a knowledge of the truth.

As God seems to operate, he allows institutions----tools---- that have been used in the past, to be set aside for new instruments. Sometimes the older tools get resharpened. But if the old scythe will not keep its edge, what further purpose does it serve?   Let us pray for existing bible colleges that they would take and edge once again, but let us also pray that the Lord of the harvest would see fit to implement new tools as he sees fit.

Who Laments the Vanishing Bible College? Part II

2010-01-07T06:31:00.000-08:00

This is Part II of a series where I am thinking out loud about the vanishing of North American bible colleges and some conclusions we can draw.

Forgive Us Our Debts

School debt is universally the cause of school closures. Is there an example of a school that shut down because it was failing to be faithful to Scripture in the honor of Christ? No. But though God may forgive sin debt, the banks ultimately will not forgive fiscal debt.

As I mentioned in my last post, the debt issue, apart from any mismanagement, is really an enrollment issue. Admissions are down in all Christian post-secondary institutions, both bible colleges and seminaries. What is the reason for this? The answer, quite simply is that fewer people wish to get biblical training.

The Problem: The End of Bible Training

That fewer professing Christians wish to get biblical training---the staple of the bible college curriculum--- is evidenced long before enrollment in bible colleges declined. For years now, bible colleges have been morphing into Christian liberal arts colleges in order to give prospective students more 'options'. Now certainly some of these changes toward liberal arts are part of healthy growth and expansion by bible colleges into, as the thought goes, more mature institutions. But bible college administrators have opted for a university-prep orientation to their curriculum largely out of concerns for the school's enrollment and survival. Students have stopped enrolling in Christian undergrad schools in order to get bible training. Instead, they wish to get a liberal arts (i.e. non-Bible) credits that will transfer----that all important goal----to a university (usually state run or 'secular'). Invariably bible-oriented courses are not an aid to this goal, but a hindrance to it. And so bible college 'Minor in Bible' programs have become ever slimmer respecting requirements for bible classes.

The Result: The Bible-less Bible College

Obviously if students are going to bible colleges, but not for the bible, then those institutions must either change or cease to exist. Most schools have aimed to change. They have aimed to become not bible colleges, but liberal arts colleges with Christian social standards. The first place often that the change occurred was in the name of the institution. Countless bible colleges have dropped the "Bible" or the "Baptist" or whatever distinguishing Christian moniker from their names (an example here, and here).

With the Bible taken out of the bible college, it is free to posture as a maturer institution and pursue liberal arts credibility. Among the benchmarks for such recognition are the following: accreditation, new departments and faculty hires, new institutional marketing, upgrades to athletic programs, and upgrades to residences. Such changes are not all inherently bad. Some schools have maintained a rigid focus on biblical training and cultivation of Christian character in students while practically developing as an institution. But for most bible colleges, the changes are made, not out of maturing development but desperation. And so they become sort of bible-less bible colleges.

The Core Problem Again: The Church Trying To Be Like the World

The issue then, is not the quality of the liberal arts development that a bible college employs. Often the bible college offers a pretty good liberal arts education in its university prep work. The problem is that the bible college's core reason for existence has been marginalized. Students are not there for the bible. And if the social scene at the bible college has become lax in its Christian ethos, then the remaining vestige of a Christian context for a liberal arts education is seriously diminished. Why then would a Christian student go to a bible college? Why not go to the secular university, get involved with a good campus ministry, go to a good church, and get Christian roommates.

And so as the churches have opted to try to compete with the world in offering superlative entertainment in its services, so bible colleges have tried to compete with secular schools in offering superlative liberal arts choices. But as most people know, the church will always parody itself when it tries to be like the world. So it is with the bible colleges too I think.

In my next post, I will suggest a way forward for bible colleges and offer a bit of hope.

Lo-Brow Romantic Things That I Have NOT Done!

2010-01-05T23:08:00.000-08:00

My wife studied to be an opera singer. She studied ballet.

When she met me she had to adjust to some of my different notions of romance.

For example:

I've taken my wife on a date to a Pick Yer Part Junkyard.
For three years in a row we celebrated our wedding anniversary by branding heifers and castrating bulls.

There have been many things that I have done that have been more rustic than refined, more blue collar than high collar, and more cowy than cultured.

But I have never written 'Happy Birthday, Christel' in steer scours, bull manure or any other dung, fecal matter, or poop.

I guess this Iowa fella is a hopeless romantic.

[HT: Justin Taylor and Ian Vaillancourt]

Who Laments the Vanishing Bible College? Part I

2010-01-05T06:52:00.000-08:00

This is Part I of a series where I am thinking out loud about the vanishing of bible colleges and what it means for Christians in North America.

The "Where" Question

One of the questions I get asked often concerns where to go to bible college or seminary. For a Canadian Christian, the decision can be quite difficult. Although many denominations have bible colleges in Canada, the list of good ones, and by that I mean, godly and biblically conservative, is short.

Brain Drain

When factoring in the rise of the Young, Restless and Reformed phenomenon (cf. Collin Hansen), the list of suitable schools for that kind of education in Canada is nearly non-existent (except here). That is why Canadians of the YYR type invariably look to move to the US for their training. That this leads to a sort of "brain drain" is something that non-American churches have been dealing with for years.

An American Dying Breed?

But bible colleges are, generally, a bit of a dying breed, even in the US. Consider the colleges cited in a Boston Globe article from a year ago. In most cases, great debt loads were amassed through institutional expansion, and recurring operating deficits. Debt could not be paid off because enrollment flattened or declined. The story is that relatively the same at many Christian schools across America. And just like the economy, bible colleges are facing a massive contraction.

Mismanaged?

But it is not that the bible colleges have been entirely mismanaged, although that may be the case in many circumstances. Most bible colleges I know of are characterized by paying what one professor described as "starvation wages". Bible colleges don't have tenured, 'fat cat', professors generally. Often they are staffed by multiple 'part-time' professors, which tends to be cheaper than paying full timers to teach multiple classes.

Turning the Ship

Schools that have come back from near collapse under debt have generally engaged in deep cuts, campaign-style fund-raising, tuition hikes, and the sale of assets, generally some type of real estate. For example, I know of one of the better known bible colleges in Canada that nearly closed its doors a while back. It is climbing out of debt, but only through the most aggressive money-begging campaign imaginable. The leader of the campaign seemed to me to be far more of an amoral politician than the head of a school aimed at serving churches. But with his savvy, and in the face of cynics like me, the school has come back from the brink.

The question that remains is whether saving such an institution in that way is actually a good thing or not.

A 10-Chapter-a-Day Bible Reading Plan

2010-01-04T06:40:00.000-08:00

I have suggested a different bible reading plan to one person at our church and have been encouraged to see the instructions taken to heart by a bunch of people.

The plan is Grant Horner's. He is a prof at Masters' College (one of the schools I attended). It involves reading 10 chapters per day. But don't be intimidated because the intention is that you would read them through quite quickly, not lurking over the chapters and so taking all day to get through a half dozen.

Read Horner's intro and try it for yourself. You will be surprised how helpful it is, and just how 'doable' it is.
Here are the links for:

The printable plan

13 Questions with Prof. Grant Horner