A Memorial Day Reminder

This Monday is Memorial Day in the US. It is a day where soldiers who have died in service to their country are honoured. Those veterans who are still living, or who have died since serving, are also honoured.

The Sunday before Memorial Day is tomorrow. While I know the urge is there to make much of those who served, especially those who died doing so, I wish to remind my brethren who preach the Gospel that Sunday is the Lord’s day, a day for honouring Him. There are many pressures to remove the Gospel from our presence, and even good things, like remembering the valiant, is no replacement for the greatest Honour due the Lord. In Canada, on Remembrance Day (November 11th), the same tendency is present.

Whatever sermons you may preach tomorrow, ask yourself: 1) is it Gospel, or is it patriotism? 2) is God honoured, or man? Honouring human achievement, dedication, commitment and sacrifice can have a valid place, but never in the place of the living God who judges all nations.

1 Corinthians 9:16 (ESV): “. . . Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

2 Timothy 4:1–5 (ESV)

¹ I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

20 April, 2012

Perhaps Christianity Has no Intellectual Future in North America . . .

. . . which is to say, no future at all.

Sean McDowell, Truth Matters Tour, a Review.

Last Sunday night a few of us attended the “Truth Matters Tour,” hosted at Global Kingdom Ministries. Phil Wickham and Paul Baloche lead worship before Sean McDowell spoke. It was an interesting night for me, because I have not been to a Christian concert since I heard the late Larry Norman around 1998. I know that this wasn’t billed as a Christian concert, but it was intended to be a worship session. During this time McDowell spoke about 20 minutes or so. I was interested in hearing McDowell, because I heard his father, Josh (of Evidence That Demands a Verdict fame) in 1975 at Kansas State University. There the Ahearn Fieldhouse was packed with several thousand university students, and the elder McDowell spoke for a couple of hours, for several nights. I still have the tapes somewhere.

I was excited that anything to do with apologetics was being targeted to young people. We had a few from our church attend, although I tried to get others to go. I’m glad I didn’t get more people to attend, though.

1) The musicians were musically talented. But I would ask them, and other worship leaders today, whether or not Matthew 6:7 was really meant by Jesus. Content-less repetition of words for 1 1/2 hours doesn’t constitute worship. I am not sure if it was intended to induce a trance, but are we not to sing with our minds also (1 Corinthians 14:15)? If this is the state of worship today, and not an anomaly, I am very sad. Not all the so-called “great hymns of the faith” were all that great, but at least they did try to say something of the faith. What I heard was a dearth of content, almost an intentional repudiation of content. The musicians were, I’m sure, sincere Christians, but they need to lead hearts and minds to think God’s thoughts. During this time, Paul’s command in 1 Timothy 4:13 was ignored. I found myself thinking, if the music was broken up for Scripture reading, would it ruin the mood? Probably, but that would be a blessing. Anytime reading Scripture in worship spoils the worship, we have to ask who and why we worship in the first place.

2) During the concert/worship/whatever, I was reminded of Winston Churchill’s quote from 1943, “First we shape our buildings, then they shape us.” When we worship in what is basically a modified theatre, in darkness, does our worship become become an audience/performer relationship? I understand why live theatre and movies are presented in darkness, but I personally dislike worshiping in the dark, and find it hard to do so. When all the lights are focused upon the musician, one can feel as if they are very alone; but I didn’t feel alone with God (if that is the intention), just alone with the guy on the stage. Given the kind of instructions Paul offers regarding worship (again, see 1 Corinthians), I wonder if the isolation and individualism of a theatre is such a great way to bring awareness of the body and bride of Christ at worship.

3) The worship session ran about an hour and a half, with the two musicians named above leading. Following McDowell’s short segment, more music followed. I really can’t believe that it must be necessary to provide nearly two hours of music/entertainment/worship to lure high school and university students to hear an apologist speak for 20 minutes. I think McDowell is a very good speaker, and probably knows a lot more than he revealed in his time slot; I also know that apologetics can be intellectually demanding and difficult to get much across in one evening. But 20 minutes? He used his time wisely, and made one point: absolutes exist in morality and religion. If I compare Sean’s talk to what his father’s in 1975 (to a much larger crowd), the precarious future of the faith of the young in North America becomes painfully evident.

For one thing, even in 1975 Josh McDowell’s topics were not considered all that difficult or cutting-edge: he popularised C. S. Lewis’ “Lord, Liar, or Lunatic” argument, and some of F. F. Bruce’s conservative Biblical criticism. I read Josh McDowell in high school, so I know at that level it was not hard stuff. I am afraid that the younger McDowell knew his audience well, and spoke accordingly. I do not blame him for this, but it frightens me if it is true that today’s youth can take much in.

If the crowd in Scarborough Sunday night is typical of a majority of North American young Christians, there is no intellectual future for the Christian faith; faith will become privatised into total irrelevance. Do we wonder why students lose their faith in university? They may have had very little to lose to begin with. I saw many hundreds worshiping with hands stretched upward; do they know much about the God they worship, or why?

18 April, 2012

A Workshop for Preachers: Exodus

Simeon Trust.


TRINITY CHURCH STREETSVILLE IN MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO MAY 2-4, 2012
Sparky Pritchard is the senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, where he has served since 1989. After earning his Master’s Degree in Bible, he did post-graduate work in New Testament. His 38 years of ministry include teaching at the university level and serving as an associate pastor in Denver, Colorado, for 13 years before moving to Richmond. Sparky and his wife, Kathy, have traveled extensively where he has conducted workshops and seminars for pastors and missionaries in Germany, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Albania, Paraguay, and far east Russia. His association with the Workshops on Biblical Exposition began in 1995.			ABOUT About Workshops Other Locations Who Should Attend LOCATION Trinity Church Streetsville 69 Queen Street South Mississauga, Ontario L5M 1R8 (905) 826-1901 www.trinitystreetsville.org REGISTRATION Registration must be received by April 27, 2012. Brochure [pdf, 383kb] SCHEDULE 8.30am-4:30pm, Wednesday 8.30am-4:30pm, Thursday 8.30am-12:30pm, Friday Schedule [pdf, –kb] LOCAL HOTELS Four Points Sheraton (3.7km) Holiday Inn Mississauga (4km) COST $124 USD before April 11 $149 USD after April 11 Cost includes lunch and refreshment breaks each day ($25 nonrefundable deposit)
Michael Lawrence became Senior Pastor at Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon in September, 2010. Michael came to faith at an early age, but never understood that the Christian life was more than salvation until he was introduced to the InterVarsity campus ministry at Duke. Michael earned an M.Div. degree at Gordon-Conwell and a PhD from Cambridge University in 2002. He served as Associate Pastor for more than 8 years at Capitol Hill Baptist in Washington D.C. He is the author of Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry, co-author of It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement (with Mark Dever), and contributed to Perspectives on Christian Worship: Five Views.
James Seward is Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas. James completed his undergraduate education at the University of Chicago, where he was also part of the founding core of Holy Trinity Church and served as a pastoral intern. He went on to complete a Masters in the Biblical Exegesis program at Wheaton College where he also served on the pastoral staff of College Church under Kent Hughes. James has traveled to Vietnam to train pastors and has been involved with the Workshops on Biblical Exposition for more than 10 years.