10 Books for 2010
I am thankful to my 3rd grade teacher for giving me a love for reading. It was Mrs. Hayes who encouraged me to read for 15 minutes every night before I went to sleep. I think she knew if you can get a kid to start reading for 15 minutes, it will create a ferocious appetite that won’t stop there. Since early childhood I have been an avid reader, but I realize that reading is not a discipline that many Americans, and many American Christians for that matter, enjoy. For with all the technology vying for our time and attention it’s no wonder that a 2007 poll revealed that 27% of Americans did not read a single book the previous year.
That being said, with the New Year upon us I know that many of you are desiring to make reading a part of your routine. In fact my wife made a New Year’s resolution to read more in 2010, so in light of that I thought I would pass along some recommendations for your new habit.
These 10 books are not necessarily new and they are in no particular order, but they will help you tremendously in your understanding of theology, culture, and the Christian life. Some of them are quick reads others are more reference books that you’ll refer to for years to come.
2. The Reason for God – Tim Keller
4. The Gospel of the Kingdom – George Ladd
6. Systematic Theology – Wayne Grudem
7. According to Plan – Graeme Goldsworthy
8. Unfashionable – Tullian Tchividjian
9. Vintage Church – Mark Driscoll
10. How to Read the Bible for all it’s Worth – Fee and Stuart
I would like to read the following books in 2010 -
1. Counterfeit Gods – Tim Keller
Great Article by Mark Driscoll
Mark Driscoll is now writing for the Washington Post and here is his first article…it’s about the fact that Christianity at its core is about Jesus.
Period.
You can read the article here.
Bringing Masculinity Back
I was reading an article on The Resurgence and had to share an excert from the article here.
“Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was asked publicly why the churches of his day had so few young men in the pews. He instantly shot back, “Because there are so many old women in the pulpits.” Preaching should either send men away angry or turn them in heartfelt repentance. The one thing it must not do, but too often does, is dull them.”
Love it…
Speaking of masculinity…you can download Mark Driscoll’s e-book called “Pastor Dad” here for free.
Staying on Mission
Over the last several weeks, in our series in the gospel of Luke (9:1-26 “Our Mission” and 9:27-62 “Things that Derail our Mission”), I have been preaching about our mission as believers. The theme of the gospel of Luke is found in 19:10,
“for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Jesus, the first missionary, humbled himself and condescended to our culture filled with sin and all its repurcussions (Phil. 2:1-11). Unfortunately many churches that claim to follow Jesus are not on His mission but have settled for a pseudo-mission of moralism and isolationism which has resulted in an impotent Church that cares more about picketing, the anti-Christ, the timing of Jesus’ return, and conspiracy theories than it does about the lost people Jesus’ explicitly called us to convert into disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
Because Jesus knows we’re not that smart He made our mission pretty simple,
“Go make disciples…”
In standard fashion we have convoluted this command and in the process we have veered off of our mission of taking the gospel to everyone who is living in separation from God.
As Mark Driscoll so often says, it’s about “taking the timeless truth of the gospel to the lost using timely methods.”
Jesus, Paul, and every effective missionary since has understood contextualization. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 Paul makes it clear that he was willing to do anything apart from sin to bring the gospel to his context in a way that resonates with them.
“Contextualization is about making the church as culturally accessible as possible without compromising the truth of Christian belief. In this, what is sought is timeless truth and timely methods. In other words, contextualization is not making the gospel relevant, but showing the relevance of the gospel.” (Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears ,Vintage Church, p. 228)
Why is it that certain segments of Christianity are so afraid of this concept? Why are so many churches, pastors, and Christians content to isolate themselves in their Bible bubbles when we know full well that Jesus engaged His culture? Why do we insist on hanging on to our tried and true “methods” of ministry when we can clearly see they are failing?
Oh and why are those “methods” acceptable but anything that doesn’t fit into our little box labeled “philosophy of ministry” aren’t?
Is Satan Real? ABC Nightline Debate
Here is a link to an ABC Nightline debate with Pastor Mark Driscoll and Annie Lobert (hookers for Jesus) versus Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson. The debate is regarding the existence of Satan.
Reaching Young People
One of my passions is reaching young people, and young men in particular. I believe if we can effectively reach young men we will continue to be successful in reaching future generations with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In light of this I wanted to write some of my thoughts regarding Calvary Chapel as it relates to reaching younger generations.
It is a concern of mine that our movement is becoming increasingly irrelevant to young people. This is not unique in Church history as every “movement” throughout Church history has reached a point that it’s methodology no longer related to the current culture because the paradigm that was created within that movement was rooted in its origination decades in the past.
Calvary Chapel and its culture is rooted in the Jesus Movement of the 1960’s, and unless we desire to die a slow death with the baby boomers we must be willing to change our methods and philosophies in order to be relevant to our modern context.
This paradigm shift will take pastors with guts, vision, and the leadership ability to get older men and women to die to themselves and their ways of doing things in order to reach younger people.
There is a question that is begging to be asked.
Why is it that Calvary Chapel is becoming irrelevant to younger people?
I believe there are three main reasons:
1. Rooted in the past - We have become a movement that is being defined by events that happened 40 years ago. I routinely visit CC church websites and under their “history” or “about us” pages are paragraphs about the Jesus Movement and the events surrounding the explosion of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Should we be proud of the legacy that’s been handed to us? Absolutely! Is it wrong to include that in the history of a particular CC, no of course not but what is God doing in your church in your local context at this time? We’ve got to move on. Young people don’t care about what happened when their parents or grandparents, in many cases, were young. They crave something fresh, they desire to see God work among them they way He did amongst previous generations.
2. Rules and Regulations – Somewhere along the way our movement has become what it originally set out to change. The Jesus Movement was born out of a need for young people to have the freedom to express their faith in a fresh and relevant way. Now as we fast forward 40 years we have created our own traditions and ironically enough are forcing young people to look elsewhere to express themselves. We must break this legalistic proclivity if we have any hope of reaching young people today. One such issue that is at the center of this legalism is, alcohol. The consumption of alcohol is typically looked down upon in our movement and while certainly the abuse of alcohol that leads to drunkenness is forbidden in the Scriptures, the moderate use of alcohol is actually encouraged. Another such topic is entertainment. We have bought into the world’s rating system as our litmus test for what is appropriate and what isn’t, meanwhile making ourselves hypocrites as we have to explain why it was permissible to view The Passion of the Christ. Young people are taught to think critically about these issues and realizing that there is no biblical standard for much of these rules and regulations is making them flee to churches where there is more freedom in these gray areas.
3. Restriction of thought – “We don’t need no education…we don’t need no thought patrol.”
Pink Floyd is not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea. We’ve got to quit being so afraid of the bogey man that lies behind the pages of books that have been deemed taboo by hack apologists. It’s perfectly acceptable to read books by authors that you don’t agree with! That’s how we learn. It helps us to think outside of the box. Reading books you already agree with does not enable you to grow. Young people don’t want to be force fed their theology by grumpy old men they want to have the freedom to read books by a wide variety of authors and be given the opportunity to make biblical decisions about what is sound and what is questionable or in some cases what is heresy. Good pastors and church leaders will be available to help young people make these decisions, but paranoid pastors and leaders will restrict this type of learning wanting their people to only read “approved” books meanwhile cutting off the stream of fresh thinking that will allow their young people to flourish.
I have written this article out of my love for this movement and with the understanding that many Calvary Chapels are doing a phenomenal job of reaching young people. I speak in general terms in light of what I’ve observed over the last decade or so. I don’t write this to toot my own horn, and while we are reaching many young people in this small and predominantly “older” town I do not claim to have it figured out. I, like many Calvary pastors, simply want to reach as many people as I can before Jesus returns.
Here is a link to a video on “movements” by Mark Driscoll, a pastor who while very controversial is also very passionate about reaching young people and is doing so quite effectively in one of the most godless cities in America, Seattle.
We are a Movement – Mark Driscoll teaching at an Acts 29 boot camp for church planters.
Catching Up
Hey all I just wanted to pass along a few links to you and catch you up on some things I plan to write.
Mark Driscoll’s short book on porn – This is very well written and to the point. I encourage every man, especially young men, to read this.
Art Azurdia’s “How to Study Your Bible” class at our church – The audio from all four sessions and a pdf of his notes are available there.
Spurgeon Fellowship Journal - Helpful articles for pastors and preachers.
I plan to write the second part of the Women in Ministry post early this week.
I also hope to write some of my thoughts about some recent events within Calvary Chapel including a new CCOF website.
Mark Driscoll on Nightline
Mark Driscoll is probably one of the more polarizing figures within Christianity. He appeals to young people like few pastors do but also offends people like few pastors do (yes there are pastors that ruffle more feathers than I do).
That being said I really appreciate Mark’s candor and his relevant approach to preaching and ministry.
This video gives a little glimpse into Mark’s style and what God is doing at Mars Hill Church where he pastors. It is my prayer that we at Calvary can reach our respective culture and context as effectively as they have.
For further discussion on this check out this link
[youtube 9oyHtsU5z9U]
You Can't Say That!
BrianD who writes a weekly linkathon post for the Phoenix Preacher turned me on to this lady, Anne Jackson who wrote a blog post called Keeping Your Mouth Shut where she gives people the opportunity to say things they would never feel comfortable saying in church or around other Christians.
So I decided to write a post where pastors and Bible teachers can say things they would never say from the pulpit or in their Bible study…or maybe things you have said but took flack for or regret.
Now I’m not talking about obvious filth…just things that might ruffle feathers.