N.D. Wilson on "Lighten Up, Christians, God Loves a Good Time"

Nate Wilson continues to write books and articles that are thought-provoking, imaginative, well-stated, and enjoyable to read. His recent article in Christianity Today, Lighten Up, Christians: God Loves a Good Time, is no exception.

Here's an excerpt:

A dolphin flipping through the sun beyond the surf, a falcon in a dive, a mutt in the back of a truck, flying his tongue like a flag of joy, all reflect the Maker more wholly than many of our endorsed thinkers, theologians, and churchgoers.

[...]

We say that we would like to be more like God. So be more thrilled with moonlight. And babies. And what makes them. And holding on to one lover until you've both been aged to wine, ready to pour. Holiness is nothing like a building code. Holiness is 80-year-old hands crafting an apple pie for others, again. It is aspen trees in a backlit breeze. It is fire on the mountain.

Speak your joy. Mean it. Sing it. Do it. Push it down into your bones. Let it overflow your banks and flood the lives of others.

At his right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. When we are truly like him, the same will be said of us.

Read the entire article here.

Cultural, Congregational, and Convictional Christians

Ed Stetzer offers a helpful perspective on all the recent statistics from polls and surveys regarding the Church in America in this Christianity Today blog post, The State of the Church in America: Hint: It's Not Dying.  He distinguishes between what he calls cultural, congregational, and convictional Christians. Here's an excerpt:

The church is not dying.

Yes, the church in the West—the United States included—is in transition right now. But transitioning is not the same as dying, particularly if you hold the belief that Christianity is represented by people who live for Christ, not check "Christian" on a survey form.

While I believe we need to understand reality inside our ranks, I don't believe the situation is quite as dire as many are making it out to be. Actually, no serious researcher believes Christianity in America is dying. Not one.

Instead, I believe this current cultural shift is bringing clarity that will assist in defining who we are as Christians, and that is a good thing in some ways.

[...]

Facts are our friends, and the facts do point to a cultural change. And, in the midst of that cultural change we do see that America looks more like a mission field. However, what we need is a mobilized—rather than demoralized—mission force.

Bad stats and hyperbole do just that—demoralize God's people.

Today, we need a mobilized mission force in the midst of this mission field. So, it's time to work for the sake of the gospel, and to live for the cause of the gospel, not run around proclaiming the sky is falling.

Click here to read the post in its entirety.

Creating Redemptive Spaces in a Fallen World

Congratulations to my friend and seminary classmate, Mark Sheerin, for winning the recent common grace essay contest for Christianity Today.  His essay, Why I Left World Vision for Finance (and why my current work matters as much as my former work), is a great corrective to the mindset among so many Christians regarding work, ministry, and the sacred/secular divide.  Here is how his essay begins:

In my closet is a red silk tie, manufactured by a worker in one of the many industrial factories along the perimeter of Phnom Penh. I bought it at the city's largest outdoor market on a business trip with my former employer, World Vision, a Christian humanitarian agency that serves poor communities worldwide. For all I know, the Cambodians in the factory that made my tie were the same Cambodians living in the villages I was serving.

On that trip, I was working on a project aimed at rehabilitating children and women who were victims of trafficking and child labor. But yesterday, I reached for the tie to wear to my new job as part-owner of a financial planning and wealth management firm in Atlanta. The distance between my two worlds—my former life as an international aid worker, and my current life serving some of the world's most financially fortunate—seems unbridgeable some days.

On other days, the two worlds look more similar than I imagined.

I have had the privilege of working with people on both ends of the economic spectrum, from Sudanese refugees to suburban millionaires. Yet, if poverty is understood in terms of social constructs rather than economic ones, the playing field levels between the refugee and the investment banker (an idea that Christian thinkers like Bryant Myers and Tim Keller have written and preached on). I used to define my World Vision job as bringing opportunity to the poor so they might thrive. I used to define my new job in finance as providing guidance to people so that they could make the most prudent decisions to meet their goals and leave legacies. Now I describe both my careers in the same way: creating redemptive spaces in a fallen and tangled world.

Read the whole essay here.

Songs that Endure - The "Secret" Behind the Gettys' Success

The Christianity Today blog has a great post on the "secret" behind the success of modern hymnwriters, Keith and Kristyn Getty. What is that secret?  Instead of writing songs they hope will end up on the radio, they write songs they hope will last (and will one day end up in dusty old hymnbooks).

Read the article here.

CT's Roundup of Post-Election Responses from Prominent Christian Voices

Christianity Today has a collection of quotes from different voices reflecting on the "new moral landscape" of post-election America.  You can read them here. 

The Hymns That Keep On Going

One of our church members brought this recent Christianity Today article to my attention. It's a survey of the 27 songs that have continued to make the cut of mainline Protestant hymnals generation after generation, and it's really quite interesting. Check it out here.

Timothy George's Top 5 Biographies of Theologians

Timothy George, founding Dean of Beeson Divinity School, provided a list of his top five biographies of theologians in the August 2010 issue of Christianity Today. Click here to see his list.

Lent - Why Bother?

Christianity Today asked leading voices from three different traditions to discuss the merits of observing Lent:

• Steve Harmon, a Baptist who teaches at Beeson Divinity School - To Take Up the Cross

• Frederica Mathewes-Green, an Eastern Orthodox writer - For Spiritual Exercise

• Michael Horton, a Presbyterian who teaches at Westminster Seminary California - To Lead Us to Christ

2010 Christianity Today Book Awards

Christianity Today has released their list of top books from the last year, arranged in twelve different categories. Click here to see which books made it.

Top Ten Theology Stories of 2009

Collin Hansen, of Christianity Today, offers his Top Ten Theology Stories of 2009.

Christ-Centered Cautions

How do we preach Christ and Christian morality without being guilty of moralism? Collin Hansen seeks to answer that question in a recent Christianity Today article. Here is his answer in a nutshell:

Moral exhortation reminds believers of their obligations. But only the gospel empowers them to be good, be disciplined, and be like Christ.

I encourage you to read the whole thing here.

Speak the Gospel

We've all heard the quote "Preach the gospel always; when necessary, use words" attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. But did he actually say it? And regardless of whether he did or didn't, should we celebrate this quote?

Mark Galli, senior managing editor at Christianity Today, answers these questions in a helpful article that can be read here.

Here are a few excerpts:

I've heard the quote once too often. It's time to set the record straight—about the quote, and about the gospel.

Francis of Assisi is said to have said, "Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words."

This saying is carted out whenever someone wants to suggest that Christians talk about the gospel too much, and live the gospel too little. Fair enough—that can be a problem. Much of the rhetorical power of the quotation comes from the assumption that Francis not only said it but lived it.

The problem is that he did not say it. Nor did he live it. And those two contra-facts tell us something about the spirit of our age....

"Preach the gospel; use words if necessary" goes hand in hand with a postmodern assumption that words are finally empty of meaning. It subtly denigrates the high value that the prophets and Jesus and Paul put on preaching. Of course we want our actions to match our words as much as possible. But the gospel is a message, news about an event and a person upon which the history of the planet turns....

That being said, a better saying (which you can attribute to anyone you like) is this: Preach the gospel—use actions when necessary; use words always.