Since y’all aren’t much help in the pizza department, here’s another question. Since I just installed Ubuntu on my old Toshiba Satellite, what are some must have Gnome apps? I’d like a blogging client if nothing else. I’m going to use it for a couple of weeks and if I like it, I’m going to jettison WindowsXP on our Dell desktop and install Ubuntu instead. This way, I don’t have to answer “Do I need to install the latest edition of Windows Anti-Spyware?” or “Why does x keep popping up?”

Josh, that’s how I’ve always felt about Missouri Synod Lutherans I grew up around, except replace ‘heretic’ with ‘relationally impared’...and don’t forget ‘humble to a fault’.

From the Barna Group:

Americans are redesigning their ways of life, crafting lifestyles that reflect their priorities and interests. One of the latest expressions of this new approach is the adoption of the house church as a means of experiencing and expressing faith. This model has leaped from aberration to trend to fixture so quickly that many observers are unaware of its presence.

Read more about the house church.

I want a recipe for deep dish pizza. I do not want to google it. I want a tried and tested deep dish pizza recipe. We usually get a pizza from Brick Oven Pizza here in town and our own attempts at home made pizza weren’t all that great.

Family used deep dish pizza recipes, folks. I happen to know that a certain blogger (yes, you, Phil) makes one for Thanksgiving. I’d love to try that one if you get my drift.

revmhj at gmail

P.S.  Ok, ok.  I found the post which contained this gem:

I’d post my recipe for the gourmet pizza, but it’s a closely-guarded family secret. In an era where few people really appreciate the value and richness of tradition, we fiercely guard our family customs.

I don’t have time to adequately blog this because we need to leave- there’s a Quiznos Cabo Chicken calling my name somewhere in Richmond- but this story is so typical. So real life. So every one of us.

As I have heard a thousand people say that this was the “perfect Christian couple,” and that she was such a “godly” woman and he was such a “wonderful” minister, all I can think of is WHAT INCREDIBLE LIARS WE ALL ARE.

Sheesh. When you heard this story, and you thought of your life, you knew- men- that you can be so nit-picking and carping that, should your wife actually snap, you might be in trouble. And this guy did, and she did, and he’s gone.

But they are like a hundred people in your church and a hundred thousand within a twenty-five mile circle. Arguing about money, or sex, or feelings, or criticism, or being perfect, or why do we have to live this way.

And remember my apology to my family, my TR friends. Remember how you ridiculued the emotion in that piece when I said I was sorry for what the ministry did to my family. Of course, that’s just me. Right? That’s just “loose screws and all” iMonk. It couldn’t be anyone close to you. Of course not. Never.

Live your delusional Christian life, Knights of Orthodoxy and Perfect Lying. I want none of it.

Jason, I’ve been struck by flung poo, it’s really not so bad.

From Michael: “The inevitable result is being asked if you are now, or ever have been, a sympathizer of the emerging church.”

Ha. Some of us will stand tall, proclaim our faith in the living King, Jesus Christ, and boldy engage in the Emerging conversation with our brothers. Those with serious, reasonable critiques will be welcomed with open arms to discuss. Those who simply wish to hurl insults from their cages like monkeys flinging poo will be ingored. (Maintaining a safe distance from the poo, of course.)

Scot McKnight commented today on Driscol’s four layer version of the emerging church, vs. Stetzer’s three.

Mod: I’ve been wondering if any of you tech geeks is up to implementing a “less” tag…

Dale: Actually, I thought it was my house until I noticed that the windows were not double-paned.

In order to irritate anyone who thinks that believers shouldn’t cuss, I’d like to point out that due to my role in our community’s production of Oklahoma! this summer it’s been mandated that I, at least 10 times not including rehearsals, ask an itinerant peddler in an angry Oklahoman-as-done-by-a-Minnesotan voice: “Who the hell are you?”

This joyous assignment is nothing compared to being asked to point a shotgun at good-looking teenaged boys…

Phillip:  I wonder if the present crisis in ECUSA does not go back beyond the seminaries.  It does not seem that evangelical Christianity has ever been very strong in American Episcopal churches.  The First and Second Great Awakenings had an impact across denominational boundaries, but I am not aware of them touching the Episcopal church to any significant degree.  What few evangelical Episcopal leaders are remembered are remembered for breaking away to form the Reformed Episcopal Church. More »« Less

I don’t think the pope has “demanded” anything.

I have removed a link from the sidebar and the blogroll. Frankly, I have grown weary of reading hothouse generalizations about the emerging church, making Mclaren into a theological dictator, throwing everyone into the worst emergent stereotype, warning the Christian world about good brothers and good churches just so that the din of the bandwagon mob can get a little louder. Most of the reformed world is talking to itself on the subject of the emerging church, anyway, so I see no reason to attempt to disturb the conversation. The inevitable result is being asked if you are now, or ever have been, a sympathizer of the emerging church. Forget it. This can’t be taken seriously anymore.

From the U.K. Telegraph:

The Pope has demanded an end to electric guitars and modern music in church and a return to traditional choirs.

The Catholic Church has been experimenting with new ways of holding Mass to try to attract more people. The recital of Mass set to guitars has grown in popularity in Italy; in Spain it has been set to flamenco music; and in the United States the Electric Prunes produced a “psychedelic” album called Mass in F Minor.

However, the use of guitars and tambourines has irritated the Pope, who loves classical music. “It is possible to modernise holy music,” the Pope said, at a concert conducted by Domenico Bartolucci the director of music at the Sistine Chapel. “But it should not happen outside the traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music.”

Dale, would that be the Elsinore Brewery? ^_

Just got home from a ten day vacation. We took a trip thru the Canadian Rockies and stayed for three days with friends who have a cabin (and a ski boat!) on Sylvan Lake in Alberta.

Here’s where we went:

• Ft. Steele


• Radium Hot Springs


• Banff National Park


• Rocky Mountain House (lots of David Thompson stuff)


• Sylvan Lake


• West Edmonton Mall!


• Jasper National Park


• Yoho National Park


• Glacier National Park


• Mt. Revelstoke National Park

Can you name this place?

From my friend, writing about the unraveling of the Episcopal Church.

In case you haven’t been keeping up, the ECUSA is basically beginning to unravel.

The Diocese of Newark (Spong’s old stomping grounds) have put an openly homosexual guy prominently among their candidates for bishop, despite the request of the General Convention to refrain from such things.

The Dioceses of Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, Central Florida, Quincy, and South Carolina have all appealed to Canterbury for alternative primatial oversight.

In the Diocese of Virginia, Truro and Falls Church—the two largest parishes in the Diocese—will likely follow the example of Christ Church, Plano, TX, and vote to sever ties with the ECUSA, though only after a period of discernment over coming months.

To put things in perspective, Christ Church, Plano, is itself as large as the entire Diocese headed by the new Presiding Bishop-elect.

In the Diocese of Virginia (the largest single Diocese in the ECUSA), Truro and Falls Church comprise together around 10% of average Sunday attendence in the Diocese and, if they leave, are likely to be followed by a number of other parishes.

In other news, Archbishop Akinola, the Primate of Nigeria and Chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, has issued a statement saying that, in his understanding, one is either “in” the Anglican Communion or “out” of the Anglican Communion, so that any “observer status” or what-have-you, with regard to any formerly Anglica body, would involve being removed from membership status in the Communion. It wasn’t clear if this was meant to contradict ++Rowan or to clarify what he understood the ABC to be saying.

It’ll be interesting to see how all this falls out. It won’t be the equivalent of a handful of folks leaving the PCUSA under Machen, that’s for sure.

We just checked Denise’s voice mail, and learned that Noel has been hired by Nationwide Insurance in a full-time position in central Ohio. She and Ryan will be moving to central Ohio, and Ryan will return to school at Ohio Christian University. Noel plans to finish school somewhere in Ohio in the future. Noel and Ryan are very excited, and they have been praying for God’s guidance for every aspect of this big change. Denise and I are happy as well, though 6 hours away will mean we will rarely see them, but God is blessing them and I am happy they will be near Ryan’s family. The second half of life is full of changes, and this is the biggest one so far for us. We moved many times in our lives and God provided his good gifts along the way. I am grateful that Noel has a job that will use her gifts and allow her to finish school. Work has been frustrating for her the last year especially. I am happy that Ryan will be able to return to a school that he likes and that will be less financially demanding. We’ll miss having them nearby. God’s best to and for them.

Good thoughts from the lurker, Michael. For some time now, I’ve thought that most small groups are bunk, anyway. All too often, they are lead by group consensus or by someone who should not be leading groups at all. There is often no real Bible study happening. It ends up being a group hug session with people telling each other how they feel about some particular verse with no concept of its context or meaning, and nobody in the group seems to have bothered figuring out said context or meaning. Or, they tend to use badly produced videos or books that are little more than point-and-drool, fill in the blank questions. To add insult to injury, many of them leave you with no real challenge to follow Jesus, to be more like Jesus, to repent of anything, etc. It’s a load of self-congratulatory, “look how good a Christian I am being in a small group” junk. (I feel better now.)

On the other hand, there are good leaders, and good studies. It’s a quest to find them, though.

I’m going to put up, in the interest of fairness, Lurker Rob’s note to me about G-12. He says it’s a method, not a group, and can be good or not.

Hi Michael,

I’ve been lurking around Imonk and BHT for a couple years now. Rarely do I feel qualified to chime in on any topics, but your reference to G-12 caught my attention. I attend a large (~6000) nondenominational church in southern California (Shepherd of the Hills Church). We have been doing a version of the G-12 program for a couple years. The link you referenced may not be the correct “G12” program. Try this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G12_Vision instead. Our church is not in any way connected to a national or international G-12 leadership or program. Rather, we have implemented the ideas for ourselves. You’re right in saying that the idea is a basic discipleship tool for large churches. It’s working very well for us. The primary goal is to raise up mature lay leaders who have all received the same basic training in the fundamentals of Christianity. The School of Leadership is a 26 week program of study that guarantees everyone who is leading a small home Bible study group is on the same foundation. Obviously, you can’t avoid the potential for abuse, but overall I think it’s a very good program. If your friend is experiencing a cultish version of this, then whoever is implementing it at their church is taking a tool for building mature leaders and turning it into something it shouldn’t be. It sounds to me like the leadership of the church needs to go through some Bible training of their own.

In Christ, Rob

I’m all for the proliferation of minor league baseball, but the problem is, eventually THIS happens.

I’m off for Lexington and Richmond today. Clay’s Foster Camp concert is tonight. School doesn’t start until Wednesday, but we have to go the next two Saturdays. Pray for that now. The troops will be surly, to say the least.

Charismatic groups put such an emphasis on the wrong things and the wrong people that cultic and near-cultic groups are common. Let me quote from lurker Kathy:

What particularly troubles me is that it doesn’t pass my “C. S. Lewis”
test. My C. S. Lewis test for church balderdash goes thusly: I picture his pastor telling him that the way his church involvement is
going to be measured from now on is by “plugging into” small group A and subsequently being pressured to start a small group X, and then being pressured from on high to start pressuring those people to start their own small groups so that the church can meet its goal of starting 50 new G-12 groups this year, and so on. I picture his pastor getting partway into describing that, and getting embarrassed and beginning to stammer and decide that perhaps it would be better not to dictate to C. S. Lewis how he’s going to contribute to the body of Christ or he might end up shooting too low in comparison to what God’s plans for C. S. Lewis seem to be, based on his gifts, job, passion, etc. Not that I’m any C. S. Lewis. But not everyone’s designed to express their gifts by leading small groups, and not everyone grows in Christ that way.

Warren has thoughts on this subject, I believe, but basically I would say that the ECUSA went south in the seminaries first, and after turning out generations of untaught teachers, we ended up with liberalism in the pulpits and bishops like Spong. All the voting at General Convention isn’t going to undo generations of bad seminary educations.

At this point, to get a good Anglican education, one needs to leave North America.

But personally, I think that the 39 Articles are the rizzle dizzle, fo shizzle.

Douglas:  I would have to say Patrick Troughton

Michael, just checking out the G12 web site – it has a TBN “feel” to it. While not overtly cultic, the language is ambiguous enough to allow for dictatorial control to creep in. And with no offense to my charismatic bretheren, I have yet to hear an adequate defense for mandating tongues as part of any reasonable doctrinal statement. On a more charitable (?) note, the whole thing looks like it was put together by some well intentioned, but not yet well educated, Christians. Personally, I’d look for something better. I think your friend might be better off in an AoG church (and you need to screen those carefully, too).

Kent, your quote is worth keeping. Did someone say masthead material?

All, thanks for the AMiA links. I’ll definitely be keeping them in mind for the future.

Bill/Phillip: Did this owl carry a bag of jellybabies with him, and have a tall blue nest with a flashing light on top? And Bill, which Doctor Who do you most resemble?

Blue Raja: That analysis jives with a lot of what I’ve read by and about classic atheists.

Michael: I see the point of the FT editorial, but I tend to disagree with their prescribed solution. We have the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, and the Thrity-Nine Articles are not nearly as limited as the editorialist portrays them. (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t RJN who wrote that. Would to God I could write like RJN…) There is certainly enough substance in the already-used creeds to have thrown Spong out the door at any point from the late 1970’s onward. What was lacking was belief in what those creeds teach, and the spine to act on it. And I don’t think a brand new doctrinal statement will solve that particular problem.

Besides, it was tried before – it was called the Westminster council, and we ended up not with a reformed Anglcianism, but Presbyterianism instead. I leave it to others to judge the results of that. (JN)

I’m learning/tinkering, so here’s iMonk Radio #3.

So now we’re the “Legion of Doom.”  Nice.  Can i be Silver Surfer before he turned good?  (Yeah, i know he’s from a different plot).
Michael, Ubuntu is pretty nice.  i saw Pilgrim’s article(s) a few weeks ago when they hit /. (heck, i even commented).  i tried it, but i found it too “pre-fab” for me…and i liked KDE more (so Kubuntu was cooler for me).  i dual-booted Debian “etch” and Win XP for a while, but i’ve since erased Windows completely.  All of my Windows-based games have been running fine in Wine.  My DOS based games (yes, i still have a few) run well under DosBox.  The console emulators (i have an 8-bit NES and 16-bit SNES) also run nicely.  Overall, i’ve come to appreciate the GNU/Linux environment.  It’s also really nice with dealing with my websites as i’ve set up a cron job to shell into my account, back everything up locally, etc once a week.  i’ve also convinced my wife to convert as well (but i haven’t gotten to it yet as i’m converting two other computers right now).  Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu is nice when coming from Mac/Windows (respectively), but i like getting more into the “nitty-gritty.”  Heck, i’ve contemplated playing with Gentoo for the fun of it.  My system now stays running constantly (the hard drive and monitor hibernate after a while).  i’ve had to reboot more times because of kernel changes than because the system bogged down.  When in Windows, the computer could go about 3 days before consuming all of my RAM.  Now, it takes over a week with everything i typically use for that to become a possibility.  To fix it, though, i can generally just restart Xorg/KDE and be fine.  Also, if you’re like to listen to music, Amarok is the bestest (except that it can’t run from the shell prompt only).

A good friend of the BHT is asking for help. Family members are involved in a “G-12” church. The friend says it is starting to feel cultish. Anyone out there know anything about this? I don’t. I see the potential for abuse in the concept, but it looks like a generic discipleship methodology.

If you have information or experience, write me, and I will forward your email to our friend.

If an individual’s spiritual paradigm is defined by what or whom they are against, the individual has committed himself to be controlled by his enemy.

Yes, Kent. Amen.

I haven’t heard or read anything that has said, so could one of you NE Yankees tell me if the Delaware is flooding in the northern part of PA?

Also, since Wilkes-Barre sounds like it’s being evacuated…God, could you please destroy Sallie Mae and all her records?

If an individual’s spiritual paradigm is defined by what or whom they are against, the individual has committed himself to be controlled by his enemy.

CONTENT WARNING The Britney Spears Giving Birth/Pro-Life statue story keeps showing up. If you haven’t seen the statue, decide for yourself what the artist was doing. The comment thread on this post is pretty typical of the discussion all around.

Looks like one Mac pro says that Ubuntu Linux is the future. Hmmm. I may need to break out another Linux box sometime to see if this is so.

A while back I said the commonality in the TR watchblogosphere was dependence on a very few, anti-Catholic, conspiriatorial web sites. Here’s a quote from one of them.

Rick Warren–the Pied Piper of Purpose Driven–along with others in The Ecumenical Church of Deceit of new evangelicalism are leading people along the ecumenical road back to her mother the apostate Church of Rome through contemplative spirituality. And not only is this heading in the opposite direction from the Protestant Reformation, but together they actually want to completely undo this return to the historic orthodox Christian faith and to Biblical authority. But the question the discerning Christian needs to ask is: Have the Deceivers from the Church of Rome really changed? Or are Evangelical Protestants about to follow those seducing spirits right back into the blind bondage of Roman Catholicism…or worse…

[Name deleted] referred to someone as “not a serious scholar,” and is now issuing a detailed “clarification.” I’m sure. When your doctorate comes from a diplomma mill, you have to be careful not to get carried away on that particular subject.

In my life, I’ve probably spent more time thinking about atheism than I have any other subject, but I have really written very little about it. Part of the reason is that I speak about my version of a Christian response to atheism quite a bit here at OBI. A few thoughts that I might unpack some other time.

-Historically, the Bible may not be a polemic against atheism, but there is a lot of the Bible that is best understood in that light, especially for a reader today. – Both atheism and Christianity are rational and faith-based. Neither can rail at the other as irrational or ridicule the other position for employing faith.
-There are aspects of human experience that are, experientially, most accurately described as “without God.” Christians who deny this are being fundamentally dishonest.
-The frequent Christian testimony that individual experience of God explodes another person’s experience of No God is simply arrogant, as well as inaccurate.
-The problem with much of conservative evangelicalism is its idiotic assertion that it has answered all the big questions in a way that ought to convince all rational persons. Most of the time, the people talking have almost no idea of the state of the contemporary conversation on the subject they are considering. Look at the typical TR lecture on postmodernism. Why can’t these people see that they are simply talking to themselves and an army of nodding fans?
-Why do reformed types act as if the right response to atheism is to argue with it until the atheist collapses under the weight of logic? What a joke.
-The best Christian responses to atheism: Consideration of the incarnation, Life in Christian community, and a knowledge of the inherent limitations of every worldview.

Mark Dever has put ALL of his Bible overview sermons on line. This amounts to an entire Biblical education for any layperson or person wanting to learn the Bible, but unable to get to a school. Dever has a tremendous gift in this area, and these sermons are the basis of his two Biblical survey volumes. MARK THIS PAGE and as you have time, download these messages. Very good news.

Raja: Profound thoughts. Consistency in application is rare to find, and I’m sure that I fall short myself. I know various people in the bar have been hurt by tactics that we have ourselves engaged in at various times, though most of us would agree that there is a difference in target, or extent, or viciousness.

I’m intrigued by the idea of applying rationalistic arguments to rationalists, because I’m sure that they would fail to live up to rationalistic ideals. I remember reading once about the life of Ayn Rand and thinking that if people read her biography before they read Atlas Shrugged, objectivism would far fewer adherents.

I know I beg the wrath of one or two folks by mentioning Francis Schaeffer in here, but I’ve always found his statements about moral codes to be true as well. Paraphrased, he argues from Romans 1 that even as we deny the law that we all should know, and define our own law, human nature is so perverse that we will invariably inevitably break even our own moral standard. So the pantheist doesn’t always act as a pantheist should, the atheist doesn’t always act as an atheist should, and so on. Very, very true.

Anyway, aside from that affirmation, I’m concerned about what you’ve seen as a trend of people falling away. I know that such a trend is expected as the U.S. enters a truly post-Christian era, but that would mean surface-level leaving the church more than devoutly held faith withering, I should think.

Bill: My kids were in a VBS this year with an owl named “Dr. Who.” I was impressed.

I heard something amazingly profound on the radio (NPR) today from an RCC nun. I don’t have time to flesh it out right now but here it is for your own cogitation:

“There’s a big difference between being pro-life and pro-birth.”

I’d be willing to bet Michael’s salary that the majority of pro-lifers are simply pro-birthers.

That’s all. Talk freely amongst yourselves. I’ve gotta go. Day 4 of VBS and I’m playing  Professor Who, the owl (puppet). I’ve been after everyone to call me Dr. Who instead but they aren’t going for it, although my wife did it accidently one night.

In the last year or so I’ve encountered more people either doubting the Gospel or falling away from the faith than I’ve seen in the whole of my Christian life (and surprisingly none of them I know were fellows at the BHT) – they seem to be peeling away at the rate of baby-wipes in the hands of my 2 year-old son. Thinking, praying and trying to be of some help in these situations has invariably led me to the various resources of hard-nosed atheists whose (over)confidence usually prove attractive to these faltering saints, and the material I encounter strikes me as an interesting subject for psychological study. What has been more interesting (and instructive) to me than dealing with the sundry philosophical lunges made by hard atheists is trying to understand the mental and emotional factors behind their position. Paul Vitz has done a great job applying the same kind of analysis as Freud/Marx’s take on religion to atheists themselves (a criticism which basically makes religion the product of infantile wish-fullfilment, sub-conscious repression and other forms of cognitive damage) – which has helped me to notice an interesting phenomena among atheists: their response to God’s grace is very much like sexual repression. When God’s grace breaks through their materialism, empiricism and rationalism with awe-inspiring feelings of rapture – through grand displays of natural beauty, the intoxicating experience of human love, or inexplicable acts of kindness – they know that it would be the worst kind of “moral failure” to actually yield to the normal human response of thanksgiving, praise and worship. Their reaction, then, is to reflexively squash these supposedly “primitive”, “irrational” and “childish” urges, as they engage in an internal dialogue that reinforces their mechanistic way of looking at the world. Pure, unadulterated wonder, just like pure unadulterated passion, becomes a guilty pleasure. What a shame.

A friend of mine left this in my mailbox at work. I found it this morning. Too quote Mike Tyson, I was ecstatic.

I didn’t know that R.C. Jr. had been diagnosed with cancer. His wife was diagnosed two years ago. Prayers.

The Life of Christ by Chinese Artists. Beautiful drawings.

First Things comments on Rowan Williams’ proposed “two-tiered” Anglicanism.

I have revised BHT Rule 40, and I have removed centuri0n from that rule. Sorry, Frank. I know it’s the final humiliation, but I was running out of snarky comments about you being my therapist.

Am I the only one here who watched the NBA draft last night (most of the 1st round at least).  It looks like the Wolves actually didn’t blow their pick.  Are there fewer NBA fans or Charismatics here?

After listening to this guy several times over the past few months, I’ve decided that all my efforts to make the Bible understandable have been a colossal waste of time. What I needed to do was become a “prophecy expert.” Then I could literally say ANYTHING and somehow connect the dots into a life-changing DVD series. Ignore ALL context. ALL meaning. ALL grammar. Draw the most bizarre parallels imaginable. In fact, the more bizarre the claim- “the water in verse 21 is predicting the 100th Anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival, and as you know Pastor Rod, the water is flowing right now in churches like World Harvest. The end times are here! And if you ignore God’s water, you’ll be flushed. Most of the church world is going to be flushed!”- the more credible that claim is. Then just do it every night, over and over again, until its obvious that the Bible doesn’t mean a single thing that it says, but is really a secret code book that can only be decoded by prophecy experts. O course, get three of them on the same TV program, they will all give completely different nonsensical prophecies and Bible interpretations, but they will all nod and amen one another.

“Verse 21 means the discovery of Viagra.”
Nods
“Verse 21 means send $1000 to this ministry and get a new house.”
Nods
“Verse 21 means that I predicted Hurricane Katrina would be God’s judement on a bait shop in Warrenville, Mississippi.”
Nods

It numbs me that millions of people call this nonsense Christianity. No Gospel. All drama, lies and imagination. It’s like an elaborate game show. It makes the John Edwards program look downright inspirational.

Douglas: Agreed. The ECUSA doesn’t even have “full” recognition any more, since a number of bishops from the global south refuse to acknowledge them, and more might do so with Presiding Bishop Schori. In my case, most Anglican churches are more “high church” than I’m really comfortable with, so unless Sydney plants a mission in Dallas, I’ll probably leave the Anglicans anyway.

But who know? Things change.

Richard: I should read other bloggers more, but I’ve been crazy-busy lately, so I had no idea Tim was blogging on the subject. I found his part one to be very cool, but I worry just a touch when people (1) try to take analogies too far, and (2) do so in order to justify existing behavior, rather than determining what behavior ought to be. I don’t think Tim is doing that, but some of his commenters seem to be.

My review of Superman Returns is up at WORLD’s Cinema Veritas.

If you are into New Covenant Theology, then John Reisinger’s letter to R.C. Sproul will be must reading.

The Jolly One posts one big hug to Rick Warren, and makes some excellent points. The question will be whether Warren communicates or distorts the Gospel with his fame. Same kind of question asked about Billy Graham. Given the choices for who is going to be the most visible Christian in the country, Warren is fine with me, though I do believe there are sometimes significant problems with his articulation of the faith.

Carl Olson on Superman and the God-Man.

BHT may be the only bar most of us will be able to smoke in within a couple of years.

As long as it’s virtual smoke, it’s ok by me.

Jason: If you haven’t already googled it, the link for AMIA is here.

Phillip: Just what does “full recognition” mean anymore, in an environment as fractured as Anglicanism now is? I’ll settle for oversight by orthodox and faithful bishops, and the rest can go their merry way.

Kent: I blow the smoke from my Padron 1964 Anniversario torpedo in the face of anyone who dares suggest this establishment abolish the smoking of the halfling’s leaf.

Pirates of Life? Pirates of the Galilean?

I think that may be going too far even for me.

Will we need to hang this sign in the Tavern?

Denise blogs on some of the Bible’s bad raps.

Uh, someone pretty close to me is going to do a series titled “Pirates of the Galilean” in July.

MOD: I guess I don’t need to ask if someone is pimping this series idea somewhere.

She’s A Catholic Girl Now. My new IM post. A real OBI story.

Pirates of Life. I guess it goes without saying that this isn’t a church where people who don’t go to movies are a particularly desired group. Senior adults…keep driving.

Phillip: Tim Challies has been blogging about the very thing you mention re:spotting counterfeit bills.

B16 on music and liturgy. An excerpt from his book on The Spirit of the Liturgy.

Al Mohler did a radio program and blog post on XXX Church and their outreach to porn stars. Steve McCoy covers the story from a critical angle, and the discussion is worth reading.

In my opinion, Culture Warriors like Mohler have a tendency to prefer political/social reform over missions and evangelism. This post is good evidence of that. As Steve says in the comments, we are at the point that we can say evangelism built on the incarnation is “going too far” and the logic of the Pharisees is “wisdom.”

Send me a case of those New Testaments. My students will read them a 100x before they open the Gideon’s KJVs they get. (No problem with the Gideons btw.)

One of my favorite hymns, Michael. Our choir sang it not too long ago and the text for that penultimate line was “one in might and one in glory.”

Michael Foley on the language used in the liturgy.

Interesting that he talks about the word “consubstantial.” The other night we were singing at soli deo and the last verse of the hymn (“Christ Was Made the Sure Foundation”) was:

laud and honor to the Father,
laud and honor to the Son,
laud and honor to the Spirit,
ever Three, and ever One,
consubstantial, coeternal,
while unending ages run.

So I got to explain that line, and then later we said the Nicene Creed. The church has her good words, and if it also has teachers, then we don’t lose our language.

Is relevance a problem for Christianity today? What do we even mean by the term ‘relevance’? This seems to be a topic of some note in blogdom lately. But the issue has been around since the crisis of theological modernism. Paul Tillich wrote a little book on the subject: The Relevance and Irrelevance of the Christian Message. Of course, we can’t even get off the ground in our life and practice if the gospel isn’t relevant, so it is easy to be dismissive of the whole matter and take the fact of relevance for granted. In this little post, I’d like to draw on some philosophical resources to help clarify the meaning of ‘relevance’.

-[if !supportEmptyParas]-> -[endif]->

So I was sitting at Wendy’s having just finished up a Killer Sudoku when my brother called. He assured me that he wouldn’t be disappointed if I chose not to attend his church, but of course, he’s not the “immediate family” I meant. In the ensuing converssation, he also prompted in me (quite by accident) and odd thought.

It’s birthday time at the TSK household….time for a Mohawk!

Al Mohler examines Anne Lamott’s tale of assisted suicide. I think Mohler’s analysis is good. A tough subject.

Josh vs the rest of the Lutheran Seminarian World.

Someone needs to go through the archives and publish “The Best of the Fearsome Pirate” so Josh can have a full library of all his previous verbal weaponry.

Alistair McGrath on Doubt and the Quest for Certainty. A good read for reformed apologists.

ASCII to image. Check this out.

Phillip, they most certainly are geeks, and have what has to be the most blog/web friendly set of tools out there.

Thanks for the link, Phillip. I got scared when I saw the title. I was afraid Crossway had turned Centuri0n into an android.

Those crazy ESV cats are geeks.

Phillip said: “Warren, work on those preaching skills of yours, and Ill learn myself how to play the gee-tar. :-)”

C’mon up to the Twin Cities, and I’ll offer up my own gee-tar skills to the mix, and promise to keep my movie clips to myself. 8-)

All, thanks for indulging my random Anglican questions. Upon being shown the BCP, and upon realizing that several of the people I like to read most are/were Anglicans, I’ve been doing some research. I have no reason or desire to leave my current fellowship, but if/when the time comes for me to move, I’ll be giving the Anglican church some serious thought.

That link directing to Steve Camp’s website reminded me of the time I heard him in concert 18 years ago. Really it was one of the finest Christian concerts I have ever attended – Christ centred and filled with the Gospel. What made it notable, however, is that the concert took place at St. Edmund of Canterbury Roman Catholic Church in Montreal. Given his dislike of that particular branch of the church I found this to be an interesting venue.

Michael: I tossed in the Acts 29 thing off the cuff, and am not seriously silently contemplating or meditating on such a move*. In fact, I have roughly zero exposure to the Driscoll clan other than what I’ve read, one video link, and two audio recordings, so I have no idea how the sermons play out over the long term.

Speaking practically, I believe that the PCA church nearest my house is pastored by a man I consider ungracious, and would not want my children under his authority. If I were forced to leave my current church, I would probably visit one more time, but I don’t have high hopes.

Basically, I’m a no-man’s-land. Much to the disappointment and possible hurt of most of my immediate family, I don’t think I could be happy at the local Sovereign Grace church. I doubt I could be happy at any other Episcopal or Anglican church in the area, since I’m an Anglican Protestant, not an Anglo-Catholic. I appreciate the liturgy and sacraments, which knocks out most other churches. I’m left with Trinity—obviously—or… well… maybe some Presbyterians. I don’t intend to give up my collection of Wright and Driscoll books, however, which means that might be tough, too.

I think I understand now why people start new churches even in cities chock-full of churches. Warren, work on those preaching skills of yours, and I’ll learn myself how to play the gee-tar. :-)

• In fact, I neither silently contemplate nor meditate on anything, which it now occurs to me is a mistake. I think I’m going to begin a twice-daily meditation schedule.

Jason:  In terms of where orthodox ECUSA folks can go, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s most recent statement suggests that the United States might eventually have parallel Anglican churches, one a constituent of the Anglican Communion and the other merely in association with the Communion.  Overall, I think this is a good suggestion, although it would still require a level of cooperation among Anglo-Catholic and evangelical Episcopalians that I am not sure is helpful.  But the bigger problem is that I am not sure conservative parishes are willing to wait for something like this to come into place.  At Trinity, we are blessed to be in a relatively orthodox diocese.  If the diocese were to separate from ECUSA/TEC in the next few months, that would make our decision easier.

Phillip:  I guess my hope would be that an evangelical Anglican church could somehow metamorphasize into an Acts 29/Redeemer Pres. church.  The question is whether that would mean to cease being Anglican.

Mark:  I am from the little town of Greenfield, which I think is about the center of gravity of a triangle with vertices at St. Louis, Springfield, and Quincy.

Mark Lauterbach (Gospel Driven Life)) and Steve Camp dialogue regarding the treatment of Mark Driscoll within the reformed community. Must reading. (P.S. Camp had rerun the Driscoll/Schuller quote on his blog.)

Tod Bolsinger continues his charitable recommendation of Mclaren- maybe too charitable at points- and connects his own journey and Mclaren’s through NTW. I have to say that I join Tod is saying that nothing has been as singularly helpful to me as NTWs explanation of the Gospel in its first century context.

BTW- I now see that my previous post contained the word “contemplating.” Please do not draw any new agey conclusions from this word. If you are a free-range watchblog apologist who is keeping a running list of all people who are somehow connected to contemplative prayer and the RCC and the eventual antiChrist and False Prophet, please know that I would prefer to be associated directly with Tom Merton and not indirectly through the word “contemplating.” Thank you.

PWinn: Contemplating your comment on an Acts 29 move: My problem would be that once I was in a liturgical church, and especially in the rhythm of the Christian year for the entirety of my worshipping life, I couldn’t go back to a church that simply ignored it in favor of making up little emphases throughout the year. I also have some issues with the orientation of so much of the preaching of these churches to new Christians. After 30+ years of ministry, I would wish that I could go to church where the agenda wasn’t mostly growth and evangelism. I guess I’m tired and selfish.

Mark: Sorry, I can’t remember where I picked up that habit. A single + preceding the name indicates a bishop, while a double-+ indicates a primate (archbishop). Some also use a + after the name to indicate a “priest.”

So my pastor is Lovell+. My bishop is +Stanton. My Presiding Bishop (which is what the U.S. calls our archbishop) is currently ++Griswold, but will soon be ++Schori.

When speaking, I tend to call them Bill, Jim (or sometimes “sir” depending on context), Griswold, and Schori.

Phillip:  What does ++ mean when you write ++Akinola?

Jason: There are several different groups of “continuing Anglicans” in the U.S., with varying degrees of recognition around the world, but technically none of them have the full recognition of the Anglican Communion.

The Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province of America, for example, have an agreement with ++Akinola in Nigeria, but is not recognized by most other provinces and their Presiding Bishops aren’t invited to the Lambeth conference, and so on. There are other groups, too: the Anglican Mission in America is a “mission” of Rwanda and ++Kolini, but again (I believe) has not been invited to Lambeth, and is therefore not a real alternative in at least one major sense.

Those are the major ones, but there are many others, usually with even less claim to the worldwide Communion than those.

In my case, I’m not Anglican-until-death, and I fully expect to be Presbyterian someday, but not today. Or maybe I’ll join up with an Acts 29 church plant, of which there are several near my house. The point is, I’m part of Trinity, and as long as they’re part of the ECUSA, I will be too. If they leave, so will I. When Bill Lovell someday retires, it is unlikely I will be happy enough with his replacement to remain a part of the church, but I can’t see the future, so I don’t know for sure.

Ben Myers’ series by guest bloggers, “For the Love of God: Why I Love…,” continues with no. 20 by Byron Smith. This one gets a loud “Amen!” from me: Nietzsche. As I mentioned yesterday, though Nietzsche embraced the title ‘Antichrist’, much of his critique of western christianity stands in the prophetic tradition that exposes the motives operative in our beliefs and actions that we hide from ourselves. It is a form of theologia crucis, an investigation into our ongoing evasiveness and duplicity, our flesh that loves darkness rather than light and therefore hides its secret motives. This occurs both in the individual and in the community. Where Nietzsche does not help so much is in what must come after the critique. His remedies are blind guesses or wishful thinking; they lack real hope. Nevertheless, Nietzsche as devotional reading can be good for the soul if his hermeneutic of suspicion is applied to our own beliefs and actions, a testing of the spirits, a fiery trial that challenges our allegiance and where and in whom our trust truly lies. If our only encounter with Nietzsche is for the purpose of refuting or discrediting this “antichrist” then I believe we silence an important gadfly for self-examination, a spur toward a “faith that produces steadfastness.”

Jason:

The only thing that comes immediately to mind is the Reformed Episcopal Church.

I believe that is the denomination that Wannabe Newbie Anglican is part of.

MOD: Anglican Mission In America